Special News: April 2020

Thursday, 30 April 2020

Quiz of the Week: On UFOs, lockdown loosening and more

How closely have you been paying attention to what's been going on during the past seven days?

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Coronavirus: What it's like to be shielding in your twenties

Grace, 26, doesn't look it but she's deemed extremely vulnerable - here's how she's dealing with having to shield.

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Nordic Islands seen in their 'surreal light'

The breathtaking landscapes of Iceland, Greenland, Norway and the Faroe Islands.

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Coronavirus: When your child's in intensive care with Covid-19

Two mothers tell the BBC about their experiences as their young children battled the virus.

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Coronavirus: How can I help?

Giving blood, writing a diary, or reading a story to your friends' children are just some of the options.

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Coronavirus: Three continents, four lives, one day

The stories of people who died on one day, from an exile who returned home to a disaster survivor.

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Coronavirus: 'Many said goodbye to loved ones in an ambulance'

Dr Nigel Kennea describes his role supporting bereaved families at one London hospital during the coronavirus pandemic.

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How The Assistant exposes Hollywood's abuse silence

The movie which has roots in the exposure of power and abuse in the film industry after #MeToo.

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The worldwide race to make solar power more efficient

Scientists are working on better solar cells that will turn more of the sun's rays into electricity.

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‘Justice not charity’ - the blind marchers who made history

Remembering the maverick blind campaigners who walked to London a century ago to demand equality.

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Lockdown homeschooling: The parents who have forgotten what they learned at school

Parents have been turning to Google to help them teach the things they’ve forgotten.

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Half of U.S. states easing coronavirus restrictions as jobless numbers grow

As White House economic reopening guidance expired on Thursday after two weeks in place, half of all U.S. states forged ahead with easing restrictions on restaurants, retail and other businesses in hopes of reviving coronavirus-stricken commerce.

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FOX NEWS: Carrie Severino: Biden assault allegations — VP candidates', Dems' response a master class in hypocrisy

Carrie Severino: Biden assault allegations — VP candidates', Dems' response a master class in hypocrisy

When Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court was pending and sexual assault allegations against him surfaced, Democrats rushed to judgment in the blink of an eye.

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FOX NEWS: Gregg Jarrett: Targeting Michael Flynn — here's how the FBI entrapped and prosecuted an innocent man

Gregg Jarrett: Targeting Michael Flynn — here's how the FBI entrapped and prosecuted an innocent man

If there was ever any question about the dishonesty and corruption that poisoned the case against Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, newly released documents erase all doubt.

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FOX NEWS: Donna Brazile: Elections during coronavirus – Americans shouldn't have to risk their lives to vote

Donna Brazile: Elections during coronavirus – Americans shouldn't have to risk their lives to vote

I’m horrified that the administration and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are putting American lives at risk by forcing them to vote in-person during a pandemic involving a highly communicable virus.

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FOX NEWS: Deroy Murdock: Democrats on coronavirus — candidates mum on COVID-19 during debates

Deroy Murdock: Democrats on coronavirus — candidates mum on COVID-19 during debates

Across multiple televised debates, while the pandemic grew, those who crave Trump's job stayed mum about COVID-19.

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FOX NEWS: Tucker Carlson: Feminist movement is fake, only cares about power. That's why Gillibrand is friends with Biden

Tucker Carlson: Feminist movement is fake, only cares about power. That's why Gillibrand is friends with Biden

Institutional feminism is fake. It was never about women or believing women. They don't believe women. They don't care about women. They care about power

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FOX NEWS: Cal Thomas: America as we know it may cease to exist if national debt keeps growing

Cal Thomas: America as we know it may cease to exist if national debt keeps growing

If we don’t do something to reverse the debt, other than raising taxes on the productive in order for Congress to continue its irresponsible spending, America as we know it may cease to exist.

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FOX NEWS: Makridis and Blakeman: After coronavirus — emergency powers, once unleashed, hard to surrender

Makridis and Blakeman: After coronavirus — emergency powers, once unleashed, hard to surrender

Early on in the crisis, President Trump tapped several emergency powers, expanding the authority of the federal government to respond rapidly and effectively.

