Month: November 2020

In an unassuming house in rolling hills east of the Hungarian capital, a small family firm is helping oil the wheels of the world’s big pharmaceutical companies on the path to a coronavirus vaccine. Biologist Noemi Lukacs, 71, retired to Szirak, her birth village, to establish English & Scientific Consulting (SciCons) and manufacture a genetic sensor so sensitive that a few grams can supply the entire global industry for a year. “We produce monoclonal antibodies,” Lukacs told Reuters in the single-story house where she was born, now partly converted into a world-class laboratory. The white powder ships worldwide from here, micrograms at a time. “These antibodies recognize double-stranded RNA [dsRNA],” she explained. DsRNA is a byproduct of viruses replicating, so its presence signals the presence of a live virus, long useful in virus-related research. More importantly, dsRNA is also a byproduct of the process used by U.S. giant Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech to create their experimental COVID-19 vaccine which is more than 90% effective according to initial trial results last week.And because dsRNA can be harmful to human cells, it must be filtered out from any vaccine to be used in humans. Several filtering methods exist, but the most widely used way to do quality control is to expose the vaccine to Lukacs’ antibodies. Not only will the antibodies show if there is any dsRNA in the vaccine, they will also tell researchers how much of it is present. Only once completely freed from dsRNA can the vaccine be administered. The result: a line of big pharma representatives outside her door. Hungarian biologists Alexandra Torok and Noemi Lukacs check the purity of an antibody, a genetic sensor of sorts, in Szirak, Hungary, Nov. 13, 2020.The small company is growing rapidly, yet its revenue was only 124 million forints (just over $400,000) last year, with profits at 52 million forints. That feeds five employees and even leaves some for local charity projects in Szirak. To Lukacs, that is just fine. The success of the RNA field, long frowned upon, is vindication enough. Dog in the race The former university professor followed the race to the vaccine closely and rooted especially for the contestants who look set to come first: those using modified RNA to train cells of the human body to recognize and kill the coronavirus. The RNA was her dog in the race. The modified RNA, or mRNA, methodology is a whole new group of drugs, with the COVID vaccine the first product likely to get regulatory approval and go into mass production. But more applications are expected, which has Lukacs overjoyed. “Once you get into the RNA field, it is an extremely exciting area,” she said, recalling decades of struggles when the rest of the scientific community did not share her excitement. Or most of the rest, that is. Another Hungarian woman, Katalin Kariko, working across the Atlantic, patented the method that enables the use of RNA and promises to free the world not only of the coronavirus but scores of other diseases. In the process, Kariko — now the Vice President of Germany’s BioNTech, which was first alongside U.S. giant Pfizer to break through with a vaccine earlier this month  — became an early SciCons customer. The COVID breakthrough and other RNA uses may necessitate more use of Lukacs’s antibodies as well, but they do not anticipate much of a boon. “We would be happy to sell more of it,” said Johanna Symmons, her daughter and the small company’s chief executive. “We probably will too. But it’s not like we’ll get silly rich.” Being part of the solution reaps its own rewards. “We have cooperated with most vaccine manufacturers, and certainly almost all of the ones using the mRNA method,” she said with a hint of pride. “We have been a small screw in this large machine.”    
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This year’s U.N. World Diabetes Day on Nov. 14 was observed in Cameroon with medical staff all over the central African state encouraging those with the disease to return to hospitals for treatment.Health workers say patients scared of COVID-19 stopped going to hospitals for control of their glucose levels. Although the disease is spreading rapidly due to Cameroonians’ sedentary lifestyles, experts say, health workers complain that 80% of patients do not know they have diabetes.A medical doctor told scores of people at the General Hospital in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé, to go to the nearest hospital if they get tired and thirsty regularly, drink water and urinate frequently. She said while at any hospital, such people should immediately ask for their blood sugar levels to be measured.Diabetes educator Agnes Koki said the campaign is part of World Diabetes Day activities. She said medical staff members want to encourage people to find out whether they have diabetes.”There were so many people out there without the knowledge of diabetes,” she said. “We educate them on what diabetes is all about, how to feed and so many other things. We do free consultation, free screening.”Sixty-year-old carpenter Hilary Lingalia said he was diagnosed with diabetes after his wife forced him to go to the hospital. He said the African traditional healers he counted on for treatment from nerve pain, a diabetes-related condition, instead told him that he had been bewitched.”It was a strange sickness to me because my father did not have diabetes nor my mother,” he said. “In 2014, I had this complication on my leg until it was amputated. To face the reality, I accepted it.”3 million