Thursday 6 February 2020

Li Wenliang: Coronavirus kills Chinese whistleblower doctor

A Chinese doctor who tried to issue the first warning about the deadly coronavirus outbreak has died, the hospital treating him has said.
Li Wenliang contracted the virus while working at Wuhan Central Hospital.
He had sent out a warning to fellow medics on 30 December but police told him to stop "making false comments".
There had been contradictory reports about his death, but the People's Daily now says he died at 02:58 on Friday (18:58 GMT Thursday).
The virus has killed 636 people and infected 31,161 in mainland China, the National Health Commission's latest figures show.
The death toll includes 73 new deaths reported on Thursday.
The virus causes severe acute respiratory infection and symptoms usually start with a fever, followed by a dry cough.
Most people infected are likely to fully recover - just as they would from a flu.

What is Li Wenliang's story?

Dr Li, an ophthalmologist, posted his story on Weibo from a hospital bed a month after sending out his initial warning.
The 34-year-old had noticed seven cases of a virus that he thought looked like Sars - the virus that led to a global epidemic in 2003.
On 30 December he sent a message to fellow doctors in a chat group warning them to wear protective clothing to avoid infection.
Four days later he was summoned to the Public Security Bureau where he was told to sign a letter. In the letter he was accused of "making false comments" that had "severely disturbed the social order".
He was one of eight people who police said were being investigated for "spreading rumours" Local authorities later apologised to Dr Li.
In his Weibo post he describes how on 10 January he started coughing, the next day he had a fever and two days later he was in hospital. He was diagnosed with the coronavirus on 30 January.

How has China reacted?

A wave of anger and grief flooded Chinese social media site Weibo when news of Dr Li's death broke late on Thursday.
The top two trending hashtags on the website were "Wuhan government owes Dr Li Wenliang and apology" and "We want freedom of speech".
Both hashtags were quickly censored. When the BBC searched Weibo on Friday morning, hundreds of thousands of comments had already been wiped.
Many have now taken to posting under the hashtag "Can you manage, do you understand?" - a reference to the letter Dr Li was told to sign where he was accused of disturbing "social order".
Only a handful of critical comments now remain - many of which do not directly name him - but are an indication of the mounting anger and distrust towards the Chinese government.
"Do not forget how you feel now. Do not forget this anger. We must not let this happen again," said one comment on Weibo.
"The truth will always be treated as a rumour. How long are you going to lie? Are you still lying? What else do you have to hide?" another said.
Presentational grey line

Why was there confusion over his death?

Global Times, People's Daily and other Chinese media reported Dr Li's death earlier on Thursday.
Dr Li, was initially declared dead at 21:30 local time and the news triggered a huge wave of popular reaction on Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter.
The People's Daily sent out a tweet saying Dr Li's death had sparked "national grief".
However, Global Times then said he had been given a treatment known as ECMO (extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation) which keeps a person's heart pumping and keeps their blood oxygenated without it going through their lungs.
Global Times said he was in a critical condition.
Journalists and doctors at the scene, who do not want their names used, told the BBC and other media that government officials had intervened.
Official media outlets had been told to change their reports to say the doctor was still being treated.
Most of those killed by coronavirus have been over the age of 60 or have suffered from other medical conditions, according to China's health authorities. Dr Li's medical history is not known.

What is the latest on the virus in China?

China is introducing more restrictive measures to try to control the outbreak.
Beijing has banned group dining for events such as birthdays and weddings while cities such as Hangzhou and Nanchang are limiting how many family members can leave home each day.
Hubei province has switched off lifts in high-rise buildings to discourage residents from going outside.
Its capital, Wuhan, has a lack of beds and equipment, one senior city official said. Despite the rapid construction of two hospitals, the volume of patients is causing severe strain.
Reports on social media say the Wuhan government is to carry out door-to-door temperature checks on residents.
There has been criticism of the crackdowns, with Human Rights Watch saying China was "treating public health with a sledgehammer".
Meanwhile, Hong Kong has seen panic buying of goods, including toilet rolls, and there have been huge queues for masks.

What's the latest on infections?

