Virgin Galactic on Saturday made its first rocket-powered flight from New Mexico to the fringe of space in a manned shuttle, as the company forges toward offering tourist flights to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere.High above the desert in a cloudless sky, VSS Unity ignited its rocket to hurtle the ship and two pilots toward space. A live feed by NASASpaceFlight.com showed the ship accelerating upward and confirmed a landing later via radar.Virgin Galactic announced that the shuttle achieved a speed equal to three times the speed of sound and an altitude of just more than 89 kilometers (55 miles) above sea level before making its gliding return through the atmosphere.British billionaire and Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson said the flight and landing brought the roughly 15-year-old venture tantalizingly close to commercial flights for tourists. Virgin Galactic said those flights could begin next year.’They all worked'”Today was just an incredible step in the right direction,” Branson told The Associated Press shortly after the flight landing. “It tested a lot of new systems that the teams have been building and they all worked.”Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said at least two more undated test flights lie ahead — the next with four mission specialist passengers in the cabin. Pending trials also include a flight that will take Branson to the edge of space.”The flight today was elegant, beautiful,” Colglazier said. “We’re going to analyze all the data that we gather on these flights, but watching from the ground and speaking with our pilots, it was magnificent. So now it’s time for us to do this again.”Virgin Galactic said the flight provided an assessment of upgrades to a horizontal stabilizer, other flight controls and a suite of cabin cameras designed to provide live images of flight to people on the ground. The shuttle also carried a scientific payload in cooperation with NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program.Preparations for the latest flight included a maintenance review of the special carrier plane that flies the six-passenger spacecraft to a high altitude, where it is released so it can fire its rocket motor and make the final push to space.Several delaysThe first powered test of the rocket ship in New Mexico from Spaceport America was delayed repeatedly before Saturday’s launch. In December 2020, computer trouble caused by electromagnetic interference prevented the spaceship’s rocket from firing properly. Instead of soaring toward space, the ship and its two pilots were forced to make an immediate landing.While Virgin Galactic’s stock price ticked up this week with the announcement of the latest test being scheduled for Saturday, it wasn’t enough to overcome the losses seen since a peak in February. Some analysts have cautioned that it could be a while before the company sees profits as the exact start of commercial operations is still up in the air.Virgin Galactic is one of a few companies looking to cash in on customers with an interest in space.Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch a billionaire and his sweepstakes winners in September. That should be followed in January 2022 by a flight by three businessmen to the International Space Station.Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched a new capsule in January as part of testing as it aims to get its program for tourists, scientists and professional astronauts off the ground. It’s planning for liftoff of its first crewed flight on July 20, the date of the Apollo 11 moon landing.Virgin Galactic has reached space twice before. The first time was from California in December 2018.New Mexico taxpayers have invested more than $200 million in the Spaceport America hangar and launch facility, near Truth or Consequences, after Branson and then-Governor Bill Richardson, a Democrat, pitched the plan for the facility, with Virgin Galactic as the anchor tenant.Richardson watched Saturday’s flight from the ground below and later thanked residents of local counties that committed early on to a sales tax increase to support the venture.
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The recent cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline, the operator of the largest petroleum pipeline in the U.S., shows how internet criminals are increasingly targeting companies and organizations for ransom in what officials and experts term a growing national security threat.These hackers penetrate victims’ computer systems with a form of malware that encrypts the files, then they demand payments to release the data. In 2013, a ransomware attack typically targeted a person’s desktop or laptop, with users paying $100 to $150 in ransom to regain access to their files, according to Michael Daniel, president and CEO of Cyber Threat Alliance.“It was a fairly minimal affair,” said Daniel, who served as cybersecurity coordinator on the National Security Council under U.S. President Barack Obama, at the RSA Cybersecurity Conference this week.In recent years, ransomware has become a big criminal enterprise. Last year, victim organizations in North America and Europe paid an average of more than $312,000 in ransom, up from $115,000 in 2019, according to a recent report by the cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks. The highest ransom paid doubled to $10 million last year while the highest ransom demand grew to $30 million, according to Palo Alto Networks.“Those are some very significant amounts of money,” Daniel said. “And it’s not just individuals being targeted but things like school systems.”Last year, some of the largest school districts in the U.S., including Clark County Public Schools in Nevada, Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia and Baltimore County Public Schools in Maryland, FILE – In this Sept. 12, 2019, photo, County Sheriff Janis Mangum stands in a control room at the county jail in Jefferson, Ga. A ransomware attack in March took down the office’s computer system.Colonial’s payment wasn’t the largest ransom paid by a single organization. Last year, Garmin, the maker of the popular fitness tracker, reportedly FILE – In this Aug. 22, 2019, file photo, signs on a bank of computers tell visitors that the machines are not working at the public library in Wilmer, Texas. Twenty-two local governments in Texas were hit by ransomeware in August 2019.Last month, the U.S. Justice Department created a task force to develop strategies to combat ransomware.“This is something we’re acutely focused on,” Monaco said.In a report to the Biden administration last month, an industry-backed task force called for a more aggressive response to ransomware.“It will take nothing less than our total collective effort to mitigate the ransomware scourge,” the task force wrote.In a typical ransomware attack, hackers lock a user’s or company’s data, offering keys to unlock the files in exchange for a ransom.But over the past year, hackers have adopted a new extortion tactic. Instead of simply encrypting a user’s files for extortion, cyber actors “exfiltrate” data, threatening to leak or destroy it unless a ransom is paid.Using dedicated leak sites, the hackers then release the data slowly in an effort “to increase pressure on the victim organization to pay the extortion, rather than posting all of the exfiltrated data at once.”In March, cybercriminals used this method when they encrypted a large Florida public school district’s servers and stole more than 1 terabyte of sensitive data, demanding $40 million in return.“If this data is published you will be subject to huge court and government fines,” the Conti cybercrime gang warned a Broward County Public Schools official.The district refused to pay.Cybersecurity experts have a term for this tactic: double extortion. The method gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic as cyber criminals used it to extort hospitals and other critical service providers.“They’re looking to increase the cost to the victim,” Meyers said at the RSA conference.Recent attacks show cyber criminals are upping their game. In October, hackers struck Finnish psychotherapy service Vastaamo, stealing the data of 400 employees and about 40,000 patients. The hackers not only demanded a ransom from Vastaamo but also smaller payments from individual patients.This was the first notable case of a disturbing new trend in ransomware attacks, according to researchers at Check Point.“It seems that even when riding the wave of success, threat groups are in constant quest for more innovative and more fruitful business models,” the researchers wrote.