casesCameroon’s National Diabetes and Hypertension Program reports that the prevalence of diabetes has increased from fewer than 1 million cases in 2010 to more than 3 million in 2020. The report says 80% of people living with diabetes are currently undiagnosed. Cameroon also blames sedentary lifestyles for the increase in the disease.Solange Essunge leads an association of diabetic patients in Yaoundé. She says many people fear being screened for diabetes because they believe the disease kills slowly and cannot be treated.She said the Association of Diabetic Patients she heads wants the government to immediately provide free treatment to everyone whose sugar level is very high. She said the government and donor agencies should show more commitment to the well-being of patients by making treatment available in all hospitals and supplying all patients with blood glucose meters so they will always be able to measure their blood sugar levels.Essunge said that since Cameroon reported the first cases of the coronavirus in March, many diabetic patients have avoided going to the hospital for fear of contamination. She said a majority of the more than 500 people who have died of COVID-19 in Cameroon were diabetic patients.Vincent de Paul Djientcheu, director of the General Hospital in Yaoundé and official of Cameroon’s health ministry, said people should guard against diabetes by watching their diets and getting regular physical exercise.He said Cameroonians should work harder toward preventing diabetes because the rapid spread of the disease has severe consequences for patients, their families and the community. He said diabetes drains family resources and makes people poorer. He urged patients to return to hospitals for routine checks and said patients should make sure they always respect COVID-19 prevention measures, such as wearing face masks, regularly washing their hands, and keeping 2 meters apart.Djientcheu said people should stop considering diabetes a death sentence because they can live with the disease if they control their diet and take regular treatment.The United Nations instituted World Diabetes Day in 2007 in recognition of the urgent need to improve human health, provide access to treatment and health care education.The U.N. says globally, 422 million adults were living with diabetes in 2014, compared to 108 million in 1980, and that diabetes prevalence has risen faster in low- and middle-income countries than in high-income countries.
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There are nearly 54 million coronavirus cases around the world, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday.The U.S., India, and Brazil continue to top the list as the places with the most infections. The U.S. has almost 11 million cases, while India and Brazil have 8.8 million and 5.8 million, respectively.On Sunday, India reported 41,100 new infections in the previous 24-hour period.An uptick in cases in the U.S. has prompted the Navajo Nation to impose a three-week lockdown, beginning Monday.“The Navajo Nation is experiencing an alarming rise in positive COVID-19 cases and uncontrolled spread in 34 communities across the Navajo Nation,” the reservation’s Department of Health said in a public health order announcing the lockdown. “These cluster cases are a direct result of family gatherings and off-Reservation travel.”The Navajo health department reported Saturday that there are 13,249 COVID-19 infections on the massive reservation where almost 600 people have died from the virus.Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says the world may be on the brink of a child mortality crisis as developing countries struggle in the battle against the coronavirus and struggle to pay their Western and Chinese creditors.Brown’s comments in The Observer, a British publication, come as the G-20 nations prepare to meet in a few days in Saudi Arabia. The nations may consider a temporary debt freeze for eligible countries as they fight the coronavirus.In Europe, the continent is facing another surge of the coronavirus and several countries have imposed tighter COVID-19 restrictions. Poland on Saturday reported a new daily record of about 550 coronavirus-related deaths, bringing the country’s total to more than 10,000.Lebanon began a two-week lockdown Saturday to contain the spread of the virus, which has increased sharply in recent weeks and killed dozens over the past few days. A nighttime curfew has been expanded from sunset to sunrise, and driving has been prohibited on Sundays.
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A year ago, if you saw someone wearing a mask, you might assume they were sick or maybe even a little weird or paranoid. Today, thanks to the pandemic, wearing a mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is the new normal for many Americans.Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia require people to FILE – Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, left, bumps elbows at Sergio’s Restaurant in Doral, Florida, July 23, 2020.Not all Americans have adopted mask-wearing, especially not those who view masks through a political lens. But pandemics have changed public habits in the past. Wearing a face covering is much more common in East Asia since the outbreak of FILE – Barbers Johnny ‘Geo’ Sanchez, left, and Alberto Sagentin, rear, cut hair in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, May 21, 2020.