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European leaders are establishing an international medical organization to mount a united battle against the coronavirus.In their announcement in The Independent, a British newspaper, they said they are following in the footsteps of “Louis Pasteur, one of the world’s greatest scientists and a mastermind behind vaccines and breakthroughs which have saved millions of lives spanning three centuries.”“Our aim is simple,” the group said, about its goal of raising $8 billion Monday in an online pledging campaign to finance finding a COVID-19 vaccine and treatment.The leaders listed as being responsible for The Independent article are: Giuseppe Conte, prime minister of Italy; Emmanuel Macron, president of France; Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany; Charles Michel, president of the European Council; Erna Solberg, prime minister of Norway; and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.“We will all put our own pledges on the table and we are glad to be joined by partners from the world over,” they said. “We support the WHO and we are delighted to join forces with experienced organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust.”U.S. President Donald Trump has suspended payments to the World Health Organization, saying that WHO did not act swiftly enough in alerting the world about the deadly virus.The European leaders said, “Every single euro or dollar that we raise together will be channeled primarily through recognized global health organizations such as CEPI, Gavi, the Vaccines Alliance, the Global Fund and Unitaid into developing and deploying as quickly as possible, for as many as possible the diagnostics, treatments and vaccines that will help the world overcome the pandemic.”“If we can develop a vaccine that is produced by the world, for the whole world, this will be a unique global public good of the 21st century,” the alliance said. “Together with our partners, we commit to making it available, accessible and affordable to all.”There are more than 3.4 million global cases of COVID-19 worldwide, and nearly 244,000 deaths.
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Air force planes flew over major Indian cities and helicopters showered flower petals on hospitals as a tribute to healthcare workers on the front lines of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic even as India witnessed its highest single-day jump in infections and shut down for another two weeks.Confined to their homes, people craned their necks from balconies and stood on rooftops to catch sight of the fighter jets as they flew low over a dozen deserted cities, from Srinagar in the Himalayas to Thiruvanathapuram in the south, Sunday morning.As helicopters dropped petals on hospitals in cities including New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, some health workers stood outside — a brief moment of respite from the grueling fight to contain the infection.Military bands played outside some hospitals and the navy plans to light up ships anchored along the coast in the evening.The armed forces called it a tribute to doctors, nurses, sanitation workers, police, home guards, delivery boys and the media.“We wholeheartedly appreciate the gesture by the army, navy and air force, the armed forces,” said Srinivas Rajkumar, the general secretary of the Resident Doctor’s Association of the country’s premier government hospital, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, in New Delhi. “But the government should also pay attention to shortcomings in preparedness which will decide the final outcome of the battle against COVID-19,” he told local media.Indian Air Force (IAF) Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jets perform to show gratitude towards the frontline healthworkers fighting the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Gandhinagar, May 3, 2020. The tribute by the armed forces came as Indians prepared to spend another two weeks at home — India’s 40-day shutdown that was due to end Sunday has been extended until May 17.India’s battle against the coronavirus pandemic is centered largely in its big cities, where most of the nearly 40,000 cases have been reported.On Saturday the number of infections rose by 2,644 — the highest in one day — while 83 people died, also the highest in a single day, taking the country’s death toll to over 1,300.A man wearing a protective gear mourns next to the body of his father who died from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at a graveyard in New Delhi, India, May 2, 2020.Indian health authorities say its stringent six-week lockdown has helped in containing the number of infections in the crowded country of 1.3 billion to levels far below those seen in several Western countries.Public health experts say that may be true, but say that due to low testing, the actual spread of the disease may not be accurately reflected in the numbers.“There is nothing to cheer about. We have to expect that the avalanche is hitting us,” warned Jacob John, former professor of virology at the Christian Medical College in Tamil Nadu.“The doubling time for coronavirus cases in India is exactly the same as countries like Italy had early on. So we are just like any other country,” he said.The government is easing some restrictions starting Monday in areas where the coronavirus is not rampant by allowing some shops and offices to reopen and industries to restart. 
