Thursday, May 21st, 2020
In a hearing over Zoom, a court in Singapore sentences a 37-year-old Malaysian man to death for a 2011 heroin transaction. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is the first time a death sentence was imposed by a remote hearing in Singapore. (Reuters)
U.S. authorities in Massachusetts arrest two men, a father and son aged 59 and 27, wanted by Japan on charges of helping former Chairman of Nissan Carlos Ghosn escape from Japan to Lebanon last year. (Reuters)
Citizens of Burundi head to the polls to elect their president and the members of the National Assembly. After violent campaigns, the elections take place amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and a social media blackout. Regional and international election observers are blocked from overseeing the elections, raising doubts about its fairness. (DW)
Earlier lockdowns might have prevented 36,000 U.S. COVID-19 deaths Disease modelers at Columbia University estimate that if the U.S. had started implementing social distancing and lockdown measures one week earlier in March, roughly 36,000 coronavirus deaths could have been prevented. The first imported case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was reported on Jan. 20, with community transmission established in the weeks following. Federal social distancing measures, which asked Americans to avoid unnecessary travel and social gatherings, were enacted in mid-March. The researchers estimate that if action was taken even earlier than a week before that, with cities going on lockdown and people limiting contact with others beginning on March 1, about 83 percent of the country’s deaths could have been avoided. As of Wednesday night, there are more than 1.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. and 93,383 deaths. Source: The New York Times
WHO reports 106,000 new coronavirus cases, biggest 1-day increase The World Health Organization on Wednesday reported the largest daily increase in COVID-19 cases since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The organization said 106,000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported worldwide in the past 24 hours. “We still have a long way to go in this pandemic,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned, saying the WHO is “very concerned about rising cases in low and middle income countries.” He said nearly two-thirds of the new cases came from four countries, but didn’t specify which. The United States has reported more than 1.5 million coronavirus cases and over 90,000 deaths. Wednesday marked the day when all 50 states in the U.S. had started to reopen their economies. More than 4.9 million COVID-19 cases have been reported worldwide. Source: Reuters
The End
artificial stupid 