Twitter says the hack that compromised the accounts of some of its most high-profile users targeted 130 people. The hackers were able to reset the passwords of 45 of those accounts.
The San Francisco-based company said in a blog post Saturday that for up to eight of these accounts the attackers also downloaded the account’s information through the “Your Twitter Data” tool. None of the eight were verified accounts, Twitter said, adding that it is contacting the owners of the affected accounts.
“We’re embarrassed, we’re disappointed, and more than anything, we’re sorry. We know that we must work to regain your trust, and we will support all efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice,” Twitter said in the blog post.
The July 17 attack broke into the Twitter accounts of world leaders, celebrities and tech moguls in one of the most high-profile security breaches in recent years. The attackers sent out tweets from the accounts of the public figures, offering to send $2,000 for every $1,000 sent to an anonymous Bitcoin address.
It highlighted a major flaw with the service millions of people have come to rely on as an essential communications tool.
Allison Nixon, chief research officer at cybersecurity firm 221B said in an email Sunday that the people behind the attack appear to have come from the “OG” community, a group interested in original, short Twitter handles such as @a, @b or @c, for instance.
“Based upon what we have seen, the motivation for the most recent Twitter attack is similar to previous incidents we have observed in the OG community — a combination of financial incentive, technical bragging rights, challenge, and disruption,” Nixon wrote.
“The OG community is not known to be tied to any nation state. Rather they are a disorganized crime community with a basic skillset and are a loosely organized group of serial fraudsters.”
While this attack did not appear go further than the Bitcoin ruse — at least for now — it raises questions about Twitter’s ability to secure its service against election interference and misinformation ahead of the U.S. presidential election.
“Entire markets and potentially elections may be manipulated or altered in this way,” Nixon said. “Victims of account takeovers generally do not know that the fraud has occurred, and generally cannot take security precautions to prevent it.”
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Month: July 2020
UK Ratchets Up Criticism of China Over Uighurs, Hong Kong
Britain and China issued new salvos of criticism against each other Sunday, with the U.K. foreign secretary hinting that he may suspend the U.K.’s extradition arrangements with Hong Kong over China’s moves against the city-state.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also accused Beijing of “gross and egregious” human rights abuses against its Uighur population in China’s western province of Xinjiang.
In response, the Chinese ambassador to Britain warned that China will deliver a “resolute response” to any move by Britain to sanction officials over the alleged rights abuses.
The comments were the latest signs of sharply increased tensions between the U.K. and China. Issues include China’s treatment of its Uighur minority and a new, sweeping national security law that China imposed on Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous territory that Britain handed over to China in 1997.
Britain’s recent decision to prohibit Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from being involved in the U.K.’s superfast 5G mobile network has further frayed bilateral relations.
Raab said Sunday that Britain’s government has reviewed its extradition arrangements with Hong Kong and that he plans to make a statement Monday in parliament on the topic.
Earlier this month, Australia suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong in response to China’s imposition of security legislation on the semi-autonomous territory. Critics see the new law as a further erosion of the rule of law and freedoms that Hong Kong was promised when it reverted to Chinese rule.
Raab added that while Britain wants good relations with China, it could not stand by amid reports of forced sterilization and mass education camps targeting the Uighur population in Xinjiang.
“It is clear that there are gross, egregious human rights abuses going on. We are working with our international partners on this. It is deeply, deeply troubling,” he told the BBC.
Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese ambassador, denied there were concentration camps in Xinjiang during an interview with the BBC and insisted there are “no so-called restriction of the population.” When confronted with drone footage that appeared to show Uighurs being blindfolded and led onto trains, Liu claimed there are many “fake accusations” against China.
Beijing was ready to respond in kind should Britain impose sanctions on Chinese officials, Liu added.
“If the U.K. goes that far to impose sanctions on any individuals in China, China will certainly make a resolute response to it,” he said. “You have seen what happened between China (and) the United States … I do not want to see this tit-for-tat between China-U.S. happen in China-U.K. relations.”
Liu also said Britain “should have its own independent foreign policy, rather than dance to the tune of the Americans like what happened to Huawei.”
The criticism echoed comments this week by a Chinese government spokeswoman who accused Britain of colluding with Washington to hurt Huawei and “discriminate, suppress and exclude Chinese companies.”
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US Struggling to Slow Coronavirus Spread
Coronavirus infections and deaths continue to mount in the U.S., prompting officials to take actions they once resisted. But lockdowns and mask-wearing mandates remain a bone of contention. VOA’s Marcus Harton has more.