Although the virus has spread overseas, with confirmed infection in some 25 nations, there have so far been only two deaths outside mainland China - one in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines.
The World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency, saying if funds are not allocated now to tackle the outbreak, nations would pay for it later.
Although the official figures in China are of 31,000 infections, some scientists have estimated that the actual rate could be 10 times higher, with the majority of infected people only presenting mild symptoms, not receiving treatment, yet passing on the potentially deadly disease.
Some 3,700 people on the Diamond Princess cruise vessel moored off Japan face testing and quarantine for at least two weeks. On Friday, Japanese broadcaster NHK said 41 new cases had been detected on board, bringing the total to 61.
Another cruise ship with 3,600 passengers and crew is quarantined in Hong Kong with three cases on board.

Coronavirus: Another 41 come down with infection on isolated journey deliver

Another 41 individuals on a journey send off the shoreline of Japan have tried positive for the new coronavirus - carrying the aggregate to 61.
Approximately 3,700 individuals are ready the Precious stone Princess, which is isolated in Yokohama for in any event two weeks.
The checks started following a 80-year-old Hong Kong man who had been on the ship a month ago became sick with the infection.
He boarded the journey send in Yokohama on 20 January and landed in Hong Kong on 25 January.
A different voyage transport - the World Dream - has been isolated in Hong Kong after eight previous travelers came down with the infection.
It has around 3,600 individuals ready, however none have tried positive up until this point.
The new cases on the Precious stone Princess carry Japan's number of affirmed cases to 86, the second most noteworthy figure after China.
"The aftereffects of the staying 171 tests turned out and 41 tried positive," Japan's Wellbeing Pastor Katsunobu Kato said.
"Today they will be sent to emergency clinics in a few prefectures, and we are currently getting ready for that."
Twenty travelers analyzed before have just been taken to emergency clinics.
The 61 affirmed cases are from:
Japan: 28 individuals
US: 11
Australia, Canada: 7
China: 3
UK, New Zealand, Taiwan, Philippines, Argentina: 1
Travelers were advised not long ago they'd must be isolated for 14 days, and would be bound to their lodges.
"Having delighted in a great journey, when we landed in Okinawa, we needed to experience an isolate method and from that point forward it has been extremely downhill," traveler David Abel told the BBC after the isolate had started.
The new coronavirus can cause extreme intense respiratory contamination, which now and again can be lethal. A great many people tainted are probably going to recoup however.
The focal point of the infection is in the Chinese city of Wuhan, and most cases have been in the city and the encompassing region of Hubei.
New figures show the infection has slaughtered 636 individuals and contaminated 31,161 in territory China, the nation's National Wellbeing Bonus' said.
It has spread abroad with affirmed diseases in any event 25 countries.
Up until this point, there have been just two passings outside of terrain China - one in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines.

Because of the worldwide spread, the World Wellbeing Association (WHO) has proclaimed a worldwide wellbeing crisis.

Wednesday 5 February 2020

Coronavirus: Hong Kong to isolate guests from territory China

Protest
Hong Kong is to force an obligatory 14-day isolate on all guests from terrain China as it fights to forestall the spread of a coronavirus flare-up.

The strategy happen on Saturday yet authorities would not close the fringe altogether, as requested by therapeutic staff who have taken to the streets.

Hong Kong, which has 21 affirmed cases and one casualty, endured 300 passings in the Sars episode in 2002-03.

There are 24,300 affirmed coronavirus cases and 490 passings on the territory.

Those figures remembered an extra 4,000 cases and 65 passings for Tuesday
The infection has spread abroad, with 25 countries affirming a sum of 191 cases, despite the fact that there have so far been just two passings.

The World Wellbeing Association (WHO) has proclaimed the episode a worldwide wellbeing crisis. Its boss, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on Wednesday requested for $675m (£520m) to finance a three-month reaction plan.
In the interim, at any rate 10 individuals on board a journey dispatch docked in the Japanese port of Yokohama have tried positive for the infection.

The coronavirus causes serious intense respiratory disease and manifestations as a rule start with a fever, trailed by a dry hack. The vast majority contaminated are probably going to completely recuperate - similarly as they would from an influenza.

What move has Hong Kong made?

CEO Carrie Lam said anybody landing from the terrain, including outsiders, would be isolated for 14 days from Saturday, in spite of the fact that she didn't state how this would be forced.

It is hazy where the isolates would happen or whether Hong Kong inhabitants could invest the energy at home.

A huge number of individuals landed from the territory on Tuesday.
Ms Lam has not moved to close the fringe altogether, albeit a large number of therapeutic staff on Wednesday entered the third day of their strike over the issue and have taken steps to heighten their activity.

