| Pakistan police arrest three over 'honour killing' of teenage sisters Posted: 18 May 2020 10:49 AM PDT |
| Sweeping federal lawsuit seeks election changes in Wisconsin Posted: 18 May 2020 08:38 AM PDT  Advocates for people with disabilities and minority voters in Wisconsin filed a sweeping federal lawsuit Monday asking a judge to order that more poll workers be hired, every voter in the state receive an absentee ballot application and a host of other changes be made to ensure the August primary and November presidential election can be held safely amid the coronavirus pandemic. Wisconsin has been at the center of the fight, both in court and out, over elections during the pandemic after it proceeded with its April 7 presidential primary even as other states delayed voting. The lawsuit argues that not enough has been done since then to ensure that the upcoming elections can be conducted safely and fairly.
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| China says U.S. trying to shift blame and smear Beijing over WHO Posted: 19 May 2020 07:09 AM PDT  China said the United States was trying to shift the blame for Washington's own mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis, responding to President Trump's letter threatening to halt funding to the World Health Organization.
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| Man abducted as child in China reunited with parents after 32 years Posted: 19 May 2020 06:33 AM PDT  A Chinese man kidnapped as a toddler 32 years ago has been reunited with his biological parents, after police used facial recognition technology to help track him down. Mao Yin was just two when he was snatched outside a hotel in Xi'an in central Shaanxi province in 1988 and sold to a childless couple in neighbouring Sichuan province who raised him as their own son, Xi'an's public security bureau said in a statement. Police "aged" one of Mao's childhood photos, according to state broadcaster CCTV, and used the model to scan the national database and find close matches.
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| Grounded in Arizona: Flights arrive but don't leave as ailing airlines park fleets Posted: 18 May 2020 09:29 AM PDT  As the airline industry contracts during the COVID-19 crisis, carriers are grounding thousands of jetliners in the Southwest.
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| The US Navy aircraft carrier sidelined by the coronavirus is expected to return to sea in the next few days Posted: 19 May 2020 06:11 AM PDT  The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt has been sidelined in Guam for nearly two months by a serious coronavirus outbreak.
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| ‘They Came to Kill the Mothers.’ After a Devastating Attack on a Kabul Maternity Ward, Afghan Women Face Increased Dangers Posted: 19 May 2020 09:03 AM PDT  A deadly maternity ward attack and the outbreak of the coronavirus have hindered internationally-backed efforts to support women's health in Afghanistan.
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| China protests at support of U.S. and others for Taiwan at WHO Posted: 19 May 2020 06:41 AM PDT  The Chinese envoy to the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday denounced the support shown by the United States and others to Taiwan during its annual ministerial assembly and said that was undermining the global response to the pandemic. Taiwan lobbied hard to be included as an observer at the two-day virtual meeting and received strong support from the United States, Japan and others, but says it was not invited due to opposition from China. "There are still a few countries determined to plead for Taiwan authorities, seriously violating relevant U.N. and WHO resolutions and undermining global anti-epidemic efforts," Chen Xu, the Chinese ambassador, told the virtual assembly.
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| Authorities announce forfeiture of ancient Gilgamesh tablet from Hobby Lobby's Museum of the Bible Posted: 18 May 2020 08:24 PM PDT  The Gilgamesh Dream Tablet was featured at the Washington, D.C., museum. The crafts chain bought it in 2014 for $1.6 million.
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| McConnell's GOP takes Trump's election-year cues Posted: 19 May 2020 03:26 PM PDT  Senate Republicans are embracing the president's most explosive attacks after previously sidestepping them.