“I can see how, in the future, especially during the cold and flu seasons, people are going to step away from it saying, ‘Hey, listen, let’s just wave, let’s bow to each other, let’s do a namaste. Let’s do something different,” he says. “So yeah, I think there’s going to be a cultural shift with the handshake.”Overall, Americans might be less touchy-feely, according to Dr. Aaron Glatt, spokesperson for the FILE – A shopper wears a mask and gloves to protect against coronavirus as he shops at a grocery store in Mount Prospect, Illinois, May 13, 2020.“When you go through something like a pandemic, regardless of how you feel politically, it is a fairly scary and unpredictable event. And I do feel like certain habits that we’ve picked up, like hygiene habits, are likely to stick on some level of moving forward,” says Mathema of Columbia University.“Some of these habits that we’ve learned, like washing our hands, including mask-wearing, for that matter, disinfecting surfaces, some of these habits will likely sort of continue on,” he says.And that could be one of the pandemic’s silver linings.“I think there’s a heightened sense of awareness of how certain illnesses can be spread,” says Glatt of IDSA. “People won’t accept … uncleanliness or poor hygiene, and they may wipe things down where in the past they would have not thought to do so. They may be a little bit more careful washing their hands.”Industries might also change. More businesses have gone paperless and contactless during the pandemic; there are fewer receipts to sign, restaurants have dropped paper menus, and airlines have new cleaning and air filtration standards.“I see that being the more important component, where the service side of the world is basically going to say, ‘We learned that cleanliness is important, that disinfection is important, and we’ll continue doing that in the workplace,’” says Lushniak of the University of Maryland. “It’s those types of practices that I think people will be looking for and, in fact, specific industries may be advertising, saying, ‘Hey, we do it this way, why don’t you come into our place versus some other place?’”FILE – Hand sanitizer sits on a cart as Des Moines Public Schools custodian Tracy Harris cleans a chair at Brubaker Elementary School, July 8, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa.Another long-term impact of the pandemic could be more people staying at home when they are sick.“What we’ve learned about here is the beauty of, not in everybody’s circumstance, but the world of telework has really opened up new opportunities for us to say, ‘Listen, you know, right now I’m not feeling well.’ It used to be that that was always a sign of weakness,” Lushniak says.In a post-pandemic world, staying home might be more likely to be viewed as a courtesy to fellow commuters and coworkers, and an effort to stop the spread of disease.
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We’re closing in on a year with a viral pandemic that has affected more than 47 million people and has claimed the lives of more than 1 million, according to the World Health Organization. As VOA’s Carol Pearson reports, people are now suffering from what’s being called “pandemic fatigue.” 
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Danny Rice has a good sense of how dangerous the coronavirus can be.What puzzles him are the people who have curtailed so much of their lives to avoid being infected by the virus.”I’m not going out and looking to catch it,” he said, sitting at a desk in his auto repair shop in the tiny eastern Nebraska community of Elmwood. “I don’t want to catch it. But if I get it, I get it. That’s just how I feel.”Plenty of people agree with Rice, and health experts acknowledge those views are powering soaring COVID-19 infection rates, especially in parts of the rural Midwest where the disease is spreading unabated and threatening to overwhelm hospitals.It’s not that people in Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa and elsewhere don’t realize their states are leading the nation in new cases per capita. It’s that many of them aren’t especially concerned.‘They don’t think it’s real’Wayne County, home to 6,400 people in southern Iowa, has the state’s second-highest case rate, yet its public health administrator, Shelley Bickel, says mask-wearing is rare. She finds it particularly appalling when she sees older people, who are at high risk, shopping at a grocery store without one.”I just want to get on the speaker and say, ‘Why don’t you have your mask on?’ It’s just amazing,” Bickel said.Jenna Lovaas, public health director of Jones County, Iowa, said even now that her rural county has the state’s highest virus rate, people have opted not to make any changes, such as protecting themselves and others by wearing masks.”They don’t think it’s real,” she said. “They don’t think it’s going to be that bad or they just don’t want to wear a mask because we’ve made it a whole political thing at this point.”In part, though, some of those views are hard to fight because of the reality that many people have no symptoms, and most of those who do get sick recover quickly. And treatment advances mean that those who become seriously ill are less likely to die from the virus than when it emerged in the spring. Even though cases and the death toll are rising, infectious-disease experts note that death rates appear to be falling.Like most people, Jay Stibbe, 52, of Fargo, North Dakota, said he and his family are respectful of COVID-19 protocols and wear masks where required. However, Stibbe said he doesn’t see enough “concrete information” about the virus to stop him from going about his normal life, even though North Dakota leads the nation in the number of virus cases per capita.”We