Tuesday, April 14, 2026

FDA Finds Contamination In Several Brands Of Diabetes Drug

PressNewsAgency
-
0
FDA Finds Contamination In Several Brands Of Diabetes Drug

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health regulators are telling five drugmakers to recall their versions of a widely used diabetes medication after laboratory tests found elevated levels of a contaminant linked to cancer.

The Food and Drug Administration said late Thursday that several batches of the drug metformin tested positive for unsafe levels of N-Nitrosodimethylamine, a possible cancer-causing chemical that can form as a manufacturing byproduct. The agency has stepped up testing after the chemical was found in dozens of shipments of blood pressure and heartburn drugs last year, triggering recalls of Zantac and other popular over-the-counter and prescription medications.

Metformin tablets are a staple of diabetes care, reducing excess sugar in the blood. People with Type 2 diabetes use metformin alone or with other drugs to help control their blood sugar levels. More than 34 million people in the U.S. have this disease.

Patients should continue taking metformin drugs until their doctor can prescribe a replacement, the FDA said in a statement, noting the risks of discontinuing. Regulators are still assessing whether the recalls will lead to shortages of metformin, but noted that a number of other companies make generic versions of the drugs that don’t appear to be affected by the issue.

Drugmaker Apotex Corp. recalled its extended-release metformin distributed in the U.S. earlier this week after the FDA found contamination in one lot. Apotex said in a statement it voluntarily recalled all supplies of the drug “out of an abundance of caution.” The company said it stopped selling the drug in the U.S. in February 2019 and that little remains on the market.

The FDA announcement did not name the four other drugmakers who have been requested to recall their products.

The agency noted that no contamination problems have been found in immediate-release metformin.

The FDA is responsible for ensuring that medicines for the U.S. market are made in safe, sanitary conditions that meet federal quality standards. But government inspectors have repeatedly criticized the agency for falling short in reviewing overseas manufacturing plants as the pharmaceutical supply chain has increasingly spread to Asia.

In March, the FDA suspended nearly all U.S. and foreign inspections due to safety concerns and travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.



Source by [author_name]

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

PressNewsAgency
-
0
How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020



Although the coronavirus pandemic has canceled virtually all in-person Pride Month events, fashion and beauty brands are continuing their commitments to give back and support the LGBTQ+ community.

Several brands are creating rainbow-themed Pride collections to donate proceeds to global organizations supporting the LGBTQ+ community, including GLAAD, the Trevor Project and the It Gets Better Project.

Others are launching larger initiatives to highlight the importance of Pride Month, including makeup brand NYX, which is hosting a virtual Pride March on Instagram, and activewear brand Under Armour, which is offering a grant program to aid LGBTQ+-focused nonprofits that are impacted by COVID-19.

Here, WWD looks at 20 fashion and beauty brands that are giving back for Pride Month 2020.

1. ASOS

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

Styles from Asos’ Pride Month collection. 

Asos is teaming with GLAAD for the fourth year in a row to collaborate on a Pride-themed collection. This year’s collection centers on the theme of unity, with several graphic T-shirts sporting the word in a rainbow colorway. Other pieces include button-up tops, shorts and sweatshirts ranging in price from $29 to $69. All proceeds from the collection will benefit GLAAD.

2. Banana Republic

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

A style from Banana Republic’s Pride collection. 
Aurelie Graillot Studio

Banana Republic is launching a capsule collection of rainbow-themed T-shirts, sweaters, dresses, tank tops, hats, socks and other accessories to celebrate Pride Month. The brand is pledging $60,000 to the United Nations Free & Equal campaign — a U.N. initiative that promotes equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community — in conjunction with the collection.

3. Dockers

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

Dockers’ Pride collection. 

Dockers is releasing its third annual Pride-themed collection, which consists of three unisex styles in a purple tie-dye pattern. Each product also features a rainbow mixed with the brand’s logo. The products range in price from $22 to $38 and are available on Dockers’ web site.

Along with the collection, the brand is donating to the Stonewall Community Foundation, an organization that works with the LGBTQ+ community in New York City.

4. EyeBuyDirect

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

A style from EyeBuyDirect’s Pride collection. 

EyeBuyDirect is launching its Freedom Collection to celebrate Pride Month. The brand teamed with “Queer Eye” star Tan France for the collection, which includes four different glasses styles with rainbow-colored frames.

The brand is donating five percent of sales from the collection, which ranges in price from $19 to $35, to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ+ youth. The collection is also part of EyeBuyDirect’s buy one, give one program where customers can donate a pair of glasses to someone in need.

5. Fabletics

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

Styles from Fabletics’ Pride collection. 
Nathalie-Darcas-01

Fabletics is releasing a limited-edition Pride collection of athleticwear with 10 percent of proceeds benefiting the It Gets Better Project, a nonprofit organization that works with LGBTQ+ youth.

