Author: CensorBiz

Argentinians staged loud protests in Buenos Aires on Thursday evening, banging pots from balconies in a show of opposition to the government’s release of prisoners to slow the spread of the coronavirus.The protests across the capital were promoted by lawmakers critical of the government of President Alberto Fernández.Since Monday, more than 1,000 prisoners have been released in Argentina after Fernández said the government should consider granting house arrest to inmates who are at risk of contracting COVID-19.A week ago, the first confirmed COVID-19 cases inside an Argentine prison included prisoners and guards.Shortly afterwards, local media say prisoners at Devoto prison in Buenos Aires set fires, demanding the release of some prisoners over fears of contracting the coronavirus.Argentina has confirmed at least 4,415 COVID-19 cases and 215 deaths linked to the virus. 
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U.S. stock prices were slightly down Thursday following a day of optimism raised by an experimental drug that could help beat down the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.If successful, remdesivir, the drug developed by California-based Gilead Sciences, could help countries emerge from lockdowns and reopen businesses.  The losses at the end of the trading day also reversed April’s positive trend.The Dow Jones industrial average was down 1.17%, or 288 points, to end the day at 24,345.72. The S&P 500 was down almost 1%, losing 27 points and ending at 2,912.43. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.28%, or 25.16 points, to end at 8,889.55.European markets also ended in negative territory Thursday. London’s FTSE posted a 3.5% loss, the DAX in Frankfurt had a 2.22% loss and Paris’ CAC 40 lost 2.12%.   Asian markets fared better, with Japan’s Nikkei index gaining 422 points, or 2.14%. Australia’s S&P/ASX ended the day 2.45% higher, while Shanghai’s index gained 1.3%. The indexes in Hong Kong and Seoul were closed for public holidays.Oil markets continued to recover, with the price of West Texas intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, trading at $19.09 per barrel, while the international benchmark Brent crude was trading at $26.70 per barrel.But analysts said the future of the oil after the coronavirus pandemic was far from secure.Shell, a British-Dutch oil company, slashed its dividend Thursday for the first time since World War II to secure some stability in a highly uncertain environment, with oil prices making wild swings.Shell’s chief executive, Ben van Beurden, said that “the global economic decline and uncertain outlook may have a significant impact on our profitability, cash flow and our balance sheet.”Oil demand has collapsed globally as most traffic came to a standstill amid lockdowns implemented to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
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Three of the country’s best-known lawyers are asking the U.S. Justice Department to investigate whether President Donald Trump broke the law when the Treasury Department put his name on coronavirus relief checks for Americans.Lawyers Bruce Fein, Louis Fisher and Ralph Nader have sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr. They allege that Trump may be guilty of violating the Hatch Act, which bans government employees and public officials from taking part in partisan political activities while on the job.“President Trump is actively seeking re-election. The signature of President Trump on United States Treasury checks is superfluous to their value, legality or authenticity. The signature serves no official government purpose,” the letter says. “It does serve Mr. Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign by making it appear that he is responsible for a monetary windfall to tens of millions of voters.”The lawyers argue that a special prosecutor should look into the matter, calling it an improper use of government workers and equipment to promote Trump’s reelection.Nader is an iconic voice of liberal and progressive policies. Fisher has worked in the administrations of both parties, and Fein is a longtime Republican.Neither the White House nor Justice Department has responded to the letter.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says it was his idea to put Trump’s name on the checks.Trump initially denied wanting his signature on them, but apparently did not make a major effort to stop it, saying he didn’t “imagine it’s a big deal.”“I’m sure people will be very happy to get a big, fat, beautiful check and my name is on it,” he said.Some congressional Democrats call the Trump signature a political stunt, while Republicans say they agree with the president in believing it’s no big deal.  
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Ten Egyptian army members including an officer were killed or wounded on Thursday when a bomb exploded in an armored vehicle south of Bir al-Abd city in the Northern Sinai region, a military spokesman said in a statement.He did not specify how many had been killed in the attack, which not immediately claimed by any group. Militants loyal to Islamic State are active in the strategic border region.Egypt has been fighting Islamist insurgents who have killed hundreds of police and soldiers in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula since the ousting of Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 following mass protests against his rule.Militants have also carried out attacks elsewhere in the country.An Egyptian policeman and seven suspected militants were killed on April 14 in an exchange of gunfire after the ministry of interior received information about potential Easter attacks against Coptic Christians, the ministry said, adding that three other policemen had also been wounded.The military and police launched a major campaign against militant groups in 2018, focusing on the Sinai Peninsula as well as southern areas and the border with Libya. 
