Amazon.com Inc on Thursday said it could post its first quarterly loss in five years even as revenue surges because it is spending at least US$4 billion in response to the coronavirus pandemic, including plans to test its workforce for COVID-19.
ATHENS: A Canadian sailor's body has been found amid debris from a navy helicopter that crashed during a NATO operation in the sea between Greece and Italy, officials said on Thursday (Apr 30). The search continues for five other crew members from the Cyclone Sikorsky CH-148 helicopter, which was ...
HAWTHORNE, California: NASA on Thursday (Apr 30) selected space firms SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics to build lunar landing systems that can carry astronauts to the moon by 2024, the White House's accelerated deadline under the space agency's moon-to-Mars campaign. The three companies, which ...
Apple Inc and Huawei Technologies each captured a higher share of China's smartphone market in the first quarter, according to data from research firm Canalys released on Friday.
Amazon.com Inc on Thursday said it could post its first quarterly loss in five years even as revenue surges because it is spending at least US$4 billion in response to the coronavirus pandemic, including plans to test its workforce for COVID-19.
WASHINGTON: As White House economic reopening guidance expired on Thursday (Apr 30) after two weeks in place, half of all US states forged ahead with easing restrictions on restaurants, retail and other businesses in hopes of reviving coronavirus-stricken commerce. The enormous pressure on states ...
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said he will serve as a “transition candidate” in the 2020 race, arguing his primary role is to funnel new voices and ideas into government – rather than govern himself.
“I view myself as a transition candidate,” Biden said during a virtual fundraising event on Thursday, adding “My job … is to bring the Mayor Petes of the world into this administration … and even when they don’t come in, their ideas come into this administration.”
JUST IN (via campaign press pool)
Joe #Biden says during virtual fundraising event he's a "transition candidate" for the future of the Dem party:
WASHINGTON: As White House economic reopening guidance expired on Thursday (Apr 30) after two weeks in place, half of all US states forged ahead with easing restrictions on restaurants, retail and other businesses in hopes of reviving coronavirus-stricken commerce. The enormous pressure on states ...
WASHINGTON: As White House economic reopening guidance expired on Thursday (Apr 30) after two weeks in place, half of all US states forged ahead with easing restrictions on restaurants, retail and other businesses in hopes of reviving coronavirus-stricken commerce. The enormous pressure on states ...
Three of the largest four U.S. airlines said Thursday they will require passengers to wear facial coverings on U.S. flights, joining JetBlue Airways Corp in taking the step to address the spread of the coronavirus and convince reluctant passengers to resume flying.
An international team of scientists was able to capture images of planet-forming disks hundreds of light years away from Earth. The photos, which are an achievement in itself, shed new light on how planetary systems come to be.
Those protoplanetary clouds of dust and gas, shaped like vinyl music records, appear around young stars and astronomers believe the matter found in them eventually turns into planets.
Scientists previously struggled to properly capture planet-forming disks, as even the images from the largest telescopes weren’t detailed enough. A new study, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics on Thursday, solved this problem by coming up with completely different observation techniques.
For the first time, astronomers captured details of planet-forming disks that sprout planetary systems 💫💪 https://t.co/8i4llps6w7
Lead author Jacques Kluska from KU Leuven in Belgium and his colleagues, who were working on the project at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile, have relied on the method called infrared interferometry.
They used ESO’s PIONIER instrument to combine the light collected by four telescopes and obtain the images of the disks. That was not the end of their work, as the light of the stars hindered the level of detail in the photos, so the missing pieces had to be recovered through mathematical reconstruction.
“I’m thrilled that we now for the first time have fifteen of these images,” Kluska said. The photos showed the inner rims of planet-forming disks where rocky planets like Earth are believed to be forming.
“Distinguishing details at the scale of the orbits of rocky planets like Earth or Jupiter – a fraction of the Earth-Sun distance – is equivalent to being able to see a human on the Moon, or to distinguish a hair at a 10 km distance,” pointed out Jean-Philippe Berger of the Université Grenoble-Alpes in France, who was in charge of working with the PIONIER instrument.
The images received by the team have revealed “brighter or less bright” spots in the disks, which could be “instabilities” that would eventually result in the formation of planets. Kluska and his team are planning to do additional research to figure out what causes those processes, while also trying to obtain even more detailed images of protoplanetary clouds.
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LIMA: Former Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori will be released from prison while she is under investigation for money laundering, her lawyer said on Thursday (Apr 30). Peru's supreme court accepted an appeal and ruled to revoke Fujimori's 15-month jail sentence, according to her ...
MOSCOW: Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told President Vladimir Putin on Thursday (Apr 30) that he had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and was temporarily stepping down to recover. Mishustin, 54, suggested that First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov serve as acting prime minister in his ...
Three of the largest four U.S. airlines said Thursday they will require passengers to wear facial coverings on U.S. flights, joining JetBlue Airways Corp in taking the step to address the spread of the coronavirus and convince reluctant passengers to resume flying.
LONDON: The British government has announced a 16 million-pound cash injection into the Rugby Football League (RFL) as the sport struggles to cope with the financial fall-out of the coronavirus pandemic. No matches in the Super League or lower tiers have been held since mid-March and with no ...
KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia Group, one of Europe's top five corporate export customers, will stop taking deliveries of Airbus jets this year and review its remaining orders as the coronavirus crisis heaps pressure on the Malaysian carrier. The comment from Asia's largest budget airline on Wednesday (Apr ...
US President Donald Trump believes China “will do anything they can” to make him lose his re-election bid in November, pointing to Beijing's handling of the coronavirus outbreak that has killed over 60,000 Americans already.
Taking aim at Beijing, Trump told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that the country would prefer to see his Democratic rival Joe Biden take the Oval Office in November, stating it would pull out all the stops to see him win – though the former VP would first need to secure his party’s nomination.
China will do anything they can to have me lose this race.
The president has ramped up attacks on China in recent weeks, insisting it concealed information about the coronavirus in the early stages of the outbreak and has all but blamed the country for the health crisis. Asked whether he would use tariffs or debt write-offs to penalize Beijing, Trump refused to offer much detail, saying only that “we’re looking for what happened” and howto respond to the alleged "cover-up."
There are many things I can do
Beijing has maintained that it tackled the pandemic appropriately and that it shared information about the virus with the international community as soon as it was available. Chinese officials have also hit back at the US accusations, suggesting Washington’s handling of Covid-19 has been slow and ineffective, while warning against politicizing the global crisis.