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US Congress Confronts New Virus Crisis Rescue as Pandemic Grows
It stands as the biggest economic rescue in U.S. history, the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill swiftly approved by Congress in the spring. And it’s painfully clear now, as the pandemic worsens, it was only the start. With COVID-19 cases hitting alarming new highs and the death roll rising, the pandemic’s devastating cycle is happening all over again, leaving Congress little choice but to engineer another costly rescue. Businesses are shutting down, schools cannot fully reopen and jobs are disappearing, all while federal emergency aid expires. Without a successful federal plan to control the outbreak, Congress heads back to work with no endgame to the crisis in sight. FILE – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill, in Washington, June 16, 2020.“It’s not going to magically disappear,” said a somber Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., during a visit to a hospital in his home state to thank front-line workers. Lawmakers return Monday to Washington to try to pull the country back from the looming COVID-19 cliff. While the White House prefers to outsource much of the decision-making on virus testing and prevention to the states, the absence of a federal intervention has forced the House and Senate to try to draft another assistance package. It’s a massive undertaking, hardly politically popular, but the alternative is worse. Experts predict an even more dire public health outlook for winter. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease official, says the U.S. needs to “regroup.” As McConnell prepares to roll out his $1 trillion-plus proposal, he acknowledges it will not have full support. Already the White House is suggesting changes, Republicans are divided and broader disagreements with Democrats could derail the whole effort. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) addresses her weekly news conference with Capitol Hill reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, June 18, 2020.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., already pushed through a more sweeping $3 trillion relief bill to bolster virus testing, keep aid flowing and set new health and workplace standards for reopening schools, shops and workplaces. She said recently she finds herself yearning for an earlier era of Republicans in the White House, saying tha despite differences, even with President Richard Nixon, who resigned facing impeachment, “At least we had a shared commitment to the governance of our country.” The political stakes are high for all sides before the November election, but even more so for the nation, which now has more coronavirus infections and a higher death count than any other country. On Friday, two former Federal Reserve Board leaders urged Congress to do more. “Time is running out,” Pelosi said. There were just a few hundred coronavirus cases when Congress first started focusing on emergency spending in early March. By the end of that month, as Congress passed a $2.2 trillion bill, cases soared past 100,000 and deaths climbed past 2,000. Today, the death toll stands at more than 139,000 in the U.S., with 3.6 million-plus confirmed cases. Lines of cars wait at a drive-through coronavirus testing site, Sunday, July 5, 2020, outside Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.The virus that first tore into New York, California and America’s big cities is now plaguing places large and small, urban and rural, burning through the South, West and beyond without restraint. Freezer cases that stored bodies outside New York hospitals are now on order in Arizona. The mobilization of military medical units to help overworked health care providers has shifted now to Texas. Lawmakers hardly wore facial masks when they voted in March as the Capitol was shutting down and sending them to the ranks of work-from-home Americans. Trump and his allies still rarely wear them. But at least 25 governors from states as diverse as Alabama to Oregon now have mask requirements. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this past week that if everyone wore a mask, iit could help “drive this epidemic to the ground.” Just as the pandemic’s ferocious cycle is starting again, the first round of aid is running out. FILE – People line up outside a Kentucky Career Center hoping to find assistance with their unemployment claim in Frankfort, Kentucky, June 18, 2020.A federal $600-a-week boost to regular unemployment benefits expires at the end of the month. So, too, does the federal ban on evictions on millions of rental units. With 17 straight weeks of unemployment claims topping 1 million — usually its about 200,000 — many households are facing a cash crunch and losing employer-backed health insurance coverage. Despite flickers of an economic upswing as states eased stay-home orders in May and June, the jobless rate remains at double digits, higher than it ever was in the last decade’s Great Recession. Pelosi’s bill, approved in May, includes $75 billion for testing and tracing to try to get a handle on the virus spread, funnels $100 billion to schools to safely reopen and sends $1 trillion to cash-strapped states that are pleading for federal dollars to pay essential workers and prevent layoffs. The measure would give cash stipends to Americans, and bolster rental and mortgage and other safety net protections. McConnell hit “pause” after passage of the last aid package as Republicans hoped the economy would rebound and stem the need for more assistance. He now acknowledges additional intervention is needed. His bill centers on a five-year liability shield to prevent what he calls an “epidemic of lawsuits” against businesses, schools and health care providers. The bill is expected to provide up to $75 billion for schools, another round of $1,200 direct payments to Americans and grants to child care providers. There is likely to be tax credits to help companies shoulder the cost of safely reopening shops, offices and other businesses. Unlike the other virus aid pacakges that passed almost unanimously, McConnell says this one will be more difficult to approve. In the two months since Pelosi’s bill passed, the U.S. had 50,000 more deaths and 2 million more infections.
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Myanmar Holds Muted Martyrs’ Day Tribute to Fallen Independence Heroes
Myanmar’s public marked one of the Southeast Asian nation’s darkest moments on Sunday with tributes to slain independence heroes, though the annual Martyrs’ Day gatherings were muted by the coronavirus pandemic due to social distancing measures.Flanked by senior government and military officials, state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi laid a wreath at a mausoleum dedicated to Aung San, her father and the country’s independence hero, who was assassinated alongside members of his cabinet on July 19, 1947.Crowds also laid flowers beside statues of Aung San, who remains a potent political force in the country, with his image used by his daughter and some of her rivals to garner support among a public that continues to revere him. The former ruling military junta for years curtailed use of his image for fear it would help the democracy movement that emerged in 1988 led by Suu Kyi.In the commercial capital of Yangon on Sunday, crowds queued to approach a statue of Aung San clutching portraits of the independence leader and his daughter, waiting on markers painted in the road to encourage people to keep a distance.”The Martyrs’ Day was once extinct, during the political crisis,” said Yin Yin Phyo Thu, as she laid flowers.”We young people are responsible for preserving the image of Martyrs’ Day not to fade away during COVID-19,” she said.Myanmar has reported 340 cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.The country goes to the polls again in November in a vote that will serve as a test of the fledgling democracy.”We came here to pay respects and also to get ourselves politically motivated in 2020, the election year,” said Kyaw Swar, a university student.