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Most of U.S. House urges more diplomacy at U.N. to renew Iran arms embargo: sources

Nearly 90% of U.S. House of Representatives members have signed a letter urging the Trump administration to increase its diplomatic action at the United Nations to renew an arms embargo on Iran, congressional sources said on Thursday.

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Coronavirus: 'We go hungry so we can feed our children'

A growing number of families are struggling to put food on the table during the coronavirus lockdown.

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Ramadan and Coronavirus: Breaking my fast on Zoom

How fasting in lockdown and isolation has changed Ramadan for young Muslims this year.

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Government approves £16m in loans to 'protect sport'

Rugby league in England will receive £16m in government loans to help it recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Wednesday, 29 April 2020

Israel marks its Independence Day under coronavirus lockdown

Israelis celebrated their Independence Day at home Wednesday amid a nationwide lockdown aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The national holiday, which honors the creation of Israel after the end of the British Mandate in 1948, is usually a festive occasion, with people heading to the beach, hosting barbecues and watching fireworks. The Israeli air force devoted its annual fly-by to health workers, with four planes crisscrossing the nation and performing aerial acrobatics over hospitals and medical centers.

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To Confront China After Coronavirus, We Must See the Bigger Picture

NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE I n a popular movie two decades ago, hard-eyed criminals released into Sydney a woman infected with a virus, knowing that unsuspecting Australians would catch the highly contagious disease and, traveling on, unwittingly spread death across a hundred homelands. This past winter, the hard-eyed leaders of China did worse. They allowed not one, but thousands of infected to leave China and enter an unsuspecting world, a world lulled by Beijing. The crucial question is: Why?“China caused an enormous amount of pain [and] loss of life . . . by not sharing the information they had,” Secretary of State Pompeo said on April 23. America is angry, he added, and while much remains to be known, China “will pay a price.”No subpoenas, no oversight committees, no tell-all books will expose President Xi’s calculations as the novel coronavirus spread inside China. The unelected of Beijing guard well their secret debates. The CCP knows the virtues of opacity, of letting uncertainty, complacency, and wishful thinking paralyze the West. Exploiting these has been its way.In 2018, a major Trump-administration speech called CCP misdeeds to task. Some, including, notably, Japan’s prime minister, applauded. But many nations looked toward their feet, too reluctant, too sophisticated, perhaps too intimidated to bestir. Staggering COVID-19 losses may yet remind the world of the dangers of drift as great powers go astray.Today’s American, European, Japanese, and Asian policymakers, like those of centuries past, bear the burdens of judgment. Uncertainty has ever been the statesman’s curse. America’s famed diplomat, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, has written, “Nations learn only by experience, they ‘know’ only when it is too late to act. But statesmen must act as if their intuition were already experience. . . .”A reassessment of Xi and the CCP looms. From their actions and practices, from assessments of their motives and apparent long-term aims, today’s statesmen, like their forebears, must judge future risks and craft the surest course ahead. These are early days, but the picture of Beijing presented so far is troubling.Even before the virus spread in Wuhan, Xi brooded over a worrying hand. The CCP could not intimidate prolonged protests on the streets of freedom-loving Hong Kong. And the Party’s oppression there, in determined violation of treaty commitments, spurred voters in Taiwan to rebuff Beijing’s hopes for a more amenable regime in Taipei. The world was finally awakening to Xi’s increasingly autocratic surveillance state, his harsh repression of Uighur Muslims, and his predatory Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China’s economy, essential to Xi’s hold on power, had stumbled, in part because of the Trump administration’s move to counter China’s unfair, neo-mercantilist practices and to condemn their grim geopolitical implications. Worse yet, America’s markets hummed, raising reelection hopes within the Trump administration, which had also surpassed modern predecessors