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Coronavirus Live Updates: South Korean Cases Spike, and Fear Builds https://nyti.ms/38NmL2w

Coronavirus Live Updates: South Korean Cases Spike, and Fear Builds

A major city is locked down and 28 countries outside of China have reported a total of 1,500 cases.

RIGHT NOW

Iran reports a sixth death, and Israel is barring travelers from South Korea.

Here’s what you need to know:

READ UPDATES IN CHINESE: 新冠病毒疫情最新消息汇总

THE COUNT: 28 COUNTRIES AND A SPIKE IN SOUTH KOREA.

South Korea reported 229 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, doubling its total in a single day and adding to concerns that another Asian country is losing control of the spread and that the window to avert a pandemic was closing.

As of Saturday, the virus had spread to 28 countries. Some 1,500 cases have been confirmed outside China; multiple infections in the United States, Italy, Iran and the United Arab Emirates; and one in Egypt, the first to be confirmed on the African continent. The highest death toll outside of China is in Iran, with six as of Saturday.

Panic is spreading in Israel, where a woman, who was aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan tested positive after returning home, health officials said.

Many African countries are bracing for the disease. The World Health Organization has identified 13 as priorities because of their direct links to China or their high volume of travel to it.

SOUTH KOREA’S FOURTH-LARGEST CITY IS ON LOCKDOWN.

South Korea added 229 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, driving its total to 433. Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun called the situation “grave.”

“We will deal sternly with any acts that interfere with the government’s quarantine efforts and add to anxiety among the people,” Mr. Chung said in a nationally televised statement. He urged citizens not to hoard facial masks or other hygiene products.

More than half of the cases are among members of a secretive religious sect, the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, and their relatives or contacts. Between Daegu, the country’s fourth largest city, and a nearby province where the sect’s members often do volunteer work, 352 people have tested positive.

More than 1,250 members of the sect have reported potential symptoms, and officials are still trying to locate 700 members so they can be screened.

The neighborhood around the sect’s church in Daegu has turned into a ghost town. Banks, coffee shops, restaurants and convenience stores have all shut down.

Across the city of 2.4 million, department stores, shopping alleys and outdoor marketplaces are drained of shoppers.

The only places more crowded than usual are government-run health centers, where citizens lined up to find out whether they were infected.

In Busan, South Korea’s second largest city, public libraries, a horse racetrack and facilities for senior citizens closed when the city reported its first coronavirus case on Friday.

Many churches have shuttered, instead offering prayer services online. Others stayed open, but skipped hymns or “Amens” to limit congregants’ exposure.

The national news agency Yonhap reported people emptying shelves of rice, instant noodle, eggs and other essential food items in some supermarkets in Chuncheon and Ulsan, as both cities reported their first cases on Saturday.

Samsung, the world’s smartphone maker, shut down a factory about an hour north of Cheongdo after a worker tested positive. The factory is expected to resume operations on Monday morning, Samsung said. But the floor of the factory where the patient has worked will be closed until Tuesday morning, it said.

PRESIDENT TRUMP WAS FURIOUS OVER THE REPATRIATION OF INFECTED AMERICANS.

The news that 14 American citizens from the Diamond Princess who had tested positive for the coronavirus were being flown to the United States this week surprised and infuriated President Trump, two senior American officials said.

The Washington Post first reported Mr. Trump’s anger on Friday. The president is a self-declared “germophobe.”

Mr. Trump conveyed his anger to Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary overseeing the White House interagency task force on the coronavirus, and other top officials. The task force��s top State Department official is Stephen E. Biegun, the deputy secretary of state.

One official said that Mr. Trump views keeping infected people from entering the country as critical to keeping the country safe and that the president wants to be seen as managing a proper response.

The decision to fly back the infected passengers was made over the objections of officials at the Centers for Disease Control.

On Monday, after two planes carrying more than 300 evacuated passengers had landed at military bases in Texas and California, William Walters, a top medical official at the State Department, told reporters that the decision to keep the 14 infected Americans in the group had been made by the State Department in consultation with Robert Kadlec, an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Walters said that the evacuation had already begun when Japanese officials informed their American counterparts of the laboratory test results. Dr. Walters said that he had spoken with Dr. Kadlec to go over the options after learning of the test results.

Since the passengers returned, Japanese officials have informed American officials that several more of them had also tested positive for coronavirus.

On Friday, American officials said at least 34 people inside the United States have the virus — 18 of them from the Diamond Princess. All of the 34 cases have been linked to overseas travel. There has been no sign yet of the virus spreading among communities in the United States.

[ U.S. MOBILIZATION: Local health departments around the country are scrambling to monitor the thousands of people returning from travel in China and elsewhere. READ BELOW]

THE W.H.O. HEADS TO WUHAN, AND SAYS IT FEARS FOR AFRICA.

A team of experts from the World Health Organization were traveling on Saturday to the Chinese city of Wuhan, the center of the coronavirus epidemic, the agency’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said.

Health professionals from the U.N. agency have worked on the outbreak in three Chinese provinces — Beijing, Sichuan and Guangdong — but had not yet been to the city at its heart.

Dr. Tedros confirmed the trip during an address on Saturday morning to African officials from Geneva, where he spoke of the virus’s increasing global spread and urged them to prepare for possible cases on their continent.

“We have to take advantage of the window of opportunity we have, to attack the virus outbreak with a sense of urgency,” Dr. Tedros told the leaders, who had gathered for an emergency meeting on the response to the coronavirus in the continent.

With only one confirmed case on the continent, Africa has so far been mostly spared, but health officials have warned that the spread could be deadly in countries with already-strained health systems. The W.H.O. has provided online training on the coronavirus to 11,000 African health workers.

China and Africa have become intertwined in the last two decades as China has expanded its political, economic, and military ties to Africa, funding large infrastructure projects and pledging tens of billions of dollars in investments and loans.

Now, Africa has large numbers of Chinese workers and more than 81,000 Africans were studying in mainland China in 2018. About 4,600 African citizens and students were living in Wuhan.

While some African countries, including Morocco, Mauritius and Egypt, have evacuated their citizens from China, Kenya has not. On Friday, the Kenyan government explained its rationale on Twitter, saying “the safest place for the students to be is Wuhan.”

[CORONAVIRUS IN AFRICA: Experts worry that the steady traffic between China and Africa could spread the epidemic and overrun the continent’s already-strained health systems

ISRAEL BARS SOUTH KOREAN TOURISTS.

Nine South Korean tourists who spent a week visiting some of Israel’s most popular religious sites have tested positive for the coronavirus after returning home. Within hours, Israel began closing the country to South Korean travelers altogether.

Korean passengers flying on a Korean Air flight scheduled to land at Ben Gurion Airport at 7:30 p.m. Saturday would be barred entry into the country, Ynet reported late Saturday afternoon. Kan radio said that, on Sunday, the government would discuss whether to allow the other South-Korea-to-Tel Aviv flights to continue.

Israel’s health ministry ordered the immediate suspension of all tours by South Korean tourists who are currently in Israel, according to Kan radio. Health officials were working with the tourism ministry and travel agencies to book flights back to South Korea for the 1,700 South Korea tourists in Israel.

Israel suspended all flights from China on Jan. 30 in response to the outbreak of coronavirus.

The nine South Korean tourists were among a Roman Catholic tour group of 77 people, Haaretz reported. The health ministry said the pilgrims visited Israel from Feb. 8 to Feb. 15, touring Christian sites and other attractions in Netanya, Caesaria, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea, Beersheva, Hebron and Jerusalem.

Among the often-crowded sites the group visited were the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

The health ministry said it was conducting an epidemiological investigation to identify anyone who came in contact with the group.

Twenty Israel Nature and Parks Authority employees and two Dead Sea hotel housekeeping employees who were in contact with the South Korea tourists have already been placed in quarantine, according to local reports.

RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION BLAMES U.S. FOR CORONAVIRUS.

State Department officials say that thousands of Russia-linked social media accounts are spreading disinformation about the coronavirus, including a conspiracy theory that the United States is behind the Covid-19 outbreak.

American monitors identified the campaign in mid-January. Agence-France Presse first reported on the assessment on Saturday.

“Russia’s intent is to sow discord and undermine U.S. institutions and alliances from within, including through covert and coercive malign influence campaigns,” said Philip Reeker, the acting assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia.

“By spreading disinformation about coronavirus, Russian malign actors are once again choosing to threaten public safety by distracting from the global health response.”

The effort was described as being carried out by several thousand Russia-linked accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, which post similar messages at similar times in English, Spanish, French, German and Italian.

Fringe theories of uncertain origin have accused China of engineering the virus, including suggesting that it is an escaped bioweapon.

Misinformation about the virus — whether shared purposefully or unwittingly — is so rife that the World Health Organization has called it an “infodemic.” The W.H.O. has been working with big tech companies to try to quell the flood of rumors and falsehoods.

IRAN’S DEATH TOLL FROM THE VIRUS REACHES SIX, THE HIGHEST OUTSIDE CHINA.

Iran, which insisted as recently as Tuesday that it had no coronavirus cases, confirmed 28 cases and six deaths on Saturday, according to Iranian state media, making it the country with the highest death toll outside of China, where the number climbed to 2,345 on Saturday.

On Saturday, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization’s director, said the organization was “especially concerned about the increase in cases in the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Iran was the first country in the Middle East to declare deaths related to the virus. The head of public relations at the country’s health ministry, Kianush Jahanpur, wrote in a tweet that most of the infections came from Qom, 80 miles south of the capital, Tehran. Officials also confirmed cases in Tehran, and in the northern city of Rasht.

The number of deaths suggest the virus is being transmitted far more widely than Iranian officials have acknowledged. Infectious health experts note that, if, as Chinese doctors have reported, the virus kills about 2 percent of known victims, multiplying the number of deaths by 50 offers a rough case estimate. On that logic, Iran could have 300 cases.

Already, cases of travelers from Iran testing positive for the virus have turned up in Canada and Lebanon, and on Saturday, the United Arab Emirates said two Iranian travelers had the virus, raising that country’s total cases to 13.

State media in Iran reported that universities and institutions of higher education were closed for a week in 10 provinces and schools were closed for three days in Tehran because of the virus. Seminaries in Qom were also closed.

Concerts, movies and other cultural events were canceled across the country for a week, state media said. And spectators were barred from soccer games countrywide.

Kuwait Airways announced Saturday that it would evacuate more than 700 Kuwaiti nationals from Mashhad, Iran.

As Iran holds parliamentary elections this weekend, many voters in Qom lined up in front of voting stations wearing masks, according to videos from Iranian news agencies.

Conflicting news reports emerged on Saturday about the mayor of a district of Tehran, who was said to have been hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms on Friday. But the semiofficial news agency Fars later denied that the mayor, Morteza Rahmanzadeh, had been hospitalized, saying he was in good health.

[ FEARS OF A PANDEMIC RISE: Health officials warn that the number of cases outside of China may be greater than previously acknowledged. READ BELOW]

THE C.D.C. LIFTS RESTRICTIONS ON WESTERDAM CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised American passengers of the Westerdam cruise ship that they do not need to self-quarantine and are no longer subject to travel restrictions after their lives were upended when a fellow passenger was found to have the coronavirus.

