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Police in Cameroon used force on Friday to disperse Muslims praying at mosques at the start of the holy month of Ramadan, saying they were violating government orders not to gather because of the coronavirus.Cameroon has confirmed at least 1,300 COVID-19 infections and 43 deaths, making it the West African country hardest hit by the pandemic.In a statement, police said they used force to disperse Muslims from at least 13 mosques in the country’s West, Center and Far North regions, where people had gathered for prayers during the Ramadan fasting period that began Friday. The government had banned such gatherings in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19.Awah Fonka, governor of the western region of Cameroon, said he asked police to force out Muslims who didn’t heed the order and were praying in mosques in the towns of Foumban, Foumbot and Bafoussam. He spoke via a messaging app from Bafoussam.He said he will not spare anyone who refuses to respect measures taken by the government of Cameroon to protect its citizens from the deadly coronavirus that is killing people around the world.Police said that some Muslims were targeting people from Cameroonian towns hardest hit by the coronavirus and that they had received 175 complaints from Cameroonians who were either stigmatized or chased from their villages.Gaston Asabe, a 34-year old fruit and vegetable seller, was one of them. He said when he arrived in his northern village of Koza on Thursday night, villagers and his relatives chased him, saying that he was a carrier of the coronavirus since he was coming from Yaounde, which has the highest number of COVID-19 infections in Cameroon. He spoke via a messaging app from the northern town of Maroua, where he’d fled for safety.He said he struggled to explain that he was not contaminated, but no one listened to him.Imam Dairou Abdoulahi of the 5th Mosque in Koza said Asabe was attacked after the government reiterated that mosques should remain closed during Ramadan. Abdoulahi said Muslims in the village argued that they have not had any cases of COVID-19 and will remain safe attending prayers in their mosques if they keep visitors from towns where the virus has been confirmed from coming to their villages. Abdoulahi, in a phone interview from Koza, said he asked the Muslims to stay home and be safe.He added that no one should blame the government for asking for the closure of mosques, because it is a decision that will save lives.Manaouda Malachie, Cameroon minister of health, speaking through a messaging app, called on the population to respect measures taken by the government to stop COVID-19 no matter their religious or traditional beliefs.He said that believers should know that by staying safe and praying at home, they are not only protecting themselves, but other other faithful from being sickened by the coronavirus. Manaouda said they will be time to celebrate when the virus is conquered.Cameroon’s first case of COVID-19 was confirmed on March 5. The government, among other measures, asked Christians and Muslims to pray at home to avoid its spread. The health ministry said that the cases will continue to rise if Cameroonians fail to take COVID-19 seriously.    
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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday his country will cooperate with “like-minded countries” to change the World Health Organization.Morison said although Australia continues to support the agency’s work in the Pacific region, it agrees with the United States that the WHO needs to be reviewed.“What happens at the upper echelons of these organizations, and how they operate, I think is in need of change,” Morrison said. “And Australia will continue to advocate for that change with like-minded countries who share our concerns. What ultimate decision the United States ultimately takes on funding will be a matter for them. We will certainly want to see an improved set of arrangements at the WHO, and we’ll continue to push for that.”U.S. President Donald Trump directed his administration to freeze WHO funding, saying it did not give adequate early reports on the coronavirus.Morrison also announced that Parliament will be in session May 12-14 for its usual legislative business and some virus-related bills. He said more sessions may be scheduled through June.Meanwhile, authorities in Sydney closed three beaches that had been reopened to the public for exercise Monday, after people ignored social distancing guidance.   
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Brazil’s health minister confirmed 407 new coronavirus deaths Thursday, the country’s largest single-day increase since the virus struck the South American country.The majority of the deaths were in Sao Paulo, the epicenter of the pandemic in the country, where Mayor Bruno Covas warned the greatest hardship is yet to come.The virus casualties in Brazil come as President Jair Bolsonaro has started advocating to move away from social isolation measures that still are being supported by most governors and mayors to contain the virus.Meanwhile, Brazil’s new health minister, Nelson Teich, is casting doubts about the way governors are using data to impose self-isolation measures to fight the spread of the coronavirus, urging a standard model to analyze information.”If you produce ‘alarming’ numbers and people treat a mathematics model as the truth, you will worsen the scare and expectations of the society,” Teich said Thursday.Teich appeared to be echoing the sentiments of Bolsonaro, who fired the previous health minister partly over his support of the governors’ stay-at-home measures that Bolsonaro said are harming the economy.Teich said next week he’ll unveil the administration’s model for handling the outbreak.Brazil has reported more than 43,000 infections and upward of 3,300 deaths.So far, nearly 50,000 people have tested positive for the disease in Brazil.   
