Silent Spread of Virus Keeps Scientists Grasping for Clues
One of the great mysteries of the coronavirus is how quickly it rocketed around the world. It first flared in central China and, within three months, was on every continent but Antarctica, shutting down daily life for millions. Behind the rapid spread was something that initially caught scientists off guard, baffled health authorities and undermined early containment efforts — the virus could be spread by seemingly healthy people.As workers return to offices, children prepare to return to schools and those desperate for normalcy again visit malls and restaurants, the emerging science points to a menacing reality: If people who appear healthy can transmit the illness, it may be impossible to contain.”It can be a killer and then 40 percent of people don’t even know they have it,” said Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute.Researchers have exposed the frightening likelihood of silent spread of the virus by asymptomatic and presymptomatic carriers. But how major a role seemingly healthy people play in swelling the ranks of those infected remains unanswered — and at the top of the scientific agenda. The small but mighty coronavirus can unlock a human cell, set up shop and mass produce tens of thousands of copies of itself in a single day. Virus levels skyrocket before the first cough, if one ever arrives. And astonishing to scientists, an estimated 4 in 10 infected people don’t ever have symptoms.The slyness of the virus remains on the minds of many scientists as they watch societies reopen, wondering what happens if silent spreaders aren’t detected until it’s too late.Travelers with no coughs can slip past airport screens. Workers without fevers won’t be caught by temperature checks. People who don’t feel tired and achy will attend business meetings.And outbreaks could begin anew.The first hintsAs early as January, there were signs people could harbor the virus without showing symptoms. Still, many scientists remained unconvinced. The concept of people unwittingly spreading disease has never been an easy one to grasp, from the polio epidemic of mid-century America to the spread of HIV decades later. As COVID-19 emerged, health officials believed it would be like other coronaviruses and that people were most infectious when showing symptoms like cough and fever, with transmission rare otherwise.”We were thinking this thing is going to look like SARS: a long incubation period and no transmission during the incubation period,” said Lauren Ancel Meyers, a disease modeler at the University of Texas at Austin.Behind the scenes, scientists like Meyers were sharing their alarming finding with health officials. By scouring the websites of Chinese health departments, Meyers and her team found more than 50 cases between Jan. 21 and Feb. 8 where the person who brought the virus home didn’t develop symptoms until after infecting a family member. “When we looked at the data, we said, ‘Oh no, this can’t be true,'” Meyers said. “It was shocking.”Clues on a cruise shipRebecca Frasure, who contracted the virus while aboard the Diamond Princess cruise, sat in bed in Japan in late February, frustrated to be kept hospitalized even though she didn’t have any symptoms. “I’m perfectly healthy except having this virus in my body,” Frasure said. Without widespread and frequent testing, it’s impossible to know how many people without symptoms might carry it. The Diamond Princess, which idled in the Port of Yokohama while the virus exploded onboard, enticed researchers.A mathematical model built by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine aimed at estimating how many infected people without symptoms were being missed indicated that a startling three-quarters of infected people on the Princess were asymptomatic.In Washington state, similar clues emerged for Dr. Jeff Duchin as a team of investigators examined the Life Care nursing home — the site of the first major U.S. cluster of cases — and found health care workers were spreading the virus to other elder care facilities. They believed at least some were working while infected but before feeling symptoms. In March, more than half the residents at another nursing home who tested positive didn’t have symptoms.All that underscored the need to shift gears and acknowledge the virus couldn’t be totally stopped. “This disease is going to be extremely hard to control,” Duchin recalled thinking.Unanswered questionsThe nose and mouth are convenient entryways for the coronavirus. Once inside, the virus commandeers the cell’s machinery to copy itself, while fending off the body’s immune defenses. Virus levels skyrocket in the upper airway, all without symptoms early on. Many scientists believe that, during these days, people can spread virus just by talking, breathing or touching surfaces. In the truly asymptomatic, the immune system wins the battle before they ever feel sick. As it became clearer that healthy people could spread the virus, U.S. health authorities opted not to wait for scientific certainty. In early April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended people wear masks.Days later, Chinese researchers published a paper saying patients are most infectious two to three days before developing symptoms. Evidence continues to accumulate, and the CDC now estimates 40% of transmission is occurring before people feel sick. Still, doubt remains among scientists, most notably among the World Health Organization, which has discounted the importance of asymptomatic infection, though it recently began to acknowledge that possibility and advised people to wear masks. U.S. health officials blame China for delays in sharing information on silent spread. But Topol contends the U.S. could have mounted its own testing program with viral genome sequencing. That’s no small matter: Gaining scientific clarity earlier would have saved lives.”We’ve been slow on everything in the United States,” Topol said. “And I have to say it’s shameful.”
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Woman Artist Breaks Molds in Conservative Northern Nigeria
A visual artist in Nigeria’s conservative northern region is on a mission to challenge some stereotypes about women. These include the notion that certain trades are for men only and that women who venture into them are bound to fail. The 25-year-old artist, Maryam Umar Maigida, told VOA Hausa she also uses her paintings to demand justice for victims of sexual violence. Haruna Shehu reports.
Videographer: Auwal Salihu
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With COVID Closures, Tour Operator Turns to Magic
Global tourism revenues are expected to fall by up to $3.3 trillion due to COVID-19 restrictions, according to a U.N. study published on July 1st. When the coronavirus outbreak hit Japan, a tourism start-up built by an Indonesian man in Tokyo, was also hit hard. David John lost his main income in the blink of an eye. But as VOA’s Vina Mubtadi reports, he was able to get up… with a little bit of magic
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China Successfully Launches First Independent Mission to Mars
An unmanned spacecraft blasted off Thursday on a yearlong journey to Mars, beginning one of China’s most ambitious space missions to date.The Tianwen-1 lifted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch site on China’s southern Hainan Island aboard a Long March 5 rocket as hundreds of cheering fans gathered on beaches across the bay to witness the event.The Tianwen-1, which translates into “Heavenly Questions” or “Questions to Heaven,” is expected to reach the Red Planet by February. Once it enters orbit, a landing probe will detach and land on the planet’s Utopia Planitia region, where it will release a small solar-powered rover that will explore the surface for at least three months.A successful landing would make China only the second nation to place a spacecraft on the Martian surface, with the United States having landed eight probes since 1976. China would also be the first to achieve all three phases — orbiting, landing and deploying a rover — in the same mission.This is China’s first independent mission to Mars. A 2011 attempt failed when a Russian rocket carrying a Chinese orbiter malfunctioned after launch, and was unable to escape Earth orbit.The Tianwen-1 mission is the most ambitious undertaking of China’s rapidly evolving space program. Only the U.S. and Russia have successfully launched their own astronauts into orbit and successfully achieved a “soft” landing of a spacecraft on the lunar surface.Last year, though, China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft became the first to make a soft landing on the far side of the moon.The Tianwen-1 is the third mission to Mars this year. A Japanese rocket blasted off Monday carrying an orbiter developed and built by the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. space agency NASA is scheduled to launch a new Martian rover, dubbed Perseverance, July 30.
