Read the latest issue of The Tribune Weekend
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The Tribune Weekend
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Trump's attempt to steal the election unravels as coronavirus cases surge
Judge dismisses Trump campaign lawsuit in Pennsylvania
Analysis by Gregory Krieg, CNN
(CNN) - President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn his election loss are plunging deeper into incoherence.
On Saturday night, the Trump campaign requested a second recount in Georgia, a day after top Republican state officials certified his defeat following a statewide audit. This one will be done by machine and is even less likely to reverse his fate. Hours earlier, a federal judge rejected the Trump campaign's latest effort to disenfranchise millions of voters -- this time in Pennsylvania.
All around the country, Trump lawyers and loyalists are seeing their baseless allegations of systemic voter fraud treated with increasing contempt by disbelieving judges. Even now, with a wave of certification deadlines about to crash down, the President and his opportunistic enablers are injecting doubt -- and anxiety -- wherever they can. The returns, though, seem to be diminishing. This time around, it was Judge Matthew Brann, a Republican, who in tossing out a Trump-backed lawsuit felt compelled to underscore, with a literary flourish, the absurdity of the campaign's assertions. Read more >>
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If You Get These Texts, Delete Them Immediately
Friends and family aren’t the only ones who text you. Scammers do too! Dean Drobot/Shutterstock
Ashley Lewis
Reader's Digest
Like the old adage about finding true love goes, “There are plenty of fish in the sea!” In the digital world of cyber hacking, they’re known as “phish,” a scamming tactic used to trick people into revealing confidential information about their bank account, credit card, or other personal accounts.
These phishing attempts first started out as phone calls and emails, but now cybercriminals can also reach you via SMS (text message) through a popular phishing scam dubbed “smishing.”
“A good general rule of thumb for a text from someone you don’t know is to just ignore it or delete it,” says Stephen Cobb, senior security researcher at ESET, a company that makes antivirus and Internet security software for businesses and individuals worldwide.
“I think blocking is an option if you’re getting messages from the same source all the time, but the smarter criminals will rotate the numbers they come from.” Read on for a list of the different types of smishing attacks you should be aware of. Read more >>
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Report: Hundreds Of Bodies Of NYC’s Spring Covid Victims Still In Freezer Trucks
Refrigerated trucks functioning as temporary morgues are seen at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal on May 06, 2020 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Getty Images
Jemima McEvoy
Forbes
More than half a year after New York City’s deadly coronavirus surge, hundreds of bodies are still being stored in freezer trucks on the Brooklyn waterfront, The Wall Street Journal first reported Sunday, a show of just how unprepared the country’s systems were for handling this deadly pandemic.
Per the report, about 650 bodies are still being stored in freezer trucks at a disaster morgue that was set up on a pier in Sunset Park in April.
According to New York City’s Chief Medical Examiner, many of the bodies are people who either couldn’t afford a proper burial or whose families couldn’t be located. Read more >>
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‘They just don’t care.’ Anger toward COVID-19 deniers mounts as pandemic hits crisis
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jan Bombeck, a retired librarian, basically put her life on hold in March - no lunching with friends, no visits to the gym, and no trips to the grocery store. She is angry at the country's lack of leadership. By Tammy Ljungblad
Lisa Gutierrez
The Kansas City Star
Since March, Laura McConnell has been living in the finished basement of her Kansas City home, away from her husband and stepson upstairs.
Her reason: Her husband thinks COVID-19 is fake news.
“I am married to someone who does not feel we should wear masks or social distance, or take any precautions. Very frustrating,” said McConnell, who sells school supplies for a living. “I understand. I’m sick of it too. I’m sick of wearing a mask. I want to go back to normal. But I think a lot of people are sick of it and are feeding off each other.”
Her mother has stronger words about such people, especially as Thanksgiving and the holiday season threaten to spike the infection rate even more.
“I am just incredibly, incredibly angry, because I feel like if we had taken this seriously from the beginning we would not be in this mess,” said Jan Bombeck, a retired school librarian in Overland Park who has not been inside a restaurant or grocery store since March. “And I feel like it’s an incredible failure of leadership in our country.” Read more >>
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Secret Satmar wedding bypasses COVID restrictions in NYC - watch
According to video obtained, there were thousands of men seated within the bleachers of the 7,000 person capacity synagogue, singing and dancing into the night.
A Satmar wedding takes place despite COVID restrictions, November 2020.