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A cruise ship that is the single biggest source of COVID-19 infections in Australia has left a port south of Sydney after being ordered to leave by Border Force officials.The Ruby Princess has become a symbol of death and disease.  It is responsible for about 10 percent of all COVID-19 cases in Australia — more than 600 cases and at least 21 deaths.  Dozens of crew members also tested positive.  The ill-fated cruise liner has now left Australian waters, but many questions remain.The police are investigating whether the ship’s owners knowingly let infected passengers disembark when the ship docked in Sydney last month.  More than 2,700 people were allowed to leave the ship in March without being tested for the coronavirus.Opposition New South Wales lawmaker Ryan Park said major mistakes were made by Australian agencies.“This has been without a doubt the worst public health disaster this community, this state and this nation has ever faced,” he said.About a third of Australia’s coronavirus cases can be traced to cruise liners, and state authorities in New South Wales have launched an independent investigation into the Ruby Princess.  It reportedly is sailing to the Philippines with about 500 crew members still onboard. Hundreds of other staff have been flown home.Australia has proposed a global review into the coronavirus pandemic.  Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government would press for the inquiry during the World Health Organization Assembly in May.Australia’s call for international action comes as it successfully slows the spread of COVID-19, with new infections well below 1 percent daily.  
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration on Thursday, saying industry cannot avoid the Clean Water Act when it pumps wastewater into the ground instead of directly into oceans and rivers.In a 6-3 decision, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the majority. He said putting the polluted water into the ground before it eventually reaches oceans and rivers is “the functional equivalent” of directly releasing it into the ocean, and permission from the Environmental Protection Agency is needed.In his dissenting opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that according to current laws, a permit is needed only for directly dumping polluted water into a waterway.Attorney David Henkin argued the case on behalf of the environmental group Earthjustice.“This decision is a huge victory for clean water. The Supreme Court has rejected the Trump administration’s effort to blow a big hole in the Clean Water Act’s protections for rivers, lakes and oceans,” he said.Thursday’s decision stems from a case in Hawaii involving the question of whether a sewage treatment plant needs permission from the EPA to pump treated wastewater into the ground instead of straight into the Pacific Ocean.Environmentalists said even through this indirect route, the dirty water damaged a fragile coral reef.President Donald Trump has promised to cut government regulations and rules he says stifle business and kill jobs. But environmentalists say cutting back on such enforcement and oversight is harmful not only to the air and water but also to human health. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump said he would probably sign on Thursday night a $484 billion bill aiding small businesses and hospitals severely impaired by the coronavirus pandemic.The funds in the fourth spending package in just two months will allow tens of millions more Americans to receive critical relief since COVID-19 forced the closure of much of American commerce.More than 26 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits since the outbreak began, and the figure grew by 4.4 million last week, according to numbers released Thursday.The legislation was overwhelmingly approved on a 388-5 vote in the House as Trump and Vice President Mike Pence held a coronavirus briefing for reporters at the White House.“We’re very close to the vaccine” for the novel virus, Trump said, adding that “unfortunately we’re not very close to testing” it.Scientists say if preliminary research goes well on vaccine candidates, they would be ready for clinical trials in a year to 18 months.Fauci points to problemsThe nation’s top infectious-disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told Time magazine on Thursday that there are still problems in the United States securing supplies needed to conduct coronavirus tests, such as swabs and chemicals.”I am not overly confident right now at all that we have what it takes” to do testing, said Fauci, a prominent member of the White House coronavirus task force. “We’re doing better, and I think we’re going to get there, but we’re not there yet.”Trump, asked about Fauci’s comment, replied: “If he said that, I don’t agree with him.”Don’t drink bleachDuring Thursday’s briefing, William Bryan, the acting undersecretary for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, revealed that experiments with the virus indicate it dies faster when exposed to sunlight, in warm temperatures and under humid conditions.