| What the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings reveal about Kamala Harris Posted: 13 Aug 2020 12:49 PM PDT  Kamala Harris's questioning of Brett Kavanaugh when he was nominated to the Supreme Court won the senator praise for her prosecutorial skill.
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| 43 felony charges, new task forces: Here's what Chicago is doing to combat potential looting Posted: 14 Aug 2020 02:33 PM PDT  Dozens of people have been charged in connection with widespread looting in downtown Chicago earlier this week, the county prosecutor said.
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| 3 women arrested for allegedly attacking a Chili's host for enforcing social distancing Posted: 14 Aug 2020 11:57 AM PDT  "I was kind of fighting for my life," restaurant hostess Kelsy Wallace, 17, said. "I was really scared, calling out for my mama."
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| You Need These High-Design Lawn Games to Maximize Summer Fun Posted: 14 Aug 2020 07:00 AM PDT |
| Bison violently attacks motorcyclist in South Dakota Posted: 14 Aug 2020 11:04 AM PDT  A motorcyclist has survived a violent attack by a bison in the Black Hills of South Dakota, sheriff's officials said.
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| Riot declared in downtown Portland, protesters tear-gassed Posted: 13 Aug 2020 04:49 AM PDT  Local and state police made arrests after demonstrators returned to downtown area despite withdrawal of federal agents
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| Bald eagle takes down government drone Posted: 13 Aug 2020 04:24 PM PDT  The device was mapping shoreline erosion when it was attacked in the air.
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| Ex-FBI lawyer to plead guilty in Trump-Russia probe review Posted: 14 Aug 2020 08:41 AM PDT  A former FBI lawyer plans to plead guilty to making a false statement in the first criminal case arising from U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation into the probe of ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign, his lawyer said Friday. Kevin Clinesmith is accused of altering a government email about a former Trump campaign adviser who was a target of secret FBI surveillance, according to documents filed in Washington's federal court.
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| The Beirut blast leveled historic neighborhoods. Some fear developers may finish the job Posted: 13 Aug 2020 04:33 AM PDT  Restoring historic districts badly damaged in the Beirut blast will be a tall order given Lebanon's weak economy and developers' eagerness to move in.
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| Venezuela jails 15 for decades over botched invasion Posted: 14 Aug 2020 02:51 PM PDT  Venezuela on Friday sentenced 15 people to more than two decades in prison over a failed invasion plot that President Nicolas Maduro has said was an attempt to overthrow him.
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| The US said federal agents have seized millions of dollars in bitcoin from terrorist groups al-Qaeda and Hamas Posted: 14 Aug 2020 11:38 AM PDT  Officials said it's the US government's "largest-ever" seizure of cryptocurrency accounts controlled by terrorist organizations.
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| Mei Xiang, the National Zoo's female giant panda, is very pregnant and her cub could come as soon as this weekend Posted: 14 Aug 2020 12:11 PM PDT  The panda cub could be the first cub at The National Zoo since Bei Bei was born in 2015. He left to China last year.
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| Close contact with a Covid-19 sufferer brings 20 per cent chance of catching virus, study finds Posted: 13 Aug 2020 08:34 AM PDT  Coming into close contact with a Covid-19 sufferer yields a 20 per cent chance of catching the disease, a new study shows. The large-scale survey, by Imperial College London, found antibodies in one in five people who said they had interacted with a positive case. Overall, some 3.4 million people are now estimated to have been infected with coronavirus – about six per cent of the population. The results come from the world's largest home testing programme looking for past evidence of the disease, using fingerprick testing kits. The study tracked the spread of infection across England after the pandemic's first peak, with volunteers testing themselves at home between June 20 and July 13. People living in London were most likely to have been infected, along with those working in care homes and health care, people from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and people living in larger households. The programme suggested a total of 13 per cent of people living in London had Covid-19 antibodies, compared with less than three per cent in the south-west of England. People working in care homes (16 per cent) and healthcare (12 per cent) returned far higher results than people who were not key workers, at five per cent. The study found that 17 per cent of black volunteers had antibodies, while the categories of Asian and other ethnic minorities had 12 per cent each. The figure among white volunteers was only five per cent. People aged 18-34 showed the highest incidence of antibodies, at eight per cent, while the over-65s had the lowest rate, at just three per cent (the graphic below shows infections by age range during July and August).