in challenging China. Rumors of Party dissatisfaction with Xi seeped out.COVID-19’s outbreak in Wuhan further darkened Xi’s prospects. As long as the virus raged primarily inside China -- derailing only her economy, stigmatizing only her government -- his troubles would soar. All the while, the world predictably would have leapt ahead, taking Chinese customers, stealing China’s long-sought glory.The disease’s spread to Berlin and Paris, New York and Tokyo, improved Xi’s prospects, at least in the near term. Pandemic diverted foreign eyes from Hong Kong’s and the Uighurs’ plight. Desperate needs rendered disease-weakened nations more susceptible to China’s goods and BRI’s short-term appeal. Asian states, wary of Beijing, had new cause to doubt the commitment of a pandemic-preoccupied Washington, while a weakened economy and vastly increased debts would likely constrain future U.S. defense spending, essential to Asian security. An unpredictable element had entered into America’s 2020 election.As events unfolded, might Xi have recognized that COVID-19’s leap into the wider world promised such political and geopolitical gains? Some say a desire to protect itself first fed a CCP cover-up, as if putting this before the health of innocents were not bad enough. But were CCP leaders blind, as days passed, to other benefits? It is the Chinese way, the noted French Sinologist François Jullien has written, to exploit the potential inherent in unfolding situations. CCP leaders still study China’s legendary strategist, Sun Tzu, who advised centuries ago that if, “in the midst of difficulties, we are always ready to seize an advantage, we may extricate ourselves from misfortune.”As the CCP realized the imminent disaster COVID-19 posed inside China, Xi suppressed the world’s appreciation of its dangers. By sometime in December, Chinese authorities had learned that a novel, highly infectious coronavirus similar to deadly SARS was on the loose. Yet for weeks PRC authorities, including China’ National Health Commission, suppressed inquiries and, directly or through the WHO, misled the world about the risks. When Chinese authorities finally acknowledged human-to-human transmission, the CCP took steps to isolate Wuhan from other parts of China, but continued to permit international travel. After the U.S. on January 31, and later Australia, restricted travelers from China, Beijing’s spokesmen, artful and indignant, rose to denounce such acts as ill-founded and ill-intentioned.For days, even weeks, after the CCP first knew of the danger, Chinese authorities and customs officers let tens of thousands of travelers, infected among them, leave China and enter an unwary world. In late January, China extended Lunar New Year celebrations, inviting greater international travel. PRC border guards stamped more exit papers. When America restricted such travelers, Beijing allowed more to leave for less cautious lands.Then, as pandemic gripped the world, the CCP brazenly blamed America for COVID-19. Xi once more preened over his authoritarian “China model’s” efficiencies, now cauterizing troubles he denies having caused. In Europe, Beijing postured as a savior offering needed medical supplies -- albeit that its sales favored states where it sought geopolitical gains, often bore high prices, included defective products that could undermine defenses, and drew on CCP surpluses bolstered by January purchases of world supplies at pre-pandemic prices. In Southeast Asia, Beijing proved “relentless in exploiting the pandemic,” a respected, former high-level Filipino bemoans, as it pushed its “illegal and expansive” territorial claims. Inside China, the Party seized the moment to round up leaders of Hong Kong’s democracy movement and reassert unilateral efforts to curtail the city’s special, self-governing status.Even after the virus began to spread inside China, events might have taken a different course. Many had once hoped for better from CCP leaders. Dreams of a mellowing CCP had floated widely among academics and policy elites, perhaps buoyed by the way such illusions avoided, rather than imposed, hard choices. Some yet hold to such views. The benign CCP of their reveries would have alerted others promptly as the novel virus’s dangers became known, shared information, welcomed foreign scientists, ceased reckless practices, and guarded against the pandemic’s spread.Indeed, under different leadership, China could have followed such a path. Traditions of humane governance, venerable and Confucian, are not alien to that land. China’s ancient text, the Tao-te Ching, favors just such a response:> A great nation is like a man:> > When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.> > Having realized, he admits it.> > Having admitted it, he corrects it.