No other infections have been found among passengers on the Westerdam, a C.D.C. spokesman said on Saturday, adding that the organization had sent an advisory to state and local health departments this past week.

An American woman, 83, who had disembarked from the Westerdam in Cambodia along with more than 2,000 other passengers and crew members, had tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on a subsequent layover, Malaysian officials said on Feb. 15. Only a small number of passengers had been tested before they were allowed to disembark.

The American passenger’s diagnosis, which Malaysian officials said was confirmed in a second test, had raised fears that another vector of transmission was going global. Cambodia has called the Malaysian diagnosis flawed.

That no other Westerdam passengers have become ill is not proof in itself that the American woman’s diagnosis was flawed, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

But Dr. Schaffner said the C.D.C. has been “very meticulous about implementing a containment policy in the U.S. and has been assiduous about finding and monitoring people who’ve had contact or previous exposure.”

On Saturday, the Malaysian health director general, Noor Hisham Abdullah, said that the American passenger was now clear of the coronavirus and was being monitored in the hospital with a “slight cough,” after an antiretroviral treatment.

People who have recovered from the infection will test negative as their bodies clear the virus.

Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Sen, who had personally welcomed the ship’s passengers after they had been turned away from several other ports, called Malaysia’s diagnosis into question again on Saturday. The woman never had coronavirus at all, he said.

Mr. Hun Sen is a close ally of China and his claims have cast doubts on the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak.

JAPAN ADMITS RELEASING SOME UNTESTED CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS BY MISTAKE.

Just days after releasing nearly 1,000 passengers from the cruise ship quarantined for two weeks in the port of Yokohama that has been a coronavirus hot spot, Japan’s health minister admitted that 23 passengers had been mistakenly cleared to leave without taking a valid recent test.

In a news briefing on Saturday night, the health minister, Katsunobu Kato, apologized for the error that allowed the passengers, who had not been tested since before the ship went into lockdown on Feb. 5, to leave the Diamond Princess.

The Japanese Health Ministry said it had tested them and checked for symptoms, and certified that they posed “no risk of infection.”

Mr. Kato said that all 23 mistakenly cleared passengers had boarded some form of public transportation after disembarking. He said none of them had reported any symptoms so far and 20 had already agreed to be retested, with three negative tests so far.

Although several governments that evacuated citizens from the ship — including those in the United States, Australia, Hong Kong and South Korea — confined them for an additional 14 days at home, Japan said that passengers who had tested negative for coronavirus and showed no symptoms could leave starting this week.

On the subject of the passengers released untested, Mr. Kato said that public health officers who had been conducting the tests missed the 23 passengers as they went door to door.

“While they made their multiple rounds to take samples, some passengers left their rooms to go outside and do exercise or something,” he said, “so they were unavailable.”

A total of 634 people tested positive on board the cruise ship, and two passengers infected with the coronavirus have died.

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Reporting and research were contributed by Hannah Beech, Liz Alderman, Vivian Wang, Choe Sang-Hun, Elian Peltier, Donald G. McNeil Jr., Farnaz Fassihi, Amy Harmon, Steven Lee Myers, Elaine Yu, Marc Santora, Matt Philips, Niraj Chokshi, Amie Tsang, Keith Bradsher, Amber Wang, Yiwei Wang, Ed Wong, David Halbfinger and Derrick Bryson Taylor.

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‘All Hands on Deck’: Health Workers Race to Track Thousands of Americans Amid Coronavirus

Local health departments around the United States are scrambling to monitor thousands of people returning from travel in China and elsewhere. Among the tasks: daily calls, emails, texts.

By Amy Harmon and Farah Stockman | Published Feb. 22, 2020 Updated 11:13 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted February 22, 2020 |

After a long journey at sea on the Westerdam cruise ship, which was denied entry at ports across Asia over fears of the coronavirus, Holley Rauen finally returned home to Florida on Wednesday night. Moments later, she discovered that she had joined a cast of thousands who are being meticulously tracked by local health officials across the United States.

As Ms. Rauen’s plane from overseas touched down, one message was already waiting on her phone, from a nurse at the local public health department in her Florida county. Should she develop a fever or cough over the next 14 days, she should report it immediately, the nurse explained when Ms. Rauen called back.

“I was so impressed,” said Ms. Rauen, who is herself a retired public health nurse from the same health department in Lee County. “We are really truly in uncharted waters.”

Preventing the spread of infectious disease is the essence of public health work, but the scale of efforts by state and local health departments across the country to contain the virus known as COVID-19, experts said, has rarely been seen. Since early February, thousands of people returning to the United States from mainland China, the center of the outbreak, have been asked to isolate themselves at home for 14 days.

Local health officials check in daily by email, phone or text. They arrange tests for people who come down with symptoms, and in some cases, groceries and isolated housing. There is no centralized tally in the United States of people being monitored or asked to remain in isolation, and they are scattered across the nation’s nearly 3,000 local health jurisdictions.

People arriving from mainland China are added each day, while those who have completed 14-day “self-quarantine” periods are released from oversight. In California alone, the department of public health has been monitoring more than 6,700 returning travelers from China, while health officials in Washington State have tracked about 800, and officials in Illinois more than 200.

The nationwide mobilization is taking a financial toll, health officials say. The cost to local health departments is unknown, but some experts say it has reached into the tens of millions. Even as the first of 34 confirmed coronavirus patients in the United States have recovered in recent days, health officials say they are preparing for what some fear could still be a much wider outbreak. Worldwide, the virus, which is known to be highly contagious, has infected 75,000 people and killed more than 2,000.

“All hands on deck are being pulled into this,’’ said Dr. Marcus Plescia, the chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, a nonprofit organization that represents public health agencies across the country. “If it really blows up, at some point, it could overwhelm state and local health departments.”

So far, officials say, the containment effort in this country has been largely orderly. The only known transmission of the virus in the United States has involved people in the same household. But no matter how effective health workers are in monitoring their charges, “there will always be some leakage,’’ said Dr. John Wiesman, the Secretary of Health in Washington State.

In Washington, where the first coronavirus patient in the United States was confirmed on Jan. 21, health officials tracked down and monitored 69 individuals with whom the man had come in contact, including work colleagues, health workers and other patients present in a clinic he visited when he first felt sick. Still, there have been issues. One person the man had been in contact with and who had developed symptoms of illness flew on a plane to Wisconsin during the 14-day period when she was supposed to be isolated at home.

“There is no way, with something this large, that you can make it seal-proof,’’ said Dr. Wiesman, who has started twice-weekly conference calls with the chief health officers in every state and territory to share tips and seek advice on how to manage the shifting challenges of the coronavirus response. While enforcing total compliance with isolation orders may not be possible, Dr. Wiesman said, “We have to try for 80 to 85 percent, and hopefully that will work.’’

Federal authorities are in charge of setting guidelines to manage the danger, such as deciding how much risk a returning traveler poses and who should be tested for the coronavirus. But the day-to-day work putting those policies in place and tracking thousands of people falls to the vast, decentralized network of local health departments across the country. Travelers’ data, culled from federal customs officials, is passed on to state health agencies, who farm out lists of people returning from China to local health departments.

In the Chicago area, public health officials are using an electronic monitoring system originally developed to track the measles to monitor more than 200 travelers. Each day, they receive a link asking their temperature and symptoms.

The costs associated with containing the virus have reached more than $150,000 a week for the Chicago public health department alone, according to its commissioner, Dr. Allison Arwady. Among the costs: $17,000 for a quarantine facility at an undisclosed location for people who can’t isolate themselves at home. So far, fewer than five people have used it, she said.

“If you are quarantining them under a legal order, you have to think about food, their medications, their communication needs and their mental health,” she said.

Some jurisdictions have negotiated with hotels to host people who may harbor the virus. Washington State has RV’s.

Ruth Jones, public health commissioner in Quincy, Mass., a town of about 100,000 people south of Boston, says that her department has been receiving lists of between three and 10 people each day who are returning from China and are being asked to stay isolated from other people. Quincy’s two public health nurses and two translators have been working long hours to call them and make sure they understand how to monitor and report any symptoms.

“It’s overtime for our nurses,’’ Ms. Jones said. “It’s been extremely busy,”

Local officials in places that have had confirmed cases have been under particular strain. In Madison and Dane County, Wis., a local health staff of 160 has been forced to rearrange its operation to focus on monitoring anyone who may have been exposed to a resident who tested positive for the virus after falling ill and remains in self-isolation.

“We’re in this new normal, but it’s not normal,” said Janel Heinrich, the county’s director of public health.

Along with monitoring individuals who are seen as at risk of having been exposed to the virus, state and local health officials have been scrambling to prepare for worst case scenarios in the months ahead. State officials in Washington said they will hold a webinar next week to brief school superintendents on best practices for cleaning and planning for home schooling should schools need to shut down.

“People are doing contingency planning,’’ said Julie Sullivan-Springhetti, spokeswoman for the Multnomah County Health Department in Oregon, which has devoted resources to preparing a regional hospital system for a potential case. “Just like we plan for the Cascadia earthquake, which may or may not happen in our lifetime.”

As for the returning passengers from the Westerdam, the cruise ship, passengers at first thought they had no reason to worry about the coronavirus because no one on the ship had traveled through mainland China during the outbreak. But after passengers began leaving the ship to head home, an 83-year-old woman was reported to have tested positive on a layover in Malaysia, creating confusion and chaos.

Erin Carney, 70, a retired nurse and midwife from Mendocino County, Calif., flew out on the same flight as the woman who was reported to have tested positive, though questions have been raised about that finding and the C.D.C. has since said that other passengers do not need to isolate themselves.

Given the initial reports of a positive test, Ms. Carney called hospitals to figure out what she and her partner should do.

“The person that we spoke to read the C.D.C. guidelines and thought that everything seemed fine and we didn’t have to self-quarantine,” Ms. Carney said. “They said, ‘If you have symptoms, go see your doctor.’”

But then a nurse from the Mendocino County Health and Human Services Department called Ms. Carney. She recommended that they quarantine themselves at home, and offered to supply groceries.

“We had kind of talked about doing that anyway,” Ms. Carney said. “They’ve called every day since.”

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Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs contributed reporting.

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With 4 Deaths in Iran and More Cases on 3 Continents, Fears of Coronavirus Pandemic Rise

Health officials called the surge in reported infections “very worrisome,” as cases soared in South Korea. Europe and North America reported a big uptick in infections.

By Vivian Wang, Donald G. McNeil Jr., Farnaz Fassihi and Steven Lee Myers| Published Feb. 21, 2020 Updated Feb. 22, 2020, 12:52 a.m. ET | New York Times |

HONG KONG — An alarming surge of new coronavirus cases outside China, with fears of a major outbreak in Iran, is threatening to transform the contagion into a global pandemic, as countries around the Middle East scrambled to close their borders and continents so far largely spared reported big upticks in the illness.

In Iran, which had insisted as recently as Tuesday that it had no cases, the virus may now have reached most major cities, including Tehran, and has killed at least four people, according to health officials. Already, cases of travelers from Iran testing positive for the virus have turned up in Canada and Lebanon.