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| Biden says Trump's USPS funding opposition shows he 'doesn't want an election' Posted: 13 Aug 2020 12:27 PM PDT  Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is slamming recent comments from President Trump he says prove his opponent doesn't "want an election." Biden spoke Thursday after Trump in a Fox Business interview said he is against the funding for the United States Postal Service that Democrats are pushing for in a stimulus bill, with the president suggesting this is specifically because he wants to prevent universal mail-in voting during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Pure Trump," Biden said of these comments. "He doesn't want an election."The Biden campaign in a statement on Thursday also accused the president of "sabotaging a basic service that hundreds of millions of people rely upon, cutting a critical lifeline for rural economies and for delivery of medicines, because he wants to deprive Americans of their fundamental right to vote safely."In the Fox Business interview, Trump, who has asserted without evidence that increased mail-in voting during the coronavirus crisis would result in widespread voter fraud, had said that without the $25 billion for the USPS that Democrats want and that he is blocking, "you can't have universal mail-in voting, because they're not equipped to have it." > "Pure Trump," Joe Biden says when asked about Pres. Trump's comments on U.S. Postal Service. "He doesn't want an election." https://t.co/JsAo4rBy2e pic.twitter.com/uZyScwGMfk> > -- ABC News (@ABC) August 13, 2020More stories from theweek.com Are bread riots coming to America? Postal workers are sounding the alarm as mail sorting machines are removed from processing facilities USPS warns delays could prevent mail-in votes from being counted in nearly every state
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| Oregon State Police Withdraws from Portland Courthouse after D.A. Announces He Won’t Prosecute Most Rioters Posted: 14 Aug 2020 05:50 AM PDT  Oregon state police are backing out of an agreement to protect the Portland federal courthouse from rioters, after the Multnomah County district attorney announced he will not prosecute most rioters who are arrested.Portland has seen riots almost every night since the May death of George Floyd, an African American man killed during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers. Rioters initially targeted the federal courthouse in the city, but after federal and state law enforcement came to an agreement to jointly protect the courthouse, rioters moved on to attack city police.Multnomah County D.A. Mike Schmidt announced on Tuesday that his office would not prosecute most rioters who have been arrested, except where charges include deliberate property damage, theft, or threat of violence. Police have arrested over 500 people since the riots began, but less than 50 have been prosecuted so far.Oregon state police told KOIN 6 on Thursday that they are ending their deployment at Portland's federal courthouse because of anger over Schmidt's decision after being called in to assist as part of the agreement reached between local authorities and the federal government."The Oregon State Police is continually reassessing our resources and the needs of our partner agencies and at this time we are inclined to move those resources back to counties where prosecution of criminal conduct is still a priority," OSP said in a statement.Governor Kate Brown said the withdrawal was being coordinated between all relevant agencies."This transition was made in coordination with local and federal officials," Brown wrote on Twitter. "If further state support is needed in Portland, OSP troopers will be available to return to the city.""The OSP Troopers assigned to this event demonstrated the best traditions of the agency's commitment to service, however, our initial commitment to the City of Portland has concluded and it is time we integrate this valuable resource back to their respective communities," OSP said in a statement to National Review. "OSP will always be here for Portland, as we have for decades and I'll continue to assess subsequent resource demands with the Portland Police Bureau Chief, whom I have a great deal of respect for and a strong working relationship."
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| Israel hits Gaza militant sites after incendiary balloons Posted: 14 Aug 2020 02:35 PM PDT |
| US says Iran forces board ship in international waters Posted: 13 Aug 2020 12:35 AM PDT  Iranian forces boarded a tanker in international waters in the Gulf of Oman, using a helicopter and two ships to take over the vessel for several hours, US officials said. "Today in international waters, Iranian forces, including two ships and an Iranian "Sea King" helicopter, overtook and boarded a ship called the 'Wila'," the US Central Command said in a tweet on Wednesday.