The collection includes pieces such as leggings, track suits, sports bras and tank tops that feature rainbow motifs. The pieces are available in women’s and men’s sizes and range in price from $17.47 to $59.95.

6. Face Halo

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

Face Halo’s limited-edition makeup remover pads. 

Face Halo is releasing a new Pride-themed version of its reusable makeup remover. The product sells for $25 for a pack of three with five percent of proceeds benefiting the Trevor Project.

7. Happy Socks

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

Styles from Happy Socks’ Pride collection. 

Happy Socks is teaming with the Phluid Project for a six-piece collection to celebrate Pride Month. The collection includes sock styles in tie-dye, rainbow and other graphic prints.

The brand is donating 10 percent of profits from the collection to the Trevor Project. Each pair of socks retails for $16 and is available on Happy Socks’ and the Phluid Project’s web sites.

8. Kate Spade New York

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

A style from Kate Spade’s Pride collection. 

Kate Spade New York is launching a rainbow-themed capsule collection of apparel, handbags, jewelry and other accessories to celebrate Pride Month. The collection ranges in price from $68 to $198 and will be available on the brand’s web site at the beginning of June.

The brand is also donating a portion of proceeds to the Trevor Project.

9. Kiehl’s

Kiehl’s is launching a new national philanthropic partnership with the Trevor Project, donating $100,000 to the organization.

The brand is introducing several other initiatives for Pride Month. Kiehl’s is hosting a virtual dance party via Instagram Live on June 5 with LGBTQ+ ambassadors that will encourage followers to make donations to the charity. Kiehl’s is also launching several digital and social media campaigns to highlight issues facing LGBTQ+ youth

10. Levi’s

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

Levi’s Pride Collection. 

Levi’s is launching a charitable collection that includes tie-dye pieces, transparent jackets and graphic T-shirts that read “Use Your Voice!” to celebrate Pride Month. The pieces also feature a reimagined version of the brand’s logo in a rainbow colorway. The collection ranges in price from $18 to $128 and is available on the brand’s web site.

The brand is donating all proceeds from the collection to OutRight Action International, which is working to advance LGBTQ+ rights across the globe.

11. Marc Jacobs Beauty

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

Marc Jacobs Beauty’s Limited-Edition Hydrating Lip Gloss Stick. 

Marc Jacobs Beauty is launching five new shades of its $29 Enamored Hydrating Lip Gloss Stick for Pride Month, with each shade housed in rainbow-print packaging. The brand will be donating $10,000 each to Le Refuge, a French organization that supports LGBTQ+ youth, and Sage, an organization that helps older members of the LGBTQ+ community.

12. NYX

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

NYX’s Vivid Brights Eyeliner. 

NYX is launching a new initiative for Pride Month called “Proud Allies for All,” which aims to educate consumers on what it means to be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community. The initiative is anchored on a virtual Pride march on June 1, where followers can participate by using NYX’s selfie filters created to share who they’re marching for.

The beauty brand is also teaming with the Los Angeles LGBT Center to offer digital educational videos.

In conjunction with the Pride initiative, NYX is launching a limited-edition Pride collection with a rainbow eye shadow palette, colorful eyeliner and lipstick, which range in price from $7 to $18. NYX is also donating $50,000 from the collection to global LGBTQ+ organizations.

13. Puma

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

Cara Delevingne models styles from Puma’s Pride collection. 

Puma is teaming with long-time ambassador Cara Delevingne to release its “From Puma With Love” collection, which includes graphic T-shirts, sweatshirts, shoes and accessories featuring rainbow motifs. The collection ranges in price from $20 to $45.

The brand is donating 20 percent of proceeds from the collection to the Cara Delevingne Foundation, a project backed by the Giving Back Fund which supports LGBTQ+ charities.

14. Reebok

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

Styles from Reebok’s Pride collection. 
Levi Walton

Reebok is releasing its “All Types of Love” collection for Pride Month, which includes apparel and sneaker styles in varying rainbow colorways. The brand is also launching its “Proud Notes” campaign where it is working with activists and influencers in the LGBTQ+ community to tell their stories. The collection ranges in price from $13 for tie-dye socks to $120 for rainbow-colored sneakers.

The brand is donating $75,000 from the collection to the It Gets Better Project.

15. Sunday Scaries

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

Sunday Scaries’ Unicorn Jerky. 

Sunday Scaries, the CBD-based personal-care and ingestible brand, is bringing back its popular Unicorn Jerky for Pride Month. The rainbow CBD ingestible sells for $19 on the brand’s web site, with $1 from each bag sold benefiting the Trevor Project.

16. Temptu

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

Temptu’s limited-edition airbrush device. 

Temptu is releasing a limited-edition rainbow version of its airbrush device on June 1. The product will retail for $150, with $10 from each purchase benefiting the Trevor Project.