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COVID-19, climate change and cooperation in high-tech industries were the focus of a summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House Friday. While the leaders also discussed North Korea, prospects for a breakthrough on denuclearization appear dim. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Billions, perhaps even trillions, of cicadas are emerging from the soil over a six-week period in more than a dozen U.S. states. The Washington region, including Northern Virginia, is a hot spot for the plentiful but short-lived thumb-sized insect that some find fascinating and others unnerving.Entomologist Floyd Shockley searched a wooded area in Alexandria, Virginia, for the harmless insects, which slowly climb out of the ground every 17 years from under the deciduous trees on which they feed.An adult cicada climbs up a bush at a forested park in Alexandria, Virginia. Scientists say billions, perhaps even trillions of the insects, may emerge during the next several weeks. (Deborah Block/VOA)”There’s a couple of adults over here,” Shockley said as he gently picked up a black creature with translucent wings and prominent red eyes. Shockley is the collections manager at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington. Today, he is collecting specimens for research.More than 3,000 kinds of cicadas can be found worldwide. While many appear annually, some U.S. varieties spring from the ground either every 17 or 13 years. The cicadas currently blanketing the Washington area are known as Brood X (10).”It’s an amazing phenomenon,” Shockley said.Two-year-old Robert Cody in Alexandria can’t get enough of the cicadas, even when they fly and land on him. “The cicadas are my friends. They tickle my ears, and their eyes look like fire,” he said.Some people are wary of the bugs, like Jeremy Buchanan in Herndon, Virginia, who likes to take a run after work. “When I run by some trees, they sometimes drop on my head,” he said.”There’s no reason for people to be afraid of them,” explained Gene Kritsky, a cicada expert at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio. “They don’t bite or sting or spread diseases on crops.”Kritsky came up with the idea of a phone app and website called Cicada Safari that citizen scientists can use to post their cicada photos and the location where they were taken.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
A Brood X cicada tracker map on CicadaSafari.com shows locations in the US where the bugs are appearing after 17 years of being underground. (Courtesy Cicada Safari/Gene Kritsky, Mount St. Joseph University, Cincinnati, Ohio)Since the protein-rich cicadas aren’t poisonous, adventurous humans can eat them as well. A cookbook called Cicada-Licious includes recipes for cicada pizza, tacos and cookies.Brian Schwatken in Arlington, Virginia, fried some cicada nymphs with butter, garlic and onions. “They are tender, have kind of a nutty taste and are really good,” he said.The males court the females with a screaming high-pitched mating call that resembles the droning sound of a UFO in an old movie, Shockley said. A chorus of cicadas can be louder than the sounds near an airport when jets are landing, Kritsky added.The females don’t fall for just any male. He must win her over by showcasing his different tones and rhythms. If she’s interested in him, she clicks her wings, McKamey said.Adult cicadas die soon after mating and fertilize the soil.Brian Schwatken in Arlington, Virginia, fries cicadas with butter, garlic and onions. ‘They are tender and have a nutty taste,’ he said. (Courtesy Brian Schwatken)The females lay their eggs on small branches. After they hatch in about six weeks, tiny white nymphs fall from the trees and burrow into the soil, repeating the 17-year natural wonder all over again.Kritsky said it’s a “big mystery” how the cicadas time the 17-year cycle. Underground, they feed on the sap of deciduous tree roots, stopping during the winter and beginning again in the spring. It could be the insects detect the trees’ seasonal changes, Shockley said.
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Apple’s online marketplace would become a “toxic” mess if the iPhone maker were forced to allow third-party apps without reviewing them, chief executive Tim Cook said in testimony at a high-stakes trial challenging the company’s tight control of its platform.Cook, the last scheduled witness in the case brought by Fortnite maker Epic Games, delivered a strong defense of Apple’s procedures for reviewing and approving all the apps it offers for iPhone and iPad users.”We could no longer make the promise … of privacy, safety and security,” Cook said under questioning from Apple attorney Veronica Moye in federal court in California.Cook said Apple’s review process helps keep out malicious software and other problematic apps, helping create a safe place for consumers.Without this review, the online marketplace “would become a toxic kind of mess,” he said.”It would also be terrible for the developer, because the developer depends on the store being a safe and trusted place.”Cook’s testimony caps a high-profile trial which opened earlier this month in which Apple is accused of abusing a monopoly on its marketplace by creating a “walled garden” that squeezes app makers.’Not about money’Under cross-examination, Cook sparred with Epic lawyer Gary Bornstein about the profitability of the App Store.Cook disputed Epic’s contention that its profit margin on apps was some 80%, but the exact figure was not disclosed in court due to confidentiality.The Apple executive said the proprietary payments system challenged by Epic was about convenience for consumers, more than about profits.”We always put the user at the center of everything we do,” Cook said. “It has nothing to do with money.”During his testimony, Cook defended Apple’s policy of barring apps directing consumers to other platforms to purchase subscriptions or credits for games and other services.”It would be akin to Best Buy advertising that you can go across the street to the Apple Store to buy an iPhone,” he said.Epic, maker of the popular Fortnite video game, is seeking to force Apple to open up the marketplace to third parties seeking to circumvent Apple’s procedures and commissions of up to 30%.Apple booted Fortnite from its App Store last year after Epic dodged revenue sharing with the iPhone maker.Apple does not allow users of its popular devices to download apps from anywhere but its App Store, and developers have to use Apple’s payment system, which takes its cut.The Epic lawyer also questioned Cook about Apple’s arrangement with Google to be the default search engine for the iPhone maker’s Safari browser, another area scrutinized by antitrust officials.Cook acknowledged that Google pays for this position but added that Apple made the arrangement “in the best interest of the user.”The case before District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland comes with Apple feeling pressure from a wide range of app makers over its control of the App Store, which critics say represents monopolistic behavior.The European Union has formally accused Apple of unfairly squeezing out music streaming rivals based on a complaint brought by Sweden-based Spotify and others, which claim the California group sets rules that favor its own Apple Music.A recently formed Coalition for App Fairness, which includes both Spotify and Epic, have called for Apple to open up its marketplace, claiming its commission is a “tax” on rivals.Closing arguments in the bench trial in California were expected early next week, with the judge expected to rule within several weeks.
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The White House COVID-19 response team said Friday that major online dating sites are pitching in to encourage more people in the United States to get vaccinated.At the response team’s Friday briefing, Andy Slavitt, senior White House adviser, told reporters that major dating sites including Bumble, Tinder, Hinge, Match, OkCupid and others are offering incentives to members to get vaccinated, including badges to display on their profiles and access to premium features.Slavitt said that the pandemic has had an impact on people’s personal lives, as social distancing is not conducive to dating. He said that while people are eager to get back into dating, they want to be able to do it safely. And, he said, the dating site OkCupid reports that its members who can show they are fully vaccinated are 14% more likely to get dates.Slavitt said online dating sites have access to more than 50 million members, and the White House welcomes the incentives.Numbers droppingMeanwhile, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky reported that as of Thursday, the national daily average number of COVID-19 cases for the past week fell by almost 20% to the lowest daily average since June 13, 2020. Thursday was also the second day in a row the national daily average number of cases fell below 30,000.The good news about declining COVID-19 numbers around the country creates, ironically, a problem for officials trying to get more people vaccinated. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says the numbers may make people think that the progress made means the pandemic is over and that they should not bother getting vaccinated.Murthy said the only way for the good news to continue is for people to continue getting shots. Slavitt agreed, saying that surveys show that many people who are not yet vaccinated simply have not made it a priority.Prizes, scholarshipsHe said the White House welcomes efforts to encourage people to get vaccinated, such the ones the dating sites are making or, as several states are doing, entering all those who get vaccinated into lotteries with prizes worth thousands of dollars and, in Ohio, five prizes of $1 million and full-ride college scholarships.The CDC director reported that as of Friday, more than 60% of all Americans older than 18 have received at least one shot, and 126.6 million Americans are fully vaccinated.
