As Virus Infections Surge, Countries End Lockdowns

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As Virus Infections Surge, Countries End Lockdowns

NEW DELHI — At Nigambodh Ghat, the oldest cremation grounds in India’s capital, the bodies keep coming.

One ambulance arrives with five inside. Then another. Then another, in an endless display of death.

As the coronavirus pandemic surges in New Delhi, a public health care system that was already strained might be reaching its breaking point. People can’t get tested. They can’t find a hospital bed. The situation has become so grim that government officials have proposed commandeering some of New Delhi’s fanciest hotels to turn into hospitals.

But ready or not, much of India’s coronavirus lockdown has ended, as have those in other countries struggling to balance economic damage with coronavirus risk. In many places — India, Mexico, Russia, Iran and Pakistan, among others — leaders have come to feel they have no choice but to take the surge of cases on the chin and prioritize the economy.

Some of these leaders, especially those in the developing world, said they couldn’t sustain the punishing lockdowns without risking economic catastrophe, especially for their poorest citizens. So the thinking has shifted, from commanding people to stay indoors and avoid the virus and other people at all costs, to now openly accepting some illness and death to try to limit the damage to livelihoods and to individual lives.

A glimpse from the streets, reported by correspondents in countries especially hard hit, reveals a sharp rise in person-to-person contact in recent days — precisely at the time that the World Health Organization is warning that infections from this highly contagious disease are roaring toward a new peak.

India is now producing more new daily infections, around 10,000, than all but two countries, the United States and Brazil.

“It’s a bit of a mess,” said Indrani Gupta, a health economist in New Delhi. “Our economy is so dependent on labor, millions would have lost their livelihoods and their lives if this lockdown went on for months and months.”

But, she added, the lockdown began too soon.

“We got it in reverse,” she said. “We shut down too quickly and it was too draconian. And I don’t think now is the time to ease up.”

In Russia, politics may be playing a role in the push to reopen.

This week, Moscow’s mayor lifted many of the restrictions in place since March 30, surprising some infectious disease experts who pointed to still high-infection rates. Political analysts said one reason for the abrupt reopening was to pave the way for high turnout at a July 1 referendum that could amend the country’s Constitution to allow President Vladimir V. Putin to remain in power until 2036.

Officials had delayed the referendum, originally scheduled for April, because of the lockdowns.

On Tuesday, grateful Muscovites spilled out of their apartments for walks in the sunshine. Authorities canceled a system of electronic passes for all trips outside the home other than to pharmacies and grocery stores.

“We managed to avoid a catastrophe,” declared Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow’s mayor, in a video blog. Now, he said, the city was “starting to defeat the coronavirus.”

The raw data isn’t quite as rosy. Russia’s number of new infections has hovered around 8,000 to 9,000 each day — far different, than say Italy, where the daily infections have plummeted to a few hundred now from more than 6,000 in March.

Many leaders are taking this same tone. In Mexico, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ended the country’s quarantine, despite the continued rise in Covid-19 cases, and kicked off the reopening in early June with a tour of the country.

“We have to head toward the new normality because the national economy and the well-being of the people depends on it,” he said, during a stop in Cancún.

Unlike some other nations, Mexico has not offered the sort of large stimulus package to bolster its economy, which may be why its cushion against the economic pain of a strict lockdown was so thin. Mexico’s government has consistently downplayed the severity of the disease though it has conducted, per capita, by far the least amount of testing among the dozens of countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

In Mexico City, hospitals and morgues are saturated. So are the crematories. Some people have defied protocols to bury loved ones in secret, at packed funerals. Mexican doctors fear the worst is yet to come.

“We are still in the first steps of this pandemic, unfortunately,” said Dr. Alejandro Macías, an infectious disease expert. “The perception is that we are much further along than where we really are.”

Pakistan may soon be overwhelmed, but it has relaxed restrictions as well. Outside the cities, almost no one is wearing a mask or making attempts to socially distance. In Lahore, the windy alleyways of the old city are crammed with people. In the past week, Pakistan’s infections have nearly doubled but there’s no way to gauge how prevalent Covid-19 really is because testing has been so scarce.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, a millionaire former cricket star who campaigns as a populist, has called lockdowns elitist, implying that only rich people could afford to be sealed up in their homes.

“We sought a total lockdown without thinking about the consequences for the daily wage earners, the street vendors, the laborers, all of whom face poverty and hunger,” he wrote on Twitter. “May God forgive us our sin.”