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Mozambican Miners Return to South Africa as COVID-19 Blockade Lifts
The International Organization for Migration reports South Africa has lifted its COVID-19 blockade, allowing thousands of Mozambican miners to cross the border and return to work.Borders between South Africa and Mozambique have been closed since March. This has created economic hardships for the families of an estimated 28,000 Mozambican miners. They have been unable to cross the border to work in South Africa and send remittances to support their families.Spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, Paul Dillon told VOA an agreement worked out between the two countries will allow migrants who are properly screened for the coronavirus to resume work in South Africa.“The screening is conducted by the hiring agency and when they are screened as virus free, they are then taken into South Africa and quarantined there by the hiring agency for 14 days,” he said.Dillon said a first group of 500 miners has gone through the process and received health checks at an IOM-operated cross-border Occupational Health Center. The center was originally set up to improve the early diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis, a condition which disproportionately affects mine workers.A mine worker has his temperature taken before his shift, during a nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak, at a mine of Sibanye-Stillwater company in Carletonville, South Africa, May 19, 2020.The IOM spokesman said another 3,000 miners will be screened at the center in the coming weeks.South Africa is the country hardest-hit by COVID-19 on the continent. The World Health Organization reports more than 337,500 people are infected with the coronavirus and more than 4,800 have died. This contrasts with only 1,400 reported cases in Mozambique, including nine deaths.Dillon said IOM has decades of experience assisting its member states with a range of health and border management issues. He said his agency hopes to use this expertise to create opportunities for Mozambicans with other skills to work in South Africa as well.“South Africa’s gold and platinum mines alone employ roughly 45,000 migrant workers and their skills are considered essential to the resumption of economic activity there…It is hoped that thousands of migrant workers in Mozambique, including those in the agricultural sector, with contracts in South Africa will soon become part of the same process,” he said.Dillon said IOM staff has been working with long-haul truckers at the Ressano Garcia and Machipanda border crossings since June on ways to protect themselves from COVID-19. He said they have provided nearly 7,500 truckers with prevention messages in local languages and given them practical tips for handwashing and physical distancing.
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Trump Embraces Face Masks But Rejects National Mandate
President Donald Trump says he is in favor of Americans wearing face masks to help curb the surging coronavirus pandemic, but says he will not impose a national mandate.“I’m a believer in masks,” Trump said in an interview at the White House first aired on the “Fox News Sunday” TV show. “I think masks are good.”But Trump, who wore a mask in public for the first time only a week ago, told newsman Chris Wallace in the interview conducted Friday: “I don’t agree with the statement that if everybody wears a mask, everything disappears.”Even as several of the 50 U.S. state governors and big-city mayors have imposed mask-wearing mandates in the face of fast-rising coronavirus caseloads, Trump said he believes mask-wearing should be voluntary.“I want people to have a certain freedom and I don’t believe in” making it a legal requirement, Trump said in his first Sunday talk show interview in more than a year.He noted that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams both advised against wearing a mask in the first days of the virus’ spread in the U.S. Both have long since changed their minds and repeatedly called for face coverings.“Hey, Dr. Fauci said don’t wear a mask,” Trump said. “Our surgeon general — terrific guy — said don’t wear a mask. Everybody who is saying don’t wear a mask — all of sudden everybody’s got to wear a mask, and as you know masks cause problems, too.”More than 70,000 new coronavirus cases have been recorded daily in recent days in the U.S. In all, more than 140,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, with more than 3.7 million coronavirus infections. Both figures are far higher than in any other country.Health experts predict that tens of thousands more Americans will die from the pandemic in the coming months.
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Turkey Suspends Flights to Iran, Afghanistan Due to Coronavirus Outbreak
Turkey has suspended flights to Iran and Afghanistan as part of measures against the coronavirus outbreak, the Transport Ministry said on Sunday. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that 25 million people may have been infected with the coronavirus in Iran, although health officials later sought to play down the estimate. Turkish Airlines had gradually restarted international flights as of June 11.
