Wednesday,  May 27th, 2020

The government urges the Taliban to extend the three-day truce due to expire today. It also announces the government will release 900 Taliban prisoners today. (Reuters)

The United States Africa Command accuses Russia of deploying fighter jets to eastern Libya to provide air support to Russian mercenaries allied to Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, who is seeking to overthrow the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA). (BBC)

LATAM Airlines, the largest air carrier in Latin America, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. (Bloomberg)

Huge swarms of desert locusts destroy crops in central and western India prompting authorities to step up their response to the country’s worst plague in nearly three decades. (Al Jazeera)

Costa Rica becomes the first Central American country to legalize same-sex marriage. (Reuters)

Zambian President Edgar Lungu pardons a gay couple jailed for 15 years due to consensual homosexual acts amid a mass wave of pardons of nearly 3,000 inmates to celebrate Africa Freedom Day. (Reuters)

For the 1st time, Twitter labels Trump tweets with a fact check  Twitter on Tuesday labeled two of President Trump’s tweets about mail-in ballots as being misleading, the first time the company has tagged false claims he has made on the platform. The tweets, which incorrectly declared that mail-in ballots are fraudulent, now have labels that say, “Get the facts about mail-in ballots.” The links redirect users to a fact-check page with articles about the matter. A Twitter spokesperson said Trump’s tweets “contain potentially misleading information about the voting process and have been labeled to provide additional context.” Trump quickly responded, using Twitter to accuse the company of “interfering” in the 2020 presidential election. Twitter, he added, is “completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!” Source: The Washington Post

Biden responds to Trump mocking face masks: He’s an ‘absolute fool’  Former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday fired back at President Trump for sharing a tweet that mocked Biden for wearing a mask during a Memorial Day event, calling him an “absolute fool.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that people wear masks to slow the spread of coronavirus, but Trump has opted out of wearing a face covering during visits to factories, despite the companies requiring masks for the safety of their employees. This is irresponsible, Biden told CNN’s Dana Bash, and Trump’s refusal to listen to health experts is “costing people’s lives.” Presidents, Biden added, “are supposed to lead, not engage in folly and be falsely masculine.” Source: CNN

Trump pushes Scarborough conspiracy after widower pleads for him to stop  President Trump on Tuesday brushed off criticism about his repeated baseless suggestion that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough is tied to the death of one of his former staffers. Lisa Klausutis died in Scarborough’s office in 2001 when he was a Florida congressmember, and Trump has repeatedly suggested she was actually murdered, without any evidence. Timothy Klausutis, the former staffer’s widow, pleaded to end the baseless allegation, writing in a letter that Trump “has taken … the memory of my dead wife and perverted it for perceived political gain.” Asked about the letter on Tuesday, Trump still insisted the matter was “suspicious,” and claimed Klausutis’ family “want(s) to get to the bottom of it. Klausitis said he has “struggled to move forward with my life” because of the “barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, innuendo and conspiracy theories” about his late wife’s death. Source: The Wall Street Journal

Human trials begin for Novavax’s coronavirus vaccine  Biotechnology company Novavax rolled out its first human trials for its coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday. Novavax already tested its vaccine on animals in low doses and found it successful. The Maryland-based company will inject 131 volunteers in the Australian cities of Melbourne and Brisbane, with results of the clinical trial expected to be made public in July. Phase 1 of the trial is a “randomized, observer-blinded, placebo-controlled trial” that assesses two different dosage sizes of the vaccine among healthy participants age 18 to 59. Novavax shares spiked when markets reopened Tuesday, up from $46.11 per share to $54.20. Novavax is among several pharmaceutical companies racing to develop coronavirus vaccines, with Pfizer and Moderna launching human trials earlier this month. Source: Axios, Novavax

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lifts the state of emergency in all remaining parts of the country, including Tokyo. (Associated Press)

The End Tuesday

 

Spaceship Earth – Biosphere 2

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Tuesday,  May 26th, 2020

The Bulgarian captain of a Portuguese-flagged cargo ship who was kidnapped along with seven other sailors by pirates off the coast of Benin last month, is freed. The captain of the Tommi Ritscher had been kidnapped at the port of Cotonou in the Gulf of Guinea on April 19. (Reuters)

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lifts the state of emergency in all remaining parts of the country, including Tokyo. (Associated Press)

Candidate for the ruling party, National Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defense of Democracy, and retired general Evariste Ndayishimiye wins the election with 68.72% of votes cast amid an election preceded by political violence including the arrest, torture and murder of opposition activists, according to a local human rights group. (Reuters)

Americans celebrate Memorial Day weekend amid pandemic  Americans are marking Memorial Day with pared down events as states continue to limit the sizes of public gatherings to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Many parades and other traditional gatherings have been canceled or moved online, and will pay tribute to the more than 1,000 veterans who have been killed by COVID-19 in addition to those who have died while serving in the military. President Trump attended ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery and Fort McHenry. He spent Saturday and Sunday golfing and unleashing a flurry of attacks against Democrats and other critics on Twitter. Source: KTLA