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A riot broke out Saturday at a prison in the city of Manaus in Brazil’s Amazon state, as inmates protested the suspension of all visits to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.The inmates at the Puraquequara facility held prison guards hostage for more than five hours before authorities brought the situation under control and freed the guards, the state’s public security secretary said in a statement.While inmates took to the roof of the facility, people outside the penitentiary were holding signs in Portuguese reading “Peace, Peace. They just want to be treated with respect” and “They’re already paying for their offenses.”A group of family members, some wearing masks, held a sign saying “Social reintegration? In these conditions it’s not possible.”Relatives said visits at the Puraquequara prison were suspended in mid-March. Rumors that the coronavirus had begun to spread there have been circulating on social media for weeks.Brazil has reported at least 92,000 cases of COVID-19 infections as of Saturday. About 6,500 people have succumbed to the virus.
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Even as some U.S. states prepare to reopen, doctors and scientists say coronavirus cases will continue to rise. But it appears the holiday spirit is helping some people get through the pandemic despite those holidays being many months away. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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Iran on Saturday denounced recent U.S. allegations that it was providing covert aid to help Venezuela overcome gas shortages as “baseless” without directly addressing them.  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week said “multiple aircraft” belonging to Iran’s Mahan Air had transferred “unknown support” to Venezuela’s government. He called for a halt to the flights and for other countries to bar overflights by Mahan Air.  The Associated Press reported last month that Mahan Air was delivering key chemical components used for producing gasoline to help revive an aging refinery in the South American country, which is in the grip of a severe economic crisis.Venezuela has been suffering from widespread gasoline shortages despite having the world’s largest oil reserves.Both Iran and Venezuela are under heavy U.S. sanctions, and have had close relations for the last two decades.Iran’s Foreign Ministry tweeted that the “baseless comments were made in order to prepare the ground for mounting U.S. pressure on the Venezuelan government.”Another statement said the U.S. intended to “obstruct the Venezuelan government’s plan for reviving the country’s refineries.” The statements did not directly address the allegations or elaborate on the nature of the cooperation between the two countries.The Trump administration is pursuing a “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at ousting Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, and considers opposition leader Juan Guaido as the nation’s legitimate leader. The U.S. and a coalition of nearly 60 nations say Maduro clings to power following a 2018 election that critics consider a sham because the most popular opposition politicians were banned from running.The Trump administration imposed heavy sanctions on Iran after withdrawing from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
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Military jets flew over U.S. cities on Saturday to salute front-line workers in the country with the highest coronavirus caseload and death toll in the world.Residents of the nation’s capital, Washington, as well as Baltimore and Atlanta, were treated to sights of the Navy’s Blue Angels and the Air Force’s Thunderbirds arcing across the sky.Crowds turned out on the National Mall to see the jets fly in formation past sites such as the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument.Most of those in attendance appeared to be following social distancing rules, and many wore face masks.”Proud to see the #AmericaStrong salute to our healthcare & frontline workers with a spectacular flyover today in Washington, D.C. Thank you to the @AFThunderbirds and @BlueAngels for this beautiful display of solidarity,” first lady Melania Trump tweeted, including a photo of herself watching the fly-by from outside the White House.The Thunderbirds hailed health workers and first responders battling the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 1.1 million in the U.S. and killed more than 66,000.”They are an inspiration for the entire country during these challenging times and it was an honor to fly for them today,” the group said on Twitter.The Blue Angels and Thunderbirds last month flew over U.S. virus epicenter New York City, as well as Newark and Trenton, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.
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A young Egyptian filmmaker imprisoned for directing a music video critical of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has died in a Cairo jail, his lawyer said Saturday.Shady Habash, 24, died in Tora prison, said lawyer Ahmed al-Khawaga, who was unable to give a cause of death.”His health had been deteriorating for several days. … He was hospitalized, then returned to the prison yesterday evening, where he died in the night,” he told AFP, without giving further details.Habash was detained in March 2018, accused of “spreading fake news” and “belonging to an illegal organization,” according to the prosecution.He was arrested after having directed the music video for the song “Balaha” by rock singer Ramy Essam.The song’s lyrics lambast “Balaha” — a name given to el-Sissi by his detractors in reference to a character in an Egyptian film known for being a notorious liar.Essam gained popularity during the popular revolt against then-President Hosni Mubarak in early 2011. He has since gone into exile in Sweden.The video has had more than 5 million views on YouTube.Died of ‘negligence’The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said in a Twitter post that Habash died as a result of “negligence and lack of justice.”Human rights groups have regularly highlighted poor prison conditions in Egypt.Since early March, because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, authorities have suspended visits and the work of the courts, further isolating detainees.”Due to the measures taken against the coronavirus, no one has been able to see [Habash]” recently, said Khawaga.Habash himself warned of his predicament in October, in a letter posted Saturday on Facebook by activist Ahdaf Soueif.”It’s not prison that kills, it’s loneliness that kills. … I’m dying slowly each day,” he wrote.Fearing the spread of the virus in overcrowded prisons, human rights defenders have called for the release of political prisoners and detainees awaiting trial.According to several NGOs, an estimated 60,000 detainees in Egypt are political prisoners, including secular activists, journalists, lawyers, academics and Islamists arrested in an ongoing crackdown against dissent since the military’s 2013 ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.