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US to Provide $5 Billion to Fight Coronavirus in Nation’s Nursing Homes
President Donald Trump has announced the U.S. government will provide an additional $5 billion in aid, equipment and training to the nation’s nursing homes, many of which are hot spots in the coronavirus pandemic.He said COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, poses “the greatest threat to our senior citizens,” and that “nearly half of the deaths have occurred among those living in nursing homes or long-term care facilities.”According to federal estimates, nursing home residents accounted for roughly 37,000 COVID-19-related deaths; overall, the U.S. has recorded nearly 143,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.“I want to send a message of support and hope to every senior citizen who has been dealing with the struggle of isolation in what should be the golden years of your life,” Trump said Wednesday at the White House during the coronavirus news briefing.“We will get to the other end of that tunnel very quickly, we hope. The light is starting to shine. We will get there very quickly.”Nursing homes received nearly $5 billion in pandemic relief funds approved by Congress earlier this year. The new package of $5 billion in aid would go toward increased testing of nursing home staff, distribution of a list of those facilities with increased numbers of COVID-19 cases, and additional training and support. Nursing homes in hot spots would get priority.Biden economic planTrump’s announcement comes a day after former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, released the third plank of his overall economic plan, which focused on child care and home health care, with a pledge to provide 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave.Also Wednesday, while discussing reopening schools in the fall, Trump was asked by reporters if he was comfortable sending his own son and grandchildren to in-person schools.”Well, I am comfortable with that,” Trump said. “I would like to see the schools open 100 percent. And we’ll do it safely. We’ll do it carefully.” He said, ultimately, the decision would be up to state governors.Late Wednesday, Senate Republicans and the White House said they had reached a tentative agreement on the next coronavirus relief package, which would provide about $1 trillion in aid. Legislation is expected Thursday.Earlier in the day, the U.S. government announced it will pay $1.95 billion to American drug maker Pfizer and German biotech company BioNTech SE for 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, if it proves to be safe and effective.The companies said Wednesday they had finalized a deal with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Defense Department to supply the agencies with a vaccine they are developing jointly, the latest in a number of comparable agreements with other vaccine companies.Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Fox News Wednesday the U.S. could buy 500 million additional doses of the vaccine provided they are “safe and effective.”Operation Warp SpeedThe deal announced Wednesday is part of Trump’s Operation Warp Speed initiative, which is aimed at delivering 300 million doses of an approved vaccine by January.Pfizer and BioNTech said they hope to be ready to pursue some form of regulatory approval as early as October if current studies of the vaccine are successful, and that they currently expect to deliver up to 100 million doses by the end of the year.The deal was announced one day after more than 1,000 people in the U.S. died of COVID-19, the first time since early June the U.S. reached the single-day milestone, and Trump acknowledged the coronavirus crisis in the country “will … get worse before it gets better.”The U.S. continues to lead the world in COVID-19 fatalities with more than 142,300, far greater than the 81,487 deaths in second-ranked Brazil, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. The U.S. also remains the world leader in infections, with 3.5 million of the world’s 15 million coronavirus cases.Data released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, however, the actual number of coronavirus infections in some parts of the U.S. is anywhere between two and 13 times what has been officially reported.The CDC based its conclusions on blood samples collected from people who were given routine clinical tests across 10 geographic regions, including New York City, south Florida, Missouri and the western states of Utah and Washington. In Missouri, for example, the estimated number of actual infections was 13 times the number of confirmed cases, while in Utah, the actual number was at least twice as high.The authors of the study, which was also published on the website of JAMA Internal Medicine, said many infected people did not seek medical care or get tested because they likely had mild symptoms or none at all, and likely spread the virus among the population. At least 40 percent of people who are infected do not develop symptoms.The CDC researchers also found that only a small number of people in many parts of the United States were carrying the coronavirus antibodies as of late May, indicating that most of the population remains at risk of infection.U.S. labs are also struggling to keep up with the increased testing, with some labs taking weeks to return COVID-19 results, experts say.“There’s been this obsession with, ‘How many tests are we doing per day?’” Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC director, said in an AP report. “The question is how many tests are being done with results coming back within a day, where the individual tested is promptly isolated and their contacts are promptly warned.”
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Russian Hackers Allegedly Trying to Steal COVID-19 Vaccine Research
A report by the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre this month accused hackers with links to Russian intelligence of attacking organizations developing a vaccine for COVID-19. The report has raised diplomatic tensions and opened a window into the world of pharmaceutical intelligence. VOA’s Tatiana Vorozhko has the story.
