| A couple is finally going home after their 5-day Caribbean vacation turned into a 5-month coronavirus lockdown Posted: 22 Jul 2020 03:21 PM PDT  Turks and Caicos closed its borders in March to stop the spread of the coronavirus, stranding tourists who were visiting the islands.
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| Fifteen people injured in shootout at Chicago funeral Posted: 22 Jul 2020 05:52 AM PDT  "We thought it was a war out here," a neighbor said after a car opened fire during a funeral and mourners fired back.
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| The son of a parent convicted in the college admissions scandal says he 'didn't care' where he went to school and his dad was 'way too invested' Posted: 22 Jul 2020 02:24 PM PDT  David Sloane, Matteo Sloane's father, was sentenced to four months in prison in September for his role in the college admissions scandal.
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| Seattle sued by family of man killed in autonomous protest zone Posted: 21 Jul 2020 02:09 PM PDT  The man, who was shot in the city's autonomous zone, allegedly was not provided medical treatment.
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| Federal Agents ‘Beaten Back’ Into Portland Courthouse by 2,000 Protesters, Including Parent Groups Posted: 21 Jul 2020 04:12 AM PDT  An estimated crowd of 2,000 people participating in the protests in Portland, Oregon, "tore open the doors of a federal courthouse and then beat back the agents inside" in the early hours of Tuesday morning, a journalist on the scene reported on Twitter. Bellingcat writer Robert Evans posted multiple videos online that appeared to show federal agents shooting what are assumed to be non-lethal projectiles at protesters, including a parents group, Wall of Moms, out of "murder holes" in a wooden structure built around the courthouse to protect it. The new clashes represent a further escalation in the conflict between protesters and federal agents sent into the city by the Trump administration. Trump praised federal law enforcement agents on Monday, saying they were doing a "fantastic job" in Portland and said he planned to replicate the response in other major U.S. cities led by Democratic mayors and escalate the crisis. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Why Divers Are Venturing Deep Inside a Baffling Blue Hole Posted: 22 Jul 2020 05:30 AM PDT  What could they find down there?
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| Pence 'absolutely' would send his children back to school despite spreading risk Posted: 21 Jul 2020 11:52 AM PDT  Vice President Mike Pence says he and second lady Karen Pence would send their children back to school in the fall, claiming they would be unconcerned about them contracting coronavirus."We wouldn't hesitate to send them back to school," Mr Pence told reporters during a visit to hard-hit South Carolina.
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| Ocasio-Cortez rejects GOP colleague's apology in verbal spat Posted: 22 Jul 2020 10:54 AM PDT  A Republican congressman offered an apology Wednesday for the "abrupt manner" he used in a verbal confrontation with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez but denied aiming a sexist slur at her. Ocasio-Cortez rejected her colleague's words, saying they were "not an apology" and what she heard was a vulgar slur. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., made his remarks on the House floor a day after the freshman New York lawmaker said he'd angrily harangued her outside the Capitol over her linkage of joblessness and some recent crimes.
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| Microsoft's work-from-home study learned what you already knew: Meetings are too long and people are working more during the pandemic Posted: 21 Jul 2020 12:42 PM PDT  Microsoft analyzed the habits of its remote employees and learned they're having more 30 minute meetings while working through lunch and evenings.