Iran, next door, became one of the most alarming centers of the pandemic early on, but thought it had seen the worst. In early May, it decided to open up the country from a brief three-week lockdown in an attempt to salvage its economy, which was already suffering under international sanctions and huge budget deficits. Iran’s leaders said the coronavirus pandemic was a reality that Iranians had to learn to live with.

Health experts warned that opening the country too soon without meeting any benchmarks — such as a sustained drop in the number of new infections — risked a second surge.

Now, a month later, that second surge has arrived. On June 4, Iran reported 3,574 new infections in one day, the highest number of new cases since the pandemic began.

  • Updated June 5, 2020

    • Does asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 happen?

      So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement.

    • How does blood type influence coronavirus?

      A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study.

    • How many people have lost their jobs due to coronavirus in the U.S.?

      The unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on June 5, an unexpected improvement in the nation’s job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to increase to as much as 20 percent, after it hit 14.7 percent in April, which was the highest since the government began keeping official statistics after World War II. But the unemployment rate dipped instead, with employers adding 2.5 million jobs, after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April.

    • Will protests set off a second viral wave of coronavirus?

      Mass protests against police brutality that have brought thousands of people onto the streets in cities across America are raising the specter of new coronavirus outbreaks, prompting political leaders, physicians and public health experts to warn that the crowds could cause a surge in cases. While many political leaders affirmed the right of protesters to express themselves, they urged the demonstrators to wear face masks and maintain social distancing, both to protect themselves and to prevent further community spread of the virus. Some infectious disease experts were reassured by the fact that the protests were held outdoors, saying the open air settings could mitigate the risk of transmission.

    • How do we start exercising again without hurting ourselves after months of lockdown?

      Exercise researchers and physicians have some blunt advice for those of us aiming to return to regular exercise now: Start slowly and then rev up your workouts, also slowly. American adults tended to be about 12 percent less active after the stay-at-home mandates began in March than they were in January. But there are steps you can take to ease your way back into regular exercise safely. First, “start at no more than 50 percent of the exercise you were doing before Covid,” says Dr. Monica Rho, the chief of musculoskeletal medicine at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago. Thread in some preparatory squats, too, she advises. “When you haven’t been exercising, you lose muscle mass.” Expect some muscle twinges after these preliminary, post-lockdown sessions, especially a day or two later. But sudden or increasing pain during exercise is a clarion call to stop and return home.

    • My state is reopening. Is it safe to go out?

      States are reopening bit by bit. This means that more public spaces are available for use and more and more businesses are being allowed to open again. The federal government is largely leaving the decision up to states, and some state leaders are leaving the decision up to local authorities. Even if you aren’t being told to stay at home, it’s still a good idea to limit trips outside and your interaction with other people.

    • What’s the risk of catching coronavirus from a surface?

      Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus — whether it’s surface transmission or close human contact — is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks.

    • What are the symptoms of coronavirus?

      Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.

    • How can I protect myself while flying?

      If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)

    • Should I wear a mask?

      The C.D.C. has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms. Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don’t need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks don’t replace hand washing and social distancing.

    • What should I do if I feel sick?

      If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.

Health officials in Iran have blamed the spike on people not observing social distancing, not wearing masks and the government opening up too soon.

Iranians by and large have been going about their daily routine activities shedding their earlier fears of the virus. As in other countries, road traffic is back, shops and businesses have opened and employees of private and government sectors have returned to work.

President Hassan Rouhani continued to insist that the economy must remain open because Iran “did not have a second option.”

And he warned members of his coronavirus task force not to create “anxiety among the public by saying there is a second or third surge.”

In India, many people are anxious that however bad things are right now, they will soon get even worse. New Delhi and Mumbai, the two biggest cities, are overloaded with infections and experts said that the peak is still several weeks away.

As Vikas Khairwar stacked the firewood for his father’s pyre at Nigambodh Ghat, the revered cremation grounds in New Delhi, he spoke bitterly about his family’s experience with the public health care system.

After his father tested positive for coronavirus, Mr. Khairwar said that he begged for him to be put on a ventilator but the hospital didn’t have any available. His father died the next day.

The family then had to wait 24 hours for the body because an elevator in the hospital broke down. Mr. Khairwar, an accountant who just lost his job, wants to get his whole family tested, to see if they have been infected. But government hospitals refused to help him, he said, and he can’t afford to go to a private lab.