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US Labs Buckle Amid Testing Surge; World Virus Cases Top 15M
Laboratories across the U.S. are buckling under a surge of coronavirus tests, creating long processing delays that experts say are actually undercutting the pandemic response.With the U.S. tally of infections at 3.9 million Wednesday and new cases surging, the bottlenecks are creating problems for workers kept off the job while awaiting results, nursing homes struggling to keep the virus out and for the labs themselves, dealing with a crushing workload.Some labs are taking weeks to return COVID-19 results, exacerbating fears that asymptomatic people could be spreading the virus if they don’t isolate while they wait.“There’s been this obsession with, ‘How many tests are we doing per day?’” said Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The question is how many tests are being done with results coming back within a day, where the individual tested is promptly isolated and their contacts are promptly warned.”Frieden and other public health experts have called on states to publicly report testing turnaround times, calling it an essential metric to measure progress against the virus.The testing lags in the U.S. come as the number of people confirmed to be infected globally passed a staggering 15 million on Wednesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. leads the world in cases as well as deaths, which stand at more than 142,000 nationwide. New York, once by far the U.S. leader in infections, has been surpassed by California, though that is partly due to robust testing in a state with more than twice the population of New York.Guidelines issued by the CDC recommend that states lifting virus restrictions have testing turnaround time under four days. The agency recently issued new recommendations against retesting most COVID-19 patients to confirm they’ve recovered.“It’s clogging up the system,” Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant health secretary, told reporters last week.Zachrey Warner knows it all too well.The 30-year-old waiter from Columbus, Ohio, was sent home from work on July 5 with a high fever a few days after he began feeling ill. He went for a test five days later at the request of his employer.Almost two weeks and one missed pay period later, he finally got his answer on Wednesday: negative.Though Warner said most symptoms — including fever, diarrhea, chest tightness and body aches — stopped a few days after he was tested, he wasn’t allowed to return to work without the result. On Wednesday he got a call telling him he didn’t have COVID-19.It was “frustrating that I’ve missed so much work due to testing taking forever,” Warner said. “It is what it is … (but) I’m glad I’m negative and happy to be able to get back to work this week.”Beyond the economic hurt the testing lags can cause, they pose major health risks too.In Florida, as the state confirmed 9,785 new cases on Wednesday and the death toll rose to nearly 5,500, nursing homes have been under an order to test all employees every two weeks. But long delays for results have some questioning the point.Jay Solomon, CEO of Aviva in Sarasota, a senior community with a nursing home and assisted living facility, said results were taking up to 10 days to come back.“It’s almost like, what are we accomplishing in that time?” Solomon said. “If that person is not quarantined in that 7-10 days, are they spreading without realizing it?”Test results that come back after two or three days are nearly worthless, many health experts say, because by then the window for tracing the persons’ contacts to prevent additional infections has essentially closed.Dr. Leana Wen, a public health professor at George Washington University said it’s reasonable to tell people awaiting test results to isolate for 24 hours, but the delays have been unacceptable.“Imagine, you tell a parent with young children to self-isolate for 10 days or more without knowing they actually have COVID? I mean, that’s ridiculous. That’s actually absurd,” Wen said.U.S. officials have recently called for ramping up screening to include seemingly healthy Americans who may be unknowingly spreading the disease in their communities. But Quest Diagnostics, one of the nation’s largest testing chains, said it can’t keep up with demand and most patients will face waits of a week or longer for results.Quest has urged health care providers to cut down on tests from low-priority individuals, such as those without symptoms or any contact with someone who has tested positive.As testing has expanded, so have mask orders and other measures aimed at keeping infections down. Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota and Oregon became the latest to announce statewide mandatory mask orders on Wednesday.The U.S. is testing over 700,000 people per day, up from less than 100,000 in March. Trump administration officials point out that roughly half of U.S. tests are performed on rapid systems that give results in about 15 minutes or in hospitals, which typically process tests in about 24 hours. But last month, that still left some 9 million tests going through laboratories, which have been plagued by limited chemicals, machines and kits to develop COVID-19 tests.There is no scientific consensus on the rate of testing needed to control the virus in the U.S., but experts have recommended for months that the U.S. test at least 1 million to 3 million people daily.Health experts assembled by the Rockefeller Foundation said last week that the U.S. should scale up to testing 30 million Americans per week by the fall, when school reopenings and flu season are expected to further exacerbate the virus’ spread. The group acknowledged that will not be possible with the current laboratory-based testing system.The National Institutes of Health has set up a “shark tank” competition to quickly identify promising rapid tests and has received more than 600 applications. The goal is to have new testing options in mass production by the fall.Until then, the backbone of U.S. testing remains at several hundred labs with high-capacity machines capable of processing thousands of samples per day. Many say they could be processing far more tests if not for global shortages of testing chemicals, pipettes and other materials.Dr. Bobbi Pritt of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, says the hospital’s machines are running at just 20% of capacity. Lab technicians run seven different COVID-19 testing formats, switching back and forth depending on the availability of supplies.At Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, lab workers lobby testing manufacturers on a weekly basis to provide more kits, chemicals and other materials.“There’s no planning ahead, we just do as many as we can and cross our fingers that we’ll get more,” said Dr. Colleen Kraft, who heads the hospital’s testing lab.
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European Telescope Takes First Picture of Another Solar System
The European Southern Observatory on Wednesday released the first image ever captured by a telescope of multiple planets orbiting around a sunlike star.In a statement, the ESO said the image was taken by its Extremely Large Telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert.This image from the European Southern Observatory, July 2020, shows the star TYC 8998-760-1, upper left, and two exoplanets. The image was captured by blocking the light from the star, allowing for the fainter planets to be detected.The researchers who discovered the solar system said it was 300 light-years away, relatively close by galactic standards. They said the star was officially known as TYC 8998-760-1 and located in the Musca constellation (the Fly). They have determined it is barely 17 million years old, compared with our sun, which is believed to be 4.5 billion years old.Research behind the discovery was published Tuesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Lead researcher Alexander Bohn, a doctoral candidate at Leiden University, said what makes the discovery so exciting is that the star is “a very young version of our sun. He said it provides “a snapshot of an environment that is very similar to our solar system but at a much earlier stage of its evolution.”Bohn said the observations can help scientists better understand the evolution of our own solar system. Taking direct images, he said, provides the best chance to detect life outside our solar system, if it exists.He said that in observing light from the planets themselves, “the atmospheres can be analyzed for molecules and elements that might suggest life.”Astronomers typically confirm worlds around other stars by observing brief but periodic dimming of the starlight, indicating an orbiting planet. Such indirect observations have identified thousands of planets in our Milky Way galaxy.The ESO is considered the world’s most productive astronomical observatory. It is supported by a consortium of European nations and Chile, as well as other member nations.