WASHINGTON: The US economy's decade of expansion ended dramatically in the first quarter as the coronavirus pandemic caused GDP to shrink by 4.8 per cent, and second quarter growth is set to plummet even further. The decline - the biggest fall in GDP in 12 years and slightly worse than analysts ...
SoftBank Group Corp said it sees a loss of around 700 billion yen (US$6.6 billion) in the year ending March on the portion of its WeWork investment held outside the Vision Fund, extending the group's expected net loss to 900 billion yen.
SoftBank Group Corp said it sees a loss of around 700 billion yen (US$6.6 billion) in the year ending March on the portion of its WeWork investment held outside the Vision Fund, extending the group's expected net loss to 900 billion yen.
REUTERS: Athletes impacted by the postponement of the Summer Games in Tokyo will need extra time to regain their fitness but can rest assured they are saving lives by not competing this year, members of the U.S. team that boycotted the 1980s Games said. The COVID-19 crisis has forced the IOC to ...
Asian equity markets were poised to gain on Thursday, tracking Wall Street's rally after positive trial results of an experimental COVID-19 treatment, a U.S. Federal Reserve pledge to shore up the economy and a jump in oil prices.
SINGAPORE: DBS Group Holdings has set aside S$1.09 billion to cover the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as Southeast Asia's biggest lender reported a 29 per cent fall in first-quarter profit to the lowest in two-and-a-half years. DBS said provisions for credit losses surged in January-March ...
REUTERS: Athletes impacted by the postponement of the Summer Games in Tokyo will need extra time to regain their fitness but can rest assured they are saving lives by not competing this year, members of the U.S. team that boycotted the 1980s Games said. The COVID-19 crisis has forced the IOC to ...
Manchester United have been granted permission to install 1,500 safe-standing seats for use in a trial when Old Trafford is opened again to supporters.
REUTERS: Athletes impacted by the postponement of the Summer Games in Tokyo will need extra time to regain their fitness but can rest assured they are saving lives by not competing this year, members of the U.S. team that boycotted the 1980s Games said. The COVID-19 crisis has forced the IOC to ...
Manchester United have been granted permission to install 1,500 safe-standing seats for use in a trial when Old Trafford is opened again to supporters.
ATHENS: A Canadian military helicopter operating as part of a NATO surveillance force has gone missing in international waters between Greece and Italy, officials said on Wednesday (Apr 29). The helicopter was attached to the Canadian frigate Fredericton, from where it had taken off for a patrol ...
WASHINGTON: US scientists on Wednesday (Apr 29) hailed a potential breakthrough in the coronavirus fight as a trial showed patients responding to antiviral drug remdesivir, fuelling global hopes for a return to normal. The medical news was enough to propel a rebound on Wall Street even after data ...
Newly unsealed documents indicate that the FBI targeted former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn for prosecution, showing senior officials at the bureau discussing ways to ensnare him in a “perjury trap” before an interview.
The four pages of documents were unsealed by US District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan on Wednesday, revealing in handwritten notes and emails that the FBI’s goal in investigating Flynn may have been “to get him to lie so we can prosecute him or get him fired.”
“The FBI planned it as a perjury trap at best and in so doing put it in writing,” Flynn’s defense attorney Sidney Powell said in a statement.
Sullivan also ordered another 11 pages of documents unsealed, which, according to Powell , may soon be redacted and published.
How they planned to get Flynn removed:
1) Get Flynn “to admit to breaking the Logan Act”; or
2) Catch Flynn in a lie.
Their end goal was a referral to the DOJ - not to investigate Flynn's contacts with the Russians. pic.twitter.com/Vty3FYaSt9
The potentially exculpatory documents were inexplicably denied to Flynn’s defense team for years, despite numerous requests to the government.
“What is especially terrifying is that without the integrity of Attorney General Bill Barr and US Attorney Jensen, we still would not have this clear exculpatory information as ... the prosecutors have opposed every request we have made,” Powell said.
REUTERS: Athletes impacted by the postponement of the Summer Games in Tokyo will need extra time to regain their fitness but can rest assured they are saving lives by not competing this year, members of the U.S. team that boycotted the 1980s Games said. The COVID-19 crisis has forced the IOC to ...
Asian equity markets were poised to gain on Thursday, tracking Wall Street's rally after positive trial results of an experimental COVID-19 treatment, a U.S. Federal Reserve pledge to shore up the economy and a jump in oil prices.
SINGAPORE: DBS Group Holdings has set aside S$1.09 billion to cover the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as Southeast Asia's biggest lender reported a 29 per cent fall in first-quarter profit to the lowest in two-and-a-half years. DBS said provisions for credit losses surged in January-March ...
US Vice President Mike Pence did not wear a face mask during a Tuesday visit to the Mayo Clinic, violating the prestigious medical center's policy despite his team being warned in advance.
Nine of the 22 victims killed in Canada's Nova Scotia province earlier this month in a weekend shooting rampage died in house fires set by the gunman, Canadian police told reporters on Tuesday.
Nine of the 22 victims killed in Canada's Nova Scotia province earlier this month in a weekend shooting rampage died in house fires set by the gunman, Canadian police told reporters on Tuesday.
Asian equities made cautious gains in early trade on Wednesday following mixed U.S. corporate earnings while oil prices looked set for more wild swings as storage concerns capped optimism about easing coronavirus lockdowns.
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said its operating profit rose 3per cent in the January to March period, in line with its earlier estimate, as the stay-at-home trend due to the COVID-19 pandemic cushioned the virus blow.
MADRID: Spanish police said on Tuesday (Apr 28) they had broken up an international drug-smuggling ring, seizing 4 tonnes of cocaine and arresting 28 people. The gang, which was made up of "experienced sailors and known traffickers", was working with major national and international drug smugglers ...
Nine of the 22 victims killed in Canada's Nova Scotia province earlier this month in a weekend shooting rampage died in house fires set by the gunman, Canadian police told reporters on Tuesday.
Asian equities made cautious gains in early trade on Wednesday following mixed U.S. corporate earnings while oil prices looked set for more wild swings as storage concerns capped optimism about easing coronavirus lockdowns.
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said its operating profit rose 3per cent in the January to March period, in line with its earlier estimate, as the stay-at-home trend due to the COVID-19 pandemic cushioned the virus blow.
TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Protests against growing economic hardship erupted in Tripoli and spread to other Lebanese cities on Tuesday (Apr 28), with banks set ablaze and violence boiling over into a second night. One demonstrator was killed in riots overnight on Monday, according to security and medical ...
WASHINGTON: A US destroyer hit by dozens of coronavirus cases sailed into San Diego on Tuesday (Apr 28) for cleaning, making it the second Navy warship temporarily put out of action by the pandemic. With less than half the 300-strong crew tested, 47 sailors aboard the USS Kidd were found positive ...
MADRID: Spanish police said on Tuesday (Apr 28) they had broken up an international drug-smuggling ring, seizing 4 tonnes of cocaine and arresting 28 people. The gang, which was made up of "experienced sailors and known traffickers", was working with major national and international drug smugglers ...
TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Protests against growing economic hardship erupted in Tripoli and spread to other Lebanese cities on Tuesday (Apr 28), with banks set ablaze and violence boiling over into a second night. One demonstrator was killed in riots overnight on Monday, according to security and medical ...
WASHINGTON: A US destroyer hit by dozens of coronavirus cases sailed into San Diego on Tuesday (Apr 28) for cleaning, making it the second Navy warship temporarily put out of action by the pandemic. With less than half the 300-strong crew tested, 47 sailors aboard the USS Kidd were found positive ...
MADRID: Spanish police said on Tuesday (Apr 28) they had broken up an international drug-smuggling ring, seizing four tonnes of cocaine and arresting 28 people. The gang, which was made up of "experienced sailors and known traffickers", was working with major national and international drug ...
WASHINGTON: The US death toll from COVID-19 on Tuesday (Apr 28) exceeded the 58,220 American lives lost during the Vietnam War as cases topped 1 million, according to a Reuters tally. US cases have doubled in 18 days and make up one-third of all infections in the world, according to the tally ...
A suspected serial killer believed to have murdered at least three homeless men in Barcelona has been taken into custody, accused of stalking the city’s deserted streets amid Spain’s Covid-19 lockdown for defenseless victims.
The suspect – a 35-year-old Brazilian man who has yet to be named, according to local media – was arrested on Tuesday on the outskirts of Barcelona mere hours after another victim succumbed to injuries sustained in a grisly beating, police said. He was identified with the help of witnesses and footage from security cameras.
“The Criminal Investigation Division (DIC) of the Barcelona Metropolitan Police Region have arrested a man related to the death of a man last night in the Eixample district of Barcelona and are investigating their relationship with other homicides that have taken place in recent weeks in Barcelona,” the police said in a statement, adding elsewhere that each murder took place around the same area. They added elsewhere that each murder took place around the same area, not far from the picturesque Sagrada Família basilica, a major landmark in the city.
🔴🔴 Under arrest a man for the relationship with the series of violent deaths during the last weeks of sleeping rough in Barcelona
With all three homicides unfolding over the last two weeks, police observed a pattern in the killings: all victims were homeless living on the streets of Barcelona, and all were bludgeoned to death with blunt objects. Police are also looking into a fourth destitute victim who was killed in a stabbing, but his death is believed to be unrelated, linked to a fight with another homeless man, local media report.
“The way this person behaved did not leave his victims any way to defend themselves. The violence was excessive and gratuitous,” Joan Carles Granja, who leads the investigation into the murders, said at a press conference.
While Granja noted that the suspect was “a bit incoherent” after his arrest and that police haven’t ruled out a “mental problem,” no motivation has yet been determined for the vicious beatings.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has acknowledged that a single Covid-19 patient in a nursing home could rip through the facility like “fire through dry grass.” His order that facilities treat all infected patients remains, however.
Admitting that nursing homes are “congregate facilit[ies] of vulnerable people,” Cuomo admitted during a press conference on Tuesday that if just a single infected person – whether a doctor, nurse, janitor, or “one anything” – walked into one of the state’s hard-hit elder care facilities, “it is fire through dry grass in that nursing home.”
“It is frightening. And if you have a loved one in a nursing home, yes, it is frightening,” Cuomo shuddered.
Over 3,500 nursing home patients have died since the coronavirus epidemic took root in New York. The highly-infectious virus is known to be particularly devastating among the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions and has killed over 10,000 in elder-care facilities across the US.
However, Cuomo has refused to address or alter the executive order he issued late last month, forbidding care home operators from testing patients prior to their readmission to their facilities. No patient “determined medically stable” upon discharge from an acute care hospital may undergo testing for Covid-19 as a prerequisite for entry into a care home, never mind the judgment of staff.
The New York governor has defended his order despite protests from the facilities, even as staffers insist they don’t have adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) to deal with coronavirus patients and that the risk of infection threatens the fragile health of their existing charges.
“It’s not our job” to provide nursing homes with PPE, the governor said last week. He insisted that “we have given them thousands and thousands of PPE” and calling it the “primary responsibility” of nursing homes to outfit themselves with the equipment needed to fight the epidemic.
During his nine years as governor, Cuomo has slashed state healthcare budgets to the bone, and a recent controversial Medicare cut foisted hundreds of millions of dollars of costs from the state onto local governments.
A similar requirement that nursing homes take Covid-19 patients in California was walked back after protest. While Cuomo has insisted on the no-testing requirement as a way to ease pressure on supposedly overloaded local hospitals, other facilities meant to ease that pressure – from the hospital ship USNS Comfort docked on the west side of Manhattan to the temporary hospital set up in Manhattan’s Javits Convention Center – have gone largely unused, as the city’s hospitals have proven sufficient to absorb the surge in hospitalizations.
Burdened by the order to take in recovering coronavirus patients, some of the state’s nursing homes have unwittingly become breeding grounds for the virus. NBC profiled one facility in Long Island where the epidemic exploded from a single case to 24 deaths in just a month. Only three of the dead were transfer patients, and one wasn’t even a patient but a staffer, the outlet reported.
MADRID: Spanish police said on Tuesday (Apr 28) they had broken up an international drug-smuggling ring, seizing four tonnes of cocaine and arresting 28 people. The gang, which was made up of "experienced sailors and known traffickers", was working with major national and international drug ...
Australia's most populous state said on Tuesday it will relax some restrictions on movement as beaches reopened amid hopes a policy of widespread medical testing will help sustain a decline in new cases of the coronavirus.
WELLINGTON: New Zealanders queued for burgers, fries and coffee takeaway on Tuesday (Apr 28) after they were freed from a month-long lockdown, which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern credited with eliminating domestic transmission of the coronavirus. Around 400,000 people returned to work after Ardern ...