Jeremy Sharon
The Jerusalem Post
Videos have emerged of thousands of Satmar Hassidim two weeks ago celebrating the wedding of the grandson of the community’s grand rabbi in Brooklyn, in what amounts to a massive violation of state COVID-19 regulations.
The wedding was for Joel Teitelbaum, the grandson of Grand Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, the head of the Satmar Hassidic community of Kiryas Joel, in upstate New York. It was held in Williamsburg in Brooklyn, where there is also a large Satmar Kiryas Joel community and where the father of the groom serves as the head of congregation. Read more >>
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'Difficult Thing to Get Over': Fauci Says He's Stunned That Some People Call COVID Outbreak 'Fake News'
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks at a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing on November 19 in Washington, D.C. Fauci lamented the fact that some Americans still regard the COVID-19 pandemic as "fake news" during a recent interview. Tasos Katopodis/Getty
Emily Czachor
Newsweek
Even as health officials across the country work to abate the growing resurgence of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths recorded over the past month, there are still Americans who show unwillingness to comply with mitigation orders.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top U.S. disease expert, remarked on the public opposition health mandates that persists in November, more than eight months after the onset of the national COVID-19 outbreak, during a recent interview with Kaiser Health News.
"I was stunned by the fact that in certain areas of the country, even though the devastation of the outbreak is clear, some people are still saying it's fake news," Fauci said. "That is a very difficult thing to get over: why people still insist that something that's staring you right in the face is not real." Read more >>
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Why the race to find Covid-19 vaccines is far from over
Despite the promising news from Pfizer and Moderna, other efforts – which may be even more effective – continue around the world. Illustration by James Melaugh.
Laura Spinney
The Guardian
While everyone celebrated this month’s news that not one but two experimental vaccines against Covid-19 have proved at least 90% effective at preventing disease in late-stage clinical trials, research into understanding how the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, interacts with the human immune system never paused.
There are plenty of questions still to answer about the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines: how well will they protect the elderly, for example, and how long for? Which aspects of the immune response that they elicit are protective and which aren’t? Can even better results be achieved, with vaccines that target different parts of the immune system?
We are likely to need several Covid-19 vaccines to cover everyone and as a contingency, in case the virus mutates and “escapes” the ability of one vaccine to neutralise it, a real possibility in light of the discovery of an altered form of Sars-CoV-2 infecting European mink. But we also need better methods of diagnosing and treating the disease. The recent suspension of two major vaccine trials due to serious adverse events is a salutary reminder that there’s much still to learn and a pandemic, while no one would wish for one, provides scientists with a golden opportunity for learning. Read more >>
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Shaggy Is Spreading Caribbean Christmas Cheer in Jamaica and Beyond
Bob Curley
Caribbean Journal
If you can’t be in the Caribbean this holiday season, the new Christmas album by reggae star Shaggy will fill your stocking with island cheer.
The multi-Grammy Award winner and native of Kingston, Jamaica says the record was inspired by seeing so many tourists coming down to Jamaica for the holidays without necessarily getting introduced to the different Christmas traditions of the Caribbean, like drinking sorrel and kids shopping for toys at the Grand Market on Christmas morning.
“The Caribbean has a different vibe at Christmas than New York,” the artist said from his stateside home on Long Island. “It’s almost like a Carnival season — the family gathers, but there’s also back-to-back parties.” Read more >>
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Bahamian travel writer launches Digital Travel & Hospitality Expo
Eyewitness News
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Bahamian travel writer and founder of PinkSands242 Nikia Wells will host a digital travel expo from December 1 to 5.
According to a statement, the expo will “explore how members of the local travel, tourism, and hospitality community have adapted and evolved since the start of the ongoing pandemic”.
“A few short months ago, Instagram feeds were filled with rich, diverse, and colorful images of men and women traveling the world,” it read.
“Many were going on adventures to far off countries, or in the process of planning, booking and dreaming about trips to the farthest corners of the planet or to their neighboring Family Islands. But, in the wake of COVID-19, that all changed. Read more >>
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More Republicans are losing patience with Trump's legal absurdities
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
(CNN) - President Donald Trump's effort to overturn the election he lost is being increasingly undermined by the inanity of his legal claims and is causing some high-profile Republicans to peel off even with most of his party mute amid his constitutional arson.
The President's legal team, ruining time-honored traditions of a peaceful transfer of power, is firing off long-shot court challenges and heaping pressure on state election officials. His aides are stoking a political storm apparently designed to destroy Joe Biden's presidency before it starts and to shield Trump from the historic humiliation that comes with losing an election after only a single term.
