Month: October 2020

Facebook, Twitter and other internet companies are rolling out new policies on controversial content during the U.S. presidential campaign. Michelle Quinn reports.
Camera: Deana Mitchell
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Britain’s finance minister Tuesday defended the government’s localized three-tiered approach to fighting the spread of COVID-19 in the country, saying another national lockdown would carry too heavy a cost.Finance Chief Rishi Sunak, also known as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, spoke to the House of Commons Tuesday about the government’s approach and said the government did not rule out tougher restrictions. But when opposition party members called for a temporary two-week “circuit breaker” lockdown — as suggested last week by Britain’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), Sunak asked the members to “acknowledge the stark reality” of the economic impact of such a lockdown.
 
He said the circuit breaker lockdown would cause unnecessary pain and suffering on those in parts of the country where the virus prevalence is low. A localized approach is the best approach,” he said.
 
Opposition Labor Party Leader Keir Starmer last week called for the circuit breaker lockdown after SAGE made the recommendation. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has resisted that recommendation in favor of a three-tiered COVID-19 alert system.
 
Johnson’s plan includes areas classified as medium, high or very high virus risk. In the top tier, pubs must close, and people are barred from mixing with members of other households. So far, only the Liverpool and Lancashire regions of northwest England have been placed in Tier 3, the highest level.
 
Nearby Greater Manchester, with a population of almost 3 million, has been holding out for more support for workers and businesses affected by the restrictions.
 
Britain has Europe’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak, with more than 43,800 confirmed deaths.
 
Meanwhile, governments in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which control their own health policies, are taking strong steps.  Wales has the strictest plan, imposing a two-week “firebreak” lockdown starting Friday which will close all nonessential businesses and ban most trips outside the home.
 
In Scotland, pubs and other leisure facilities are closed, and sports and live events are banned in the largest cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, with slightly less stringent restrictions elsewhere.
 