> > He considers those who point out his faults> > As his most benevolent teachers.The learned will debate how much such leadership would have eased the wider world’s suffering. Metrics and estimates will vary, but the consensus will be clear enough: The harm would have decreased manyfold.Such openness and grace have not been Xi’s way. As he built up islets in the South China Sea, he promised never to militarize them, then dishonored his promise, disregarded international rulings, and dispatched ships in packs to intimidate neighboring states and expand Beijing’s writ. Pledging to protect intellectual property, he enabled ongoing theft and coercion, ineluctably undermining industries of the advanced democracies, and then pressed forward on China’s newly gained advantages. His BRI professes to aid, then exploits poor countries’ weaknesses. Citing the betterment of all in the cause of greater China, he has imprisoned Uighurs, undermined Tibetan culture, and threatened the peaceful regional order that had enabled China’s rise. He violates treaty commitments to curb Hong Kong’s freedoms. Behind an anti-corruption façade, his prosecutors ruined scores of his rivals, as he consolidated and extended his personal powers. These wrongs he continues still. Xi’s are not the ways of grace and remorse.An angry narrative drives this man. Under his hand, the CCP highlights Chinese suffering and humiliation roughly a century ago under Western and Japanese imperialists, while eliding the democratic world’s helping hand and Japan’s benign democracy over four generations since. He slides past the Chinese millions massacred in the intervening decades by the CCP and Mao -- China’s legendary leader who spread cruelty and death as he judged useful. In imitation of Mao, Xi has issued his own “little red book” of wisdom. Mao’s iconic image looms over Tiananmen still. Coveting Mao’s autocratic power, Xi strove and won it; now he dare not let it go.The bitter recall of ancient Chinese glories; resentment of past humiliations; insecurity bred by corruption and illegitimacy; disdain, even hatred of America’s easy ways -- these are the pathogens coursing through Xi’s circle. A fever for Chinese primacy burns among them. For a time, they might pander to a Western-inspired, rules-based order, a liberal conceit; but this is not their dream. A historic economic rise, technological mastery, a rapidly expanding navy, all causes to be proud of, have freed them to be brazen. Xi now bares the teeth Deng Xiaoping’s smile hid. From South China Sea islets to the New Silk Road’s arid ends, the CCP, ruthless and defiant, pounds the stakes it holds to advance its aims. For Xi’s CCP, it is the fate of small states to bend to the strong.Rules should soon be theirs to set, the CCP believes, and not without some reason. Before Trump, a subtle and experienced Chinese diplomat confessed, CCP leaders marveled at America’s ineffectual response. In the South and East China Seas, on India’s long border, Beijing’s hostile and determined quest had followed Lenin’s line: “Probe with bayonets, if you find mush, you push; if you find steel, you withdraw.” It is to our shame, Trump observed on China’s unfair trade practices, that Beijing had not been held to account by prior administrations. Unanswered, history has shown, the ambitious calculate and, at times, miscalculate.In past American forbearance, CCP leaders have seen a once great power on the wane. In foreign capitals they confided, inside China they proclaimed: It will soon be America’s turn to bend. They claim their own version of the right side of history.The keys to victory, Sun Tzu counseled, lie in knowing your enemy and deceiving them. The cunning men of Beijing have taken heed. They have an instinct for a divided, self-doubting, and weary West. Cloaking their aggressions in ambiguity, they weigh the likely costs against desired gains.Straining to contain COVID-19, President Trump and Secretary Pompeo rightly extend a hand to international, including Chinese, cooperation. But in post-pandemic days to come, the democracies must carefully take the measure of the CCP and hold it to account, crafting strategies for what it is, not what they wish it to be. That is leadership’s task.The late, great professor Fouad Ajami warned, “Men love the troubles they know” -- too ready to slip into a comfortable neglect, too reluctant to face strategic change. Some cite an arc of history, he lamented, to hide behind, hoping it might bear the burdens they would rather shun.With all doubts resolved in their favor, the untouchable leaders of the CCP have much for which to answer. Perhaps in reality, even more.In a time of death, Ajami cautioned: “There is no fated happiness or civility in any land.” As a great river may abruptly rise or fall, “Those gauges on the banks will have to be read and watched with care.”

