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Minggu, 17 Mei 2020

Coronavirus did not come from animals in Wuhan market, study finds - Metro.co.uk

Coronavirus did NOT come from animals in Wuhan market? (Picture: AFP, Rex) — A new research paper released this month questions the source of the pandemic as it looks for answers to prevent future pandemics (Picture: AFP, Rex)

Coronavirus did not come from a lab but was brought to the Wuhan wet market by humans, according to new research published this month.

Scientists examining how to stop future pandemics found the virus that causes Covid-19 had already pre-adapted to human transmission and was ‘imported’ into the market by humans.

The team said that because the market was decontaminated so quickly after the virus flared, it would not be possible to pinpoint how it jumped from bats to humans but stressed it would be ‘safer to more extensively limit human activity that leads to frequent or prolonged contact with wild animals and their habitats.’

The paper, titled SARS-CoV-2 is well adapted for humans, was written by Shing Hei Zhan, Benjamin Deverman and Yujia Alina Chan – although it has yet to be peer reviewed.

The team took a side-by-side comparison at how coronaviruses evolved looking at SARS and what we know as Covid-19.

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The report’s abstract read: ‘We were surprised to find that SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) resembles SARS-CoV in the late phase of the 2003 epidemic after SARS-CoV had developed several advantageous adaptations for human transmission.

Venders wearing face masks at the Wuhan Baishazhou Market in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province (Picture: AFP)

‘Our observations suggest that by the time SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in late 2019, it was already pre-adapted to human transmission to an extent similar to late epidemic SARS-CoV.

‘However, no precursors or branches of evolution stemming from a less human-adapted SARS-CoV-2-like virus have been detected.

‘The sudden appearance of a highly infectious SARS-CoV-2 presents a major cause for concern that should motivate stronger international efforts to identify the source and prevent near future re-emergence.’

The paper, published on biorxiv.org, concluded that there was still considerable debate among the scientific community, as well as the wider public, as to whether the coronavirus originated from the Wuhan market.

China’s disease control website, said the first sources were detected in samples taken from the wet market and originated from animals sold there.

However, tracking how diseases leap from species to species suggests it was ‘imported into the market by humans’, the team said.

The scientists looked for clues in samples collected from the market in January, 2020 and found a striking contrast to those collected in the wake of the SARS outbreak of 2002-2004 – as there was ‘no animal sampling prior to the shut down and sanitisation of the market was reported’.

This makes it difficult to trace Covid-19 – of the 70 samples collected from wild animal vendors ‘it is unclear whether the latter samples are from animals, humans, and/or the environment’ – and only four, have passable coverage of SARS-CoV-2 genomes for analysis.

The team still think the samples provide enough data to suggest it was unlikely coronavirus ‘originated from an intermediate animal host, particularly if the most recent common ancestor jumped into humans as early as October, 2019’ and that the ‘SARS-CoV-2 genomes in the market samples were most likely from humans infected with SARS-CoV-2 who were vendors or visitors at the market.’

The findings will only fuel fire among those calling for an international inquiry into the pandemic.

MP Bob Seely, a member of the Commons’ Foreign Affairs Select Committee said: ‘We need to get to the bottom of many things in relation to Covid-19.

‘We need to know where this virus began, why we were told at one time there was no human transmission, and what was the role of the Chinese Communist Party.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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2020-05-17 11:31:19Z
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Obama criticises Trump in virtual graduation speech - Guardian News

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Obama criticises Trump in virtual graduation speech Guardian News
Coronavirus: Barack Obama hits out at Trump administration response to pandemic Sky News
Zendaya, Dua Lipa and the Jonas Brothers honor class of 2020 in Graduate Together virtual special Daily Mail
Coronavirus live news: Barack Obama attacks Trump virus response The Guardian
Obama criticises US coronavirus response: Live updates Al Jazeera English
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2020-05-17 09:21:03Z
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Chinese ambassador to Israel found dead at home, says Israeli foreign ministry - Sky News

The Chinese ambassador to Israel has been found dead at his home north of Tel Aviv, the Israeli foreign ministry has said.

Du Wei, 58, was appointed envoy in February in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

He previously served as China's envoy to Ukraine.

A police spokesperson said: "As part of the regular procedure, police units are at the scene."

Israel enjoys good relations with China.

The ambassador's death comes just two days after he condemned comments by visiting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who denounced Chinese investments in Israel and accused China of hiding information about the COVID-19 outbreak.