have an 18-year-old and a 16-year-old, and we certainly believe this is an important time of life to maybe shine a little bit,” he said. “We’re trying to create as much normalcy as we can. We try not to live in fear. We’ve traveled. We go out to dinner.”Karen Prohaska, 76, stands outside her purse-and-jewelry shop in Plattsmouth, Neb., Nov. 9, 2020. Prohaska says she hopes not to get the virus, but she usually doesn’t wear a mask in her store.Balancing risk, vulnerabilityIn Plattsmouth, Nebraska, Karen Prohaska, 76, said she generally doesn’t wear a mask in her downtown purse-and-jewelry shop but will put one on at the request of a customer. When customers come into the store with a face covering, she asks if they’d like her to don one as well. Most say no and ask if it’s OK for them to remove theirs.”I hope that I don’t get the virus, but I’ve never really been a germophobe,” Prohaska said.The pandemic hasn’t stopped Mary Gerteisen, of Eagle, Nebraska, from visiting her 96-year-old father on weekends to watch football. Gerteisen said she understands the risks, given her father’s age and vulnerability, but she also weighed the fact that he’s in the early stages of dementia and often believes family members have abandoned him.”There are times when I think that I do need to take the pandemic more seriously,” she said. “But I want to see my dad, and I don’t know how much longer I have with him. I would love for him to live to 100-some years old, but if he comes down with [the virus], he’s lived a good, long life.”No mask mandatesEven as virus rates have soared in the Midwest, the Republican governors of Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota have ruled out requiring masks in all public places, though Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds this week required masks for indoor events with more than 25 people and outdoor events of more than 100 people. Iowa schools are exempted, and bars and restaurants are required only to ensure social distancing. Michelle Kommer, commissioner of the North Dakota Department of Commerce, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting about the coronavirus response, at the White House in Washington, May 13, 2020.Meanwhile, North Dakota’s Republican governor, Doug Burgum, imposed statewide mask and business restrictions on Friday after resisting doing so for months. The state had only nine free intensive care unit hospital beds as of Friday.Although doctors and public health officials have criticized the governors for their lack of action, voters in all of the states last week delivered sweeping victories to Republicans, including President Donald Trump, who has mocked mask wearing and downplayed the seriousness of a pandemic that as of Saturday afternoon had killed more than 245,000 people, according to Johns Hopkins University.That has left Midwest medical professionals wondering how they will reverse a tide of people being treated for the coronavirus if residents of their states still aren’t taking the illness seriously.Suresh Gunasekaran, CEO of University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, said they’re managing the surge of patients for now but don’t know what will happen if the numbers keep rising.”The real question is: Where are we going to be in December? Where are we going to be in January?” he asked. “These are the kinds of questions that I think that we as a state have to continue to ask ourselves, but more importantly, each local community has to ask themselves.”
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Sri Themudu’s seasonal business, Diyaa Confectionary, is a success story at a time many businesses are struggling in the COVID-19 economic climate.His company has for eight years catered to Malaysian families and local companies that buy gift baskets of snacks such as crackers, cookies and coconut candy for Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, known as Deepavali in Malaysia.The snacks, made from scratch in the kitchens of his mother and family friends, start at about $8 each.The baskets include sweet treats such as coconut candy. (Dave Grunebaum/VOA)Sri used to go to the offices of potential corporate clients with samples but could not do so this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, many of his longtime corporate customers cut expenses and did not place orders.“It looked like this year was going to be a washout,” Sri said, adding, “Just a month ago I had so few sales and had no confidence that this year would work out at all.”However, he invested almost $1,000 for a photographer and videographer to improve his website and promote his products on Instagram. The gamble paid off – he now has three times the revenue as in his previous best year, and he even stopped taking orders last Wednesday because he could not handle any more.The cookies, crackers and candy are made from scratch in the home of Sri’s mother, Maletchumy, as well as the kitchens of several family friends.(Dave Grunebaum/VOA)“The main reason why I did professional videography and photography is because people cannot touch, taste, feel the product,” Sri said. “But they want to see the best visuals in order for them to feel they’re buying the right product for their clients or their staff. This was the next best thing to sampling the actual food.”“It all boils down to the mindset of business owners,” said Yohendran Nadar Arulthevan a researcher at the Kuala Lumpur-based think tank, the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs. “If they’re willing to make the changes that are needed to stay relevant to the demands that consumers have currently then you’ll survive. Otherwise, you’re better off closing down.”Yohendran said that since the start of the pandemic many Malaysian companies have made significant changes such as instituting cashless payments and contactless delivery.“Successful businesses figure out how to reach out to their customers,” Yohendran said.“They know how to engage with their customers and how to adapt to what their customers want.”Sri acknowledged that he was not sure these steps would make a difference but said he took a risk “and this year what looked like a bust turned out to be my best.”
