COVID-19 Is A National Emergency In US

US President Donald Trump declared coronavirus a national emergency and free up $50 billion in federal funds to vastly ramp the testing facility to battle against the outbreak. He said that he was declaring a national emergency to unleash the full power of the federal government.

Donald Trump on battling COVID-19

He said that the next eight weeks were crucial but he was hopeful of winning the battle. The all US States are asked to set emergency centers. Also, the federal government will partner with private companies to accelerate production of test kits for coronavirus.

Trump also asked every hospital to activate emergency preparedness plan to provide medical assistance to Americans everywhere. He said that the government would remove every obstacle to deliver the care the Americans are entitled to.

The US health secretary also got new authority to waive a series of regulations like telemedicine and allowing medical facilities to bring more staff.

US authorities were criticized

The authorities were facing criticism over lack of test kits that allowed the virus to take the country into its grip. Earlier the Trump administration announced that it was funding $1.3 billion in two labs that would develop the kits that give authentic results in one hour. These firms are DiaSorin Molecular of California and QIAGEN of Maryland.

Meanwhile the US Food and Drug Administration has already given green signal to Swiss Pharmaceutical giant Roche to develop a faster COVID-19 kit. Also, Roche has promised that half of the kits would be available early next week.

Source: https://bit.ly/3aZAmV7

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Britain Will See More Deaths From COVID-19: Boris Johnson

On Thursday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned of more deaths due to coronavirus while the chief scientific advisor of the government said that there could be 10,000 coronavirus infections in Britain.

Also, Britain and EU agreed to cancel face-to-face trade negotiations in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. The negotiations were planned for next week in London.

UK PM Boris Johnson’s warning

He said that the virus was going to spread further. Flanked by the top scientific and medical advisors of the government, he made an announcement regarding the “delay-phase” of the government.

The British plan of containing the outbreak will work in three phases – containment, delay and mitigation. In the delay phase, the government will implement social distancing measures like reducing large gatherings and closing schools.

But he said that no public meetings would be cancelled and schools would remain open. At the same time, he warned that the advice could change if the virus spread further.

Boris Johnson faced criticism for delayed response

He agreed that the outbreak has triggered panic in the business, trade and every day life and the global market. But he defended his late response. He said that he was working on the advice and he would do the right thing at the right time.

He said that people with mild symptoms should isolate themselves in their homes but this advice would change with the spread of virus. In worse situation, the families would be advised to isolate themselves.

Source: https://bit.ly/39QTS5V

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Donald Trump Puts Travel Ban On 26 European Nations But Keeps UK And Ireland Out

Under the mounting pressure to control coronavirus, President Donald Trump imposed travel restrictions on 26 European countries for a month. People from the said countries are banned from traveling to US for the said period.

US bans travel from Europe

The president took the dramatic step to address the health and economic shocks to Americans and to respond to the criticism that he hadn’t taken serious attempts to contain coronavirus spread in America. But he kept the UK and Ireland free from the travel order. Also, the travel advisor doesn’t apply to US citizens coming home.

Trump announced economic steps

To cushion the blow to American business that is already down with a sudden loss of consumer demand, the president said that trade won’t be affected by the travel restriction. He said in a tweet that the restrictions stopped people and not goods. But US stock futures slid further to more than 4% as the president made the announcement.

Trump looking for re-election

Trump’s re-election on November 3 depends largely on how well he responds to coronavirus crisis. It has enveloped his presidency. He used his Oval Office for the speech but he wasn’t comfortable in the setting. He read his speech in a hurried manner and sometimes spoke without mike. But he failed to mention the important issues like accelerating the production and availability of testing kits and facial masks.

Source: https://bit.ly/3cVrd1m

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Trump Decorates Retired Four-Star General With Medal Of Freedom

US President Donald Trump decorated the retired four-star Gen. Jack Keane with the highest civilian honour at a White House ceremony. He called the Army veteran a “visionary,” a “brilliant strategist” and a “fearless patriot.”

Trump showered praises over Jack Keane

The president said that in 2006, Jack helped engineer the surge that stabilized the deteriorating situation in Iraq. Also, that Jack had continued to offer his sage counsel to military and policy leaders by visiting the troops in the frontiers.

Gen. Jack Keane

Born in Manhattan, New York, Jack Keane attended the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the Army War College in Pennsylvania. The 77-year-old General started as a paratrooper during the Vietnam War and later served in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo.