The number of cases also soared in South Korea, with the sudden spread tied to a secretive church where hundreds of congregants attended services with numerous people infected with the virus.

The United States now has 34 cases, with more expected, and Italy experienced a spike from three cases to 17 and ordered mandatory quarantine measures.

“The cases that we see in the rest of the world, although the numbers are small, but not linked to Wuhan or China, it’s very worrisome,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said Friday at a news conference at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva. “These dots are actually very concerning.”

As uneasiness about the breadth and duration of the outbreak grew, stocks fell for the second straight day on Friday amid worries the virus would drag down global demand and hurt the world economy.

The disturbing reports out of Tehran suggested the virus was being transmitted far more widely there than officials had previously acknowledged. While the country’s health officials confirmed only 18 cases by Friday, the number of deaths indicates the total is likely to be far higher.

Four reported deaths probably mean at least 200 cases, said Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. If the virus kills about 2 percent of known victims, as Chinese doctors have reported, then the number of deaths can be multiplied by 50 to get a rough case estimate, he explained.

“People don’t die right away of this virus — it usually takes two or three weeks after cases start to spread for the first death,” Mr. Osterholm said. “So there may be a lot more cases, and a lot more deaths on the way. And we didn’t even know there was a problem in Iran before yesterday.”

Minou Mohrez, who is on the infectious disease committee of the Iranian Health Ministry, told the official IRNA news agency on Friday that it was clear the virus was spreading across Iran’s cities.

“A coronavirus epidemic has started in the country,” she said. “It’s possible that it exists in all cities in Iran.”

A spokesman for the Health Ministry, Kianush Jahanpur, said on Friday there were more than 735 people hospitalized with flulike symptoms who were being tested for the virus.

Kuwait’s civil aviation authority on Friday stopped all flights to and from Iran, which shares a long border with both Afghanistan and Iraq, where health officials have a limited capacity to stop the spread of the virus should it find its way to those countries.

Dr. Sylvie Briand, the director of infectious hazards management for the W.H.O., said the rapid increase in cases in Iran was disquieting.

“We are wondering what the extent of the outbreak in Iran is,” she told reporters on Friday. “We are wondering about the potential for more cases to be exported in the coming days. We want all countries to be aware of this and to put in place detailed measures to pick up these cases as early as possible.”

As concern grew that Iran was emerging as an important new vector of transmission, the country where the coronavirus originated was also responding to significant negative developments.

Officials in China, already straining to deal with an outbreak that has infected more than 76,000 people and resulted in 2,300 deaths, announced a new front in its war on the virus on Friday as officials reported clusters of infections in at least four prisons in three provinces.

The outbreaks, affecting at least 512 prisoners and guards, raised the specter of the disease spreading through the country’s extensive prison system.

More than 200 of the infections occurred in one prison in the city of Jining, 450 miles east of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province and the center of the outbreak; officials there suggested that the cluster may have been tied to a prison guard.

In South Korea, the total number of cases surpassed 340 on Saturday morning, and the authorities were racing to trace all the people who had come in contact with members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus. Members of that church, along with their relatives and others who got the virus from them, account for more than half of the country’s confirmed infections.

More than 1,250 other church members have reported potential symptoms, health officials said, raising the possibility that the nation’s caseload could skyrocket.

As of Saturday, more than 700 members of Shincheonji, which mainstream South Korean churches consider a cult, still could not be reached, according to health officials, who were hoping to screen them for signs of infection.

In response, the government is shutting thousands of day-care facilities and community centers, even banning the outdoor political rallies that are a feature of life in downtown Seoul.

All four virus-related deaths in Iran occurred in Qom, a holy city popular with Shiite pilgrims across the Middle East.

People have already tested positive in Qom, Tehran and Gilan, near the Caspian Sea, said Mr. Jahanpur, the Health Ministry spokesman.

“Most of these people were residents of Qom or they had traveled to Qom in the past days or weeks,” he said.

In Qom, schools and religious seminaries were shut down on Thursday as officials urged people to avoid gathering in large groups. But on Friday, as Iranians went to vote in parliamentary elections, polling stations were open and the communal pools of ink for people to dip their fingers proving they voted were in wide use.

With rumors spreading across the country on instant messaging services like Telegram, a confused and increasingly worried public watched as Tehran’s largest metro station was suddenly closed. Workers wearing protective gear descended on the station, apparently responding to reports of sick commuters. It remained closed Friday night.

There was growing skepticism over the government’s handling of the outbreak. Mahmoud Sadeghi, an outspoken member of Parliament from Tehran, accused the government of “covering up the spread of an epidemic.”

While the source of the outbreak in Iran could not be pinned down, officials speculated that it began in the large population of Chinese workers in the country.

Critics accused the government of playing down the disease, and failing to take strict precautions to prevent its arrival in the country, in order to avoid provoking China, a key trading partner and a lifeline for Iran’s economy in the face of U.S. sanctions.

The sanctions against Iran could hamper its ability to contain the spread of the virus and diminish the country’s ability to mobilize international support.

“Iran does have problems accessing specialized medication for rare and special diseases because of sanctions — either private companies or banks refuse to work with Iran in fear of U.S. secondary sanctions,” said Tara Sepehri Far, an Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch.

The new global clusters showed, again, the difficulty in judging the true number of infections, amid concerns about underreporting and rapidly shifting definitions of confirmed cases.

Further bolstering the idea that the virus is spreading widely, an epidemiological modeling team from Imperial College in London estimated Friday that two-thirds of the people infected with coronavirus who left mainland China before restrictions were imposed had traveled throughout the world without being detected.

The team, one of several modeling groups regularly consulted by the W.H.O., calculated how many cases were detected in different countries and how many should have been detected based on flights that left Wuhan just before most air travel out of China ended.

Detection failures “potentially resulted in multiple chains of as-yet-undetected human-to-human transmission,” the modeling team’s study concluded.

The virus is spreading even in places that might be expected to have the closest monitoring and prevention. In Beijing, a spike in cases at two hospitals raised fears that the epidemic could be growing in a city so far largely exempt from extensive infections.

The infections — and in some cases, deaths — of medical workers have become a potent symbol of the epidemic’s toll for many Chinese. On Thursday, another doctor in Wuhan died. The doctor, Peng Yinhua, 29, had postponed his wedding to continue treating patients, according to local news reports.

Earlier this week, a high-profile doctor, Liu Zhiming, the director of the Wuchang Hospital in Wuhan, died.

The almost random nature of new reports and new deaths is an indication the virus is moving much faster than countries are reporting to the W.H.O., Dr. Osterholm said.

“How many of these clusters and travel cases and prison outbreaks do we have to see before we realize that we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg?” he said. “Testing is just getting set up around the world. There’s barely any in Africa right now. Even in the U.S., we’re testing travel cases — but we’re not testing in any meaningful way that will pick up cases that we didn’t suspect were there.”

_____

Vivian Wang reported from Hong Kong, Donald G. McNeil Jr. and Farnaz Fassihi from New York, and Steven Lee Myers from Beijing. Marc Santora contributed reporting from London and Choe Sang-Hun from Seoul, South Korea.

*********

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bradleyenfield · 2 years ago

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Flight Of The Living Dead: Outbreak On A Plane

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enubus · 3 years ago

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http://www.danielgreenfield.org/?m=1

“In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate,” a terrorist declares on the Flight 93 cockpit recording. That’s followed by the sounds of the terrorists assaulting a passenger.“ Please don’t hurt me,” he pleads. “Oh, God.” As the passengers rush the cabin, a Muslim terrorist proclaims, “In the name of Allah.”📷 As New York firefighters struggle up the South Tower with 100 pounds of equipment on their backs trying to save lives until the very last moment, the Flight 93 passengers push toward the cockpit. The Islamic hijackers call out, “Allahu Akbar.” Mohammed Atta had advised his fellow terrorists that when the fighting begins, “Shout, 'Allahu Akbar,' because this strikes fear in the hearts of the non-believers.” He quoted the Koran’s command that Muslim holy warriors terrorize non-believers by beheading them and urged them to follow Mohammed’s approach, “Take prisoners and kill them.” The 9/11 ringleader quoted the Koran again. “No prophet should have prisoners until he has soaked the land with blood.” On Flight 93, the fighting goes on. “Oh, Allah. Oh, the Most Gracious,” the Islamic terrorists cry out. “Trust in Allah,” they reassure. And then there are only the chants of, “Allahu Akbar” as the plane goes down in a Pennsylvania field leaving behind another blood-soaked territory in the Islamic invasion of America. Today that field is marked by the “Crescent of Embrace” memorial. Thousands of Muslims cheered the attack in those parts of Israel under the control of the Islamic terrorists of the Palestinian Authority. They shouted, “Allahu Akbar” and handed out candy. But similar ugly outbreaks of Islamic Supremacism were also taking place much closer to home. On John F. Kennedy Boulevard, in Jersey City, across the river from Manhattan, crowds of Muslim settlers celebrated the slaughter of Americans. "Some men were dancing, some held kids on their shoulders," a retired Jersey City cop described the scene. "The women were shouting in Arabic." Similar Islamic festivities broke out on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, a major Islamic settlement area, even as in downtown Manhattan, the ash had turned nearby streets into the semblance of a nuclear war. Men and women trudged over Brooklyn Bridge or uptown to get away from this strange new world. At Union Square, I passed NYU students painting anti-war placards even as the downtown sky behind them was painted the color of bone. They ignored the crowd streaming up past them and focused intently on making all the red letters in NO WAR line up neatly on the white cardboard. In the years since, I have seen that look on the faces of countless leftists who ignore the stabbers shouting, “Allahu Akbar” in London or the terrorist declaring, "In the name of Allah, the merciful," among the bloody ruin of a gay nightclub in Orlando. Instead, they focus on their mindless slogans. “NO WAR,” “Stop Islamophobia” and “Refugees Welcome.” The world of the cardboard sign and the simple slogan is an easier and neater one than a sky filled with the ashes of the dead. On September 11, some of us opened our eyes. Others closed them as hard as they could. The passengers on Flight 93 who took the lead were in their thirties. But the two firefighters who made it to the 78th floor of the South Tower, Ronald Bucca, who did duty in Vietnam as a Green Beret, and Orio Palmer, a marathon runner, were in their forties. Those men and women had the most meaningful answers to the old question, “Where were you when it happened?” The great lesson of that Tuesday morning was that it wasn’t over. It wasn’t over when we understood that we wouldn’t find anyone alive in that twisted mass of metal and death. It wasn’t over when the air began to clear. It wasn’t over when the President of the United States spoke. It wasn’t over when the planes began to fly again and the TV switched from non-stop coverage of the attacks and back to its regularly scheduled programming. It wasn’t over when we were told to mourn and move on. It still isn’t over. After every attack, Boston, Orlando, San

Bernardino, New York, Paris, Manchester, London, Barcelona, we are encouraged to mourn and move on. Bury the bodies, shed a tear, and forget about it. Terrible things happen. And we have to learn to accept them. But Tuesday morning was not a random catastrophe. It did not go away because we went back to shopping. It did not go away with Hope and Change. Appeasing and forgetting only made it stronger. “Where were you?” is not just a question to be asked about September 11, 2001. It is an everyday question. What are you doing today to fight the Islamic terrorists who did this? And tomorrow? Our enemies wake up every day wondering how to destroy us. Their methods, from demographic invasion to WMDs, from political subversion to random stabbings, are many. A new and terrible era in history began on 9/11. We are no more past it than we were past Pearl Harbor at the Battle of Midway. Its origins are no mystery. They lie in the last sound that came from Flight 93. “Allahu Akbar.” We are in the middle of the longest war in American history. And we still haven’t learned how to fight it. September 11 has come around again. You don’t have to run into a burning building or wrestle terrorists with your bare hands. But use the day to warn others, so you can answer, “Where were you?”

