Lack Of Unity Is A Bigger Threat Than Coronavirus, WHO Chief Says In Emotional Speech

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Lack Of Unity Is A Bigger Threat Than Coronavirus, WHO Chief Says In Emotional Speech

“Are we unable to distinguish or identify the common enemy?” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked plaintively during remarks Thursday. Above, Tedros is pictured at a July 3 meeting at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

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“Are we unable to distinguish or identify the common enemy?” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked plaintively during remarks Thursday. Above, Tedros is pictured at a July 3 meeting at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

Fabrice Coffrini/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

The COVID-19 pandemic is testing the world – and humanity is failing because of a lack of leadership and unity, the head of the World Health Organization declared in a passionate speech on Thursday.

“How is it difficult for humans to unite and fight a common enemy that is killing people indiscriminately?” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked at a briefing in Geneva, his voice rising with emotion.

“Are we unable to distinguish or identify the common enemy?” he asked.

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The world’s lack of solidarity — not the coronavirus — is the biggest threat we face, Tedros said, adding that divisions among countries and people give an advantage to a virus that has now been holding the world hostage for months.

COVID-19 has now killed more than 550,000 people worldwide – and the global total of reported cases has surpassed the 12 million mark, according to the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University.

When Tedros declared the disease a pandemic on March 11, some 4,000 people had died and there were fewer than 120,000 confirmed cases worldwide. But the WHO chief warned that the numbers would go higher.

Trump Sets Date To End WHO Membership Over Its Handling Of Virus

In the months since, Tedros has repeatedly called for countries to fight the pandemic with unity and common cause. He has also criticized governments for failing to take measures to stop the spread of the virus.

Here is the full section of Tedros’ remarks that prompted his show of emotion:

“My friends, make no mistake. The greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself.

“Rather, it’s the lack of leadership and solidarity at the global and national levels. That’s why I said earlier, each and every individual should reflect. This is a tragedy that is forcing us to miss many of our friends and lose many lives. And we cannot defeat this pandemic as a divided world.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is a test of global solidarity and global leadership. The virus thrives on division, but is thwarted when we unite.

“How is it difficult for humans to unite and fight a common enemy that is killing people indiscriminately? Are we unable to distinguish or identify the common enemy? Can’t we understand that the divisions and the cracks between us are an advantage for the virus. I think I do not need to remind you because we all know that these are the basics.

“My hope is that the defining crisis of our age will likewise remind all people that the best way forward – and the only way forward – is together. These are the basics, but the time-tested truth. ‘Together’ is the solution unless we want to give the advantage to the enemy, to the virus, that has taken the world hostage, and this has to stop.

“I thank you.”

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Ireland’s Paschal Donohoe wins Eurogroup presidency

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Ireland’s Paschal Donohoe wins Eurogroup presidency

Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has won the Eurogroup presidency | Olivier Hoslet/EPA

Eurozone finance ministers elect new leader amid coronavirus recovery efforts.

Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe is the next president of the Eurogroup.

Eurozone finance ministers elected Donohoe this evening in a secret ballot conducted online.

Donohoe prevailed over Spain’s Nadia Calviño and Luxembourg’s Pierre Gramegna with a majority vote. That means at least 10 countries backed him for the influential post, following weeks of politicking among governments.

He will begin a two-and-a-half-year term on Sunday, succeeding Mário Centeno of Portugal.



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Mathew Barzal might be facing bridge deal in free agency due to pandemic – Sportsnet.ca

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Mathew Barzal might be facing bridge deal in free agency due to pandemic – Sportsnet.ca

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WHO declares Sri Lanka, Maldives measles-free

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WHO declares Sri Lanka, Maldives measles-free

Colombo – Measles and rubella have been eradicated from Sri Lanka and the Maldives after decades of immunisation programmes, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

“Coming at a time when the entire world is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, this success is encouraging and demonstrates the importance of joint efforts,” WHO regional director Khetrapal Singh said in a statement. The Maldives recorded its last endemic case of measles in 2009 and rubella in October 2015, the global health body said.

Sri Lanka‘s last endemic cases of measles and rubella were reported in May 2016 and March 2017 respectively, it added.