“The government help lines are useless,” he said. “They keep redirecting us to different numbers that don’t work.”

He was visibly angry as he finished preparing his father’s pyre.

A few minutes later, Mr. Khairwar stood in front of a fire, a half dozen others burning brightly around him.

Reporting was contributed by Shalini Venugopal and Hari Kumar from New Delhi; Andrew Higgins from Moscow; Salman Masood from Islamabad, Pakistan; Brent McDonald from Mexico City; and Farnaz Fassihi from New York.



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Chad Daybell, stepdad of two missing Idaho kids, hid remains of children on property, police say

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Chad Daybell, stepdad of two missing Idaho kids, hid remains of children on property, police say

Chad Daybell, the husband of Lori Vallow, who is charged with desertion in the disappearance of two of her children last year, was charged Wednesday with two counts of concealing evidence after human remains were found on his Idaho property, and his bail was set at $1 million.

During Daybell’s initial court hearing Wednesday via Zoom, prosecuting attorney Rob Wood revealed that the remains found on Daybell’s property were those of children, and said the state found the manner of concealment of one of the bodies to be “particularly egregious.”

Wood did not elaborate on the state of the body, and a probable cause affidavit has been sealed, according to court documents.

Daybell was taken into custody Tuesday and faces two felony counts of destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence, according to a criminal complaint filed in Idaho’s Seventh Judicial District Wednesday.

The complaint said Daybell “did willfully conceal and/or did aid and abet another to willfully conceal human remains,” with the knowledge that they were evidence in another felony case and investigation. The complaint said Daybell concealed the remains between Sept. 22, 2019 and June 9, 2020.

Daybell faces up to 10 years in prison and up to $20,000 in fines if convicted.

“Because of what has been found on Daybell’s property, he has strong incentive to flee,” Wood said, arguing for a $1 million bail to be set.

Daybell’s attorney, John Prior, asked that bail be set at $100,000, saying Daybell did not resist arrest and had family and property in Idaho, indicating he wouldn’t flee.

But Judge Faren Eddins set bail at $1 million, and said if it was met, Daybell must wear an ankle monitor and stay within a few Idaho counties.

Daybell’s next hearing is scheduled for July 1.

Chad Daybell.Rexburg Police Department

Authorities revealed Wednesday that two sets of human remains were found on Daybell’s property in Rexburg. Details of the discovery came after police said Tuesday they had executed a search warrant as part of the monthslong investigation into the disappearance of Joshua Vallow and Tylee Ryan, who were 7 and 17 respectively when they were last seen in September.

The Rexburg Police Department said Wednesday that autopsy results on the remains were pending.

Vallow and Daybell refused to cooperate with the investigation into the missing children when it began in November, police have said. The couple left the state.

Police have also said Vallow either knows the location of her children or knows what happened to them.

After Vallow and Daybell were found in Hawaii, she was arrested in February and extradited to Idaho on charges of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children. She is being held on a $1 million bond.

Joshua Vallow and Tylee Ryan.Freemont County Sheriff’s Office

Vallow has pleaded not guilty, according to The Associated Press.

Vallow is also being investigated in the death of Daybell’s former wife, Tammy Daybell. The body of Daybell, 49, was found in her home in October, a death initially ruled as natural but since classified as suspicious, and her remains were exhumed for an autopsy in December.

Chad Daybell, a self-published author who has written more than two dozen books about near-death and doomsday events, and Vallow married weeks after Tammy Daybell’s death.

Vallow’s fourth husband, Charles Vallow, also died last year. He was shot to death in July by Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, during a confrontation.

Vallow and Cox were questioned by police but not charged in that incident. Cox died in December.

Elisha Fieldstadt

Elisha Fieldstadt is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.



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S&P 500 turns positive as Fed pledges support; Nasdaq rises over 1%

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S&P 500 turns positive as Fed pledges support; Nasdaq rises over 1%



The S&P 500 turned positive on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve repeated its promise of support for the economy.


But Fed policymakers, in the latest policy statement, projected a 6.5 per cent decline in gross domestic product this year and a 9.3 per cent unemployment rate at year’s end.



The S&P 500 was off as much as 0.8 per cent before the Fed statement.


“Heading into this meeting we didn’t expect any policy changes. The Fed is committed to keeping current easing measures in place and it acknowledged that risks remain,” said Charlie Ripley, senior market strategist for Allianz Investment Management in Minneapolis.