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| SpaceX's next astronaut mission for NASA has been pushed back, with a launch 'no earlier' than late October Posted: 14 Aug 2020 03:48 PM PDT  NASA and SpaceX have announced that their Crew-1 mission will not launch before October in order to accommodate other astronauts.
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| India Supreme Court finds Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt Posted: 14 Aug 2020 12:47 AM PDT  The court took action on its own authority against Prashant Bhushan for allegedly derogatory tweets.
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| Scorching temperatures in Death Valley will shatter records in West, southwest Posted: 13 Aug 2020 11:01 AM PDT  Cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson and Salt Lake City could experience record high temperatures in the coming days.
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| Chainsaw-wielding men covered in blood arrested on Toronto beach Posted: 14 Aug 2020 09:54 AM PDT  Two men have been arrested after appearing on a Canadian beach spattered in blood and wielding chainsaws.Witnesses alleged that they menaced and "charged" at various people gathered at Toronto's Cherry Beach on Sunday morning, before police quickly intervened, responding to reports of a large fight.
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| Postal workers are sounding the alarm as mail sorting machines are removed from processing facilities Posted: 13 Aug 2020 01:32 PM PDT  It's not just business as usual at the United States Postal Service.While President Trump is publicly saying he plans to block funding for the USPS so that Democrats can't achieve their goal of expanding mail-in voting across all states ahead of the November election, the Postal Service is also facing some internal changes.Vice News' Motherboard reported Thursday that USPS is quietly removing mail sorting machines — the very machines that are responsible for sorting ballots. There's no official explanation for the changes, and it's unclear why the machines would be removed rather than simply not used when not needed. The removals and planned removals are reportedly affecting several processing facilities across the U.S."It'll force the mail to be worked by human hands in sorting. Guarantees to STOP productivity," a Post Office source told The Washington Post's Jacqueline Alemany. "On top of cutting the overtime needed to run the machines, can you imagine the [overtime] needed to do this [the] old hard way?"Postal workers say equipment is often moved around or replaced, but not usually at such a rate, and not in such a way that would affect workers' ability to quickly process large quantities of mail. Local union officials have no idea what's going on. "I'm not sure you're going to find an answer for why," one union president told Vice, "because we haven't figured that out either."A USPS spokesperson said the move is routine. "Package volume is up, but mail volume continues to decline," said the spokesperson. "Adapting our processing infrastructure to the current volumes will ensure more efficient, cost effective operations." Since there is an expected influx of mail as Americans begin sending in ballots, postal workers urged voters not to wait until the last moment to avoid overwhelming the dwindling number of sorting machines. Read more at Vice News.More stories from theweek.com Are bread riots coming to America? USPS warns delays could prevent mail-in votes from being counted in nearly every state The Trump administration wants to crack down even further on asylum protections
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| What No Student Loan Payments Until 2021 Means for You Posted: 13 Aug 2020 04:03 AM PDT  You don't have to make another federal student loan payment in 2020. Federal student loan borrowers were already in an automatic interest-free pause on payments as part of the original coronavirus relief bill, known as the CARES Act. This pause was expected to expire Sept. 30, but an extension of the forbearance through Dec. 31 was directed in a memorandum signed by President Donald Trump on Aug. 8.
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| Americans could be staring down the worst public health crisis in recent history if COVID-19 rages on into the flu season, CDC warns Posted: 13 Aug 2020 06:38 PM PDT  "I'm asking you to do four simple things: wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands, and be smart about crowds," CDC Director Robert Redfield said
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| Drug-dealing stripper wanted white supremacist gang to kill Texas roommate, feds say Posted: 14 Aug 2020 01:29 PM PDT  Besides dancing and dealing, the Dallas man had murder on his mind, according to authorities.
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| Iowans grapple with aftermath of Monday's deadly derecho, 'a disaster that we have never seen' Posted: 14 Aug 2020 12:00 PM PDT  The National Guard arrived in Cedar Rapids on Friday to assist residents there after Monday's deadly derecho storm that was like a hurricane
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| Astronomers find "Milky Way look-alike" 12 billion light years away Posted: 13 Aug 2020 04:08 PM PDT  The galaxy appears as a near-perfect ring of light — a so-called "Einstein Ring."