Daniel Greenfield at September 12, 2021

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cinegoremagazin · 4 years ago

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[:hu]Blood Red Sky (2021)[:]

[:hu]A repülőgép elég extrémnek mondható helyszín egy horrorfilmhez, bár egyáltalán nem szokatlan. Láthattunk már utasokat, ahogy egy mágneses vihar miatt a múltba repülnek (Langolierek) vagy természetfeletti események történnek velük (Flight 7500). Támadtak már odafent kígyók (Snakes on a Plane), skorpiók (Tail Sting), élőhalottak (Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane) és földönkívüli…

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newstfionline · 4 years ago

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Monday, February 22, 2021

Global vaccine inequality and intellectual property rights (Washington Post) As the coronavirus pandemic rages, World Trade Organization representatives have periodically gathered around a virtual table and clashed over how to more equitably increase global access to vaccines. On one side are the United States and other mainly wealthy Western democracies, where the major pharmaceutical companies developing key vaccines and related medical technologies are based. They want to maintain the status quo, in which the trade secrets of their vaccines—i.e. intellectual property—remain in their hands to preserve profits and the incentive for future development. On the other side are South Africa and India, leading the charge on behalf of the vast number of countries without any—or a limited supply of—vaccine doses and other equipment for fighting the virus. They argue that the rest of the world cannot keep waiting for the lifesaving shots, which Western countries have monopolized by buying up existing supplies and pre-purchasing future rounds. Given the gravity of the global public health crisis, the latter camp wants to resort to an emergency waiver mechanism, whereby the intellectual property rights for making vaccines and related medical supplies would be temporarily suspended, which would lead to production and distribution ramping up more equitably in factories worldwide.

The Boredom Economy (NYT) Mark Hawkins is an expert on being bored. When he was getting his counseling degree, he was fascinated by articles on the therapeutic benefits of boredom. He has written a book whose title is “The Power of Boredom.” In his spare time, he likes to sit on his couch and stare out the window. Yet during the pandemic, even Mr. Hawkins, 42, who lives in British Columbia with his wife, has at times gotten bored of being bored. There are many readily available ways to assess how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the economy. The pandemic has decimated the labor market, driving the unemployment rate to 6.3 percent in January, nearly twice what it was a year earlier. Restrictions on activities led Americans to spend less money, pushing the savings rate to extraordinary heights. As people have fled to places with more space and fewer people, home prices have surged. Another way the pandemic has had an impact on the economy is by making people bored. By limiting social engagements, leisure activities and travel, the pandemic has forced many people to live a more muted life, without the normal deviations from daily monotony. The result is a collective sense of ennui—one that is shaping what we do and what we buy, and even how productive we are. “Because we’re spending so much time in the home, we’re investing more in the home,” said Marshal Cohen, the chief retail analyst at the NPD Group, a market research company. “And the things that we’re investing in are things to keep ourselves busy.”

Parts fall from sky in plane scare (AP) David Delucia was settling back into his airplane seat and starting to relax on his way to a long-awaited vacation when a huge explosion and flash of light interrupted an in-flight announcement and put him in survival mode. The Boeing 777-200, headed from Denver to Honolulu on Saturday with 231 passengers and 10 crew aboard, suffered a catastrophic failure in its right engine and flames erupted under the wing as the plane began to lose altitude. As Delucia and his wife prepared for the worst, people in this Denver suburb reacted in horror as huge pieces of the engine casing and chunks of fiberglass rained down on a sports fields and on streets and lawns, just missing one home and crushing a truck. The explosion, visible from the ground, left a trail of black smoke in the sky, and tiny pieces of insulation filled the air like ash. The plane landed safely at Denver International Airport, and no one on board or on the ground was hurt, authorities said. But both those in the air and on the ground were deeply shaken.

Why a predictable cold snap crippled the Texas power grid (Reuters) As Texans cranked up their heaters early Monday to combat plunging temperatures, a record surge of electricity demand set off a disastrous chain reaction in the state’s power grid. Wind turbines in the state’s northern Panhandle locked up. Natural gas plants shut down when frozen pipes and components shut off fuel flow. A South Texas nuclear reactor went dark after a five-foot section of uninsulated pipe seized up. Power outages quickly spread statewide—leaving millions shivering in their homes for days, with deadly consequences. It could have been far worse: Before dawn on Monday, the state’s grid operator was “seconds and minutes” away from an uncontrolled blackout for its 26 million customers, its CEO has said. Such a collapse occurs when operators lose the ability to manage the crisis through rolling blackouts; in such cases, it can take weeks or months to fully restore power to customers. Monday was one of the state’s coldest days in more than a century—but the unprecedented power crisis was hardly unpredictable after Texas had experienced a similar, though less severe, disruption during a 2011 cold snap. Still, Texas power producers failed to adequately winter-proof their systems. And the state’s grid operator underestimated its need for reserve power capacity before the crisis, then moved too slowly to tell utilities to institute rolling blackouts to protect against a grid meltdown, energy analysts, traders and economists said. Texas is the only state in the continental United States with an independent and isolated grid. That allows the state to avoid federal regulation—but also severely limits its ability to draw emergency power from other grids.

Trump Ally Violated Libya Arms Embargo, U.N. Report Says (NYT) Erik Prince, the former head of the security contractor Blackwater Worldwide and a prominent supporter of former President Donald J. Trump, violated a United Nations arms embargo on Libya by sending weapons to a militia commander who was attempting to overthrow the internationally backed government, according to U.N. investigators. A confidential U.N. report obtained by The New York Times and delivered by investigators to the Security Council on Thursday reveals how Mr. Prince deployed a force of foreign mercenaries, armed with attack aircraft, gunboats and cyberwarfare capabilities, to eastern Libya at the height of a major battle in 2019. As part of the operation, which the report said cost $80 million, the mercenaries also planned to form a hit squad that could track down and kill selected Libyan commanders. Mr. Prince, a former Navy SEAL and the brother of Betsy DeVos, Mr. Trump’s education secretary, became a symbol of the excesses of privatized American military force when his Blackwater contractors killed 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007. In the past decade he has relaunched himself as an executive who strikes deals—sometimes for minerals, other times involving military force—in war-addled but resource-rich countries, mostly in Africa.

Violence flares as protests over jailing of Spanish rapper extend into fifth night (AP) Protesters threw bottles at police, set fire to containers and smashed up shops in Barcelona on Saturday in a fifth night of clashes after a rapper was jailed for glorifying terrorism and insulting royalty in his songs. The nine-month sentence of Pablo Hasel, known for his virulently anti-establishment raps, has sparked a debate over freedom of expression in Spain as well as protests which have at times turned violent. Protesters attacked shops on Barcelona’s most prestigious shopping street, Passeig de Gracia, while newspaper El Pais reported that others had smashed windows in the emblematic Palau de la Musica concert hall. Demonstrators hurled projectiles and flares at police, who fired foam bullets to disperse the crowd.

With heavy hearts, Italians mark year of COVID-19 outbreak (AP) With wreath-laying ceremonies, tree plantings and church services, Italians on Sunday marked one year since their country experienced its first known COVID-19 death. Towns in Italy’s north were the first to be hard-hit by the pandemic and put under lockdown, and residents paid tribute to the dead. Italy, with some 95,500 confirmed virus dead, has Europe’s second-highest pandemic toll after Britain. Experts say the virus also killed many others who were never tested. The number of new coronavirus infections has remained stubbornly high despite a raft of restrictions on travel between regions, and in some cases between towns. In addition, gyms, cinemas and theaters have been closed and restaurants and bars must shut early in the evening. Nationwide there’s a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.

Protesting Indian farmers vow to amass more supporters outside capital Delhi (Reuters) More than 100,000 farmers and farm workers gathered in India’s northern Punjab state on Sunday in a show of strength against new farm laws, where union leaders called on supporters to amass outside the capital New Delhi on Feb. 27. Tens of thousands of Indian growers have already been camped outside Delhi for nearly three months, demanding the repeal of the three reform laws that they say will hurt them and benefit large corporations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which introduced the laws last September, has offered to defer the laws but refused to abandon them. Both sides have met for several rounds of negotiations but failed to make any headway, and farmers’ unions have vowed to carry on the protests until the laws are rolled back.

North Korea’s economy is ravaged by sanctions and pandemic isolation (Washington Post) Kim Jong Un is angry, and he’s lashing out. North Korea’s last economic plan failed “tremendously,” he complained. And his inner circle lacked an “innovative viewpoint and clear tactics” in drawing up a new one, Kim told the ruling Workers’ Party last month, yelling and finger-pointing at frightened-looking delegates. His economy minister, appointed in January, has already been fired. It’s not altogether surprising. North Korea is suffering its worst slump in more than two decades, experts say. It’s a combination of international sanctions and especially a self-imposed blockade on international trade in attempts to keep the coronavirus pandemic out. A shortage of spare parts usually supplied from China has caused factories to close, including one of the country’s largest fertilizer plants, and crippled output from the country’s aging power plants, according to news reports. Electricity shortages, long a chronic problem, have become so acute, production has even halted at some coal mines and other mines, Kim himself admitted in mid-February. “Without imported materials, raw materials and components, many enterprises stopped, and people, accordingly, lost their jobs,” Alexander Matsegora, the Russian ambassador to North Korea, told the Interfax news agency.

Myanmar protesters gather, undeterred by worst day of violence (Reuters) Huge crowds marched in Myanmar on Sunday to denounce a Feb. 1 military coup in a show of defiance after the bloodiest episode of the campaign for democracy the previous day, when security forces fired on protesters, killing two. The military has been unable to quell the demonstrations and a civil disobedience campaign of strikes against the coup and the detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others, even with a promise of new elections and stern warnings against dissent. Tens of thousands of people massed peacefully in the second city of Mandalay, where Saturday’s killings took place, witnesses said.

Israel to issue badges as proof of vaccination (AP) Israel unveiled a plan on Saturday to allow people who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus to attend cultural events, fly abroad and go to health clubs and restaurants. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the plan at a news conference on Saturday night, saying those who have been vaccinated will be able to download the “green badge” in the coming days. Netanyahu said the government could not keep unvaccinated residents from places like medical clinics, pharmacies and supermarkets. But he said other services would be allowed only for those who have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

#headlines #news

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ewh111 · 4 years ago

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Annual List of Favorite Film Experiences: The 2020 Pandemic Version

Happy new year! So happy to finally arrive at 2021! All the best for a much better new year!!