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| With the only store in town, Alaskan grocer goes above and beyond to keep shelves stocked Posted: 18 May 2020 11:09 PM PDT  When your store is the only place in town to buy groceries, you do what you have to do in order to ensure the shelves are never empty.Toshua Parker and his wife, Cassia, own Icy Strait Wholesale in Gustavus, Alaska — population 450. This tiny town is only accessible by boat or airplane, and Parker used to have his Costco orders delivered to the store on Alaska's ferry system. Because of the pandemic, the ferry is not stopping in Gustavus. His supplies began dwindling in March, so Parker decided he would have to start picking up his orders in person.Every week since, Parker and his employees have made the 14-hour round-trip to Juneau, 50 miles away, taking a converted military landing craft and loading it up with food and other essentials to stock the store. This long trek "doesn't seem like a big deal," Parker told CNN. "Alaskans are fiercely independent and resourceful; you really have to be to survive here. So when a problem arises, we don't typically look to someone else for help, we just find a way to do it."A lot of planning goes into the trips, with Parker having to take into consideration the tides and weather forecasts. He said he's grateful for his employees who are "going to work every day during this pandemic to make sure our town stays supplied," adding that having to go to such great lengths to keep the people of Gustavus fed is "just another day in our world."More stories from theweek.com Trump spent hours retweeting, slamming Fox News, including profane attacks on host Neil Cavuto The snake oil salesman cometh Johnson & Johnson will stop selling talcum-based baby powder in U.S., Canada
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| Assad seizes assets of wealthy cousin after he issued rare public appeal for debt relief Posted: 19 May 2020 05:52 AM PDT  The Syrian regime has announced it will seize the assets of a wealthy businessman and cousin of President Bashar al-Assad, after he published a series of provocative video appeals where he begged for debt relief. A document signed by the Syrian finance ministry said it would take the assets of Rami Makhlouf, as well as those of his wife and children, as a "precautionary measure" to ensure his debts are paid. Mr Makhlouf was once one of Syria's wealthiest men, with a business empire spanning the telecoms, construction and property sectors, as well as a member of the regime's inner circle. But over the past few weeks, Mr Makhlouf appears to have angered Assad by publishing a series of videos where he asks directly for help in paying substantial debts and fines imposed by the regime as part of an ongoing regulatory dispute. The unprecedented, public display of discontent with Assad is believed to have angered the dictator and brought to the surface a bitter feud at the heart of Syria's ruling family. It has been speculated that the decision to impose the huge financial penalties on Mr Makhlouf may be linked with Syria's ongoing struggle to repay debts to Russia for military and economic support. In Mr Makhlouf's most recent video, he claimed that Syrian officials had told him to quit as the head of his telecoms operator, Syriatel. And in his first video, Mr Makhlouf had claimed that he was struggling to keep his businesses afloat as a result of the fines. "We are ready to pay, but don't have the cash ready to go, so we ask you, the state, to find a proper mechanism for us to pay without damaging the company," he said in the Facebook video, where he asked for help more than dozen times. At the time, Syria analysts said that the move was likely to lead to adverse consequences for the businessman. Mr Makhlouf's son, 22-year-old Mohammed Makhlouf, has boasted of his wealth in posts on social media, where he has posed with sports cars and speedboats. According to the regime, Syriatel owes 134 billion Syrian pounds, which due to severe inflation in the war-torn country is worth around $77m.
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| US borders with Canada, Mexico closed another month Posted: 19 May 2020 04:39 PM PDT  The US government on Tuesday extended for another month restrictions on non-essential travel across the borders with Canada and Mexico to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. "Non-essential travel will not be permitted until this administration is convinced that doing so is safe and secure," said interim DHS chief Chad Wolf.
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| After 32 Years, a Missing Son Is Reunited With His Parents in China Posted: 19 May 2020 08:13 AM PDT  A missing son who was abducted from his parents at a hotel in northwest China has been reunited with his family 32 years later.
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| Fossil of one of the last megaraptors on the planet found in Argentina Posted: 18 May 2020 03:10 PM PDT |
| New polls show Biden leading Trump in key states of Arizona, Florida and Virginia Posted: 19 May 2020 11:37 AM PDT  Former Vice President Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump in three key battleground states, according to separate polls released Tuesday.
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| Mexico City virus deaths triple official toll, group says Posted: 19 May 2020 12:34 PM PDT  A registry of death certificates in Mexico City suggests there were 4,577 cases where doctors mentioned coronavirus or COVID-19 as a possible or probable cause of death, more than three times the official death toll in the city. The federal government acknowledges only 1,332 confirmed deaths in Mexico City since the pandemic began, less than a third as many as the investigation revealed. The additional 3,245 deaths in Mexico City, if they are confirmed or added to official counts, would push the national death toll from the 5,666 reported by federal officials Monday to 8,911.