The spectacle has some senior Republicans ready to call time. "It's over," GOP Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan said on CNN's "Inside Politics" Sunday. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a frequent Trump critic, said on CNN's "State of the Union" that Trump's behavior was akin to that seen in a "banana republic." And even Trump's friend, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, speaking on ABC News'"This Week," branded Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his cohorts a "national embarrassment." Read more >>
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Covid: 'Entire families in hospital after coronavirus surge'
Delhi's total case count has exceeded 500,000. EPA
Soutik Biswas
BBC News
On 14 October, Farah Husain, a critical care specialist in Delhi's largest Covid-19 hospital, heaved a sigh of relief.
"After a gruelling four months for healthcare workers in dedicated Covid hospitals, India records lowest daily rise in new cases," she tweeted.
Barely a month later, Dr Husain sounds wistful. "I really thought we were past it. Now we are facing the intensity of a winter surge of coronavirus," she told me.
Doctors fear that Delhi may well become the epicentre of India's first wave of winter infections.
The capital has so far added more than 128,000 cases since the beginning of November. On 12 November it recorded 8,593 cases, the highest in a day since the outbreak began. Delhi is now recording more cases a day than any state. Its total case count has exceeded 500,000.
On Wednesday, Delhi reported 131 deaths from Covid-19, the highest single-day toll. More than 8,300 people have died from the infection so far. The testing positivity rate is a worrying 12% and more than three times the national average. Read more >>
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Toronto, Peel move into COVID-19 28 day lockdown Monday as Ontario tries to stop 'worst-case scenario'
Confirmed cases since late January have now climbed to more than 100,000.
Health Minister Christine Elliott explains what will be open and what will be closed.
CBC News
Toronto and Peel Region are moving into "lockdown" effective at 12:01 a.m. Monday as Ontario tries to curb a steep rise in COVID-19 cases, Premier Doug Ford announced Friday.
The shutdown will last a minimum of 28 days, equal to two incubation periods for the coronavirus, and the province says it will fine people $750 for violating public-health rules.
"Further action is required to prevent the worst-case scenario," Ford told reporters.
Meanwhile, Durham and Waterloo regions are moving into the red "control" zones while Huron-Perth, Simcoe-Muskoka, southwestern Ontario and Windsor are moving to the orange "restrict" zone. Read more >>
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World's Top Surgical Glove Maker Shuts Factories Due To Coronavirus
A worker on the production line of a Top Glove factory in Shah Alam, near Kuala Lumpur, in August 2020 Mohd RASFAN
AFP - Agence France Presse
A Malaysian company that is the world's biggest manufacturer of surgical gloves will close over half of its factories after a surge in coronavirus cases among workers, authorities said Monday.
Top Glove has seen a huge jump in demand since the start of the pandemic as countries scrambled to stock up on protective equipment, pushing up both its profits and share price.
But there has been a cluster of virus outbreaks among Top Glove employees -- many of whom are low-paid migrant workers -- at factories in an industrial area near the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
More than 1,000 cases were recorded Monday, prompting the government to order the plants to close. Read more >>
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AstraZeneca, Oxford: Coronavirus vaccine is 70 percent effective
The announcement comes after news from Moderna and the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine trials, which both showed efficacy of over 90 percent.
The announcement today combines data from two different dosing regimens | Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images
Ashleigh Furlong
Politico
A coronavirus vaccine from Oxford University and AstraZeneca is 70 percent effective, according to interim analysis from a large scale clinical trial.
The announcement Monday combines data from two different dosing regimens. When the vaccine was given as a half dose and then a full dose, it had an efficacy of 90 percent. When given as two full doses, it showed 62 percent efficacy.
“These findings show that we have an effective vaccine that will save many lives,” said Andrew Pollard, chief investigator of the Oxford Vaccine Trial, in a statement. “Excitingly, we’ve found that one of our dosing regimens may be around 90 percent effective and if this dosing regime is used, more people could be vaccinated with planned vaccine supply.” Read more >>
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China tests millions after coronavirus flare-ups in 3 cities
Airport workers wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus wait for COVID-19 testing at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. Chinese authorities are testing millions of people, imposing lockdowns and shutting down schools after multiple locally transmitted coronavirus cases were discovered in three cities across the country last week. (AP Photo)
AP News
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities are testing millions of people, imposing lockdowns and shutting down schools after multiple locally transmitted coronavirus cases were discovered in three cities across the country last week.
As temperatures drop, large-scale measures are being enacted in the cities of Tianjin, Shanghai and Manzhouli, despite the low number of new cases compared to the United States and other countries that are seeing new waves of infections.