What a year it was. Since March 12, I've spent 98% of my time within the confines of my condo. The good thing is that as a natural introvert, I have not yet gone stir crazy. I get plenty of social interaction via Zoom. And as a type-2 diabetic, I have been especially careful, staying at home, going out only for essential work or errands, like groceries. I'm grateful that my extended family connected more through the pandemic via weekly 90 minute Zoom family check-ins.

After just two months of work from home, I surpassed the longest time I hadn't been on a plane in over 15 years. (In 2019, I took 42 flights--15 of them international; in 2020, just eight, all prior to the first week of Feb.) As someone who typically travels a lot for work, it's strange to be so stationary. But I'm not complaining. Without the daily commute, travel, and regular schedule of evening and weekend events, I've quietly appreciated the ability to get more sleep, find time to exercise, and even lose some weight. As I reflect upon the past year, I choose to look at the silver-lining and see this period as a positive, massive macro re-balancing of my life.

When things do get back to some semblance of normalcy, the ones who will have the most difficulty adjusting will be these two girls, Freddy and Maxie, who have been so spoiled with attention over the past 10 months.

Now onto this year's favorite film experiences.

What a strange year for film. The last time I experienced a communal movie-going experience was at the Sundance Film Festival back in January. Since 2020 will be remembered as the year of an uber-significant election and home confinement, it seems appropriate to begin this year's conversation with these two themes: democracy and geography, aka places we couldn't travel to.

LESSONS IN DEMOCRACY

Boys State

One of most riveting experiences is my favorite film from the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. This documentary follows four participants in the Texas edition of the week-long Boys State program. The filmmakers lucked out by selecting four boys whose journeys turned out to have fascinating dramatic arcs during the week. What unfolds is a totally engaging microcosm of the political dynamics in the rising generation of voters in America. Trailer: https://youtu.be/E1Kh_T5ZBIM

Hamilton

What a delightful escape from confinement and inability to see live theater by revisiting the stage musical phenomenon via the viewpoints of multi-cameras. It was a new way to appreciate the words, the music, the choreography, and staging of this remarkable work about Alexander Hamilton and his fellow founding fathers. Trailer: https://youtu.be/6s9sNvkjpI0

What the Constitution Means to Me

Missing live theater? Here's another gem to take in. Fast-paced, funny, deeply personal, and defiant, playwright Heidi Schreck plays herself in a mostly one-person show, revisiting her days as a teenager debating the meaning of the Constitution in dingy American Legion halls, linking her personal family history to our country's founding document. Trailer: https://youtu.be/P2zSRdVanDY

Crip Camp

Incredibly inspiring and engaging documentary about Camp Jened, a Catskills summer camp for teens with disabilities in the 1960s and 70s, which prepared many members to become leaders in the movement that eventually led to the passage of the ADA. An important piece of lesser known history and fight for social change and equity. Trailer: https://youtu.be/XRrIs22plz0

TRAVELING WITHOUT LEAVING THE COUCH

My Octopus Teacher (South Africa)

A truly meditative and surprisingly moving documentary. In a kelp forest off the coast of South Africa, a noted underwater photographer documents his, dare I say "friendship," with an octopus whom he visits every day over the course of a year. Trailer: https://youtu.be/b-lbIJHlmbE

76 Days (China)

New York-based filmmaker Hao Wu worked with two journalists in China who recorded harrowing, fly-on-the-wall footage inside four Wuhan hospitals at the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, a clearly risky endeavor unsanctioned by the Chinese government. While this may seem unappealing to watch as we still struggle with the crisis, this apolitical, humanizing, compassionate, and ultimately uplifting film documents and honors the courageous doctors and nurses and their relationships with patients and family members grappling with the unfolding crisis over the course of the full 76 day lock-down in Wuhan. Trailer: https://youtu.be/x_f6-jhbsR4

Your Name Engraved Herein (Taiwan)

The highest ever grossing LGBTQ film in Taiwan, as well as its most popular domestic film in 2020, this is a sensitive, poignant, slow-burn story of coming out and first love in an all-boys Catholic school in a still socially-repressive Taiwan immediately after the lifting of martial law in 1987. Trailer: https://youtu.be/mzfVBg54BGw

A Sun (Taiwan, again)

Driven driving instructor father + marginalized night-club hairstylist mother + high achieving, golden child # 1 son + disowned black sheep younger son serving time in juvenile prison = unhappy family. This multiple winner of Taiwan's version of the Oscar, A Sun is an intricate, engaging, character-driven family drama full of disappointment, redemption-seeking, and tragic setbacks, but uplifting in the end. Trailer: https://youtu.be/LBogLcE2wNQ

Gunda (Norway)

An unusual viewing experience, I did not expect to be so drawn in and highly moved by this intimate, up-close and personal barnyard portrait. A totally mesmerizing and beautifully filmed, black and white, wordless and scoreless documentary (only ambient farm sounds with no humans in sight)--just a sow named Gunda and her piglets with interludes by a one-legged rooster and herd of cows. And yes, there's a subtle message. Trailer: https://youtu.be/05Gc2lANyTQ

The Painter and the Thief (Norway, again)

An intriguing and fascinating documentary about the strange and complicated story of a female Czech artist, whose two most important paintings are stolen from an Oslo art gallery in broad daylight, and the thief who turns out to be an addiction-addled male nurse who she unexpectedly befriends during the trial. Trailer: https://youtu.be/LKBiKDZSf_c

Mucho Mucho Amor (Puerto Rico)

The story of the iconic fortune-teller with millions of followers in the Spanish-speaking world: the bedazzled and caped, effervescently flamboyant, gender non-confirming, Puerto Rican television astrologer Walter Mercado. Disappearing from the airwaves without a trace in 2007 after decades of daily uplifting telecasts, no one knew what happened or where he had gone. Until these filmmakers tracked him down. Here, they tell his story in this loving portrait of the legend, in time to participate in an exhibition dedicated to his 50 year career at a Miami museum before his death last year. Trailer: https://youtu.be/XEJqiucxyrs

Welcome to Chechnya (Russia)

A gut-wrenching and chilling documentary about courageous activists who help LGBTQ individuals flee the repressive regime of Chechnya where violent, homophobic beatings and executions play out regularly and whose leader denies the existence of gay people in his republic. The doc plays like a menacing thriller with the filmmaker going to great lengths to protect the identities using elaborate digital facial disguises. Trailer: https://youtu.be/GlKkj_aHMXk

Tenet (Russia, the Amalfi Coast, Oslo, the future, and the past, among other places)

This is not an easy film to like. One of the most anticipated on my list of "must sees," but the pandemic delayed my viewing till its recent VOD release. Was it worth the wait? Well, it was almost incomprehensible for the first third. But it is here because I'm still thinking about it long after watching and is high on my list to rewatch. To enjoy on first viewing, you should stop trying to figure it out and just let it wash over you and enjoy the ride--it will eventually make (some) sense. Despite all its complexities, Christopher Nolan's ambitious concept boils down to a simple plot: rich Russian bad guy (Kenneth Branagh) wants to end the world and an unnamed secret agent-type guy known only as the Protagonist (John David Washington) tries to stop him. Oh, and there's reverse entropy. And inverted time. And yeah, there are spectacular scenes with time moving forward and backwards at the same time. Like its title, the film is one giant palindrome. Trailer: https://youtu.be/AZGcmvrTX9M

Apollo 11 (Space)

Watching this documentary is like witnessing Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin's mission unfold before your eyes live, in real time. Put together from previously unreleased, stunningly crisp, and beautiful archival footage and communications audio from NASA, this is a breathtaking experience that captures the awe of the achievement without talking heads or commentary. Trailer: https://youtu.be/tpLrp0SW8yg

HOW TO DEAL WITH DEATH

Soul

This time out, Pixar tackles existential questions, like what it means to be alive and what is the "before life" in this metaphysically jazzy and terrifically "soulful" film featuring a predominantly Black cast. Trailer: https://youtu.be/xOsLIiBStEs

Dick Johnson is Dead

One would not expect a filmmaker's decision to document her father's descent into old age and dementia to be such an enjoyable and amusing ride. The result is a uniquely comic and bittersweet approach on how to handle his mortality, including envisioning and staging various ways he might accidentally hasten death. Her inspired choice to embrace the time left with her father in this way is endearing and touching without being sentimental. (And the director happens to be a college classmate: Kirsten Johnson, Brown '87.) Trailer: https://youtu.be/wfTmT6C5DnM

AND THREE MORE

Mank

David Fincher masterfully tells the tale of Herman Mankiewicz, the writer of Citizen Kane. Part social history, part examination of the underbelly of Hollywood's Golden Age, part homage to Orson Welles and Citizen Kane, the film is beautifully and evocatively shot in lush black and white with standout performances by Gary Oldman as Mank, Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies, and a screenplay by Fincher's late father, Jack. Trailer: https://youtu.be/aSfX-nrg-lI

David Byrne's American Utopia

An exhilarating and spirited concert film by Spike Lee who beautifully captures the exuberant grey-suited, bare-footed David Byrne and his similarly wardrobed bandmates on a minimalist stage--a perfect remedy for home-confined and connection-starved human beings during these unusual times. The Byrne-Lee pairing perfectly "makes sense" as you take in the penultimate number, a cover of Janelle Monáe’s "Hell You Talmbout." Trailer: https://youtu.be/lg4hcgtjDPc

Sound of Metal

A character study of self-discovery and emotional truths, Riz Ahmed gives a riveting performance as a heavy metal rock drummer who suddenly loses his hearing. The immersive experience is enhanced with the film's amazing sound design. Trailer: https://youtu.be/VFOrGkAvjAE

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (perhaps the film most representative of the craziness of 2020), Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (great performances by Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman), The Personal History of David Copperfield, Da 5 Bloods, The Way I See It, The Invisible Man, Trial of the Chicago 7, I Lost My Body, The Life Ahead, Wolfwalkers, The Bee Gees: How Do You Mend A Broken Heart.

In the Queue

Minari, Nomadland, Bacurau, Small Axe, Beanpole, The Forty Year Old Version.

2020: THE YEAR OF NON-STOP STREAMING

Honestly, given the lack of traditional theatrical releases, I did spend an inordinate amount of time streaming shows than I normally would. It has made me wonder about the challenges of narrative storytelling in the 90-120 minute format vs. the longer episodic format which is so much more conducive to storytelling and character development.

MY TOP 30-SOME FAVORITE PANDEMIC STREAMING EXPERIENCES

In descending order of bingey-ness--is that a word?--i.e., inability to stop watching episode after episode. (And occasional commentary...)

Dark (Netflix)--I gave this German series a special shout-out last year (Twin Peaks + Stranger Things + The Wire + time travel), and season 3 finally arrived this summer. So good, I devoured it twice in one week. Complex, mind-bending, and addictively dense storytelling with time travel that makes sense (Tenet, take note) and super satisfying series finish. Ultimately unraveling the intertwined family tree of all the time-traveling characters will make your head spin for days.

Money Heist (Netflix)--I needed something to replace my addictive need after Dark, and four seasons of this Spanish heist/thriller fit the bill perfectly. Plus, I think the series is rich in lessons on organizational behavior and leadership development/dynamics. Dissertation, anyone?