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| Department of Justice says Yale discriminates against whites and Asians Posted: 13 Aug 2020 05:16 PM PDT  The Ivy League university denied that its admissions process breached Supreme Court rulings.
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| Hillary Clinton would 'consider' working for a Biden administration Posted: 14 Aug 2020 06:53 AM PDT  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she would consider a role in Joe Biden's administration if the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is elected in November."I'm ready to help in any way I can because I think this will be a moment where every American – I don't care what party you are, I don't care what age, race, gender, I don't care – every American should want to fix our country," Ms Clinton said.
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| Ammonium Nitrate Blew Up Beirut. It Also Fuels Africa’s Most Dangerous Illegal Mines. Posted: 13 Aug 2020 01:43 AM PDT  ABUJA, Nigeria—The ammonium nitrate that exploded last week in Beirut—killing 154 people, injuring more than 5,000 and causing widespread destruction—was destined for Mozambique, a transit point for raw materials in the explosives trade, where shipments often end up in the hands of illegal Chinese-owned mining companies with dubious human rights records. Almost seven years ago, Fábrica de Explosivos de Moçambique (FEM), a Mozambican firm that produces explosives, ordered 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate from a Georgian company known as Savaro for the purpose of manufacturing explosives for mining companies. But the substance was transported in September 2013 on the Russian ship Rhosus, which docked in Beirut, where it tried to make more money by picking up several pieces of heavy machinery, and never made it to Mozambique, as Lebanese authorities impounded the cargo for failing to pay port fees.FEM, a company majority-owned by the Portuguese explosives company Moura Silva e Filhos, has come under intense scrutiny since the ammonium nitrate it ordered caused the blast in Beirut on Aug. 4. A spokesperson for the company admitted to CNN that FEM had ordered the substance from Georgia but was told several months later by the company that was supposed to facilitate the transfer to Mozambique that the vessel carrying ammonium nitrate had been seized in Lebanon and that the order was "not going to be delivered." As a result, according to the spokesperson, FEM "never paid for it." Beirut Government Was Warned Over Explosives in Port Two Weeks Before Deadly Blast: ReportBut FEM's claim that it didn't pay for the ammonium nitrate has been disputed by a number of sources. Baroudi and Partners, a Lebanese law firm representing the ship's crew, said in a statement on Aug. 5 that the substance was purchased by the International Bank of Mozambique (IBM) for FEM. An official in Mozambique's Justice Ministry who didn't want to be named also told The Daily Beast that IBM "did the transaction on behalf of FEM."Conflicting reports regarding the final destination of the ammonium nitrate have also raised questions regarding the transparency of the purchase. While the Mozambican port authorities said on Aug. 6 that the substance was meant to be transported from a port in the eastern city of Biera, where the Russian ship would have arrived from Beirut, to either Zambia or Zimbabwe, Mozambique's largest weekly newspaper, Savana, reported that the ammonium nitrate was actually supposed to be used for the manufacturing of explosives for the Brazilian mining company, Vale, which operates the country's largest coal mine in the western Tete province. FEM did not respond to The Daily Beast's request for comments.The explosives market across Mozambique, as well as in neighboring Zambia and Zimbabwe, is huge, with dozens of mining firms depending on big companies like FEM for explosives. (Landlocked Zambia and Zimbabwe also depend on Mozambique's seaports for imports that come across the water). But the three countries are also the preferred places for a high number of illegal miners who, despite not being licensed to operate, are still able to obtain explosives from manufacturers on the black market.A Mozambican customs official informed The Daily Beast privately that explosives are usually transported by land from FEM offices in Mozambique to Zambia where they are sold to mining companies in the country. The company itself does have an office in Zambia and there are allegations that it sells explosives to illegal miners, including unscrupulous Chinese nationals."Explosives companies including FEM do not carry out serious background checks on some of these so-called mining companies," the official said. "Because of that, criminal companies, especially those owned by Chinese people, are mining in Zambia simply because they have explosives."FEM's presence in Africa is quite significant. The company, which specializes in the manufacture and application of explosives for commercial purposes, also has subsidiary companies in Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and