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Costco to require face coverings for shoppers

Starting Monday, customers will be required to wear masks covering their nose and mouth at all times while inside the store.

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There's going to be a huge glut of toilet paper after the coronavirus panic-buying subsides, a supply chain expert says

Toilet paper manufacturers have ramped up production to meet the unprecedented demand, but may be left with a huge surplus in the coming months.

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FDA reportedly plans to authorize emergency use of largely untested drug to treat coronavirus

The Food and Drug Administration will authorize the emergency use of the antiviral remdesivir on COVID-19 patients as soon as Wednesday, a senior administration official told The New York Times. Pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences revealed promising study results involving remdesivir on Wednesday, but the FDA's reported move would still sidestep the usual testing required to authorize a drug's usage.Gilead said Wednesday that its own trial, as well one overseen by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, met its goals. Of the study's 397 severe COVID-19 patients, at least 50 percent of patients treated with a 5-day dosage of remdesivir improved and more than half were discharged from the hospital within two weeks. The overall mortality rate of the study was 7 percent, and relatively few patients developed bad side effects. But the study wasn't evaluated against a control group, and it's unclear if those recoveries were natural or if remdesivir actually had something to do with them. Hard data from the study also hasn't been released yet.Anecdotal reports, including two published in The New England Journal of Medicine, provided more credibility for remdesivir in the coronavirus fight. But they also didn't compared the drug against a placebo. A study published in The Lancet concluded remdesivir was "safe and adequately tolerated" but "did not provide significant benefits over placebo."More stories from theweek.com How Tara Reade's allegations could bring down Joe Biden The perils of Hooverism Florida's health department reportedly told medical examiners to remove causes of death from mortality data

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China opposes international COVID-19 probe that presumes its guilt: vice foreign minister

China "resolutely opposes" any international inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic that presumes its guilt, said Yue Yucheng, a vice-foreign minister, in comments published on Thursday.

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Australia links coronavirus outbreak in remote south to Carnival Corp cruise ship

A coronavirus outbreak in Australia's remote southern island state of Tasmania likely originated from the Ruby Princess cruise ship, a government report published on Thursday concluded, as the national death toll rose to 91.

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Peru's leader says to propose comprehensive pension reform

Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra on Wednesday rejected a bill approved by Congress earlier this month that would have let people withdraw up to 25% of their holdings in private pension funds and vowed to send a full pension reform plan to lawmakers.

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Irish government talks may drift into June: Fianna Fail leader

The leader of one of the parties negotiating to form a new Irish government raised the prospect on Wednesday of talks drifting well into June, extending a months-long deadlock that has been overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic.

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Coronavirus R0: Is this the crucial number?

The number at the heart of the decision whether to lift lockdown.

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Will thermal cameras help to end the lockdown?

Thermal cameras can spot people with a temperature. Will they help to end the lockdown?

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Coronavirus: Madrid's balcony cinema screens films for people in lockdown

People in Madrid can watch films from their balconies after the local council brought in huge screens.

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'We'll starve to death if this continues'

Half of the world's workers could lose their jobs because of Covid-19, we meet four who are struggling with lockdown.

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In pictures: Iranian embassy siege in London

Images from 40 years ago, when six gunmen took over the Iranian embassy in Kensington.

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An unlikely coronavirus hotspot in forgotten US corner

How poverty and economic inequality are threatening an entire generation of African Americans.

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Coronavirus: How does contact tracing work and is my data safe?

Millions in the UK will soon be asked to download an app that helps to limit coronavirus spreading.

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Boris Johnson, Carrie Symonds, and a baby in a very exclusive club

Baby Johnson joins Leo Blair and Florence Cameron to become a member of a very exclusive club.

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Coronavirus: Searching for truth behind Spain's care home tragedy

Families want to know why so many of their elderly relatives have died.

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Coronavirus: Japan's low testing rate raises questions

Japan's relatively low rate of virus testing raises questions about how it has tackled the pandemic.