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Quick COVID Tests Could Help Control Pandemic
COVID-19 tests that take an hour or less and can be done at doctors’ offices, workplaces, or even at home are under development. They could have a big impact on the course of the pandemic in the United States, where long lines for tests and long waits for results are undermining efforts to control the disease. People who get tested for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 have been waiting for days, up to a week in some places, to find out if they are infected, as overloaded labs struggle to keep up with demand. Patients can spread the virus while they are waiting for test results. That’s also a setback for public health workers who need to identify patients’ contacts and isolate them before the virus spreads further. Plus, patients tested one day can be infected the next, while they are waiting for results. “If you get the results back a week later, those results are effectively a historical record. They’re not actionable information,” said Zev Williams at Columbia University. Testing has taken on extra urgency in the COVID-19 pandemic because roughly half of infections may be spread from people with no symptoms, according to some estimates. Frequent, widespread and fast Current assays require certified laboratories with expensive, specialized equipment and trained personnel. Labs have run into shortages of chemicals, the special cartridges some machines use, and even the long swabs that health workers insert deep into patients’ noses to get samples. “Testing has to be frequent, widespread and fast,” Williams said. It should be fast enough so people can take a test and get results before they get on an airplane, enter a nursing home, or go to school, he said. Some companies are aiming to develop simple tests patients could do at home. That would eliminate many of the supply issues, as well as keep patients safe and prevent them from exposing anyone else. “Bringing testing home can help solve just about every aspect of how we manage this pandemic,” said Sherlock Biosciences CEO Rahul Dhanda, “as long as a test can be accurate and dependable.” Sherlock is developing a test called INSPECTR that looks and functions like a home pregnancy test. The user applies a bit of saliva to a strip of paper in a plastic holder. In about half an hour, the paper changes color if the user is infected. Dhanda says it should cost no more than $30. The company hopes to have the test on the market in the first half of next year. Sherlock is also working on a system that could run in pharmacies, grocery stores, nursing homes or just about anywhere else with a power supply. It runs on a machine developed by medical device company Binx that is currently used in clinics and doctors’ offices to test for sexually transmitted infections. Patients would spit in a tube and get results in half an hour. Sherlock hopes to have the system up and running in the fall. It’s based on an approach the company is using in a Food and Drug Administration-approved test. That test uses CRISPR, a system best known for gene editing, to identify specific genetic fingerprints of the virus. The scientists behind the technology, including Sherlock’s co-founders, put a low-cost open-source version online at STOPCovid.science. All the reaction components are contained in one tube. Saliva or a mouth swab go in the tube, which then sits at 60 degrees Celsius for half an hour. Dip a paper test strip in the tube, and yes-or-no results show up in a few minutes. It is not FDA approved, and it is not intended for clinical testing, but the researchers say the aim is to help move the technology forward.Repurposed fertility test Columbia’s Williams helped develop a similar assay. In an example of how COVID-19 has scrambled everyone’s priorities, Williams is not an infectious disease doctor. He heads the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the university medical center. He said one way to test prospective parents who are having trouble conceiving is to look for genetic defects that can cause infertility. “In terms of the underlying molecular biology, it’s not that different” to look for a fertility gene or the genes of a virus, he said. But overhauling the fertility test to look for the coronavirus in saliva, and doing it in such a way that it could be done easily without special equipment or training was a challenge. “It actually took an enormous amount of work to make it very simple,” he said. Like the STOPCovid test, all the reactions take place in one tube. The only special equipment they need is a heating block or hot water kept at 60 degrees Celsius. But instead of getting results on a strip of paper, this test is based on color. The red test solution turns yellow if the sample contains virus. All of the test makers say their assays are as accurate as those done at major labs today, but the FDA has not yet evaluated any of them. Only one test, Sherlock and Binx’s, has a commercial partner to scale up manufacturing. Williams said his group is working to get their test to market “as quick as possible. I’ll tell you, it’s something we push on every single day.” “You just see how the problems are not getting less,” he said. “They’re growing and growing, and the need for this is growing.”
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Amber Heard Accuses Depp of Throwing Bottles Like ‘Grenades’
Amber Heard alleged in a British court on Wednesday that her ex-husband Johnny Depp threw “30 or so bottles” at her as if they were “grenades or bombs” while they were in Australia in March 2015 and that he accidentally severed part of his finger during the assault.Taking to the witness box for a third day at the High Court in London during Depp’s libel case against a British tabloid, the actress refuted his allegation that it was she who lost her temper and that she had injured him.Heard has described her stay in Australia with Depp as akin to a “three-day hostage situation,” during which Depp was “completely out of his mind and out of control.” She has said that she feared for her life while at the rented property on Australia’s Gold Coast.The incident is central to The Sun’s labeling of Depp in an April 2018 article as a “wife beater.” The Sun’s defense relies on 14 allegations made by Heard of violence by Depp between 2013 and 2016, in settings including the rented house in Australia, his private island in the Bahamas, and a private jet.He denies the charges and claims Heard was the aggressor during their relationship. He was present once again to hear Heard’s testimony. Depp, 57, is suing The Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers, and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over the article.Depp’s lawyer, Eleanor Laws, said Heard had worked herself “into a rage” during her stay in Australia, where Depp was filming the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie.Heard, 34, said she got “angry at times but not into a rage that would cause me to throw anything at him.”She did concede that she did break one bottle in their second evening together in Australia as they argued about the scale of his drinking.”I regret I did that,” said Heard, who also claimed that Depp would often credit her for saving him by trying to get him clean and sober.After she smashed the bottle, Heard alleges that Depp, fueled by drink and drugs, started throwing bottles, full enough that they broke a window behind her.”He threw all the bottles that were in reach, all except for one which was a celebratory magnum-sized bottle of wine,” she said.Heard also denied severing the tip of Depp’s finger during the bottle-throwing frenzy and that she put out a cigarette on his cheek during the incident. She said it was something that Depp used to do to himself.”Johnny did it right in front of me, he often did things like that,” she said.In the first nine days of testimony at the High Court, judge Andrew Nicol heard from Depp and from several current or former employees who backed his version of events. In his testimony, Depp said he was the one being abused by Heard and that she had a history of being violent against him.In written testimony released to the court, Heard said that at various times during their relationship she endured “punching, slapping, kicking, head-butting and choking.” She said some incidents were “so severe” she was “afraid he was going to kill me, either intentionally or just by losing control and going too far.” She said he blamed his actions on “a self-created third party” that he referred to as “the monster.”Depp and Heard met on the set of the comedy “The Rum Diary,” released in 2011. They married in Los Angeles in February 2015. Heard filed for divorce the following year, and it was finalized in 2017.Heard’s testimony is expected to last for four days, through Thursday.