Australia's most populous state said on Tuesday it will relax some restrictions on movement as beaches reopened amid hopes a policy of widespread medical testing will help sustain a decline in new cases of the coronavirus.
WELLINGTON: New Zealanders queued for burgers, fries and coffee takeaway on Tuesday (Apr 28) after they were freed from a month-long lockdown, which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern credited with eliminating domestic transmission of the coronavirus. Around 400,000 people returned to work after Ardern ...
Australia's most populous state said on Tuesday it will relax some restrictions on movement as beaches reopened amid hopes a policy of widespread medical testing will help sustain a decline in new cases of the coronavirus.
WELLINGTON: New Zealanders queued for burgers, fries and coffee takeaway on Tuesday (Apr 28) after they were freed from a month-long lockdown, which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern credited with eliminating domestic transmission of the coronavirus. Around 400,000 people returned to work after Ardern ...
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Monday (Apr 27) that China could have stopped the coronavirus before it swept the globe and said his administration was conducting "serious investigations" into what happened. "We're doing very serious investigations ... We are not happy with China," ...
LONDON: Italian and British medical experts are investigating a possible link between the COVID-19 pandemic and clusters of severe inflammatory disease among infants who are arriving in hospital with high fevers and swollen arteries. Doctors in northern Italy, one of the world's hardest-hit areas ...
Military leader Khalifa Haftar declared that his forces will take control of Libya, arguing the UN-brokered unity deal which created a rival government in Tripoli is dead and that “people’s will” gave him a mandate to rule.
“The General Command of the Armed Forces accepts the will of the people despite the burden of that trust, multiplicity of obligations, and the magnitude of responsibilities before God, our people, and conscience and history,” Haftar said in a televised address on Monday, announcing that his Libyan National Army (LNA) will take control of the country.
Haftar’s forces already control most of Libya, and have spent much of the last year driving on Tripoli to topple the Government of National Accord (GNA), created in 2015 under UN-mediated talks in the aftermath of the US-led NATO operation that ousted Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi and threw the country into years of civil war.
The general has so far acted on behalf of a competing legislature, based in the eastern city of Tobruk. He did not elaborate on what the new arrangement would look like, however, leaving some mystery about the fate of the civilian administration in the east.
Addressing “free Libyans” in his speech, Haftar condemned the unity deal that established the GNA – often dubbed the ‘Skhirat Agreement’ for the Morroccan city in which it was signed – insisting it “destroyed” Libya, and that citizens had chosen another “eligible” leader.
“We have followed up your response to our call to you to announce the fall of the Political Agreement, which has destroyed the country and led it to the abyss, and to authorize those you consider eligible to lead this stage,” Haftar said, adding the LNA would work to create “durable institutions of the civil state.”
Slamming the announcement, the US Embassy in Tripoli said that Washington “regrets ... Haftar’s suggestion that changes to Libya’s political structure can be imposed by unilateral declaration,” and urging the LNA to declare a ceasefire for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as the country battles a coronavirus outbreak.
The GNA, which enjoys the backing of Turkey, has managed to repel Haftar’s offensives over the last year, even gaining ground against the LNA near Tripoli in recent weeks. The unity government has nonetheless called on Washington for support, declaring in February that it would welcome US troops on Libyan soil to assist in the fight against “terrorism.”
The 2011 NATO regime change operation that forced Gaddafi out of power – which ended in a brutal roadside execution at the hands of western-backed rebels – transformed Libya into a war-torn failed state, fostering nearly a decade of armed conflict between competing power centers and the rise of terrorist groups such as Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), that flourished in pockets of lawlessness created amid the fighting.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Monday (Apr 27) that China could have stopped the coronavirus before it swept the globe and said his administration was conducting "serious investigations" into what happened. "We're doing very serious investigations ... We are not happy with China," ...
Asian stocks were set for gains on Tuesday after a strong Wall Street session as easing lockdown restrictions by some countries and U.S. states buoyed sentiment, despite another decline in oil prices.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Monday (Apr 27) that China could have stopped the coronavirus before it swept the globe and said his administration was conducting "serious investigations" into what happened. "We're doing very serious investigations ... We are not happy with China," ...
Asian stocks were set for gains on Tuesday after a strong Wall Street session as easing lockdown restrictions by some countries and U.S. states buoyed sentiment, despite another decline in oil prices.
LONDON: Italian and British medical experts are investigating a possible link between the COVID-19 pandemic and clusters of severe inflammatory disease among infants who are arriving in hospital with high fevers and swollen arteries. Doctors in northern Italy, one of the world's hardest-hit areas ...
WASHINGTON: After he had spent nearly three weeks in an intensive care unit being treated for COVID-19, Broadway and TV actor Nick Cordero's doctors were forced to amputate his right leg. The 41-year-old's blood flow had been impeded by a clot: Yet another dangerous complication of the disease ...
General Motors Co , Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV are targeting May 18 to resume some production at their U.S. factories after shutting down plants in March due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Wall Street Journal reported.
WASHINGTON: After he had spent nearly three weeks in an intensive care unit being treated for COVID-19, Broadway and TV actor Nick Cordero's doctors were forced to amputate his right leg. The 41-year-old's blood flow had been impeded by a clot: Yet another dangerous complication of the disease ...
GENEVA: The coronavirus pandemic is "far from over" and is still disrupting normal health services, especially life-saving immunisation for children in the poorest countries, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday (Apr 27). The UN agency is concerned about rising numbers of ...
LONDON: Italian and British medical experts are investigating a possible link between the COVID-19 pandemic and clusters of severe inflammatory disease among infants who are arriving in hospital with high fevers and swollen arteries. Doctors in northern Italy, one of the world's hardest-hit areas ...
WASHINGTON: After he had spent nearly three weeks in an intensive care unit being treated for COVID-19, Broadway and TV actor Nick Cordero's doctors were forced to amputate his right leg. The 41-year-old's blood flow had been impeded by a clot: Yet another dangerous complication of the disease ...
REUTERS: Investors are pinning their hopes for the reopening of the U.S. economy on the potential for wider availability of testing for COVID-19 cases and on drug trials for treatments of the deadly disease but said, until there is concrete progress in these areas, further stock market gains may be ...
New York, which has ground to a halt to stop the coronavirus pandemic, may start reopening manufacturing and construction after May 15, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Sunday.
