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Can a face mask protect me from coronavirus? Covid-19 myths busted

The truth about how you can catch coronavirus, how much more elderly people are at risk and what you can do to avoid infection Claim: Face masks dont work Wearing a face mask is certainly not an iron-clad guarantee that you wont get sick viruses can also transmit through the eyes and tiny viral particles, known as aerosols, can penetrate masks. However, masks are effective at capturing droplets, which is a main transmission route of coronavirus, and some studies have estimated a roughly fivefold protection versus no barrier alone (although…

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Two Canadian provinces declare state of emergency as Covid-19 fears deepen

Cases in British Columbia almost double in one day, while Ontario premier says it faces danger of major proportions Two provinces in Canada have declared states of emergency and another witnessed a surge in coronavirus cases as fears of a widespread outbreak nationwide continue to deepen. As prime minister Justin Trudeau prepares to unleash a stimulus package worth at least C$20bn (US$14bn), British Columbia announced another 83 confirmed cases on Tuesday afternoon, bringing the provinces total confirmed Covid-19 infections to 186. In her daily briefing, provincial health officer Dr Bonnie…

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‘Easiest time I’ve ever had’: US airports return to calm after travel ban chaos

Travelers arrived in New York on half-empty European flights with little hassle after people endured long waits over the weekend The chaos that enveloped some US airports as European travel ban went into effect over the weekend was little in evidence Monday as passengers arrived in New York off a dwindling number of European flights. It was the easiest time Ive ever had, said Meroula Hondrow, stepping of a half-empty Virgin Atlantic plane from Heathrow. I was expecting queues and hassle but there was none. Passengers, she said, had their…

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Coronavirus deals China’s economy a ‘bigger blow than global financial crisis’

Factory production plummets at the fastest pace seen in three decades, as first-quarter figures emerge China has suffered even deeper economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic than predicted, with figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday showing factory production inside the country dropped at the fastest pace seen in three decades. Financial analysts have said the economic impact of the pandemic may have cut Chinas growth in half during the first quarter. Industrial output fell 13.5% in January-February, compared with 2019, which ING economist Iris Pang…

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Facebook to remove misleading Trump ‘census’ ads

Presidents re-election campaign had sponsored misleading ads, which actually linked to Republican fundraising site Facebook has announced it will remove a series of misleading ads from Donald Trumps re-election campaign. The Trump Make America Great Committee posted 2,000 iterations of an ad this week, asking users to respond to the Official Congressional District Census. Instead of information at the Census Bureau, however, the posts linked to a once-in-a-decade event that seeks to count every person in the country, with drastic consequences for resource allocation and government representation nationwide. Trumps campaign…

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‘We left fearing for our lives’: doctors set upon by mob in Lesbos

Attack on aid workers further exposes tensions on island on the frontline of refugee crisis A group of doctors who flew to Lesbos to volunteer at the islands infamous Moria migrant camp have described how they were forced to flee after being set upon by a mob wielding nail-headed cudgels. The attack was the the latest in a series of violent incidents targeting international aid workers, amid an increasingly hostile climate which has prompted several NGOs to withdraw from the Mediterranean island. We left fearing for our lives, said Dr…

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Susan Fowler: When the time came to blow the whistle on Uber, I was ready

The former Uber engineer has written a memoir about exposing the companys systemic sexism she hopes it will help other women in the industry Before Susan Fowler was a whistleblower she was a violinist, and before she was a violinist she fed fruit flies to spiders that were milked for their venom at a small Arizona business known as Spider Pharm. In February 2017, Fowler was thrown into the public eye after she published a damning blogpost exposing the toxic sexism she experienced working as a software engineer at Uber.…

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‘America v socialism’: conservatives rage against the left and plot new red scare

