PEOPLES DAILY, friday, may 22, 2020
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news world Mika Brzezinski: TV host blasts
international_peoplesdailyng@yahoo.com
‘sick’ Trump’s conspiracy theory A
US TV host has furiously rebuked President Donald Trump for falsely suggesting her husband and co-presenter may have got away with murder. In tweets, Mr Trump has appeared to link MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough to the death of an aide two decades ago, a conspiracy theory debunked by police. “Donald, you’re a sick person,” anchor Mika Brzezinski said on air as she defended her husband. She also demanded Twitter take down the president’s incendiary tweets. What else did Brzezinski say? “He’s once again tweeting conspiracy theories about Joe, falsely accusing him of murder,” Ms Brzezinski said on her MSNBC show Morning Joe on Wednesday, before addressing the president directly. She questioned how the president could subject the family of a congressional aide - who authorities said died of natural causes in Mr Scarborough’s office in 2001 - to such “BS”. “Donald, you’re a sick person,” Ms Brzezinski said. “You’re really a cruel, sick, disgusting person.” She said the president’s tweets were merely a ploy to deflect from the Covid-19 pandemic because her husband “speaks the truth” about Mr Trump’s “lack of ability to handle this massive human catastrophe”. MSNBC, Ms Brzezinski and Mr Scarborough have been highly critical of the president’s handling of the US coronavirus outbreak. Countrywide, cases have surpassed 1.5 million.
Mr Trump repeated a debunked conspiracy theory accusing a TV host of murder Ms Brzezinski then turned to Twitter, saying the company should remove Mr Trump’s tweets. “You should be ashamed of yourself,” she scolded the social media giant. It is by no means the president’s first clash with the couple. In 2017, he referred to Ms Brzezinski on Twitter as “low IQ Crazy Mika” and claimed she had been “bleeding badly from a face-lift” when he saw her once near his Florida home. What did Trump say and what are the facts? On Wednesday, Mr Trump complained that his convicted former
adviser Roger Stone had been treated unfairly, “while guys like Low Ratings Psycho Joe Scarborough are allowed to walk the streets? Open Cold Case!” Last week he tweeted: “When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn’t it obvious? What’s happening now? A total nut job!” The president first directed the baseless charge at Mr Scarborough in November 2017, suggesting he should be fired “based on the ‘unsolved mystery’ that took place in Florida
years ago”. However, the case the president is apparently referring to is not a cold case. Mr Scarborough is a former Republican congressman who represented a Florida district from 1995 to 2001. In July 2001, a member of his staff, 28-year-old Lori Klausutis, was found dead in the lawmaker’s office in Fort Walton Beach. Mr Scarborough was in Washington DC at the time. Despite the president’s suggestion of something untoward in his exit from Congress, Mr Scarborough had stepped down before Klausutis’ death.
Authorities determined Klausutis died after losing consciousness from an abnormal heart rhythm, before collapsing and striking her head. She had told a colleague a day earlier that she felt unwell. Police found no foul play and a medical examiner established Klausutis had suffered an acute subdural hematoma, or blood clot, ruling her death accidental. After Mr Trump’s tweet about the matter on 12 May, Mr Scarborough said live on air: “Why don’t you turn off the television, and why don’t you start working, OK?” What other conspiracy theories has Trump promoted? Mr Trump was the most highprofile supporter of the bogus “birther” theory that former President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and ineligible for the presidency. In 2016, Mr Trump suggested the father of his then-Republican presidential rival Ted Cruz had been seen with John F Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, before the president’s death. His source for the claim was an unverified tabloid report. Last April, Mr Trump suggested that the noise from windmills causes cancer. Scientists have found no such health risks. The president has also shared a baseless theory that former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton were connected to last year’s prison suicide of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Source: bbc
Coronavirus: All 50 US states move toward reopening
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s the country’s death toll surpasses 92,000, all 50 US states have partially reopened after a two-month shutdown. On Wednesday, Connecticut became the final state to lift restrictions when it gave the green light to shops and restaurants under certain conditions. But wide discrepancies remain between states in terms of infection rates and the pace of their economic restart. Many have not met the federal guidance on how to reopen, including a 14-day “downward trajectory” of cases. The District of Columbia is expected to announce its reopening next week. Countrywide, the US is seeing an overall downward trend in new cases and deaths over time. Some of the hardest-hit areas, including New York, New Jersey and Washington state are now showing the sharpest declines, while majority of states have reached plateaus. Still, states like Arizona and North Carolina continue to report increases.