In 1991, Jack Keane helped saved former Army Gen. David Petraeus when he was shot during a live-fire exercise. Petraeus later became director of CIA. Also, Keane also directed 1.5 million soldiers and civilians in 120 countries in the capacity of chief operating officer of the Army for more than four years.

Dispute between Trump and Keane

Jack Keane thought that withdrawing US forces from Syria was a strategic mistake. He agreed that President Trump crushed the Islamic State but that his decision wold “lose the peace by withdrawing.”

But Keane supported Trump’s decision to pull out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The deal was negotiated during the Obama administration. He thought that former presidents had coddled Tehran.

Source: https://bit.ly/38Jqa1e

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Trump Replaces His Chief Of Staff Amid Coronavirus Crisis

US President Donald Trump replaced his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney with Republican Rep. Mark Meadows. While the administration was focused on the coronavirus threat, Trump surprised the country with the administrative reshuffle.

Chief of staff of President Trump

The existing chief of staff Mick Mulvaney was made the special envoy to Northern Ireland in Friday night administrative reshuffle. He thanked Mulvaney for managing administrative responsibilities. But this move was rumoured for a long time as Trump was pulling all his loyalists and allies ahead of the presential election.

Mick Mulvaney

Mulvaney had been at the forefront of the administration’s interagency response to the coronavirus threat until Trump asked the Vice President Mike Pence to lead the whole-of-government effort more than a week ago.

Mulvaney’s relationship with Trump began to sour soon after he assumed responsibility of chief of staff in December 2018. Also, Trump had been eying the change for many months but he kept silent until the impeachment saga was over to change his chief of staff.

Mark Meadows

A long time Trump confident, Mark Meadows was onetime leader of the House Freedom Caucus. Last year, he made an announcement that he won’t seek re-election for his North Carolina House seat and that he expected to be in Trump’s team in some capacity.

Meadows was officially offered the post of chief of staff on Thursday and Mulvaney was informed about the decision on Friday. Trump was warned that taking this big decision on Thursday could rattle the Wall Street market.

Source: https://bit.ly/2IwpUIy

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First Coronavirus Patient In Bhutan Is A US National With Travel History To India

On Friday, Bhutan confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the country. The patient was a 76-year-old US citizen with a travel history to India. He travelled with his 59-year-old partner and 10 passengers.

Coronavirus in Bhutan

The first coronavirus patient had been kept in isolation in the COVID-19 hospital since his return from Guwahati on March 2. Considering his old age and underlying conditions, he had been kept on oxygen support. He had his partner and 10 passengers out of which 8 were Indian nationals.

His close contacts – his partner, driver and guide – also had been quarantined at the designated hospital but they were asymptomatic till their admission in the hospital.

Bhutan on alert mode

The Indian passengers travelling with the coronavirus patient had also been quarantined. Also, the 90 contacts had been traced to prevent spread of the virus. Contact tracings were done according to the itinerary of the patient. Starting from Paro airport to Thimphu, to Punakha and back, the officials are tracing everyone that had come in contact with the patient.

Also, the four crew members of the flight and staff of Le Meridien and Densa Boutique Resort were asked to go on “home quarantine” where they were advised to stay away from family members until all suspicions were ruled out.

The government was working closely with Indian embassy to provide the best care to Indian nationals. Also, the health officials were closely monitoring the health of people sent on “home quarantine”.

Source: https://bit.ly/2VNeJmy

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UMF Postpones March Festival Due To Coronavirus Scare

Miami city officials want the UMF organizers to postpone the March festival slated to be held at Bayfront Park on March 20-22. It is a precautionary measure taken to protect Miami-Dade County residents from the coronavirus spread.

Miami Mayor talked to UMF organizers

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Commissioner Joe Carollo want the electronic dance music festival to be postponed. They talked to UMF organizers regarding this. It is to be noted that the festival attracted around 170,000 fans last year. This year, the organizers were expecting fans from more than 100 countries in the festival.

UMF organizers postponed the event

The organizers decided to postpone the festival to help public health officials that are working on to control the spread of coronavirus that has spread to more than 80 countries. The UMF organizers are working the final draft of the deal to make a formal announcement regarding postponement of the March festival.