Northern Ireland has closed schools for two weeks, banned most social gatherings and shut down many businesses, including bars and restaurants for a month.
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A spacecraft from U.S. space agency NASA is set to touch an asteroid, break off a sample and bring it back to Earth for the first time during a history-making mission that culminates Tuesday.The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft — an acronym for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer — is set to attempt a touch-and-go sample collection on the asteroid Bennu later Tuesday afternoon. Starting at just before 2 p.m. Eastern time, the spacecraft will begin its set of maneuvers to slowly descend to the Nightingale landing spot on the surface of the asteroid to collect the sample. The event is expected to take more than four hours.In a statement on its website, NASA says OSIRIS-REx is about the size of a large passenger van, has been orbit orbiting the asteroid since 2018 and is now more than 321 million kilometers from Earth. Scientists are interested in Bennu because they believe it contains material from the early solar system and may contain the molecular precursors to life and Earth’s oceans.The asteroid is about as tall as the Empire State Building and could potentially threaten Earth late in the next century, with a 1‐in‐2,700 chance of affecting our planet during one of its close approaches.The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will orbit the asteroid until next year, when it will begin its journey home to Earth. It is expected to land with the sample in 2023. 
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The U.S. Justice Department has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google for allegedly violating federal law by using its dominant market position to stifle competition.The agency alleged in its long-awaited lawsuit Tuesday that Google abused its dominant market position to maintain monopolies in online search and search advertising.Google did not immediately comment on the lawsuit, the most significant legal challenge to the U.S. technology sector in more than two decades.Consumer advocates and legislators have long accused Google of abusing its dominant market position to suppress competition, increase profits and hurt consumers. The suit, filed in federal court in Washington, could be the first of many other significant government antitrust actions against Silicon Valley. The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission also are currently investigating Apple, Amazon and Facebook.A senior economic adviser to President Donald Trump said two years ago that the administration was considering whether Google searches should be regulated by the government. Trump has frequently criticized Google and promoted unsubstantiated claims by conservatives that the company suppresses conservative viewpoints, meddles in U.S. elections and favors collaborating with the Chinese military over the U.S. Defense Department.Google has captured about 90% of the world’s internet search market, the result of offering a product that is preferred by billions of users daily, the company has said.The California-based corporation has been preparing for the lawsuit and is expected to aggressively oppose any efforts to force it to spin off its services into individual businesses. A recent House Judiciary subcommittee report concluded after a yearlong investigation into Silicon Valley’s market dominance that Google has monopolized the search market. The report said Google established its dominant position through acquisition in several markets, buying about 260 companies that other businesses had developed over a 20-year span. Google was fined $1.7 billion by the European Union in 2019 for preventing websites from using the tech giant’s rivals from locating advertisers. The EU also fined Google $2.6 billion in 2017 for favoring its own online shopping venues over its rivals, and $4.9 billion in 2018 for blocking competitors from its Android operating system.
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The World Food Program reports food insecurity is increasing worldwide because of the devastating socio-economic impact of COVID-19, with tens of millions of people on the verge of famine.Hunger is on the rise as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage across the world. Last year, the World Food Program, the world’s largest humanitarian operation fighting hunger, provided food aid to nearly 100 million people.  Amer Daoudi is WFP senior director of operations and corporate response.  He tells VOA the number of people who do not know where their next meal is coming from has risen by 39 percent this year.“So, the global figure is the immediate need 138 million but if the situation continues to deteriorate, we can end up with almost 260 million people in critical need,” Daoudi said.   The latest Integrated Phase Classification, a system that gauges the severity of food emergencies finds 146 million people in 49 countries are facing an acute food and livelihood crisis.  The IPC finds another 29 million people in 36 countries are on the verge of famine.Daoudi says WFP will need $5.1 billion to deal with this hunger crisis over the next six months.  He says countries in Africa are among those in greatest need.  He notes 13 million people in the Central Sahelian countries of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have been laid low by the pandemic as well as by conflict and climate change.  He says they will require life-saving food assistance.“We are seeing the knock-on effect of COVID, whether it is on trade, socio-economic income, as well as inflation,” Daoudi said.  “In Africa, South Sudan comes to mind.  Sudan, southern Africa region is suffering…DRC—Congo is seeing quite significant increase in needs.  Up to almost 22 million people this year.”The WFP official says similar conditions of distress exist in all regions of the world and are likely to get worse as COVID continues to evolve.  He says the current spike in cases and deaths in the United States, Europe and Latin America are not encouraging. 
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Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is taking part in Phase 3 trials of a potential coronavirus vaccine.  Venezuelan state television showed Zelaya receiving a shot of Russia’s experimental Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Caracas on Monday.  Venezuela is the first Latin American country to participate in the testing process.FILE – A Russian medical worker administers a shot of Russia’s experimental Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 15, 2020.Western experts raised questions over the Sputnik V vaccine’s readiness for mass trials, citing the fact that Russia had tested the vaccine on just a small sample group before launching widespread testing. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro discounted the criticism, expressing satisfaction Zelaya is taking part in the trials.  So far, Venezuela has confirmed more than 87,000 coronavirus cases and at least 736 deaths. 