17. Teva

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

Styles from Teva’s Pride collection. 

Teva has unveiled four styles of its Rainbow Pride Pack for a Pride Month initiative created in partnership with the It Gets Better Project. The new styles include a rainbow platform sandal and the brand’s classic sandals with rainbow straps, which range in price from $40 to $70.

The brand will be donating $20,000 from the collection to the It Gets Better Project.

18. Ugg

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

Ugg’s Pride Collection 

Ugg is launching its #UggPride campaign along with a new unisex Pride collection. The collection includes the brand’s best-selling Fluff Yeah sandals in three different colorways, as well as its new Disco Checker Slide, which retail for $100 to $110. The brand is donating $125,000 to GLAAD from the collection.

19. Under Armour

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

Under Armour’s Pride-themed UA HOVR Phantom 1 sneaker. 

The activewear brand is releasing a rainbow tie-dye version of its UA HOVR Phantom 1 sneaker for Pride Month, which retails for $140.

Additionally, the brand has created the UA Pride Grant Program, which will provide aid to LGBTQ+ community-focused nonprofits impacted by COVID-19. Organizations can apply for the grant through June 10 on the UA Grants web site. Grants range from $2,500 to $15,000.

20. Youth to the People  

How Fashion and Beauty Brands Are Giving Back for Pride Month 2020

Youth to the People’s Pride Kit. 

Beauty brand Youth to the People is releasing a Pride Kit that includes three of its best-selling products — Superfood Cleanser, Yerba Mate Resurfacing Energy Facial and Superberry Hydrate + Glow Dream Mask. The products come in an eco-friendly bag and can be customized.

The brand is donating $75,000 from the kit to GLSEN, an organization working to create safe and inclusive schools for LGBTQ+ students. The Pride Kit retails for $34.

Read more here:

5 Summer 2020 Fashion Collaborations to Look Forward to 

A Look at Spring 2020 Denim Fashion Trends

M Missoni, Yoox Debut Exclusive Collaboration

WATCH: Cooking at Home With Jason Wu



Source link

Moscow Doubles Last Month’s Coronavirus Death Toll Amid Suspicions Of Undercounting

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Moscow Doubles Last Month’s Coronavirus Death Toll Amid Suspicions Of Undercounting

Moscow has revised its April death toll from the coronavirus to 1,561 amid criticism that Russia may have undercounted fatalities from COVID-19.

Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP


hide caption

toggle caption

Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

Moscow has revised its April death toll from the coronavirus to 1,561 amid criticism that Russia may have undercounted fatalities from COVID-19.

Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

The city of Moscow has suddenly doubled its coronavirus death toll from last month.

Media reports and analysts have questioned the accuracy of Russia’s mortality figures for the virus.

Under its initial methodology, Moscow’s Health Department had attributed 636 deaths to COVID-19. But on Thursday, the department announced that 1,561 deaths in April could be linked to COVID-19.

It attributed the revision to an alternative counting method that takes into account “debatable cases.”

The department said the newly counted deaths include 756 coronavirus patients who tested positive but who died of other causes and 169 people who tested negative but were still suspected to have the virus.

Even with the revision, Moscow’s death rate from the coronavirus is well below other major cities, including New York and London.

Nationwide, Russia has attributed less than 5,000 deaths to COVID-19, even as its infection rate continues to rise to more than 380,000 cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The apparent discrepancy has raised questions among journalists and analysts over the legitimacy of those numbers.

An independent analysis of Moscow’s mortality rate showed a nearly 20% increase in overall deaths for April compared with the previous 10 years. One of the researchers involved told NPR that it was likely that many of those deaths could be attributed to the coronavirus.

“I think it’s safe to say that if you multiply official death count by a factor of three, you will get a more or less true picture,” Aleksei Raksha told NPR’s Charles Maynes earlier this month.

Media outlets such as The New York Times and Financial Times have published similar claims.

Russian officials have disputed those suggestions, attributing the country’s low mortality rate from COVID-19 to government efforts and a Russian medical practice of certifying a patient’s cause of death based on the particular organ that failed.

Moscow’s Health Department initially said 60% of deaths among coronavirus patients were due to other causes, apparently using that methodology.

Moscow’s revision to its death toll – and methods for tallying COVID-19 deaths – also only count for the city. Other parts of Russia have seen dramatic increases in deaths but still attribute a relatively small number to COVID-19.

The Muslim-majority republic of Dagestan, home to some 3 million people, is among them.

In an interview this month, the republic’s health minister, Dzhamaludin Gadzhiibragimov, said 29 people died from COVID-19 in spite of 13,000 infections in the region. He also attributed 657 deaths to “community-acquired pneumonia.”