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| Pandemic will change Communion for many Posted: 19 May 2020 09:21 AM PDT  Holy Communion will have a different look when in-person worship services resume at the end of May in the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, Tenn.: The wafers signifying the body of Christ will be placed in the hands of parishioners by priests and deacons wearing face masks and safety glasses.
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| 4 Modern Places of Worship That Elevate Architecture Posted: 19 May 2020 12:17 PM PDT |
| The sister of Ahmaud Arbery's accused killer posted pictures of his dead body to Snapchat, and said it's because she's a 'true crime fan' Posted: 19 May 2020 02:58 AM PDT  In an interview with The Sun, Lindsay McMichael admitted to sharing a photo of Arbery's body at the scene, but said she didn't do so maliciously.
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| Moderna's vaccine results helped add more than $5 billion to the 'big 4' airlines' market values Posted: 19 May 2020 05:45 AM PDT  United stock surged 21%, Delta and Southwest jumped more than 13%, and American rose 9% as investors bet on an industry recovery.
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| Millions flee as monster cyclone churns toward India and Bangladesh Posted: 19 May 2020 08:48 AM PDT  Cyclone Amphan is expected to slam the countries' coastlines with high winds, a massive storm surge and torrential rains.
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| NASA human spaceflight chief resigns ahead of launch Posted: 19 May 2020 01:55 PM PDT  "Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Doug Loverro has resigned from his position effective Monday, May 18," said the memo sent to employees on Tuesday and seen by Reuters. It added that Ken Bowersox, NASA's deputy associate administrator and a former astronaut, would take Loverro's place until a permanent replacement is found.
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| A couple vanished the same night of a car wreck. Police took 2 weeks to find their bodies, car. Posted: 19 May 2020 12:02 PM PDT  Police said the crash site was not visible, but loved ones are questioning why they didn't search longer or come back in daylight.
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| Whitmer: I had 'conversation' with Biden campaign about vice presidency Posted: 19 May 2020 11:32 AM PDT  The Michigan governor said she is focused on the coronavirus threat but that the Biden campaign has had a "conversation" with her about VP job.
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| Concerns erupt over integrity of Florida's COVID-19 website Posted: 19 May 2020 01:54 PM PDT  The chief architect of Florida's coronavirus website was fired this week after a dispute over what information should be made public, underscoring how entwined public health data and politics have become as elected officials move to reopen their communities amid the coronavirus pandemic. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said his decision to begin reopening his state has been driven by science, and federal epidemiologists have praised his administration's daily release of COVID-19 related data as especially granular and user-friendly.
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| China abductions: Parents find son snatched in hotel 32 years ago Posted: 19 May 2020 05:42 AM PDT  Li Jingzhi quit her job to search China for her son, Mao Yin, who went missing in 1988.
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| Texas' coronavirus confinement enforcement was reportedly more strict in border cities than elsewhere Posted: 18 May 2020 07:22 AM PDT  While Texas GOP leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, openly railed against local officials for fining or even jailing (which is now forbidden) residents for breaching the state's stay-at-home order amid the coronavirus pandemic, The Dallas Morning News reports that their criticism seems to have been disproportionately directed at the state's largest counties, while the order was more strictly enforced in border cities.The Morning News analyzed data from eight counties and nine cities across the state, finding that the most populous areas mostly relied on voluntary compliance with the order, while local authorities in just three border counties issued at least 2,600 citations and made 200 arrests for violations such as not wearing a face mask, having too many people in the same car, or breaking curfew.The city of Laredo, situated on the border, issued almost six times as many citations as Texas' five most populous cities — Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, and Fort Worth — combined.But, the Morning News notes, it appears those incidents mostly flew under the radar. "The elephant in the room is it wasn't until a blonde-haired Caucasian woman got involved that the interests of our political leaders were piqued," Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said, referring to the criticism of the jailing of Shelley Luther, who opened her Dallas salon in defiance of the order.Two Laredo women, Ana Isabel Castro-Garcia and Brenda Stephanie Mata, were arrested before Luther for offering cosmetic services, but it was Luther's arrest that sparked a change.Republicans pushed back against the idea that their criticism, or lack thereof, was racially motivated; Lt. Government Dan Patrick said government overreach was "egregious" wherever it occurred, while Matt Mackowiak, a Republican consultant, said the geography-based backlash was natural, since Dallas gets "a lot more attention than Laredo." Read more at The Dallas Morning News.More stories from theweek.com Florida COVID-19 data chief says she was removed from post after refusing to censor data New York's Democratic primary is back on, with both Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang on the ballot Trump's coronavirus National Guard order expires the day before many members would be eligible for key benefits
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| Navy Cruiser Commanding Officer Fired After 4,000-Gallon Fuel Spill Posted: 18 May 2020 05:10 PM PDT  Capt. Erica Hoffmann, commanding officer of the guided-missile cruiser Philippine Sea was relieved of her duties.
