world news: 2020-03-08

Saturday 14 March 2020

Court cites coronavirus in blocking Trump administration's food stamp cuts

Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia cited the coronavirus pandemic in her decision to suspend the rule from going into effect.

New Zealand PM makes 'no apologies' after announcing 'toughest border restrictions' in the world amid coronavirus fears

Countries around the world continued Saturday to enact strict measures such as border closures and flight cancellations to combat the spread of the novel COVID-19 coronavirus.That includes New Zealand, whose Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Saturday the government will implement a policy under which all travelers, even New Zealanders, must self-isolate upon their arrival in the country for 14 days starting Sunday at midnight.Ardern said New Zealand, along with Israel and several Pacific Island nations, "will have the widest ranging and toughest border restrictions of any country in the world," adding that she's not making any apologies in this "unprecedented time." All cruise ships will be banned from coming to New Zealand until June 30, as well. There are only six confirmed cases and no deaths attributed to COVID-19 in New Zealand so far.Ardern has proven herself to be a swift actor in the past. Almost exactly one year ago, a white nationalist gunman killed more than 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, prompting Ardern to usher in a ban on semiautomatic rifles and institute mandatory buybacks in less than a week. It's no surprise she's not taking her time this time, either. Read more at Reuters and New Zealand Herald.More stories from theweek.com Trump just gave the worst speech of his presidency Mitch McConnell is aiding and abetting the spread of coronavirus White House will extend Europe travel ban to Ireland, UK, considering domestic restrictions

Official: Pentagon launches airstrikes targeting Iran-backed militia after rocket attack on U.S., British troops

The U.S. airstrikes came after the U.S. military confirmed three coalition personnel in Iraq were killed after rockets hit Iraq's Camp Taji base.

Sasse Rips Pelosi for Trying to Smuggle Hyde Amendment Loophole into Coronavirus Package

Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Democrats for reportedly trying to ensure federal funding for abortion as part of the coronavirus economic stimulus plan.“While schools are closing and hospitals are gearing up, Speaker Pelosi is waging unnecessary culture wars. Speaker Pelosi should be fighting the coronavirus pandemic, not politicizing emergency funding by fighting against the bipartisan Hyde Amendment,” Sasse told National Review in a statement. “We need to be ramping up our diagnostic testing, not waging culture wars at the behest of Planned Parenthood. Good grief.”Pelosi attempted to secure a funding stream of up to $1 billion for reimbursing laboratory claims. According to White House officials who spoke with the Daily Caller, that provision would establish a precedent under which health claims for all procedures, including abortion, could be reimbursed with federal funds. That precedent would render the Hyde Amendment, which blocks taxpayer funding for abortion clinics, obsolete.Pelosi resisted efforts by Democrats to end the Hyde Amendment in recent months, with progressives being forced to abandon an attempt to “ensure” abortion coverage for people using federal health programs as part of a $190 billion budget bill passed in July.“It is the law of the land right now, and I don’t see that there’s an opportunity to get rid of it with the current occupant of the White House and this U.S. Senate,” Pelosi said at the time, adding that she does not support the Hyde Amendment herself.But Pelosi’s tactics were seemingly confirmed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), who claimed in an interview on Fox News Thursday night that “right now we are hearing that some of the fights and some of the gridlock is because people are trying to put pro-life provisions into this.”> .@AOC talking about the response to Coronavirus with @BretBaier pic.twitter.com/WcXWvI3g62> > -- Benny (@bennyjohnson) March 12, 2020Pelosi went back and forth with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Thursday, ultimately coming close to a deal, with the House set to vote on the package Friday after the Speaker reportedly dropped the matter.“We’ve resolved most of our differences, and [for] those we haven’t we’ll continue the conversation, because there will obviously be other bills,” Pelosi told reporters on Thursday.

US hospitals are scrambling to prepare for a potential surge in coronavirus cases, as one in Washington already reports depleting supplies

Some patients could end up waiting on stretchers in the hallways of emergency rooms as they wait for an open bed, the Associated Press reported.

Biden, Looking to Attract Progressives, Endorses Warren Bankruptcy Plan

By BY KATIE GLUECK AND THOMAS KAPLAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3aUl0kt

The Coronavirus Is Forcing Hospitals to Cancel Surgeries

By BY KAREN WEISE, MIKE BAKER AND NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/38Qy9JZ

At a Los Angeles food bank, groceries are plentiful, but volunteers are scarce.