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How Quick COVID Tests Could Help Control Pandemic
COVID-19 tests that take an hour or less and can be done at doctors’ offices, workplaces, or even at home are under development. They could have a big impact on the course of the pandemic in the United States, where long lines for tests and long waits for results are undermining efforts to control the disease. People who get tested for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 have been waiting for days, up to a week in some places, to find out if they are infected, as overloaded labs struggle to keep up with demand. Patients can spread the virus while they are waiting for test results. That’s also a setback for public health workers who need to identify patients’ contacts and isolate them before the virus spreads further. Plus, patients tested one day can be infected the next, while they are waiting for results. “If you get the results back a week later, those results are effectively a historical record. They’re not actionable information,” said Zev Williams at Columbia University. Testing has taken on extra urgency in the COVID-19 pandemic because roughly half of infections may be spread from people with no symptoms, according to some estimates. Frequent, widespread and fast Current assays require certified laboratories with expensive, specialized equipment and trained personnel. Labs have run into shortages of chemicals, the special cartridges some machines use, and even the long swabs that health workers insert deep into patients’ noses to get samples. “Testing has to be frequent, widespread and fast,” Williams said. It should be fast enough so people can take a test and get results before they get on an airplane, enter a nursing home, or go to school, he said. Some companies are aiming to develop simple tests patients could do at home. That would eliminate many of the supply issues, as well as keep patients safe and prevent them from exposing anyone else. “Bringing testing home can help solve just about every aspect of how we manage this pandemic,” said Sherlock Biosciences CEO Rahul Dhanda, “as long as a test can be accurate and dependable.” Sherlock is developing a test called INSPECTR that looks and functions like a home pregnancy test. The user applies a bit of saliva to a strip of paper in a plastic holder. In about half an hour, the paper changes color if the user is infected. Dhanda says it should cost no more than $30. The company hopes to have the test on the market in the first half of next year. Sherlock is also working on a system that could run in pharmacies, grocery stores, nursing homes or just about anywhere else with a power supply. It runs on a machine developed by medical device company Binx that is currently used in clinics and doctors’ offices to test for sexually transmitted infections. Patients would spit in a tube and get results in half an hour. Sherlock hopes to have the system up and running in the fall. It’s based on an approach the company is using in a Food and Drug Administration-approved test. That test uses CRISPR, a system best known for gene editing, to identify specific genetic fingerprints of the virus. The scientists behind the technology, including Sherlock’s co-founders, put a low-cost open-source version online at STOPCovid.science. All the reaction components are contained in one tube. Saliva or a mouth swab go in the tube, which then sits at 60 degrees Celsius for half an hour. Dip a paper test strip in the tube, and yes-or-no results show up in a few minutes. It is not FDA approved, and it is not intended for clinical testing, but the researchers say the aim is to help move the technology forward.Repurposed fertility test Columbia’s Williams helped develop a similar assay. In an example of how COVID-19 has scrambled everyone’s priorities, Williams is not an infectious disease doctor. He heads the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the university medical center. He said one way to test prospective parents who are having trouble conceiving is to look for genetic defects that can cause infertility. “In terms of the underlying molecular biology, it’s not that different” to look for a fertility gene or the genes of a virus, he said. But overhauling the fertility test to look for the coronavirus in saliva, and doing it in such a way that it could be done easily without special equipment or training was a challenge. “It actually took an enormous amount of work to make it very simple,” he said. Like the STOPCovid test, all the reactions take place in one tube. The only special equipment they need is a heating block or hot water kept at 60 degrees Celsius. But instead of getting results on a strip of paper, this test is based on color. The red test solution turns yellow if the sample contains virus. All of the test makers say their assays are as accurate as those done at major labs today, but the FDA has not yet evaluated any of them. Only one test, Sherlock and Binx’s, has a commercial partner to scale up manufacturing. Williams said his group is working to get their test to market “as quick as possible. I’ll tell you, it’s something we push on every single day.” “You just see how the problems are not getting less,” he said. “They’re growing and growing, and the need for this is growing.”
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Twitter Will Suspend Accounts Tweeting About Conspiracy Theory Group QAnon
Twitter Inc said on Tuesday it would permanently suspend accounts that violate its policies while tweeting about QAnon, a fringe group that claims “deep-state” traitors are plotting against President Donald Trump. Twitter, which announced the change on its Twitter Safety page, said it would not serve content and accounts associated with QAnon in trends and recommendations, and would block URLs associated with the group from being shared on the platform. The suspension, which will be rolled out this week, is expected to impact about 150,000 accounts globally, Twitter said. It said that more than 7,000 accounts have been removed in the last several weeks for violating the company’s rules against spam, platform manipulation and ban evasion. The suspensions will be applied to accounts “engaged in violations of our multi-account policy, coordinating abuse around individual victims, or are attempting to evade a previous suspension — something we’ve seen more of in recent weeks,” Twitter said. Last year, the FBI issued a warning about “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists” and designated QAnon as a potential domestic extremist threat. QAnon also claims Democrats are behind international crime rings.
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Despite Virus, Brazilian Circus Performers Safely Take Stage
There’s an old saying in theater that the show must go on. But when a global pandemic hits and the playbook on large gatherings is re-written, shows like the circus cannot go on. As VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, performers in Brazil took a page from drive-in movie theaters to save their circus.Produced by: Arash Arabasadi
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Virus Stole their Spotlight, but Brazilian Circus Performers Find Way to Safely Take Stage
There’s an old saying in theater that the show must go on. But when a global pandemic hits and the playbook on large gatherings is re-written, shows like the circus cannot go on. As VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, performers in Brazil took a page from drive-in movie theaters to save their circus.Produced by: Arash Arabasadi
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New Study Suggests Melting Arctic Permafrost Poses Big Climate Threat
A new study indicates that the accelerated melting of Arctic permafrost could release as much as 40 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere not previously accounted for in global emissions estimates. Permafrost is the thick layer of soil in the world’s Arctic and Antarctic regions that, for centuries in some cases, has remained frozen throughout the year. It is vital to the world’s climate because it stores twice as much carbon as there is in the atmosphere. The study, published Monday in the science journal Nature Geoscience, examines how under usual circumstances, the top layer of this frozen soil thaws during summer when plants and microorganisms spring to life. The microbes eat plant roots and respirate like all living organisms and inevitably emit greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide. This process is known as rhizosphere priming. The researchers say with more and more of the prior frozen soil thawing, more plant roots are exposed to microorganisms, which in turn emit more carbon dioxide. The researchers determined the phenomenon could add as much as 40 billion tons of carbon to the atmosphere by the year 2100. Prior to this study, scientists estimated that global emissions must fall by 7.6% every year over the next 10 years to meet the 1.5°C temperature goal of the Paris Agreement. But the authors of the study note that their new estimates of emissions from permafrost melting are currently “unaccounted for in global emission scenarios and implies that the remaining anthropogenic carbon budget to keep warming below 1.5 or 2 °C … may need to be even more constrained.” While Earth is heating up, warming is significantly worse in the Arctic. Analysis from NASA and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest that the past decade was the hottest on record overall. In the Arctic, air temperatures are rising twice as fast as the global average. This new study shows that permafrost melt can, in turn, prompt further melt. More carbon in the atmosphere means worsened atmospheric warming and more melting.