Source link

A Funny Relationship (as in Funny Ha-Ha)

PressNewsAgency
-
0
A Funny Relationship (as in Funny Ha-Ha)

In December 2006, Bruce Matez invited Deena Betze, to join him at Congregation M’kor Shalom, in Cherry Hill, N.J. There was a rehearsal for the synagogue’s annual comedy and musical revue, and he thought Ms. Betze, a family lawyer at his firm, BorgerMatez, would enjoy it.

She accepted.

As soon as she walked in, she caught the eye of Larry Siegel, who was immediately struck by the “raven-haired beauty.” Not that he was in a position to do anything: He was married with two children, as was she.

Still, Mr. Siegel, 59, liked Ms. Betze, especially when he discovered that she could land a joke. “For every one I gave, she gave one back,” said Mr. Siegel, who runs MarketingFusion, a firm in Marlton, N.J. “It was delightful. We built up a really good rapport.”

Ms. Betze, 55, liked him, too. A “big humor snob,” she takes her comedy seriously. Her father, Monte Barry is a borscht belt comedian who performed in the Catskills in the 1950s and ‘60s.

“Larry has this great comedic sense,” she said. “He was a very generous performer. He’s a big personality. I found that very attractive.”

But they only saw each other once a year. They would joke around, do some bits together, and part ways.

In August 2013, Ms. Betze began a difficult divorce from her husband of 24 years. When Mr. Siegel saw her in October — along with her son Spencer Betze, who was in the revue that year — he thought she looked forlorn, “like she was having a really hard time,” he said.

In January 2015, Mr. Siegel separated from his wife of 30 years. By May, he decided he was ready to date, and Ms. Betze popped into his head. He asked their mutual friend, Mr. Matez, if Ms. Betze was available, but was told she was a bit of a mess.

In December, Ms. Betze once again performed in the synagogue show. During intermission, Mr. Siegel, who sat that year out, asked her how she was doing. Before she could respond, he blurted out, “I’m separated!”

“I said, ‘I’m so sorry to hear that,’” she said. But in her head she thought: “Interesting.”

After the show a small group, including Mr. Siegel, invited Ms. Betze to a bar. She was going to meet some girlfriends and declined. But as soon as she arrived at her destination, she reconsidered and zoomed back to Mr. Siegel. That night, the two connected on a deeper level, sharing their feelings about their marriages and divorce.

A week later, at their law firm holiday after-party, Ms. Betze confessed to Mr. Matez that she was ready for a real relationship. He told her that at least three men from the synagogue wanted to ask her out.

“Is one of them Larry Siegel?” she asked.

That was on a Friday. Two days later, Mr. Matez and Mr. Siegel went to an Philadelphia Eagles football game. On the drive home, Mr. Matez suggested Mr. Siegel ask Ms. Betze out. That night, Mr. Siegel sent her a Facebook message.

She ran it by her son, Spencer. “He said, ‘Is he the funny guy?’” I said yes. He said, ‘I think that would be good for you.’”

Originally, the couple planned to have a destination wedding with 50 guests in Akumal, Mexico, with an official service at their temple a week earlier. As a result of the lockdown, they called Mexico off.

On May 12, Rabbi Jennifer Frenkel performed the ceremony at their synagogue. Seven attendees watched in person, with more than 100 viewers on Facebook Live.

After, 30 friends and family in 16 cars surprised the couple and drove in formation into the parking lot. The couple arrived home to discover that Ms. Betze’s friends had decorated the house with balloons and signs. They hope to have a party in Mexico next year.

As for now, “I guess you can say while everyone else is quarantined, we’re just honeymooning in place,” Mr. Siegel said.

Source link

Watch a Real-Time Simulation of How Well Social Distancing at the Beach Actually Works to Contain COVID-19

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Watch a Real-Time Simulation of How Well Social Distancing at the Beach Actually Works to Contain COVID-19

When Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced the tentative reopening of Virginia Beach for Memorial Day, he warned antsy residents that, if they didn’t abide by new restrictions such as social distancing and limits on group activities to mitigate the risk of new COVID-19 infections, he wouldn’t hesitate to re-close the area. He’s not alone. Coastline municipalities around the country are now instituting or contemplating similar liberties. To test how feasible it is for public spaces to reopen to those restless from weeks of stay-at-home orders, we’ve built a simulation.

It uses the real-world coordinates of a two-block stretch on the southern tip of Virginia Beach covering 4.4 acres of sandy respite along a 600-foot coastline, and runs a real-time computational experiment in which each digital person acts according a randomly assigned behavioral model. Each person is visualized as a circle with a six-foot diameter, meaning any time two circles overlap (and turn red), social distancing has been violated. Depending on where you place the slider at the top, a certain percentage of beachgoers in the simulation will rigorously try to observe social distancing while others will bend the rules by a few feet.