commercial agreements in Malawi. But it is in Mozambique, where it has its head office, that its operations are most known.FEM is said to have sold explosives to Mineradora Industrial de Cassassole, a Chinese company operating in Tete province whose illegal mining operations led to the death of one of its workers two years ago.It was revealed after the worker—29-year-old Sakson Lobiano—died in 2018 that Mineradora Industrial de Cassassole, which was only licensed by Mozambican authorities to operate an open cast gold mine in Tete's northern Macanga district, decided to operate underground and opened an illegal shaft 90 meters deep, where Lobiano was killed. The miner died from inhaling dust and toxic particles from an explosion that was ignited by a Chinese co-worker, who had no training in underground work or license to handle explosives."We believe the company got those explosives from FEM," Alex Camacho, a local environmental activist in Tete, told The Daily Beast. "[FEM] is where virtually every mining company gets it explosives from."In its website, FEM boasts that it has been the main company "responsible for manufacturing and supplying the Mozambican explosives market" since its founding in 1955. It also noted that in the last two decades it has expanded to become a reference in the whole of southern Africa. But its growth has also come with accusations of negligence."That Mozambique has so many illegal miners who all have access to explosives should tell everyone that the manufacturers are letting their explosives get to the wrong hands," said Camacho who is individually campaigning against illegal mining in Tete. "In Mozambique, once you think about explosives, you think about FEM."Mozambique, the world's seventh-poorest country, has suffered years of illegal mining as well as logging of its natural forests by Chinese companies that take advantage of widespread corruption in the impoverished country to gain access.According to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an international NGO with offices in London and Washington, D.C., Chinese companies in 2012 imported between 189,615 and 215,654 cubic meters of timber that had been illegally exported from Mozambique. The illegal action comprised a huge 48 percent of China's imports from the African nation.But it is in the mining sector that exploitation by Chinese-owned companies in southeast Africa have been mostly noted.There are several Chinese mining and explosives companies operating in Zambia and many of them have been accused of human rights abuses and negligence towards safety regulations.In 2005, 52 Zambian workers were killed at a Chinese-owned explosives factory near Chambeshi, a town in Zambia's copper belt. In 2010, Zambia charged two Chinese managers with attempted murder after they opened fire on protesting Zambian workers. Seven years later, Zambian authorities arrested 31 Chinese nationals for illegal mining in the copper belt.In Zimbabwe, Chinese-run mines have been dogged with several allegations of human rights violations of local workers.Early this year, local miners in Matabeleland South province protested their sacking by their Chinese employer, whom they also accused of constantly beating up workers. Their protest was followed by complaints in April by workers in another mining company of being underpaid and working without protective clothing as COVID-19 began to spread. Then came the shooting of two Zimbabwean mining workers in June by their Chinese boss during a row with workers over outstanding pay in central Zimbabwe."Chinese mining companies do what they like in southeastern Africa and no one can question them," said Camacho, the environmental activist. "It is sad that the government agencies that are supposed to regulate their activities are only concerned about the money they can generate from these companies."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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| Portland State disarms campus police after Black man's death Posted: 13 Aug 2020 02:00 PM PDT  Portland State University said Thursday it will disarm its campus police force, more than two years after officers from the department shot and killed a Black man who was trying to break up a fight close to campus. Portland State President Stephen Percy said the decision to have officers patrol the campus unarmed is the first step in a broader policy to re-imagine safety at the state-funded university in the heart of the city. Activists had been calling for Portland State to disarm campus police long before Floyd's death.
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| Special Tactics Airman Who Fought Off Taliban Despite Concussion Will Get Silver Star Posted: 13 Aug 2020 12:08 PM PDT  For his actions on May 25, 2013, in Afghanistan's eastern Ghazni province, John Grimesey will receive the Silver Star.
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| Cops’ helicopter got too close — so Georgia man shot it, feds say. He’s going to prison Posted: 13 Aug 2020 03:53 PM PDT  Terry Kielisch reportedly told investigators "he didn't like it flying near his home."