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Sri Themudu’s seasonal business, Diyaa Confectionary, is a success story at a time many businesses are struggling in the COVID-19 economic climate.His company has for eight years catered to Malaysian families and local companies that buy gift baskets of snacks such as crackers, cookies and coconut candy for Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, known as Deepavali in Malaysia.The snacks, made from scratch in the kitchens of his mother and family friends, start at about $8 each.The baskets include sweet treats such as coconut candy. (Dave Grunebaum/VOA)Sri used to go to the offices of potential corporate clients with samples but could not do so this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, many of his longtime corporate customers cut expenses and did not place orders.“It looked like this year was going to be a washout,” Sri said, adding, “Just a month ago I had so few sales and had no confidence that this year would work out at all.”However, he invested almost $1,000 for a photographer and videographer to improve his website and promote his products on Instagram. The gamble paid off – he now has three times the revenue as in his previous best year, and he even stopped taking orders last Wednesday because he could not handle any more.The cookies, crackers and candy are made from scratch in the home of Sri’s mother, Maletchumy, as well as the kitchens of several family friends.(Dave Grunebaum/VOA)“The main reason why I did professional videography and photography is because people cannot touch, taste, feel the product,” Sri said. “But they want to see the best visuals in order for them to feel they’re buying the right product for their clients or their staff. This was the next best thing to sampling the actual food.”“It all boils down to the mindset of business owners,” said Yohendran Nadar Arulthevan a researcher at the Kuala Lumpur-based think tank, the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs. “If they’re willing to make the changes that are needed to stay relevant to the demands that consumers have currently then you’ll survive. Otherwise, you’re better off closing down.”Yohendran said that since the start of the pandemic many Malaysian companies have made significant changes such as instituting cashless payments and contactless delivery.“Successful businesses figure out how to reach out to their customers,” Yohendran said.“They know how to engage with their customers and how to adapt to what their customers want.”Sri acknowledged that he was not sure these steps would make a difference but said he took a risk “and this year what looked like a bust turned out to be my best.”
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SpaceX delayed its second astronaut flight by a day because of high wind and weather conditions that could jeopardize the recovery and recycling of the rocket booster, pushing the launch to Sunday.Friday’s postponement news came after SpaceX chief Elon Musk disclosed he had gotten mixed test results for COVID-19 and was awaiting the outcome of a more definitive test.NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said anyone testing positive for COVID-19 must quarantine under NASA policy and remain isolated. Officials said contact tracing by SpaceX found no link between Musk and any personnel in close touch with the four astronauts, who remain cleared for flight.”I can assure everyone that we’re looking good for the (crew) launch and all of the critical personnel involved,” said SpaceX’s Benji Reed, senior director for human spaceflight.It wasn’t immediately known if Musk would be allowed at the Kennedy Space Center launch site even if later tests came up negative.Norm Knight, a deputy manager at NASA, said the guidelines are rigid for restricting access to astronauts before flight in order to keep them safe and healthy.”No one’s above this access. It doesn’t matter if you’re Elon Musk or Jim Bridenstine,” Knight said at a news conference Friday night. “If you have not met those protocols, or if any of those protocols have been compromised, then we’re not going to let you near the crew.”FILE – In this Sept. 3, 2020, photo, Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives to visit the construction site of the future US electric car giant Tesla in Gruenheide near Berlin.Musk said via Twitter that he tested positive for coronavirus, then negative twice, then positive again. He said he wasn’t feeling too well the past few days – sniffles, cough, low fever – but currently had no symptoms.”So ‘Elon Musk Tests Negative for Covid’ is an equally correct title,” he tweeted.Musk said his first tests were rapid tests, and he was awaiting the results of lab tests. The 15-minute rapid tests are less sensitive than the lab tests, which take hours longer to process.Four astronauts – three Americans and one Japanese – are scheduled to rocket to the International Space Station on Sunday night.One of the test