By BY TEJAL RAO from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Wd3zaX

Man Sentenced to 54 Years for Crash That Killed 3 Girl Scouts and a Mother

By BY MICHAEL LEVENSON from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3cZKyi3

Trump, reversing position, says he got tested for coronavirus after all

President Trump had more contact than previously known with people who have tested positive for coronavirus, but the White House said he won't be tested.

Why don't viruses make their original hosts sick? 5 questions answered

Editor’s note: The coronavirus that has claimed more than 4,000 lives worldwide and sickened more than 113,000 most likely originated in bats, most experts believe. From bats, the virus “jumped” to another species, likely pangolins, and then to humans. Why didn’t the virus make bats or pangolins sick? As it turns out, viruses are complicated – in addition to sometimes being deadly. 1\. How does this new virus differ from other coronaviruses?The family Coronaviridae contains about 39 different species of coronaviruses. Of these, only seven coronaviruses have been reported to infect and cause disease in people. Four coronaviruses cause mild symptoms similar to the common cold, but three coronaviruses cause severe and possibly deadly infections: the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and now, SARS-CoV2, which is responsible for the current coronavirus disease COVID-19. SARS-CoV2 is a cousin of the coronavirus that caused SARS, having about 79% similarity in its genetic makeup. Though similar, these two viruses are not the same, and their disease manifestations are different. SARS was recognized at the end of February 2003 in China. Worldwide, 8,098 people became sick with SARS and 774 died, with the disease having a mortality rate of 10%. MERS-CoV was first identified in Saudi Arabia in September 2012. Globally, MERS-CoV was responsible for 2,494 MERS cases and 858 deaths, with a mortality rate of 37%.The ongoing SARS-CoV2 epidemic and the rate of infection and mortality seem different than both SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. As of March 10, the U.S. has 866 COVID-19 cases with 28 deaths, while 45 cases have been reported in Canada. It seems that SARS-CoV2 is less deadly than the other two coronavirus strains, but it is more contagious. 2\. Some people are saying COVID might become endemic. What does this mean?Aggressive diseases like SARS give rise to epidemics – outbreaks where the number of new cases flares up rapidly in a region. Effective, evidence-based public health measures reduce the number of new patients infected, until these aggressive diseases are controlled. In contrast, an endemic disease is constantly present in a certain geographic region. A good example of an endemic disease is malaria, which is constantly present in tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The 2003 SARS epidemic was controlled by a combination of effective international surveillance methods and local, evidence-based public health measures. International surveillance systems alerted the authorities of the emergence of a novel disease, helping set up guidance for travelers, airlines and crew. It also set in motion a global response that prevented the spread of the disease, and helped the local public health efforts to identify and quarantine infected people. Effectively, this combined response prevented SARS from becoming endemic. By July 2003, four months from the onset of the outbreak, human-to-human transmission of SARS had stopped. 3\. How do these viruses jump to humans?The majority of new diseases affecting humans are zoonotic, meaning that they originate in wild animals (mostly mammals) and then cross over to people. Among mammals, bats have a higher number of zoonotic viruses. These viruses might cause mild to no symptoms in bats. People and animals interacting with bats (or their urine, feces or saliva) might catch these zoonotic viruses and then spread them to other animals or people. The trapping of wild animals for pets, food or medicinal purposes puts wild animals like bats in close contacts with other animals and people. That is what happened in the previous two coronavirus outbreaks. In the 2003 outbreak, the SARS coronavirus jumped from bats to civets being sold as food in a market, and then from civets to people. In the MERS outbreak, the MERS coronavirus jumped from bats to camels and from camels to people. As a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, China placed a permanent ban on wild animal markets. 4\. Why don’t bats get sick from the virus?Bats are pretty incredible animals. They are the only mammals that fly. Scientists have linked the genetic modifications associated with flight with beneficial modifications to the bat’s immune system. For example, the bat’s immune system fights viral infections but does not overreact to them, preventing bats from falling ill from the many viruses they have. 5\. How do organisms reach a ‘truce’ with a virus?The outcome of a virus infecting an animal depends on two general factors: The first is how strong, or virulent, is the strain of the virus. The second is the effectiveness of the infected animal’s immune defenses. Initially, a virus might be highly lethal to animals. Rapidly killing its host is not beneficial to the virus because it limits the virus’s capacity to spread to other animals. Therefore, the virus become less virulent with time. On the other hand, animals sensitive to the virus die quickly, while animals with inherited resistance to the virus survive, passing that resistance to their offspring. This combination of events, over a large period of time, results in an equilibrium where the animal’s immune system is able to control a virus infection without completely eradicating it. In people, this type of equilibrium could be observed with herpes infections. [Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * What really works to keep coronavirus away? 4 questions answered by a public health professional * Why public health officials sound more worried about the coronavirus than the seasonal fluMarcos E. García-Ojeda does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Coronavirus: Quebec leader asks seniors to stay in, 'snowbirds' to fly back to Canada