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| NYT Reporter: Intel Officials Believe Russians Using Hunter Biden Allegations to Distract from Election Interference Posted: 22 Jul 2020 11:10 AM PDT  New York Times reporter Julian Barnes implied on Tuesday that some intelligence officials believe that the Kremlin is fanning corruption allegations against Joe Biden's son Hunter in order to "obscure" Russia's ongoing election interference attempts.During an MSNBC interview, host Nicole Wallace referred to Russian disinformation campaigns that she said appear to have "infected" the House Intelligence Committee, asking Barnes, "What access to any information or briefings do Democrats really have?""Russia uses these disinformation campaigns to deflect from what they did in 2016," Barnes, who reports on national security for the Times, responded. "A lot of intelligence officials believe the sort of Burisma accusations that are being revived are once again trying to obscure what Russia is up to."On Monday, top congressional Democrats led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a letter alleging a foreign disinformation campaign aimed at influencing the 2020 presidential election and interfering with Congress. The letter included few specifics, but Democrats demanded an FBI briefing to warn members of Congress about the threat. Officials familiar with an addendum to the letter said it referred to a potential Russian attempt to harm Biden's presidential campaign, Barnes reported for the Times.Barnes continued that he believes Democrats published the letter because "the only remedy that really works is the resilience of a population, and a population can only be resilient if they know what's going on. So much of this stuff is secret, falls into bitter, partisan divisions, but it's important for voters not to be affected by the disinformation campaign, and that requires talking about it, putting some of this stuff out in the open, realizing when it is being done to the American public."Hunter Biden was appointed to Burisma's board in 2014 while his father was vice president and resigned from the board in April of last year.During a July 25 phone call with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, President Trump asked Zelensky to help his administration investigate allegations that Biden used his position as vice president to help Burisma avoid a corruption probe soon after his son was appointed to the board— a controversy that became the focal point of the impeachment probe against Trump.In spring, 2016, Biden called on Ukraine to fire the prosecutor who had been investigating the energy company paying his son. The vice president threatened to withdraw $1 billion in U.S. military aid to Ukraine if the country did not fire the prosecutor, who was accused by the State Department and U.S. allies in Europe of being soft on corruption.
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| A doctor wore 6 face masks at once while testing his oxygen levels, and found he could still breathe perfectly Posted: 22 Jul 2020 04:38 AM PDT  Maitiu O Tuathail, an Irish doctor, confronted a common complaint from people who don't want to wear masks: the false belief that masks block oxygen.
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| Sen. Wyden: Trump’s plan to send federal troops to other cities is to drum up his base support Posted: 21 Jul 2020 04:04 PM PDT  Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon joins Yahoo News Editor in Chief Daniel Klaidman and Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff to discuss the ongoing confrontations between federal agents and protesters in Portland and weighs in on President Trump's plans to send federal troops to other cities, including Chicago and New York.
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| On coronavirus, Trump insists the U.S. has the world's 'No. 1 low mortality rate.' He's wrong — and it's the wrong way to measure success. Posted: 21 Jul 2020 05:13 PM PDT  The problem with President Trump's new strategy is that his prized data point is a mirage — an illusion that dissolves under closer inspection, revealing the opposite of the "success" it's supposed to show.
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| Sydney police 'asked woman to remove tampon' in strip-search Posted: 21 Jul 2020 10:13 PM PDT  A review into police conduct during five controversial strip-searches has called for an official apology.
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| Fox News Host Confronts Kellyanne Conway on Trump’s Sudden Mask Embrace Posted: 22 Jul 2020 08:51 AM PDT  Kellyanne Conway went on Fox News Wednesday morning to heap praise on her boss for what news anchors have been calling his "new tone" in the previous day's coronavirus task force briefing—his first in several months. She was met with some unexpectedly tough pushback from host Martha MacCallum. "I think it was incredibly important for the president of the United States to provide information to the public, not confrontation with some press people there who were asking questions that had nothing to do with the development of vaccines and therapeutics," Conway said, perhaps alluding to the question about alleged sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell that prompted Trump to admit he's met her "numerous times over the years" and to say, "I wish her well." When the White House counselor started lecturing "all those people out there who are resisting wearing a mask," telling them, "you'll get your liberties back sooner if you wear your mask," MacCallum cut in to press her on why it's taken so long for the president to arrive at this messaging. Kayleigh McEnany Urges Fox News Viewers to 'Follow Trump's Lead' on Masks"But Kellyanne, I guarantee you there are people at home who will listen to that and say, why didn't the White House have this message for all of us two months ago?" MacCallum asked pointedly. "Why now? Why wasn't this pushed and emphasized and encouraged by the president back then when it might have made even more of a difference?" "The president did say in April if people want to wear a mask, they should wear a mask," Conway replied, though that is not exactly a ringing endorsement of the basic safety precaution. She then pivoted, as Trump did in his Chris Wallace interview last weekend, to blaming health officials who "early on" said it "wouldn't help." That guidance, of course, was revised long before the president first wore a mask in public this month. Conway then revealed that just yesterday in the Oval Office, Dr. Deborah Birx had to explain to the president that the research is conclusive that wearing cloth masks helps stop the spread of the virus. Noting that Trump, unlike most Americans, has the luxury of getting tested and receiving rapid results daily, Conway said, "We know that the president is COVID-negative, we don't know that about the rest of the country. So we're asking people to wear masks." Kellyanne Conway Loses It Over Mary Trump Book on Fox NewsRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| US Navy’s top officer reveals grim new details of the damage to Bonhomme Richard Posted: 22 Jul 2020 12:53 PM PDT  Fire and flooding left 11 of 14 decks damaged.
