The Wuhan lab at the center of the US-China blame game: What we know and what we don't
Questions surrounding the origins of the novel coronavirus have sparked a war of words between Washington and Beijing -- and threatens to worsen already strained relations.
In recent days, US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have doubled down on the assertion that the virus originated from a laboratory in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak was first detected last December.
The claim has unsurprisingly drawn fierce rebuttal from the Chinese government, which on Wednesday described the accusation as "smear" intended to bolster Trump's reelection chances. But intelligence shared among the Five Eyes network -- an alliance between United States and four Anglophone allies, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada -- also reportedly appears to contradict the Trump administration's assertion.
Millions predicted to develop tuberculosis as result of Covid-19 lockdown
With attention focused on coronavirus, undiagnosed and untreated TB cases will cause 1.4 million to die, research suggests
The head of a global partnership to end tuberculosis (TB) said she is “sickened” by research that revealed millions more people are expected to contract the disease as a result of Covid-19 restrictions.
Up to 6.3 million more people are predicted to develop TB between now and 2025 and 1.4 million more people are expected to die as cases go undiagnosed and untreated during lockdown. This will set back global efforts to end TB by five to eight years.
“The fact that we’ve rolled back to 2013 figures and we have so many people dying, this for me is sickening,” said Lucica Ditiu, executive director of the Stop TB Partnership. “I am outraged that just by not being able to control what we do … and forgetting about programmes that exist we lose so much, starting with the loss of the lives of people.”
‘No signs’ Kim Jong-un had heart surgery, says South Korea
North Korean leader’s disappearance from public eye sparked speculation he was dead or ‘gravely’ illChiara Giordano
South Korea’s spy agency has claimed there are “no signs” Kim Jong-un had heart surgery when he vanished for weeks — and that his absence was possibly because of a coronavirus outbreak.
The North Korea leader sparked speculation that he was dead or “in grave danger” after a news outlet claimed he was recovering from a heart operation following his disappearance from the public eye for 20 days.
But he appeared to be in good health when he attended the completion of a fertiliser plant on Saturday, in his first reported public appearance since 11 April.
Coronavirus in Germany: 100 days later
Germany’s first confirmed case was on January 27. Since then, the virus has officially killed nearly 7,000 people, but the country has so far avoided even worse fates suffered elsewhere.
Germany's coronavirus "patient zero," who recovered, was a man from outside of Munich. How public health officials there reacted would go on to become the country's standard operating procedure for the 160,000-plus confirmed cases to come.
Test, isolate, trace: A decentralized yet comprehensive strategy is partly responsible for keeping the death toll relatively low, winning Germany both praise in international media and time in the battle against the outbreak. German health officials have said the country's health system has "at no point" been overstretched, a standing helped by delaying regular medical procedures and redirecting resources to tackle the outbreak.
Israel parliament to vote on controversial coalition deal
Israel's parliament was set to vote Wednesday on laws approving a coalition deal between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival-turned-ally Benny Gantz, ahead of a deadline to avoid yet another election.
The alliance formed last month between the right-wing incumbent and his centrist challenger followed three inconclusive elections in less than a year.
Under the three-year deal, Netanyahu will serve as prime minister for 18 months, with Gantz as his alternate, a new position in Israeli governance.
DESPITE SKYROCKETING UNEMPLOYMENT, TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY PLANS TO OUTSOURCE HUNDREDS OF FEDERAL JOBS TO OVERSEAS COMPANIESRachel M. Cohen
AS DONALD TRUMP vows to save the economy amid the global pandemic, while the number of Americans filing for unemployment has skyrocketed to 30 million, the Tennessee Valley Authority, or TVA, the nation’s largest government-owned power provider, has announced plans to outsource 20 percent of its highly-skilled technology workforce to Capgemini, CGI, and Accenture — companies based in France, Canada, and Ireland respectively.
At least 120 workers have already learned they will be losing their jobs later this summer, and the TVA has informed the engineers’ union that another 100 jobs are likely on the chopping block. Affected workers were told in late April to prepare to train their own replacements, according to an email reviewed by The Intercept.
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