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UN Urges Inquiry into Violence by Anti-Terrorism Force Against Malian Protestors
The U.N. Human Rights Office is calling for an investigation into the excessive use of violence by an elite counter-terrorism force in Mali against anti-government protestors last weekend, causing many civilian casualties.MINUSMA, the U.N. Peacekeeping Mission in Mali, has confirmed at least 14 protestors were killed and another 154 injured during a violent clampdown by FORSAT, a special anti-terrorism unit operating in Mali. Rights monitors believe this elite special force may have violated its anti-terrorism mandate by suppressing civilians protesting endemic government corruption, alleged electoral fraud and other grievances. Witnesses report the special forces fired lethal ammunition during clashes with demonstrators that erupted July 10. During the protests, at least 200 people were arrested. All have been released pending trial. Mali’s President, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, says his administration will investigate the violence. Spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Liz Throssel welcomes the announcement. “It is essential that all alleged human rights violations and acts of violence committed during the demonstrations are the subject of prompt, thorough, transparent and independent investigations and that those responsible are held to account,” she said. “In line with its mandate, the MINUSMA Human Rights and Protection Division has launched a fact-finding mission to examine allegations of serious human rights violations perpetrated in connection with the protests.” Throssel notes demonstrations across Mali have been generally peaceful, though there have been incidents of protestors destroying and looting private and public properties. Thousands of people have been killed since 2012 when a Jihadist insurgency erupted in Mali. The Central region of Mopti is a major hotspot. Escalating violence between the Bambara and Dogon ethnic groups has increased. More civilians are being killed. Instability is rising. Throssel tells VOA another issue of concern is the proliferation of fake news and messages online inciting violence. “I think in many ways, it is important not to actually repeat what kind of fake news is being put out there. But suffice to say it is something that the Human Rights and Protection Division of MINUSMA have highlighted and is very concerned about precisely because there are these tensions it risks enflaming tensions further,” she said. The U.N. Human Rights Office is calling on both the Government and opposition groups to show restraint and to resolve differences through dialogue, warning ongoing confrontation risks spiraling out of control.
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Catalonia Urges Thousands of People to Stay Home as Coronavirus Cases Rise
Authorities in Catalonia on Sunday urged more than 96,000 people in three towns to stay at home, as coronavirus cases continued to rise in one of Spain’s worst-hit regions.This is in addition to some four million people in the region, including in its capital Barcelona, that were on Friday urged to stay at home as regional authorities toughened their response to the crisis.In a statement on Sunday, authorities urged people living in Figueres and Vilafant, in the province of Girona, and Sant Feliu de Llobregat, near Barcelona, to stay at home except for essential journeys.The latest figures from Catalonia’s regional health ministry on Saturday showed a daily increase of 1,226 cases.The stay-home call stops short of imposing a mandatory lockdown, but is the strongest measure taken to returning people to home confinement since Spain emerged from a nationwide lockdown last month.New measures include a ban on meetings of over 10 people. Bars and restaurants will be allowed to open, but at 50% capacity inside and with a 2-metre (6.5-foot) distance between tables outside.Spain, one of Europe’s hardest-hit countries with more than 28,000 COVID-19 deaths, emerged from a strict national lockdown on June 21. But since then more than 170 infection clusters have sprung up, prompting regional authorities to impose a patchwork of local restrictions.
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Trump, Biden Both Aim to Win US Electoral College
As in the past several U.S. presidential election cycles, the outcome of the 2020 contest between Republican President Donald Trump and presumptive Democrat nominee Joe Biden depends on how a handful of states vote. VOA’s Steve Redisch explains the geography of America’s Electoral College.
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“Фуфломицин” путляндии: обиженный карлик пукин попался на горячем…
Мокшандскую орду с весны этого года обвиняют в хакерских атаках на научные учреждения, занятые поиском вакцины
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Диктатура обиженного карлика пукина перед катастрофой: враньё о надоях и нефтяное фиаско
Речи от имени обиженного карлика пукина это – одно, а реальность – совсем другое
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Новий голова НБУ переписав усі свої багатомільйонні активи на родичів і офшорні фірми
Новий голова НБУ переписав усі свої багатомільйонні активи на родичів і офшорні фірми
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“Хабаровский бунт” напугал карлика пукина: он стягивает бандюков росгвардии, фсб и готовит провокации…
Ситуация в Хабаровске очень опасна для обиженного карлика пукина. В город идет внешняя злая сила…
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Принижений карлик пукін перекручує історію. У ЄС не хочуть цього терпіти
Литва винесла на саміт ЄС питання про переписування та приховування путляндією історичних фактів. Президент Литви Гітанас Науседа вважає, що Євросоюз має діяти активно і пояснити пукіну, що не буде терпіти такої поведінки. Останнім часом ображений карлик пукін намагається відбілити агресивну зовнішню політику сталінізму, нагадує політичний оглядач Віталій Портников і пояснює, чому події минулого так важливі для сьогодення
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US Wrestles with How to Open Schools Safely