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Warren Buffett planned to lead an unusual annual meeting Saturday afternoon without any of the roughly 40,000 shareholders who typically attend, but the investor did plan to offer some of the commentary that draws the huge crowds.Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting was to be livestreamed and include an abbreviated version of the question-and-answer session Buffett normally leads. All of the surrounding events, including a trade show where Berkshire companies sell their products, were canceled this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.”It’s going to be a strange annual meeting,” said Andy Kilpatrick, a retired stockbroker who wrote a Buffett biography and has attended every annual meeting since 1985.Instead of sitting next to business partner Charlie Munger in an arena filled with shareholders, Buffett was being joined this year by Berkshire Vice Chairman Greg Abel, who oversees all of the company’s non-insurance businesses, to answer questions in front of a camera.The two men likely were likely to be asked about the nearly $50 billion loss that Berkshire reported Saturday morning and the huge pile of cash the company is holding.Berkshire said it lost $49.7 billion, or $30,653 per Class A share, during the first quarter. That’s down from last year’s profit of $21.66 billion, or $13,209 per Class A share.  Investment values sinkThe biggest factor in the loss was a $54.5 billion loss on the value of Berkshire’s investment portfolio as the stock market declined sharply after the coronavirus outbreak began. The year before, Berkshire’s investments added $15.5 billion to the company’s profits.Buffett has long said Berkshire’s operating earnings offer a better view of quarterly performance because they exclude investments and derivatives, which can vary widely. By that measure, Berkshire’s operating earnings improved to $5.87 billion, or $3,617.62 per Class A share, from $5.56 billion, or $3,387.56 per Class A share.Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected operating earnings per Class A share of $3,796.90 on average.Berkshire’s revenue grew 1 percent to $61.27 billion. The company said revenue slowed considerably in April as the virus outbreak negatively affected most of its businesses. Berkshire closed several of its retail businesses, such as See’s Candy and the Nebraska Furniture Mart, this spring while BNSF railroad and its insurance and utility businesses continued operating.  Berkshire is sitting on a pile of more than $137 billion cash because Buffett has struggled to find major acquisitions for the company recently. Edward Jones analyst Jim Shanahan said it was striking that Buffett didn’t find any bargains to invest in at the end of the first quarter.”The lack of investment activity really sticks out,” Shanahan said.Berkshire Hathaway Inc. owns more than 90 companies, including the railroad and insurance, utility, furniture and jewelry businesses. The company also has major investments in such companies as Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola and Bank of America.
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The United Nations says torrential rains and flooding have affected nearly 150,000 people throughout Yemen, causing serious damage to vital infrastructure and exposing thousands to potentially life-threatening disease outbreaks.U.N. agencies say the rains, which have been ongoing since mid-April, have damaged houses and shelters, rendering thousands homeless. Flood waters have washed out roads and bridges, contaminated water supplies and knocked out electricity and other vital services.The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says conditions are particularly harsh for thousands of families already displaced by conflict, who have lost shelter, food rations and household supplies.OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke told VOA many people are at risk of getting ill or dying from disease outbreaks, which thrive in flooded, unsanitary conditions.“Water-borne disease such as cholera or vector-borne, such as malaria because the stagnant water after the flooding is a breeding ground for mosquitos. So, getting rid of the water as fast as possible is very important and, of course, providing clean drinking water for the families who are there already,” he said.Laerke said more than 110,000 cases of suspected cholera have been recorded across Yemen since January.Yemen’s civil war, which is in its fifth year, has taken a heavy toll in lost lives and has shattered the country’s socio-economic structure. The U.N. says 80 percent of the population, or 24 million people, are in need of international assistance. It calls Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.Looming over the existing calamity is the threat of COVID-19. Laerke said so far only six cases of the disease have been confirmed in the country.“But really, the setting there almost conspires to make this into a disaster if we start seeing widespread communal transmission of COVID-19. One particular issue here is really the massive funding problems in Yemen at the moment,” he said.Laerke said the U.N.’s humanitarian operation needs a significant boost in funding. Otherwise, he warns many programs critical to combatting COVID-19, such as providing clean water, sanitation and access to health care, risk being shut down in coming months. 