Asian shares inched higher on Monday ahead of a busy week for earnings and central bank meetings, with much chatter the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will announce more stimulus steps.
SINGAPORE: Sembcorp Industries on Monday (Apr 27) said its unit Sembcorp Cogen had begun legal proceedings to assert ownership over some gasoil reserves stored in tanks at Universal Terminal, an affiliate of oil trader Hin Leong Trading Pte Ltd. Just last week, Sembcorp Cogen terminated its gasoil ...
Amazon.com Inc is piloting the use of video conference calls to verify the identity of merchants who wish to sell goods on its websites, in a new plan to counter fraud without in-person meetings in the pandemic, the company said on Sunday.
New York, which has ground to a halt to stop the coronavirus pandemic, may start reopening manufacturing and construction after May 15, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Sunday.
TEHRAN: Iran plans to reopen mosques in parts of the country that have been consistently free of the coronavirus outbreak as restrictions on Iranians gradually ease, President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday (Apr 26). Iran, one of the Middle Eastern countries hardest hit by the pandemic, will be ...
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Sunday (Apr 26) rejected reports that he was planning to fire Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, saying he was doing an "excellent job." On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal and Politico reported that the Trump administration was considering ...
ROME: Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte promised Italians on Sunday (Apr 26) they would soon be allowed to stroll in parks and visit relatives as the country emerges from the world's longest coronavirus lockdown. The Italian leader also vowed to reopen schools by September and most other businesses ...
NEW YORK: Another wave of US states are preparing to lift COVID-19 restrictions this week despite the warnings of many public health experts as the White House sees this month's jobless rate hitting 16 per cent or higher. Health experts say increased human interaction could spark a new wave of ...
Environment secretary George Eustice has come under sharp criticism after suggesting that workers furloughed due to the Covid-19 should go to the farms and pick up fruit and vegetables as a second job.
Speaking during a daily briefing on Sunday, Eustice shared his insights on how the impending shortage of workforce can be managed. At the moment, Britain’s agriculture is doing fine, yet “we do anticipate” the sector to experience troubles in June at the height of the harvesting season, the official stated.
“We estimate that probably only about a third of the migrant labor that would normally come to the UK is here, and was probably here before lockdown,” Eustice said.
We are working with industry to identify an approach which would encourage millions of furloughed workers, in some cases, to consider taking a second job helping to get the harvest in June
The potential lack of workforce in British agriculture has been a very hot topic, and launch of the agro-patriotic ‘Pick for Britain’ campaign has been rumored for some time already.
Eustice’s have therefore fallen on truly fertile soil, getting under fire from all the sides immediately.
Many argued that the minister’s proposal defeats the purpose of the whole furlough scheme, when the government is footing the bill for employees to pay their workers who stay home. While the furloughed staff technically may take a second job, they are allowed to do so only outside of the hours they would normally work – it is best to check with the current employer before doing so. Thus if you work from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, not much time is left to pick veggies.
I thought that furloughed workers were not allowed to work? Will this be one a voluntary basis?!
Some said that fruit picking is not that unskilled labor altogether and herding random white collars into it won’t do the industry any good.
The assumption here is that fruit picking is something that anyone can dip in and out of. It isn't. It's very tough physical work, and employers need people who can commit to sticking around for the season, to make training viable, not just for a week here or there. https://t.co/rfhgqNhLzl
Others suggested looming conflict of interests, pointing fingers at Eustice’s family business – which is a fruit farm - and accusing the minister of seeking cheap, or even free, labor for it.
George Eustice rubs his hands at daily Covid briefing on prospect of getting cheap labour for his families fruit farms. Stop cramming farmworkers into unfit living conditions, pay The Real living wage & allow unionised workforce.Problem solved. https://t.co/XmybWifi1j
It might interest you to know that member of the landed gentry and far-right Tory MP, George Eustice, also happens to own his own fruit farm & farm shop & here he is asking citizens to pick fruit for slave wages.
Many said that if the working conditions and wages in the agriculture were even remotely decent, the sector would not have to rely on foreigners in the first place.
I call on George Eustice to lead by example & go pick some fruit & veg himself for slavery wages himself, then maybe he’ll realise what backbreaking work many people are forced to do for pittance for their own survival! 😡💔🇬🇧 https://t.co/a3jVCa53g9
— 𝐒𝐲 𝐇𝐚𝐰𝐤𝐞𝐬 | #SocialistHeart❤️🌹 #UBINow✊🏼 (@syhawkes) April 26, 2020
The pro-EU crowd routinely blamed Brexit for all the turmoil in the agriculture sector and lack of workforce, taking little notice of the ongoing coronavirus crisis, however.
Good luck with that one. The Brexit British are far too entitled to pick mere fruit || George Eustice calls on furloughed workers to pick fruit and veg https://t.co/rtM5wjBgbb
— Diary of a frustrated academic 💻 🇳🇱 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 (@dutchscientist) April 26, 2020
“Instead of looking at those workers and pitting them against each other – Romanian hard-workers vs British lazy f***ers – the government could think about the power relations behind the exploitative practices,” Dr Lisa McKenzie, a sociology professor wrote in a recent piece at RT. “Such as extremely competitive supermarkets forever pushing the amounts they are prepared to pay for fresh fruit and food, forcing farmers to work towards ever-tightening margins and to seek to squeeze down on their costs. And so who ends up suffering? As always, the people at the bottom of the pile.”
The UK is among the worst coronavirus-affected nations with more than 154,000 confirmed cases and nearly 21,000 dead, according to the latest figures by the John Hopkins University.
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SINGAPORE: A 40-year-old man will be charged on Monday (Apr 27) for posting a false message on Facebook about COVID-19 “circuit breaker” measures. The man is accused of posting the false message between Apr 15 and Apr 16 in a Facebook group called Taxiuncle. According to the police, the man ...
Amazon.com Inc is piloting the use of video conference calls to verify the identity of merchants who wish to sell goods on its websites, in a new plan to counter fraud without in-person meetings in the pandemic, the company said on Sunday.
TEHRAN: Iran plans to reopen mosques in parts of the country that have been consistently free of the coronavirus outbreak as restrictions on Iranians gradually ease, President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday (Apr 26). Iran, one of the Middle Eastern countries hardest hit by the pandemic, will be ...
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Sunday (Apr 26) rejected reports that he was planning to fire Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, saying he was doing an "excellent job." On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal and Politico reported that the Trump administration was considering ...