What are different states doing? Many like Connecticut have started with a state-wide approach, with varying degrees of restrictions. In Maryland, for example, residents must stick to outdoor recreation, including golf courses, beaches and campgrounds, while states like Oklahoma now allow residents to attend religious services, get a tattoo, and even spend an evening at a nightclub. Slower moving states - mostly concentrated in the country’s North East and West Coast - have begun regional openings. In California, for example, some restaurants and retail locations will be allowed to open, but only in counties that meet standards for testing and declining infection rates. Last week, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser extended the city’s social distancing restrictions until at least 8 June. The guidelines may be loosened, however, if DC meets a series of reopening metrics set out by Ms Bowser, including a two-
Shops have started to reopen in Florida week decline in community spread of the virus. What does the new guidance say? In 60 pages of guidance released by the Centers for Disease Control this past weekend, the centre provides detailed guidance to particular sectors. In schools, for example, desks must be placed six feet apart and face the same direction, with
temperature checks for all staff and students. In restaurants, the CDC advises establishments open first with limited seating to allow for social distancing, and place higher-risk workers in roles that limit their interaction with customers. And states are advised to ensure a decline in reports of “covid-like symptoms”, documented cases and positive tests over a 14-day period.
But even as confirmed cases in the US pass 1.5 million, not all states are following the guidelines as they forge ahead. Texas, for example, which has begun its reopening in earnest, reported its highest single-day jump in cases on Saturday, with 1,801 new infections. What else is happening in the US? Just one day after employees returned to work at a Ford assembly plant in Chicago, thousands were forced to leave after someone tested positive, according to BBC’s US partner, CBS News. In Florida, which has taken aggressive steps to reopen, a developer who created the state’s Covid-19 web portal says she was fired for refusing to manipulate data “to drum up support” for loosened restrictions. A spokeswoman for the governor said the employee, Rebekah Jones, was dismissed because she was “disruptive”. As of Thursday, Florida had at least 47,471 confirmed cases.
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Africa didn’t dither but faces long coronavirus fight
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spent a recent evening following a handful of South African policemen as they patrolled the dark, narrow streets of Alexandra township on the edge of Johannesburg. It was an unsettling experience. Every minute or so, the police would stop their van, jump out and - as people around them began to shout and run away - start to chase citizens more or less at random, it seemed to me, before shoving one or two of them into the back of their vehicle. One woman wasn’t wearing a mask, an officer explained. Another might have been selling contraband cigarettes. Several people had, perhaps, been standing too close together, although it was hard to tell in the dark. And so on. Lack of trust in the state The whole process felt arbitrary and alarming - a clear abuse of authority. But in the days since then I’ve begun to think of that night in Alexandra in a different way; to consider not the police’s behaviour, but rather the hardlearned reactions of the citizens of the township. To run. And then, if caught, to submit meekly. It was, I think, a very clear expression of vulnerability the behaviour of people who feel, instinctively, powerless to challenge the might of the state. I’ve seen it often, both here in South Africa and - to a far greater extent - in other parts of the continent. Something similar applies to hospitals too. I’ve heard - first and second hand - too many anecdotes about people whose relatives were admitted to underfunded public hospital with “a stomach ache” or “just a cold” and who were abruptly pronounced dead within days. In other words, many people have learned to look towards the police and the medical profession not for salvation, but for something
more nuanced. It strikes me that an acute sense of vulnerability - not unique to Africa, of course - has characterised this continent’s response to the pandemic too. Yes, there was some bluster in the early days about Africa perhaps being spared - and we still hear populists like Tanzania’s President John Magufuli trying to play down the threat. But most people I’ve spoken to, particularly in poorer neighbourhoods, have shown an increasingly intense and proactive determination to do all they can to protect themselves and their families, and - importantly - not to expect, or rely on, the state to do it for them. In a sense, that same vulnerable mindset applies to most African governments too. Africa acted fast and decisively After all, this is a continent where tuberculosis (TB), HIV, malaria and dysentery still kill - despite impressive recent improvements in public health millions of people each year. And so, governments across