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The world has now surpassed 40 million confirmed cases of coronavirus infections, as surges of cases in Europe and the United States have led to more restrictions on residents. According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, 40.2 million people have been infected with the virus as of Monday evening, and more than 1.1 million have died from COVID-19.   Ireland announced some of the strictest measures in Europe this fall to combat a surge in cases. The government told residents not to travel more than 5 kilometers from their home, closed nonessential retail businesses, and limited restaurants and pubs to takeout only.Part of Germany’s Bavaria region will go into a strict lockdown Tuesday. Officials in Berchtesgadener Land district announced Monday that residents will not be able to leave their homes without a valid reason for two weeks. Schools, restaurants and hotels will be closed to stop the spread of the virus.   FILE – A medical staff member performs a COVID-19 test at a coronavirus test center in Cologne, Germany, Oct. 15, 2020. (AP)Wales became the second nation in Britain to lock down large parts of its economy, even as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resisted calls to do the same throughout England. The Welsh government announced Monday it would close nonessential retail, hospitality and tourism businesses, beginning Friday.  Northern Ireland recently ordered new lockdown measures, closing schools for two weeks and shutting down many businesses, including bars and restaurants, for a month. Poland’s government said Monday it is transforming its National Stadium in Warsaw into a field hospital to handle the growing number of COVID-19 cases. The European Commission on Monday launched a system across the EU to link national COVID-19 tracing apps, beginning with COVID-19 trackers in Germany, Italy and Ireland. United StatesIn the United States, cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in almost every state, and an analysis by Reuters found the number of new cases in the past week rose 13% to more than 393,000, approaching levels last seen during a summer peak. A Wisconsin judge on Monday reinstated an order from Gov. Tony Evers’s administration limiting indoor public gatherings, including a 25% capacity limit on the number of people attending restaurants and bars.  “This critically important ruling will help us prevent the spread of this virus by restoring limits on public gatherings,” Evers said in a statement. A registered nurse takes a patient’s nasal swab at a coronavirus disease drive-thru testing site in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, Oct. 18, 2020. (Reuters)The United States continues to lead the world in COVID-19 cases, with 8.2 million infections and more than 220,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.  The World Health Organization on Monday said Europe and North America should follow the example of Asian countries and quarantine anyone who comes into contact with infected people. Mike Ryan, the agency’s top emergency expert, said the populations of Asian countries have shown “higher levels of trust” in their governments that have reduced the spread of the virus by isolating cases and quarantining contacts.Across the globe In Australia, the southern city of Melbourne is slowly coming out of three months of strict lockdown orders.    As of Monday, the city’s 5 million residents can spend as much time away from home as they wish for exercising or school, and the distance they can travel away from home has been increased from 5 to 25 kilometers. Outdoor gatherings have an increased limit from five people to 10 from two households, while facilities such as skate parks, golf courses and tennis courts will reopen.  Men queue for a haircut outside a barber shop in Melbourne, Oct. 19, 2020. (AFP)The relaxed rules come as the capital city of Victoria state reported just two new coronavirus cases on Sunday and no deaths. Authorities had reported more than 700 new daily infections at the peak of the resurgence in July.    In Israel, a veteran Palestinian negotiator and secretary-general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Saeb Erekat, was rushed Sunday to a Jerusalem hospital, where he has been placed on a ventilator to treat COVID-19. The 65-year-old Erekat, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier this month, underwent a lung transplant in the United States in 2017, which compromised his immune system and made him especially vulnerable to the virus.    A spokesperson at Hadassah Medical Center said Monday that Erekat “had a quiet night,” but his condition eventually deteriorated and is “now defined as critical.”  Another prominent person infected with COVID-19 is South African health minister Zweli Mkhize. Mkhize issued a statement Sunday that he and his wife tested positive for the virus the day before after experiencing mild symptoms. Mkhize’s news comes days after South Africa officially surpassed 700,000 infections.    Iran reported 337 new COVID-19 deaths Monday, breaking the country’s single-day death toll record of 279, set on Sunday.  U.S. firm VaxartAs scientists around the world race to develop therapies and an eventual vaccine against the novel coronavirus, U.S.-based biotechnology firm Vaxart, one of the many companies working on the vaccine, is under federal investigation for allegedly exaggerating its involvement in the Trump administration’s multibillion-dollar vaccine development program.    The company claimed in a news release in June that its experimental oral vaccine had been selected by Operation Warp Speed, which sent its shares skyrocketing from $3 to $17 a share. A hedge fund that partly controlled the company sold all its shares in Vaxart, reaping a $200 million profit.  But the government later revealed that Vaxart had not received any funding from Operation Warp Speed, and that its vaccine was only involved in preliminary studies on animals. The company is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Justice Department, and is also facing numerous lawsuits from shareholders. Megan Duzor and Richard Green contributed to this report.
 