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Twenty-two-year-old Meta Josten from the Democratic Republic of Congo was already living a hard life in one of Uganda’s refugee settlements. When the Ugandan government announced measures last year to control the spread of COVID-19, life got even harder.With little or no work available to locals, Josten, who previously survived on casual labor outside the settlement, had no income to supplement the aid his family was given.For Josten, who lived with five siblings and a jobless father, it was the hunger that almost got him to take his life.“We slept two days without eating food,” Josten said. “We were just surviving on just porridge. A bit of porridge which sustained us for the bit of moments. By then I was like if it’s like this, which means, it’s useless for me to stay in this world.”Mamuru Jackson, a refugee from South Sudan, said it was the lack of human interaction that pushed him to the brink. Having fled to Uganda with a younger brother, leaving his mother and father in South Sudan, Jackson wasn’t ready to assume the role of a parent.“Actually, that thought came into my mind,” Jackson said. “Because, I feel like I’m alone in this world. And also, the work at home. Because I was only elder person. The other brother of mine is still very young. I feel overwhelmed.”Male Ali, a psychologist and counselor, said both Josten’s and Jackson’s conditions were deepened due to the thought of not being cared for after separation from family. He outlines the underlying issues.“Parental abuse, poverty,” Ali said. “Those who have been stricken … Those who are traumatized. Especially those who faced violence. Exchange of bullets, now like for the refugee dwellers. And they really had a lot of post-traumatic stress that was now transitioning them to another stage of contemplating suicide.”Psychologists say the contemplation of suicide takes place in stages. These include losing hope, planning on how to end their lives by either using an overdose, poison, ropes or falling from high elevations — and finally accomplishing the act.It is at the second stage that psychologists say people at risk must get the attention they need to prevent them going through with suicide.Professor Eugene Kanyinda is a member of the Medical Research Council unit of Uganda.“Illnesses for example like depression in our African culture are not recognized as mental illnesses,” Kanyinda said. “So, I think there’s a need for people to understand that, I mean, if you see a relative for example, talking of suicide, don’t take it lightly. I mean, the person probably is already entertaining those ideas.”Some warning signs psychiatrists said one should look out for are withdrawal, crying, self-isolation, loss of interest in formerly pleasurable activities and lack of sleep.For survivors of suicide attempts, counsellors refer to them as heroes, to encourage them to think positively.
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South Korea requested from the United States incentives such as tax deductions and infrastructure construction to ease the U.S. investment of Korean firms, including leading chipmaker Samsung Electronics, its presidential office said Friday.South Korean President Moon Jae-in, in Washington for a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden, told a gathering of U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, her South Korean counterpart and CEOs of Qualcomm, Samsung and other companies that both countries can benefit by strengthening supply chain cooperation.Biden has advocated for support for the U.S. chip industry amid a global chip shortage that has hit automakers and other industries.He met with executives from major companies including Samsung in April and previously announced plans to invest $50 billion in semiconductor manufacturing and research.Samsung plans to invest $17 billion for a new plant for chip contract manufacturing in the United States, South Korea’s presidential Blue House added in a statement, confirming plans previously reported.In February, documents filed with Texas state officials showed that Samsung is considering Austin, Texas, as one of the sites for a new $17 billion chip plant that the South Korean firm said could create 1,800 jobs.There has been no new public documentation filed on the potential Texas chip plant application since March, the website for the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts showed Friday.The U.S. Department of Commerce and the Korean industry ministry agreed Friday that for continuous chip industry cooperation, policy measures such as incentive support, joint research and development, cooperation on setting standards, and manpower training and exchange are needed, the Blue House said.Meanwhile, DuPont announced plans to establish an R&D center in South Korea to develop original chip technologies such as photoresist for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, the Blue House said.
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The IOC vice president in charge of the postponed Tokyo Olympics said Friday the games would open in just over two months even if the city and other parts of Japan were under a state of emergency because of rising COVID-19 cases.
John Coates, speaking from Australia in a virtual news conference with Tokyo organizers at the end of three days of meetings, said this would be the case even if local medical experts advised against holding the Olympics.
“The advice we have from the [World Health Organization] and all other scientific and medical advice that we have is that — all the measures we have outlined, all of those measures that we are undertaking are satisfactory and will ensure a safe and secure games in terms of health,” Coates said. “And that’s the case whether there is a state of emergency or not.”
Public opinion in Japan has been running at 60-80% against opening the Olympics on July 23, depending on how the question is phrased. Coates suggested public opinion might improve as more Japanese get fully vaccinated. That figure is now about 2%.
“If it doesn’t then our position is that we have to make sure that we get on with our job,” Coates said. “And our job is to ensure these games are safe for all the participants and all the people of Japan.”
IOC officials say they expect more than 80% of the residents of the Olympic Village, located on Tokyo Bay, to be vaccinated and be largely cut off from contact with the public. About 11,000 Olympic and 4,400 Paralympic athletes are expected to attend.
Coates said about 80% of spots in the Olympics would be awarded from qualifying events, with 20% coming from rankings.
Coates left no doubt that the Switzerland-based International Olympic Committee believes the Tokyo Games will happen. The IOC gets almost 75% of its income from selling broadcast rights, a key driver in pushing on. And Tokyo has officially spent $15.4 billion to organize the Olympics, though a government audit suggests the real number is much higher.
Tokyo, Osaka and several other prefectures are currently under a state of emergency and health-care systems are being stretched. Emergency measures are scheduled to end on May 31, but they are likely to be extended.
“If the current situation continues, I hope the government will have the wisdom not to end the emergency at the end of May,” Haruo Ozaki, head of the Tokyo Medical Association, told the weekly magazine Aera.
Ozaki has consistently said government measures to control the spread of COVID-19 have been insufficient. About 12,000 deaths in Japan have been attributed to the virus, and the situation is exacerbated since so few in Japan have been fully vaccinated.
Ozaki warned that if the emergency conditions are not extended, the virus and contagious variants will spread quickly.
“If that happens, there will be a major outbreak, and it is possible that holding the games will become hopeless,” he added.
Ozaki is not alone with this warning.
The 6,000-member Tokyo Medical Practitioners’ Association called for the Olympics to be cancelled in a letter sent last week to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa, and Seiko Hashimoto, the head of the organizing committee.
“We believe the correct choice is to the cancel an event that has the possibility of increasing the numbers of infected people and deaths,” the letter said.
Hashimoto addressed the worry of ordinary Japanese.
“At present there are not a few people who feel uneasy about the fact the games are going to be held where a lot of people are coming from abroad,” she said. “There are other people who are concerned about the possible burden on the medical system of Japan.”
She said the number of “stakeholders” coming to Japan from abroad had been reduced from 180,000 to about 80,000. She said Olympic “stakeholders” would amount to 59,000, of which 23,000 were Olympic family and international federations. She said an added 17,000 would involve television rights holders, with 6,000 more media.
She also said 230 physicians and 310 nurses would be needed daily, and said about 30 hospitals in Tokyo and outside were contacted about caring for Olympic patients.
Organizers have said previously that 10,000 medical workers would be needed for the Olympics.
Hashimoto said retired nurses might also be called in. Separately, the IOC has said it will make available an unspecified number of medical personnel from unnamed national Olympic committees.
Fans from abroad were banned months ago. Hashimoto said the number of spectators — if any — at venues would “depend on the spread of the infection.” She has promised a decision on venue capacity next month.