In the default setting, 75% of the 200 simulated beachgoers aspire to maintain a minimum of a six-foot distance, while 25% are willing to fudge that distance down to between 3 and 5 feet. In this case, about 20% of our tiny friends head straight for the water, while 30% plop down to sunbathe and the remaining 50% wander up and down the beach. After one hour in simulated time, at least 1,000 violations of social distancing typically occur as people move about, according to many tests of the simulation, which involves a small amount of variation due to the random nature of where people chose to move.

This sort of exercise, in which each person in a simulated group has a personal set of rules and goals, is more than just a thought experiment. The success of any policy whose outcome is dependent on voluntary compliance, like the rules for Virginia Beach, is difficult to predict ahead of time because small, simple differences in how individuals behave can create enormously complex patterns when they interact with one another—what’s known as “emergent” patterns. While TIME’s implementation uses only a handful of variables, many researchers use this style of computer science as a powerful means to predict emergent patterns of group behavior in anything from crowds to traffic to ecosystems.

Related Stories

The emergence we see here suggests that at least a modest amount of interaction inside 6 feet is inevitable as public spaces reopen. Even when limiting the crowd to only 200 people and assuming 100% those beachgoers try to cooperate, the model suggests it’s basically assured that people get too close to each other. Repeated trials indicate that the random movement of walkers, often impeded by stationary sunbathers, combined with the inevitable collisions between people at the bottlenecks at the entry to the beach, results in an average of about 200 accidental violations of social distancing in one hour.

And that’s a highly ideal scenario, in which the crowd size remains unrealistically small and improbably obedient. As soon as you start adding more people or introducing even a small percentage of negligent actors, the number of collisions skyrockets. For 1,000 beachgoers at 75% compliance, there are typically more than 20,000 such run-ins over the 90 minutes (in simulation time) it takes for all of them to reach the beach.

As desperate as the U.S. is for some form of normalcy over the warm summer months, every model we ran suggests that, without general acceptance of a new reality in which public spaces will need to be less populated, the health risks could be significant.

As I wrote recently, even as new COVID-19 infections fall, Americans must reconsider the outdoors as an exhaustible resource that must be rationed. As this experiment tentatively indicates, even a fairly large amount of beachfront—4.4 acres is the equivalent of 3.3 football fields, not including the water—cannot tolerate more than a few hundred people without a dangerous degree of interactions that are too close for comfort, no matter how assiduous those people are trying to be. While Virginia Beach acknowledged this to some extent by limiting parking capacity to 50% over Memorial Day weekend, it could take far more drastic and undesirable limitations to make public spaces a place people can enjoy without an intolerable level of risk.

Methodology

This sort of experiment is known as “agent-based modeling,” in which each “participant” acts as an autonomous program that makes decisions based on its surrounding environment.

While there are several JavaScript libraries that have implemented some degree of agent-based-modeling, this simulation was written from scratch to accommodate the specific use-case. In each step (which occur several times a second), every agent seeks to move approximately 20 feet toward his or her desired destination—either the water or an available spot on the sand. Unless the agent plans to sunbathe, once she reaches her destination she chooses a new one, whether it’s a spot on the beach on a nearby location in the water for swimmers. Except, As each time an agent “moves,” she “calculates” whether the move would violate another agent’s space below her minimum acceptable degree of social distancing—from 3 to 6 feet, depending how closely she is following recommended guidelines—and, if so, attempts a different route until one is appropriately spaced, up to five times. If, after five tries, the only option is to move inside another agent’s 6-foot radius, a collision occurs. The interactive tallies that as one violation.

The simulation runs at about 40 times faster than reality and ends after either an hour or when every prospective person has reach the beach or water.

This style of computer science was popularized by the free software NetLogo, a sophisticated descendant of the original LOGO program, popular in grade schools, that involved giving instructions to a “turtle” that would create patterns on the screen. While this simulation was not independently coded in that software, the author consulted a textbook on its structure to aid in the software design.

Write to Chris Wilson at chris.wilson@time.com.

Source link

Trump Takes No Questions From Press Amid Nationwide Protests On Police Violence

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Trump Takes No Questions From Press Amid Nationwide Protests On Police Violence

President Donald Trump took zero questions from reporters Friday after three days of escalating nationwide protests over police violence and the death of George Floyd.

At what the White House had described as a news conference Friday afternoon, Trump read a statement in the Rose Garden criticizing China and saying the U.S. was “terminating” its relationship with the World Health Organization over its response to the coronavirus. The president made no mention of the protests, nor did he take any queries from the press.

Later that afternoon at a roundtable on the coronavirus, Trump addressed the protests for Floyd, a Black man who pleaded “I can’t breathe” as a white police officer knelt on his neck. The president expressed “deepest condolences” to Floyd’s family, whom he said he spoke to, and lamented the “horrible, horrible situation.” He also condemned the civil unrest in Minneapolis in response to the dayslong delay in charging the officer who pinned his knee into Floyd’s neck, saying “we can’t allow” protests “to turn into anarchy and chaos” and “looters should not be allowed to drown out the voices of peaceful protesters.”