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U.S. prosecutors on Monday announced charges against six Russian military intelligence officers in connection with a global computer hacking campaign that targeted the 2017 French presidential election and the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, and carried out other high-profile cyberattacks.   The campaign, spanning from 2015 to 2020, was the “most disruptive and destructive” carried out by a single group of cyber intruders, law enforcement officials said.  The six hackers, all officers of the Russian military intelligence service known as GRU, “engaged in computer intrusions and attacks intended to support Russian government efforts to undermine, retaliate against, or otherwise destabilize” entities and institutions seen as anti-Russia, the Justice Department said.  The same unit, known to cybersecurity researchers as the “Sandworm” team, was allegedly behind the hacking of Democratic computer networks as part of Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.  FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, visits the new GRU military intelligence headquarters building in Moscow, Nov. 8, 2006.One of the six hackers charged in a new 50-page indictment, Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev, had been indicted along with 11 other GRU officers in 2018 in connection with the 2016 election interference.  Russian President Vladimir Putin recently called for a cyber reset between Russia and the United States.  John Demers, head of the Justice Department’s national security division, said the indictment underscores why Russia’s proposed reset “is nothing more than dishonest rhetoric and cynical and cheap propaganda.”  The indictment “lays bare Russia’s use of its cyber capabilities to destabilize and interfere with the domestic political and economic systems of other countries,” Demers said at a virtual press conference at the Justice Department.  The five others were identified as Yuriy Sergeyevich Andrienko, Sergey Vladimirovich Detistov, Pavel Valeryevich Frolov, Pavel Valeryevich Frolov and Petr Nikolayevich Pliskin. They face charges of conspiracy, computer hacking, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and false registration of a domain name. All six remain at large. The Russian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. The charges, which come two weeks before another contentious U.S. presidential election, do not allege election interference, Demers said. “Rather, today’s charges illustrate how Unit 74455’s election activities were but one part of the work of a persistent, sophisticated hacking group busy sabotaging perceived enemies or detractors of the Russian Federation, regardless of the consequences to innocent bystanders or their destabilizing effect,” Demers said.  In recent months, the Justice Department has announced a series of indictments charging hackers working for China, Iran and North Korea.     Asked if the indictment was meant to be a warning to U.S. adversaries seeking to disrupt the U.S. elections, a Justice Department official said, “I would say that generally, it is a warning, a warning to these countries and the actors that are working for them, these activities are not quite as deniable as they might have hoped they were originally.” The official spoke during a press call and asked not to be identified. Cyberattack targetsThe GRU hackers’ targets included Ukrainian government and critical infrastructure; Georgian companies and government entities; the elections in France; an investigation into Russia’s poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal in Britain; the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang; and several U.S. corporations. FILE – Flag bearers from various nations attend the closing ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Feb. 25, 2018.During their yearslong campaign, the hackers used “some of the world’s most destructive malware” to strike targets on three continents, according to the Justice Department.   In Ukraine, using malware known as BlackEnergy, Industroyer, and KillDisk, the hackers attacked the country’s electric power grid, Ministry of Finance, and State Treasury Service from December 2015 through December 2016.Ahead of the 2017 presidential election in France, the GRU officers allegedly carried out spear-phishing and hack-and-leak operations targeting President Emmanuel Macron’s party, French politicians and local French governments.In June 2017, the hackers deployed malware known as NotPetya to infect computers around the world, targeting the networks of hospitals and medical facilities in the Heritage Valley Health System in Pennsylvania; a FedEx subsidiary; and an unidentified U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturer. Masquerading as ransomware, NotPetya was capable of bringing down entire computer networks within seconds, officials said. At Heritage, patient lists, patient history, physical examination files, and laboratory records were wiped out. In all, the attacks resulted in losses of nearly $1 billion to the companies.    During the Winter Olympic Games, the hackers used malware known as Olympic Destroyer to knock the games’ official website offline and prevented attendees from gaining their tickets. The attack came within hours of the Olympic Committee’s decision to disqualify Russian athletes over doping.In Georgia, with which Russia has tense relations, the hackers targeted a major media company in 2018 and defaced about 15,000 websites in 2019. “They replaced the homepages of those websites with an image of a former Georgian president known for his efforts to counter Russian influence in Georgia with the caption, ‘I’ll be back,'” said a Justice Department official. John Hultquist, senior director of analysis for cybersecurity firm FireEye, said the indictment “reads like a laundry list of many of the most important cyberattack incidents we have ever witnessed.” “Sandworm has been involved in many of the most aggressive cyberattacks and information operations ever seen,” Hultquist said in a statement. Smuggling ring Separately, the Justice Department unsealed charges against 10 alleged members of an international smuggling ring for trafficking more than $50 million worth of electronic devices, from the United States to Russia. The defendants, eight of whom have been arrested, allegedly used employees of Russia’s Aeroflot Airlines as couriers to smuggle Apple products and other electronics to Russia.   
  
