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Vol 19 - Issue 26
Indian schoolgirls discover asteroid moving towards Earth
Radhika Lakhani ( left ) with her project partner Vaidehi Vekariya
Two Indian schoolgirls have discovered an asteroid which is slowly shifting its orbit and moving toward Earth. Radhika Lakhani and Vaidehi Vekariya, both studying in 10th grade, were working on a school project when they discovered the asteroid, which they named HLV2514. The girls, from the city of Surat in the western Indian state of Gujarat, were participating in a Space India and NASA project, which allows students to analyze images taken by a telescope positioned at the University of Hawaii. Aakash Dwivedi, senior educator and astronomer at Space India, told CNN that students across India were taught how to spot the celestial bodies using software which analyzes images collected by NASA’s PAN Star telescope. Students then searched for moving objects in the pictures. The project, Dwivedi explained, was intended to involve and educate students in science and astronomy. “We started the project in June and we sent back our analysis a few weeks ago to NASA. On July 23, they sent us an email confirming that we had identified a near Earth object,” Vekariya, who is 15 years old, told CNN.
Saturday, August 1, 2020
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Top doctor urges caution over BC Day long weekend The province’s top doctor is calling on the public to play it safe over the B.C. Day long weekend and help prevent a second surge in COVID-19 cases. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry made the plea at a live briefing Thursday as she announced 29 new cases of the virus, and no new deaths. All but one of Thursday’s new cases are linked to an outbreak at the Fraser Valley Packers blueberry packing plant, which
now involves 59 people. British Columbia saw a surge in cases throughout July, following several exposures at private parties in Kelowna over the Canada Day long weekend. British Columbians were encouraged to resume travel within the province as a part of the province’s Phase 3 plan back in June. “Let’s make this long weekend a different one than what we saw in early July… what you do today and this weekend Continued on page 6
Doctor Sapan Desai - the man behind the disputed Covid data A college degree at 19. A medical school graduate with a Ph.D. at 27. By the time he completed training in vascular surgery in 2014, Dr. Sapan Desai had cast himself as an ambitious physician, an entrepreneur with an M.B.A. and a prolific researcher published in medical journals. Then the novel coronavirus hit and Dr. Desai seized the moment. With a Harvard professor, he produced two studies
in May that almost instantly disrupted multiple clinical trials amid the pandemic. One study’s findings were particularly dramatic, reporting that anti-malaria drugs like hydroxychloroquine, which President Trump promoted, were linked to increased deaths of Covid-19 patients. But that study and another were retracted in June by the
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Mukesh Ambani is now world’s fifth-richest man Mukesh Ambani, the chairperson of Reliance Industries Ltd, is now the world’s richest man after surging past Warren Buffet, according to Forbes. The 63-year-old is now worth $74.6 billion, surpassing Berkshire Hathaway’s chief executive Buffett’s $72.7 billion as of Wednesday, according to the Forbes’ billionaires’ list. Mukesh Ambani
has seen a string of deals for his digital business and shares of his conglomerate have more than doubled since a low in March. All this came after RIL’s Jio Platforms got more than $15 billion in investments from companies including Facebook Inc and Silver Lake.
Eid Mubarak
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