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| Top two Democrats in Congress call on U.S. postmaster general to reverse course: statement Posted: 14 Aug 2020 11:34 AM PDT  The top two Democrats in Congress called on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Friday to reverse postal service changes they say have led to mail delays. "Postmaster General DeJoy must quickly reverse his operational changes that have led to delays and service reductions for too many Americans and threaten to undermine our democracy," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. DeJoy, who has donated $2.7 million to Trump and his fellow Republicans since 2017, in July ordered operational changes and a clampdown on overtime in a bid to fix the financially troubled service.
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| These states require travelers to self-quarantine or present negative COVID-19 test Posted: 14 Aug 2020 04:39 AM PDT  States are opening back up, but some still require or recommend visitors self-quarantine for two weeks. Find out where.
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| Emergency room doctor says COVID-19 and 1918 flu pandemic belong in the same conversation Posted: 14 Aug 2020 09:15 AM PDT  New medical study finds New York City coronavirus deaths in spring are comparable to 1918 flu pandemic; insight from Dr. Jeremy Faust, emergency physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
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| Antifa website redirected to Biden’s campaign site causes right-wing conspiracy meltdown Posted: 13 Aug 2020 02:23 PM PDT  The website for anti-facist group Antifa redirected to Joe Biden's campaign website on Wednesday, which led some people to claim that the Democrats are connected to the organisation.For a few hours on Wednesday, Antifa.com redirected to JoeBiden.com, the campaign website of the presumptive Democratic candidate for president, before it returned back to the original page of the group Donald Trump has described as being run by "anarchists."
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| Nigerian police rescue Kano man locked up in his parents' garage Posted: 14 Aug 2020 09:52 AM PDT  The emaciated aged 30 had been left for at least three years without proper care, police say.
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| The COVID-19 virus can spread through the air – here's what it'll take to detect the airborne particles Posted: 14 Aug 2020 05:12 AM PDT  A growing body of research shows that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can spread from person to person through the air. Indoor spaces with poor ventilation in areas where the virus is prevalent are particularly hazardous.In the fictional world of "Star Trek," public health officials and first responders would be able to determine instantly if a space had a dangerous concentration of airborne virus, and any other pathogen, by simply waving around a tricorder. That technology, imagined 60 years ago, is still firmly in the realm of fiction. However, devices that can rapidly detect particular airborne pathogens – including SARS-CoV-2 – are in the works in various research laboratories. The air we breatheDetection of the presence of airborne virus particles is complicated by the mixture of other particles in the air. The atmosphere includes a large number of floating particles, a significant fraction of which are biological. Typically, with each breath, you inhale about a thousand biological particles.These bioaerosols include live and dead organisms, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, pollen and plant and animal debris. Viruses are the smallest of these particles. They range in size from 10 to 300 nanometers, or millionths of a millimeter. In contrast, red blood cells average about 6 to 8 microns, or 6,000 to 8,000 nanometers, in diameter. Bacteria range from 1 to 4 microns and fungi 5 to 10 microns. Plant and animal debris is generally larger than 10 microns.Most of these biological particles are not a health concern, because most are bits of plants and animals, including humans. However, it only takes a small number of dangerous microbes to produce a pandemic. IDing bad news microbesTo understand the potential threat from bioaerosols, it's important to identify the small fraction of problematic or pathogenic microbes from among all the bioaerosols present. Bioaerosol identification begins with capturing biological particles from the air, typically by collecting particles on a filter, in a liquid vial or on hydrogels. Often, researchers transfer the collected bioaerosols to a culture medium that is designed to support microbe growth. How the microbes respond to a specific culture medium – the size, shape, color and growth rate of the microbe colony – can indicate the microbe species. This process can take several days to weeks, and is often ineffective. It turns out the scientists can only identify about 1% of airborne microbes with this approach.Increasingly, scientists are relying on gene-based analyses to map viruses and other microorganisms collected in air samples. One popular technique for gene-based analysis is polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which uses an enzymatic reaction to make many copies of a specific gene or portion of a gene so that the genetic sequence – DNA or RNA – can be detected in a sample. A PCR test can be