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Kenyan Health Ministry staff began mass coronavirus tests in a low-income neighborhood of Nairobi Friday.
   
Kawangware, where voluntary testing rolled out, is an area where social distancing can be a challenge, according to Ministry of Health official Lydia Mudeyo.  
 
“The social distancing in this area is difficult and therefore it is advisable for the government and the ministry as a whole to take the initiative of educating the common mwananchi [referring to an ordinary citizen] on how to do the hand washing and the social distancing and that is why we decided, first of all, to do the mass testing in this area so that it can advise us on the outbreak in this area,” Mudeyp said.
 
If they test negative, residents of Kawangware hope they stand a better chance of finding jobs in the impoverished African country.
 
“I am very happy because I know my status now and my family will be safe and also when I go to look for work elsewhere, since I am a hotelier, I know things will be good,” Monica Wairimu, a Kawangware resident who was among those tested.
 
Wairimu said that due to the coronavirus outbreak, her business has drastically declined and as the COVID-19 hit the country, she was selling a quarter of what she used to.
   
Africa has now more than 40,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported. There have been more than 1,600 deaths across the continent.
 
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Locked down in COVID-19 biosecurity zones, thousands of kilometers from Australia’s big cities, aboriginal artists are performing online to global audiences for the first time.  Musicians from northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory are joining the worldwide trend of artists in lockdown performing from home.For a month, indigenous artists are giving free weekend performances online.  The virtual concerts are helping to sustain the region’s musicians during the age of COVID-19.  Festivals and other cultural events have been canceled.The executive producer, Nicholas O’Riley, hopes new audiences will enjoy what they hear.“Doing the East Arnhem live is great, [a] great opportunity for them to keep playing, but also, you know, open up their music to a whole different audience from, you know, right around the world,” he said. “Hopefully we will see, you know, an EP [extended play record] or a small album come out of it.”There are no known cases of COVID-19 in Arnhem Land.  The government said aboriginal Australians are one of the groups most at risk from the disease because of widespread ill health and overcrowded housing.Indigenous people make up about 3 percent of the Australian population, and they suffer high rates of chronic disease, poverty and imprisonment.Travel to and from remote parts of the Northern Territory is being tightly controlled under efforts to protect indigenous communities from the spread of the new coronavirus. 