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President Donald Trump’s predictions that a coronavirus vaccine would be ready before Election Day, Nov. 3, will not be met. On Friday, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced it would not seek emergency authorization to release its coronavirus vaccine until late November.  Two other vaccine frontrunners are on hold. A fourth is unlikely to have results until the end of the year. Trump has said repeatedly that a vaccine would be available to many before the election as part of the administration’s highly touted Operation Warp Speed, created to accelerate the development of a vaccine. Top scientists in and out of government have long said that timeline is unrealistic. Trump Contradicts CDC Director on Vaccine and MasksSeeking to draw a contrast with President Donald Trump’s approach to combating the pandemic, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden laid out plans for developing and distributing a vaccine if he wins in the November election Conceding the point earlier this month, Trump blamed politics, without explanation. “I think we should have it before the election,” Trump said in a video on Twitter shortly after his release from the hospital following COVID-19 treatment. “But frankly, the politics gets involved, and that’s OK, they wanna play their games. It’s gonna be right after the election.” A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT! pic.twitter.com/uhLIcknAjT
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020Safety first In a statement Friday, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that the company may know by the end of October whether its vaccine works. But it will not reach its safety milestone until late November.  “Safety is, and will remain, our number one priority,” Bourla wrote. Pfizer’s vaccine is one of several taking a novel approach to immunization. Rather than injecting patients with a dead or weakened virus or a piece of the germ, the vaccine contains genetic instructions for a part of the coronavirus. The patient’s body takes up the instructions, known as mRNA, and produces the virus fragment. The immune system responds to the fragment, priming the body to fight off the real virus. Pfizer is collaborating with German biotech firm BioNTech, which came up with the genetic instructions being tested in the vaccine. Nearly 40,000 patients are taking part in the clinical trial so far.Before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will consider an emergency use authorization, the company needs to monitor at least half the patients for two months after their last dose to watch for side effects. “We estimate we will reach this milestone in the third week of November,” Bourla wrote.Another vaccine frontrunner that uses mRNA technology, from biotech company Moderna, also expects results in late November.On hold Meanwhile, two other vaccine trials have paused because of potential safety problems.AstraZeneca said it put its trial on hold temporarily after at least one participant came down with an “unexplained illness.” Media reports have described the illness as transverse myelitis, a form of spinal inflammation that can cause pain, weakness and paralysis in the limbs, as well as bladder and bowel problems. But the company has not confirmed the diagnosis.Pauses to check possible safety issues are not uncommon in vaccine trials, experts say, and there are several factors besides the vaccine that may have caused the current illness. The trial has resumed in the United Kingdom, Brazil, India and South Africa. It remains on hold in the United States, however.Another vaccine using a similar approach, from pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, also has hit a safety snag, though its problems, too, may be unrelated to the vaccine.The company reported an “unexplained illness” in one of its trial participants last week.”We’re also learning more about this participant’s illness, and it’s important to have all the facts before we share additional information,” the company said in a statement. Having received billions of dollars of government money, drug companies are taking the unprecedented step of scaling up vaccine manufacturing before results are in.There won’t be enough for everyone right away, however. Government agencies are drawing up plans for who should get vaccinated first. Health care workers, first responders and more vulnerable populations including the elderly are likely to be first in line. It may be the middle of next year before most Americans are vaccinated, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief Robert Redfield told Congress last month.  
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The World Health Organization says 184 countries have now joined the COVID-19 global vaccine alliance, known as COVAX, designed to speed development and ensure distribution of viable vaccines and treatments for the ailment caused by the coronavirus.At the organization’s Monday briefing at its headquarters in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Ecuador and Uruguay are the most recent nations to join the cooperative program.The WHO chief said that with more than 100 COVID-19 vaccine candidates under development, COVAX represents “the largest portfolio of potential COVID-19 vaccines and the most effective way to share safe and effective vaccines equitably across the world.”Tedros maintains that the “equitably sharing of vaccines is the fastest way to safeguard high-risk communities, stabilize health systems and drive a truly global economic recovery.”The United States is not part of the COVAX program, calling it too constraining. Earlier this year, the Trump administration said it was withdrawing support for WHO, saying they were too heavily influenced by China, which last month announced it would be part of the COVAX program. Trump has blamed China for the global spread of the disease.In his recorded remarks from Beijing to last month’s U.N. General Assembly, Chinese President Xi Jinping said any attempt to politicize the pandemic should be rejected. He said the WHO should be given a leading role in the international response to the coronavirus.  Tedros said that as the virus spreads in Europe and other parts of the world, “sharing lifesaving health supplies globally, including personal protective equipment, supplies of oxygen, dexamethasone and vaccines when they’re proven to be safe and effective, we can save lives and get through this pandemic.”
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Finland’s Nokia has been selected by NASA to build the first cellular network on the moon, the company said on Monday.
 