 

UMF cancelled Abu Dhabi event

 

The organizers even cancelled the Abu Dhabi event that was to happen this week. But fans – EDM music stars David Guetta, Martin Garrix, Marshmello, The Chainsmokers – looked disappointed. Soon they started reacting on social media. There were tens and thousands of fans that have already paid for the event and now they have to set their plans aside.

One fan demanded that the organizers should give the option of refund or get ready for a lawsuit by the EDM community. But they are hopeful that the organizers would refund tickets to save their brand.

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See Nik Wallenda And Erendira Performing In Volcano Live

The King of High Wire, Nik Wallenda, attempted a walk over a wire located above an active volcano while his wife Erendira performed aerial ballet above the volcano. MasayaVolcano in Nicaragua during a live broadcast.

Volcano Live

The Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua was live when Wallenda and his wife gave a stunning performance in a two-hour special, Volcano Live, program hosted by Chris Harrison and Sage Steele. The wire on which Wallenda walked was located 1,800 feet above the volcano floor. But his wife tried performing aerial ballet while hanging from a helicopter.

Nik Wallenda walked over an active volcano

A seventh-generation member of the famed Flying Wallendas circus family, Nik Wallenda performed the highest and longest endeavour that was eight times higher than his walk in New York City. Later he described how he practiced walking over a rope above a volcano. He used machines to get the right feel. He had smoke around the rope and the winds blowing from big machines were making the rope unstable during the practice sessions. But his biggest concern was the deadly gases oozing out from the volcano. He walked the rope using a thermal camera. His father was the only one communicating with him through an earpiece while he was walking over the volcano.

Erendira danced over the volcano

First of all, she tried giving performance from a helicopter but changed her plans when the weather didn’t allow. She performed from the wire hanging above the volcano. And her act was the most difficult and dangerous part of the show.

Throughout her performance, she kept her face covered with a mask to prevent coming into contact with toxic gases. Also, there … Read the rest

Democratic Presidential Candidate Tulsi Gabbard Lost Her $50 Million Lawsuit Against Google

A federal judge dismissed the $50 million lawsuit filed by Representative Tulsi Gabbard against the tech giant Google. She is a Democratic presidential candidate.

Tulsi Gabbard’s accusation on Google

Google briefly suspended her advertising account last year be she took this action to be an infringement on her free speech and filed a lawsuit on the tech giant. But the judge, Stephen V. Wilson of the US District Court for the Central District California said that Gabbard campaign had failed to prove the accusation.

The judgement was in favour of Google

The judge said that the First Amendment clause that prohibited the government from curbing free speech applied to Google as a private company. He said that it wasn’t proved how Google’s regulation of its own platform was equivalent to a government regulation of an election. But Ms. Gabbard argued that Google assumed the traditional role of government by regulating political ads on its platform and therefore subject to the First Amendment.

Campaign suspended

On June 27 and 28 last year, Google suspended her advertising account for a period of six hours. But it followed by the first Democratic presidential debate by Ms. Gabbard. And she gave a strong performance that raised her profile. But the suspension of her Google account kept her debate out of reach of the people searching her name and she missed an opportunity to raise money and spread her message.

Source: https://nyti.ms/2TG3UzV

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Say Namaste To Avoid Handshake Says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested his countrymen to greet people without touching each other. And he recommended the Indian way of greeting people with folded hands instead of regular handshake.

Do Namaste instead of handshake

Benjamin Netanyahu asked his countrymen to avoid shaking hands just he did. Namaste is the customary way of greeting each other with folded hands in India. His familiarity with Indian customs and traditions isn’t surprising because of his closeness to Indian PM Narendra Modi. He had been in India in January 2018 and Mr. Modi visited Israel in 2017.

Mr. Netanyahu recommended strong measures

He was speaking to the press after a review meeting to fight the spread of coronavirus in Israel. He said that several measured would be announced to prevent the spread of infection. He further said that they had taken select isolation and flight policies and measures for flights.

Coronavirus in Israel

Israel has banned public gatherings of more than 5,000 people and people are advised to avoid from going abroad. Today, there are 7,000 people in home-quarantine. There are 15 confirmed cases of coronavirus but still no deaths reported. Coronavirus spreads through contact with droplets from infected persons. Tiny droplets from sneezing and coughing by infected persons can cause infection.

Global condition of coronavirus

The infection has spread to over 60 countries and there are approximately 90,000 infected people across the globe. The virus that originated in China last December has taken 3,000 lives globally.

Source: https://bit.ly/2VOoiSm

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