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After a slow start, the coronavirus pandemic is picking up speed across Africa with more than 37,000 reported cases. Like elsewhere in the world, it has forced drastic behavioral changes and wreaked havoc on economies and jobs. But COVID-19 threatens to be particularly devastating on a continent battling poverty, weak health infrastructure, conflict and a spate of other deadly diseases.  For African journalists, this means big stories to cover — but also big challenges. Voice of America is featuring three of them, and their thoughts about covering COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.  Covering two conflicts in Burkina Faso: Kalidou Sy, France 24As the Burkina Faso correspondent for international TV channel France 24, Kalidou Sy is no stranger to covering crises. The country’s escalating fight against Islamist terrorism is regular story fare.  Now he has shifted his attention to this newest threat. Instead of protecting himself against attacks, he’s equipped with masks, gloves and disinfectant gel.  FILE – Kalidou Sy, France 24 correspondent in Burkina Faso, is pictured during pre-coronavirus days. (Courtesy of Kalidou Sy)“Both are dangerous subjects to cover, so you prepare before going out,” Sy said, adding that his conflict experience helps him cover COVID-19. “You do your homework on the area you’re going, decide the people you’re going to interview ahead of time. You do the maximum preparation to be efficient on the ground.”As of Saturday afternoon EDT, Burkina Faso had 641 confirmed coronavirus cases and 43 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus dashboard. It’s a tally higher than those of many other sub-Saharan African countries, but dwarfed by those from such nations as Djibouti, Cote d’Ivoire and South Africa.The coronavirus is straining an already weak health infrastructure, and further threatening access to education in a country where jihadi attacks have shuttered hundreds of schools.And it has pushed out other important news stories.Terrorism persists“The terrorism and attacks continue,” Sy said. ‘But it’s no longer a priority, and we have less access to information.”Sy himself is self-isolating, venturing from his home only for work or shopping. He opts for Skype interviews only as a last resort, preferring coverage in the field, although he avoids large crowds.One plus: Interviewing people has become much easier, he said, especially since the country eased lockdown rules last week.“It’s difficult to find witnesses willing to speak to you when you report on terrorism,” Sy said. “That’s not the case with coronavirus. People talk about it very easily.”“They’ve experienced terrorism and poverty,” he added. “They take coronavirus seriously, but it’s not going to stop them living their lives.”Poverty and press freedom threats in Zimbabwe: Thomas Sithole, Zimbabwe Center for Media and Information LiteracyThe coronavirus has turned Thomas Sithole into a refugee of sorts. In Kampala for a conference in late March, the Zimbabwean journalist found himself unable to return home after Uganda imposed a lockdown that continues to this day.Even so, he is covering the news back home, working with a team of citizen-journalists on the ground.Paris-based Malian journalist Moise Mounkoro works on stories for his new online website. (Courtesy of Moise Mounkoro)On a recent day he was interviewing leading African experts and businessmen on the fallout of COVID-19 and how the continent can rebound. The videos and podcasts to be streamed on Upendo will target a young audience.  Based in Paris, Mounkoro covers his stories remotely, using the internet and his smartphone for his reporting. There are few precautions to take, unless he heads out to snap photos of a locked-down French capital.  He tunes into webinars for expert insight on the crisis, scouring Facebook and Twitter for story ideas and the fake news that’s trending. He makes calls to Africa to cross-check and dig further.“In many African countries, governments don’t want to publish news that’s not coming from them” about the pandemic, Mounkoro said, ticking off several accused by media watchdog groups of press freedom violations in recent weeks. He fears they will only become worse.Digging for newsBut he also pushes African colleagues to go beyond the official news.”Generally, journalists in Africa face the same problem as those in the U.S. and France,” Mounkoro said. “Do you just swallow what the government says, or do you dig for the news?”  Like France 24’s Sy, Mounkoro is worried about the many stories that go unreported in Africa these days.  “We’re no longer covering the big wars in Mali and elsewhere,” Mounkoro said. “We’re just focused on COVID-19, and that’s a big problem for me. I think we also need to focus on these other issues, even if COVID-19 is a big one.”