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| Can you visit Baja now? Maybe. Here's what you need to know Posted: 22 Jul 2020 07:00 AM PDT  State and U.S. authorities urge against nonessential trips, but Los Cabos is reopening.
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| A new survey found that 53% of Bay Area tech workers are concerned they'll be laid off as the tech industry continues to be hit hard by the coronavirus crisis Posted: 22 Jul 2020 10:54 AM PDT  The tech industry has been hit hard in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, with major tech firms like Uber, Airbnb, and Lyft laying off workers.
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| Rudy Giuliani promotes long-debunked image of Ilhan Omar ‘at al-Qaeda training camp’ Posted: 22 Jul 2020 07:11 AM PDT  Rudy Giuliani has once again posted misinformation about Rep. Ilhan Omar on social media, sharing a meme that falsely claimed the congresswoman was seen at a terrorist training camp.The president's personal lawyer tweeted a debunked meme that included a photo of a woman holding a gun, along with a caption that falsely claimed the woman was Ms Omar (D—Mn).
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| Bolivia police recover 420 dead in possible COVID-19 cases Posted: 21 Jul 2020 06:02 PM PDT  A special police unit collected 420 bodies over the preceding five days in two Bolivian cities, and 80% to 90% of the deceased were thought to have succumbed to COVID-19, authorities said Tuesday. Col. Ivan Rojas, director of the special crime-fighting force, said his officers recovered the bodies from streets, vehicles and homes in the capital, La Paz, and in Bolivia's biggest city, Santa Cruz. Bolivia's Institute of Forensic Investigations said that nationally from April 1 through Sunday, its workers had recovered 3,016 bodies of people in possible COVID-19 cases.
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| Chicago police say attacks on officers at protest appeared organized as more than 20 complaints filed against cops Posted: 20 Jul 2020 05:59 PM PDT  CHICAGO - Chicago police released a video showing what they say are a group of protesters wielding black umbrellas and shields pelting officers with projectiles. Chicago police Superintendent David Brown said Monday that officers will wear full protective gear when assigned to future protests after "agitators" hijacked a protest Friday at the Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park, injuring ...
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| Another Fort Hood soldier found dead, the fourth this year near Texas post Posted: 22 Jul 2020 10:10 AM PDT  Pvt. Mejhor Morta, 26, is one of at least four Fort Hood soldiers whose bodies were found near the post this year.
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| Betsy DeVos just crossed another line. She's an ongoing danger to teachers and students. Posted: 22 Jul 2020 05:11 AM PDT  Schools must look inward, assess local COVID-19 conditions and ignore pressure from DeVos. They have authority over whether to reopen. She doesn't.