pilots on SpaceX’s first astronaut flight, Doug Hurley, said he’s certain Musk will be involved with the launch – regardless of where he is.”Knowing Elon the way I do, they will figure out a way for him to be very much connected,” Hurley told The Associated Press from Houston.The upcoming crew flight comes just three months after the end of the test flight with Hurley and Bob Behnken, both NASA astronauts. The four astronauts are going up for a full space station stay of five to six months. They will be replaced in the spring with another crew launched by SpaceX.The latest launch was bumped a day in order to give SpaceX’s booster-landing platform enough time to get into position in the Atlantic, given the rough seas in the wake of Tropical Storm Eta. NASA and SpaceX are especially eager to retrieve this first-stage booster; it will be used for the next crew launch.NASA turned over space station ferry trips to SpaceX and Boeing, which has yet to launch anyone, following the retirement of the shuttle fleet in 2011. The space agency is looking to save big by no longer having to buy seats on Russian Soyuz capsules for U.S. astronauts. The last ticket, used by a NASA astronaut launched from Kazakhstan in October, cost $90 million.One launch pad over, meanwhile, an Atlas V rocket thundered into the sunset Friday with a classified spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. The launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station had been delayed repeatedly by pad and weather issues.
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The Trump administration granted ByteDance a 15-day extension of a divestiture order that had directed the Chinese company to sell its TikTok short video-sharing app by Thursday.TikTok first disclosed the extension earlier in a court filing, saying it now has until Nov. 27 to reach an agreement. Under pressure from the U.S. government, ByteDance has been in talks for a deal with Walmart Inc and Oracle Corp to shift TikTok’s U.S. assets into a new entity.The Treasury Department said on Friday the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) granted the 15-day extension to “provide the parties and the committee additional time to resolve this case in a manner that complies with the order.”ByteDance filed a petition Tuesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia challenging the Trump administration divestiture order.ByteDance said Tuesday that CFIUS seeks “to compel the wholesale divestment of TikTok, a multibillion-dollar business built on technology developed by” ByteDance and based on the government’s review of the Chinese company’s 2017 acquisition of Musical.ly.President Donald Trump in an Aug. 14 order had directed ByteDance to divest the app within 90 days.The Trump administration contends TikTok poses national security concerns, saying the personal data of U.S. users could be obtained by China’s government. TikTok, which has more than 100 million U.S. users, denies the allegations.Trump has said the Walmart-Oracle deal had his “blessing.”One big issue that has persisted is over the ownership structure of the new company, TikTok Global, which would own TikTok’s U.S. assets.In Tuesday’s court filing, ByteDance said it submitted a fourth proposal last Friday that contemplated addressing U.S. concerns “by creating a new entity, wholly owned by Oracle, Walmart and existing U.S. investors in ByteDance, that would be responsible for handling TikTok’s U.S. user data and content moderation.”Separate restrictions on TikTok from the U.S. Commerce Department have been blocked by federal courts, including transaction curbs scheduled to take effect on Thursday that TikTok warned could effectively ban the app’s use in the United States.A Commerce Department ban on Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google offering TikTok for download for new U.S. users that had been set to take effect on Sept. 27 has also been blocked.
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With Twitter and Facebook blocking and labeling more social media posts, some American conservatives are flocking to alternatives like Parler, which says it won’t censor speech. Matt Dibble reports.
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More than 130 U.S. Secret Service officers have tested positive for the coronavirus or have been in close contact with infected colleagues, according to The Washington Post newspaper.The report, published Friday, was attributed to three people “familiar with agency staffing.”The Secret Service officers, who, among other duties, are tasked with protecting President Donald Trump when he travels and at the White House, were ordered recently to isolate, the report said.FILE – U.S. Secret Service agents gather for coronavirus tests prior to President Donald Trump’s departure for the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, May 27, 2020.The sources, who the Post says spoke anonymously in order to speak more freely, said the infections are believed to be related to campaign rallies Trump held before the Nov. 3 presidential election. The report also cites the sources as saying that about 10% of the agency’s primary security team has been “sidelined.”Trump, members of his immediate family, and an increasing number of White House and campaign officials have tested positive recently for the coronavirus in the wake of campaign events, where many administration officials and other attendees did not wear masks.The White House and the Secret Service did not immediately comment on the report, but White House spokesman Judd Deere told the Post the administration takes “every case seriously” and directed the Post to the Secret Service for answers to questions about the outbreak. An agency spokesperson declined to comment to the Post.The reported outbreak among the officers occurred as the coronavirus crisis in the U.S. continues to worsen. More than 153,000 new infections in the U.S. were reported Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University, the first time new single-day totals exceeded 150,000.Nearly 10.6 million people in the U.S. have contracted the coronavirus, while the country’s death toll approaches 243,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. 