ROME: Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte promised Italians on Sunday (Apr 26) they would soon be allowed to stroll in parks and visit relatives as the country emerges from the world's longest coronavirus lockdown. The Italian leader also vowed to reopen schools by September and most other businesses ...
NEW YORK: The governor of New York raised the possibility on Sunday (Apr 26) of some major-league sports teams returning to the playing field or arena - only with no fans in the stands. Governor Andrew Cuomo said he had spoken to several sports team owners - he did not name them, but New York's ...
NEW YORK: Another wave of US states are preparing to lift COVID-19 restrictions this week despite the warnings of many public health experts as the White House sees this month's jobless rate hitting 16 per cent or higher. Health experts say increased human interaction could spark a new wave of ...
SINGAPORE: A 40-year-old man will be charged on Monday (Apr 27) for posting a false message on Facebook about COVID-19 “circuit breaker” measures. The man is accused of posting the false message between Apr 15 and Apr 16 in a Facebook group called Taxiuncle. According to the police, the man ...
Amazon.com Inc is piloting the use of video conference calls to verify the identity of merchants who wish to sell goods on its websites, in a new plan to counter fraud without in-person meetings in the pandemic, the company said on Sunday.
TEHRAN: Iran plans to reopen mosques in parts of the country that have been consistently free of the coronavirus outbreak as restrictions on Iranians gradually ease, President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday (Apr 26). Iran, one of the Middle Eastern countries hardest hit by the pandemic, will be ...
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Sunday (Apr 26) rejected reports that he was planning to fire Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, saying he was doing an "excellent job." On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal and Politico reported that the Trump administration was considering ...
NEW YORK: Another wave of US states are preparing to lift COVID-19 restrictions this week despite the warnings of many public health experts as the White House sees this month's jobless rate hitting 16 per cent or higher. Health experts say increased human interaction could spark a new wave of ...
Yemen’s separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) on Sunday announced it would establish a self-ruled administration in the regions under their control, which the internationally recognised Saudi-backed government said would have “catastrophic consequences” for a November peace deal.
Virgin Atlantic is still talking with the British government about a bailout package to cope with the devastating effects of the coronavirus outbreak on travel as well as focusing on private sector funding, a company spokeswoman told Reuters.
President Donald Trump's administration is considering replacing its secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, because of early missteps in the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the Wall Street Journal and Politico reported on Saturday.
China reported 11 new coronavirus cases on April 25, compared to 12 on the previous day, with no fatalities, according to official data published on Sunday.
President Donald Trump's administration is considering replacing its secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, because of early missteps in the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the Wall Street Journal and Politico reported on Saturday.
China reported 11 new coronavirus cases on April 25, compared to 12 on the previous day, with no fatalities, according to official data published on Sunday.
Yemen’s separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) on Sunday announced it would establish a self-ruled administration in the regions under their control, which the internationally recognised Saudi-backed government said would have “catastrophic consequences” for a November peace deal.
Yemen’s separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) on Sunday announced it would establish a self-ruled administration in the regions under their control, which the internationally recognised Saudi-backed government said would have “catastrophic consequences” for a November peace deal.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday that Canada's approach to reopening its economy from the coronavirus shutdown would be "cautious" and not depend on the development of widespread immunity in the population.
Arsenal will re-open their London Colney training ground to their players next week for individual training but the Premier League club will continue to observe social distancing rules amid the coronavirus outbreak, they said on Saturday.
US President Donald Trump has fired off a scathing broadside at mainstream media, accusing them of peddling a false claim that he branded coronavirus a “hoax,” while calling Covid-19 briefings a time spent in vain.
“What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately,” the president tweeted, as he took to his favourite communication medium on Saturday evening.
What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately. They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!
The swipe at the media comes after he forwent what has become a tradition to stage daily coronavirus press conferences where he would update the nation on his administration's response to the pandemic and then be grilled by reporters. Briefings would typically feature an array of top officials from the coronavirus task force, including VP Mike Pence, and last for over an hour.
Friday, however, marked the first time the briefing took just about 20 minutes with Trump refusing to take questions from the sparsely populated WH briefing room. The change in Trump’s modus operandi came after the media spun his off-hand and a somewhat rambling remark about finding a way to clean the body on the inside like disinfectants do on the outside as a direct call to inject disinfectants - to the president’s utter dismay, apparently.
Although Trump later sought to explain the obvious - that he had not advised Americans to inject themselves with bleach, laughing it off as a “sarcastic question” to reporters - that did not stop the media and Twittersphere from going into overdrive.
In his Twitter rant on Saturday, Trump also blasted the media for what he insisted was another piece of botched reporting, saying that contrary to widespread media claims, he has never called the pandemic a hoax.
“I never said the pandemic was a Hoax! Who would say such a thing? I said that the Do Nothing Democrats, together with their Mainstream Media partners, are the Hoax,” he tweeted.
I never said the pandemic was a Hoax! Who would say such a thing? I said that the Do Nothing Democrats, together with their Mainstream Media partners, are the Hoax. They have been called out & embarrassed on this, even admitting they were wrong, but continue to spread the lie!
In fact, Trump has indeed never called the outbreak that has so far infected over 933,000 people across the US and killed over 53,000 - a hoax. When accusing the Democratic party of “politicizing” the virus at a rally in late February, he referred to it as “their new hoax,” comparing it to the Russiagate and the “impeachment hoax.”
Democrats have tried to weaponize the pandemic from the outset, accusing the Trump administration for playing down the dangers of the virus. On Thursday, House Democrats voted across party lines to set up a new investigative panel to probe Trump’s handling of the crisis, drawing a rebuke from the GOP, which pointed that there are already several House committees with far-reaching oversight powers.
The move was lambasted by Trump, who labelled it yet another “witch hunt” in the making.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday that Canada's approach to reopening its economy from the coronavirus shutdown would be "cautious" and not depend on the development of widespread immunity in the population.
Portugal's coronavirus lockdown put a dampener on annual celebrations marking the end of a long dictatorship on Saturday, with noisy street marches replaced by virtual events and balcony singalongs.
Violated by image-based sexual abuse, some of these women are finding ways to do more than just damage control. The programme Undercover Asia speaks to several victims.
Arsenal will re-open their London Colney training ground to their players next week for individual training but the Premier League club will continue to observe social distancing rules amid the coronavirus outbreak, they said on Saturday.