The Umbrella Academy (Netflix)--Not a genre I typically find appealing (superheroes), but I loved the combination of family dysfunction, sibling rivalry, humor, and more time travel. After finishing the two seasons, I really missed the characters and can't wait for next season. And as a JFK assassination buff, I loved that season 2 took place in Dallas,1963.

The Queen's Gambit (Netflix)--Girl survives car crash in which mom dies, grows up to be charming woman who is addicted to alcohol and does chess.

The Flight Attendant (HBO Max)--Girl survives car crash in which dad dies, grows up to be charming woman who is addicted to alcohol and serves first class. But not anything like The Queen's Gambit.

The Great* (Hulu)--Wickedly dark comedic period piece (Catherine the Great's 18th century Russia) with colorblind casting where scheming powerful people plot to get out of loveless marriage.

Bridgerton (Netflix)--A light romantic period piece (Regent era England) with colorblind casting where scheming powerful people and debutantes try to get into marriage and maybe find love.

Tiger King (Netflix)

The Crown (Netflix)

Sex Education (Netflix)

The Last Dance (Netflix)

Better Call Saul (Netflix)

Never Have I Ever (Netflix)--Best narrator ever!

Ozark (Netflix)

Watchmen (HBO Max)

Ugly Delicious 2 (Netflix)--David Chang is back with interesting take on food and culture. The classism of steak-eating?

Flavorful Origins (Netflix)

The Great British Baking Show Season 11 (Netflix)

Pen15 (Hulu)

Mrs. America (Hulu)

The Good Place (Netflix)

Ted Lasso (Apple TV)

Alex Rider (Prime)

Love, Victor (Hulu)

Giri/Haji (Netflix)

Ratched (Netflix)

The Undoing (HBO Max)

Lovecraft Country (HBO Max)

Zerozerozero (Prime)

Industry (HBO Max)

The Boys (Prime)

What We Do In the Shadows (Hulu)

We Are Who We Are (HBO Max)

Pose (Netflix)

Normal People (Hulu)

Indian Matchmaking (Netflix)

Middleditch & Schwartz (Netflix)

Schitts Creek (Netflix)--Don't be put off by this comic treasure being so low on the binge scale. The series gets better with each season, and I'm slowly watching it because I know the end is coming, and I don't want it to end.

#bestmovies2020 #bestTV2020 #favoritefilms2020

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biofunmy · 5 years ago

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US diplomats ordered to leave Wuhan; 56 dead

The coronavirus outbreak has left Wuhan, China nearly empty.

USA TODAY

As the U.S. closed its consulate in Wuhan and prepared to extract all its diplomats, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Saturday of a “grave situation” in the rapid spread of the coronavirus that has claimed 56 lives.

The virus, which broke out in Wuhan last month, has infected at least 1,975 people in at least 29 provinces and cities and killed 56 people in China, according to the National Health Commission.

The figures reported Sunday morning cover the previous 24 hours and mark an increase of 15 deaths and 688 cases.

The government also reported five cases in Hong Kong, two in Macao and three in Taiwan. Small numbers of cases have been found in Thailand, Japan, South Korea, the U.S., Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, France and Australia.

Among the victims is Liang Wudong, a 62-year-old doctor at Hubei Xinhua Hospital who died Saturday after treating patients in Wuhan, according to the state-run Global Television Network.

A hospital in Toronto confirmed Saturday that it is treating a patient with the deadly virus, Canada’s first.

A second case in the U.S. was confirmed Friday in Chicago, along with three cases in France. There have been no deaths outside of China.

The U.S. State Department arranged a charter flight for Tuesday to bring out all its diplomats and other U.S. citizens after temporarily closing the Wuhan consulate, the Associated Press reported. A notice Sunday from the embassy in Beijing said there would be limited capacity to transport U.S. citizens on the flight that will proceed directly to San Francisco.

The reports followed a State Department notice on its website that all essential personnel had been ordered to leave the city of 11 million.

‘Everything now is experimental.’: Here’s how doctors are treating coronavirus

Xi addressed the issue Saturday at a special Communist party meeting where he called for stepped up moves to tackle the accelerating crisis.

“Confronted with the grave situation of this accelerating spread of pneumonia from infections with the novel coronavirus, we must step up the centralized and united leadership under the party central” leadership, Xi said.

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A report issued from the meeting said that Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, “must make containment and control of the epidemic its top most priority, adopting even stricter measures to prevent it expanding within and spreading outward.”

China has already halted all train, plane and other transportation links to the city, which has ordered a ban on all downtown vehicle traffic beginning at midnight Saturday, state media reported.

Only authorized vehicles to carry supplies and for other needs would be permitted after that, the reports said.

The city said it will assign 6,000 taxis to different neighborhoods, under the management of local resident committees, to help people get around if they need to, the state-owned English-language China Daily newspaper said.

Wuhan outbreak: Something far deadlier than the coronavirus lurks near you, right here in America

Elsewhere, the latest U.S. victim, a Chicago woman, returned Jan. 13 from Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, and began experiencing symptoms a few days after arriving home, said Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health.

The 60-year-old woman called her doctor after symptoms arose. She was treated at St. Alexius in Hoffman Estates and placed in isolation, health officials said. Further testing confirmed the virus.

Arwady said the woman is “clinically doing well and in stable condition.” She did not have extended contact with anyone outside of her home, attend a large public gathering or use public transportation, Arwady said.

The woman was not symptomatic while flying, and Arwady told reporters at a Chicago news conference on Friday, “The CDC does not believe that, in the time before symptoms develop, the patients are able to be contagious.”

In Paris, the lead doctor treating two hospital patients for the new virus said Saturday that the illness appears less serious than comparable outbreaks of the past and that the chance of a European epidemic appears weak at this stage.

French officials on Friday reported three confirmed cases of the newly identified coronavirus in France, the first ones in Europe. The third patient is at a hospital in Bordeaux.

Dr. Yazdan Yazdanpaneh, a leading French expert who heads Bichat’s infectious diseases unit, said that cases imported from China were “not a surprise” and that France had prepared, including by developing a test that provides rapid results for suspected cases.

While most cases have centered in China, an increasing number of cases have been confirmed in other places, including South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Australia and Malaysia reported their first cases Saturday and Japan reported its third.

As the crisis increased, local Chinese authorities rushed to build a 1,000-bed hospital in six days to treat the growing number of patients. Authorities announced Saturday that 658 patients were being treated for the virus and 57 were critically ill, Reuters reports.

An aerial view of the construction site of a field hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province, China on January 24, 2020. The 1,000-bed hospital is expected to be completed by February 3, 2020 to cope with the increasing number of people affected by the coronavirus. (Photo: Yuan Zheng, EPA-EFE)

The state-run Global Television Network reported Saturday that the health commission was sending six groups of 1,230 medical staff to Wuhan, In addition, 450 military doctors, some with experience fighting the SARS and Ebola viruses, were sent to the city Friday.

The Xinhua news agency reported that additional medical supplies were being rushed to the city, including 14,000 protective suits and 110,000 pairs of gloves from the central medical reserves as well as masks and goggles.

The virus has caused major public upheaval, with the government shutting down public transportation for roughly 36 million people in 13 cities in central China and major cities canceling events tied to the Lunar New Year celebration, a busy time for travel.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said all direct flights and trains form Wuhan would be blocked and that all schools would be closed in the city until Feb. 17.

Beijing’s Forbidden City, Shanghai Disneyland and sections of the Great Wall have also closed.

Rapidly-spreading respiratory virus: Drugmakers are hustling to make a coronavirus vaccine

What is coronavirus?

The Providence Regional Medical Center Everett north of Seattle treated the man believed to be the first person in the U.S. to contact the coronavirus. A doctor and two nurses spoke to the Associated Press about the experience. (Jan. 24)

AP Domestic

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to pneumonia. Common signs of infection include fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, infection can cause severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and death.

Health officials said the virus, which probably spreads through tiny droplets when a person coughs or sneezes, is low-risk. Officials urged people to take the usual cold and flu season precaution: frequent hand washing, covering your mouth when coughing or sneezing and staying home when you don’t feel well.

“These illnesses can pop up anywhere,” said Trish Perl, chief of infectious diseases at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “This is a dynamic situation that can dramatically change from day to day.”

Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Many of the initial cases were linked to a seafood and meat market in Wuhan. Chinese health officials, which first reported the cases last month, said human-to-human transmission has been confirmed.

Contributing: Ryan Miller, Grace Hauck, Nicholas Wu, John Bacon, Ken Alltucker and Lindsay Schnell, USA TODAY; The Associated Press.

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liquid-geodes · 3 years ago

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Okay everyone buckle the fuck UP

So as you know, that last post about Johnny and the plane crashing on or near Arapice Island was purely super glued together for the sake of creating angst. But fellas I've got a brand fucking new theory for you on how Zombie Gat got here AND ITS GONNA MAKE SENSE

So, I did end up finding a plane wreck:

There are absolutely NO markers indicating this to be a commercial airline plane. It also doesn't make sense narrative wise for this to just be some random plane, considering the only plane crashes that happen are STAG related, and the plane we start out in at the very beginning of the game. It also makes sense for this plane to be unmarked, since it's being used by one of the major gangs of the Syndicate. You don't want your name attached to whatever it is you're doing, unless you're the Saints, they plaster their name on everything.

ANYWAY I took the liberty of marking 3 important locations on the map below:

Marker one (the furthest left) is Shaundi's Ex's Apartment, this is where we start the game after the freefall sequence.

Marker 2 is Arapice Island, the place where the zombie virus originates due to STAG occupation.

Marker 3 is the location of the above pictured plane wreck.

I'm sure you've noticed that marker 3 is nowhere near either location of interest, but remember: the plane was crashing in a linear downward motion somewhere over Steelport. To illustrate this I set my GPS marker somewhere off the map using marker 3 and marker 1 as plot points, and it gave me this:

Notice how this puts the flight path of the crashing plane directly through all 3 major markers?

It's indisputable that the Saints parachuted down to marker 1, as that was your target after catching Shaundi during the fall. Assuming that Johnny HAD survived the injuries sustained on the plane it's possible he too was able to parachute down to Arapice Island sometime after the Saints depart, leaving the plane to continue on it's descent before landing at marker 3, meaning he didn't go down with the plane as I previously suggested. It's STILL possible that Zombie Gat is made possible by Johnny SURVIVING the Morningstar attack, and ultimately died being unable to defend himself in his injured state as zombies overtook Arapice Island.