“The virus is dying at a much more rapid pace just from exposure to higher temperatures and just with exposure to humidity,” Bryan said. “You inject sunlight into that, you inject UV rays into that … the half-life [of the virus] goes from six hours to two minutes.”Trump then suggested it should be studied whether disinfectants and “ultraviolet light” could be injected inside the human body to fight the virus.His remark prompted cable news networks to quickly warn people not to drink or inject disinfectants, such as bleach.As of Thursday evening EDT, more than 867,000 people in the United States have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. The nation has reported more than 49,000 deaths from the virus, nearly a third of them in New York City.About 14 percent of New Yorkers have likely had the disease, according to preliminary results of antibody testing released by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Thursday.Officials in the northeastern state randomly tested 3,000 people at shopping locations to see if they had the antibodies that fight the coronavirus, an indication that they could have been infected and recovered without experiencing significant symptoms.’Promise made, promise kept’On the U.S. West Coast, the state of California recorded its deadliest 24-hour period from the virus, Governor Gavin Newsom said Thursday, announcing that 115 people in the state had succumbed to COVID-19 the previous day, bringing the state’s total number of deaths to 1,469.California’s total hospitalizations and the number of people in intensive care because of the virus have both dropped, Newsom said.“But with deaths and still positives going up, again, I caution people that we’re not out of the woods,” said the governor.Newsom also announced that the federal government had sent the state 90,000 testing swabs out of a promised initial shipment of 100,000 — assistance that the president had committed to during a conversation with the governor the previous day.”Promise made, promise kept,” Newsom said.A social media account of the president’s reelection campaign promptly included the Democratic governor’s remarks in a video. 
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Canada pledged new money on Thursday to develop and eventually mass-produce vaccines in its fight against the coronavirus, while the western province of Saskatchewan unveiled its plan to gradually restart its economy. Canada’s 10 provinces have closed non-essential businesses and urged people to stay at home since mid-March to slow the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters that Ottawa would spend C$1.1 billion ($782 million) to bolster vaccine research, clinical trials and national testing.”Once we’ve developed a vaccine, whether it be in Canada or elsewhere around the world, we’re going to need to produce it,” Trudeau said.Global scrambleNoting there had been a competitive global scramble to obtain personal protective equipment (PPE) amid the pandemic, “part of the investment we’re making … is to establish the capacity of developing vaccines and mass-producing vaccines here in Canada.” Canada’s total coronavirus deaths rose to 2,028 on Thursday, up 8% from a day earlier, official data showed.Some provinces have seen daily case numbers dwindle.Saskatchewan plans a phased approach to reopening, starting on May 4 with medical services such as dentists and chiropractors. Golf courses reopen on May 15.Second phaseThe second phase, starting on May 19, allows retail stores and services such as hairdressers and massage therapy to open. Broader restrictions, such as at seniors homes, and limits on gatherings to 10 people, remain in place. Testing and contact tracing will increase.”We have to find middle ground that continues to keep our case numbers low … while allowing Saskatchewan people to get back to work,” Premier Scott Moe said. The province has not set dates for subsequent phases to reopen restaurants, theaters, pools and casinos. The timing will depend on the spread of the coronavirus during the first two phases, Moe said.On Wednesday, there were only 61 active cases and five hospitalizations in the province, which is about 70% below the Canadian average, he said. Ontario — the most populous province — extended its shutdown until at least May 6. Quebec has prolonged its closures until early May.Similar guidelinesAsked about Saskatchewan’s plan, Trudeau said Ottawa was coordinating with provinces so that decisions are made using similar guidelines.”Different provinces are in very different postures related to COVID-19 and will be taking decisions appropriate for them,” Trudeau told reporters.In the United States, some businesses prepared to reopen in Georgia and a few other states for the first time in a month. Their plans have drawn criticism from health experts who warn that a premature easing of stay-at-home guidelines could trigger a surge in cases. 