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| Labour Admits It Smeared Jewish Whistleblowers Under Jeremy Corbyn Posted: 22 Jul 2020 03:28 AM PDT  The British Labour Party has admitted it defamed Jewish whistleblowers who spoke to the BBC Panorama program about anti-Semitism in the party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.The program featured a number of Jewish whistleblowers who condemned the party's practices on anti-Semitic complaints under the direction of Corbyn, claiming that several high ranking officers in the party interfered with investigations into alleged perpetrators who were members of the party. Labour responded at the time by accusing those who participated in the program of just being "disaffected former staff" who harbored "personal and political axes to grind" and made malicious and false claims in order to damage the party.Seven of the whistleblowers and the Panorama program presenter John Ware then sued Labour for defamation. In Ware's suit, he claims that Labour defamed him when they accused him and his team of "deliberate and malicious representations designed to mislead the public."Labour's 28-page complaint to the BBC complained that the program contained "the tendentious and politically slanted script; the bias in the selection of interviewees; and the failure to identify the political affiliations or records of interviewees in a highly controversial, sensitive and contested subject produced a programme that was a one-sided authored polemic."Allegations of anti-Jewish racism dogged the Labour Party under Corbyn, although he always denied it. One Jewish lawmaker quit the party over his failings, he was linked to anti-Semitic speakers and Facebook posts, and he was widely condemned for failing to drive anti-Semitic members out of the party.Jeremy Corbyn, the U.K. Labour Leader, Was In Three Secret Anti-Semitic Facebook GroupsOn the day that Keir Starmer was elected to replace him, the new Labour leader announced that convincing the Jewish community that the party had changed was his top priority. He said he would root out anti-Semitism in the party. The latest step in that process was to retract their incendiary complaint made to the BBC, and admit they had defamed and mistreated the whistleblowers. "We acknowledge the many years of dedicated and committed service that the Whistleblowers have given to the Labour Party as members and as staff," the statement, issued Wednesday, reads. "We unreservedly withdraw all allegations of bad faith, malice and lying. We would like to apologise unreservedly for the distress, embarrassment and hurt caused by their publication. We have agreed to pay them damages."The statement goes on to admit that anti-Semitism within Labour has "been a stain" on the party in recent years. "It has caused unacceptable and unimaginable levels of grief and distress for many in the Jewish community, as well as members of staff."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| National Parks Are Getting Trashed During COVID-19, Endangering Surrounding Communities Posted: 22 Jul 2020 12:19 PM PDT  National parks across the country are seeing an influx of first-time visitors who are leaving litter and refusing to social distance.
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| Trump gave his first coronavirus briefing since April, and none of the other members of the coronavirus task force were in the room Posted: 21 Jul 2020 03:52 PM PDT  President Donald Trump told reporters that Dr. Deborah Birx was right outside the door, but he was the only one speaking at the press conference.
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| US public increasingly skeptical of Covid-19 death toll, poll finds Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:48 AM PDT  * Axios-Ipsos poll shows 31% believe true number is smaller * US has nearly 4m cases and more than 140,000 deathsSkepticism is growing in the United States about the accuracy of publicly reported numbers for Covid-19 deaths, according to Axios-Ipsos polling published on Tuesday.Thirty-one percent of respondents in the survey said they believe the number of Americans dying from Covid-19 is in reality smaller than public data portrays. Skepticism was up from 23% in May.Skepticism about coronavirus statistics was heavily correlated with media consumption habits, the poll found. A 62% majority of Fox News watchers said the statistics are overblown, while 48% who reported no main news source thought so. Only 7% of CNN and MSNBC watchers thought so.Denialism around the virus is growing at a time when the US faces an unprecedented emergency of exploding case numbers and when the urgency is acute for coordinated action to prevent an uncontrollable outbreak, epidemiologists say.Covid-19 death statistics are compiled by the federal government and by independent outlets from reports filed by hospitals and medical examiner or coroner's offices. The official coronavirus death toll is in fact likely to undershoot the actual toll because many serious Covid-19 patients suffer from underlying conditions that might appear as the cause of death on a death certificate, public health experts advise.The United States has confirmed more than 3.8m coronavirus cases and more than 140,000 deaths from Covid-19. More than 60,000 new cases were recorded on Monday, about four times the figure for all of Europe.Donald Trump has repeatedly dismissed the pandemic as a threat, saying again in an interview on Sunday that the virus would simply disappear.Republicans have been sowing doubt about coronavirus statistics for at least two months. The White House recently moved to make coronavirus figures more opaque, ordering hospitals to submit data on cases and deaths to the Department of Health and Human Services, led by a Trump loyalist, instead of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.With approval of his handling of coronavirus at an all-time low of 38% as the November election looms, Trump faces a political existential crisis in the pandemic. He planned to hold his first White House briefing on the virus in many months on Tuesday.
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| Nazi eagle in Uruguay auction 'should go to museum' Posted: 22 Jul 2020 07:53 AM PDT  A US Holocaust centre warns that a bronze eagle in Uruguay could be bought by white supremacists.