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Russia’s top diplomat on Thursday angrily dismissed media reports alleging a Russian plot to poison the mayor of Prague and another official in the Czech capital. Prague’s mayor Zdenek Hrib and Zhanna Nemtsova, daughter of Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov smile after unveiling a sign renaming the square where the Russian Embassy is located in Prague, Feb. 27, 2020.Respekt weekly said in its latest edition published on Monday that Czech intelligence services suspected a Russian agent was sent to Prague three weeks ago to poison Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib and Prague 6 mayor Ondrej Kolar. The story was based on anonymous sources.  Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ridiculed the claims, saying that the notion that Czech authorities spotted a Russian man with powerful poison ricin and let him through doesn’t make any sense. Czech officials didn’t comment, but Kolar said in a television interview Tuesday that he has been under police protection because of “some facts that have been found, the fact that there’s a Russian here whose goal is to liquidate me.” He added that the alleged assassin was also targeting Hrib and Pavel Novotny, Prague’s Reporyje district mayor. Lavrov scoffed at the allegations. “They found a deadly poison and let him into the country?” he said at Thursday’s briefing. “Would any sound person believe in these fabrications.” Moscow and Prague have been at loggerheads for weeks after Kolar’s district removed the statue of Soviet World War II commander Ivan Konev whose armies liberated Prague from Nazi occupation. Officials in Prague 6 said the statue will be moved to a museum and a new monument honoring the city’s liberation will be installed in its place. The statue’s removal caused outrage in Russia, which has angrily lashed out at any attempts to diminish the nation’s decisive role in defeating the Nazis. Lavrov charged Thursday that the Prague authorities’ action violated a 1993 friendship treaty that carried a Czech pledge to protect memorials to Russian World War II heroes. 
 
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An extraordinary diplomatic dispute is intensifying between Australia and China over the new coronavirus. Canberra wants an international investigation into the source of COVID-19 and its spread, a move that has infuriated Beijing.China has rejected criticism from other governments about how it handled the outbreak of COVID-19. The highly contagious and deadly new coronavirus is thought to have originated at an animal market in Wuhan, a large city in China’s Hubei province.Australia is pushing for an international investigation into the origins of the disease, and how and why it became a global pandemic.While the idea is likely to have support from U.S. President Donald Trump, France and Britain have said now is the time to fight the virus, not to look for who to blame.Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, though, says the world deserves answers on the deadly COVID-19 outbreak.“Australia will continue to, of course, pursue what is a very reasonable and sensible course of action,” he said. “It has shut down the global economy. It would seem entirely reasonable and sensible that the world would want to have an independent assessment of how this all occurred so we can learn the lessons and prevent it from happening again.”China sees the inquiry as a political witch hunt, orchestrated by the U.S. and designed to humiliate Beijing. Its ambassador to Canberra has hinted at retaliation and a boycott of Australian products and universities, described by a senior Australian government minister as “threats of economic coercion.”However, Long Zhou, China’s consul general in the state of Victoria, said Beijing has acted in good faith over the COVID-19 pandemic.“China has attached great importance to international health cooperation,” he said. “The Chinese government has released information related to the COVID-19 in (an) open, transparent and responsible manner.”Some experts believe Australia’s relationship with China, already strained with allegations of political meddling and cyber espionage, is now at its lowest point since diplomatic ties were established in 1972.Australia has much to lose. China is its biggest trading partner, and its demand for natural resources has helped to underpin its recent prosperity. Before Australia closed its borders because of the COVID-19 outbreak, Chinese travelers and students were also important to the success of its tourism and higher education sectors.
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European markets are mixed in midday trading Thursday. London’s FTSE was trading slightly lower, while both the DAX in Frankfurt and Paris’ CAC-40 had made slight gains. White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx listens as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci, left, speaks at the White House, April 29, 2020, in Washington.Meanwhile, the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq were all in positive territory in futures trading, indicating that Wall Street would continue Wednesday’s big rally sparked by news that initial tests of an experimental drug, remdesivir, helped coronavirus patients recover rapidly from the disease. The results were praised by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as “very optimistic.”  More good news came from Britain, where researchers at Oxford University say a vaccine for the coronavirus, currently being tested on people, could be widely available as early as September.  A man walks past an electronic stock board showing Japan’s Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo, April 30, 2020.The rally on Wall Street spilled over into Asia Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei index gaining 422 points, or 2.4%, to close out the trading day at 20,193.69.  Australia’s S&P/ASX ended the day 2.4% higher, while Shanghai’s index gained 1.3%. The indexes in Hong Kong and Seoul were closed for public holidays.     Oil markets continued to recover, with the price of West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, trading at $17.46 per barrel, a gain of 15.9%, while the international benchmark Brent crude was trading at $24.87 per barrel, up 10.3%.   
