News today: April 2020

Thursday, 30 April 2020

More than 2,000 US coronavirus deaths in 24 hours

The country -- hardest hit by the pandemic in terms of the number of fatalities -- recorded 2,053 deaths on Thursday, after 2,502 deaths on Wednesday and 2,207 on Tuesday.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/2Wed8ol

McDonald's says 25% of stores closed as Q1 sales fall

McDonald's said its sales fell 6 per cent to USD 4.71 billion in the January-March period. Declines have persisted in April.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/2Sm28UY

China doesn't want to see me elected: Donald Trump

Instead, he claimed, China wants to have former vice president Joe Biden elected as the next US president in the November elections.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/2SqM7gl

World should follow South Korea on COVID-19 fight: UN chief

At the same time, he said, South Korea has presented plans for “a very ambitious green deal” for its recovery from the pandemic, including a ban on new coal-fired plants and a reduction of emissions from existing coal-fired plants.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/2SEPVef

WHO should be ashamed of itself, it is like a PR agency for China: Donald Trump

The Trump Administration has launched a probe into the role of the WHO on coronavirus, and has temporarily suspended the US' financial assistance to it.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/3d2sWBq

Kedaara in talks to infuse Rs 300 crore in fintech startup Aye Finance

Like most lenders, Aye has stopped fresh disbursements due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/2SqM3ND

Coronavirus India News Live Updates | US records more than 2,000 deaths in 24 hours

Highlights of the novel coronavirus pandemic and its socio-economic impact. Total confirmed cases in India have risen to 33,610.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/3cZmyL2

NYPD cracks down on another big funeral, stoking tensions

Thursday’s confrontation came two days after Mayor Bill de Blasio stoked divisions with a series of tweets after he went to Brooklyn to oversee the dispersal of thousands of people who crowded the streets of Williamsburg for the funeral of another rabbi.

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2KNBY9h
via IFTTT

SoloCoin goes on to win at EUvsVirus hackathon after winning CODE19 in India

SoloCoin is an app that encourages people to stay at home during the pandemic, with reward tokens, which can be exchanged for discounts on services that are useful during the lockdown, such as Netflix and Swiggy. The app came in third at the CODE19 hackathon organised in India on April 10, with the winners announced 4 days ago. The CODE19 hackathon was an effort to quickly find technological solutions for the challenges faced by the Covid-19 outbreak and the following nationwide lockdown. On April 30, there was more good news for the app, as it went on to win first place in the “other” subcategory of the “Social & Political Cohesion” category of the pan European EUvsVirus hackathon.

The founder of the app is India based Arbob Mehmood, a 22 year old who has previously founded Bramble. The main product of Bramble is an API that allows developers to reward gamers in cryptocurrencies for playing their games. The experience Mehmood gained from working with Bramble was used to work on SoloCoin. Specifically, a similar gamification system was used to reward people for staying at home, instead of playing the game. SoloCoin is an app that gamifies social distancing and rewards people with SoloCoins, a token currency within the application, that can be exchanged for discounts of services such as Amazon, Netflix, Swiggy, Zomato and other services that are required for staying at home. Currently, the coupons offered on the app are sourced through third party affiliates, but the team is working on integrated these coupons natively.

Building a team and onboarding partners

Mehmood is an avid reader of our magazine, and we reached out to him to learn more about the application. One of the things that we noticed was that signing up for the app has a waitlist,and it has not been released just yet. If you are interested in the app, you can sign up for the waitlist here. One of our first questions was, why does the app have a waitlist in the place? Mehmood replied, “The app is still in development. It’s in private beta right now and is only accessible via an invite-only system that too within our community. We are planning on launching this app next month globally so we want some people to try it firsthand and give feedback so that we can release a relatively bug-free app.”