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South Dakota health officials reported 98 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, as the statewide total rose to 1,956.More than half of the infections statewide have been tied to the Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls. Employees who have confirmed infections grew to 801, and another 206 of their close contacts have tested positive.Nine people have died so far statewide, including two people who worked at Smithfield. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.Smithfield closed the plant indefinitely last week because of the outbreak and faced complaints that it wasn’t doing enough to protect its workers.Gov. Kristi Noem on Thursday released a memo from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that offers recommendations on how the plant can protect workers when it reopens. The governor said she would like to see that happen as soon as possible and offered help to Smithfield in implementing the recommendations.The memo recommended that the operators of the plant implement a strict social distancing policy and find ways to overcome language barriers.The CDC memo specifically addressed the situation at the Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls but that also may give an indication of the broader recommendations that the agency is working on for meat processing plants nationwide.A CDC team toured the plant last week and reported that the company had slowed down production lines to space workers farther apart and installed about 800 Plexiglas barriers along the lines. But even though there were only a few workers left in the plant, some were still gathering closer than 6 feet apart when not at their work stations or not wearing face masks, the team found.Plant management told the CDC that more than 40 languages were spoken at the plant, making it difficult to communicate guidance to employees. The agency recommended that Smithfield post signs with pictograms and in more languages to communicate vital information to employees.Smithfield is also planning to give workers a new face mask every day and to equip production staff with face shields, according to the CDC.The CDC memo also stresses the importance reconfiguring parts of the plant to accommodate social distancing, including making sure workers don’t congregate in locker rooms, cafeterias or break areas.Smithfield has not said when it might reopen.The governor also used her Thursday briefing to raise issues with the federal dollars coming her way as part of coronavirus relief passed through Congress. She said the money must be spent on addressing the global pandemic, but she would rather use it to make up for revenue loss in the state budget.The state relies heavily on sales tax revenue, which Noem expects will be drastically behind expectations. The state also reported 5,128 people had made new claims for unemployment benefits last week. 
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Asian markets were on the upswing Thursday as investors were encouraged by the steady recovery of the U.S. crude oil market after this week’s historic plunge.Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index gained nearly 300 points, or 1.5 percent, to close out Thursday’s session at 19,429.44.The indexes in Hong Kong and Seoul also were in positive territory in late morning trading, while Shanghai and Sydney were flat.In oil futures trading, the price of U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude oil was 6.2 percent higher at $14.64 per barrel, continuing its turnaround from Monday, when it fell to $-37.63 per barrel — the first time the price dropped below zero.Economic activity has ground to a halt worldwide amid the coronavirus pandemic, wiping out demand for gas and causing such a massive glut of oil that producers may have to pay their customers to take the excess supply off their hands.Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, also was back in positive territory, trading at $21.32 per barrel, up nearly 1 percent.        
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Haitian authorities are conducting a criminal investigation into a February fire at an orphanage operated by a U.S.-based church near Port-au-Prince, where 13 children and two adults died.Authorities suspect the fire was started by candles used during frequent power failures.The Associated Press reported that at one point the Haitian orphanages run by the Church of Bible Understanding, were stripped of accreditation by Haitian officials over compliance with safety and health criteria and three years ago both of the church’s  homes in Haiti failed inspections but stayed open.The AP said an attorney for the church said the church, the orphanage operators and the Haitian government should all bear some responsibility.The operational problems and reported poor condition of the homes is glaring because of the revenue wealth and property assets of the church. 
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Analysts are predicting that China’s recent high-profile posturing over Hong Kong signals a bumpy political future for the semiautonomous city and the likely return of mass protests.They were reacting to last week’s arrest of 15 prominent democracy activists on charges of illegal assembly, A man sits next to a fountain at the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park in Hong Kong on April 21, 2020.Meanwhile, Steve Tsang, director of University of London’s SOAS China Institute, said Western democracies’ failure to prepare for the COVID-19 outbreak means Chinese President Xi Jinping “is no longer feeling vulnerable because of his earlier mismanagement of the pandemic, and he is not feeling under much pressure from within the establishment.”Analysts warn that China’s repression in Hong Kong will intensify in the near future, with some believing China is pushing the city to pass the legislation before September’s legislative election. The authorities are nervous that the pro-democracy camp may claim a majority in the same way that A man wears a face mask as a precautionary measure against COVID-19 as he walks along a street in Hong Kong on April 21, 2020.“To the extent that the city is no longer able to retain the confidence of investors, its population and the economy will be quickly de-internationalized, whilst politically and socially Hong Kong is forced to undergo rapid mainlandization,” Chan said.Wu Qiang, a political scientist formerly with Beijing’s Tsinghua University, said an authoritarian country with national security threats at the top of its priorities, does not always make rational choices, however.“Beijing’s consistent attitude … is to bolster state security to complete its control of Hong Kong,” he said.Analysts and activists warn China’s iron-fisted policy toward Hong Kong may ultimately backfire.  Many ordinary Hong Kong people are already saying they would take to the streets again if the anti-subversion legislation goes ahead, reviving the anti-government movement which has largely paused amid the coronavirus pandemic.“The government will not succeed in instilling fear in the public,” said Chan. “The more they harass, bully, humiliate and battle their opponents, the more they turn people against them.”  