The pledge to keep monetary policy loose until the US economy is back on track repeats a promise made early in the central bank’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.


Gains were led by the technology sector, and the Nasdaq was up more than 1 per cent.


The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 62.33 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 27,334.63, the S&P 500 gained 14.7 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 3,221.88 and the Nasdaq Composite added 127.12 points, or 1.28 per cent, to 10,080.87.



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Dear NASA, please put a particle collider on the Moon

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Dear NASA, please put a particle collider on the Moon

NASA’s current mission, to boldly go where no PR campaign has on behalf of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is a noble one. Donald Trump wants US boots on Mars. And considering the bipartisan popularity of the idea, whoever ends up president when the smoke clears in November will probably continue the effort.

But what if, instead of spending trillions hurtling mammals towards distant rocks just to prove it’s possible, we actually did something so technologically innovative it fundamentally changes how we approach science?

NASA should put a particle collider on the Moon.

Instead of waiting on Musk and Trump to solve space radiation (something we’ll need to do before anyone gets close to Mars) humans could be perfecting quantum computers and inventing warp drives.

The most famous collider, the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland, sits at the pinnacle of human achievement. It takes tiny particles and accelerates them to nearly the speed of light and smashes them together so we can solve really big problems.

Colliders do have practical uses – especially in the fields of chemistry and nuclear physics – but, for the most part, they’re meant to help us understand the big picture. If we can determine the ground truth about how ions and protons function, the rest of our understanding of physics should begin to fall into place.

The problem is that we know so very little about how the quantum and classical universes are bridged and, for the most part, the biggest questions (how did the universe begin, what’s up with black holes, and what’s the real Hubble Constant?) remain unanswered. Putting a particle accelerator on the Moon could, theoretically, answer those questions and more.

Nikolai Zaitsev, a researcher I’m not familiar with from Innovaest.Org, published a pre-print paper earlier this year on ArXiv titled “Extraterrestrial artificial particle sources. Application to neutrino physics and cosmic rays studies.” In this “memo,” as he calls it, Zaitsev postulates that putting a collider on the Moon would solve most of the problems with terrestrial units:

The Moon is considered as the most promising location for artificial particle sources outside the Earth. This natural satellite is surrounded with deep vacuum, is at low cryogenic temperatures and is always facing the Earth with one side. These features can be exploited by setting up lunar neutrino factory, which may create a possibility for more precise measurements of oscillations and possibly mass of neutrinos.

The big idea here is that the Moon already comes with a vacuum that, as astrophysicist Paul Sutter writes in Live Science, is “10 times better than anything physicists have manufactured in their experiments.” Couple that with the Moon‘s extremely low temperatures and you’ve potentially got a collider that can do ten times the colliding with a fraction of the power requirements.

While there are no guarantees in experimental physics, the data generated by particle colliders has the potential to directly inform a greater “theory of everything.” And, perhaps most exciting, it could significantly increase our understanding of quantum computer systems. To put it in colloquial parlance: building bigger, better colliders might one day help us build quantum computers that actually work. We could theoretically use these quantum systems to solve problems such as warp drives, nuclear fusion, and object entanglement.

It’s quite the leap to say that putting a collider on the Moon could suddenly rocket our civilization into an era of science-based peace and prosperity the likes of which has only existed on the Earth depicted in Star Trek. But it’s probably a damn good start.

H/t: Paul Sutter, Live Science

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Israeli knitting project empowers Bedouin, Syrian women

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Israeli knitting project empowers Bedouin, Syrian women

Jun 10, 2020

Shula Mozes and Tal Zur are both busy women. Mozes is a social entrepreneur and the founder of a philanthropic volunteer association for youths. Zur is a designer and artistic director. The coronavirus pandemic has delayed the presentation of their new knit collection, but they are not deterred. While preparing their next collection, they have already released a coronavirus kit for home knitting. The kit includes detailed instructions and high-quality material for knitting face masks.

“We are a small team of women, doing everything and operating exactly like a start-up; we react quickly and dynamically to changes. We react, and if we fall down, we get up rapidly. For instance, we have started recently fabricating home-knitting kits for slippers and face masks. We are all about crafts and design. Does that mean that we should operate like a traditional society? Absolutely not!” Zur said, when they launched the home-knitting idea.