Earlier Friday, Trump had tweeted about the protests in Minneapolis, calling the largely Black protesters “thugs” and threatening them with state-sanctioned violence, adding, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” (Twitter applied a “glorifying violence” label to Trump’s tweet for violating its rules.)

Trump later claimed to clarify his tweet, saying “looting leads to shooting,” noting there was a shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday and seven people shot in Louisville Thursday amid protests. However, in Trump’s initial tweet, the expression — first used by a racist Miami police chief in the 1960s — came after the president mentioned the military was “with” Minnesota’s governor and said, “Any difficulty and we will assume control.”

After the news conference, Trump’s 2020 campaign also put out a statement blaming the media and Democrats for “purposefully misrepresenting” what Trump said in his tweet, claiming they were doing so for “political gain” and “ratings.”

Protests, which started on Tuesday in Minneapolis, expanded nationwide on Thursday night. Some of the civil unrest led to a local police precinct in Minneapolis being burned and a Target and other storefronts being damaged, as demonstrators continued to call for the officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck to be charged (all four officers involved have been fired).

On Friday afternoon, that officer, Derek Chauvin, was arrested and charged with murder and manslaughter. The charges came four days after Floyd’s death and a bystander video of Chauvin pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck went viral, and followed three nights of escalating protests.



Source link

US doctor who spoke out about Covid-19 safety sues hospital that fired him

PressNewsAgency
-
0
US doctor who spoke out about Covid-19 safety sues hospital that fired him

An emergency room doctor fired after speaking out about the lack of coronavirus safety protections at his workplace in Washington state is suing the hospital for wrongful termination.

Dr Ming Lin, who spoke to the Guardian from a reservation in South Dakota, where he works intermittently in an emergency room, said at the heart of this lawsuit is the issue of healthcare workers being free to speak out about safety concerns. 

“For frontline workers to be threatened or silenced, it’s just wrong,” he said. “We put our life out there and we should have a right to speak out if we see something that’s unsafe.”

Dr Lin said since posting about his experience he has heard from hundreds of healthcare workers who have gone through a similar situation at other hospitals. One doctor, for example, told him about getting written up after she provided N100 masks for her nurses, while an anesthesiologist told him he was removed from his shifts when he wore an N95 mask inside an intensive care unit.

“I hope this lawsuit brings this to light and maybe there’s some legislative change that can be done,” he added.

In late February, when the coronavirus outbreak in the US was just beginning, Lin said he started to grow concerned about the safety practices at PeaceHealth St Joseph medical center in Bellingham, where he had been a physician for 17 years. 

 “We’re not doing as much as we can to protect our patients and healthcare workers,” he said he realized. “So I decided to go to social media.” 

Lin started posting on his public Facebook account about not having enough protective equipment, long delays in receiving coronavirus test results, and risky virus screening practices in which patients were evaluated inside the waiting room.

According to the lawsuit, he sent a message to the hospital about his concerns and received a response stating that PeaceHealth’s PR department was “upset”.

By late March, the hospital had removed Dr Lin, who has about 30 years’ experience as a physician, from all of his shifts. 

Now he has teamed up with the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington in order to get his job back as well as monetary relief for “lost wages, economic damages and emotional distress”, explained Jamal Whitehead, an ACLU-WA cooperating attorney.

The lawsuit was also filed against Richard DeCarlo, PeaceHealth’s chief operating officer, and TeamHealth, a national medical staffing company. It references the fact that the hospital and TeamHealth have no social media policies prohibiting Facebook use.

Since going public with his concerns about safety practices at St Joseph, Dr Lin said the hospital had addressed all of the issues he brought up.

PeaceHealth said in a statement that they asked TeamHealth to remove Dr Lin because “he chose to not use designated safety reporting channels, and his actions were disruptive, compromised collaboration in the midst of a crisis and contributed to the creation of fear and anxiety among staff and the community.”

TeamHealth said in a statement on Thursday that Dr Lin was still a paid TeamHealth physician and that they had offered to find another hospital placement for him.

Dr Lin said that if he were to take another position it would mean uprooting his wife and three young children to move to another part of the country, which he described as not reasonable.

Source link

Taiwan Court Strikes Down Law Criminalizing Adultery

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Taiwan Court Strikes Down Law Criminalizing Adultery

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s constitutional court on Friday struck down an 85-year-old law that made adultery a crime punishable by up to a year in prison, a decision hailed by activists as a major step forward for women’s rights on the island.

The law is a “violation of a person’s sexual autonomy” and a “serious invasion of personal privacy,” Chief Justice Hsu Tzong-li said during a news conference announcing the ruling. While adultery may violate the marital promise, he added, it does not necessarily harm the public interest.