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| A report circulating in Congress, which claims that China covered up a virus leak from a Wuhan lab, has been debunked Posted: 18 May 2020 04:03 AM PDT  The Sierra Nevada Corporation claimed a "hazardous event" occurred at the Wuhan Institute of Virology last year. The theory is popular but unverified.
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| Abu Dhabi's Etihad makes first known flight to Israel, carrying Palestinian aid Posted: 19 May 2020 11:12 AM PDT  An Etihad Airways plane flew from the United Arab Emirates to Israel on Tuesday to deliver coronavirus supplies to the Palestinians, a spokeswoman for the Abu Dhabi airline said, marking the first known flight by a UAE carrier to Israel. Israel does not have diplomatic relations with any of the six Gulf Arab countries, and there are no commercial flights between them.
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| Scientists discover 'immune scars' on patients with lung infections Posted: 18 May 2020 10:29 AM PDT  Patients recovering from severe lung infections develop "immunological scars" that stifle their body's immune response and heighten their risk of contracting pneumonia, a common killer of COVID-19 sufferers, researchers said Monday. Studies in both humans and mice showed that the body's immune response is temporarily switched off after some severe infections, rendering patients more vulnerable to new bacterial or viral diseases. A team of researchers from the University of Melbourne's Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and the University Hospital of Nantes found that the cells that form the immune system's first line of defence -- macrophages -- were "paralysed" after severe infection.
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| Trump visit to Ford plant contradicts Michigan Gov. Whitmer's order — but she won't try to stop it Posted: 19 May 2020 01:16 PM PDT  The president's visit to a Ford plant in Michigan contradicts a ban on nonessential tours.
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| Evangelist who built global ministry dies in Atlanta at 74 Posted: 19 May 2020 07:26 AM PDT |
| Australian man fined for rescuing whale from sea nets Posted: 19 May 2020 12:40 AM PDT  After rescuers failed to arrive, the man launched his own rescue, driving his boat out to the whale.
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| After Arbery shooting, black parents are rethinking 'the talk' with sons to explain white vigilantes Posted: 19 May 2020 09:25 AM PDT  "I told him, 'Son, don't run when you are confronted with a gun. I don't want to go to your funeral.' "
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| Busted: Pentagon Contractors’ Report on ‘Wuhan Lab’ Origins of Virus Is Bogus Posted: 17 May 2020 06:00 PM PDT  A shocking report suggesting that the coronavirus was "release[d from] the Wuhan Institute of Virology" in China is now circulating in U.S. military and intelligence circles and on Capitol Hill. But there's a critical flaw in the report, a Daily Beast analysis reveals: Some of its most seemingly persuasive evidence is false—provably false.Multiple congressional committees have obtained and are scrutinizing the 30-page report, produced by the Multi-Agency Collaboration Environment (MACE), a part of Sierra Nevada, a major Department of Defense contractor. The report claims to rely on social media postings, commercial satellite imagery, and cellphone location data to draw the conclusion that some sort of "hazardous event" occurred at the Wuhan virology lab in October 2019—an event that allowed COVID-19 to escape. It's a theory that has gained currency on the political right and in the upper tiers of the Trump administration. But the report's claim centers around missing location data for up to seven phones — and in many cases, less than that. It's too small a sample size to prove much of anything, especially when the same devices showed similar absences in the spring of 2019. The MACE document claims a November 2019 conference was canceled because of some calamity; in fact, there are selfies from the event. What's more, imagery collected by DigitalGlobe's Maxar Technologies satellites and provided to The Daily Beast reveals a simpler, less exotic reason for why analysts believed "roadblocks" went into place around the lab after the supposed accident: road construction. The Maxar images also show typical workdays, with normal traffic patterns around the lab, after the supposedly cataclysmic event."This is an illustrated guide on how not to do open source analysis," said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, who analyzed the MACE report for The Daily Beast. "It is filled with apples-to-oranges comparisons, motivated reasoning, and a complete refusal to consider mundane explanations or place the data in any sort of context." A Department of Defense spokesperson told The Daily Beast that MACE did not produce the report "in coordination with the DoD." Sierra Nevada did not respond to a request for comment.The document, which NBC News first published and reported on May 8, made its way to Capitol Hill just days after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed in an interview that there was "enormous evidence" to suggest that the virus came from the lab in Wuhan.He appeared to back away from that claim this weekend telling Breitbart: "We know it began in Wuhan, but we don't know from where or from whom."Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee were briefed on the report by MACE earlier this month following Pompeo's remarks, according to two congressional aides familiar with the matter. The report then made its way to the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Multiple congressional committees have asked MACE to meet and discuss its product. Members have also asked senior officials in the Trump administration to answer questions about whether they trust the report and agree with its claims.According to Senate aides who have reviewed the document, there appear to be issues with the analysis. One of those sources said the report "doesn't quite pass the smell test." Another congressional source told The Daily Beast that the report was "not based on actual intelligence." The emergence of the MACE document comes amid a concerted effort to place blame for the coronavirus pandemic squarely on Beijing. And its existence is confirmation that government resources are now being devoted to exploring that proposition, even as the actual intelligence remains far less conclusive. While there's broad agreement that COVID-19 emerged in China, The New York Times reported that top members of the Trump administration have pushed U.S. intelligence agencies to look for some sort of Chinese government culpability, and to investigate the Wuhan lab theory. President Trump told reporters earlier this month that the virus had escaped from the Wuhan lab because "somebody was stupid." Since then, the administration has yet to release any evidence to support that theory. Foreign officials as well as members of Trump's own coronavirus task force have pushed back. Dr. Anthony Fauci, for one, has said the virus originated "in the wild.""Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species," the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told National Geographic.The MACE document suggests that Chinese authorities blocked off traffic surrounding the Wuhan lab in mid-October. The authors leave readers with the impression that a purported drop in local traffic shows that Chinese officials recognized a leak had taken place and tried to prevent passers-by from being infected. "It is believed that roadblocks were put in place to prevent traffic from coming near the facility," the document says. In particular, the authors pointed to a decrease in cellphone location data from a highway that passes the lab shortly after the alleged incident. "There was absolutely no traffic" near the facility from Oct. 14-19, the document claims. But that's simply not so. That conclusion is disproved by satellite imagery provided to The Daily Beast by DigitalGlobe's Maxar satellites. Imagery taken on Oct. 17, shows vehicles on the road by the facility, in the lab's parking lot near the BSL-4 lab where a leak supposedly originated, and at nearby buildings. "The traffic pattern visible on October 17, 2019 is identical to traffic patterns on other days. People are still coming to work," Lewis said.The Maxar imagery also shows why MACE analysts may have believed roadblocks were in place around the facility. It shows construction of a highway near the Wuhan lab close to completion in October. "Those closures and roadblocks are far more likely to relate to construction we know is happening. For what it is worth, there are cars and buses at neighboring businesses on October 17—so I imagine some of the lack of data may relate to collection problems since it appears people were at work," Lewis observed.A second satellite image collected within the window when MACE analysts claim there was "absolutely no traffic" bolsters Lewis's analysis. AirBus satellite collection from October 15, 2019 "showed vehicles operating on the road running north of the Wuhan Institute of Virology," said Chris Biggers, a satellite imagery analyst who reviewed the imagery for The Daily Beast. MACE's analysts tried to establish a "pattern of life" at the Wuhan lab in order to reveal what they claim is an anomaly, one purportedly caused by a leak. The MACE document charts the movement of apparent Wuhan lab personnel into and out of the facility leading up to October, when the alleged leak took place. In one slide, analysts wrote that there is an "18 day gap" in which "there were no observable events" from devices at the lab between Oct. 6 and 24, supposedly suggesting an accidental leak. In doing so, they appear to have been unaware of a key cultural factor complicating the normal course of events: a holiday. "The first week of October is a golden week in China, which is going to disrupt that pattern," Lewis said.Their use of up to seven mobile devices to establish the pattern of life around the lab may have also hindered the analysis. "The number of cellphones involved is extraordinarily small—in most months it is two or fewer unique devices," Lewis said. "Note that there were no devices or pings in March and April 2019. Are we to conclude there was an accident in the spring as well? It is far more likely that the one or two phones regularly going near the laboratory took a vacation, got sick, or lost their phone. (These are all things that have happened in my family in the past year.)"The Daily Beast asked analysts at the award-winning open source investigative news outlet Bellingcat to review the MACE dossier and evaluate the quality of its conclusions. Within minutes of receiving the dossier, Bellingcat senior investigator Nick Waters disproved one of the MACE document's claims: that a conference on biosafety lab management at the Wuhan lab scheduled for the first week of November was canceled. Waters found a Facebook post from a Pakistani scientist who had attended the event and taken selfies there, including at the BSL-3 laboratory. The conference did, in fact, take place, as NBC first reported. "Whoever wrote this document is clearly confused about the nature of 'open source' information. Not only does the key information it contains not appear