Joe Biden wears mask in 1st public appearance since March  Former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday made his first public appearance since mid-March as he visited a veterans memorial in Delaware, notably clad in a mask. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee laid a wreath in honor of Memorial Day, alongside his wife, Jill Biden, who also wore a mask. Biden’s choice to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation to wear a mask during the coronavirus pandemic is in stark contrast to President Donald Trump, who often refuses to wear masks in public. While Biden’s advisers hope to resume regular campaign outings eventually, they intend to do so “when safety allows, and we will not do that a day sooner,” said Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon. Source: The Associated Press

WHO temporarily pauses hydroxychloroquine study  The World Health Organization is temporarily halting a study on hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as potential COVID-19 treatments due to safety concerns. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the decision on Monday, after a study published in The Lancet medical journal suggested COVID-19 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine were more likely to die. The drugs were being reviewed as part of the WHO’s Solidarity Trial. The Data Safety Monitoring Board will review data about the drugs to assess whether they should continue to be used in the trial, though other arms of the trial will carry on. President Donald Trump last week revealed he takes hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure against COVID-19, despite the FDA cautioning against the drug. Source: CNN

Virgin Orbit’s inaugural rocket launch fails  Virgin Orbit, the company founded by Richard Branson with the aim of launching smaller satellites, tried unsuccessfully on Monday to launch a rocket off the coast of Southern California. It was the company’s first test launch of a new rocket, which had been in development for five years. The rocket was released from a jet dubbed Cosmic Girl, and dropped over the Pacific Ocean. In a statement, Virgin Orbit said it could confirm a “clean release from the aircraft. However, the mission terminated shortly into the flight. Cosmic Girl and our flight crew are safe and returning to base.” The company said it will “learn more as our engineers analyze the mountain of data we collected today.” The rocket carried a test satellite, but the purpose of the flight was to gather data on each step of the launch process. Source: The Associated Press

Trump blocks travel from Brazil after coronavirus cases surge  President Trump on Sunday said the United States would suspend travel from Brazil, after a surge in coronavirus cases made the South American nation one of the world’s hotspots. Brazil now has more than 22,000 deaths and 347,000 confirmed cases, the second most after the U.S. Trump had already banned some travelers from China, Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Iran, but not from Russia, which has the third highest number of coronavirus cases. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany called the Brazil restrictions another “decisive action to protect our country.” Filipe Martins, who advises Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on international affairs, said the travel ban wasn’t “anything specifically against Brazil. Ignore the hysteria of the press.” Source: The Associated Press

In his first appearance in three weeks, leader Kim Jong-un meets with state officials to discuss improving nuclear war deterrence measures, including increased artillery firepower. (Reuters)

The End 

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Monday, Memorial Day, May 25th, 2020

In his first appearance in three weeks, leader Kim Jong-un meets with state officials to discuss improving nuclear war deterrence measures, including increased artillery firepower. (Reuters)

The first of five Iranian tankers en route to Venezuela to deliver fuel enters Venezuelan territorial waters, after being escorted by the Venezuelan Air Force and Navy. Both Iran and Venezuela warned the United States not to interfere with the delivery. (BBC)

Thousands of protesters take to the streets of Hong Kong to oppose a controversial national security law expected to be passed by China’s National People’s Congress. (BBC)

Americans head outdoors for Memorial Day weekend as COVID-19 deaths near 100,000 Holiday travelers headed to the beach and elsewhere Saturday for Memorial Day weekend amid the coronavirus pandemic, as the country nears 100,000 deaths related to the virus. Some places became so crowded they had to shut down, though there were also some surprise openings of outdoor sites like South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore National Memorial, which wasn’t expected to allow visitors so soon. In New York, which has achieved a sustained decline in new infections and deaths, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said he would allow up to 10 people to gather for nonessential activities, provided they adhere to social distancing guidelines. President Trump, meanwhile, took to the golf course for the first time in more than 70 days Saturday. Source: Reuters

Report: Warren plans to host high-dollar fundraiser for Biden Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has agreed to host a gathering of big money donors for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden, The New York Times reports. The event, which will take place online because of the coronavirus pandemic, is scheduled for June 15, three people with knowledge of the plans told the Times on condition of anonymity. During Warren’s own presidential campaign, which ended shortly after Super Tuesday in March, the senator, a progressive Democrat, vowed not to attend private events or call wealthy potential donors for contributions. Instead, she relied on grassroots donations. But Warren had previously built a network of high-dollar donors during her Senate campaigns and will reportedly turn to that group to aid Biden in his battle against President Trump. Source: The New York Times

Wuhan lab director says coronavirus origin theory is ‘pure fabrication’ Wang Yanyi, the director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, told Chinese state media Sunday the lab was working on three live strains of bat coronavirus, but the closest genetic match to the virus that causes COVID-19 and sparked a global health crisis was only 79.8 percent. Therefore, Wang said, claims by the likes of President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the virus may have escaped from the facility are “pure fabrication.” As tensions between the U.S. and China have heightened since the outbreak, Trump and Pompeo have leaned into the lab-origin theory. But the scientific consensus remains that the pathogen was passed from bats to humans through an intermediary species at a wet market in Wuhan last year, although it’s becoming more challenging to pinpoint the animal. Source: The Guardian

China reports no cases for the first time since the pandemic began, according to the National Health Commission. (Reuters)

Thousands of protestors, mostly supporters of the far-right party Vox, participate in car protests in Madrid, Seville, Barcelona and other cities against the continuing lockdown and the national government. (BBC)

 The End