The lunar network will be part of the U.S. space agency’s efforts to return humans to the moon by 2024 and build long-term settlements there under its Artemis program.
 
Nokia said the first wireless broadband communications system in space would be built on the lunar surface in late 2022, before humans make it back there.
 
The Finnish company will partner with Texas-based private space craft design firm Intuitive Machines to deliver the network equipment to the moon on their lunar lander.
 
After delivery, the network will configure itself and establish the first LTE (Long-Term Evolution) communications system on the moon, Nokia said. “The network will provide critical communication capabilities for many different data-transmission applications, including vital command and control functions, remote control of lunar rovers, real-time navigation and streaming of high definition video,” Nokia said.
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Officials in Wales announced Monday they will impose a two-week “firebreak” lockdown effective Friday, requiring all but essential workers to stay at home to combat an accelerating second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak. Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford announced the move at a news conference, saying the lockdown will be in effect from Friday to November 9. During that time, everyone in Wales will be required to stay at home, except for the most critical workers. He said that that means people will be working from home wherever possible. Referring to the lockdown as a “firebreak,” Drakeford said it “is the shortest we can make it but that means that it will have to be sharp and deep in order to have the impact we need it to have on the virus.”   Drakeford said that while he understood that people were tired of COVID-19 restrictions, the imposition of rules was essential as critical care units were already full.  All non-essential retail, leisure, hospitality and tourist businesses will have to close in Wales. Places of worship will also close for regular service. Last week, Britain’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE)recommended a similar break for all of Britain, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson rejected it in favor of his regional three-tiered “alert” system approach.  Britain recorded 16,982 new daily cases of COVID-19 in the space of 24 hours, according to government data issued on Sunday, up from 16,717 the previous day. Wales recorded 950 cases, up from just 400 per day at the start of the month.    
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Officials in Australia’s Victoria state, once the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, began loosening lockdown restrictions Monday as new and active cases continued to decline.As of Monday, residents of the state — which includes Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city — will no longer face limits on the time they can spend away from their homes for education or recreation and will be allowed to travel up to 25 kilometers from their homes. Parks, golf courses and beauty salons are also open, but are subject to mask and social distancing requirements.  Outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people from two households will be allowed and golf and tennis games can resume.Residents and some lawmakers said they felt the region waited too long to loosen the restrictions, but State Premier Daniel Andrews defended them, saying every one of them was about safety and keeping virus case numbers low.  Regulations will be further loosened on Nov. 2 with the partial reopening of shops, bars and restaurants.Victoria state reported only four new cases of the coronavirus on Monday and one death.
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The world has now surpassed 40 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections. According to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, 40,050,902 people have been infected with the disease as of early Monday morning, and more than 1.1 million have died.  The most recent cases include Saeb Erekat, the veteran Palestinian negotiator and secretary-general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, who was rushed to a Jerusalem hospital Sunday, where he has been placed on a ventilator.FILE – Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat meets with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi (not pictured) in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 6, 2020. The 65-year-old Erekat, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier this month, underwent a lung transplant in the United States in 2017, which compromised his immune system and  made him especially vulnerable to the virus.   A spokesperson at Hadassah Medical Center said Monday that Erekat “had a quiet night” but his condition eventually deteriorated and is “now defined as critical.” Another prominent person infected with COVID-19 IS South African health minister Zweli Mkhize.  Mkhize issued a statement Sunday that he and his wife tested positive for the virus the day before after experiencing mild symptoms.  