Many experts and government officials have warned that the chance of the virus spreading will be greater during the cold weather. Recent flare-ups have shown that there is still a risk of the virus returning, despite being largely controlled within China. Read more >>
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Ethiopia warns civilians of ‘no mercy’ in Tigray offensive
Tigray refugees who fled the conflict in the Ethiopia’s Tigray arrive on the banks of the Tekeze River on the Sudan-Ethiopia border, in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020. The U.N. refugee agency says Ethiopia’s growing conflict has resulted in thousands fleeing from the Tigray region into Sudan as fighting spilled beyond Ethiopia’s borders and threatened to inflame the Horn of Africa region. (Nariman El-Mofty/Associated Press)
Cara Anna | AP
Washington Post
NAIROBI, Kenya — Ethiopia’s military is warning civilians in the besieged Tigray regional capital that there will be “no mercy” if they don’t “save themselves” before a final offensive to flush out defiant regional leaders — a threat that Human Rights Watch on Sunday said could violate international law.
“From now on, the fighting will be a tank battle,” spokesman Col. Dejene Tsegaye said late Saturday, asserting that the army was marching on the Tigray capital, Mekele, and would encircle it with tanks. “Our people in Mekele should be notified that they should protect themselves from heavy artillery.”
He accused the Tigray leaders of hiding among the population of the city of roughly a half-million people and warned civilians to “steer away” from them.
But “treating a whole city as a military target would not only unlawful, it could also be considered a form of collective punishment,” Human Rights Watch researcher Laetitia Bader tweeted Sunday.
“In other words, war crimes,” former U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice tweeted. Read more >>
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Dr. Timothy McCartney, noted psychologist, dies at 87
Dr. Timothy Osborne McCartney
Emma Van Wynen
The Nassau Guardian
Dr. Timothy Osborne McCartney, revered Bahamian clinical psychologist and professor emeritus, died early Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after a battle with COVID-19, his family said.
He was 87.
Myrtle McCartney, his sister-in-law, said his battle with the coronavirus “was very rough”.
Particularly in his final days, McCartney experienced severe trouble breathing.
McCartney was born in Nassau and had a long list of noteworthy accomplishments throughout his life.
His longtime friend and colleague, prominent psychiatrist Dr. Michael Neville, said he was devastated by the news of McCartney’s death and described him as “a truly amazing Bahamian”.
“We had an amazing relationship,” Neville recalled.
He said he had hoped his friend would survive COVID. Read more >>
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Numbers Down - But We Must Stay Alert
By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
AMID a decline of positive COVID-19 cases in the country, a local infectious disease expert said it appears The Bahamas has flattened the curve in the second COVID-19 wave, but warned residents must still not let their guards down as “things can still change”.
Dr. Nikkiah Forbes, director of the National HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Programme at the Ministry of Health, told The Tribune yesterday that even though the country is seeing a downward trend of confirmed cases, Bahamians must still follow all the health protocols in place until the COVID-19 threat has been defeated.
The country recorded a total 187 cases – pushing the nation’s tally to 7,413 as of Saturday.
A week earlier, health officials recorded 259 new cases.
Grand Bahama accounted for the majority of last week’s infections at 72 and was followed by New Providence at 55.
Last night, another 18 cases were confirmed, with a further ten in New Providence, and three in both Grand Bahama and Exuma. Abaco and Andros each had a single case. No further deaths were reported, and only one person remained in intensive care.
Yesterday, Dr Forbes said: “So, it appears as if we have past the crest of the second wave. Cases reported confirm that cases are decreasing, but we have to remember that we haven’t eliminated COVID-19 so if you look at the daily count it’s variable.” Read more >>
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Art Studio pivots to offer at-home products, DIY Paint experiences to combat tech 'overload'
Do the Junkanoo with Big Picture at-home art and craft kits.
Bahamas National
Nassau, Bahamas— Since mid-March, remote work, virtual learning, video conference calls and binge-watching during lockdowns have become the new normal for Bahamian families during the Covid-19 pandemic. The increase screen time could lead to what researchers are describing as tech ‘overload’. Local business Big Picture Paint & Sip Studio is using creativity to combat this constant need for connectivity by pivoting to offer clients at-home paint kits and curated craft boxes for kids as an additional product and service category.
The art studio located at 8 South Buckner Square Sandyport is currently operating online. Big Picture was in the first wave of business operators to close as a result of the Emergency Orders. Read more >>
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