Mozes, the founder, and Zur, the co-founder, manage together the IOTA project. A young initiative, established in 2014, which connects the art of crochet knitting with the desire to create job opportunities for disadvantaged people and unemployed women. More specifically, it offers women who fled from Syria to Turkey and women from the Israeli-Bedouin community to deploy their crafting know-how for the creation of luxury furniture and decorations for indoors and outdoors. Using traditional techniques, the women follow designs imagined by the Israeli team, to create beautiful rugs, swings, stools, foot rests, cushions, quilts, and much more. A unique universe of colors and materials. Or in Zur’s words, “creating innovative products from a traditional starting point.”

Zur explained that the language of knitting is ancient yet universal, like the language of music and notes. Women from different countries and cultures can communicate and dialogue though knitting, even if they don’t speak each other’s languages. “In Istanbul, there is an initiative that is a bit similar to ours. It is run by Izabela Ersahin, who works with female refugees. The women learn knitting techniques and they can work the way that is best for them. We started working together two years ago, and the idea is that we offer a way of thinking — not just design and production. This way, we are developing a chain of businesses with a common denominator and shared values.”

Several other women work with Mozes and Zur in their Jaffa studio, including project manager Dorit Chesler, textile designer Lion Ben Aroosh, product designer Noa Curiel, head of knitting Iris Moalem and industrial designer Naama Steinbock. The women of IOTA say that their cooperation with Istanbul opens all sorts of interesting doors to local crafts. Throughout history, crafts were transmitted from father to son or from mother to daughter. Working with the Syrian refugees generates a new way of preserving craft and artistic traditions in global markets.

IOTA is also working with a group of women from the Bedouin village of Hura, in the south of Israel. “At first, we thought of working with young Bedouin women. They dreamt that with us they could exit their community circle. But this did not work out. Then we approached a group of women a bit older — mostly mothers. We started with a rather large group. Not all persisted. Some saw it did not fit them. Others stayed. Of course, enthusiasm was mixed with fears. We were from somewhere else, from Tel Aviv, and coming with a vision. The head of the village, Muhammad, accompanied us from the very first minute, and really helped us a lot to gather a group of women. He also offered us a room at the community center and put us in touch with key people,” Zur added.

IOTA in Latin means a very small amount. The IOTA project focuses on small knit stitches and small steps forward. But the aspirations of the women behind this brand are all but tiny. For Chesler, IOTA is first of all a luxury brand, aiming for the international market. After featuring at the 2017 Tom Dixon’s MULTIPLEX in Milan, at the 2019 Basel Art Fair and at Maison&Objet in Paris, IOTA is now targeting the US market.



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A 14-year-old boy with autism who went missing for 2 days on a mountain has been found

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A 14-year-old boy with autism who went missing for 2 days on a mountain has been found

Will Callaghan, who has nonverbal autism, got separated from his family on Monday near the summit of Mount Disappointment, CNN affiliate 9News reported. He had raced ahead of them as they walked toward the mountain.

Victoria police asked local residents to help draw him out of the bushland by playing music from the show “Thomas the Tank Engine” and leaving out food and water for him.

On Wednesday, they announced that a volunteer, identified by 9News as Ben Gibbs, had located Will.

Gibbs told 9News that he was very familiar with the terrain, and found the boy after going a bit farther past the search area scanned by rescue crews.

“He was about 15 meters from me just standing there,” Gibbs told the station. “He was really angelic, just standing and looking.”

Gibbs said Will wasn’t wearing any shoes, so he put some socks on him. He also gave the boy some chocolate and talked to him about Thomas the Tank Engine.

Will was reunited with his parents and taken to a tent where he was treated by paramedics. He was later taken to a hospital, where an official said he was doing relatively well and should be able to return home by Wednesday evening.

Penny Callaghan thanked everyone for their help in finding her son. She told reporters that Will was “quite calm,” considering the situation, but that he was also communicating. “He’s confused and he’s scared.”

“I can’t imagine what he is going through,” she said. “I’m just so grateful and so relieved. He is just a very special person.”

CNN’s Carly Walsh contributed to this report.



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Modigliani Expert Says a Nonprofit Is Holding His Research ‘Hostage’

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Modigliani Expert Says a Nonprofit Is Holding His Research ‘Hostage’

For more than three decades, Marc Restellini’s life has been very much about his study of Amedeo Modigliani, the Italian painter known for his elongated, slender faces and figures.