Hong Kong will, nonetheless, close the Sea and Kai Tak voyage terminals.

Approximately 3,600 travelers and team on the World Dream, docked at Kai Tak, are being tried for the infection after three Chinese travelers who were on the ship somewhere in the range of 19 and 24 January tried positive subsequent to landing.

Hong Kong stays worried about a rehash of the dangerous Extreme Intense Respiratory Disorder (Sars) episode, in spite of the fact that the death pace of the new infection is a lot of lower than that of Sars, which was around 9.6%.

There have been monstrous lines for covers which are hard to come by and are selling at expanded costs.

Independently, the Hong Kong-based aircraft Cathay Pacific is requesting that 27,000 staff take three weeks unpaid leave over the coming a very long time as it manages the effect of the episode.

What are the terrain's most recent measures?

Authorities state they have increased determination to control the flare-up, especially in its focal point, Hubei region and its capital, Wuhan, where two medical clinics have been quickly assembled and 11 open scenes sports changed into improvised wards.
Millions in Hubei and Zhejiang areas have been told just a single individual for every family unit can go outside at regular intervals.

Chinese wellbeing specialists demand presumed cases are falling, due to better testing.

Remote service representative Hua Chunying encouraged different countries to be objective in their evaluation of the infection and bolster China's endeavors. "Dread is more awful than any infection," she said.

State supporter CCTV cited specialists in Wuhan as saying it created the impression that pregnant ladies could pass the infection to their unborn kid. An infant had tried positive subsequent to being destined to a tainted mother in the city.

What has the WHO said?

Declaring the intrigue for $675m, Dr Tedros stated: "Our message to the universal network is contribute today or pay all the more later."

Most by far of the assets would go to countries requiring help to ensure against the infection. Approximately 500,000 covers and 40,000 respirators would be sent to 24 nations.

Dr Tedros said a "lucky opening" existed to manage the infection and furthermore respected a $100m gift from the Bill and Melinda Entryways Establishment reported on Wednesday.

The WHO likewise made light of reports from Chinese television that analysts at Zhejiang College had discovered a compelling medication, saying there were still "no known powerful therapeutics"

In different advancements on Wednesday:

Malaysian writer Wan Noor Hayati deals with indictments of causing open dread over a Facebook post communicating caution at the appearance of a voyage transport with 1,000 Chinese travelers in northern Penang state

A large number of Chinese guests to the island of Bali could be stranded there after the Indonesian government suspended flights to and from terrain China

Coordinators of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics state they are "genuinely worried" about the spread of the infection and its conceivable effect on the Games

Russian President Vladimir Putin said drug stores that inclined up the cost of covers ought to be deprived of their licenses
What's going on the journey deliver in Yokohama?

Just about 300 of the 3,700 individuals on the ship, the Jewel Princess, have been tried up until this point. The quantity of tainted could ascend from the 10 so far affirmed.

Those contaminated have been taken to emergency clinics however the remainder of the team and travelers on board are in isolate.

The checks started following a 80-year-old Hong Kong man who had been on the ship a month ago became sick with the infection.

English visitor David Abel, who is ready, advised the BBC he should profit to the UK for Tuesday.

"We had a flight booked with BA on Tuesday morning and that has must be dropped. We have no thought when we will be permitted off the ship," he said.

Wednesday 13 November 2019

Israel-Gaza fighting continues for second day after militant's death


Palestinians gathered around a house destroyed in an air strike in Khan Younis, where Israel said it had targeted a military headquarters
Cross-border violence between Israel and militants in Gaza is continuing, a day after an Israeli air strike killed a Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander.
After an overnight lull, rocket fire towards Israel resumed and Israeli aircraft conducted retaliatory strikes.
Gaza's health ministry said 12 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire on Wednesday, bringing the death toll there to 22 since Tuesday.
In Israel, almost 50 people have been treated for injuries or anxiety.
Egyptian and UN officials have been attempting to de-escalate the situation, but PIJ has said it is not yet "appropriate" to talk about mediation.

What is the latest?