Everyone agrees kids should be in school.While opening schools in the fall has become the latest Trump administration political battle, the question is not whether it’s a good idea. It’s whether it can be done safely.With the opening of the new school year just weeks away, President Donald Trump threatened school districts that do not send kids back to classrooms. Though the federal government has little control over school finances, he said in a tweet he “(m)ay cut off funding if not open!”In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 8, 2020Teachers want it. Pediatricians want it.“We recognize that children learn best when physically present in the classroom,” the two largest U.S. teachers unions and the American Academy of Pediatrics said in a joint statement.”(B)ut we must pursue reopening in a way that is safe for all students, teachers and staff,” they add.Public health experts say opening schools carries many of the same risks as opening businesses, and many communities that have done so too fast or without enough protections have seen coronavirus cases explode.”In communities where the case numbers are rapidly increasing, it may not be possible to safely reopen schools until disease transmission is lower,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “Can’t stress that enough.”High stakesReopening schools is an important part of restarting the economy. Many parents working from home are struggling to do their jobs and care for their children at the same time. It’s even harder for the millions of essential workers who can’t work from home.With the economy contracting and unemployment at levels not seen since the 1930s Great Depression, getting people back to work is a key political consideration ahead of November’s election.The stakes are high for students, too.”Children get much more than academics at school,” the pediatricians and teachers’ statement notes. Children also learn social and emotional skills at school. Nearly 30 million children rely on them for free or reduced-price meals each day. Millions more access mental health care there. Schools are the main sources of reporting for child and sexual abuse.COVID-19 tends to be less serious for children than for adults. Studies have found they are less likely to get infected, suffer severe illness and die from the disease. Children also don’t seem to spread the illness as much, but the evidence is limited.However, “while the risk is lower, less risk does not mean no risk,” said Josh Sharfstein who is vice dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.More than 200,000 coronavirus infections among children in the U.S. have been reported as of July 9, according to the AAP, including 63 deaths.And teachers and staff are at risk, just like people at any other indoor workplace.If Trump demands that schools open despite the risks, “then I want Donald Trump to sit in the back of my class of 39 and breathe their air,” said Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union. “I want him to sit there for seven hours, five days a week and have those kids cough and sneeze on him.”Johns Hopkins researchers estimate it will cost $50 billion to prepare U.S. schools to welcome students safely.International openingsOther countries have opened schools without setting off new outbreaks.In South Korea, elementary, middle and special education schools can only have one third of their students in class at a time, while high schools are limited to two-thirds of classroom capacity. When students are not in class, they have remote instruction.In Germany, older students went back to school first. Officials considered them better able to comply with social distancing measures.Belgian primary school children stay in their classes or “bubbles” throughout the day to minimize contact with other classes.Many countries require students, teachers and staff to wear masks. Some countries stagger arrival, departure and lunch times to minimize crowds. Plastic dividers separate students from each other in many places. Hand sanitizer is made widely available.One key factor that separates them from the United States, however, is that “each of these countries started from having their epidemics under control,” Nuzzo at Johns Hopkins said.Israel presents a cautionary tale, she noted. The country lifted restrictions while infections were on the rise, leading to outbreaks that closed schools.
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Thousands of Protesters in Thailand Rally Against Government
Several thousand anti-government protesters took to the streets in Thailand’s capital Saturday to demand amendments to the military-written constitution, new parliamentary elections and the end of repressive laws in the country.The protest, organized by the Liberation Youth group, was the largest since the government declared a state of emergency in March to deal with the coronavirus pandemic outbreak.Since then, the restrictive measures and social distancing have helped the government contain the spread of the virus, but they have also used as political weapons, to contain protests.Saturday’s 2,500 demonstrators gathered around Bangkok’s iconic Democracy Monument in the old part of the city, defying the ban on public gatherings to chant anti-government slogans and wave placards expressing their demands.
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White House Seeks to Block Funding for CDC, Coronavirus Testing and Contact Tracing
The Trump administration is seeking to block congressional plans to provide additional billions of dollars to states for coronavirus testing and tracing, and for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies.Senate Republicans are attempting to craft another coronavirus relief bill to fight the increasing number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United States, aid individual citizens whose unemployment funds may be running out, and reverse some of the most damaging impacts on the nation’s economy.The Trump administration’s stance “has angered some GOP senators,” according to a report in The Washington Post, as the politicians continue to work on ensuring the money remains in the bill.Preliminary plans for the measure include not only $25 billion for individual states for testing and tracing and another $25 billion for the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, but also more billions for the Pentagon and State Department to combat the pandemic at home and around the world.Negotiations between Republicans and Democrats are continuing on what will likely be the last coronavirus relief bill before the November presidential election.Coronavirus relief measures that have already been enacted, including expanded unemployment benefits, are due to expire in the coming weeks.President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the U.S. infection rate is high because of widespread testing, but health officials say there has not been enough testing in the United States.Anonymous sources said the White House would like to see funding in the bill for projects that have nothing to do with the pandemic, including funding for a new FBI building.