He has organized exhibitions of Modigliani’s work in spots around the world and in the 1990s began his own magnum opus: a catalogue raisonné, or a definitive compendium, of Modigliani’s work.

He has been exhaustive in authenticating the artist’s work because Modigliani, whose paintings often sell for millions of dollars, has been a favorite of forgers. So to document their authenticity, Mr. Restellini, a French art scholar, has worked to persuade owners to submit their paintings for testing, sampled the paint, analyzed the works with infrared photography and magnetic resonance, and sought documents from family members of Modigliani’s original collectors.

But now, months before the first volumes of Mr. Restellini’s catalogue raisonné are expected to be published, he says in a federal copyright lawsuit filed in Manhattan this week that he believes a nonprofit organization in New York, the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, is planning to make some of his research publicly available.

“The law allows Mr. Restellini, and only Mr. Restellini, to determine how, when, and where to disclose the results of his years of research and his scientific discoveries about the works of Modigliani,” his lawyer, Daniel W. Levy, said in a statement.

Mr. Restellini’s lawsuit against the institute asserts that it is in possession of roughly 89 boxes and various other containers of research materials that he had amassed over the years and that are rightfully his. The lawsuit accuses the nonprofit of holding this research “hostage.”

The Wildenstein Plattner Institute, however, says the records are theirs.

Calling the lawsuit a “publicity stunt,” the nonprofit organization’s lawyers said in a statement that the institute’s files regarding Modigliani “do not belong to Mr. Restellini.” The statement said the institute is legally within its right to “share its Modigliani archives with the public in furtherance of its charitable mission.”

The research materials are with the institute because, for about 17 years, according to the lawsuit, Mr. Restellini’s work was supported by an older institute, the Wildenstein Institute, an art history research center based in Paris and operated by the Wildenstein family, a French art-dealing dynasty that dates back four generations. Mr. Restellini used the institute as a work space and had access to its library and storage facilities.

In the late 1990s, Daniel Wildenstein, then the family’s patriarch, had offered to facilitate Mr. Restellini’s work on the catalogue raisonné and to participate in its eventual publication, the lawsuit said. But in 2014, after Mr. Wildenstein had been dead for more than a decade, his son Guy told Mr. Restellini that the institution would no longer facilitate his research, it said.

The lawsuit does not address the reason for that decision.

In recent years, the lawsuit said, as the Wildenstein Institute wound down its operations, it transferred the archives to a new nonprofit organization, the Wildenstein Plattner Institute — which is dedicated to the compilation of catalogues raisonnés.

Lawyers for the Wildenstein Plattner Institute would not elaborate on why they believe the Wildenstein Institute held clear title to the archive.

The Wildenstein Plattner Institute said this year that it had digitized all of those gifted archives; Mr. Restellini’s lawsuit seeks not only to prevent them from publishing the material but to destroy any digital copies that they have.

In recent years, a widening circle of scholars and artists’ foundations have refused to offer opinions on the authenticity of works of art for fear of being sued by buyers or sellers unhappy with their conclusions. The inclusion or exclusion of a work in a catalogue raisonné can have a similar effect on the value of a work. Mr. Restellini has said he has been threatened after refusing to authenticate a work.

The authenticity issue is particularly fraught in the market for Modigliani. Although the artist only lived until 35, he was prolific and sometimes, to pay his bills, he gave away and sold paintings and drawings, without documenting their creation or to whom they had been sold or gifted.

Mr. Restellini’s catalogue raisonné is believed to be the sixth inventory created of the artist’s work. The first volumes of it are expected to be published this winter. It promises the inclusion of dozens of previously unidentified Modigliani works and excludes those that are suspected of not being entirely composed by the artist.

In seeking to demonstrate the importance of his undertaking, the lawsuit highlights a particular work that Mr. Restellini contends is an altered Modigliani, but was sold by an auction house twice as a work done completely by Modigliani’s hand. Mr. Restellini’s lawsuit contends the auction house relied on an earlier, less precise catalogue raisonné in making that determination.

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Sonu Sood’s response to crazy requests made by fans prove he is full of wit

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Sonu Sood’s response to crazy requests made by fans prove he is full of wit

Image Source : INSTAGRAM/SONU_SOOD

Here we have compiled for you some crazy requests by fans and the hilarious response it got from Sonu Sood.