Kaori Yamaguchi, a bronze medalist in judo at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and a member of the Japanese Olympic Committee, hinted in an interview with the Kyodo news agency this week that organizers were cornered. She has been skeptical about going ahead.
“We’re starting to reach a point where we can’t even cancel anymore,” she said.
The IOC’s most senior member, Richard Pound, said in an interview with Japan’s JiJi Press that the final deadline to call off the Olympics was still a month away.
“Before the end of June, you really need to know, yes or no,” JiJi quoted Pound as saying.
Pound repeated — as the IOC has said — that if the games can’t happen now they will be cancelled, not postponed again.
IOC President Thomas Bach now plans to arrive in Tokyo only July 12. He was forced to cancel a trip to Japan this month because of rising COVID-19 cases.
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An inquiry into how the BBC secured the 1995 interview with Britain’s Princess Diana in which she disclosed intimate details of her failed marriage concluded on Thursday that the journalist involved had acted deceitfully. The BBC set up the investigation, headed by former senior Court judge John Dyson, in November following allegations from Diana’s brother Charles Spencer that forged documents and “other deceit” were used to trick him to introduce Diana to journalist Martin Bashir. FILE – Martin Bashir, then one of the anchors of the ABC news program ‘Nightline’, taking part in a panel discussion at the ABC television network Summer press tour for television critics in Beverly Hills, California, July 26, 2007. Dyson’s report found that Bashir, then a little known reporter, had shown Spencer fake bank statements to induce him to arrange a meeting with Diana. “Mr Bashir acted inappropriately and in serious breach of the 1993 edition of the Producers’ Guidelines on straight dealing,” the report said. He also concluded the BBC had fallen short of “the high standards of integrity and transparency which are its hallmark” in its response to allegations of impropriety. During the explosive interview, watched by more than 20 million viewers in Britain, Diana shocked the nation by admitting to an affair and sharing details of her marriage to the heir to the throne, Prince Charles. It came at a nadir for the royal family and was the first time Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997, had made public comments about her doomed marriage. Her remark that “there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded” — a reference to Charles rekindling his relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, now his second wife — was particularly damaging to the Windsors. Last week, the BBC announced that Bashir was leaving his current job as the publicly-funded broadcaster’s religious affairs editor because of ill health. Bashir apologized but said he did not believe the faked statements had prompted Diana to give the interview, PA Media reported. Spencer says Bashir had persuaded him to get his sister to agree to the interview by telling him Diana was being bugged by the security services and that two senior aides were being paid to provide information about her. Both Diana’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, have welcomed the investigation as a chance to find out the truth of what had happened. “While the BBC cannot turn back the clock after a quarter of a century, we can make a full and unconditional apology. The BBC offers that today,” BBC director-general, Tim Davie, said in a statement.
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The Ivory Coast resort town of Grand-Bassam is known for its beaches and French colonial architecture. Recent flooding and the passage of time have taken a toll on the city’s historic buildings, but some people are determined to fix things, as Yassin Ciyow found in this report narrated by Carol Guensberg.Camera: Yassin Ciyow
Produced by: Robert Raffaele
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The hackers who carried out the massive SolarWinds intrusion were in the software company’s system as early as January 2019, months earlier than previously known, the company’s top official said Wednesday. SolarWinds had previously traced the origins of the hack to the fall of 2019 but now believes that hackers were doing “very early recon activities” as far back as the prior January, according to Sudhakar Ramakrishna, the company’s president and CEO. “The tradecraft that the attackers used was extremely well done and extremely sophisticated, where they did everything possible to hide in plain sight, so to speak,” Ramakrishna said during a discussion hosted by the RSA Conference. The SolarWinds hack, which was first reported last December and which U.S. officials have linked to the Russian government, is one in a series of major breaches that has prompted a major cybersecurity focus from the Biden administration. By seeding the company’s widely used software update with malicious code, hackers were able to penetrate the networks of multiple U.S. government agencies and private sector corporations in an apparent act of cyber-espionage. The U.S. imposed sanctions against Russia last month. Also Wednesday, Ramakrishna apologized for the way the company blamed an intern earlier this year during congressional testimony for poor password security protocols. That public statement, he said, was “not appropriate.” “I have long held a belief system and an attitude that you never flog failure. You want your employees, including interns, to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes and together we become better,” he added. “Obviously you don’t want to make the same mistake over and over again. You want to improve.”
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Charles Grodin, the droll, offbeat actor and writer who scored as a caddish newlywed in “The Heartbreak Kid” and later had roles ranging from Robert De Niro’s counterpart in the comic thriller “Midnight Run” to the bedeviled father in the “Beethoven” comedies, has died. He was 86. Grodin died Tuesday in Wilton, Connecticut, from bone marrow cancer, his son, Nicholas Grodin, said. Known for his dead-pan style and everyday looks, Grodin also appeared in “Dave,” “The Woman in Red,” “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Heaven Can Wait.” On Broadway, he starred with Ellen Burstyn in the long-running 1970s comedy “Same Time, Next Year,” and he found many other outlets for his talents. With bone-dry understatement, Grodin could steal entire scenes with just a look. His commitment, whether acting across De Niro or Missy Piggy, was unsurpassed. In his many late-night appearances, he once brought a lawyer with him to threaten David Letterman for defamation. (The lawyer instead took a shine to Letterman.) Hosting “Saturday Night Live,” he pretended to not understand live television, ruining all the sketches. Steve Martin, who co-starred with Grodin in 1984’s “The Lonely Guy,” remembered him as “one of the funniest people I ever met.” In the 1990s, Grodin made his mark as a liberal commentator on radio and TV. He also wrote plays and television scripts, winning an Emmy for his work on a 1997 Paul Simon special, and wrote several books humorously ruminating on his ups and downs in show business. FILE – Charles Grodin attends the Ripple of Hope Awards in New York, Dec. 11, 2013.Actors, he wrote, should “think not so much about getting ahead as becoming as good as you can be, so you’re ready when you do get an opportunity. I did that, so I didn’t suffer from the frustration of all the rejections. They just gave me more time.” He spelled out that advice in his first book, “It Would Be So Nice If You Weren’t Here,” published in 1989. Grodin became a star in the 1970s, but might have broken through years earlier: He auditioned for the title role in Mike Nichols’ 1967 classic “The Graduate,” but the part went instead to Dustin Hoffman. Grodin did have a small role in “Rosemary’s Baby” and was part of the large cast of Nichols’ adaptation of “Catch-22″ before he gained wide notice in the 1972 Elaine May comedy “The Heartbreak Kid.” He starred as a Jewish newlywed who abandons his comically neurotic bride to pursue a beautiful, wealthy blonde played by Cybill Shepherd. The movie was a hit and Grodin received high praise. He commented: “After seeing the movie, a lot of people would approach me with the idea of punching me in the nose.” “I thought the character in ‘The Heartbreak Kid’ was a despicable guy, but I play it with full sincerity,” Grodin told the A.V. Club in 2009. “My job isn’t to judge it. If it wasn’t for Elaine May, I probably would never have had that movie career.” In the next few years, Grodin played in a lavish 1976 film remake of “King Kong” as the greedy showman who brings the big ape to New York. He was Warren Beatty’s devious lawyer in “Heaven Can Wait,” and Gene Wilder’s friend in “The Woman in Red” (Less successfully, he appeared in May’s 1987 adventure comedy “Ishtar,” a notorious flop). His turn in 1981’s “The Great Muppet Caper” was typically dedicated as a thief wooing Miss Piggy. In 1988’s “Midnight Run,” Grodin was a bail-jumping accountant who took millions from a mobster and