designed to spot gene sequences specific to a microorganism so that detecting the sequence equals identifying the microorganism. This technique is currently the gold-standard for detecting the presence of SARS-CoV-2 from nasal swab samples. PCR-based methods are very accurate in identifying pathogens.Next generation sequencing technology makes it possible to rapidly sequence organisms' whole genomes. Using these techniques, researchers now have the ability to understand the entire population of microorganisms — their diversity and abundance — in the air. Rapid detectionDespite these advances, there is still a lot of work to be done to be able to instantaneously identify the presence of pathogens in air. Current techniques for identifying microbes are expensive, require specialized equipment and involve long processing steps. They also can't detect a species from small amounts of genetic material.Recent advances, however, provide some promise for the development of sensors that can provide quick information about bioaerosols. One approach uses laser induced florescence. In this technique, particles are illuminated with light of a particular color or wavelength, and only biological particles respond by fluorescing, or emitting light. This technique can be used to identify and quantify the presence of biological particles in air in real-time but it doesn't differentiate between a safe and a harmful microbe. Another advance is using mass spectrometry for bioaerosol detection. In this technique, a single bioaerosol particle is blasted apart with a laser and the molecular fragments are immediately analyzed to determine the molecular composition of the particles. Researchers are also using Raman spectroscopy-based sensors. Raman spectroscopy can identify molecular composition from light reflected off of samples without destroying the samples. Big challenge in a small packageThese techniques are advancing instant detection and identification of airborne bacteria and fungi, but they are less efficient in detecting viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. This is primarily because viruses are very small, which makes it difficult to collect them with air samplers and difficult to perform PCR analysis given the small amount of DNA/RNA. Researchers are working to address the limitations of detecting airborne viruses. In our lab at Clarkson University, we have developed a low-cost bioaerosol sensor and collector for wide-scale bioaerosol sampling. This battery-operated sampler uses a micro-sized high-voltage source to ionize airborne viruses, bacteria and fungi and collect them on a surface. Ionization gives the biological particles an electrical charge. Giving the collection surface the opposite charge causes the particles to stick to the surface.Samples from our collector can be analyzed with new portable DNA/RNA sequencers, which allows for near real-time bioaerosol detection with low-cost, hand-held equipment. Where's my tricorder?These advances could soon make it possible to detect a known pathogen, like SARS-CoV-2, with a portable device. But they're still far from being a tricorder. [Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation's newsletter.]For one, they require relatively high levels of a pathogen for detection. Being able to identify a virus like SARS-CoV-2 at lower levels that are nonetheless sufficient for disease transmission will require developing sensors with lower detection limits. Additionally, these sensors can only be tailored to detect specific pathogens, not scan for all possible pathogens.Though the equivalent of the tricorder in "Star Trek" isn't around the corner, the need for such a device has never been greater. Now is an opportune time for the emergence of new sensing techniques piggy-backing on the dramatic advances being made in the fields of electronics, computing and bioinformatics. When the next new pathogen emerges, it would be nice to have a tricorder handy.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Rapid home-based coronavirus tests are coming together in research labs — we're working on analyzing spit using advanced CRISPR gene editing techniques * Aerosols are a bigger coronavirus threat than WHO guidelines suggest – here's what you need to knowSuresh Dhaniyala is President, Potsdam Sensors, a startup that is commercializing TracB. He has received funding from the National Science Foundation.Shantanu Sur has received funding from the National Science Foundation Hema Priyamvada Ravindran does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| UN soundly defeats US demand to extend arms embargo on Iran Posted: 14 Aug 2020 12:30 PM PDT  The U.N. Security Council on Friday resoundingly defeated a U.S. resolution to indefinitely extend the U.N. arms embargo on Iran, with the Trump administration getting support from only the Dominican Republic but vowing further action to prevent Tehran's sale and export of conventional weapons. Russia and China strongly opposed the resolution, but didn't need to use their vetoes. The Trump administration has said repeatedly it will not allow the arms embargo provision in the Security Council resolution endorsing the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and six major powers to expire as scheduled Oct. 18.
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| 34 Camping Essentials for Your RV, Trailer, or Badass Camper Van Posted: 14 Aug 2020 02:11 PM PDT |