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COVID-19 Creates Leg Room for Greece’s Congested Capital
For all its ancient glory, marvelous monuments and historic core, Athens is largely an ugly, 20th-century metropolis that grew rapidly and lawlessly in recent decades. Its population has tripled and the fleet of cars on its streets has surged to over 2 million, or about 20 times more than the tiny European capital’s roads can hold.But now, authorities are striking back, using the novel coronavirus pandemic to free up space and eliminate gas-guzzling cars, hoping to recreate Europe’s most ancient city while facilitating social distancing.Dubbed the Great Walk of Athens, the ambitious plan intends to reclaim almost half of the city’s main car lanes, turning them into about 7 kilometers of car-free pedestrian walkways and 3 kilometers of bicycle lanes, linking them to the capital’s main monuments, including the greatest landmark: the Acropolis.“For some 35 years there has been talk about the need to transform Athens,” said Mayor Kostas Bakoyiannis. “It took us a generation of efforts, but it is high time to actually do it.”“The project will not only enhance the city’s physical appeal, but most importantly, alter the lives of its residents,” he added.With Greece now open to international travelers, the project — among the largest urban initiatives in a European capital — is key to the country’s desperate drive to lure back tourists.Robust action and nationwide lockdowns taken by Greece at the start of the pandemic helped authorities quash the spread of the coronavirus, making this sun-soaked country a stunning success story in the way it handled the global health crisis.With just over 3,983 confirmed cases and 194 deaths, according to state statistics issued Sunday, the country’s casualty toll from COVID-19 is far lower than that of its European peers, positioning Greece as a safe choice for holiday travel.“From Berlin to Bogota, cities across the globe are dealing with a series of emergency measures to deal with the pandemic,” Bakoyannis said. “This is our answer, also, to the pressing need of helping safeguard public health.”By freeing up space, authorities anticipate the project will help avoid congestion in the Greek capital, allowing walkers to keep proper distance, containing the spread of the deadly virus.Under any other circumstance, most Athenians would be balking at the plan. But after rediscovering their city and the delight of taking morning, noon or afternoon strolls during the two-month-long lockdown, many seem receptive to the sustainable mobility project.Still, the $57 million price tag, including a spray of $5,700 steel benches, has come under fierce fire, with critics largely complaining about excessive costs and expenses that they anticipate will balloon as the project proceeds.What is more, critics accuse planners of proceeding with insufficient foresight, ultimately adding to, rather than alleviating, traffic congestion in Athens, home to half of the country’s population of 11 million.“No one objects to the need for more walkways and bicycle lanes,” said Nikos Sofianos, a leftist-leaning member of the Athens municipal council. “But this is clearly a hasty, slapdash decision planned and whipped up without a thorough study — all for the sake of serving the needs of Athens’ tourist image.”“The impacts are dire,” said Sofianos. “Businesses are suffering, unable to load their goods because of the traffic restrictions. Workers, too, are unable to get to their jobs.”Critics have also decried a lack of provisions for the handicapped after a cyclist rammed a blind man, injuring him seriously.While 30 percent more Athenians have gone afoot since the launch of the project last month, a study by the country’s top engineering school showed this week that the plan’s first-month trial run was having little immediate impact.Forecasts of a 30 percent increase in the use in public transport was met only by a 2 percent rise, while traffic congestion soared by as much 30 percent.“The first steps of every project are difficult,” said Giorgos Yiannis, a leading transportation expert. “Every change has a cost.”But, he said, planners anticipate congestion to ease up significantly by the end of the three-month trial period.Even so, municipal council members like Sofianos insist the mayor should pull the plug on the project entirely – a move Bakoyiannis has ruled out.The mayor has instead invited critics to help tweak the contentious plan, vowing to give Athens a long-overdue makeover by 2022.
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Paris Beaches Open with Floating Cinema on the Seine
Paris Plages (Paris Beaches) opened this year with an outdoor movie showing on the banks of the River Seine, as the city is coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.MK2 Cinemas partnered with the city of Paris to organize this year’s event.”It’s been years, we’re creating operations to take the cinema out of the cinema rooms as a promotion tool, and after the few months of confinement, we thought we needed a way to tell to the people and to tell to the world that cinemas are open in Paris, that Paris is one of the worldwide capital of cinema, and also to create a way for them to enjoy with their families a magnificent night, said Elisha Karmitz, CEO of MK2 Cinemas.On Saturday people watched the 2018 French comedy “Le grand bain” from boats or on deck chairs on the Seine’s banks. Some said they felt safer at an open-air screening.”I already went back to the cinema once, wearing a mask, but I have to admit there is still some apprehension to go back to cinema,” said Luc Bouvier, an attendee. “But here, since it is an open-air screening, there are less doubts, we feel safer.”Paris Plages is an annual event held in July and August during which roads along the River Seine are closed to turn the waterfront into beach front.The event was initiated in 2002 by the newly elected Socialist Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë, to help people cope with the hot summer in the city.