One of the effective ways in which the app, and the invite system is marketed and propagated, is through social media influencers. We asked Mehmood how the experience of working with influencers was. He responded, “I had worked with influencers in my previous startups, so, it was not new to me. We also have a community member with lots of influencer connections that helped us in connecting with them. The primary thing to know while talking with influencers is their charge because they negotiate way too much. Now, we were lucky here because we are an open-source startup tackling the COVID crisis so many of them agreed to do some of the marketing for free. Influencers can get you a great RoI if you choose them carefully according to your target market and have a way with negotiations.”

One of the reasons why the app is so successful, is that Mehmood put together a really good team to work on it. This team includes many people from around the world, who are really enthusiastic about the idea of the app. We asked him about the team and how it came together. Mehmood responded, “When I had the idea, I was building it on Python's Beeware toolkit which ports python code to a native mobile app. But it's features were limited. Then, I heard about COVID hackathons happening across the country. So, I started to scout for members across hackathons. Since the idea was innovative and impactful, many amazing people joined my team. then the team decided to make it on native Android and iOS directly for better usability and support. We have a group of open-source collaborators from around the world including startup founders & CXOs, people from IITs, BITS, Stanford, Microsoft, Uber, Github, Neuro-Researchers, and more among our community. The core team has 7 people in it with 20+ contributors across the different domains. The community count is 300+. The product is built 100% remotely.”

Apart from a great team, Mehmood has managed to onboard a large number of partners in a remarkably short span of time. We asked him how he achieved this, to which Mehmood said, “cold emails. Linkedin messages to senior employees and twitter DMs. basically, hustling our way through the partner contact. Our community members have worked very hard to get partners on board, however, we are still waiting for big guys like Amazon, Zomato and Swiggy to respond and officially come onboard (The coupons you’re seeing on our app page is basically affiliate coupons from other coupon websites.) but other big brands like Yatra’s CEO, 1MG, FitIndian, etc. have showed interest in us and are looking to integrate their services on our app. Again, a sense of contribution towards something bigger has helped us a lot in the exposure of our product. Brands genuinely want to join such noble cause and do their part in stopping the spread of COVID. So, I’d like to take this opportunity and invite potential partners who are reading this to join us, promote your services on our app, and help stop the spread of coronavirus.”

One of the things that really stood out to us was how awesome the UI was. We asked Mehmood about the process behind creating this aspect of the app. Part of the magic is continuous iterations based on user feedback. Mehmood responded, “we are an open-source, decentralized, community-based initiative. Brilliant People from all walks of life, around the world, have come together to make this app a success. Me and my teammate handle most of the design. I have great amount of experience in designing consumer and blockchain apps and my teammate Adesh Bhansali (a graduate from the Indian school of design and innovation) work on all the designs. I create a rough wireframe/mockup and he adds necessary colors and makes it more aesthetically pleasing to the users. Then we show the designs to the community and get feedback. Getting feedback is the most important part here since it helps us in getting different perspectives and ideas. Our primary goal with the design is to make our core features easily accessible and feel pleasing on the eyes so that people can interact with it more. And, after we’re done we finalize it and move it to frontend devs for final integration.”

One of the things that Mehmood pointed out to us, was that what really motivated people in using the app was not the money they got for discounts on products and services, but the knowledge that their efforts had in some way contributed to the global fight against the pandemic. We probed Mehmood on how he came to this realisation, and he said, “One thing I've noticed while building our product is the founder's vision and the potential impact of the said product is very important. When I first pitched the idea of SoloCoin, I was alone. But the idea was innovative and has never been done before. The vision I put to gamify social-distancing and help to stop the spread of COVID resonated with people and that helped us in getting amazing people with great skills from all over the world to voluntarily work on my idea without any financial incentive. I don’t think this would’ve have been possible if I had pitched a me-too idea or a less impactful idea in front of people. This is true for regular users and potential customers as well. There are many rewards app but the only reason we have received this much interest from the community and waitlist registration is that we were doing something that will help make the world a better place. We have learned that working towards something bigger is a much bigger reward than any discounts. With our app users had a sense of belonging and contribution towards a bigger cause. They are proud of it. And, it doesn’t hurt that by doing so, they can earn rewards and recognition in their social-circle.”