A special train possibly belonging to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was spotted this week at a resort town in the country, according to satellite images reviewed by a Washington-based North Korea monitoring project, amid conflicting reports about Kim's health and whereabouts.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday that Canada's approach to reopening its economy from the coronavirus shutdown would be "cautious" and not depend on the development of widespread immunity in the population.
Arsenal will re-open their London Colney training ground to their players next week for individual training but the Premier League club will continue to observe social distancing rules amid the coronavirus outbreak, they said on Saturday.
While the coronavirus pandemic has frozen global travel and hit the travel industry hard, data from home-sharing startup Airbnb Inc shows the number of domestic bookings in China for the first half of April were up more than 200per cent compared with the same period in March.
While the coronavirus pandemic has frozen global travel and hit the travel industry hard, data from home-sharing startup Airbnb Inc shows the number of domestic bookings in China for the first half of April were up more than 200per cent compared with the same period in March.
RIYADH/JERUSALEM: The holy month of Ramadan began on Friday (Apr 24) with Islam's holiest sites in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem largely empty of worshippers as the coronavirus crisis forced authorities to impose unprecedented restrictions. During Ramadan, Muslims the world over join their families ...
President Vladimir Putin and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin will both make surprise, if minor, appearance inside the main cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces, being heavily decorated with historical scenes of the nation’s glory.
Photos showing an incomplete mosaic with the likeness of Putin, other key government figures, as well as seemingly random people celebrating with national flags made quite a stir in Russia after being leaked to the media on Friday. The artwork was linked to the grandiose church being built in Patriot Park outside Moscow, which is to become the main temple of the Russian military.
В главном храме Минобороны, который планируют открыть 9 мая, будут мозаики с изображениями Путина, Шойгу и Сталина, а также с фразой «Крым наш», пишет «МБХ медиа»https://t.co/1T1XTLpO1Bpic.twitter.com/BDRjyG8Ewy
Perhaps even more controversial, an image of Stalin, pictured on a banner held by the Soviet soldiers on the Red Square, appeared on another mosaic supposedly meant for the church.
When asked about the images by reporters, Kremlin was seemingly caught off guard, and spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “I unfortunately don’t know what is on the walls of the temple.”
Пишут, что это мозаика того самого главного храма Вооружённых сил в парке «Патриот». pic.twitter.com/Z93HsNzQ01
It didn’t take long for the Russian Orthodox Church to confirm the artwork was real – adding that the Kremlin had not been informed. Archpriest Leonid Kalinin, who chairs the church’s expert council on art and architecture, told TASS news agency that “it reflects historical events, and was done without consulting with these persons, entirely on the basis of historical documents as decided by the art council.”
The church official confirmed that the first mosaic – titled ‘Bloodless joining of Crimea’ – shows people celebrating the March 2014 event and people who were key to it, while the ‘Victory Parade’ replicates a photograph of the May 1945 event that includes Stalin, the supreme commander of the Soviet army in World War II. The reason both will appear in the temple is simple – historical accuracy, Kalinin said.
The art council considers these depictions absolutely appropriate and corresponding to historical truth, from which one should not arbitrarily tear out pages.
While the idea to paint figures from modern history on the walls of a Christian temple did seem eyebrow-raising to many, it’s also fair to say that the huge new temple under construction is no ordinary church. It is in fact partly a museum, themed to mark the 75th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 to the minute detail. The cathedral will be surrounded by a memorial complex called Road of Memory, with tens of millions of photographs of WWII veterans built into it.
Its interior, on the other hand, is said to be featuring all the milestone victories of the long and hard-fought Russian history, which would only seem fitting for the Armed Forces temple.
Специалисты Военно-строительного комплекса завершают работы по внутренней и внешней отделке Главного храма ВС РФ.#Минобороны#ГлавныйХрам#Победа75
Showing historical events and personalities in church art has been centuries-old tradition in Orthodoxy, Bishop Stephan of Klin, vicar of the Moscow Patriarchate and the abbot of the Armed Forces temple, told the outlet RBC.
But the quest to depict all of Russia’s military history was not without controversy, Stephan has revealed. Stalin, who led a Communist regime that had once viciously persecuted the church, was not a welcome figure, but the clergy eventually agreed he had to make an appearance based on his key WWII role.
“As for Stalin, he was depicted based on a historical photograph,” Abbot Stephan told the outlet RBC. “This temple is being built in honor of Victory, so it would be wrong not to show the Victory Parade.”
The traditional Orthodox Christian themes will also feature prominently, and the mosaic depicting Putin is actually a small part of a greater picture honoring Our Lady of Kazan – one of the most revered icons of the Holy Mother in the Russian Orthodox Church – the artist behind the mosaic, Vasily Nesterenko, revealed to the local outlet Daily Storm.
The temple, officially the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, will be consecrated on May 9, though the rest of the Victory Day celebrations have been postponed due to coronavirus quarantine measures.
Mainstream media’s dismissal of Tara Reade’s claims she was sexually assaulted by then-Senator Joe Biden just got harder, as a video emerged of her mother’s 1993 call into a CNN show hosted by Larry King, bringing up the incident.
The minute-long clip that surfaced on Friday shows a female called from San Luis Obispo, California, calling into “Larry King Live” on August 11, 1993 seeking advice about her daughter who just left Washington after having “problems” with “a prominent senator.”
“CALLER: Yes, hello. I’m wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington? My daughter has just left there, after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him,” says the transcript of the segment, published by Ryan Grim of The Intercept on Friday.
Grim noted that when he interviewed Reade, she mentioned her mother’s call to CNN, but could not remember the exact content of it or the date of the show. Reade’s mother, who passed away in 2016, lived in San Luis Obispo in August 1993. Presented with the recording on Friday, Reade told reporters that the voice in it was in fact her mother’s.
Reade worked as a staffer for then-Senator Joe Biden in the early 1990s, but left Washington abruptly after filing a complaint about sexual harassment. Biden’s documents from that time have been sealed until two years after he retires from public life, but the 77-year-old is currently seeking to challenge President Donald Trump in November as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Speaking with journalist Katie Halper last month, Reade described in graphic detail how Senator Biden sexually assaulted her in the hallway of the Russell Senate Office Building sometime in the spring of 1993, as she was bringing him a gym bag.