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| Mexico probe: marines abducted 27 at border, 12 found dead Posted: 21 Jul 2020 07:15 PM PDT |
| Rape suspect accused of assaulting four Penn State students is arrested Posted: 21 Jul 2020 03:56 PM PDT  The cases, which spanned seven years, were solved using genetic genealogy, police said.
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| Fact check: COVID-19 not falling below 'epidemic threshold' in near future Posted: 22 Jul 2020 11:36 AM PDT  The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread and worsen, despite some claims that recent statistics show the threat is going away.
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| Man stabs attacker in self defense in Brown Line station, police say Posted: 21 Jul 2020 09:47 AM PDT  The 45-year-old stabbed the 46-year-old in the upper chest in self-defense, police said.
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| Ethiopian Airlines cargo plane catches fire at Shanghai airport, no casualties Posted: 22 Jul 2020 03:16 AM PDT  An Ethiopian Airlines' Boeing 777 cargo plane caught fire while loading cargo at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on Wednesday, the airline said, adding that fire has been contained and none of the crew or ground staff were harmed. The cause of the incident was under investigation, Ethiopian Airlines said in a Facebook post. The aircraft was on a regular scheduled cargo service from Shanghai to Sao Paulo-Santiago, it added.
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| Depression over central Atlantic could soon become Tropical Storm Gonzalo, forecasters say Posted: 21 Jul 2020 03:27 PM PDT  ORLANDO, Fla. - Tropical Depression Seven formed on Tuesday between the African coast and the Lesser Antilles, according to the National Hurricane Center's 5 p.m. advisory. The depression could be upgraded to Tropical Storm Gonzalo later Tuesday or Wednesday, the NHC said. Located more than 1,400 miles from the Cabo Verde Islands, maximum sustained winds are 35 mph with higher gusts. There's ...
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| 'Get the hell out of our uniforms': It's getting hard to tell who are the real law enforcement as camouflaged Feds crack down on protests Posted: 22 Jul 2020 03:14 PM PDT  "That uniform represents the cloth of our nation for people who don't draw overtime," retired US Army Gen. Russel Honoré told MSNBC.
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| Mary Trump: What Really Shocked Me About My Family and the KKK Posted: 21 Jul 2020 07:47 AM PDT  Mary Trump had a giant barrel of tea to spill about her family on today's episode of The New Abnormal by The Daily Beast.She claims her uncle Donald Trump "was protected at every turn from his incompetence, from his total inability to handle money." And the Republican Party picked up where the media and the investment banks left off. Remember her grandfather Fred, the family patriarch who got arrested at a Ku Klux Klan rally? Mary was surprised by that news, but "not because my grandfather wasn't anti-Semitic."Nope, Mary was shocked her grandfather took time away from making money to join a KKK event. But of course, he was "perfectly happy being racist and anti-Semitic in his own house and his place of work."Mary Trump held nothing back as she spoke with Rick Wilson and Molly Jong-Fast. She even commented on Trump's sleeping habits, alleging that the late-night tweeter-in-chief doesn't sleep because "because Daddy wouldn't approve.""So that's maybe why he drinks 12 Diet Cokes a day and is up until three in the morning tweeting," she said.Tune in for more of the juicy details from behind the Trump family veil. Plus, hear The Nation's Elie Mystal discuss the passing of John Lewis—and the rise of a new generation of activists. And the hosts are back at the tough questions. Can Allen West turn Texas blue? Is Rick part of antifa? And is there anything—anything—Bill Barr hates more than graffiti? Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Coronavirus in India: 'PM Modi, please make men share housework!' Posted: 21 Jul 2020 09:18 PM PDT  After India's lockdown revealed some hard truths about housework, one woman set out to fix the gender gap.
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| Ethiopia's Abiy praises 'historic' start to dam filling Posted: 22 Jul 2020 07:26 AM PDT  Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Wednesday lauded the "historic" early filling of a massive dam on the Blue Nile River that has stoked tensions with downstream neighbours Egypt and Sudan. "The completion of the first round of filling is a historic moment that showcases Ethiopians' commitment to the renaissance of our country," Abiy, the 2019 Nobel Peace laureate, said in a statement read on state television. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has been a source of tension in the Nile River basin ever since Ethiopia broke ground on it in 2011.