After a six-hour pause, Palestinian militants resumed firing rockets at around 06:30 (04:30 GMT), triggering air-raid sirens in southern and central Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said more than 50 rockets had been launched by midday, bringing the total since Tuesday to 250. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
A rocket fired by Palestinian militants is intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome defence system above the Israeli city of Sderot on 13 November 2019Image copyrightAFP
Image captionMost of the rockets fired by Palestinian militants have been intercepted by Israeli air defences
The IDF said it had bombed more PIJ targets in Gaza on Wednesday in response, including a military headquarters in Khan Younis and a factory manufacturing warheads for long-range rockets in the south of the strip.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza reported that 12 people had been killed.

What happened on Tuesday?

A pre-dawn Israeli air strike on a residential building in eastern Gaza City killed Baha Abu al-Ata, a senior PIJ military commander, and his wife.
At about the same time, the home of another leader of the Iran-backed group was struck by an Israeli missile in Damascus, killing two people, Syrian state media said. Israel did not comment on the incident.
Media captionGaza militants retaliated with rocket fire - then Israel responded with further air strikes
Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described Abu al-Ata as an "arch-terrorist" and a "ticking bomb" who posed an imminent threat to the country.
Abu al-Ata was thought to be behind recent rocket fire from Gaza and to have acted increasingly outside of the control of the dominant militant faction Hamas.
Militants in Gaza said Israel had crossed a "red line" and fired more than 200 rockets in response.
About 90% of the rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome air defence systems, the IDF said, but one exploded on a main road close to passing cars, and elsewhere two people were lightly injured by shrapnel. An eight-year-old girl also suffered a heart attack in a bomb shelter and remains in a serious condition.
IDF said it carried out air strikes in Gaza targeting PIJ rocket-launching units and infrastructure.
Gaza's health ministry said eight people were killed, in addition to Abu al-Ata and his wife. Seven of them were reportedly militants.

What are both sides saying?

PIJ spokesman Musab al-Buraim told the Hamas-linked Shehab news agency that it was not "appropriate" to discuss Egyptian efforts to end the flare-up when the group was still retaliating for Abu al-Ata's death.
File photo showing Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Baha Abu al-Ata at a rally in Gaza City (21 October 2016)Image copyrightAFP
Image captionPalestinian Islamic Jihad has vowed to avenge the death of Baha Abu al-Ata (pictured)
"When we complete the response, it is possible to discuss calm," he said.
At the start of a special cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu warned PIJ that if it did not halt the rocket fire Israel would continue to hit Gaza.
"Either stop these attacks or absorb more and more blows," he said.
Earlier, IDF spokesman Brig Gen Hidai Zilberman told Israeli media that PIJ was "operating in a measured way, maintaining its arsenal of rockets for several days of battle and is keeping its options open", and that the IDF was "walking a tightrope" to avoid drawing Hamas into the conflict.
Source of the news: BBC NEWS

Electric car future may depend on deep sea mining

Apollo II is a prototype deep sea mining machine being tested off the coast of Malaga
The future of electric cars may depend on mining critically important metals on the ocean floor.
That's the view of the engineer leading a major European investigation into new sources of key elements.
Demand is soaring for the metal cobalt - an essential ingredient in batteries and abundant in rocks on the seabed.
Laurens de Jonge, who's running the EU project, says the transition to electric cars means "we need those resources".
Media captionThe BBC's David Shukman explains how deep sea mining works
He was speaking during a unique set of underwater experiments designed to assess the impact of extracting rocks from the ocean floor.
In calm waters 15km off the coast of Malaga in southern Spain, a prototype mining machine was lowered to the seabed and 'driven' by remote control.
Cameras attached to the Apollo II machine recorded its progress and, crucially, monitored how the aluminium tracks stirred up clouds of sand and silt as they advanced.
Apollo
An array of instruments was positioned nearby to measure how far these clouds were carried on the currents - the risk of seabed mining smothering marine life over a wide area is one of the biggest concerns.

What is 'deep sea mining'?

It's hard to visualise, but imagine opencast mining taking place at the bottom of the ocean, where huge remote-controlled machines would excavate rocks from the seabed and pump them up to the surface.
Apollo
The concept has been talked about for decades, but until now it's been thought too difficult to operate in the high-pressure, pitch-black conditions as much as 5km deep.
Now the technology is advancing to the point where dozens of government and private ventures are weighing up the potential for mines on the ocean floor.
Apollo
Apollo

Why would anyone bother?