With the ruling, Taiwan has become the latest place in Asia to decriminalize marital infidelity — following South Korea in 2015 and India in 2018 — and one of the last non-Muslim places in the world to take it off the criminal books. Some U.S. states still have criminal adultery laws, though they are not typically enforced.

While Taiwan’s law did not differentiate between gender, activists say it has been disproportionately used against women: They have been 20 percent more likely than men to be convicted of the charge, according to the International Commission of Jurists, a human rights group.

Activists said the law was also used in a perverse way at times — to pressure victims of sexual assault not to file charges. Doing so could open a victim to adultery charges, which were far easier to prove in court than sexual assault, they said.

“On the surface, it looks like a gender-neutral law, but in practice it was very unfair for women,” said Lin Shiou-yi, director of the working group on research and development at Awakening Foundation, a local feminist organization.

Few of those found guilty went to jail but all were left with criminal records and many paid fines of about $3,000. From 2016 to 2019, more than 1,000 people were found guilty of adultery in Taiwan.

The evidence needed to prove adultery in court had spawned a cottage industry of private investigators hired by suspicious husbands and wives to spy on their spouses.

“The state’s interference into people’s marriages actually has a negative impact on marriage,” Lin Hui-huang, secretary-general of the Justice Ministry, said after Friday’s ruling.

Local conservative groups criticized the court’s ruling. Tseng Hsien-ying, president of the Coalition for the Happiness of Our Next Generation, called it “outrageous” in a Facebook post.

“The constitutional court is prioritizing sexual freedom over marriage and family,” the post said. “If you want sexual freedom and individual rights, then don’t get married. If you do marry, then you should abide by the marital promise and be loyal.”

Taiwanese society has been buffeted by dueling conservative and liberal forces in recent years: Just over a year ago, lawmakers in Taiwan voted to legalize same-sex marriage, a first for Asia.

But while public support for Taiwan’s adultery law has waned, it has remained strong. A government poll conducted in 2013 showed that 82 percent of Taiwanese supported the law. A more recent, 2017 poll by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation found that 69 percent of adults wanted to keep it on the books.

The court had last upheld the law in 2002.

Women’s rights activists said the abolition of the law did not amount to an endorsement of adultery.

“We hope that by removing the criminal punishment and returning marriage to the realm of civil law, people can learn healthier ways to deal with emotional loss and marital relations,” Chen Wen-wei, a board member of Awakening Foundation, said in a statement.

Source link

Joe Biden Says He’s Spoken With George Floyd’s Family, Calls For Police Reform

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Joe Biden Says He’s Spoken With George Floyd’s Family, Calls For Police Reform

Promising to bring real police reform if elected president, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Friday that he had spoken with the family of George Floyd, the African American man killed by Minneapolis police officers on Monday.

“The original sin of this country still stains our nation today,” the former vice president said in a video message from his Delaware home, referring to more than 400 years of “Black men, Black women, Black children” whose potential was “wiped out unnecessarily.”

“Everyday African Americans go about their lives with constant anxiety and trauma wondering who will be next … The anger and frustration and the exhaustion is undeniable.”

Protests broke out nationwide after video showed a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck despite his pleas that he could not breathe. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was fired from his post after the incident and taken into custody Friday on murder and manslaughter charges.

After days of protests, Minneapolis was in flames Thursday night as some people set fire to the Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd Precinct building. Other local businesses were set on fire as people broke into stores and threw fireworks at law enforcement.

President Donald Trump responded by tweeting that the protesters were “THUGS” and called for shooting any looters.

Biden did not mention Trump by name in his remarks, but explicitly censured the president’s response to Floyd’s death, saying this was not the time for “incendiary tweets” or “inciting violence.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz also said Trump’s comments were “just not helpful.”

“In the moment where we’re at, in a moment that is so volatile, anything we do to add fuel to that fire is really, really challenging,” Walz said. 

Biden’s presidential campaign has proposed allocating $300 million for the Community Oriented Policing Services program, which he argues has been underfunded, as well as directing the Department of Justice to hold police departments accountable for excessive use of force and other civil rights violations. 

View Biden’s remarks below.



Source by [author_name]

European defense hopes live to fight another day (just)

PressNewsAgency
-
0
European defense hopes live to fight another day (just)

The EU’s military ambitions have been hit by budget battles and the coronavirus but they’re still standing.

Just about.

EU officials and diplomats see boosting defense capability as crucial to the bloc’s efforts to play a greater geopolitical role. But in the European Commission’s new plan for a seven-year EU budget, revamped to take account of the coronavirus crisis, two major defense projects have been earmarked for less funding than they were allocated two years ago.

Nevertheless, both programs are still in the budget, and the plan would provide them with more cash overall than some proposals that have circulated during protracted discussions over the 2018 blueprint.