to be open source, but a simple search of Facebook can disprove one of the key tenets of the assessment," Waters told The Daily Beast. He also took a dig at one of the many amateurish elements in the MACE presentation. "Perhaps the authors should have spent more time testing their analysis rather than working out how to crop the eye of Sauron into a logo copy-pasted from the internet," Waters said.As the MACE document circulates through America's halls of power, a second dossier fingering the Wuhan lab for the coronavirus outbreak has caused a massive stir in Australia. The Daily Telegraph, one of Australia's most widely read newspapers, was the first to claim it had obtained the "dossier" and published a front page story by political editor-at-large Sharri Markson on May 2 with the headline "China's Batty Science" claiming it as a "world exclusive" and reporting a "Bombshell dossier lays out the case against the People's Republic." The Rupert Murdoch-owned paper went on to detail, over five pages, explosive claims that COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan and that the lab and its scientists were now "the subject of a probe by the Five Eyes intelligence community," referring to the intelligence-sharing partnership among the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K.Since then, former Australian foreign ministers and media outlets around the world have openly doubted the origins and intent of the dossier, suggesting that it was leaked to The Daily Telegraph by U.S. interests looking to give credence to the claims made by Trump and Pompeo. "It seems the U.S. embassy gave a confected report to an Australian newspaper inflating baseless claims that the COVID19 virus was hatched in a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan," former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr told The Sydney Morning Herald. "This is not secret intelligence. It hasn't been passed by one of the main Five Eyes intelligence agencies to Australia nor generated by Australia intelligence. Some of this stuff being peddled is nonsense," Neil Fergus, a security expert based in Sydney with the firm Intelligent Risks, told The Daily Beast. The State Department did not comment on the record for this story. The House Foreign Affairs Committee has reached out to the Australian government seeking additional information about the "dossier," according to a congressional aide.Officials in the U.S. and Australia describe both the "dossier" and the MACE document similarly and say they believe both rely on similar data-gathering methodologies. Asked about the "dossier," one Australian official told The Daily Beast: "It's a dead story here—it's not been taken seriously." An intelligence official in the U.S. described it as a "string of open-source facts strung together." Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has repeatedly said there is no intelligence to support the theory that COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan. "What we have before us doesn't suggest that that is the likely source," Morrison said in response to comments Trump made saying the virus originated in a Wuhan lab. "There's nothing we have that would indicate that was the likely source, though you can't rule anything out in these environments." "We know it started in China, we know it started in Wuhan, the most likely scenario that has been canvassed relates to wildlife wet markets, but that's a matter that would have to be thoroughly assessed," Morrison added.Australia, and the U.K. were among more than 120 nations calling on China to allow for an independent investigation into the origins of the virus at the start of the annual assembly of the World Health Organization on Monday. After months of refusals since Beijing was credibly accused of covering up the severity of the virus, China appeared to concede that a WHO investigation would now be allowed to go ahead.Pompeo's Unproven COVID-19 Claims Have Officials Freaked Out According to a Department of Homeland Security report obtained by the Associated Press earlier this month, China has withheld information about the virus—including how it spread and its ability to kill—in part to stock up on much needed medical supplies before the rest of the world. And it appears as though the government also misled the international community about its death toll. In mid-April, Beijing said officials in Wuhan had revised its death count up by 50 percent. So it's not surprising that some might wonder whether China was misleading the world about the origins of COVID-19, too. Trump and Pompeo's claims have worried State Department officials who say the secretary, in particular, is moving too quickly to publicly conclude what intelligence officials around the world are either still trying to understand or have said is inaccurate.The public declarations by Pompeo have already begun to disrupt diplomatic relationships, officials recently told The Daily Beast, as foreign representatives in Australia and elsewhere have told their U.S. counterparts that the secretary's statements would make it difficult to get China to agree to an investigation. Defending her work, The Daily Telegraph's Markson, who has won multiple Walkley awards, Australia's highest journalism prize, appeared on Steve Bannon's podcast War Room: Pandemic on May 12. The former Trump campaign manager asked her about skepticism over the legitimacy of the dossier she had reported on. "So now in Australia you have really strong attacks from the left that are almost siding with China here. They want an inquiry into how I got the dossier," she said. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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.