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Scientists at the U.S. space agency NASA say the remnants of a 1960s unmanned lunar mission may have returned to orbit the Earth 54 years later.
Scientists first discovered the object in September, using a special survey telescope on the Hawaiian island of Maui.  They originally believed it to be a small asteroid, and named it 2020 SO.  When they discovered the object’s path would bring it close to Earth, it came to the attention of the Center for Near Earth Objects (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
But the scientists there quickly noticed the object’s orbit was different than a normal asteroid. While the typical asteroid has an elongated orbit and is tilted relative to Earth, the orbit of this object was on nearly the exact orbital plane as Earth.
CNEOS Director Paul Chodas says further study and measurements of the object made it clear it was likely man-made, based on its size and density, and likely a piece of a rocket.  Chodas suspected it was a remnant of a lunar mission, and to prove it, he ran 2020 SO’s orbit backwards, tracing its closest path to Earth to September 1966.
That matched the launch date for NASA’s Surveyor 2 lunar lander, an unmanned probe designed to land on the surface of the Moon and survey possible landing sites ahead of the Apollo missions, which would put men on the lunar surface for the first time in 1969.
The probe was launched on an Atlas-Centaur rocket and separated from its Centaur upper stage booster shortly after liftoff.  The spacecraft malfunctioned a day later when one of its boosters failed to ignite, and the probe crashed into the Moon.  The spent Centaur upper-stage rocket, meanwhile, sailed past the Moon and disappeared into an unknown orbit around the Sun.
Now, it appears to be back, if only for a relatively brief visit. NASA scientists believe Earth’s gravity pulled 2020 SO into an outer orbit on November 8, circling about 1.5 million kilometers above our planet. They expect it will remain there for about four months before escaping into a new orbit around the Sun in March.  
NASA says 2020 SO will make two large loops around Earth with its closest approach December 1. That is when astronomers will get a closer look and study its composition using spectroscopy to confirm if it is indeed an artifact from the early Space Age.
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The United States set another single-day record for the number of COVID-19 infections and hospitalization Thursday.COVID Tracking Project figures show that more than 150,000 new cases were reported across the U.S., surpassing the more than 144,000 new cases recorded the day before.The figures also indicate that more than 67,000 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, an increase of more than 1,700 from the previous day. Another 1,104 people died.The new figures add to the United States’ world-leading casualty figures of more than 10.5 million total COVID-19 cases since the pandemic reached its shores earlier this year, including more than 242,400 deaths, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.The nation’s most populous state, California, is nearing the 1 million mark of  COVID-19 cases, following Texas, which is closing in on that threshold.Worldwide, Italy is the 10th country to surpass the 1 million mark of infections. India and Brazil follow the U.S., with more than 8.7 million and 5.7 million cases respectively. France is nearing 2 million infection cases, followed by Russia with 1.87 million. Over the 1 million mark are Spain, Britain, Argentina, and Colombia.In Brazil, the country with highest coronavirus tally in Latin America, the late-stage trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine have resumed after the country’s health regulator called a halt due to an “adverse, serious event” involving a participant in the study.The vaccine, dubbed CoronaVac, is being developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac. The vaccine had been denounced by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a frequent critic of China.In Japan, organizers for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics said Thursday that participating athletes will not have to enter a mandatory 14-day quarantine period when they arrive for the games next year. Games chief executive Toshiro Muto told reporters a decision on allowing foreign spectators to observe the events would be finalized next year, but said it is a possibility the two-week quarantine could be waived for them as well.The Tokyo Summer Games were initially scheduled to be held in July and August, but organizers in March decided to postpone them for a year due to the pandemic.
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When Twitter started blocking President Donald Trump’s postings claiming widespread voter fraud, some cheered. Others started looking for the social media exits.
 