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Climate Change Could Drive Polar Bears to Extinction by 2100
A study of the Arctic says polar bears are one of the most threatened species on earth because of melting sea ice caused by climate change, and without aggressive steps, the animals could be extinct by the end of the century. The University of Toronto study, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, says that polar bears rely on sea ice to reach their prey, usually seals and other water mammals. Researchers who conducted the study say a loss of ice will force the animals onto land, where they must rely on fat reserves due to a lack of food. Co-author of a report on the study Steven Amstrup says the bears currently have less time to feed and a longer time to wait until the ice returns. He says typically, the ice melts in the early summer and midsummer and returns in fall. “That period when the ice is absent is getting ever longer and the bears are facing that longer period with less fat on board.” Modelling was used to determine polar bears’ energy requirements while fasting and the thresholds that would limit their survival, alongside a model predicting the future number of days without ice. The researchers used that to estimate when the survival thresholds would be surpassed for 13 Arctic sub-populations that represent 80% of all polar bears. Under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario, the researchers found the bears’ survival would be “unlikely” in much of the Arctic due to reduced sea ice. But the study maintains that if there was a “moderate emissions scenario” more sub-populations could survive through this century.
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Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ Delayed Indefinitely by Virus
Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” which had hoped to herald Hollywood’s return to big theatrical releases, has yet again postponed its release due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Warner Bros. said Monday that “Tenet” will not make its August 12 release date. Unlike previous delays, the studio this time didn’t announce a new target for the release of Nolan’s much-anticipated $200 million thriller.
“Tenet” had already shifted from July 17, then July 31 and then Aug. 12. Nolan, a staunch advocate for the big-screen experience, has strenuously hoped that “Tenet” could lead the resumption of nationwide and global moviegoing.
But the surge of the virus across much of the U.S. has upended the industry’s aims for even a late-August return. Last week, California ordered its cinemas closed.
Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich said the studio will soon share a new “2020 release date” for “Tenet.” It may be a much different rollout, with the film opening in staggered international release.
“We are not treating ‘Tenet’ like a traditional global day-and-date release, and our upcoming marketing and distribution plans will reflect that,” said Emmerich.
Emmerich said the pandemic’s spread has forced the studio to reevaluate its plans. Warner Bros. also shifted the horror sequel “The Conjuring 3” from Sept. 11 to June 4, 2021.
“Our goals throughout this process have been to ensure the highest odds of success for our films while also being ready to support our theater partners with new content as soon as they could safely reopen,” said Emmerich. “We’re grateful for the support we’ve received from exhibitors and remain steadfast in our commitment to the theatrical experience around the world.”
Other films have planned their releases partially around the launch of “Tenet.” Walt Disney Co.’s “Mulan” remains scheduled for theatrical release on Aug. 21.
Movie theaters remain in a precarious limbo. Without new releases, U.S. indoor theaters and drive-ins that are open have played mostly older films and a smattering of smaller new releases.
Before the recent spike in the coronavirus crisis, theater chains have sought to assure moviegoers with protocols like limiting theaters to 25-50% capacity and cleaning seats in between showings.
But months of closed theaters and no new product has put enormous pressure on an already stressed business. AMC Theaters, the world’s largest chain, recently reached a debt deal to help itself remain solvent.
AMC has been aiming to reopen most locations July 30. Cineworld, which owns Regal Cinemas, had set July 31 for its reopening.
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Major League Baseball to Make Coronavirus-Delayed Debut
After a four-month delay due to the coronavirus pandemic, Major League Baseball kicks off its regular season Thursday with a 60-game schedule set to be played solely in U.S. stadiums. While many fans are anticipating the return of the game nicknamed the national pastime, there are widespread concerns about the safety of resuming a major sports league at a time when the United States is in the midst of a surge in coronavirus infections with several of the hotspots home to multiple teams. Among the top ten states with the highest per-capita increases in new cases in the past week are Florida, Arizona, Georgia, Texas and California, which together host 11 of the 30 MLB teams. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is set to throw out the ceremonial first pitch in Washington as the defending World Series champion Nationals host the New York Yankees in the league’s opening game. Fauci has been seen often in recent weeks wearing a Nationals mask. “Dr. Fauci has been a true champion for our country during the COVID-19 pandemic and throughout his distinguished career, so it is only fitting that we honor him as we kick off the 2020 season and defend our World Series Championship title,” the Nationals said in a statement. The Nationals had to get a waiver from the District of Columbia in order to be allowed to host games because local coronavirus restrictions would otherwise not allow such an event to take place. There will be no fans in the stands, something that will be a common sight throughout the league.Washington Nationals’ Trea Turner tries to steal second base against the Baltimore Orioles during an exhibition baseball game, July 20, 2020, in Baltimore. Turner was caught stealing by catcher Bryan Holaday.Major League Baseball’s sole Canadian team, the Toronto Blue Jays, is not being allowed to play its games at home, forcing it to search for a U.S. stadium for those games instead. Canadian Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino cited the frequent cross-border travel that would be involved with the neighboring United States. “We understand professional sports are important to the economy and to Canadians,” he said Saturday. “At the same time, our government will continue to take decisions at the border on the basis of the advice of our health experts in order to protect the health and safety of all Canadians.” The Pittsburgh Pirates said Monday they were in talks with the Blue Jays about Toronto playing its home games in Pittsburgh this season. Blue Jays General Manager Ross Atkins has said if the team is unable to secure another Major League park for its games, the most likely backup would be playing at its minor league affiliate stadium in Buffalo, New York. Unlike the National Basketball Association, which is housing all of its teams in Orlando, Florida for the rest of its season with strict rules about outside contacts, MLB teams will still travel to other cities to play and players are only being cautioned to practice social distancing and avoid situations that may increase their risk of coronavirus exposure. Players will be administered coronavirus tests every other day and temperature checks twice a day. On the field, they are banned from spitting, celebrating with high-fives or similar contact, and any players who are unlikely to take part in that day’s game will have to sit in the stands spaced at least six feet apart instead of hanging out in the dugout. The 60-game schedule does feature mostly games within a team’s division, with the rest scheduled to take place in its geographic region in order to reduce overall travel. For example, Washington will play all of its road games in eastern cities Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Tampa Bay and wherever Toronto ends up. Several high-profile players have chosen to use the opt-out rights in the agreement on return to play reached between team owners and the union that represents players. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher David Price, San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jordan Hicks, Washington Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman, Atlanta Braves outfielder Nick Markakis and Colorado Rockies outfielder Ian Desmond are among those who will not be playing. The agreement also institutes a few changes to the games themselves. Teams in the National League that typically have pitchers also participate on offense will instead utilize the designated hitter position that is already standard for American League teams. Also, when any regular season games go into extra innings, each team will begin its turn on offense with a player already on second base. The regular concludes September 27, followed by the league’s usual playoff format.