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Stranded on Ships, 200,000 Seafarers in Virus Limbo
Indian ship worker Tejasvi Duseja is desperate to go home after months stranded offshore by coronavirus border closures and lockdowns that have left more than 200,000 seafarers in limbo.From engineers on cargo ships to waiters on luxury cruise liners, ocean-based workers around the world have been caught up in what the United Nations warns is a growing humanitarian crisis that has been blamed for several suicides.Many have been trapped on vessels for months after their tours were supposed to end as travel restrictions disrupted normal crew rotations.”Mentally, I am just done with it… but I’m still holding up because I have no other option,” Duseja, 27, told AFP via WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger in late June as the Indian-owned cargo vessel he works on floated near Malaysia.Duseja, one of roughly 30,000 Indian workers unable to leave their ships, had extended his seven-month contract a few months before the pandemic struck.”The last time I stepped off from this 200-meter ship was in February,” he said.Seafarers typically work for six to eight months at a stretch before disembarking and flying back to their home countries, with new crews taking their place.But as the deadly virus whipped around the world and paralyzed international travel, that was suddenly impossible.Underscoring the growing urgency of the situation, more than a dozen countries at a UK-hosted International Maritime Summit this month vowed to recognize seafarers as “key workers” to help them get home.UncertaintyPhilippine luxury cruise ship technician Cherokee Capajo spent nearly four months on ships without setting foot on land due to virus shutdowns.The 31-year-old had barely heard of COVID-19 when he boarded the Carnival Ecstasy in Florida in late January.Soon, a number of Carnival-owned cruise ships were stricken with severe outbreaks — including the Diamond Princess in Japan.After the Ecstasy passengers disembarked in Jacksonville on March 14, Capajo and his colleagues were forced to stay on board for the next seven weeks.Finally, on May 2, the ship sailed to the Bahamas where Capajo says he and 1,200 crew members were transferred to another boat that took them to Jakarta before arriving in Manila Bay on June 29.He wanted to “kiss the ground” when he came ashore nearly two weeks later after finishing quarantine.”This could probably be the hardest part of my experience as a seaman because you are not sure what will happen every day,” Capajo told AFP via Facebook Messenger last week, as he endured a second quarantine near his hometown in the central Philippines.”You worry if you’ll ever come back home, how long will you be stuck on the ship. It’s difficult. It’s really sad.”Filipinos account for around a quarter of the world’s seafarers. About 80,000 of them are stranded because of the pandemic, according to Philippine authorities.Mental strainThe ordeal has taken a toll on the mental health of many seafarers, with reports of some taking their own lives.In one case, a Filipino worker died of “apparent self-harm” on the cruise ship Scarlet Lady as it anchored off Florida in May, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.Shipping industry groups have expressed their concerns about “suicide and self-harm” among workers in a joint letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said last month some seafarers have been “marooned at sea for 15 months.”An International Labour Organization (ILO) convention widely known as the Seafarers’ Bill of Rights limits a worker’s single tour of duty to less than 12 months.The strain is also being felt by families waiting at home.Priyamvada Basanth said she did not know when she would see her husband who has been at sea for eight months on a ship owned by a Hong Kong company.”The government is not even doing anything,” said Basanth, from the southern Indian port of Kochi. “I just want him to come home.”Lala Tolentino, who runs the Philippine office for a UK-based seafarers support group, said they had been swamped by “hundreds” of pleas for help from stranded workers since March.”They want to know what will happen to them, where they are going. Will they be able to get off their ships,” she told AFP.Many of those stuck onboard completed their tours more than four months ago and were exhausted, the ILO said last month.For Duseja, who comes from the northern Indian city of Dehradun at the foothills of the Himalayas, the end of his ordeal is in sight.”I’m still on the ship,” he told AFP in a WhatsApp message last week.”But mentally, I am feeling slightly better because I’ve been told that I’m finally getting off the ship mid-August.”
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Virus Surges in Some US States, Swamping Emergency Rooms
A fast-rising tide of new coronavirus cases is flooding emergency rooms in parts of the United States, with some patients moved into hallways and nurses working extra shifts to keep up with the surge.Patients struggling to breathe are being placed on ventilators in emergency wards since intensive care units are full, officials say, and the near-constant care they require is overtaxing workers who also are treating more typical ER cases like chest pains, infections, and fractures.In Texas, Dr. Alison Haddock of the Baylor College of Medicine said the current situation is worse than after Hurricane Harvey, which swamped Houston with floodwaters in 2017. The state reported a new daily record for virus deaths Friday and more than 10,000 confirmed cases for the fourth consecutive day.”I’ve never seen anything like this COVID surge,” said Haddock, who has worked in emergency rooms since 2007. “We’re doing our best, but we’re not an ICU.”Patients are waiting “hours and hours” to get admitted, she said, and the least sick people are lying in beds in halls to make room for most seriously ill.Around Seattle, which was the nation’s first hot spot for the virus that causes COVID-19, a new wave of patients is showing up at emergency departments, said nurse Mike Hastings.”What’s really frustrating from my side of it is when a patient comes into the emergency department, and is not really having symptoms of COVID, but they feel like they need that testing,” said Hastings, who works at an area hospital and is president of the Emergency Nurses Association. “Sometimes we’re not able to test them because we don’t have enough test supplies, so we’re only testing a certain set of patients.”In Florida, another state that is seeing surging case numbers, hospitals say they are in desperate need of remdesivir — a medication that has been shown to shorten average hospitalization times — to treat the coronavirus patients who are filling up beds.In response, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced 30,000 vials of the drug were being shipped to the state — enough to treat about 5,000 patients.On Saturday, Florida reported more than 10,200 new cases of the virus and 90 additional deaths, while Missouri recorded a pandemic-high 958 new cases in one day. Arizona, which conducts periodic reviews of death certificates, reclassified 106 deaths as having been from COVID-19, bringing the number of fatalities reported Saturday to 147.Confirmed coronavirus cases around the world have surpassed 14 million, and deaths neared 600,000, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University. On Saturday, the World Health Organization, which also tracks the virus, reported a single-day record of new infections — over 259,000 worldwide — for the second day in a row. The true toll of the pandemic is thought to be even higher, in part because of shortages in testing and shortcomings in data collection.The United States, Brazil and India top the list of cases, and South Africa — with more than 350,000 cases, roughly half of all confirmed infections in Africa — entered the top five this weekend.In the United States, where infections are soaring in many Sunbelt states, Megan Jehn, associate professor of epidemiology at Arizona State University in Tempe, said it’s important to monitor emergency room visits since increases there can signal that the virus is spreading more rapidly.But it’s difficult to get a complete picture of how emergency rooms are faring in many places. In Arizona, one of the few states that reports data on visits to the emergency room by people with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 symptoms, numbers started to spike in early June and peaked earlier this month. More than 2,000 people went to an ER with coronavirus symptoms on a single day, July 7.On Friday, COVID-19-related hospitalization figures for Arizona were near but below recent records set after the state became a national hot spot.Dr. Robert Hancock, who works at multiple hospitals in Texas and Oklahoma and serves as president of the Texas College of Emergency Physicians, said some Texas emergency rooms are facing backups of patients awaiting ICU beds. And many of them are on ventilators, meaning they require more attention than other patients.”Unfortunately, because of the increased demand for personnel, there typically isn’t anybody free to come down to the ER to help a lot of times from a nursing standpoint,” he said.Burnout could await these health workers, as it did some in New York City, when it was the epicenter of the nation’s outbreak in the spring.Emergency room doctors and nurses were caught off guard by the relentless stream of severely sick patients during shifts that often lasted 12 hours, said Dr. Bernard P. Chang of New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center.”You were on high alert the whole shift,” Chang said. “It was a brutal, sustained battle.”
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Chicago Police, Protesters Clash During Bid to Topple Columbus Statue
Protesters trying to topple a Christopher Columbus statue in downtown Chicago’s Grant Park clashed with police who used batons to beat people and made at least a dozen arrests after they say protesters targeted them with fireworks, rocks and other items.The clash Friday evening unfolded after at least 1,000 people tried to swarm the statue in a failed attempt to topple it following a rally in support of Black and Indigenous people.Police said 18 officers were injured and at least 12 people were arrested during the clash. Four protesters were also hurt during the confrontation, which led local elected officials and activists to condemn the officers’ tactics.”We unequivocally condemn Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision to send the Chicago police to beat, arrest, and terrorize the demonstrators and journalists gathered in Grant Park tonight,” a group of elected officials said in a statement released late Friday.The statement was signed by several members of the City Council, including Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor and Alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, and two members of the Legislature — state Rep. Delia Ramirez and state Sen. Robert Peters.Lightfoot said Saturday that she “will always fight for the rights of individuals to peacefully protest on any issue” but noted that “a portion of the protesters turned violent” during Friday’s protest.”A number of individuals came with frozen water bottles, rocks, bottles, cans and other gear to throw at officers. People in the crowd also threw fireworks and other incendiary devices at police, causing injury in several cases. These violent acts are unacceptable and put everyone at risk,” she said in a statement.The mayor said reports of excessive force by officers during their response to the protest “are also unacceptable” and urged anyone who believes they were mistreated by police to file a complaint with the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, or by dialing 311.Local news site Block Club Chicago reported that one protester, an 18-year-old woman, had several of her front teeth knocked out when an officer punched her. It also shared a video of that assault and a photo of the woman’s bloodied mouth and missing teeth. It identified her as Miracle Boyd, a member of the anti-gun violence group GoodKids MadCity.The police department said in a statement that officers assembled in the park as the protesters converged there and were “providing security and protecting their First Amendment right to peacefully assemble.” It said that as demonstrators approached the statue “some members of the crowd turned on the police and used the protest to attack officers with fireworks, rocks, frozen bottles, and other objects.”Amika Tendaji, an organizer for the protest, during which artists tagged the statue with slogans including “Decolonize Chicago” and “Black Lives Matter,” decried the officers’ use of force to protect a statue.”I think the people of Chicago and the world have proven that they are over police brutalizing people,” she said. “They’re over police murder, they’re over police terrorism, so the people are going to keep fighting.”The Columbus statue in Grant Park and another in the city’s Little Italy neighborhood were also vandalized last month.Protesters across the county have called for the removal of statues of Columbus, saying that the Italian explorer is responsible for the genocide and exploitation of native peoples in the Americas.Statues of Columbus have also been toppled or vandalized in cities such as Miami; Richmond, Virginia; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Boston, where one was decapitated.
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