All evidence in hand, we can configure a timeline that reads as follows:

The Saints make their getaway attempt on the Morningstar jet, at this point Johnny breaks away from the group to try and take control of the aircraft from the cockpit

As the Saints fight their way through the plane they hear Johnny's final transmission from the aircraft's built in intercom system, gunshots follow, the line is never used again

Severe damage is caused to the plane by the Saints to create an opening for escape, causing the plane's downward decent

The Saints set course for Marker one, taking us away from anything happening in the plane

Assuming Johnny is still alive, he makes his way out of the plane over marker two, landing somewhere on the island

The plane finishes it's decent and crashes at marker three, leaving the wreckage we find

The Saints set out from marker one to the leftmost area of land marked Morningstar via raised freeways, never setting foot in Arapice Island, under the assumption Johnny is dead

Meanwhile Johnny is stranded on Arapice, too injured to do much on his own but sit and hope a fellow Saint comes across him and helps

STAG occupation as Marshall Law is declared due to Saint activity leads to a zombie outbreak on Arapice, only living bodies can be affected, meaning Gat is still alive at this point

Destroying the Daedalus and therefore wiping out STAG leads to the addition of Zombie Gat to your team, since STAG occupation of Arapice is now over, you're more likely to actually set foot on this island now to complete your one (optional) activity, buy the available properties, and therefore have total gang control of Steelport.

It's not as farfetched to believe we had a shot at saving Johnny when we now have an estimated flight path and promising crash site marked, as well as the schematics as to how Zombies are created in game. And now people like me can make this game wayyyyy too deep, when in reality Zombie Gat is just a fun person you can call to come fight alongside you, just like the Brutes, Jenny, and even Josh Birk as his TV character Nyte Blade

But still, it's fun to think about!

I forgot I had laundry today so I can't start my game until I'm done :(

So I'll just keep dicking around in the other one and see what I can get Boss into

#saints row the third #ive found Johnny Gat!

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mightybigpill · 8 years ago

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THE PLANE CRASHED.

It’s unbelievable how quickly life can spiral out of control. Unfortunately for the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, it’s equally as unbelievable how quickly a plane can get over a thousand miles off course — and crash land into a mysterious and seemingly deserted island. Bodies strewn among the wreckage serve as a reminder to how lucky the remaining passengers are. Though perhaps lucky ISN’T the word.

Help is right around the corner, and in the event it isn’t… You better get comfy. While beautiful, the island offers it’s own dark past — rich with sinister secrets and purpose. Whether you you side with faith or science, you will be tested.

NOW IT’S TIME TO LIVE.

In order to join this group, you must be 18+ ooc.

This group verse is open to CANON CHARACTERS ONLY, FROM MOST FANDOMS. Please note cartoons, anime, video games and other characters lacking face claims will not be allowed. All plausible video game characters (ie: uncharted, tomb raider) must have a legitimate face claim.

Dark and triggering themes will be present in this roleplay, please don’t apply if these themes typically bother you.

Duplicate characters are not accepted, however duplicate face claims are. Duplicate face claims NEVER look identical and it shouldn’t be turned into a running ‘twin gag’, ect.

We’re not here for drama, therefore any issues should be run by myself and they will be dealt with.

Biographies are necessary since most fandoms may not necessarily follow canon here. In terms of the Walking Dead, this is prior to the outbreak, characters may not know each other. If you’re wanting to apply for LOST characters, I would LOVE to see them!

In terms of activity, we want to see you involved in the verse. Some of us write on GoogleDocs and post threads once they’re completed which is completely acceptable, but we do want to see you plotting and being present in the verse. I’ll do activity checks, and if people aren’t around, i’ll remove them at my discretion. If you’re inactive for over one week, we do reserve the right to remove you. If at any point you no longer wish to continue your role in the verse, please let us know!

While tenses can be whatever you’re comfortable with, please always post in third person.

Please note submitting an application does not mean you will be accepted into the group verse.

Applications MUST be submitted HERE.

You MUST be tracking (v. dont fly oceanic). If you would like to have an alternate verse name for this, please feel free to do so; however everything must be tagged with this for everyone else to find it, and to appear in the tag. Please also note this must be within the first 5 tags or it will not appear in the tracked tags.

IMPORTANT LINKS: ACCEPTED APPLICATIONS, ADMIN.

NEGAN GRAHAM, 48. HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER. WIDOWED. the walking dead. // KAT, 27, EST.

TATE LANGDON, 17. STUDENT. SINGLE. american horror story. // SARAH, 24, CST.

PETER PARKER, 20. STUDENT/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER. SINGLE. marvel. // Jessica, 22, EST.

HERMIONE GRANGER, 17. STUDENT. SINGLE. HARRY POTTER. // KAT, 27, EST.

RICK GRIMES, 46. SHERIFF. DIVORCED. the walking dead. // SHANE, 30, EST

DAMON SALVATORE, 178 (25), UNEMPLOYED, SINGLE. the vampire diaries. // SARAH, 25, EST

DAVINA CLAIRE. 17. UNEMPLOYED. SINGLE. the originals. // SARAH, 25, EST.

DR. HARLEEN QUINZEL, 28. PSYCHIATRIST. NEWLY SINGLE. dceu/dc comics. // MIYA, 24, PST

DR. JULIET BURKE, 36. FERTILITY DOCTOR/RESEARCHER. DIVORCED. lost. // GINA, 28, CST

* * * PLEASE TRY AND KEEP THE BELOW FORMATTING IN TACT. YOU MAY DO THIS BY COPYING AND PASTING INTO A DRAFT ON TUMBLR, OR DIRECTLY INTO THE SUBMIT BOX. * * *

THE BASICS

OOC NAME & AGE: Please note you MUST be over 18!

CHARACTER NAME & AGE: Please note we’re only accepting CANON characters as of this time.

FANDOM:

OCCUPATION: What does your character do?

FACE CLAIM:

REASON FOR BEING ON THE PLANE: This is where we’re going to run into some plot holes given the two destinations, and multiple characters from each fandom. We’re overlooking this. The main fact is these characters are stranded together and not is all it seems.

DARKEST SECRET: What’s the darkest secret your character harbors?

ALTERATIONS FOR YOUR CHARACTER: If you’re the first character of your fandom, you’re pretty much setting the ground rules. For example: AHS Murder House has limitations on certain characters for different reasons. Therefore this is where you would place what you’re altering for your fanom. Ie: Tate is seventeen and was on a school field trip. For The Walking Dead, since the zombie apocalypse never happened; the characters were free to live their lives. If you’re joining and there is already a character from the fandom you wish to apply from, please read their application to keep consistent with changes, if any.

RECENT THREAD: Please link to a recent thread you’ve written.

DIRECT LINK: Please fill the below out accordingly. Please hyperlink your character first and last with your account URL. CAPITALS ONLY.

CHARACTER FIRST AND LAST, #AGE. OCCUPATION. RELATIONSHIP STATUS. fandom. // ALIAS, #AGE, TIMEZONE (EST, CST, PST, ECT).

BIOGRAPHY.

This is 100% where you can go wild, my only thing is if you’re playing a canon character, please make sure they remain true to canon. Please make sure your biography is a minimum of two meaty paragraphs. If your character is high school aged, please note that NEGAN was on a graduate’s trip with his high school and that would be a wonderful way to rope characters together so there are preexisting relations.

#lost rp #(v. dont fly oceanic)#indie rp #open rp #open group verse #indie group verse #indie lost rp

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awritesfanfics · 8 years ago

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Return of the Hounds Pt. 1

I’ve literally been so busy I started this right after I watch TFP and I haven’t been able to finish it until like now. So here it is, I just had to get it off my chest. Part 1 of 2!

Pairing: Sherlock x Reader

Word Count: 2,632

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“Boring!”

“You haven't even let me finish!” “It's twins. Solved it last night while you were at the pub.” “But it's never twins, you said it yourself it's never twins!” “Well this time it is.” He ripped the knives out of the wallpaper and returned to start over. “Well that's it then.” You said, defeated. “What?” He whipped around, unconsciously aiming a dagger at you. You threw your hands up in front of your face and grimaced. You wanted to believe he wouldn't throw it at you, but with Sherlock you could never be sure. He looked confused at your reaction until he followed your line of sight. “Sorry,” he said, lowering the weapon. “What do you mean that's it then? You're trying to tell me you can't find a case? In all of London there's nothing for me?” “I'm not your secretary,” you said narrowing your eyes. “But no, nothing left that you want. We've been here for three days, Sherlock. I've read through everything.” “Three days? No, no it can't- oh, that's why John brought the paper in.” “Paper comes on Tuesday though? We've been at it since Wednesday.” “He only brings it in if it's been out there for more than 56 hours. He doesn't even realize but OCD is a very efficient time keeper.” You shook off his deduction. Not important. “So you want me to look outside of London then?” “What? Yes, yes anywhere, look in the bloody- “ “States? Oh, wow, there's plenty to keep you busy here.” The US crime news page seemed to go on forever. Hate crimes seemed to saturate the list, but those were obvious. Sherlock needed a challenge if you wanted to keep him out of your hair for a while.

“Here's one. Has to deal with the president.” He threw a knife at the wall and groaned. “No no, he's an idiot. Next!” Crack. A second knife splintered the wall. “Doctors puzzled at rare amnesia cases?” You searched the article. “Here it is again. 4 dead in connection with unknown amnesia virus.” “Patients manic in their last moments, extensive internal bleeding.” “Amnesia virus contained to one-“ you laughed and shook your head. “What?” He asked, skimming the article from over your shoulder. “Did the press ever get hold of what happened at Baskerville?” You turned to look at him. “No, Mycroft kept it quiet, no one knew.” “So no one found out that it was finished? That anyone found out what was happening?” He cocked his head and furrowed his brow. “Amnesia virus contained to one Indiana hospital. Liberty hospital on lockdown after outbreak of unknown disease take 5 lives, infects 9 more.” Sherlock smiled. “Perfect!” He stabbed the third knife into the arm of your chair, slicing the woven sleeve of your sweater. “We need to get you a damn case, I don't have many sweaters left and I'm not risking losing an arm.” “What exactly has he been doing?” John leaned in and asked quietly, to not disturb the working genius. “I like to think he's been packing, but it doesn't take 13,000 steps in a 50 foot flat to pack for a trip to America. You ready then?” He nodded, glancing over at the luggage by the door.