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The Trump administration is not planning to extend federal coronavirus social distancing guidelines that expire Thursday, instead focusing on working with states to reopen the country.Individual state governors are deciding when and at what pace to relax restrictions on non-essential businesses and group gatherings and calls for people to stay home.Trump said Wednesday that the federal guidelines first issued in mid-March will be “fading out,” while his administration consults with governors on their plans.Health officials have cautioned about moving too quickly toward Trump’s desired “return to normal,” saying that doing so risks new waves of infections.Many states are either already starting to allow more businesses to operate with social distancing guidelines such as extra space between restaurant tables, while others have announced plans to begin easing lockdown orders in the coming weeks.California Governor Gavin Newsom is set to order his state’s beaches and parks to close on Friday after tens of thousands of people defied stay-at-home orders last weekend.Newsom has said he will only consider relaxing statewide restrictions when a number of milestones are met, such as declining case numbers for two weeks and the widespread availability of testing so officials can quickly isolate the infected and test those who have been in close contact.Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Wednesday that the city is expanding its testing sites to welcome anyone who wants a test.”If you think you might have COVID-19, want the reassurance that you don’t, you’ve been around people that you have seen with symptoms, get a test. We can do it,” Garcetti said.Trouble in SyriaDiscussions about relaxing lockdown orders are taking place in many other countries, including Japan, where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday his government is consulting experts about whether to extend a state of emergency that is set to expire next week.Japan has about 14,000 confirmed cases, and Abe said the situation remains “severe.”Finland is the latest European country to announce plans to reopen schools.  Beginning May 14, students will return with new rules that include fewer students in a classroom and avoiding groups in communal areas.While parts of the world focus on emerging from the worst of their coronavirus outbreaks, there remains great concern about parts of the world that are just beginning to see worse effects, especially those already hampered by conflict.U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the Security Council there are 44 confirmed cases and four deaths in Syria, a country he said cannot be expected “to cope with a crisis that is challenging even the wealthiest nations.”In Yemen, health officials reported the country’s first two coronavirus deaths as well as a cluster of new cases in the southern port city of Aden that has been a focal point in a five-year civil war.The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide stood at 3.2 million Thursday with more than 227,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. 
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The head of Lesotho’s ruling party turned down Prime Minister Thomas Thabane’s demands for immunity from prosecution in connection with the shooting death of his former wife in the southern African kingdom.The decision by the leader of the All Basotho Convention (ABC) party is the latest in a week of setbacks for the 80-year-old embattled leader, who is facing pressure to resign before the end of July, as he promised.Earlier this week, a magistrate ruled that Lesotho’s high court will decide if Thabane can claim immunity from a charge that he murdered his former wife.Also this week, the Senate modified the constitution, limiting the prime minister’s powers to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections.A leader of the opposition party, the Democratic Congress (DC), Motlalentoa Letsosa, told the French News Agency (AFP ) that Thabane has run out of options and the only thing that’s left for him is to leave.Thabane recently rejected an offer by Lesotho’s coalition government and South African mediators to step down with a dignified retirement.Police charged Thabane’s wife, first lady Maesaiah Thabane, with the murder of his previous wife, Lipolelo Thabane, outside her home in Maseru, Lesotho’s capital, just before his June 2017 inauguration.
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President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he believes China’s handling of the coronavirus is proof that Beijing “will do anything they can” to make him lose his reelection bid in November.In an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office, Trump said he was looking at different options in terms of consequences for China over the virus. “I can do a lot,” he said.Trump has been heaping blame on China for a global pandemic that has killed at least 60,000 people in the United States according to a Reuters tally and thrown the U.S. economy into a deep recession, jeopardizing his hopes for another four-year term.The Republican president, often accused of not acting early enough to prepare the United States for the spread of the virus, said he believed China should have been more active in letting the world know about the coronavirus much sooner.Asked whether he was considering the use of tariffs or even debt write-offs for China, Trump would not offer specifics.”There are many things I can do,” he said. “We’re looking for what happened.””China will do anything they can to have me lose this race,” said Trump. He said he believes Beijing wants his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, to win the race to ease the pressure Trump has placed on China over trade and other issues.Trump went on to say during the interview Wednesday that he does not believe opinion polls that show Biden leading in the 2020 race for the White House.He said he did not expect the election to be a referendum on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and added he was surprised the former vice president was doing well.”I don’t believe the polls,” Trump said. “I believe the people of this country are smart. And I don’t think that they will put a man in who’s incompetent.”Finally, Trump also said South Korea has agreed to pay the United States more money for a defense cooperation agreement but would not be drawn out on how much. 