Mkhize’s news comes days after South Africa officially surpassed 700,000 infections.   According to the Associated Press, Iran has confirmed 337 new coronavirus deaths, breaking the country’s single-day death toll record of 279, set just on Sunday. As scientists around the world race to develop therapies and an eventual vaccine against the novel coronavirus, U.S.-based biotechnology firm Vaxart, one of the many companies working on the vaccine, is under federal investigation for allegedly exaggerating its involvement in the Trump administration’s multi-billion vaccine development program.   The company claimed in a press release in June that its experimental oral vaccine had been selected by Operation Warp Speed, which sent its shares skyrocketing from $3 to $17 a share.  A hedge fund that partly controlled the company sold all of its shares in Vaxart, reaping $200 million profit. But the government later revealed that Vaxart had not received any funding from Operation Warp Speed, and that its vaccine was only involved in preliminary studies on animals.  The company is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Justice Department, and is also facing numerous lawsuits from shareholders.   The U.S. continues to lead the world in COVID cases, with 8.1 million infections, and nearly 220,000 deaths. FILE – Medical staffers take swabs as they test for COVID-19 at a drive-through, in Rome, Oct. 13, 2020.While cities in Italy, France and Britain are imposing new restrictions to blunt a second wave of COVID-19, the southern Australian city of Melbourne is slowly coming out of three months of strict lockdown orders.   As of midnight Sunday local time, the city’s 5 million residents will be able to spend as much time away from home as they wish for exercising or school, and the distance they can travel away from home has been increased from five to 25 kilometers.  Outdoor gatherings have an increased limit from five people to 10 from two households, while facilities such as skate parks, golf courses and tennis courts will reopen. The relaxed rules come as the capital city of Victoria state reported just two new coronavirus cases on Sunday and no deaths.  Authorities had reported more than 700 new daily infections at the peak of the resurgence in July.     
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Dr. Scott Atlas is a neuroradiologist, a fellow at a conservative-leaning think tank, a science adviser to President Donald Trump and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. He is also the latest person in Trump’s world to have a tweet blocked by Twitter. Facebook to Ban Anti-Vaccine AdsThe social media giant says the efforts are part of an attempt to support vaccinesOver the weekend, Atlas tweeted “Masks work? NO,” and said widespread use of masks is not supported, according to the Associated Press. Twitter told the AP that the tweet violated its policy that prohibits false and misleading information about COVID-19 that could lead to harm. The “This Tweet is unavailable” label was put on Atlas’ Twitter feed where his tweet once was.Atlas followed up with another tweet, which remained on the site as of Sunday night. He praised what he called Trump’s “guideline,” which is to “use masks for their intended purpose – when close to others, especially hi risk. Otherwise, social distance. No widespread mandates.” That means the right policy is @realDonaldTrump guideline: use masks for their intended purpose – when close to others, especially hi risk. Otherwise, social distance. No widespread mandates. #CommonSensehttps://t.co/GZpBZxfNYa— Scott W. Atlas (@SWAtlasHoover) October 17, 2020The deletion of Atlas’ tweet is the latest in what has become an ongoing battle between Trump and internet companies. Twitter has blocked or put warnings on Trump’s tweets regarding COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, as well as vote-by-mail. Last week, Twitter temporarily blocked the Trump campaign’s ability to share a story about his presidential challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden. Some congressional leaders accuse Twitter, Facebook and other internet companies of bias and say they are unfairly limiting speech close to the U.S. election. Some have called for the leaders of Twitter and Facebook, which has also taken action on some of Trump’s posts, to testify in front of Congress as soon as the coming week. Twitter told the AP it relies on public health authorities to determine whether a statement is false or misleading.In September, Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testified at a congressional hearing that masks are “the most powerful public health tool” against the coronavirus.Atlas, a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, joined the White House task force in August. A medical doctor, Atlas does not have a background in infectious diseases or public health. He is reportedly helping to shape the White House policies about how to handle the virus, including policies about masks and other issues. Atlas told the AP that Twitter’s actions were censorship. “General population masks and mask mandates do not work,” he said.
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