There has been no evidence of endemic transmission of the two viruses for over three years “in the presence of a well performing surveillance system,” the WHO said.

Bhutan, North Korea and East Timor were also declared to be measles-free.

The declarations came amid measles outbreaks in developed countries, including the United States.

 



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Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon found dead by police

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Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon found dead by police

The mayor of South Korea’s capital has been found dead, more than half a day after giving his daughter a will-like message and then leaving home, police said.

The body of Park Won-soon was found at Mt Bugak in northern Seoul around midnight local time, near where his phone signal had last been detected, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said.

The agency did not give a cause of death.

His daughter reported him as missing at 5:17pm (0817 GMT) on Thursday, saying his phone was off and he left a message “like a will”, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Police said they mobilized about 600 police and fire officers, drones and tracking dogs to search for Park in the hills, where his phone signal was last detected. They said the phone was turned off when they tried to call him.

Police said a criminial complaint against the mayor had been lodged. Yonhap news agency reported that a former secretary of Park filed a complaint on Wednesday over alleged incidents of sexual harassment.

Kim Ji-hyeong, a Seoul Metropolitan Government official, said Park had not shown up for work on Thursday for unspecified reasons and had cancelled everything on his schedule, including a meeting with a presidential official at his Seoul City Hall office.

Fire officer Jeong Jin-hyang told reporters on Thursday night that rescuers used dogs to search dangerous areas on the hills. 

Park, a longtime civic activist and human rights lawyer, was elected as the mayor of Seoul in 2011.

He became the city’s first mayor to be voted into a third term in June 2019.

A member of President Moon Jae-in’s liberal Democratic Party, he has been considered a potential presidential candidate in 2022 elections.

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Everton v Southampton: Premier League – live!

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Everton v Southampton: Premier League – live!

Everton: Pickford, Coleman, Mina, Keane, Digne, Iwobi, Davies, Gomes, Gordon, Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison.
Subs: Baines,Sigurdsson, Walcott, Sidibe, Bernard, Stekelenburg, Kean, Branthwaite, Baningime.

Southampton: McCarthy, Walker-Peters, Stephens, Bednarek, Bertrand, Armstrong, Ward-Prowse, Romeu, Redmond, Ings, Adams.
Subs: Long, Obafemi, Hojbjerg, Smallbone, Gunn, Vokins, Danso, Ferry, Jankewitz.

Referee: Lee Mason (Lancashire).

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Beauty salons to reopen, but no face waxing or eyelash treatments allowed

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Beauty salons to reopen, but no face waxing or eyelash treatments allowed

Beauty salons are to reopen in England next week – but face waxing, eyelash treatments, make-up application and facials are not allowed.

ail bars, tattoo and massage studios, physical therapy businesses and spas will also be able to reopen from Monday under new Government plans.

Updated Covid-19 secure guidance sets out the measures that those providing close contact services should follow to protect staff and customers.

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Paige Hegarty shows off her nails after visiting the Hollywood Nail Salon in Belfast (Liam McBunrey/PA)

Only services that do not involve work in the highest risk zone – directly in front of the face – should be made available to clients, the department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said.

This means that treatments such as face waxing, eyelash treatments, make-up application and facial treatments should not be provided until Government advice changes – due to the much greater risk of transmission.

Where two-metre social distancing cannot be maintained, for example when providing a treatment, the person providing the service should wear further protection in addition to any that they may usually wear.

This should be a clear visor that covers the face, or the use of a screen or other barrier that protects the practitioner and the customer from respiratory droplets caused by sneezing, coughing or speaking.

The Government has worked with a range of stakeholders in the beauty industry to develop the measures close-contact services will need to consider to become Covid-19 secure.

These include screens, appointment-only booking systems, minimising time spent on the premises, increased hand washing and surface cleaning, using disposable equipment where possible, and avoiding skin-to-skin contact.

Other measures include maintaining sufficient spacing between customer chairs, banning food or drink other than water,
and making sure a limited and fixed number of workers work together, if they have to be in close proximity to do their jobs.

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Business Secretary Alok Sharma (Aaron Chown/PA)

Business Secretary Alok Sharma said: “We have been clear throughout this crisis that we want as many businesses as possible to reopen, but we must be confident it is safe for them to do so.