De Niro was the bounty hunter trying to bring him cross-country to Los Angeles. They’re being chased by police, another bounty hunter and the Mob, and because Grodin is afraid of flying, they are forced to go by car, bus, even boxcar. Grodin and De Niro improvised in many scenes in the film, revered as among the greatest buddy comedies. Often Grodin was genuinely trying to amuse his more intimidating co-star. One line he threw at De Niro: “You ever had sex with an animal, Jack?” “I moved a little more toward drama and he moved a little toward comedy,” Grodin said at the time. “And we met on a very good ground.” “Beethoven” brought him success in the family-animal comedy genre in 1992. Asked why he took up such a role, he told The Associated Press he was happy to get the work. “I’m not that much in demand,” Grodin replied. “It’s not like I have this stack of wonderful offers. I’m just delighted they wanted me.” Amid his film gigs, Grodin became a familiar face on late-night TV, perfecting a character who would confront Johnny Carson or others with a fake aggressiveness that made audiences cringe and laugh at the same time. “It’s all a joke,” he told The Los Angeles Times in 1995. “It’s just a thing. It was a choice to do that.” His biggest stage success, by far, was “Same Time, Next Year,” which opened on Broadway in 1975 and ran nearly 3½ years. He and Burstyn were two people who — though each happily married — meet in the same hotel once a year for an extramarital fling. Beyond the humor, the play won praise for deftly tracing the changes in their lives, and in society, from the 1950s to the ’70s. Critic Clive Barnes called Grodin’s character “a monument to male insecurity, gorgeously inept.” After 1994’s “My Summer Story,” Grodin largely abandoned acting. From 1995 to 1998, he hosted a talk show on CNBC cable network. He moved to MSNBC and then to CBS’ “60 Minutes II.” In his 2002 book, “I Like It Better When You’re Funny,” he said too many TV programmers’ believe that viewers are best served “if we hear only from lifelong journalists.” He argued that “people outside of Washington and in professions other than journalism” also deserved a soapbox. He returned to the big screen in 2006 as Zach Braff’s know-it-all father-in-law in “The Ex.” More recent credits include the films “An Imperfect Murder” and “The Comedian” and the TV series “Louie.” Grodin was born Charles Grodinsky in Pittsburgh in 1935, son of a wholesale dry goods seller who died when Charles was 18. He played basketball and later described himself as “a rough kid, always getting kicked out of class.” He studied at the University of Miami and the Pittsburgh Playhouse, worked in summer theater and then struggled in New York, working nights as a cab driver, postal clerk and watchman while studying acting during the day. In 1962 Grodin made his Broadway debut and received good notices in “Tchin Tchin,” a three-character play starring Anthony Quinn. He followed with “Absence of a Cello” in 1964. He co-wrote and directed a short-lived 1966 off-Broadway show called “Hooray! It’s a Glorious Day … and all that.” That same year, he made his movie debut in a low-budget flop called “Sex and the College Girl.” In 1969, Grodin demonstrated his early interest in politics by helping write and direct “Songs of America,” a TV special starring Simon and Garfunkel that incorporated civil rights and antiwar messages. But the original sponsor pulled out and Simon later called the little-noticed effort “a tragedy.” Simon returned with a special in 1977 that spoofed show business and featured Grodin as the show’s bumbling producer. Grodin and his co-writers won Emmys. Grodin and his first wife, Julia Ferguson, had a daughter, comedian Marion Grodin. The marriage ended in divorce. He and his second wife, Elissa Durwood, had a son, Nicholas.
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From earbuds that measure blood pressure to clothing that monitors your heart rate, the latest in health monitoring technology is being included in everyday items such as clothes, rings and glasses. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details.
Camera: Elizabeth Lee
Producer: Elizabeth Lee
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Pounding beats? Check. Uplifting lyrics? Check. Huge, backlit white wings? Check. After last year’s Eurovision Song Contest was canceled amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, it is roaring back to life this year with coronavirus bubbles added to its heady mix of music and melodrama. National delegations traveling to the Dutch port city of Rotterdam are abiding by strict measures to reduce the risk of infections, while the thousands of fans allowed to attend dress rehearsals, two semifinals and the grand final on Saturday will have to undergo testing to ensure they do not bring the virus into the cavernous venue. Executive producer Sietse Bakker is glad it’s going ahead at all. “Organizing the Eurovision Song Contest is always challenging because you have less than a year to organize one of the biggest and most complex events in Europe. But to do it in a pandemic is much, much more complicated,” he told The Associated Press. Despite the pandemic measures, the contest that aims to unite Europe in song is continuing its 65-year tradition of upbeat fun. Fans near the Ahoy arena can get into the swing of the event early. Traffic lights at a pedestrian walkway outside the venue have been transformed so that a green figure dances to Abba’s iconic 1974 winning song “Waterloo” when it’s safe to cross. Eden Alene from Israel performs during rehearsals at the Eurovision Song Contest at Ahoy arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands, May 17, 2021.The immensely popular event mixes high camp — at rehearsals, Norway’s Andreas Haukeland, known as TIX, performed his song “Fallen Angel” in huge white wings — with lyrics encouraging inclusion and positivity while avoiding political messages. Belarus was booted out before the contest even started because organizers in the European Broadcasting Union said the country’s original song “puts the nonpolitical nature of the contest in question.” A replacement song also was rejected. The theme for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest is “Open Up.” It was actually chosen before the pandemic derailed public life around the globe but is now very apt as Europe begins to tentatively emerge from the coronavirus pandemic. “We decided to keep the theme because especially in these times, it’s important that we are open towards each other and that we feel the possibility to open up to one another, to show our true feelings, emotions and thoughts,” Bakker said. The 2019 Dutch winner, Duncan Laurence, said on the event’s website that he sees music as a way of forging links. “That’s why we need the Eurovision Song Contest. To feel connected again,” he said. Thousands of fans will be able to make the connection in person. Each event will be open to 3,500 people — only about 20% of the capacity of the arena — who must show a negative test result that is less than 24 hours old. Go_A from Ukraine perform during rehearsals at the Eurovision Song Contest at Ahoy arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands, May 17, 2021.The top 10 from each semifinal joins France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom — together with host country the Netherlands — in the final. Voting is conducted in each participating country by a panel of music industry experts and viewers. The pandemic forced the cancellation of last year’s event and this year prevented Australian singer Montaigne from flying to Rotterdam. The Netherlands is hosting the event because the country won the last time the contest was held, in 2019. Montaigne is still taking part, but by sending in a recorded live performance. She’s not the only one missing out. The mother of Dutch entrant Jeangu Macrooy also is unable to attend, as she can’t travel from her home in Suriname. Swedish singer Tusse’s father wants to know if he can vote for him from his home in Congo. Ukraine had a scare when Kateryna Pavlenko, the lead singer of the band Go_A, had to skip a rehearsal in Rotterdam and get tested after feeling unwell. The result was negative, and she was welcomed back. She and her band are among 39 national entrants vying for a coveted victory that can be a springboard to a global career or a fleeting taste of fame. For many, the stage and global television audience of millions is a chance to express messages of inclusion and positivity. Russia’s performer, Manizha, sings a song whose lyrics include the lines: “Every Russian Woman. Needs to know. You’re strong enough to bounce against the wall.” The singer, whose family fled to Russia from Tajikistan, said the message is for women all over the world “because we need to be, we have to be brave. We need to be happier. And I’m happy that I can inspire them on that stage because, you know, (the) Eurovision stage is the one of the hugest stages in the world.” Maltese singer Destiny also has a message of body positivity and is tipped to take it to the final. The 18-year-old’s powerful voice helped her win the Junior Eurovision contest and reach the semifinals of Britain’s Got Talent in 2017.