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The White House is blocking Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, from testifying Wednesday before a House of Representatives committee that is investigating how the Trump administration has handled the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci’s testimony would be “counter-productive,” Judd Deere, a White House spokesman said in a statement.“While the Trump administration continues its whole-of-government response to COVID-19, including safely opening up America again, and expediting vaccine development,” Deere said, “it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at congressional hearings.”Fauci and U.S. President Donald Trump have not always agreed on how best to fight the spread of the virus.  Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has criticized the country’s testing capacity for the virus, calling it “a failing.”   Last month, Trump retweeted a #FireFauci posting from another account, but the White House insists that the president is not looking to fire highly popular scientist.More than half of the 50 U.S. governors have taken steps to partially relax lockdown restrictions, while hoping a spike in infections won’t trigger another round of business closures.Other U.S. governors, many of whom are Democrats, are taking a more guarded approach, trying to balance the need to reopen their state economies with concerns about the coronavirus.Laborers work at an emergency hospital under construction, an extension of one of the hospitals that’s handling COVID-19 coronavirus patients in Jakarta, Indonesia, on May 2, 2020.As some U.S. governors push to relax restrictions after Thursday’s expiration of White House distancing guidelines, Fauci, warned them to avoid lifting state limits prematurely.“Obviously you could get away with that, but you’re taking a really significant risk,” Fauci said on CNN.Another warning came in a report by the University of Minnesota, which said the pandemic could last two more years. The report, released Thursday by the university’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, warned that the U.S. should prepare for a decline in infections followed by a spike as early as this fall.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted an emergency use authorization for the antiviral drug remdesivir, clearing the way for more hospitals to use the drug. Recent clinical data show the drug might be a promising treatment for the coronavirus.More than 3.3 million people around the world have been infected with COVID-19 and nearly 284,000 infected with the virus have died.In the U.S., there are more than 1.1 million COVID cases and more than 65,000 deaths.U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told BBC that it is a tragedy that the world’s leaders have not been able “to come together to face COVID-19 in an articulated coordinated way.”The U.N. estimates that 8 percent of the world’s population, about 500 million people, could be forced into poverty by year’s end because of the devastation brought by the virus.As countries consider how and when to reopen, India, the world’s second-most populous country, said Friday it would extend its nationwide lockdown for two more weeks after Monday. But the country’s ministry of home affairs said “considerable relaxations” would be allowed in lower-risk areas, including the manufacturing and distribution of essential goods between states.Spain emerges from lockdown during the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease.Many European countries have begun gradually reopening or have plans to do so in the coming days. The economy in the eurozone – European countries that use the common euro currency – shrank a record 3.8 percent in the first quarter of the year.In Britain, health minister Matt Hancock announced Friday the country has hit its target of carrying out 100,000 COVID-19 tests a day. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday that Britain is past the peak of the coronavirus outbreak and that cases are declining. The coronavirus has killed more than 27,500 people in Britain and infected about 178,700.Italy, Spain and France on Friday reported declines in deaths from the virus, down from the peaks of their countries’ outbreaks. 
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The United Stated Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for a drug called remdesivir to treat patients diagnosed with the coronavirus, President Donald Trump announced Friday. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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A Pakistan journalist living in exile in Sweden who has been missing since March has been found dead, police said Friday.”His body was found on April 23 in the Fyris river outside Uppsala,” police spokesman Jonas Eronen told AFP.Sajid Hussain, from the troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan, was working part-time as a professor in Uppsala, about 60 kilometers north of Stockholm, when he went missing on March 2.He was also the chief editor of the Baluchistan Times, an online magazine he had set up, in which he wrote about drug trafficking, forced disappearances and a long-running insurgency.”The autopsy has dispelled some of the suspicion that he was the victim of a crime,” Eronen said.The police spokesman added that while a crime could not be completely ruled out, Hussain’s death could equally have been the result of an accident or suicide.”As long as a crime cannot be excluded, there remains the risk that his death is linked to his work as a journalist,” Erik Halkjaer, head of the Swedish branch of Reporters without Borders (RSF), told AFP.According to the RSF, Hussain was last seen getting onto a train for Uppsala in Stockholm.Hussain came to Sweden in 2017 and secured political asylum in 2019.The Pakistan foreign ministry declined to comment when asked about Hussain by AFP.
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Hong Kong police used pepper spray on Friday to disperse over a hundred protesters in a shopping mall who were singing and chanting pro-democracy slogans. The demonstrators sang the protest anthem “Glory to Hong Kong” and chanted “Glory to Hong Kong, revolution of our times” in the New Town Plaza mall in Hong Kong’s New Territories.  As protesters gathered in the mall, riot police stopped and searched some and later told them to leave, saying they were violating social-distancing rules. The police then sprayed tear gas to disperse the crowd before cordoning off the atrium of the mall. The protest was one of several that went ahead on May 1, Labor Day, despite rules that forbid public gatherings of more than four people.  Protesters display open palm with five fingers, signifying the “Five demands – not one less”, during the Labor Day in Hong Kong, May 1, 2020.Small groups of protesters also gathered near Kowloon’s Mong Kok and Kwun Tong subway stations. Organizers initially planned citywide protests but many were canceled, with the organizers urging people to support pro-democracy restaurants instead. Friday’s protests were the latest in a string of demonstrations over the past week in which protesters gathered in shopping malls. They follow the arrest of 15 pro-democracy activists and former lawmakers last Saturday. The demonstrations are a continuation of a movement that began last June to protest an extradition bill that would have allowed detainees in Hong Kong to be transferred to mainland China. Although the bill was later withdrawn, the demonstrations continued for months before a lull starting in January as the coronavirus pandemic broke out. 