Sonu Sood is not just winning hearts by helping stranded migrants workers reach their home but also with his quirky replies. The actor is getting a lot of crazy requests on Twitter and the way he is handling them is pretty awesome. While one is asking Sonu’s help in meeting his girlfriend, another is requesting him to help reach beauty parlour. And guess what, the actor is responding to everyone with a smile. Talking about his witty replies on Twitter, the actor told PTI, “This kind of banter on Twitter will keep people entertained”. Sonu’s philanthropic work has also triggered memes and cartoons on social media. 

Here we have compiled for you some crazy requests by fans and the hilarious response they got from Sonu Sood.

Lately, a man asked for the actor’s help as he wanted to elope with his girlfriend amid the coronavirus pandemic. The user wrote, “Bhai.. Mujhe bhi kahi chhod do.. Girlfriend ke sath Bhagnaa hai!! Andman nicobar hi chhod do bhai (Please drop me somewhere. I need to elope with my girlfriend, you can drop me at Andaman Nicobar islandds too)!!”

The Bollywood actor was quick to reply with a “better idea”, saying: “Mere paas isase behtar idea hai. Kyu na aap dono ke saath aap dono ke parivaar ko bhi bhej doon? Chat mangni aur pat byaah? (Why don’t I send your family members with you too, you guys can easily get married then).”

When a user said he is having a lot of fights with his wife and they are on the verge of getting a divorce, Sonu promised them a dinner date.

“SonuSood dear sir I m in Assam Guwhati Want to go haryana rewari my own town no work after lockdown suffering with so many issue even fighting with wife now both decide to take divorce pls mange and send me from Guwhati to Delhi I would be thankful for whole life,” the user said in a tweet.

The Dabangg actor replied to him, “Hey.. pls don’t fight Don’t let the tough times affect this precious bond. I promise to take u both out for dinner and will speak to you Tom on a video call too. But only if u promise to stay together.”

When the cyclone Nisarga hit Mumbai, several shocking videos and pictures made it to the internet. Amongst them, a meme featuring Sonu Sood went viral, which had text written, “Sonu Sood waiting for #CycloneNisarg so that he can send it back home.”

Sonu re-tweeted the meme and wrote, “Isko bhi chhod kar aata hoon (Let me help this return home too)”.

The actor received a cute request on Twitter in which a little girl was seen asking him if he can send her mother to her grandmother’s house because her father is saying so. In the video, the girl says, “Sonu Uncle… I’ve heard you are sending people home. So, Papa is asking, will you be able to send Mumma to Nani house? Let me know.” She even winks at the end. The video was captioned as, “Very Very Urgent Demand @SonuSood ,So Kindly Notice And Please Fulfill The Same !!!!”

Reacting to the tweet, Sonu Sood wrote, “Now this is something very challenging. Will try my best.” 

There was also a request by a fan who asked the actor to help her reach beauty parlour. “@SonuSood can u pls help me 2 and half months se mene parlour nahi visit kiya, pls help me muje salon pohcha dijiye (I have not visited a parlour for two-and-a-half months, please help me reach a salon). just kidding u r a real hero (nayak) god bless u,” she wrote.

To which, Sonu Sood replied,  “Salon jaa kar kya karoge? Salon wale ko toh main uske gaon chhod ke aa gaya. Uske peeche-peeche uske gaon jaana hai toh bolo (What will you go to the salon for? I have sent the salon employees to their villages. If you want to follow them to their village, let me know).

India Tv - Sonu Sood

Image Source : TWITTER

Sonu Sood

With Sonu Sood replying to so many asking for help, a Twitter user decided to try his luck and asked: “Sonu bhai, I’m stuck in my house. Help me reach a liquor shop.”

The actor came up with a hilarious reply, saying: “Bhai, I can help you return home from the shop. Let me know if you need that.”

A man even asked Sonu to help arrange transport so that he could meet his girlfriend. “Bhaiya, girlfriend se hi milwa dijiye. Bihar hi jaana hai.(Brother, help me meet my girlfriend, I too want to go to Bihar),” the user tweeted.

Sonu replied, “Thode din door reh ke dekh le bhai, sache pyaar ki pareeksha bhi ho jayegi (Spend some time apart and see brother, it will also be a test of your true love).

Meanwhile, Sonu dismissed all the reports claiming that he was stopped from entering a railway station in Mumbai.