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Rombauer romped to an 11-1 upset victory Saturday in the Preakness, denying Bob Baffert-trained Kentucky Derby winner Medina Sprint the chance at a Triple Crown that would have come with a giant asterisk.Medina Spirit finished third in the 1 3/16-mile race and was passed for the first time in his career after starting as the 2-1 favorite. All eyes were on Medina Spirit after he failed a post-Derby drug test for the presence of the steroid betamethasone.Midnight Bourbon, who was 3-1, was second. Keepmeinmind was fourth and Baffert-trained Concert Tour ninth in the 10-horse field.Rombauer busted the bias of horses hugging the rail, passing Midnight Bourbon and Medina Spirit down the stretch and winning by 3½ lengths.Jockey Flavien Prat won the Preakness two years after being elevated to the Derby winner aboard Country House when Maximum Security was disqualified.Trainer Michael McCarthy won his first Triple Crown race and captured the Preakness before Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, for whom he worked as an assistant before opening his own barn.Rombauer is owned by John and Diane Fradkin, a far cry from Medina Spirit’s Zedan Racing Stables and other horse racing conglomerates. He won for the third time in seven starts.McCarthy said this week Rombauer’s best weapon was his intelligence and that his colt was training well. But few picked the long shot to win the Preakness, which was run in front of 10,000 fans at Pimlico Race Course.Baffert was not in attendance, staying away because of the controversy with Medina Spirit, who still could be disqualified from the Derby.
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May 17 marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Willis Conover, the Voice of America broadcaster who helped popularize American jazz worldwide. Mike O’Sullivan looks back on his career and global impact on music and diplomacy.Producer (opening segment): Jimi Cook.
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Ireland’s health service operator shut down all its IT systems Friday to protect them from a ransomware attack, which crippled diagnostic services and disrupted COVID-19 testing.An international cybercrime gang was behind the attack, said Ossian Smyth, Ireland’s minister responsible for e-government. Smyth described it as possibly the most significant cybercrime attempt against the Irish state.Ireland’s COVID-19 vaccination program was not directly affected, but the attack was affecting IT systems serving all other local and national health provisions, the head of the Health Service Executive (HSE) said.Ransomware attacks typically involve the infection of computers with malicious software, often downloaded by clicking on seemingly innocuous links in emails or other website pop-ups. Users are left locked out of their systems, with the demand that a ransom be paid to restore computer functions.No payment”We are very clear we will not be paying any ransom,” Prime Minister Micheál Martin told reporters.The HSE’s chief described the attack as “very sophisticated.” Officials said the gang exploited a previously unknown vulnerability. Authorities shut down the system as a precaution after discovering the attack early Friday morning and will seek to gradually reopen the network, although that will take “some days,” Martin said.The attack was largely affecting information stored on central servers, and officials said they were not aware that any patient data had been compromised. Hospital equipment was not impacted, with the exception of radiography services.”More services are working than not today,” HSE Chief Operations Officer Anne O’Connor told national broadcaster RTE.”However, if this continues to Monday, we will be in a very serious situation and will be canceling many services. At this moment, we can’t access lists of people scheduled for appointments on Monday so we don’t even know who to cancel.”
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Ireland’s data regulator can resume a probe that may trigger a ban on Facebook’s transatlantic data transfers, the High Court ruled Friday, raising the prospect of a stoppage the company warns would have a devastating impact on its business.
The case stems from EU concerns that U.S. government surveillance may not respect the privacy rights of EU citizens when their personal data is sent to the United States for commercial use.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), Facebook’s lead regulator in the European Union, launched an inquiry in August and issued a provisional order that the main mechanism Facebook uses to transfer EU user data to the United States “cannot in practice be used.”
Facebook had challenged both the inquiry and the Preliminary Draft Decision (PDD), saying they threatened “devastating” and “irreversible” consequences for its business, which relies on processing user data to serve targeted online ads.
The High Court rejected the challenge Friday. “I refuse all of the reliefs sought by FBI [Facebook Ireland] and dismiss the claims made by it in the proceedings,” Justice David Barniville said in a judgment that ran to nearly 200 pages.
“FBI has not established any basis for impugning the DPC decision or the PDD or the procedures for the inquiry adopted by the DPC,” the judgment said.
While the decision does not trigger an immediate halt to data flows, Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems, who forced the Irish data regulator to act in a series of legal actions over the past eight years, said he believed the decision made it Inevitable.
“After eight years, the DPC is now required to stop Facebook’s EU-U.S. data transfers, likely before summer,” he said.
A Facebook spokesman said the company looked forward to defending its compliance with EU data rules as the Irish regulator’s provisional order “could be damaging not only to Facebook, but also to users and other businesses.”
Privileged access
If the Irish data regulator enforces the provisional order, it would effectively end the privileged access companies in the United States have to personal data from Europe and put them on the same footing as companies in other nations outside the bloc.
The mechanism being questioned by the Irish regulator, the Standard Contractual Clause (SCC), was deemed valid by the European Court of Justice in a July decision.
But the Court of Justice also ruled that, under SCCs, privacy watchdogs must suspend or prohibit transfers outside the EU if data protection in other countries cannot be assured.
A lawyer for Facebook in December told the High Court that the Irish regulator’s draft decision, if implemented, “would have devastating consequences” for Facebook’s business, affecting Facebook’s 410 million active users in Europe, hitting political groups and undermining freedom of speech.
Irish Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon in February said companies more broadly may face massive disruption to transatlantic data flows as a result of the European Court of Justice decision.
Dixon’s office welcomed the decision on Friday but declined further comment.
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The World Health Organization Friday questioned wealthy nations moving to vaccinate low-risk groups, such as children, against COVID-19, while some poor and middle-income countries do not have enough vaccine for health care workers.
At the agency’s Friday briefing at its headquarters in Geneva, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke once again about the “gross distortions” of vaccine access in the world.
He said just .03 percent of the world’s produced vaccines have gone to low-income nations.
Tedros said he could understand why nations want to immunize their children, but he urged them to reconsider and donate as much vaccine as they can spare to the international vaccine cooperative, COVAX, the WHO-run program that distributes vaccine to poorer countries.
The WHO chief said many nations are still in the throes of the crisis, with hospitals inundated and care workers who have not had access to the vaccine. He said while India remains “hugely concerning,” Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Thailand and Egypt are all seeing spikes in cases and hospitalizations.
Tedros said some countries in the Americas are still experiencing high numbers of cases. The Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Resource Center reports Brazil continues to rank third in total cases behind the United States and India and second behind the U.S. in total deaths. The WHO chief said the Americas as a region accounted for 40 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the past week.
The WHO chief did say there was good news this week as a number of new countries have contributed vaccine to the COVAX program and vaccine manufacturers have announced technology transfers and sharing deals with each other to increase production worldwide.