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New rumors about Kim Jong Un pour in daily. The North Korean leader is dead. Or he’s very ill. Or maybe he’s just recuperating in his luxury compound, or isolating himself from the coronavirus.As speculation about his health builds, an underlying question looms for professional spies, policymakers, academics and curious news consumers alike.What do we really know about the man who leads North Korea?The answer is crucial because Kim’s intentions, and the as-yet-unknown state of his health, play an outsized role in the workings of Northeast Asia, an uneasy collection of wary neighbors at the best of times and home to two of the three biggest economies in the world and a huge buildup of American military machinery and manpower.Sandwiched amid goliaths, North Korea is a small, impoverished, extraordinarily proud nation that through sheer force of will — and a relentless cult of personality built around a single family — has been at the center of a half-century security headache for its neighbors.No matter how successful China, South Korea and Japan become — and their transformation from war, poverty and domestic infighting into political and economic might has been spectacular — North Korea and its single-minded pursuit of nuclear-tipped missiles meant to protect the Kim family has made itself impossible to ignore, holding the region and Washington hostage to its narrow ambitions.The disappearanceThere’s not much to go on here despite the building media coverage.Some unconfirmed news reports say Kim is in fragile condition or even a vegetative state following heart surgery.The South Korean government, however, maintains that Kim still appears to be in power and that there have been no signs that something big has happened in North Korea.What’s uncontested is that Kim hasn’t appeared in public since an April 11 meeting focused on the coronavirus. This sort of vanishing act has happened before, but what has set rumors ablaze now is that for the first time as leader he missed the most important holiday of the North Korean year, the April 15 celebration of his grandfather’s birth.There have been no photographs and no videos of the leader in nearly three weeks, only state media reports of him sending written greetings to world leaders or citizens of merit.The manThose looking to understand Kim face a problem. Much of what the outside world sees is filtered through relentless North Korean propaganda meant to build him into an infallible paragon of leadership.Add to that vaguely sourced or misleading outside media reports and the extreme difficulty of cracking North Korea’s ultra-secrecy surrounding anything to do with the leader, and the picture that emerges of Kim is often more mosaic than profile.In South Korea, he is seen as both demon and statesman. He has repeatedly threatened to burn Seoul to the ground. He has also rolled out the red carpet for a visit to Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, by South Korea’s president and sent his own sister south for the 2018 Olympics.In the West, portrayals of Kim often run to caricature. His broken friendship with Dennis Rodman, the former basketball star he reportedly idolized as a schoolboy; the rumors about his extreme love of cheese and his allegedly creative ways of disposing of officials who displease him.Then there’s the stunning series of summits over the last two years with the leaders of Russia, China, the United States and South Korea.Kim was likely born in 1984 and attended boarding school for several years in Switzerland. Early on, some observers argued that his time in the West would lead him to eventually embrace Chinese-style reforms.That has not happened so far, though he has taken a markedly different approach to leadership than his publicity-shy father, Kim Jong Il, who died in 2011.Outside governments and experts initially questioned the ability of a man then in his 20s to lead, but Kim Jong Un quickly consolidated power. He ordered the 2013 execution of his uncle and mentor, Jang Song Thaek, who was accused of treason. Kim is also suspected of ordering the assassination of his estranged half brother, and potential rival, at a Malaysian airport in 2017.Kim has shown a growing confidence on the world stage, most clearly with the high-stakes diplomacy that followed a run of nuclear and missile tests in 2017 that had many fearing war.The sight of a North Korean leader meeting with his South Korean and U.S. rivals was extraordinary, though it’s not yet clear whether the diplomacy will settle an uneasy region.Kim entered 2020 vowing to bolster his nuclear deterrent in the face of “gangster-like” U.S. economic sanctions, and he supervised a series of weapons launches and military drills in March.Much of what happens now will depend on Kim’s health.North Korea, despite its poverty, has long commanded world attention because of its sustained, belligerent pursuit of what it calls self-defensive measures in response to U.S. hostility — and what critics call an illegal accumulation of nuclear bombs.There’s debate about whether North Korea ever intended to give up its nuclear weapons during the summits with Washington and Seoul. But the diplomacy seems inconceivable without Kim.That raises fears, during a potential moment of massive political instability, of a return to threats and increasingly powerful weapons tests meant to perfect the nuclear weapons seen as the only real guarantee of the Kim family’s power. 