the continent are already hardwired to respond to new public health challenges like Ebola or Covid-19. That is why they didn’t dither in the early stages of the outbreak. As other countries dabbled with herd immunity, kept their airports wide open, or merely encouraged their citizens to avoid the pub, African states were busy implementing strict lockdowns and re-training their vast standing armies of community health workers. Delayed but not contained? But the question now - for South Africa and for the rest of the continent - is whether that sense of vulnerability can help to sustain a much longer and effective fight against the virus because the evidence - from Nigeria to South Sudan and beyond - now appears to show that Africa’s early successes may simply (and usefully) have delayed, rather than contained, Covid-19. The latest expert projections from a team here in Johannesburg indicate that the virus will - despite
an impressively lowered infection curve - still kill more than 40,000 South Africans and is likely to peak only at some point in the second half of July. At the same time, the severe economic damage caused by the early lockdowns is beginning to test the patience and the coping mechanisms of communities and governments which lack the deep pockets of Western nations. Some excruciatingly difficult choices and battles lie ahead.
This is not to “catastrophise” Africa. The outside world sometimes seems to have flip-flopped when it has even taken the time to notice - between seeing this continent as a slow-motion disaster that will eclipse all others with its coronavirus horrors, or a place where humidity, sunshine, a young population, widespread TB vaccines, or other less benign tropes, will somehow produce a miracle. The truth is surely more mundane. Africa is busy adapting to yet another deadly disease. Like other parts of the world, it will struggle, and it will eventually prevail, or at least find some sustainable long-term accommodation with the virus. The continent’s early response - fuelled by a well-honed sense of vulnerability - has been worldclass. But its healthcare systems have been weakened, many would argue, not just by poverty and corruption, but by the systematic luring of African medical staff to Western nations over decades, by the short-termism at the heart of much international aid, and by the power-imbalances at the heart of the global economy and its key institutions.
Africa is adapting to coronavirus - like these Muslim worshippers in Senegal
Coronavirus: South Africa Covid-19 deaths ‘to soar’ in coming months
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t least 40,000 people could die with coronavirus in South Africa by the end of the year, scientists have warned. The projections were made by a group of academics and health experts advising the government. They assume tough lockdown restrictions will be eased from June, as President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced. The curbs - which were introduced in March and include a ban on tobacco and alcohol sales - have been credited with slowing the spread of the virus.
The country of 57 million people has recorded just 17,200 cases of Covid-19 and 312 deaths linked to the disease so far. Spain, by comparison, has reported about 278,000 cases and almost 28,000 deaths for a population of only 47 million. But the projections by the South African Covid-19 Modelling Consortium - set up to help government planning over the outbreak - says the country could experience a sharp rise in cases and deaths over the coming months. The report was released during a meeting with Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize following criticism of the
Miners are among the key workers who have been allowed to carry on
government’s perceived lack of transparency. The predictions are subject
to change as more data becomes available, and assume the current restrictions will be
relaxed from 1 June. Under an “optimistic scenario”, by late August the number of active cases could reach almost 100,000, before declining. The cumulative number of deaths by November would be 40,000. Under a “pessimistic scenario” the number of active cases could peak around at 120,000 in August, and a total of 45,000 would die by November. The report also suggests there could be 1.2 million Covid-19 cases in total, and intensive care units could be overwhelmed within weeks. Source: bbc