“From July 13, thousands more businesses which offer close-contact services like nail and beauty salons will be able to welcome customers back in a way that is safe for both workers and the public.

“Enabling these often small, independent businesses to reopen is yet another step in our plan to kickstart the economy to support jobs and incomes across the country.”

Millie Kendall, from the British Beauty Council, said: “It’s a positive step, but we are still only part of the way there.

“We will keep working closely with governing bodies and supporting everyone in beauty until we are able to achieve the fully-reinvigorated beauty industry we all want.”

The guidance also applies to businesses that operate in different locations, such as massage therapists working in people’s homes, and those learning in vocational training environments.

Businesses will need to keep records of staff and customers and share these with NHS Test and Trace where requested, to help identify people who may have been exposed to the virus.

Businesses will only be able to open from these dates once they have completed a risk assessment and are confident they are managing the risks.

The Government said businesses must have taken the necessary steps to become Covid-19 secure in line with the current Health and Safety legislation.

PA

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Starbucks will require customers to wear masks

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Starbucks will require customers to wear masks

The mandate is part of Starbucks’ “continued effort in prioritizing the health and well-being” of its employees and customers during the pandemic, the company said in a statement Thursday.

Requiring a facial covering or mask supersedes local laws in some states or cities that might not require wearing one. Starbucks (SBUX) said customers who refuse to wear a mask inside can order from the drive-thru, curbside pickup or delivery.
Starbucks has made its cafe employees wear a mask or facial covering since April as part of broader changes it implemented to safeguard against Covid-19.

“The company is committed to playing a constructive role in supporting health and government officials as they work to mitigate the spread of Covid-19,” Starbucks said in the statement.

Although no nationwide mandate to wear a mask exists, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says everyone “should wear a cloth face cover when they have to go out in public.” The CDC said that “face coverings are meant to protect other people in case the wearer is unknowingly infected but does not have symptoms.”
Facial coverings or mask requirements have become a political football, leading to a patchwork of mandates across various states. Roughly 20 states and Washington, DC, have a statewide mask mandate, while several, including in new hotspots Arizona and Florida, do not.

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Meghan tries to stop her friends from being named in media lawsuit

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Meghan tries to stop her friends from being named in media lawsuit

Meghan’s legal team has filed an application seeking to prevent Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Mail on Sunday, from publicly naming five friends who anonymously defended her against bullying in a US publication over a year ago, a source close to the Duchess told CNN.

The names of the women were contained in a confidential filing provided to the judge and the defense in a lawsuit Meghan filed against the publisher after the Mail on Sunday printed excerpts of a letter the Duchess wrote to her father following her marriage to Prince Harry, the source said.

“We vehemently believe that the Mail’s threat to publish has nothing to do with the case, and is only being done so the Mail can target five innocent women through the pages of its newspapers and its website,” the source said.

A spokesman for the newspaper said in response: “To set the record straight, The Mail on Sunday had absolutely no intention of publishing the identities of the five friends this weekend. But their evidence is at the heart of the case and we see no reason why their identities should be kept secret. That is why we told the Duchess’s lawyers last week that the question of their confidentiality should be properly considered by the court.”

CNN has learned the women spoke to People magazine, which published an exclusive cover story on the backlash against the Duchess in February 2019. The article, ‘Meghan Markle’s Best Friends Break Their Silence: ‘We Want to Speak the Truth,’ quotes five women from her “inner circle.”

The source close to the Duchess said Associated Newspapers is attempting to “intimidate” her and her friends before the case is heard at London’s high court, when the women could be called as witnesses. Prince Harry and Meghan previously accused the Mail on Sunday of selectively editing the letter to disguise “lies” the paper had told about the Duchess — a claim that the tabloid specifically denies.

The Mail on Sunday and Associated Newspapers previously ​said they stand by the decision to publish excerpts from the letter and will defend the case vigorously. The company will argue that there was “huge and legitimate” public interest in members of the royal family and their “personal relationships.”

As part of the court filing on Thursday, provided to CNN by the source, the Duchess of Sussex said in a witness statement:

“Associated Newspapers, the owner of The Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, is threatening to publish the names of five women — five private citizens — who made a choice on their own to speak anonymously with a US media outlet more than a year ago, to defend me from the bullying behaviour of Britain’s tabloid media.”