Moreover, the Commission’s proposal is only a starting point for intense and complex negotiations between the EU’s 27 member countries over the €1.1 trillion budget plan and €750 billion recovery fund, meaning the final numbers could be quite different from those proposed this week. France, for one, has signaled it will fight hard to raise defense-related spending.

European Council President Charles Michel suggested a €7 billion compromise for the EDF | Olivier Hoslet/EPA/AFP via Getty Images

Under the Commission’s plan, the new European Defence Fund (EDF), intended to foster cooperation on research and development of military technology and equipment, would receive €8 billion.

That figure is a considerable drop on the Commission’s 2018 proposal for the long-term budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), which foresaw €11.5 billion for the fund. But it is not as severe as some cuts proposed in the heat of the battle over the old budget blueprint — which took place even before the coronavirus put extra pressure on spending plans.

When Finland held the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, it suggested almost halving the EDF allocation to €6 billion. A compromise put forward by European Council President Charles Michel suggested €7 billion.

Military mobility — efforts to ease the movement of troops and equipment in Europe, which is also a NATO priority — has been cut back in the Commission plan too. It has been allocated €1.5 billion, rather than the €5.7 billion originally proposed.

That’s €1 billion less than the Finns foresaw, although about the same as Michel proposed in his compromise. (All figures are in 2018 prices.)

Overall, there is enough in the new plan for some supporters of a greater EU defense role to see silver linings. “Financially it’s not nothing and politically it’s an important signal” said a senior EU diplomat.

But others are not taking it so well.

“We should all be interested that neither national defense budgets nor defense-related spending in the next MFF — European Defence Fund and military mobility — take a hit,” Estonian Defense minister Jüri Luik told POLITICO.

“Military mobility is a flagship project for NATO-EU cooperation and the EU has a crucial role in investing in Europe’s strategic infrastructure,” he added. “We believe there is room for restoring the Union’s level of ambition.”

Threat reassessment

Not all EU governments are enthusiastic backers of a stronger military role for the bloc. Some worry that these efforts could end up duplicating NATO’s; others are wary of a shift from soft to hard power in a union founded as a peace project.

And the fact that defense has been cut back in the new MFF plan — while spending on the economy and health has been dramatically increased — reflects a widespread view that the coronavirus means the EU has to rejig its priorities.

But advocates of the defense push say it is essential if the bloc is to be taken seriously as a major power on the world stage — even if the coronavirus has put other, non-military, threats at the top of the agenda right now.

Speaking after a meeting of EU defense ministers this month, Josep Borrell, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, said the pandemic would likely lead to greater instability in the world.

Despite the current emphasis on economic recovery plans, the former Spanish foreign minister urged EU member countries to secure the necessary funding for Europe’s security and defense.

Officials who want more spending on military projects are not waving the white flag.

“I hope that in this scenario, the resources allocated to the defense and security policy will not diminish,” he stressed.

Military officers also contend that, aside from conventional threats, the Zoom economy of the crisis period has underscored vulnerability to cyberattacks.

“We always get ready for a war that we hope will never take place but the cyber war takes place every day … we are always under cyber attack,” Claudio Graziano, an Italian general who heads the EU Military Committee, told POLITICO.

“We have moved from the traditional threats, the threats among states, to new threats like terrorism, failing states, hybrid wars … and now … there are new dangers that we need to be ready for,” said Graziano. “Instead of cutting the [military] budget we should think to increase it, since it could also help the recovery.”

Mobility matters

On the military mobility front, diplomats stress such projects are vital for countries such as those in the Baltics, who are deeply worried by Russia and want the security of knowing that allies could come to their aid quickly. Projects such as upgrading roads and bridges and removing bureaucratic bottlenecks all aim to make it easier to shift troops and kit. But around €1.5 billion over seven years is “almost nothing,” complained a second senior diplomat.

However, officials who want more spending on military projects are not waving the white flag. An Elysée official said Paris, the EU’s major military power, would look to push up the proposed spending on the defense fund.

“It’s one of the points on which France will insist in the coming weeks during the budgetary negotiation, we want it to go beyond the €10 billion mark, it’s an essential tool for European security and defense,” the official said.

However, even if Paris gets its way on the EDF, it may not fare so well on other fronts. The European Peace Facility — a proposed off-budget €9.2 billion vehicle to fund military operations, which diplomats say France wanted to use especially in Africa — is expected to face a very significant cut during upcoming negotiations.

“Many member states are saying that if we have to save something, then it’s better to save the EDF because that’s the real engine to develop a proper defence,” said the second senior diplomat.

Rym Momtaz in Paris contributed reporting.



Source by [author_name]

1...65,10565,10665,107...65,234Page 65,106 of 65,234

FOLLOW US

© Copyright 2025 - PressNewsAgency LLC . . . All Rights Reserved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Naeem T Ahmed { Editor / Publisher } . . . . Contact@PressNewsAgency.org . . . . . . . . . Phone: +1.8884110555 +1.5055960123