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Japanese health officials say 48 crew members of an Italian cruise ship docked in the port city of Nagasaki have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, including 14 cases confirmed Thursday.The Costa Atlantica and its 623 crew members have been docked in Nagasaki since January to undergo repairs by a unit of Mitsubishi Heavy Industry. The crew was tested for COVID-19 last week after the ship reported that one crew member had developed a cough and fever.The total number of infections include 34 crew members who were first confirmed on Wednesday. At least one crew member has been taken to a Nagasaki hospital, where he is currently on a ventilator. Health officials say they hope to test the remaining crew members by Friday.This is the second time Japan has dealt with a coronavirus outbreak onboard a cruise ship. The U.S.-flagged Diamond Princess cruise ship was quarantined in Yokohama after a passenger tested positive for the disease, but more than 700 passengers eventually tested positive.Japan has nearly 12,000 COVID-19 infections and nearly 300 deaths, not including the figures from the Diamond Princess. The nation is currently under a state of emergency.    
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday FILE – Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.He said he meant to explain that a season of COVID-19 combined with influenza “was going to be complicated, or difficult.”Trump initially said Redfield was misquoted and then took issue with the newspaper’s headline about its interview with the CDC director.The president repeatedly insisted Wednesday that any second wave of the coronavirus would not be as bad.“If it comes back, though, it won’t be coming back in the form that it was. It will come back in smaller doses we can contain,” Trump said. “But in my opinion from everything that I have seen it can never be like anything we witnessed right now. … It might not come back at all.”However, when Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, was asked by the president if there is a good chance COVID-19 will not return, she replied: “We don’t know.”Asked by a reporter about the top official of the government’s key vaccine agency being shuffled to another job for reportedly resisting the promotion of unproven treatments promoted by the president, Trump said, “I’ve never heard of him. I don’t know who he is.”Immunologist Rick Bright, who was leading a government effort to help develop a COVID-19 vaccine, has filed a whistleblower complaint, contending he was transferred from two key posts this week for questioning Trump’s desire to make chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine widely available before such drugs are scientifically tested for efficacy with the coronavirus.“I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the COVID-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit,” Bright said in a statement released Wednesday by a law firm. “I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science — not politics or cronyism — has to lead the way.”The career official said he had also resisted “efforts to fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections.”Bright was the director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response.The coronavirus has killed more than 46,000 people in the United States, the most reported by any country. In total, more than 840,000 COVID-19 infections have been confirmed in the country.Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this story.
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Far-right computer hackers have published nearly 25,000 email addresses allegedly belonging to several major organizations fighting the coronavirus pandemic, including the World Health Organization, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the World Bank.The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist activities, has yet to confirm the addresses are genuine but said that the hackers posted the email addresses across far-right messaging and chat sites, as well as Twitter, this week.“Using the data, far-right extremists were calling for a harassment campaign while sharing conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic,” SITE Executive Director Rita Katz said. “The distribution of these alleged email credentials was just another part of a monthslong initiative across the far right to weaponize the COVID-19 pandemic.”It is unclear where the hackers got the email addresses. Other victims of the hacks include the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Gates Foundation; and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a research center in the Chinese city where the COVID-19 outbreak began in December.While those affected by the security breach did not comment on the specifics of the case, NIH and the Gates Foundation both said they consistently monitor data security and take appropriate action.A Twitter spokeswoman said the company is taking action to remove in bulk any links that send users to far-right websites where the alleged email addresses can be found.An Australian cybersecurity expert, Robert Potter, told The Washington Post that the WHO’s password security is appalling and that he was able to get into its computer system simply by using email addresses the WHO posted on the internet.“Forty-eight people have ‘password’ as their password,” Potter said, adding that others used their own first name or the word “changeme.”He said the right-wingers may have been able to buy the WHO passwords on what is called the dark web, a part of the internet that is not seen by search engines.Megan Squire, a computer science professor at Elon College in North Carolina who monitors right-wing extremism online, said neo-Nazis and white supremacists are looking to exploit the coronavirus pandemic to stir up violence, chaos and anti-Semitism, hoping it will all lead to a collapse of society and a white power takeover.“The fantasizing about it is not limited. They are really doing that to a great extent — openly fantasizing about how this is the event they’ve been waiting for, this is going to bring about the societal collapse they all hope for … bringing down infrastructure and so on. That’s all fantasy/hopefulness on their part.”Squire said the password hack may be part of an effort to get people to read the WHO or Gates Foundation emails to look for what the extremists believe are conspiracies surrounding the pandemic, including far-right theories that the coronavirus was created and deliberately released from the Chinese or that COVID-19 is part of a Jewish plot.Masood Farivar contributed to this report.