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| Exclusive: Delta will add flights to keep planes no more than 60% full as demand rises - sources Posted: 18 May 2020 07:43 PM PDT  The move is part of a longer-term bet that CEO Ed Bastian highlighted to investors last month: that consumers' perceptions of safety will be instrumental in reviving more routine travel, and that they will be willing to pay a premium for comfort. Specific details could still change, the people said on condition of anonymity, citing the uncertain timing of a recovery from the coronavirus crisis that has decimated air travel demand. Delta has publicly said that it will limit first class seating capacity at 50% and main cabin at 60% through June 30, and earlier announced that it was resuming some flights next month.
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| Researchers are learning to predict your chances of surviving COVID-19 Posted: 18 May 2020 03:59 AM PDT  Not everybody who gets COVID-19 has symptoms, and not all symptomatic patients get equally sick. Hospitalization rates have stabilized in hard-hit areas like northern Italy and New York City, but if the next wave is even bigger and more destructive — one of three scenarios envisioned by University of Minnesota epidemiologist Michael Osterholm and his colleagues — that "would absolutely take the health system down," Osterholm told Stat News. Two studies released last week offer tools that might help hospitals better triage patients.Researchers in China reported in the journal Nature Machine Learning that an analysis of blood samples taken from 485 coronavirus patients in Wuhan discovered there biomarkers that can predict whether a coronavirus patient will die within 10 days, with more than 90 percent accuracy, Business Insider reports. A computer model the researchers developed looks for high levels of the enzyme lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), linked to lung damage; lymphopenia, or low levels of infection-fighting white blood cells; and a rise in inflammation-signaling high-sensitivity C-reactive proteins (hs-CRP)."In crowded hospitals, and with shortages of medical resources, this simple model can help to quickly prioritize patients, especially during a pandemic when limited healthcare resources have to be allocated," the researchers report.A second paper published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association found 10 biomarkers they said could predict a COVID-19 patient's risk levels. They turned risk predictors — high LDH levels and low levels of lymphocytes plus history of cancer, age, shortness of breath, and other factors — into a coronavirus risk "calculator."More stories from theweek.com Florida COVID-19 data chief says she was removed from post after refusing to censor data Jimmy Kimmel pays emotional tribute to the late Fred Willard, with Willard's co-stars and collaborators Obama reportedly 'has no interest' in having his White House portrait unveiled while Trump is president
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| Afghan forces repel Taliban attack on key city: officials Posted: 19 May 2020 01:49 AM PDT  Afghan security forces on Tuesday repelled a fierce Taliban attack on Kunduz, officials said, a strategic city in northern Afghanistan that had briefly fallen to the militants twice in the past. Taliban fighters attacked several outposts of Afghan forces on the outskirts of the city at around 1:00 am, triggering fierce fighting, a defence ministry statement said. Both sides have repeatedly clashed in rural areas in recent months, but an attempt to enter a city like Kunduz is seen as a serious escalation.
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| India's coronavirus outbreak may soon trigger an unprecedented recession as millions of migrant workers travel from packed cities to rural villages Posted: 18 May 2020 12:54 PM PDT  Social distancing is nearly impossible in packed, unhygienic slums at the center of the country's outbreaks.
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