“These five women are not on trial, and nor am I. The publisher of the Mail on Sunday is the one on trial. It is this publisher that acted unlawfully and is attempting to evade accountability; to create a circus and distract from the point of this case — that the Mail on Sunday unlawfully published my private letter.”

“Each of these women is a private citizen, young mother, and each has a basic right to privacy,” she added. “The Mail on Sunday is playing a media game with real lives.”

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Chr. Hansen may sell its natural colors business

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Chr. Hansen may sell its natural colors business

Dive Brief:

  • Danish ingredients supplier Chr. Hansen is considering the sale of its Natural Colors business, according to Food Ingredients First. Following an initial evaluation of the company’s portfolio, the Natural Colors unit was not found to fit into the microbial and fermentation technology platforms that underpin the company.
  • In the company’s Q3 financial results, the Natural Colors division posted 1% organic revenue growth driven by its Fruitmax brand.
  • The results of the full strategic review of the company, which includes a decision on the Natural Colors unit, will be announced Aug. 25. 

Dive Insight:

As consumers tend to eat first with their eyes, color is an integral part of any product. While finding the perfect shade is already hard enough, the question of which colorings should be used in a new offering becomes even more tangled as manufacturers weigh whether they are aiming for a more natural option or synthetic colors.

With the general progression away from artificial ingredients, coloring has become a consideration for consumers when evaluating items on grocery store shelves. A GNT global consumer survey done in 2017 found 79% of consumers define “natural” as being made without artificial colors. As a result of increasing interest in choices that feature naturally sourced colorants, Zion Market Research projects the global natural food color market will top $1.77 billion by 2021 — an annual growth rate of nearly 5.2% from 2016 to 2021.

While natural colors may be a growing segment overall, it is not leading the pack in Chr. Hansen’s portfolio. Not only did the segment achieve minimal growth this quarter, but it posted negative growth in the first part of the year. While its natural colors continue to struggle, the company’s Food Cultures & Enzymes business grew 8% over the quarter and its Health & Nutrition segment jumped 12%, meeting the goals company leadership set for itself in the first quarter of 2020. The company announced at the beginning of the year that it will target mid- to high-single digit organic sales growth annually until 2024.

This slow growth in natural colors is not for lack of trying. Last February, Chr. Hansen commercialized a sweet potato-based pigment under its Fruitmax brand. Following 10 years of research and selective breeding, the ingredients company released its blend of vegetable-based colors, which includes both red and orange, in a format that does not have an off taste and does not use carmine derived from animals. The result of these years of research is a vibrant color whose sales the company said “remained strong.”

Still, the success of one line of natural color did not prove to be enough to bolster the overall growth of the business unit. By divesting this lagging arm, Chr. Hansen may be able to increase its investment in its higher growth segments.

The company that snaps up Chr. Hansen’s natural colors business could benefit as consumers are more interested in them. But natural colors in general face hurdles. It’s more difficult to use natural colors to make a crayon-box variety of vibrant shades, especially of blue hues. General Mills reverted back to its artificially-colored Trix cereal after trying a more natural alternative because of complaints about the colors. But Big Food has continued to invest heavily in launching products with natural colorants. Some companies have even reformulated stalwart brands to include natural pigments. Campbell’s Pepperidge Farm debuted Goldfish Colors snack crackers with hues sourced from plants and Nestlé switched the color source of Butterfinger’s yellow center from Yellow 5 and Red 40 to annatto, which is derived from the seeds of the achiote tree.

Ingredient groups continue to experiment in the space and search for solutions. Last year, Diana Food North America, part of Germany’s Symrise Group, debuted organic, sustainably sourced colors. Netherlands-based GNT Group introduced a high-intensity blue food coloring under its Exberry brand made from spirulina, a blue-green algae. The group also has a range of liquid and powder reds, purples and pinks sourced from carrots, blackcurrants, radishes, blueberries and sweet potatoes. Any of these companies, which have more of a focus on colors, may be open to welcoming a new, proprietary set of natural shades into their portfolios.

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