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U.S. regulators on Friday allowed emergency use of an experimental drug that appears to help some coronavirus patients recover faster.  It is the first drug shown to help fight COVID-19, which has killed more than 230,000 people worldwide.  President Donald Trump announced the news at the White House alongside Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn, who said the drug would be available for patients hospitalized with COVID-19. The FDA acted after preliminary results from a government-sponsored study showed that Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir shortened the time to recovery by 31%, or about four days on average, for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. FILE – FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn speaks as U.S. President Donald Trump listens during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House, April 21, 2020.The study of 1,063 patients is the largest and most strict test of the drug and included a comparison group that received just usual care so remdesivir’s effects could be rigorously evaluated. Those given the drug were able to leave the hospital in 11 days on average versus 15 days for the comparison group. The drug also might be reducing deaths, although that’s not certain from the partial results revealed so far. FILE – Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, April 17, 2020.The National Institutes of Health’s Dr. Anthony Fauci said the drug would become a new standard of care for severely ill COVID-19 patients like those in this study. The drug has not been tested on people with milder illness, and currently is given through an IV in a hospital. The FDA authorized the drug under its emergency powers to quickly speed experimental drugs, tests and other medical products to patients during public health crises. In normal times the FDA requires “substantial evidence” of a drug’s safety and effectiveness, usually through one or more large, rigorously controlled patient studies. But during public health emergencies the agency can waive those standards, simply requiring that an experimental drug’s potential benefits outweigh its risks. Gilead has said it would donate its currently available stock of the drug and is ramping up production to make more. No drugs are approved now for treating the coronavirus, and remdesivir will still need formal approval. The FDA can convert the drug’s status to full approval if Gilead or other researchers provide additional data of remdesivir’s safety and effectiveness.  “This is a very, very early stage so you wouldn’t expect to have any sort of full approval at this point,” said Cathy Burgess, an attorney specializing in FDA issues. “But obviously they want to get this out to patients as quickly as possible.” HydroxychloroquineThe FDA previously gave emergency use authorization to a malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, after Trump repeatedly promoted it as a possible treatment for COVID-19. No large high-quality studies have shown the drug to work for that, however, and it has significant safety concerns. The FDA warned doctors late last month against prescribing the drug outside of hospital or research settings, due to risks of sometimes fatal heart side effects. Two small studies published Friday add to concerns about the malaria drug.  
 
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The American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion Thursday in U.S. district court in Boise, Idaho, for a preliminary injunction to block a new law that bans transgender and intersex women and girls from participating in school sports.The Idaho bill, known as HB500, was signed into law by Republican Gov. Brad Little in late March. It is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2020.The motion filed in Hecox v. Little, the lawsuit challenging HB500, requests that the judge block the implementation of HB500 by early August so that transgender students can participate in athletic tryouts this fall. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Lindsay Hecox, a transgender student at Boise State University, and an anonymous junior at Boise High School. The motion cited the law’s violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution.HB500 bans transgender girls from participating in school athletics and legalizes the practice of gender verification screenings, by which female athletes may be required to prove their sex with invasive genital or genetic screenings in order to compete. Idaho is not the first state to introduce bills to restrict the participation of transgender athletes; however, it is the only state to have passed a statewide ban on participation of transgender athletes. Idaho’s legislation is a sign of the growing debate surrounding how to regulate transgender athletes. Earlier this year, many states, including New Hampshire and Arizona, introduced similar bills attempting to regulate transgender athletes.FILE – Attorney General William Barr speaks in Washington, March 23, 2020.In March, the debate reached the U.S. Justice Department. In a statement signed by Attorney General William Barr, the Justice Department argued against a Connecticut policy allowing transgender students to compete as the gender with which they identified. The policy was based on a state law that requires high school students to be treated according to their gender identity and Title IX, the federal law that prohibits exclusion from an educational program on the basis of sex. Barr and other department officials argued that the Connecticut policy ignores the real physiological differences between men and women, and deprives biological females of fair, single-sex competitions protected by Title IX. 
 
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