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Iran’s Revolutionary Guard launched its first satellite into space Wednesday, dramatically revealing what experts described as a secret military space program that could advance its ballistic missile development amid wider tensions between the Islamic Republic and the U.S.  Using a mobile launcher at a new launch site, the Guard said it put the “Noor,” or “Light,” satellite into a low orbit circling the Earth. While the U.S., Israel and other countries declined to immediately confirm the satellite reached orbit, their criticism suggested they believed the launch happened.Iranian state TV late Wednesday showed footage of what it said was the satellite and said it had orbited the earth within 90 minutes. It said the satellite’s signals were being received.The launch comes as Iran has abandoned all the limitations of its tattered nuclear deal with world powers that President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from in 2018. Trump’s decision set off a monthslong series of escalating attacks that culminated in a U.S. drone strike in January that killed a top Iranian general in Iraq, followed by Tehran launching ballistic missiles at American soldiers in Iraq.As the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic and historically low oil prices, the missile launch may signal a new willingness to take risks by Iran. Trump himself later tweeted he told the U.S. Navy ” to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” both raising energy prices and renewing the risk of conflict.  “Now that you have the maximum pressure campaign, Iran doesn’t have that much to lose anymore,” said Fabian Hinz, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California.The three-stage satellite launch took off from Iran’s Central Desert, the Guard said, without elaborating.  Hinz said based on state media images, the launch appeared to have happened at a previously unacknowledged Guard base near Shahroud, Iran, some 330 kilometers (205 miles) northeast of Tehran. The base is in Semnan province, which hosts the Imam Khomeini Spaceport from which Iran’s civilian space program operates.The paramilitary force said it used a “Qased,” or “Messenger,” satellite carrier to put the device into space, a previously unheard-of system. It described the system as using both liquid and solid fuel. Such a system may allow Iran to more quickly fuel a rocket, something crucial in an offensive weapon system, Hinz said, while stressing more information was needed about the launch.Wednesday marked the 41st anniversary of the founding of the Guard by Iran’s late leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. An image of the rocket that carried the satellite showed it bore a Quranic verse typically recited when going on a journey, as well as a drawing of the Earth with the word Allah in Farsi wrapped around it. It remained unclear what the satellite it carried does.”Today, the world’s powerful armies do not have a comprehensive defense plan without being in space, and achieving this superior technology that takes us into space and expands the realm of our abilities is a strategic achievement,” said Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of the Guard.The Guard, which operates its own military infrastructure parallel to Iran’s regular armed forces, is a hard-line force answerable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.International criticism of the launch came quickly.  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said “Iran needs to be held accountable for what it’s done.”  At a Pentagon news conference Wednesday, senior officials called the satellite launch a provocation.”We view this as further evidence of Iran’s behavior that is threatening in the region,” said David Norquist, the deputy secretary of defense.Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the launched vehicle “went a very long way.” He said it was too early to say whether it successfully placed a satellite in orbit.Israel’s Foreign Ministry described the launch as a “façade for Iran’s continuous development of advanced missile technology.” German Foreign Ministry spokesman Christofer Burger warned that “the Iranian rocket program has a destabilizing effect on the region and is also unacceptable in view of our European security interests.”U.S. Army Maj. Rob Lodewick, a Pentagon spokesman, told The Associated Press that American officials continue to monitor Iran’s program.”While Tehran does not currently have intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), its desire to have a strategic counter to the United States could drive it to develop an ICBM,” Lodewick said.The U.S. alleges such satellite launches defy a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Iran to undertake no activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.Iran, which long has said it does not seek nuclear weapons, previously maintained its satellite launches and rocket tests do not have a military component. The Guard launching its own satellite now calls that into question.Tehran also says it hasn’t violated a U.N. resolution on its ballistic missile program as it only “called upon” Iran not to conduct such tests.  