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U.S. government officials say an experimental drug has proved effective against the new coronavirus in a major study.Gilead Sciences’s remdesivir is the first treatment to pass such a strict test against the virus, which has killed more than 218,000 people since it emerged late last year. The study was led by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and tested remdesivir versus usual care in more than 1,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients around the world.Results released Wednesday showed the drug reduced the time to recovery by 31%, or four days on average, compared to usual care. It is given through an IV and interferes with the virus’s ability to copy its genetic material.   An experimental drug has proved effective against the new coronavirus in a major study, shortening the time it takes for patients to recover by four days on average, U.S. government and company officials announced Wednesday. Gilead Sciences’s remdesivir is the first treatment to pass such a strict test against the virus, which has killed more than 218,000 people since it emerged late last year in China. Having a treatment could have a profound effect on the global pandemic, especially because health officials say any vaccine is likely a year or more away. The study, run by the National Institutes of Health, tested remdesivir versus usual care in 1,063 hospitalized coronavirus patients around the world. At the White House, NIH’s Dr. Anthony Fauci said the drug reduced the time it takes patients to recover by 31% — 11 days on average versus 15 days for those just given usual care.  He also said there was a trend toward fewer deaths among those on remdesivir, and that full results would soon be published in a medical journal.  “What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus,” Fauci said. “This will be the standard of care.”  Gilead Sciences Inc pharmaceutical company is pictured in Oceanside, California, April 29, 2020.A statement from the Food and Drug Administration says that the agency has been talking with California-based Gilead “regarding making remdesivir available to patients as quickly as possible, as appropriate.” Remdesivir is among many treatments being tested against the coronavirus but was the farthest along in study.  The drug is given through an IV and is designed to interfere with the virus’s ability to copy its genetic material. In animal tests against SARS and MERS, diseases caused by similar coronaviruses, the drug helped prevent infection and reduced the severity of symptoms when given early enough in the course of illness. But it is not yet approved anywhere in the world for any use. The NIH study quickly enrolled its original goal of 440 patients and then was expanded to give more answers on questions such as which subgroups may or may not benefit, and other factors that may affect success, such as how early in the course of illness the drug was given. The study’s main goal also was altered. Originally, it was the percentage of patients having various outcomes such as needing a breathing machine, fully recovered or dying 15 days after starting treatment. The new main goal is time to recovery, such as no longer needing oxygen or hospitalization. “We are excited and optimistic,” said one expert, Vanderbilt University’s Dr. Mark Denison. His lab first tested remdesivir against other coronaviruses in 2013 and has done much research on it since, but was not involved in the NIH study. “It’s active against every coronavirus that we’ve ever tested,” he said. “It was very hard for the virus to develop resistance to remdesivir. That means the drug would likely be effective over longer term use.” A less encouraging picture came from partial results from a separate study testing remdesivir in severely ill patients in China, published Wednesday in the British medical journal Lancet. Treatment did not speed recovery in that study, which was stopped after only 237 of a planned 453 patients were enrolled. Researchers gave 158 people the drug and 79 others got usual care.  Separately on Wednesday, Gilead announced partial results from its own ongoing study of the drug in severely ill, hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The company said patients treated for five days “achieved similar improvement” in health as others treated for 10 days. However, that result is hard to interpret because there is no comparison group of people getting usual care, so it’s impossible to know how much patients would have improved on their own.  The company also said no new safety problems emerged in that study, and that it would publish results in a medical journal soon. Gilead also is testing remdesivir in a separate study of moderately ill coronavirus patients. No results have yet been announced from that study, which does have a comparison group getting usual care.  Besides these studies, Gilead also has given remdesivir to more than 1,700 patients on a case-by-case emergency basis. In other treatment-related news this week, two studies gave updates on anti-inflammatory drugs that aim to tamp down the severe inflammation that often develops in later stages of severe COVID-19 and often proves fatal. A French hospital consortium reported success with using Acetemra, a Roche drug sold for rheumatoid arthritis and some other conditions, in a study of 129 coronavirus patients where 65 got the drug and the rest, usual care. No details were released; doctors said they were preparing to publish results.  A similar drug, Kevzara, did not work as well at low doses in a study of severely ill coronavirus patients, its makers Sanofi and Regeneron said. They’re continuing to test it at higher doses in critically ill patients, though. 