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Experimental Coronavirus Vaccines Continue to Show Promise in Human Trials
With over 14.7 million confirmed novel coronavirus cases and nearly 610,000 fatalities, researchers are reporting progress in the race to develop a safe and effective vaccine against the disease. Two different experimental vaccines — one developed in a joint venture between Britain’s Oxford University and British-Swedish drug maker AstraZeneca, the other by Chinese biotech firm CanSino Biologics — have produced strong immune responses in late-stage human trials, according to two peer-reviewed studies published Monday in the British medical journal The Lancet. Meanwhile, U.S. drug maker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech also reported positive progress Monday on their vaccine candidate. The vaccine developed by the joint Oxford-AstraZeneca partnership is receiving the most attention, with the company having signed agreements with many governments to supply its vaccine if it is proved to be effective and granted regulatory approval. The company has already committed to making 2 billion doses. According to The New York Times, the doses have been administered to more than 10,000 volunteers in Britain, Brazil and South Africa, with 30,000 participants in the United States set to receive the experimental vaccine next week.A subject receives a shot in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of a potential vaccine by Moderna for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle.Monday’s news comes a week after U.S.-based biotech firm Moderna announced a vaccine developed by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease had also produced strong immune responses in its late-stage human trials, although it came with mild or moderate side effects such as fatigue, headaches, chills and muscle aches. But Dr. Peter Hotez, the dean of tropical medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN Monday that “ the first vaccines may not be our best vaccines.” Dr. Hotez said it will probably take a year “to accumulate all the data showing the vaccines actually work, as well as that they’re safe.” Meanwhile, European Union leaders reached an agreement early Tuesday on a $2.1 trillion budget and coronavirus relief package. The agreement includes $857 billion in coronavirus funding that will be issued as loans and grants to the hardest-hit countries. It came after negotiations stretched on for four days and nights, well beyond what was expected. A main sticking point was a divide between a group of five richer countries in the north, including the Netherlands and Austria, that advocated a cut in the original proposal of $572 billion in grants along with stricter spending controls, while others such as Spain and Italy sought to keep such restrictions to a minimum. The final agreement included a compromise of $446 billion in grants. During an Oval Office meeting with Republican lawmakers on Monday about a new coronavirus financial rescue package, President Donald Trump announced that he will resume the daily press briefings of his coronavirus task force, beginning Tuesday. The president led the briefings over the course of several weeks in the early days of pandemic, but ended them in April after he was widely criticized for an offhand suggestion that doctors could inject bleach into COVID-19 patients to counteract the disease. Trump also used the briefings to tout the use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment, despite medical experts’ warnings that the drug ineffective and has possibly deadly side effects. The return of the daily briefings comes as the U.S. has topped 3.8 million confirmed COVID-19 infections and nearly 141,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Research Center. After weeks of downplaying the need for Americans to wear masks as an effective means to prevent spreading the virus, Trump also tweeted a photo of himself wearing a mask. He wrote that “many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance. There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President!”We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus, and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance. There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President! pic.twitter.com/iQOd1whktN— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 20, 2020
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Nicki Minaj Announces She’s Pregnant with 1st Child
Nicki Minaj has a new release coming soon: her first child.
The rapper took to Instagram on Monday to announce she is pregnant, posting photos of herself with a baby bump. One caption simply read: “#Preggers.”
She also wrote on another post, “Love. Marriage. Baby carriage. Overflowing with excitement & gratitude. Thank you all for the well wishes.”
Minaj married Kenneth Petty last year. They first dated as teenagers and reunited in 2018.
Musically, Minaj has also had a winning year, topping the Billboard Hot 100 chart twice. Her remix of Doja Cat’s “Say So” helped Minaj achieve her first-ever No. 1 on the Hot 100, despite releasing multiple hits throughout her career. She also reached the top spot with “Trollz,” her collaboration with 6ix9ine.
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Bahamas to Ban International Travel Amid COVID Concerns
Officials in the Bahamas say that starting Wednesday, it will ban travelers from the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic. Officials say the large increase in COVID-19 cases throughout the United States and other countries is the reason for the ban; however, some international travel will be permitted, although it will be confined to Canada, Britain, and the European Union. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus. The ban marks a sudden shift from the Bahamas’ decision three weeks ago to reopen to virtually all international tourism. Those still permitted to travel to the Bahamas under the new requirements must test negative for COVID-19 from an accredited lab 10 or fewer days before traveling, or otherwise quarantine themselves for 14 days. “Regrettably, the situation here at home has already deteriorated since we began the reopening of our domestic economy,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said Sunday. “It has deteriorated at an exponential rate since we reopened our international borders.” The prime minister also said, “Our current situation demands decisive action if we are to avoid being overrun and defeated by this virus.” He said these strong actions were being taken to “save lives.” Bahamas’ airline, Bahamasair, is halting all flights to and from the United States. The new travel bans are an attempt to halt the increase of the virus in the Bahamas. According to the Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 dashboard, the Bahamas has 153 confirmed cases with 11 deaths. “We cannot risk the death of Bahamians and residents. We must be resolved in our collective willingness to save lives,” said Minnis.