Future plans

We then asked Mehmood on what are his future plans for the app, now that SoloCoin has won a national level and an international hackathon. Mehmood replied, “Currently, our app is focused on the COVID-affected world and how it can help stop the spread of coronavirus. Our near-future plans are: Proximity-based social-distancing to track if the user in your proximity is infected or not, rewarding for good habits like washing hands, timely self-isolation, Yoga, etc. determining efficient/less crowded routes for commuting and avoiding people, giving users the possibility to chat with nearby quarantined people, map list of nearby available essential stores for groceries, medicines, etc and giving users the possibility to add a mask to their profile picture to tell people they are practicing social-distancing.”

We asked Mehmood what his plans for the app are once the pandemic is over. The answer was really interesting. The app that rewarded people for staying at home, will shift to reward people to coming together! Mehmood replied, “For the post-COVID world, We have identified many ideas on what we can do with our tech post-COVID. Our app can be used for concerts/stores, basically to gather people. The more they stay the more they earn. That way sponsors will get better revenue as well. Office spaces can use this (technology) to incentivize the employees to stay in longer to increased points (the longer they’re connected to the office wireless can be a marker). At the current stage, the app is used as a Social-distancing app with a home geo-fence. After COVID, we can increase the geo-fence to multiple locations like concerts, malls or local stores. Now if you think about it we're venturing into not a consumer app space, but rather the ad-tech space. Our app can now be at the forefront of hyperlocal based targeted ads, basically directly competing with Google's and Facebook's Pay Per Click.”

We then asked Mehmood to share with us, and other readers his personal journey with Digit as a reader of the magazine. Mehmood replied, “Digit has played a vital role in the development of my tech/startup mindset. I’m reading Digit since I was 13, mostly purchased from the nearest railway station. I used to read Chacha Chaudhary and Billoo a lot during those times. But one day while I was browsing for something different I encountered Digit. The shopkeeper recommended to me that it has computers and mobile phones in it. I loved computers and working on the computer since when I was 8 but never thought to do anything with it except for getting a job. Once I got the magazine I was hooked. I got into tech after reading amazing articles on digit. I realized how awesome career in tech can be. Not to mention the articles about tech entrepreneurs have motivated me to start my own tech startup and that led me to learn to program and founding my first startup at the age of 17.

I was fortunate enough that my parent have allotted the money for me to purchase two magazines each month - one digit and another Chip, every month. But let me tell you, digit was an expensive magazine for any 13 yr old at that time and buying directly from stores is not at all cheap. I used to eagerly wait for the 2nd date of every month for Digit to get to the store. However, I somehow convinced my parents to let me subscribe to the digit, and to this day I subscribe to it. (I, however, paused the subscription due to severe lack of time because of my startup and COVID, but expecting to resume soon) The things digit taught me about tech and the awesomeness in tech are priceless and I thank every digit member and their articles, which helped a simple boy from small town to put on a path to tech-entrepreneurship and help me reach where I am today. But, picture Abhi baaki hai mere dost. Much more amazing things to come as I’m still 22.”

We followed that up by asking Mehmood what his favorite sections were, to which he replied, “My favorite sections are: Robert’s Column (1st priority), Agent 001 (For recommendations and error fixing - I like to be called the Tech guy in my network.), the reviews (because not everyone in the tech has a better parameter to judge gadgets like you guys), Digit Diary and boo-man obviously (To get a different perspective of the world), the small article snippets on the top (much informative stuff there), DGT section (love moonshot products), and last but not the least, ANNIVERSARY EDITIONS.” Watch out for our next anniversary edition, which is right around the corner.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/35kiEtL
via IFTTT