Israel's Channel 12 TV, quoting unidentified emergency medical officials, said initial indications were that Du died in
his sleep of natural causes.

Wei is survived by a wife and son, both of whom are not in Israel.

The country's Foreign Ministry has given no cause for his death, but said on Sunday that police are investigating.

More follows...

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2020-05-17 08:27:18Z
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EU crumbling: Italexit fears a George Soros admits Italy could follow UK out of bloc - Express.co.uk

Mr Soros, who has donated billions of pounds to liberal causes across the globe, made his remarks during an interview with a German newspaper in which he also voiced concerns about the fallout from coronavirus pandemic and the implications of a landmark verdict in a federal German challenging the authority of the European Central Bank (ECB). Mr Salvini, leader of the Lega party, resigned as the country's interior minister - and de facto deputy Prime Minister -after falling out with coalition partner, Five Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio, as well as Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

However Mr Soros warned the wrangle between the North and the south of the EU, specifically the reluctance to sanction a form of debt mutualisation advocated by Crystal Conte was gradually turning Italians against Brussels, with Mr Salvini the likely beneficiary.

He told Augsburger Allgemeine: "The Italians have always been incredibly pro-European.

"If only because they couldn't trust their own governments.

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"To clarify: I reject coronabonds because joint loans from the euro countries divide the EU.

"They widen the already existing gap between Northern and Southern Europe and also create divisions between old and new EU member states."

With respect to his own idea, he added: "The European public and its leaders are not familiar with this type of perpetual bond, but they have a long history in the UK and the US.

"They were used, among other things, to finance the wars against Napoleon, to abolish slavery, to finance the First World War.

"As its name suggests, the loan amount of such a long-term bond never has to be repaid; only the annual interest is due.

"A €1trillion bond would cost the EU five billion euros a year at an interest rate of 0.5 percent."

Speaking last month, Mr Salvini raged at the EU, claiming its proposals to mitigate the impact of the pandemic with a package of measures worth €540billion via its European Stability Mechanism would leave Italy heavily in debt to Berlin.

He said: “Why do we have to get into debt for life?

“I don’t want my children to get into debt with Beijing or Berlin. I don’t trust either Beijing nor Berlin.”

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2020-05-17 07:00:00Z
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'11 firefighters injured' in 'significant explosion' during downtown Los Angeles blaze - Sky News

More than 230 firefighters are tackling a large blaze that has spread to several buildings following reports of an explosion in downtown Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) tweeted that up to 10 firefighters were "down" but in a news conference, Captain Erik Scott said that 11 received burn injuries, but gave no further details about their conditions at this stage.

The LAFD said the fire appears to have started in a storage area in the basement of an apartment building located on East Boyd Street, near Little Tokyo in the southern area of the city.

Residents were safely evacuated from the building, with one needing hospital treatment for smoke inhalation.

At least four adjacent buildings were evacuated as a precaution.

The LAFD tweeted that "multiple buildings" had been affected by the blaze.

The incident was upgraded to a "major emergency" around 6.30pm local time.

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2020-05-17 03:56:25Z
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Sabtu, 16 Mei 2020

Coronavirus: Are Italians losing faith in the EU? - BBC News

When Covid-19 came to Europe it was Italy that was hit first - and hit hard.

Little help came from its European neighbours in those first weeks in February and March, as hospitals in the north were overwhelmed.

As Italy counts its 31,000 dead, concern is mounting over the economic impact too, and there are signs of a rise in the number of Italians losing faith in the EU.

The Treaty of Rome launched the then European Economic Community in 1957, with Italy a founding member.

"I have changed my mind a little on Europe. We are facing an absolute emergency, and seeing countries turning their backs on each other is really awkward," says Rome real estate agent Marco Tondo, 34.

He is currently receiving nine weeks' redundancy pay from the government at 80% of his normal salary.

According to a survey of 1,000 Italians conducted in April by Tecné, 42% of respondents said they would leave the EU, up from 26% in November 2018.

However, a quarter of that number said they would be prepared to stay in the bloc if Europe approved concrete measures for Italy.

Italy went on full lockdown on 8 March and tight restrictions on life were only relaxed on 4 May.

The country's economic output will fall by 8% this year, according to the government of Giuseppe Conte. That scale of downturn will bloat Italy's public debt this year to the tune of almost 155.7% of GDP, Italy's National Institute of Statistics forecasts.

How has Europe responded?