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Pakistan Searches Site After Undiscovered Buddha Statue Vandalized
Pakistani authorities said Monday that archeologists have begun searching for the remains of a third-century, life-size Buddha statue that was found and destroyed by a group of religiously conservative laborers in the northwestern town of Mardan.The destruction of the rare idol occurred in a village near Takht-i-Bahi (Throne of Origins), which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for being an icon of the ancient Buddhist civilization.Police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where the site is located arrested four men Saturday after a video showing them vandalizing a Buddha statue with a hammer went viral on social media.“This design or art of sculpting the Buddha dates back to the second or third century A.D., so, it is around 1,700 years old,” Bakht Muhammad, a research officer at the provincial Directorate of Archeology and Museums, told VOA. Muhammad said the provincial government has directed a team of archeological experts to also conduct a comprehensive survey starting Tuesday into whether more antiquities are in and around the village. He stressed that the area previously has not been listed as a conserved site.It will take about a month before the team is able to share the findings, Muhammad added.“It is not a big deal for us, provided our team is able to recover all parts of the destroyed Buddha. The pieces taken into possession are not enough, and that’s why our team of experts has been tasked to locate the remaining parts,” he said when asked if his department would be able to restore the rare statue. He noted that prosecutors are working to institute a court case against the four men under an antiquities law, saying they could each be sentenced to a five-year jail term, along with a financial penalty of about $12,000 if found guilty.Legal experts note, however, that court cases of this nature usually can take years before a final verdict is issued.Muhammad said the statue was discovered during the construction of a water drain in a privately owned mango orchard, about 12 kilometers from Takht-i-Bahi.“These are illiterate local people who went for the destruction of the Buddha, believing that they would be rewarded by Allah. Their contractor did not even bother to inform the owner of the orchard about the discovery and instead participated in the illegal action,” Muhammad said.Heart breaking.
A life sized statue of Buddha was discovered in a construction site in Takhtbhai, Mardan recently.
However, before the Archaeology dept was informed about it, the contractor had already broken it into pieces as the local molvi warned him that he would lose.. pic.twitter.com/nWHHzkOxe7
— Ahsan Hamid Durrani (@Ahsan_H_Durrani) July 18, 2020The accused could be heard in the video discussing the size of the statue, with one of them saying, “It’s a standing doll. It’s a female. … Look, she is wearing earrings.”“Her name is carved here. This is the shirt,” said an old man sitting on the statue and removing the dirt from its belly.“Is this a Hindu or Westerner (statue)?” another man asked.“Hindu. This is Gautam Buddha,” replied his partner before all of them congratulated each other.Foreign tourists, particularly from Japan, Korea and Sri Lanka, routinely visit Takht-i-Bahi and other Buddhist sites to pay homage.Founded in early first century, the Buddhist monastic complex of Takht-i-Bahi is exceptionally well-preserved and is located on high hills, typical of Buddhist sites, according to UNESCO.
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UK Coronavirus Vaccine Prompts Immune Response in Early Test
Scientists at Oxford University say their experimental coronavirus vaccine has been shown in an early trial to prompt a protective immune response in hundreds of people who got the shot.British researchers first began testing the vaccine in April in about 1,000 people, half of whom got the experimental vaccine. Such early trials are usually designed only to evaluate safety, but in this case experts were also looking to see what kind of immune response was provoked.In research published Monday in the journal Lancet, scientists said that they found their experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced a dual immune response in people aged 18 to 55.”We are seeing good immune response in almost everybody,” said Dr. Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University. “What this vaccine does particularly well is trigger both arms of the immune system,” he said. Hill said that neutralizing antibodies are produced — molecules which are key to blocking infection. In addition, the vaccine also causes a reaction in the body’s T-cells which help to fight off the coronavirus. He said that larger trials evaluating the vaccine’s effectiveness, involving about 10,000 people in the U.K. as well as participants in South Africa and Brazil are still underway. Another big trial is slated to start in the U.S. soon, aiming to enroll about 30,000 people. How quickly scientists are able to determine the vaccine’s effectiveness will depend largely on how much more transmission there is, but Hill estimated they might have sufficient data by the end of the year to decide if the vaccine should be adopted for mass vaccination campaigns. He said the vaccine seemed to produce a comparable level of antibodies to those produced by people who recovered from a COVID-19 infection and hoped that the T-cell response would provide extra protection. “There’s increasing evidence that having a T-cell response as well as antibodies could be very important in controlling COVID-19,” Hill said. He suggested the immune response might be boosted after a second dose; their trial tested two doses administered about four weeks apart. Hill said Oxford’s vaccine is designed to reduce disease and transmission. It uses a harmless virus — a chimpanzee cold virus, engineered so it can’t spread — to carry the coronavirus’ spike protein into the body, which should trigger an immune system response.Hill said Oxford has partnered with drugmaker AstraZeneca to produce their vaccine globally, and that the company has already committed to making 2 billion doses.”Even 2 billion doses may not be enough,” he said, underlining the importance of having multiple shots to combat the coronavirus. “There was a hope that if we had a vaccine quickly enough, we could put out the pandemic,” Hill said, noting the continuing surge of infections globally. “I think its going to be very difficult to control this pandemic without a vaccine.”Numerous countries including Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, U.S. and the U.K. have all signed deals to receive hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine — which has not yet been licensed — with the first deliveries scheduled for the fall. British politicians have promised that if the shot proves effective, Britons will be the first to get it. Last week, American researchers announced that the first COVID-19 vaccine tested there boosted people’s immune systems just as scientists had hoped and the shots will now enter the final phase of testing. That vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna, produced the molecules key to blocking infection in volunteers who got it, at levels comparable to people who survived a COVID-19 infection. About a dozen different experimental vaccines are in early stages of human testing or poised to start, mostly in China, the U.S. and Europe, with dozens more in earlier stages of development.British officials said Monday they had also signed a deal to buy 90 million doses of experimental COVID-19 vaccines being developed by the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and others.In a statement, the British government said it had secured access to a vaccine candidate being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, in addition to another experimental vaccine researched by Valneva.
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Human Rights Watch Reveals Widespread Abuse of Japanese Child Athletes
A new report by Human Rights Watch has outlined physical, verbal and even sexual abuses allegedly suffered by child athletes in Japan. Investigators say they uncovered numerous incidents of young athletes being punched, kicked, slapped, choked or struck with various objects and deprived of food and water, along with sexual abuse and harassment. They say the abuses led to victims suffering from depression, physical disabilities, lifelong trauma, and in a handful of cases, suicides. There was no comment from Japan’s Olympic Committee. The report, titled, “I Was Hit So Many Times I Can’t Count,” says one instance of suicide involved a 17-year-old high school basketball player in Osaka who suffered repeated physical abuse at the hands of his coach. The report from HRW comes seven years after Japanese sports authorities vowed to end the practice of corporal punishment in youth sports known as “taibatsu,” after allegations surfaced amid Tokyo’s successful bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics. The report was based on interviews with 50 athletes from across several sports, as well as more than 700 athletes who participated in an online survey, including Olympians and Paralympians. The report was released the day the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — which have been postponed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic — were due to begin. “As Japan prepares to host the Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo in July 2021,” said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch, “the global spotlight brings a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change laws and policies in Japan and around the world to protect millions of child athletes.”
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