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| Condemned Tennessee inmate claims innocence, seeks DNA tests Posted: 22 Jul 2020 10:00 AM PDT  A Tennessee inmate scheduled to be executed in December asked a Shelby County court on Wednesday to order DNA testing of the evidence in his case. Pervis Payne has always maintained his innocence in the 1987 stabbing deaths of Charisse Christopher and her 2-year-old daughter, Lacie Jo. At the time of his trial, DNA testing of evidence was unavailable, and no testing has ever been done in his case.
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| Two men, one woman arrested in connection to Florida fishing murders Posted: 22 Jul 2020 12:07 PM PDT  Top suspect has 230 felony charges; Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd speaks out.
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| 'We suffer in silence': coronavirus takes heavy toll on Brazil's army of gravediggers Posted: 22 Jul 2020 02:45 AM PDT  Alcoholism and depression 'part and parcel' for those who bury the bodies of Covid-19 victims – more than 80,000 so farMiguel Braga has done many things in life: sold lollipops, hawked cleaning products, guarded cars. This year, as Covid-19 shook Brazil, he turned his hand to burying bodies."Someone has to do it," said the 30-year-old father-of-two, who earns £200 ($250) a month carving 2-metre x 1-metre resting places into the caramel-coloured soils of Latin America's largest cemetery.Dramatic aerial images of Vila Formosa have travelled the world in recent months – perhaps the most potent symbol of Brazil's deadly failure to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control.Less attention has been paid to its silent army of gravediggers, the final combatants in a lost war being fought against an illness that has killed more than 80,000 of Braga's fellow citizens."The gravediggers are the invisible men of the pandemic," said Rafael Vilela, a Brazilian photographer who has been documenting their travails.In São Paulo alone, where Vila Formosa is located, more than 20,000 people are known to have died, meaning that if the state was a country it would rank as one of the world's 10 worst hit, ahead of Iran, Peru and Russia.Even in normal times, life is a battle for the 300 or so gravediggers who work in the state capital's 22 cemeteries. "Alcoholism and depression are part and parcel of our work," admitted Manoel Norberto, one of the directors of their union.But this year has been particularly tough. Official figures – which confirm what gravediggers have been reporting anecdotally for months – show that in the first half of 2020 there was a 40% jump in burials compared with the same period of 2019, with 46,484 compared to 33,246 last year.In May, São Paulo's worst month, 9,796 burials were conducted, up from 5,799 last year – a rise of 69%. In June, 8,925 people were buried, compared with 5,884 last year."My shrink is a pack of cigarettes and a beer after work," said Braga, after another punishing 11-hour shift during which he helped with more than 50 burials."The energy's heavy. My wife says I toss and turn in bed. Sometimes I talk in my sleep," he added. "But I'm a cool guy – for me, it's a job just like any other."Braga was raised in a notoriously rough favela on the east side of São Paulo, the son of a metalworker and a maid. Growing up in the 1990s, when the city was notorious for police violence, he witnessed countless atrocities. "I come from a violent place, I've seen many corpses in the streets. This is something that's part of my reality," he said.Even so, recent months have been painful at Vila Formosa, an 800,000 sq metre burial ground so vast that even some gravediggers have not fully explored it.One Sunday in May, at the peak of São Paulo's crisis, Braga helped bury 80 bodies in one shift, nearly all victims, or suspected victims, of Covid-19. Some weeks, workers have had to open 500 new graves, creating a total of 8,000 new resting places since the epidemic began."We suffer in silence," admitted Luiz Silva, a veteran gravedigger, who said he and his colleagues felt a mix of sadness and angst at their work. "We're afraid because we don't know if we'll be infected too."Paulo Lotufo, a University of São Paulo epidemiologist, hailed gravediggers as the unsung heroes of the pandemic: amateur disease detectives who helped grieving families while simultaneously helping track the virus's progression and impact across Brazil.Lotufo said it had been São Paulo's overburdened gravediggers who first alerted him to the calamity in March, when the official death toll there was only about 20.When the Amazon city of Manaus was plunged into chaos in April, it was again exhausted cemetery workers who raised the alarm, reporting more than a hundred daily burials rather than the usual 30."They're my travelling companions," Lotufo said of Brazil's gravediggers, arguing that their frontline observations were now more crucial than ever as much of the country reopened and politicians massaged Covid-19 statistics to convince citizens the crisis was controlled.Braga's observations suggest the city of São Paulo may be through the worst, with the