Tedros said he himself was vaccinated this week, and he urged anyone who lives in a country where vaccines are available, to get inoculated as soon as possible.
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Twenty-six games, writing a major chapter of African sports history. That’s the narrative of the inaugural season of the new Basketball Africa League, an offshoot of the U.S. National Basketball Association.
The action tips off Sunday, in Rwanda’s capital.
Basketball is not currently the continent’s favorite sport. That trophy goes to the mighty soccer, or football, as it’s more commonly known.
But the hardwood game has risen in popularity since it was introduced widely on the continent in the 1960s, siring African stars who hit American courts running, like NBA legends Hakeem Olajuwon of Nigeria, Dikembe Mutombo of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Luol Deng of South Sudan.
The 12 BAL teams are culled from the best clubs — many of them police and army teams — across the continent. They include West African teams from Nigeria, Cameroon and Senegal, southern heavyweights Angola and Mozambique and the might of the Maghreb in the form of teams from Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. And, bringing a bit of musical flash and street cred to the new league: rapper J. Cole has signed on to the Rwandan team, the Patriots BC, according to local media reports.
Refiloe Seiboko is a sports journalist based in Johannesburg. And although her home team, South Africa, didn’t qualify for this tournament, that won’t keep her from watching.
“I am really, really excited about it. It’s been a long time coming,” she said “… I think it’s a real moment of excitement for a lot of people on the continent, for a lot of basketball fans and basketball players, people who are employed by the sport, it’s a big moment. It really, really is. I can’t downplay how much it means for African basketball in the past and going into the future.”
Who’s in your May Madness bracket?
Seiboko declined to bet on a winner, but said viewers can expect a great show.
“If anybody watches African players they’re often touted for their energy and their high motors,” she said. “And so people can definitely expect a lot of energy, a lot of athleticism from the guys. They’ve been training for this and ready for this for a long time.”VOA caught up with BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall in Johannesburg before the first game. He said the decision to give Africa its own league was pretty obvious.
“We have no doubt, and everybody recognizes, the tremendous amount of talent that the continent has,” he said. “You know, players from Africa have been having major impact, not only in the NBA but also in the NCAA. And today, I mean, these days, we had the March Madness, the annual college basketball tournament taking place with many African players in multiple elite college rosters. So you know the talent has always been there.”
Keeping the talent close to home
And, Seiboko said, this is a great way to show off Africa’s excellence – and keep it on home soil.
“It’s so incredibly important to have a league of Africans on the African continent,” she said. “For so many levels, we have the talent, number one: if we have the talent, let’s do it. Let’s get these guys the opportunities to play at home on their continent and not have to feel like they have to go outside of the continent to Europe or to the States to be successful. I think this is such an important step. And just like, teaching the young people who are going to be watching them that, you know, you don’t have to leave home to go and make a success of yourself as an athlete.”
So will this starting season reveal Africa’s streaky shooters? Or a torrent of threes, free-throw sprees, dunks to die for, or nothing but net? Spectators will have to see – or hear – for themselves.
VOA radio will simulcast the games in English and French and give play-by-play coverage in Bambara, Kinyarwanda, Wolof, and Portuguese for some games.
The action starts Sunday, when Rwanda’s Patriots Basketball Club takes on Nigeria’s Rivers Hoopers at the Kigali Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.
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U.S. health officials said Thursday that people who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus can go maskless and stop maintaining social distancing in most social settings. Folks, if you’re fully vaccinated — you no longer need to wear a mask.If you’re not vaccinated yet — go to Taisei Kikuchi performs in the park competition during a test event set in preparation at the venue for the Olympic Games, which has been rescheduled to start in July, in Tokyo, May 14, 2021.Calls to cancel Tokyo Olympics
In Japan, a petition with more than 350,000 signatures, calling for the cancellation of the Tokyo Olympics, was submitted Friday to the Olympic and Paralympic committee chiefs, as well as Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.Japan is experiencing a surge in cases in various locations, including Tokyo where the Olympics are scheduled to start on July 23. “Precious medical resources would need to be diverted to the Olympics if it’s held,” said “Stop Tokyo Olympics” campaign organizer Kenji Utsunomiya.Japanese officials seem determined to push ahead with plans to open the games which were cancelled last year because of the COVID outbreak. “Though there is a global pandemic, it is important to hold safe and secure Tokyo 2020 Games,” Governor Koike said recently.Multiple funeral pyres of people who died of COVID-19 burn at the Ghazipur crematorium in New Delhi, India, May 13, 2021.India cases mount
“We are facing invisible enemy, fighting it on war-footing mode,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday about the COVID contagion in India. On Friday, India reported 343,144 new cases in the last 24 –hour period. Last week, daily cases sometimes totaled more than 400,000. Only the U.S. has more COVID-19 cases than India, but public health officials say India’s coronavirus numbers are likely undercounted. According to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, India has 24 million COVID cases while the U.S. has 32.9 million. Brazil is in third place, according to Johns Hopkins, with 15.4 million infections.
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The man in the WhatsApp video says he has seen it work himself: A few drops of lemon juice in the nose will cure COVID-19.”If you practice what I am about to say with faith, you will be free of corona in five seconds,” says the man, dressed in traditional religious clothing. “This one lemon will protect you from the virus like a vaccine.”False cures. Terrifying stories of vaccine side effects. Baseless claims that Muslims spread the virus. Fueled by anguish, desperation and distrust of the government, rumors and hoaxes are spreading by word of mouth and on social media in India, compounding the country’s humanitarian crisis.”Widespread panic has led to a plethora of misinformation,” said Rahul Namboori, co-founder of Fact Crescendo, an independent fact-checking organization in India.While treatments such as lemon juice may sound innocuous, such claims can have deadly consequences if they lead people to skip vaccinations or ignore other guidelines.In January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that India had “saved humanity from a big disaster by containing corona effectively.” Life began to resume, and so did attendance at cricket matches, religious pilgrimages and political rallies for Modi’s Hindu nationalist party.Four months later, cases and deaths have exploded, the country’s vaccine rollout has faltered and public anger and mistrust have grown.”All of the propaganda, misinformation and conspiracy theories that I’ve seen in the past few weeks has been very, very political,” said Sumitra Badrinathan, a University of Pennsylvania political scientist who studies misinformation in India. “Some people are using it to criticize the government, while others are using it to support it.”Distrust of Western vaccines and health care is also driving misinformation about sham treatments as well as claims about traditional remedies.The caretaker of a crematorium, center, tries to console a man who lost his 5-month-old child to COVID-19 as they perform a post-burial ritual at the Seemapuri crematorium in New Delhi, India, May 13, 2021.Satyanarayan Prasad saw the video about lemon juice and believed it. The 51-year-old resident of the state of Uttar Pradesh distrusts modern medicine and has a theory as to why his country’s health experts are urging vaccines.”If the government approves lemon drops as a remedy, the … rupees that they have spent on vaccines will be wasted,” Prasad said.Vijay Sankeshwar, a prominent businessman and former politician, repeated the claim about lemon juice, saying two drops in the nostrils will increase oxygen levels in the body.While Vitamin C is essential to human health and immunity, there is no evidence that consuming lemons will fight off the coronavirus.The claim is spreading through the Indian diaspora, too.”They have this thing that if you drink lemon water every day that you’re not going to be affected by the virus,” said Emma Sachdev, a Clinton, New Jersey, resident whose extended family lives in India.Sachdev said several relatives have been infected, yet continue to flout social distancing rules, thinking a visit to the temple will keep them safe.India has also experienced the same types of misinformation about vaccines and vaccine side effects seen around the world.Last month, the popular Tamil actor Vivek died two days after receiving his COVID-19 vaccination. The hospital where he died said Vivek had advanced heart disease, but his death has been seized on by vaccine opponents as evidence that the government is hiding side effects.Much of the misinformation travels on WhatsApp, which has more than 400 million users in India. Unlike more open sites like Facebook or Twitter, WhatsApp — which is owned by Facebook — is an encrypted platform that allows users to exchange messages privately.A sign is displayed at a closed market during a lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus in Hyderabad, India, May 13, 2021.The bad information online “may have come from an unsuspecting neighbor who is not trying to cause harm,” said Badrinathan, the University of Pennsylvania researcher. “New internet users may not even realize that the information is false. The whole concept of misinformation is new to them.”Hoaxes spread online had deadly results in 2018, when at least 20 people were killed by mobs inflamed by posts about supposed gangs of child kidnappers.WhatsApp said in a statement that it works hard to limit misleading or dangerous content by working with public health bodies like the World Health Organization and fact-checking organizations. The platform has also added safeguards restricting the spread of chain messages and directing users to accurate online information.The service is also making it easier for users in India and other nations to use its service to find information about vaccinations.”False claims can discourage people from getting vaccines, seeking the doctor’s help, or taking the virus seriously,” Fact Crescendo’s Namboori said. “The stakes have never been so high.”