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Louisiana’s Republican state lawmakers are considering the extraordinary step of trying to override Gov. John Bel Edwards’ emergency decision-making, even as President Donald Trump on Wednesday praised the Democratic governor’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.Some GOP legislators, primarily in the House, are trying to rally support for a rare legal maneuver that would allow them to overturn possibly some or all of the governor’s disaster orders and proclamations related to the COVID-19 disease. The talks are an outgrowth of Republican displeasure with Edwards’ two-week extension of the statewide stay-at-home order until mid-May.”We’re all frustrated. It’s leading to conversations with the constituency back home and with the Legislature about whether the governor is making the right decisions for the state,” said Representative Blake Miguez, leader of the House Republican delegation.As those behind-the-scenes conversations continued, Edwards met Wednesday with Trump in a cordial White House session between two former foes. Trump unsuccessfully tried to keep the governor from winning reelection in November, traveling to Louisiana for anti-Edwards rallies. But since the election, the leaders have struck a conciliatory tone.Edwards thanked Trump for aid Louisiana has received, along with the pledge of federal assistance to boost testing. The Republican president touted the “great success in Louisiana” to stem the virus spread and complimented the governor’s performance, telling Edwards: “It’s an honor working with you and the people of Louisiana.”Shutdown elements extendedBack in Louisiana, leaders of the majority-Republican Legislature, who had largely avoided criticizing Edwards’ virus response, have started ramping up complaints. They’re bristling that Edwards is maintaining the order banning most public gatherings and shuttering certain businesses through May 15 with only minor changes.GOP lawmakers, citing skyrocketing unemployment and widespread business disruptions, had believed the governor appeared ready to loosen restrictions as Louisiana showed statewide improvement in battling the virus. Instead, Edwards dismissed Republican calls to consider a parish-by-parish or regional approach and extended his stay-at-home order.”All we have been informed of is very broad brush strokes. That’s where my members have a lot of concerns. They don’t feel like they’ve been getting answers when they try to delve deeper into the numbers,” said GOP Senate President Page Cortez.Republicans are weighing use of a little-discussed provision in Louisiana law that allows legislators, through a written petition of a majority of either the House or Senate, to revoke a governor’s disaster order. Republicans have consulted attorneys to determine how they could apply that law, if they could pick and choose what emergency orders they want to nullify and what the implications would be on federal disaster recovery aid and on-the-ground response work.The governor’s chief lawyer, Matthew Block, wrote to legislative leaders that the action would have far-reaching implications, ending emergency unemployment aid, nullifying school closures and risking the “crushing loss of federal funding.” Block said the petition could jeopardize federal reimbursement for hundreds of millions in state emergency spending for virus testing sites, Louisiana National Guard assistance, a temporary hospital created at the New Orleans convention center and more.FILE – A view of empty Bourbon Street in the French Quarter amid the coronavirus pandemic on March 27, 2020, in New Orleans.Republicans disagree on whether they want to revoke Edwards’ entire emergency declaration or to pinpoint the stay-at-home order. Neither Cortez nor Republican House Speaker Clay Schexnayder has offered public support for the petition, though both indicated they’d consider it.Looking for ‘unintended consequences'”We’re working on every possible solution to safely open our economy as quickly as possible and get our families back to work. One of the ideas is to override the governor’s emergency declaration,” Schexnayder said in a statement. “We’re looking into what, if any, unintended consequences that could have.”More than 27,600 people in Louisiana have tested positive for the coronavirus, and 1,802 people have died, according to state health department data.For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms. For others, the highly contagious virus can cause severe symptoms and be fatal.Edwards said he’s extending the stay-at-home order because some regions — northeast Louisiana, the Baton Rouge area and Acadiana — haven’t shown enough progress in fighting the virus. He said infectious disease specialists and public health experts recommended the extension.Republicans believe Louisiana meets the White House benchmarks for the first phase of economic reopening. They said Edwards cherry-picked regional data to make a statewide decision even as he resists making regional reopening decisions.Senate GOP leader Sharon Hewitt said she’s spoken with colleagues about revoking some of Edwards’ orders, but has questions about the ramifications.”There’s a lot of pent-up frustration and a lot of disappointment,” Hewitt said. “We’re just turning over every rock, but this one’s got a lot of tentacles that have to be understood before I could really support it.”Still, the petition needs support from only a majority in one chamber. Republican Representative Alan Seabaugh told KPEL radio he feels confident a petition can get 53 supporters in a House with 68 Republicans.