They found a new option at Parler.
 
Fed up with what they see as an anti-conservative bias by managers of the major social media platforms, Trump supporters are telling their followers on Twitter and Facebook to “Follow me on Parler.”
 
From the French word “to speak” or “to talk” but pronounced “PAR-lor,” the social media app is a lot like Twitter, with users posting messages and following topics searchable as hashtags.
 
Launched in 2018 in Nevada, Parler welcomed newcomers to “a non-biased, free speech social media focused on protecting user’s rights.”
 
Over the past year, conservative celebrities have flocked to Parler, a trend that has accelerated since the 2020 U.S. election. As Twitter and Facebook tried to tamp down misinformation about the election, more than 4 million accounts were launched on the app within days, the company says.   
 
Among Parler users are Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, and Fox News host Sean Hannity.  
 
Posts on Parler are called “parlays.” One on Thursday, under the hashtag #StoptheSteal, said “Shocker Pro Marxist Pope Francis congratulates Crooked Joe!”
“To parlay is to have a discussion bridging the differences,” said Amy Peikoff, Parler’s chief policy officer. “Coming to an understanding between two different viewpoints, and this is the sort of discussion that we want to foster on Parler.”
 
Previous alternatives to Facebook and Twitter have popped up in the U.S. claiming to be true bastions of free speech. Gab, which became a haven for neo-Nazis, was booted from the app stores of Apple and Google because it didn’t take down hate speech.
 
But the popularity of Parler – and other right-wing sites such as MeWe and Rumble, a video site – comes amid growing pressure on social media firms to do more to monitor their sites, particularly addressing misinformation about voting and the election results.  
 
Twitter, Facebook and to a lesser extent Google, the owner of YouTube, have put labels on tweets, posts and videos that claim election fraud. In some cases, they stopped the content from being shared and spreading.
 
Much of the conversation on Parler echoes Trump’s unsupported claim that the November 3 election was stolen by Democrats through massive voter fraud.  #StoptheSteal is a top hashtag for those who claim without proof that former Vice President Joe Biden, the projected winner of the 2020 presidential race, stole the election.
 
Last week, Facebook took down a Stop the Steal group that had gained more than 300,000 users in 24 hours. Facebook said it stopped the group because it was trying to incite violence.
   
“The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group,” a Facebook spokesman told The New York Times.
 
Parler users have also crossed that line at times: An Arkansas police chief used the site to urge violence against Democrats he claimed were preventing Trump’s reelection. When the posts appeared in news stories, his public account was removed and he was forced to resign.  
   
While the Parler algorithm does not promote posts to keep users engaged, the company says it is serious about its commitment to free speech and does not block extremist content.  
   
“The fact that we don’t block out the content from various extremists does not mean that our goal is to further all of those views,” said Parler’s Peikoff. “What we are planning to do is give the widest freedom possible so that people can have a full discussion.”  
   
For years, the leading social media companies have been criticized for their finely tuned algorithms designed to boost users’ time spent on the sites. That has led to some users receiving a stream of increasingly extremist content on their feeds, according to Michael Karanicolas, the Wikimedia fellow at the Yale School of Law.
   
The rise of Parler, he said, “potentially suggests that if platforms do try and steer people away from these echo chambers and steer people away from what they want, the people will just migrate elsewhere.”
 
There is one potential customer that Parler has not yet managed to attract: Trump, himself.
 
While @TeamTrump, Trump’s reelection campaign, is on the site with 2 million followers, the president isn’t on Parler, yet.
 
With nearly 89 million followers on Twitter, Trump is still tweeting, even as Twitter has been putting warning labels on more of his tweets.
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