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Just weeks ago, the Gaza Strip’s feeble health system was struggling with a runaway surge of coronavirus cases. Authorities cleared out hospital operating rooms, suspended nonessential care and redeployed doctors to patients having difficulty breathing.Then, the bombs began to fall.This week’s violence between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers has killed 103 Palestinians, including 27 children, and wounded 530 people in the impoverished territory. Israeli airstrikes have pounded apartments, blown up cars and toppled buildings.Doctors across the crowded coastal enclave are now reallocating intensive care unit beds and scrambling to keep up with a very different health crisis: treating blast and shrapnel wounds, bandaging cuts and performing amputations.Distraught relatives didn’t wait for ambulances, rushing the wounded by car or on foot to Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest. Exhausted doctors hurried from patient to patient, frantically bandaging shrapnel wounds to stop the bleeding. Others gathered at the hospital morgue, waiting with stretchers to remove the bodies for burial.At the Indonesia Hospital in the northern town of Jabaliya, the clinic overflowed after bombs fell nearby. Blood was everywhere, with victims lying on the floors of hallways. Relatives crowded the ER, crying out for loved ones and cursing Israel.”Before the military attacks, we had major shortages and could barely manage with the second (virus) wave,” said Gaza Health Ministry official Abdelatif al-Hajj by phone as bombs thundered in the background. “Now casualties are coming from all directions, really critical casualties. I fear a total collapse.”Gutted by years of conflict, the impoverished health care system in the territory of more than 2 million people has always been vulnerable. Bitter division between Hamas and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority and a nearly 14-year blockade imposed by Israel with Egypt’s help also has strangled the infrastructure. There are shortages of equipment and supplies such as blood bags, surgical lamps, anesthesia and antibiotics. Personal protection gear, breathing machines and oxygen tanks remain even scarcer.Last month, Gaza’s daily coronavirus cases and deaths hit record highs, fueled by the spread of a variant that first appeared in Britain, relaxation of movement restrictions during Ramadan, and deepening public apathy and intransigence.In the bomb-scarred territory where the unemployment rate is 50%, the need for personal survival often trumps the pleas of public health experts. While virus testing remains limited, the outbreak has infected more than 105,700 people, according to health authorities, and killed 976.As cases climbed last year, stirring fears of a health care catastrophe, authorities set aside clinics just for COVID-19 patients. But that changed as airstrikes pummeled the territory.A medic treats a wounded girl in the intensive care unit of the Shifa hospital, May 13, 2021, in Gaza City. She was injured by a May 12 Israeli strike that hit her family’s home.Nurses at the European Hospital in the town of Khan Younis, frantically needing room for the wounded, moved dozens of virus patients in the middle of the night to a different building, said hospital director Yousef al-Akkad. Its surgeons and specialists, who had deployed elsewhere for the virus, rushed back to treat head injuries, fractures and abdominal wounds.If the conflict intensifies, the hospital won’t be able to care for the virus patients, al-Akkad said.”We have only 15 intensive care beds, and all I can do is pray,” he said, adding that because the hospital lacks surgical supplies and expertise, he’s already arranged to send one child to Egypt for reconstructive shoulder surgery. “I pray these airstrikes will stop soon.”At Shifa, authorities also moved the wounded into its 30 beds that had been set aside for virus patients. Thursday night was the quietest this week for the ICU, as bombs had largely fallen elsewhere in Gaza. Patients with broken bones and other wounds lay amid the din of beeping monitors, intercoms and occasional shouts by doctors. A few relatives huddled around them, recounting the chaotic barrage.”About 12 people down in one airstrike. It was 6 p.m. in the street. Some were killed, including my two cousins and young sister. It’s like this every day,” said 22-year-old Atallah al-Masri, sitting beside his wounded brother, Ghassan.Hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia lamented the latest series of blows to Gaza’s health system.”The Gaza Strip is under siege for 14 years, and the health sector is exhausted. Then comes the coronavirus pandemic,” he said, adding that most of the equipment is as old as the blockade and can’t be sent out for repairs.Now, his teams already strained by virus cases are treating bombing victims, more than half of whom are critical cases needing surgery.”They work relentlessly,” he added.Ihsan Al-Masri, 24, left, rests at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, May 13, 2021, as her son plays on a mobile phone on the bed next to her. She was injured in a May 10 Israeli strike that hit a near her home.To make matters worse, Israeli airstrikes hit two health clinics north of Gaza City on Tuesday. The strikes wreaked havoc on Hala al-Shawa Health Center, forcing employees to evacuate, and damaged the Indonesian Hospital, according to the World Health Organization. Israel, already under pressure from an International Criminal court investigation into possible war crimes during the 2014 war, reiterated this week that it warns people living in targeted areas to flee. The airstrikes nonetheless have killed civilians and inflicted damage on Gaza’s infrastructure.The violence also has closed a few dozen health centers conducting coronavirus tests, said Sacha Bootsma, director of WHO’s Gaza office. This week, authorities conducted some 300 tests a day, compared with 3,000 before the fighting began.The U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, ordered staff to stay home from its 22 clinics for their safety. Those now-closed centers had also administered coronavirus vaccines, a precious resource in a place that waited months to receive a limited shipment from the U.N.-backed COVAX program. Those doses will expire in just a few weeks and get thrown away, with “huge implications for authorities’ ability to mobilize additional vaccines in the future,” Bootsma said.For the newly wounded, however, the virus remains an afterthought.The last thing that Mohammad Nassar remembers before an airstrike hit was walking home with a friend on a street. When he came to, he said, “we found ourselves lying on the ground.”Now the 31-year-old is hooked up to a tangle of tubes and monitors in the Shifa Hospital surgical ward, with a broken right arm and a shrapnel wound in his stomach.
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