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Poland’s prime minister said Wednesday that the presidential election must be held in May despite the coronavirus pandemic to meet the requirements of the constitution. Mateusz Morawiecki said, however, that the May 10 election date may be pushed back by a week or two.  “Constitutional experts say that the election is also possible on successive dates: May 17 or May 23,” Morawiecki said.  “We will be taking the decision in the nearest future,” he said.  The ruling conservative Law and Justice party is pushing for the May vote by postal ballot only, driven by the fact that its candidate, President Andrzej Duda, is leading in opinion polls. It argues voting by mail is safe. But it has also empowered the parliamentary speaker to alter the May 10 date. The opposition wants the vote pushed back by a year or two, for social health reasons. All its candidates are trailing in opinion polls behind Duda. With less than two weeks to the vote, the bill formally regulating procedures for the vote still hasn’t been adopted in parliament, raising questions about whether the election can be held as planned.  
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Children could be the biggest victims of the Covid-19 pandemic — despite the fact that the disease affects mostly older people, say human rights groups. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the most obvious impact is the number of children missing out on their education.
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In Myanmar, an estimated 350,000 internally displaced persons living in crowded and sometimes unsanitary conditions face the danger of a widespread outbreak of COVID-19.  Access to food, aid and information has become increasingly difficult as travel restrictions and lockdowns increase.  In Kachin state, camps formed since 2011, when fighting resumed between the Myanmar forces and the Kachin Independence Army after a 17-year cease-fire was broken, are feeling the impact. In the Myanmar government-controlled capital of Myitkyina, long-time residents who depend on casual labor earnings say they have more to worry about than the virus itself.  ”We aren’t afraid to get the virus COVID-19 because the most important and dangerous thing for us is having the money needed for our family’s food supply,” says Naw Ja Pee, a Jaw Masat IDP camp resident.   “If we are shut out of food, we will all die,” she adds. The camps surrounding the Kachin capital have been locked down since April 8. Those who return to the camp from China and elsewhere are quarantined for 14 days and their vehicles are sprayed with disinfectants. “The people who come back are classified as a risky group, so we have to find space to quarantine them and take care of them,” explains camp nurse Saw Kyi Na. Food is in short supply and so is information about COVID-19. To help understand the highly contagious virus, a local media group produced a video with a special message for IDPs. Myitkyina News Journal’s Brang Mai and his team chose children from Jaw Masat IDP camp, with the intent of finding out their knowledge about the virus before producing an education video. The final one-minute clip presents seven children from the camp reciting prevention guidelines including wearing a mask, covering a cough and washing hands often.  “The first benefit is we can check the IDP people. Do they have enough information on COVID-19 or not? And the second thing is, people will be more aware,” explains Brang Mai. Social distancing, health care accessSocial distancing is difficult in camps with wall to wall huts. “The camps are really crowded, and all of their rooms are small and so in a small room there are eight to 10 people. They have to sleep in one small room together, so it is difficult for them to follow the social distancing,” Brang Mai adds. Access to healthcare is also a big challenge and camp residents often struggle to get clean water and other essential services. “Many people in Myanmar are completely outside the health system as it exists and that certainly includes the people in these IDP camps  in Kachin state, which is why it is so critical why there should be an effective prevention,”  said Human Rights Watch’s Phil Robertson. Humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid to Kachin Independence Organization-controlled territory in Northern Myanmar has been blocked for the last four years but some aid is coming in, through China. “I think that the U.N. team in Myanmar must get really forceful with the government of Myanmar and say ‘look this is life and death, it’s time to end these restrictions and let the people get the assistance in there that needs to be reaching these people,’” says Robertson. Camp backstory
The IDP camps were formed when civilians fled fighting between government forces and ethnic armed groups — a conflict that continues in Arakan, Shan and Karen states.   Quite often, the government soldiers control transportation routes and supplies to the camps. The Myanmar government unveiled a stimulus package in March including a US$70 million loan fund, mainly for Myanmar businesses in government-controlled areas affected by the pandemic. As the country braces for a possible outbreak of the deadly virus, civil society groups are calling for more aid for those in the ethnic areas since they are among the most vulnerable to COVID-19.
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