At the Trump faithfuls annual get-together, there was fresh fearmongering about Democrats in general and Bernie Sanders in particular It came from abroad and infected America. It can spread from person to person and is potentially fatal. When symptoms emerge, it may already be too late. Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). The virus is not going to sink the American economy, he said at the National Harbor near Washington. What is, or could, sink the American economy is the socialism coming from our friends on the other side of the…

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Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested on charges of illegal assembly

Lai, who was arrested with two other activists and later released on bail, has been a major financial patron of Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement Hong Kong police arrested three veteran pro-democracy figures for taking part in an unauthorised anti-government march last year amid the citys most serious political crisis for decades. Jimmy Lai, the 71-year-old founder of Next Media, which publishes the popular, anti-government Apple Daily newspaper, was picked up by police on Friday morning for taking part in a march banned by police on 31 August. Lai, a self-made…

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Plcido Domingo says harassment apology gave ‘false impression’

Spanish opera singer says his words had been misunderstood after apology triggers backlash Plcido Domingo has rowed back on an apology he made over sexual harassment allegations just two days earlier, after his mea culpa triggered a backlash and cancellations in Spain. The Spanish opera singer, who faces multiple allegations of sexual harassment, forcibly kissing, grabbing or fondling them in incidents dating to the 80s. On Tuesday, the AGMA union said an internal inquiry found the singer had engaged in a pattern of inappropriate activity. Domingo said he was withdrawing…

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‘This is a miracle’: California couple found alive after getting lost on Valentine’s Day hike

Rescuers searched with drones and dogs but had given up hope after Carol Kiparsky and Ian Irwin went missing near Inverness Two academics who got lost during a Valentines Day hike in the woods of northern California were found on Saturday by rescuers who spent almost a week searching and had given up hopes of finding them alive. Carol Kiparsky, 77, and Ian Irwin, 72, were found in a densely forested area near Tomales Bay, a narrow inlet about 30 miles north of San Francisco, and were airlifted to a…

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Trump reportedly calls John Bolton a ‘traitor’ and wants to block his book

President reportedly told aides and media figures book shouldnt be published before Novembers election John Bolton is a traitor and his reportedly told aides and media figures. The presidents views on news of a book deal for fired in September last year. He offered to testify in the Senate but Republicans voted not to call witnesses during a trial which duly ended in Trumps acquittal, despite leaks from Boltons book manuscript seeming to show The Room Where It Happened was slated for publication in March but it has been held…

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Trump’s Oscars rant? He just wants Hollywood to see he’s a star

The US presidents tirade against Parasites best picture Oscar, preferring Sunset Boulevard and Gone With the Wind, masks his own frustration at being cold-shouldered by Tinseltown The only real surprise was what took him so long. Nearly two weeks after Parasite became the first foreign-language film to win the Oscar for best picture, hadnt actually seen Parasite: Was it good? I dont know. Clearly he is less concerned about the movies quality than its provenance. Here he is, trying to make America great again, and a foreign movie takes Hollywoods…

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Minamata review Johnny Depp attempts redemption in heartfelt look at disaster that struck Japanese town

Johnny Depp plays real-life US photojournalist W Eugene Smith who travels to cover the story of mercury poisoning that caused horrendous disfigurements Minamata is not a masterpiece and there are one or two cliches here about western saviours and boozy, difficult, passionate journalists who occupy the perennial Venn diagram overlap between integrity and alcoholism. This movies producer-star Johnny Depp has form on this score, with his W Eugene Smith whose glory days were in the second world war and the decades following, working for Life magazine in that now-forgotten era…

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China to expel WSJ journalists over ‘malicious coronavirus column

Three journalists told to leave within five days after paper declined to apologise for opinion piece China is expelling three Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporters from the country, a move with no recent precedent, marking a sharp escalation in pressure on foreign media in the country. The expulsions come amid a domestic tighten controls on Chinese state-owned media operations in America. The Chinese foreign ministry said it had ordered the reporters to leave within five days after their paper declined to apologise for an opinion piece calling China the real…

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