Quebec's premier told seniors Saturday to stay home to avoid contracting the new coronavirus, and urged "snowbirds" -- retired Canadians who spend winters in sunny US states -- to fly back to Canada now. "If I were them, I'd come home as soon as possible," Legault also said about more than 300,000 Canadian "snowbirds" who live up to six months each year in the United States. As of 1300 GMT Saturday, said Health Canada, 193 cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed in Canada, including one death.

The first COVID-19 case originated on November 17, according to Chinese officials searching for 'patient zero'

It wasn't until late December that Chinese officials realized they had a new kind of virus on their hands.

Sanders had some vulnerable Democrats worried. Biden's surge eased their minds.

House members in tough re-election fights "don't want to spend every single day being consumed by having to answer for Sanders rhetoric or Sanders policy."

Utah bill forcing women to see baby on ultrasound before having abortion passes, despite walkout protest by female senators

The entire female body of the Utah Senate staged a walkout in protest of an abortion bill mandating women to be shown the fetus on an ultrasound before being allowed to have the procedure.

In Albania, Iranian dissidents plot a revolution

In a gleaming compound built from scratch on an Albanian hillside, thousands of Iranians dedicate their waking hours to toppling the regime in Tehran 3,000 kilometres away. "I think this year will be very decisive," says Zohreh Akhiani, the 56-year-old mayor of "Ashraf 3", a mini-city of some 2,800 exiled Iranians from the opposition movement the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). The dissidents hope an onslaught of crises in their homeland will aid their cause, from increasingly harsh US sanctions to recent anti-government protests and the new coronavirus, which has infected top officials.

Coronavirus myths, debunked: A cattle vaccine, bioweapons and a $3,000 test

Fake stories on WhatsApp, outlandish bioweapons rumors and Corona beer. There's a lot of misinformation about the coronavirus. Here's what's true.

Guatemala bans arrivals from U.S., Canada to fight coronavirus

Guatemala will from Monday widen travel restrictions to fight the spread of coronavirus, banning arrivals from the United States and Canada, President Alejandro Giammattei said on Friday. "We are therefore announcing that everyone who arrives from Canada and the United States between now and midnight on Monday will be subject to quarantining," Giammattei said in a televised address. The president said he had also asked the Mexican government to halt deportations of migrants by land to Guatemala.

Germany has offered companies 'unlimited' loans to stop them from collapsing because of the coronavirus pandemic

"There is no upper limit on the amount of loans that [we] can issue," German finance minister Olaf Scholz said.

Spain goes under lockdown to fight coronavirus

Spain put its 47 million inhabitants under partial lockdown on Saturday as part of a 15-day state of emergency to combat the coronavirus epidemic in Europe's second worst-affected country by the disease after Italy.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2U1tCPC

Spanish PM's wife has tested positive for coronavirus: PM's offfice

Begona Gomez, the wife of Spanish Prime minister Pedro Sanchez, has tested positive for coronavirus, the prime minister's office said, adding that both were doing fine.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2IOQb4Y

Communist-run Cuba releases dissident artist after uproar

Cuba released dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara from jail overnight after dozens of prominent artists, including those traditionally supportive of the Communist government, as well as international rights groups criticized his arrest 13 days ago.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2U56NdL

Slovenia records first death due to coronavirus

Slovenia has recorded its first death due to coronavirus, Health Minister Tomaz Gantar told national channel TV Slovenia on Saturday. According to TV Slovenia the victim was an elderly man with a chronic disease.