“I'll grab mine.” “Yea, cab should be ready soon.” He glanced down at his watch. “We're going to be late, Sherlock, what the hell are you doing in there?” He walked out with a small day bag and his face buried in his cell phone, nearly walking right into John. “What have you been doing in there?” Mrs. Hudson said frowning. “Sounded like you were running a marathon. Gonna wear a hole in my rug if you don't get a change of scenery.” A smile snuck onto her lips as Sherlock gave her a tight squeeze goodbye. She gave you a hug as you collected your luggage. “Keep him safe, will you dear?” “I'll try my best,” You giggled as you walked out of the flat. You loaded your luggage into the cab and squeezed in beside Sherlock. “Heathrow, please.” Once you boarded your flight, you settled in. You decided confidently that'd you'd try to take a nap, after sitting through not one, but three of the documentaries provided by the airline. There were seven hours left on the flight; maybe there'd be something better on later. You put in your headphones and, thankfully, started dozing off right away. Your head bobbed gently against the back of your chair, your breathing slowed, and your music drowned out the roaring of the engines. Light turbulence nudged you awake. You brought your watch close to your tired eyes to read the time. 3 hours left. “I slept for 4 hours? On a plane? Well I was surprisingly comfortable…” Your cheeks turned red. You must've rested your head on Sherlock’s shoulder without knowing. You wanted to move softly, so he didn't notice anything, but when you tried, you felt pressure holding you down. His breathing was soft. He must've fallen asleep on you, too. The cabin was dark, the music played softly in your ears. You were the most comfortable you've been in years, and you fell back to sleep. Sherlock stirred gently as the plane began its descent. You followed suit, clearing your throat and turning your head to the open window to your right. Your eyes squinted as you greeted the bright blue sky and the growing buildings below. “So how exactly are we going to get into this hospital to get the information we need?” John asked, munching on an order of French fries. “I mean, it's on lockdown, we can’t exactly just walk in.” “Well, the story did say the only people who seemed to get infected were those prone to seizures, didn't it? They thought it had something to do with the medicine.” Sherlock nodded, cocking his head. “Don't panic.” You whispered to the two. Suddenly, you froze. Your eyes seemed to gloss over as you locked your muscles and threw yourself from your chair. You seized on the floor, voluntary spasms shaking your entire body. Sherlock and John followed along beautifully. “Oh my god, oh my God!” John yelled as Sherlock called an ambulance. “Is anyone here a doctor, my God what the hell is happening to her?!” He exclaimed, drawing the attention of at least two dozen onlookers. A woman rushed to your side. “I'm a doctor. Everyone stand back. She needs space and air. She's having a seizure. No one touch her. Do you know her?” “Yes, yes she's my best friend. She's never done this before!” The woman held him back. “She’s fine, she'll be fine, you friend is calling an ambulance. We just have to wait until then.” The EMTs arrived quicker than anticipated. By then, you were fine, but John insisted on them taking you in anyway, since the fit was “totally out of the blue, unpredicted, and terrifying if it were to happen again.” They agreed, and loaded you into the ambulance. “Where are we going? Which hospital?” You asked “weakly”. “Miami Valley, mam.” “Why not Liberty Regional?” “Well, that’s about 45 minutes away.” “Huh. Good to know.” You sat up in the gurney and gave a swift kick, sending the EMT flying back. “Sherlock, the driver!” You ordered. “Get some scrubs on, Doctor Watson. We have a long ride ahead of us.” Sherlock sent the driver tumbling out of the cabin and took his place. You pulled up a map to Liberty Regional for him and sped off.

“Well that didn't go exactly as I planned. When was the last time you didn't pull the doctor card?” He shrugged. “All worked out though.”

Sherlock whipped through the ambulance dock, opening the back doors to help lower you out. “You can't be here, the whole place is on lockdown.” A nurse tried to shoo you away. “Your higher up seemed to tell us different.” John said sternly. “I called it in already. Said to take a look at her.” The woman was convinced. “She's had a seizure. She’s alright, just had a bit of a fright. First one, you know how that goes.” “If she's scared about that, she'll be petrified once she gets the bill.” The nurse laughed as she brought you in, taking you through the almost completely deserted halls. “Where is everyone?” You asked. Well, not to worry you, but there's been an outbreak of something, so we haven't been accepting new patients. In the process of evacuating them actually. It's contained to a few rooms, though. You'll be fine.” She wheeled you into a dim room and helped you onto the bed. “A doctor will be right in to talk to you. You shouldn't be here for too long.” As promised, a doctor and nurse, both masked walked in with a drip feed and clipboard, shutting the door behind him. The bag was labeled ‘SALINE 1.2 mg dos’. “Hello.” He said quietly from behind the mask. “I apologize, for this. I’d much rather be face to face-“ he said, moving uncomfortably close you “-but as you must’ve heard, there’s been a sort of outbreak here. We’re working very hard to keep everyone safe and prevent his from spreading.” Your blood ran cold. It was Culverton Smith. You hid your accent as best as you could to prevent any possibility of him catching on to your plan.

“Not doing too well of a job though are you? I heard it spread to what, 9 people now?”

He became noticeably agitated. He didn’t expect your response. That just meant he had to work quicker. He laughed it off. “That’s not exactly my area.”

“Well who’s is it? No one knows what caused it, so who’s in charge of it? Neurology? Virology? The janitors?” You cursed yourself in your mind. You’re slipping. You just couldn’t help it. You laughed to help lighten the tension, and he followed suit.

“So what I hear is, you've had a seizure?” He was anxious to change the subject. You nodded. “It was my first one, ever. No one in my family has them either.”

He motioned for a nurse to hook you up to the IV. You started to panic.

“Is this really necessary? I thought I’d just be coming in for a consultation, a checkup.”

“Oh no, sorry. You’ll need to stay overnight, maybe for about a week. We need to conduct some follow-up tests, you know, make sure you’re not infected.”

Your heart raced.

“You read the news, didn’t you? “Strange amnesia virus infects seizure patients.” This hospital isn’t accepting new patients. So how exactly did you get in here? Well by faking a seizure of course! You wanted to find out the cause, so you could help find a cure, didn’t you? Well, relax. I’ll tell you my little secret.” He dropped the mask and the fake accent. “Oh, I am sorry though, this saline that’s flooding your system right now, isn’t saline. It’s a memory inhibitor. Blocks new ones, kind of dissolves old ones too I’m afraid. Take notes, you won’t be able to remember any of this in the morning, if you even live that long.” He laughed again, standing up. “Well, this is lovely, but I’ve got another patient to tend to. And try not to scratch at the IV, leaves a nasty scar.” He returned the mask to his face, and he and the nurse disappeared out the door.

You looked around the room, your memory fading. Anxiety rose up within you, but you couldn’t remember why. You glanced down at your arm, the small needle stuck in your vein.

The IV. The IV. The IV. Those words reverberated in your mind, but you just couldn’t remember why.

Suddenly, Sherlock and John busted through the door, shutting it quietly and locking it behind them.

They were frantic, flying over to your side and bombarding you with questions about why you had an IV in, what the doctor said, and what was going on.

“Wait,” you quieted them, bringing your hands to your temples.

Sherlock and John shared a panicked glance before you decided.

“He said it was something to do with... Agh! I can't remember, it was something with seizure patients, but we knew that already! uh…”

“I can't remember!” You cried. Your eyes frantically searched the familiar faces for a shred of a memory, something to remind you what was Culverton’s plan. Sherlock grabbed you by the shoulders and met your eyes, following them around the room.

“Can you remember anything?” He pressed, his face twisting in fear of the unthinkable.

You shook your head, then suddenly stopped. your eyes seemed to gloss over for a second, fixated on a distant point in the hallway. You came to, and pulled away from his grip, wiping your eyes and studying the men in front of you. “What are you talking about? Remember anything about what?” You replied, dryly.

The color drained from Sherlock’s face. He swallowed hard. His worst fear had come true. First it was Mary. Now you. He promised he'd keep you safe on any case the two of you went on. And now you were hours before dying, and there was nothing he could do about it without giving in to the one man Sherlock feared.

John stepped in, pushing Sherlock aside. “Yes, Ms. (Y/N), is it? Doctor Watson.” He shook your hand. “You have been sent here because of an accident you had.” He picked up a blank clipboard that rested at the bottom of your bed. “You fell off a ladder and hit your head? That could be the reason why you don't remember, blunt force trauma could lead to unconsciousness, memory loss. It's all very common and nothing to be worried about.” A look of relief crossed your face. “Let's just get a quick look at that. Would you mind leaning forward for me?” You obeyed, sitting up and leaning over. He brushed the hair off your shoulder and stabbed a syringe into your arm.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing?! Who are you?! I'm going to call… security, and you'll… you'll be…. arrested… and lose…” Your shoulders fell limp and your head bobbed forward as you lost consciousness. Sherlock rushed to you, but John held him back.

“She'll be fine. Just a tranquilizer. It'll slow her heart rate, keep her in one spot for a while. But we have to work quickly.”

Sherlock nodded, backing away. A call rang in on the landline on the bedside table. With a deep breath, John answered.

“Hello?” He said, clearing his throat. He handed it over. An unsteady hand took it, greeted by a wicked laugh on the other end.

“What the hell is this?” Sherlock yelled through gritted teeth.

“Just a little game of mine. I heard you like games, Mr. Holmes.” His mind was clouded, but still useful. The accent was American, but fake. Crooked teeth interrupted the flow of speech. An echo, a beeping, a heart rate monitor.

Two heart rate monitors.

Three.

Seven.

The ICU.

A second voice piped up inaudibly in the background

“Oh, I'm afraid I have to go, Mr. Holmes. Someone needs my care.”

The distinct loading of a gun. A terrified plea. A single shot. A dull thump. John turned in the direction of the noise down the hall.

“Come get me, Mr. Holmes, before I win the game.” The laugh resumed before cancelling the call. Sherlock tore the phone from the table in audible frustration, shattering it against the far wall.

He turned and saw John, focused like a bloodhound on a scent, waiting for a command. “This way.” He urged.

The pair raced towards the sound, slamming the door behind them.

Part 2

#sherlock #sherlock x reader #sherlock fanfic #sherlock fanfiction

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phgq · 5 years ago

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House panel probes issues plaguing repatriation of OFWs

#PHnews: House panel probes issues plaguing repatriation of OFWs

MANILA – A panel at the House of Representatives is set to conduct on Friday a congressional inquiry into the issues concerning the repatriation of stranded overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

The House committee on public accounts, chaired by Anakalusugan Rep. Mike Defensor, will conduct the investigation with invited officials from the Department of Labor and Employment, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Transportation, as well as some ambassadors assigned to the Middle East and OFW representatives.

“Consistent with the directive of Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano in the case of the social amelioration program, we want to look into the problems plaguing the repatriation of our workers overseas, who have lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and find solutions,” Defensor said. “We want the living as well as the dead repatriated as soon as possible. They have been stranded abroad for months.”

Defensor said some House leaders are puzzled as to why it is taking the concerned agencies so long to fly home stranded OFWs.

“We have thousands of them in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East and Europe who have been waiting to return home since the coronavirus outbreak,” he said.

Defensor said his committee will try to identify the agencies’ problems in trying to get the OFWs home.

“Are there no planes that can be chartered to fly them? Are there no government planes or ships that could be used? Are there sufficient repatriation and related funds? These are some of the questions we want answered,” he added.

He noted that while many OFWs have been repatriated, “hundreds of them have become stranded in their own country” and have been forced to sleep at the airport or in areas near the airport while waiting for flights to their provinces.

The DOLE earlier reported that over 50,000 OFWs have been repatriated from May 15 to June 14, 2020.

Under the OFW Return Program, repatriated Filipinos are transported back to their home provinces via air, land and sea. (PNA)

***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "House panel probes issues plaguing repatriation of OFWs ." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1106895 (accessed June 25, 2020 at 01:41AM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "House panel probes issues plaguing repatriation of OFWs ." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1106895 (archived).

#Philippines #News #Filipino #Pinoy #Tourism #Politics #Culture #Editorial #Environment #Society #History

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jobsearchtips02 · 5 years ago

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Beijing’s Coronavirus Cases Spoil Its Return to Normal

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A new cluster of infections in Beijing has seen authorities raise the coronavirus alert level, cancel flights and roll out mass testing. The WSJ’s Jonathan Cheng explains how the outbreak threatens China’s economic recovery and virus eradication efforts. Photo: Chen Zhonghao/Zuma Press

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