“Just to set the record straight – I was not stopped from entering the station. I absolutely respect the protocols and have duly followed it. I had requested the state government for the train so that I could send the migrants back home to reunite them with their families,” Sonu tweeted.

“As there were almost two thousand people. I am extremely thankful to the state govt, Hon. CM Uddhav Thackeray ji @CMOMaharashtra @AUThackeray @AslamShaikh_MLA for helping me bring a smile on the faces of all migrants! Jai Hind,” he added.

Talking to PTI about the same, he said, “I have nothing to do with politics. I am doing this purely out of my love for migrants. I want to help reunite them with their families”.

“This is for the first time that I was stopped but that’s ok. I was stopped by the RPF as they believed that the 2,000-2,500 migrants who were there may get too excited to see me and things may go out of control. They told me not to meet them personally. I understand the protocol and I followed it,” he added.

Besides arranging buses for migrants, the actor also arranged flights for the migrants back to their home states in Assam, Odisha and Uttarakhand.

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Opposition parties in Sindh announce to boycott PPP-led APC

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Opposition parties in Sindh announce to boycott PPP-led APC



KARACHI: Opposition parties in the Sindh province on Wednesday announced to boycott the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-convened All Parties Conference (APC) over 18th amendment and National Finance Commission (NFC) award, ARY NEWS reported.

The ruling party in the Sindh province had convened the APC at Chief Minister House in Karachi on Thursday (tomorrow) to discuss any plans from the federal government to bring changes to 18th amendment and NFC award.

Announcing the decision to boycott the conference, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Haleem Adil Shaikh said that the ruling party in the Centre would not attend the event.

Another coalition partner in the federal government, Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) also announced against its participation in the APC.

Other nationalist parties in the province had also announced to distance themselves from joining the PPP-led initiative.

It is pertinent to mention here that Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz said on May 10 that they would change the law pertaining to the National Finance Commission (NFC) award. The federal minister, however said that he was unaware of any talks with the opposition on NFC award or 18th amendment.

Furthermore, Railways Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed claimed on May 03 that Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) will agree on further modification in 18th amendment on some condition including release former premier Nawaz Sharif and changes in NAB laws.

“PML-N wants to save Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz from facing cases. Nawaz Sharif cannot prevent himself from facing cases now by reasoning his ailment. Shehbaz Sharif is also willing to prevent himself from the trial. My sources tell me that Shehbaz Sharif will be caught soon.”

“18th amendment is very important for the government and a decision regarding the 18th amendment will be made before June. However, NAB laws will not be changed soon,” claimed Rashid.

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Question remains on whether shop workers will be required to wear face coverings

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Question remains on whether shop workers will be required to wear face coverings

It is unclear whether shop workers will be made to wear a face covering while commuters will be forced to wear one on public transport.

t the Downing Street press briefing on Wednesday, a question from a member of the public, Ruth from Bournemouth, asked whether gloves and masks will be essential for those serving food and drinks, as more non-essential shops are set to reopen in England on Monday.

The reopening of stores will also coincide with new face covering measures which require everyone using public transport in England, as well as all hospital visitors and outpatients, to wear a face covering.

When making the announcement on face-coverings on Thursday, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said commuters can be refused travel if they did not comply and could be fined.

But Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not say whether face coverings will be essential for shop workers, stating the Government will be setting out “all sorts of guidelines” for retailers on how to run stores in a Covid-secure way.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the Downing Street briefing (Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street/Crown Copyright)

“The basic guidance on masks, as you know, is that you wear a face covering when you’re likely to be in close contact with people that you don’t normally meet,” he said at the press briefing.

Relaying the advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) on face coverings, Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK’s chief scientific adviser, said: “Face coverings have potential benefit in situations where there’s indoor spaces where people cannot socially distance, where they are potentially crowded and they will come into contact with multiple people.”

He said the advice from Sage should form the basis of risk assessment for any workplace to decide what should be done.

But Sir Patrick and Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, focused their answers more on the use of gloves and hand washing in a workplace setting, leaving it unclear whether shop workers will be made to wear a face mask in the same way commuters will be from Monday.

Sir Patrick said: “It’s absolutely the case that touching and surface contact is a major form spreading this disease, and therefore other measures, including the wearing of gloves, can be important in certain circumstances.”

Prof Whitty added: “If someone touches a surface repeatedly without changing gloves that’s actually less good than someone washing their hands between every time they do it.

“So hand washing absolutely critical, gloves can be useful under certain circumstances.”

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