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How will airlines get flying again?

When passenger planes start flying again, the world of air travel will be very different.

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Coronavirus: Why the fashion industry faces an 'existential crisis'

"No-one wants to buy clothes to sit at home in," as Next's chief executive Simon Wolfson puts it.

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Despite Unleashing COVID-19, Expert Predicts China Could Emerge from Pandemic with Even Stronger Hold on Other Nations

Tensions between the US and China are growing, fueled by COVID-19 and accusations of dishonesty. One result is Americans are suing Beijing, seeking to hold it accountable for the worldwide pandemic. Those efforts could backfire, however, such that China not only evades consequences but potentially benefits from the pandemic.

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FOX NEWS: Dr. Marty Makary on remdesivir's ability to block COVID-19

Dr. Marty Makary on remdesivir's ability to block COVID-19

The experimental coronavirus treatment remdesivir has shortened the recovery time for COVID-19 patients, according to data from a new study cited by the U.S. government; insight from Fox News contributor Dr. Marty Makary, Johns Hopkins health policy expert.

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Tuesday, 28 April 2020

Pentagon releases three UFO videos taken by US Navy pilots

The Pentagon has released three declassified videos taken by US Navy pilots that appear to show unidentified flying objects (UFO).The black and white videos were recorded during training flights – one in November 2004 and two in January 2015 – and later leaked to the public, the Department of Defense said in a statement on Monday.

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Mitch McConnell wants to prevent a 'blue state bailout' of stimulus money. But Kentucky takes more from the federal government than almost any other state.

Kentucky has a bigger balance than 47 other states from the 2015 fiscal year through 2018, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government.

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Scientists are perplexed by the low rate of coronavirus hospitalizations among smokers. Nicotine may hold the answer.

No experts are remotely advocating for people to take up smoking to prevent COVID-19, but some researchers have theorized nicotine may be playing some role in keeping the virus at bay, Vice reports. That's because there's a surprisingly low rate of smokers among coronavirus hospitalizations.In France, for example, 25 percent of the population smokes, but only 5.3 percent of coronavirus patients have been recorded as smokers, and studies have found low rates in China and New York City, as well.Greek cardiologist and tobacco harm-reduction specialist Konstantinos Farsalinos thinks nicotine (crucially, not tobacco) might be lessening the intensity of cytokine storms, an overreaction of the body's immune system which seems to be the cause of the most severe coronavirus symptoms. French researchers have a slightly altered theory that nicotine prevents the virus from entering cells (the difference lies in the type of receptors the virus latches onto), and they're hoping to test out nicotine patches on patients to see if they help fight off COVID-19. The French government suspended the online sale of patches to make sure people don't buy in bulk and try to treat themselves that way.The seemingly out-there theory has piqued the interest of scientists across the world, though many are urging caution. The lower rates could be a result of some other chemical in tobacco producing a protective effect, or it could be that the number of smokers is being underreported."Smokers who have developed chronic disease have likely quit because of their disease," Michael Siegel, a community health sciences professor at Boston University, said. "Many of the smokers who are continuing to smoke are doing so because they don't have disease yet. So this would be expected to skew the sample of hospitalized patients toward people who do not smoke." Read more at Vice.More stories from theweek.com Movies that debut on streaming and not in theaters can be eligible for the Oscars next year How Democrats blew up MeToo Pence refused a mask at Mayo Clinic because he wanted to thank workers by 'looking them in the eye'

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Nova Scotia gunman killed 9 of his 22 victims by setting fire to their houses, police say

Nine of the 22 victims killed in Canada's Nova Scotia province earlier this month in a weekend shooting rampage died in house fires set by the gunman, Canadian police told reporters on Tuesday.

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Pompeo says U.S. 'concerned' over south Yemen separatist self-rule declaration

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday Washington was 'concerned' over the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a separatist group, declaring self-rule in Yemen's south, warning such actions threatened efforts to revive talks between the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels.

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Thursday, 30 April 2020

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Tuesday, 28 April 2020

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