When the health crisis broke out, Mr Conte called for the creation of coronabonds, which would have been underwritten by all eurozone members to share the burden of economic recovery.

But within days Germany and the Netherlands had ruled out any kind of debt mutualisation. That didn't go down well in Italy. Critics said the prime minister had been humiliated in the EU.

"Asking for coronabonds was the perfect way to have the door slammed in his face," argues Carlo Altomonte, associate Professor of Economics of European Integration at Bocconi University.

"Mutualisation of debt is forbidden by EU treaties and Germany's constitution. I think Conte used it as a weapon in negotiations."

On 18 March, the European Central Bank launched a €750bn (£660bn; $800bn) bond purchase programme to help the eurozone's more indebted countries by pushing down borrowing costs.

Two days later, the European Commission announced the suspension of rules on public deficits, thus allowing countries to inject as much money as they needed into their economies.

Then, on 8 April, the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers agreed on a €540bn rescue plan. It was made up of:

€200bn as a new credit line for companies, provided by the European Investment Bank
€100bn in loans to support temporary unemployment schemes
€240bn as a credit line provided by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to fund eurozone health systems.

The political debate in Italy has focused mostly on that last part of the package. The unpopular ESM is an intergovernmental bailout fund that provided loans to Greece and some other EU countries during the financial crisis and dates back to 2012.

According to the Eurogroup, loans will have interest rates close to 0.1%, but the money will be used only "to support domestic financing of direct and indirect healthcare, cure and prevention-related costs due to the Covid-19 crisis".

How has Italy reacted?

Italy could borrow up to €37bn from the ESM, but has still to decide whether to ask for the loans.

The two parties that make up the technocrat Mr Conte's coalition government have often held contrasting positions on European issues, and that is the case too concerning borrowing from the ESM.

The centre-left Democratic Party backs the idea. But the anti-establishment Five Star Movement has warned the government would collapse if Mr Conte were to tap into the bailout fund.

"The Italian parliament will decide whether or not it is appropriate for Italy to activate it," Mr Conte finally said, after repeatedly refusing to make use of the ESM.

The main objection is from the far-right League party, which used to be in government but is now in opposition.

"The ESM is not a gift, it's money lent, to be repaid at precise conditions chosen in Brussels and not in Italy," said its leader Matteo Salvini. "We must re-found the EU on new principles and go back to having control over money production. We need to print money," he argued.

How powerful are the Eurosceptics?

Although the League is still Italy's biggest party, its popularity has been decreasing over the last two months, according to a survey by Demopolis.

The League rules two key regions in Italy's north: the industrial powerhouse of Lombardy, and Veneto in the north-east. They were the first regions to record cases of coronavirus. So the party's handling of the Covid-19 crisis has come under close scrutiny.

Can Italy's populist leader return to power?

Mr Salvini appears to have lost support, while his challenger inside the party, Veneto governor Luca Zaia, is becoming increasingly popular.

"They are both Eurosceptic, but Zaia is in charge of managing this crisis in his region, and he is handling it well," explains Piero Ignazi, Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Bologna.

"In contrast, Salvini represents the opposition at national level, his criticism of the government is not appealing to the people right now."

While Luca Zaia launched large-scale testing of the entire population of the region, Attilio Fontana, governor of Lombardy and one of Mr Salvini's closest allies, chose not to implement the same strategy.

According to recent research published by The Lancet, Veneto's fatality rate of infected people is 6.4%, whereas in Lombardy it is as high as 18.3%.

Will the EU offer more?

Italy's employment rate, one of the lowest in the eurozone, decreased slightly to 58.8% in March from 58.9% in February.

"I'm not a fan of the League, but Europe is proving once more to be useless, so we should leave the EU," says Valentina Rosi, a 45-year-old former Rome shopkeeper who is now unemployed.

What Italy is looking for now from the EU is a recovery plan that looks beyond loans.

The European Parliament is asking for a €2 trillion recovery fund to be built into the EU budget and the European Commission is expected to table proposals shortly. A major part of the next budget is cohesion, aiming to reduce the big wealth gap between member states.

But there are strong divisions among member states - the biggest is whether countries should receive grants or just loans.

Any recovery plan based mainly on grants would be a victory for Mr Conte, and could make a dramatic difference to Italians still undecided on whether to turn their backs on Brussels or not.

Stefano Vergine is a Milan-based journalist and co-author of The Black Book of the League

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2020-05-17 03:50:08Z
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