Wednesday’s launch, however, raises new questions. While Iran isn’t known to have the know-how to miniaturize a nuclear weapon for a ballistic missile, any advances toward an intercontinental ballistic missile would put Europe and potentially the U.S. in range. Iran long has said it limits its ballistic missiles’ range to 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) under Khamenei’s orders, which puts the Mideast but not the West in its reach.  Iranian commentators described Wednesday’s launch as honoring Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, a Guard commander who led its missile development until his death in 2011 in a massive explosion at a facility outside of Tehran that killed 16 others. The state-run IRAN newspaper around that time quoted the slain commander’s brother as saying he worked on an ICBM program, though the brother later denied that in subsequent interviews.  Iran has suffered several failed satellite launches in recent months. A separate fire at the Imam Khomeini Space Center in February 2019 also killed three researchers, authorities said at the time.A rocket explosion in August drew even the attention of Trump, who later tweeted what appeared to be a classified surveillance image of the launch failure. The successive failures raised suspicion of outside interference in Iran’s program, something Trump himself hinted at by tweeting at the time that the U.S. “was not involved in the catastrophic accident.”Over the past decade, Iran has sent several short-lived satellites into orbit and in 2013 launched a monkey into space.
 
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Billionaire Michael Bloomberg will help the state of New York design and fund a program to trace coronavirus infections as part of its strategy to contain the spread of the virus. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the initiative Wednesday, saying it would be done in unison with the neighboring states of New Jersey and Connecticut, and would launch in weeks. FILE – Billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks at the Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jan. 19, 2020.“Mayor Bloomberg will design the program, design the training, he is going to make a financial contribution also,” Cuomo said of Bloomberg, who was the city’s mayor from 2002 to 2013. “He’s going to put together an organization that can help hire the people.” Other partners include Johns Hopkins University and global health organization Vital Strategies.   Bloomberg, who spent over a billion dollars of his own fortune earlier this year on a failed bid to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, is a well-known philanthropist. He has given away over $8 billion of his wealth to fund causes including climate action and gun control.  The governor’s office said Bloomberg is making an investment of “upwards of $10 million” in the coronavirus tracing initiative. There is an additional $1.3 billion in federal funds available to New York for tracing. In this April 18, 2020, photo, provided by the Office of New York State’s Governor, Governor Andrew Cuomo, speaks at a coronavirus press conference in the Red Room at the State Capitol in Albany.“He has tremendous insight both governmentally and from a private sector business perspective on this,” Cuomo said, pointing to Bloomberg’s offices in China and Europe having gone through coronavirus-related shutdowns and reopenings. New York state has confirmed more than a quarter million COVID-19 infections. More than 15,000 people have died, but the governor said Wednesday that deaths have stopped rising and are on a “gentle decline.”  Cuomo said that the state’s effort to double its testing capacity from 20,000 to 40,000 tests per day, plus the launch of a massive tracing operation, will help New York move into the low-level transmission phase and ultimately, be a key part of how it reopens its economy. Bloomberg plans to start with the state’s current corps of about 225 tracers and build it into the thousands. Cuomo said that the state and New York City’s public universities have about 35,000 medical students who will be an important resource for recruiting tracers. “We are going to have to hire many, many more tracers — the capacity is going to have to expand,” Cuomo said. He said the concentration of tracers would be in proportion to where infection rates are.Currently, the northern part of the state has only about 7% of the total infections, while New York City and its immediate suburbs account for 93%.  
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South Africa’s pharmacists are often overlooked as frontline healthcare workers in the fight against Africa’s worst outbreak of coronavirus, despite frequently being the first in contact with those showing symptoms.  In the rural town of Mokopane, in South Africa’s northern Limpopo Province, pharmacist Bronwyn van Heerden and her colleagues provide medicine to hundreds of patients daily.  Reporter Marize de Klerk brings us van Heerden’s story, told in her own words.
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