The short answer: demand. The rocks of the seabed are far richer in valuable metals than those on land and there's a growing clamour to get at them.
Billions of potato-sized rocks known as "nodules" litter the abyssal plains of the Pacific and other oceans and many are brimming with cobalt, suddenly highly sought after as the boom in the production of batteries gathers pace.
At the moment, most of the world's cobalt is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo where for years there've been allegations of child labour, environmental damage and widespread corruption.
Electric carImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionCurrent technology for electric car batteries require cobalt, thought to be abundant on the sea floor
Expanding production there is not straightforward which is leading mining companies to weigh the potential advantages of cobalt on the seabed.
Laurens de Jonge, who's in charge of the EU project, known as Blue Nodules, said: "It's not difficult to access - you don't have to go deep into tropical forests or deep into mines.
"It's readily available on the seafloor, it's almost like potato harvesting only 5km deep in the ocean."
And he says society faces a choice: there may be in future be alternative ways of making batteries for electric cars - and some manufacturer are exploring them - but current technology requires cobalt.
RocksImage copyrightGEOMAR
Image captionLaurens de Jonge likens the process to "potato harvesting" 5km down in the ocean
"If you want to make a fast change, you need cobalt quick and you need a lot of it - if you want to make a lot of batteries you need the resources to do that."
His view is backed by a group of leading scientists at London's Natural History Museum and other institutions.
They recently calculated that meeting the UK's targets for electric cars by 2050 would require nearly twice the world's current output of cobalt.

So what are the risks?

No one can be entirely sure, which makes the research off Spain highly relevant.
It's widely accepted that whatever is in the path of the mining machines will be destroyed - there's no argument about that.
But what's uncertain is how far the damage will reach, in particular the size of the plumes of silt and sand churned up and the distance they will travel, potentially endangering marine life far beyond the mining site.
The chief scientist on board, Henko de Stigter of the Dutch marine research institute NIOZ, points out that life in the deep Pacific - where mining is likely to start first - has adapted to the usually "crystal clear conditions".
Apollo at dawn
So for any organisms feeding by filter, waters that are suddenly filled with stirred-up sediment would be threatening.
"Many species are unknown or not described, and let alone do we know how they will respond to this activity - we can only estimate."
And Dr de Stigter warned of the danger of doing to the ocans what humanity has done to the land.
"With every new human activity it's often difficult to foresee all the consequences of that in the long term.
"What is new here is that we are entering an environment that is almost completely untouched."

Could deep sea mining be made less damaging?

Ralf Langeler thinks so. He's the engineer in charge of the Apollo II mining machine and he believes the design will minimise any impacts.
Like Laurens de Jonge, he works for the Dutch marine engineering giant Royal IHC and he says his technology can help reduce the environmental effects.
The machine is meant to cut a very shallow slice into the top 6-10cm of the seabed, lifting the nodules. Its tracks are made with lightweight aluminium to avoid sinking too far into the surface.
David and Ralph
Image captionDavid Shukman (R) talks to Ralf Langeler, the engineer in charge of the Apollo II mining machine
Silt and sand stirred up by the extraction process should then be channelled into special vents at the rear of the machine and released in a narrow stream, to try to avoid the plume spreading too far.
"We'll always change the environment, that's for sure," Ralf says, "but that's the same with onshore mining and our purpose is to minimise the impact."
I ask him if deep sea mining is now a realistic prospect.
"One day it's going to happen, especially with the rising demand for spwcial metals - and they're there on the sea floor."

Who decides if it goes ahead?

Mining in territorial waters can be approved by an individual government.
That happened a decade ago when Papua New Guinea gave the go-ahead to a Canadian company, Nautilus Minerals, to mine gold and copper from hydrothermal vents in the Bismarck Sea.
Since then the project has been repeatedly delayed as the company ran short of funds and the prime minister of PNG called for a ten-year moratorium on deep sea mining.
A Nautilus Minerals representative has told me that the company is being restructured and that they remain hopeful of starting to mine.
Meanwhile, nearly 30 other ventures are eyeing areas of ocean floor beyond national waters, and these are regulated by a UN body, the International Seabed Authority (ISA).
It has issued licences for exploration and is due next year to publish the rules that would govern future mining.
The EU's Blue Nodules project involves a host of different institutions and countries.
The vessel used for the underwater research off Spain, the Sarmiento de Gamboa, is operated by CSIC, the Spanish National Research Council.
Source of the news: BBC NEWS