Mainstream US media outlets have largely ignored Reade’s allegations. When it finally got around to addressing them in mid-April, The New York Times ran a feature-length article dismissing them out of hand. This has been in marked contrast with the attention the Times and other mainstream outlets gave the far more vague and uncorroborated claims by Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford last year, during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
German automaker Volkswagen will extend until at least May 18 a suspension on operations at two production plants in Mexico due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the company said in a statement on Friday.
RIYADH/JERUSALEM: The holy month of Ramadan began on Friday (Apr 24) with Islam's holiest sites in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem largely empty of worshippers as the coronavirus crisis forced authorities to impose unprecedented restrictions. During Ramadan, Muslims the world over join their families ...
German automaker Volkswagen will extend until at least May 18 a suspension on operations at two production plants in Mexico due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the company said in a statement on Friday.
RIYADH/JERUSALEM: The holy month of Ramadan began on Friday (Apr 24) with Islam's holiest sites in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem largely empty of worshippers as the coronavirus crisis forced authorities to impose unprecedented restrictions. During Ramadan, Muslims the world over join their families ...
RIYADH/JERUSALEM: The holy month of Ramadan began on Friday (Apr 24) with Islam's holiest sites in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem largely empty of worshippers as the coronavirus crisis forced authorities to impose unprecedented restrictions. During Ramadan, Muslims the world over join their families ...
China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with the situation.
Thousands of people across Australia and New Zealand on Saturday honoured their country's military personnel in private ceremonies held in driveways and on balconies as the coronavirus outbreak forced traditional Anzac Day memorials to be cancelled for the first time in decades.
Armenians have used text messages and mobile phone flashlights to mark the 105th anniversary of mass killings in the Ottoman Empire, dropping their usual march because of coronavirus restrictions.
Thousands of people across Australia and New Zealand on Saturday honoured their country's military personnel in private ceremonies held in driveways and on balconies as the coronavirus outbreak forced traditional Anzac Day memorials to be cancelled for the first time in decades.
Armenians have used text messages and mobile phone flashlights to mark the 105th anniversary of mass killings in the Ottoman Empire, dropping their usual march because of coronavirus restrictions.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Friday said he has notified Congress that the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement will take effect on July 1, a month later than initially proposed.
China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with the situation.
Thousands of people across Australia and New Zealand on Saturday honoured their country's military personnel in private ceremonies held in driveways and on balconies as the coronavirus outbreak forced traditional Anzac Day memorials to be cancelled for the first time in decades.
Armenians have used text messages and mobile phone flashlights to mark the 105th anniversary of mass killings in the Ottoman Empire, dropping their usual march because of coronavirus restrictions.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Friday said he has notified Congress that the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement will take effect on July 1, a month later than initially proposed.
CHICAGO: All United Airlines flight attendants must wear a face covering or mask while on duty starting Apr 24, the airline said on Thursday, in the first such rule by a major US carrier. The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), whose members work for United Airlines Holdings Inc and 19 other ...
SINGAPORE: The National University of Singapore (NUS) announced on Friday (Apr 24) an initiative to offer full-time salaried positions and paid traineeships for graduating students, in light of the weakened job market during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students from the graduating class of 2020 can ...
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he is considering a government lending program for U.S. oil companies looking for federal aid as they cope with a devastating plunge in prices, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
SINGAPORE: Singapore Exchange reported a 38 per cent jump in quarterly net profit to a 13-year high, as equities and derivatives trading volume surged on extreme market volatility. "With uncertainty around the eventual economic and financial impact of COVID-19 and path to recovery, these elevated ...
Asia equities face a bumpy session on Friday after Wall Street pared early gains as optimism over a rebound in oil prices and prospects for further government stimulus were offset by stark economic data showing the toll of the coronavirus pandemic.
CHICAGO: All United Airlines flight attendants must wear a face covering or mask while on duty starting Apr 24, the airline said on Thursday, in the first such rule by a major US carrier. The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), whose members work for United Airlines Holdings Inc and 19 other ...
SINGAPORE: The National University of Singapore (NUS) announced on Friday (Apr 24) an initiative to offer full-time salaried positions and paid traineeships for graduating students, in light of the weakened job market during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students from the graduating class of 2020 can ...
Comedian Ricky Gervais is torching attention-seeking celebrities during the Covid-19 pandemic as brutally as when he hosted the Golden Globes, saying that “people are just tired of being lectured to” in a new interview.
At this point, more than a month into the pandemic, there is a rabbit hole of celebrity videos preaching to the rest of the world about the coronavirus, and Gervais thinks he knows why.
“Now celebrities think: ‘The general public needs to see my face. They can’t get to the cinema — I need to do something’,” the comedian said in an interview published Thursday in the New York Times of all places.
“And it’s when you look into their eyes, you know that, even if they’re doing something good, they’re sort of thinking, ‘I could weep at what a good person I am.’ Oh dear,” he continued.
Ricky Gervais talked about his darkly comic Netflix series "After Life" and about his own life since his celebrity-skewing Golden Globes appearance. (He wasn't a fan of that "Imagine" video either.) https://t.co/gls04f7pk1
Gervais specifically targeted the now infamous ‘Imagine’ video put together by ‘Wonder Woman’ star Gal Gadot and other celebrities covering the classic John Lennon/Yoko Ono tune.
“You won’t hear me complain,” Gervais said of lockdown measures. “Not when, every day, I see some millionaire celebrity going, ‘I’m sad that I’m not on telly tonight.’ Or, ‘I had a swim in the pool that made me feel a little bit better’.”
He then proceeded to sing the first line of ‘Imagine.’
From the very beginning of Covid-19 lockdowns, celebrity messages have fallen flat with the quarantined public. There was New York Governor Andrew Cuomo deploying actors Ben Stiller and Danny DeVito to preach his order to stay indoors.
Pop singer Madonna was skewered on social media for a video of her sitting nude in a bathtub, calling the coronavirus the great “equalizer.”
TV host Ellen DeGeneres found herself a target of similar mockery for comparing her quarantine inside of a mansion to jail.
The ‘Imagine’ video itself became little more than fodder for humorous covers mocking celebrities’ desperate attention-seeking during a pandemic. Conservative actor and filmmaker Nick Searcy parodied it with “imagine there’s no acting.”
Roasting celebrities is an increasingly common theme in Gervais’ comedy. He made waves in January when he hosted the Golden Globes and used his opening monologue to roast celebrities for virtue-signaling and hypocrisy with barbs like, “If ISIS started a streaming service you’d call your agent, wouldn’t you?”
