FRANCE
Study gauges COVID-19
About one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear the novel coronavirus is worse than the seasonal flu, and a study released yesterday outlined just how much worse, showing a death rate almost three times higher among COVID-19 patients. The research, using French national data and published in the journal The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, underscored the increased severity of COVID-19. Researchers compared data for 89,530 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in March and April with 45,819 people hospitalized with seasonal influenza between December 2018 and the end of February last year. About 16.9 percent of COVID-19 patients died during the period of study. This compares to a death rate of 5.8 percent among those with influenza. Catherine Quantin, a professor at the Dijon Bourgogne University Hospital who jointly led the study, said that the difference in death rates was “particularly striking” given that the 2018/19 flu season was the deadliest France had seen in five years.
UNITED STATES
Strip clubs to stay open
A San Diego judge on Wednesday ruled that two local strip clubs can stay open, despite an explosion in COVID-19 cases in California that has forced authorities to severely restrict “non-essential” activities. San Diego County Superior Court Judge Joel Wohlfeil went further in his preliminary injunction, saying that all “businesses with restaurant service” are exempt from health restrictions imposed by the state. Pacers Showgirls International and Cheetahs Gentlemen’s Club had filed a lawsuit asking to be allowed to continue operations while taking measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Performers would be masked, dance on stage solo and observe physical distancing, among other precautions. Such establishments “provide sustenance to and enliven the spirits of the community, while providing employers and employees with means to put food on the table and secure shelter,” Wohlfeil wrote in his decision.
UNITED STATES
Court rejects elephant case
An appellate court on Thursday upheld a lower court’s ruling dismissing a petition from an animal rights group for an elephant in the Bronx Zoo to get human-like rights and be moved to a sanctuary. The Nonhuman Rights Project had said that Happy, an elephant, was “unlawfully imprisoned” at the zoo, where it has been for more than 40 years. A judge in February, ruling against the petition, said that New York state courts have ruled that animals are not legally “persons.” The appeals court ruling agreed with that decision, saying: “A judicial determination that species other than homo sapiens are ‘persons’ for some juridical purposes, and therefore have certain rights, would lead to a labyrinth of questions that common-law processes are ill-equipped to answer.”
CUBA
President open to US talks
President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Thursday said that he was ready to talk with US president-elect Joe Biden “on any subject,” but vowed to protect his country’s sovereignty and socialist ideals. Relations with US President Donald Trump were badly strained, and on the campaign trail Biden vowed to change US policy towards the communist country. “We are willing to discuss any issue. What we are not willing to negotiate and what we will not give in on is the revolution, socialism and our sovereignty,” Diaz-Canel said in a speech at the legislature. “Those principles will never be on the table,” he added.
JAPAN
Suga to bolster military
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga yesterday signaled to North Korea and China he would bolster the nation’s military to counter threats they pose to security by allocating an estimated US$5 billion for sea-based missile interceptors and new anti-ship missiles. His cabinet authorized spending to add two Aegis-equipped destroyers to Japan’s fleet of vessels — to bring its tally to 10 and make it the largest behind the US Navy. It would also develop a new, longer-range surface-to-ship missile that would to counter threats at sea, in a move that comes as its warships and those from China have sailed near each other off the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in the East China Sea, claimed by both nations and Taiwan. No numbers were given on spending for the new ballistic missile defense system in the next fiscal year budget plan, but the costs for the destroyers alone were nearly US$5 billion, the Nikkei reported, citing estimates from private contractors.
AUSTRALIA
Deaths labeled ‘terrorism’
Detectives suspect the deaths of an elderly couple in their Brisbane home is a “terrorism incident” perpetrated by a knife-wielding man who was shot dead by police, officials said yesterday. Raghe Abdi, 22, threatened police with a knife before he was shot dead on a highway on the outskirts of Brisbane on Thursday morning, officers said. The bodies of Maurice Anthill, 87, and his 86-year-old wife, Zoe Anthill, were found in their home near where Abdi died, Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Tracy Linford said. Linfold declined to detail how they had died, but homicide detectives had found evidence that Abdi had been in the house, she said. Australia Federal Police suspect Abdi had been influenced by the Islamic State group. He was arrested on suspicion that he was trying to join extremists when he attempted to depart Brisbane Airport for Somalia in May last year.
CHINA
Vaccine drive targets 50m
Authorities have started an ambitious effort to inoculate 50 million people against COVID-19 ahead of the Lunar New Year, using locally developed shots that are moving closer to receiving regulatory approval. The launch would focus on giving Chinese-made vaccines to key groups, including hospital, police, airport and customs staff, as well as utility workers, said people familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified as the discussions are private. The rollout would be the equivalent of inoculating the entire population of South Korea in less than two months, and sets the most ambitious pace globally, ahead of others such as the US and UK who are also racing to distribute doses.
JAN. 1 CLAUSE: As military service is voluntary, applications for permission to stay abroad for over three months for men up to age 45 must, in principle, be granted A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has triggered an uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime. The legislation, which went into effect on Jan. 1 aims to bolster the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription. If the “modernized” model fails to pull in enough recruits, parliament will be compelled to discuss the reintroduction of compulsory service, German
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
Filipino farmers like Romeo Wagayan have been left with little choice but to let their vegetables rot in the field rather than sell them at a loss, as rising oil prices linked to the Iran war drive up the cost of harvesting, labor and transport. “There’s nothing we can do,” said Wagayan, a 57-year old vegetable farmer in the northern Philippine province of Benguet. “If we harvest it, our losses only increase because of labor, transportation and packing costs. We don’t earn anything from it. That’s why we decided not to harvest at all,” he said. Soaring costs caused by the Middle East
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s officially declared wealth is fairly modest: some savings and a jointly owned villa in Budapest. However, voters in what Transparency International deems the EU’s most corrupt country believe otherwise — and they might make Orban pay in a general election this Sunday that could spell an end to his 16-year rule. The wealth amassed by Orban’s inner circle is fueling the increasingly palpable frustration of a population grappling with sluggish growth, high inflation and worsening public services. “The government’s communication machine worked well as long as our economic situation remained relatively good,” said Zoltan Ranschburg, a political analyst
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