virus now advancing across its rural interior, as well as Brazil's south and midwest. Some days, only 30 or 40 burials were taking place at Vila Formosa, the gravedigger said.For all the heartbreak and suffering, Braga said watching the ceremonies of different faiths – a snapshot of Brazil's religious diversity – was a moving experience."Followers of [the Afro-Brazilian religion] Candomblé throw popcorn on to the coffins to purify the dead. Umbanda followers seem to incorporate sacred entities. The evangelicals sing, but say it is only the flesh that is departing. And the Catholics chant prayers, which is what gives me goosebumps."Braga is an infrequent churchgoer, despite his wife being an evangelical pastor – but working as a gravedigger he found it impossible not to reflect on the fragility of human existence."I watch all these bodies being buried, with or without Covid, and I realize that we're all just worthless," he said."It doesn't matter if you're stupid or smart, if you've got money or not, if you're handsome or ugly. The earth swallows us all."Additional reporting by Tom PhillipsSome of the names in this report have been changed to protect identities
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| People are more likely to contract COVID-19 at home, study finds Posted: 21 Jul 2020 05:26 AM PDT  South Korean epidemiologists have found that people were more likely to contract the new coronavirus from members of their own households than from contacts outside the home. A study published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on July 16 looked in detail at 5,706 "index patients" who had tested positive for the coronavirus and more than 59,000 people who came into contact with them. The findings showed just two out of 100 infected people had caught the virus from non-household contacts, while one in 10 had contracted the disease from their own families.
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| Scientists report that airborne coronavirus is probably infectious Posted: 22 Jul 2020 02:03 AM PDT  Scientists have known for several months the new coronavirus can become suspended in microdroplets expelled by patients when they speak and breathe, but until now there was no proof that these tiny particles are infectious. A new study by scientists at the University of Nebraska that was uploaded to a medical preprint site this week has shown for the first time that SARS-CoV-2 taken from microdroplets, defined as under five microns, can replicate in lab conditions. This boosts the hypothesis that normal speaking and breathing, not just coughing and sneezing, are responsible for spreading COVID-19 -- and that infectious doses of the virus can travel distances far greater than the six feet (two meters) urged by social distancing guidelines.
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| Mike Pompeo said US intelligence shows the head of WHO was 'bought by the Chinese government,' according to reports Posted: 22 Jul 2020 04:56 AM PDT  Pompeo accused WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of being "bought" by China, in a private meeting with UK MPs.
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| Coronavirus Anxiety Project Quiz Measures Your COVID-19 Anxiety Posted: 22 Jul 2020 12:50 PM PDT  The Coronavirus Anxiety Project offers a five-question quiz that allows you to measure how much anxiety is impacting your daily life during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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| Mexico archaeology: Pre-Hispanic ruins found on mountaintop Posted: 22 Jul 2020 05:16 AM PDT  Experts think the site, estimated to be 1,500 years old, was dedicated to the god of the underworld.
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| China says French claims on Uighur rights are 'lies' Posted: 22 Jul 2020 02:59 AM PDT  French claims about the imprisonment of ethnic and religious minorities in China's Xinjiang region were unacceptable, Beijing said Wednesday, criticising the accusations as "false". China's response came a day after Paris demanded it let independent human rights observers visit the northwestern region, where rights groups and experts estimate over one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking minorities have been rounded up into a network of internment camps. France's foreign affairs minister Jean-Yves le Drian said China's actions were "unacceptable" and said they "condemn them firmly".
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| Trump says of Ghislaine Maxwell, 'I wish her well' Posted: 21 Jul 2020 03:30 PM PDT  President Donald Trump on Tuesday offered sympathetic words to Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime companion of Jeffrey Epstein who stands accused of facilitating the abuse of girls by the now-deceased sex offender. "I just wish her well, frankly," Trump said when asked about Maxwell during a news conference. Maxwell, 58, was denied bail last week and is to remain behind bars as she awaits trial on charges she recruited girls for the financier to sexually abuse more than two decades ago.
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