महामारी से अमेरिका में बढ़ी मातृ मृत्यु दर, सर्दियों में और विकट होगी समस्या

लोग केवल कोविड-19 रोग से नहीं मारे जा रहे, बल्कि इसकी वजह से स्वास्थ्य सेवाओं में आए संसाधनों के असंतुलन से भी जान गंवा रहे हैं। अमेरिकी वैज्ञानिकों का आकलन है कि उनके देश में प्रति 10 लाख पर 18.7 महिलाओं की प्रसव के दौरान मौत हो रही है।

from Latest And Breaking Hindi News Headlines, News In Hindi | अमर उजाला हिंदी न्यूज़ | - Amar Ujala https://ift.tt/3aUek5s
via IFTTT

More than 2,000 U.S. coronavirus deaths in 24 hours, says Johns Hopkins University tracker

The United States recorded more than 2,000 coronavirus deaths in a 24-hour period for the third day running, according to the latest real-time tally

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2L1kjv7
via IFTTT

Moneycontrol daily home isolation planner: May 1

Below is a daily planner to help you with the quarantine period.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/2VTQrqB

घेरे में आगरा मॉडल : सात दिन में 158 नए मरीज मिलने से ध्वस्त हुए इंतजाम

अदूरदर्शिता, अनदेखी और अनिर्णय से बनी बनाई बात कैसे बिगड़ जाती है, इसका हालिया उदाहरण है आगरा।

from Latest And Breaking Hindi News Headlines, News In Hindi | अमर उजाला हिंदी न्यूज़ | - Amar Ujala https://ift.tt/2yfiLL4
via IFTTT

दिल्ली-गुरुग्राम बॉर्डर सील, वाहनों की आवाजाही बंद, आज से पैदल जाने पर भी प्रतिबंध

कोरोना संक्रमण से बचाव के लिए दिल्ली-गुरुग्राम बॉर्डर को पूरी तरह सील कर दिया गया है।

from Latest And Breaking Hindi News Headlines, News In Hindi | अमर उजाला हिंदी न्यूज़ | - Amar Ujala https://ift.tt/35iToUI
via IFTTT

अमेरिका: अर्थव्यवस्था में 30% गिरावट के साथ महामंदी के संकेत, न्यूयार्क में शवों से आने लगी बदबू

अमेरिका जैसी विश्व महाशक्ति में हालात बदतर हैं जहां दूसरी तिमाही अभूतपूर्व 30 फीसदी गिरावट के साथ तबाह होने के संकेत दे रही है

from Latest And Breaking Hindi News Headlines, News In Hindi | अमर उजाला हिंदी न्यूज़ | - Amar Ujala https://ift.tt/3d8krVz
via IFTTT

Oil prices surge again US stockpiles grow less than feared, output cuts kick in

Oil prices jumped on Friday, extending the previous session's gains, buoyed by a lower-than-expected gain in U.S. crude inventories and the start of output cuts in a bid to offset a slump in fuel demand triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

from Reuters: Money News https://ift.tt/3aQaQkI
via IFTTT

Spanish govt approves La Liga plan to test players before return to training

Athletes in Spain have been forced to train at home since early March due to one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2KQDx6g
via IFTTT

Premier League | Liverpool FC 'disappointed' by mayor's comments on ending the season

Liverpool mayor said that health and safety was the bottom line and the best thing to do was to declare the season over and hand the title to Liverpool as deserving champions.

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2SooxAU
via IFTTT

Epic Games cancels 2020 Fortnite World Cup

Epic cited the “limitations of cross region online competition” as the reason for the cancellation

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/3fa7agK
via IFTTT

Coronavirus | Odisha reports 17 new cases, tally now stands at 142

The previous 24-hour spike with 18 cases was reported in Bhubaneswar on April 5

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2yf97rP
via IFTTT

Coronavirus | Not keeping physical distancing will attract fine in Bhubaneswar

The Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Police Commissionerate has said it will impose a fine on shopkeepers and customers for failure to maintain a two-metre distanc

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2KNvdEr
via IFTTT

मुंबई से यूपी, बिहार झारखंड लौट रहे 57 प्रवासी मजदूरों पर केस, लॉकडाउन में फंसे हैं लाखों मजदूर

महाराष्ट्र पुलिस ने उत्तर प्रदेश, बिहार और झारखंड लौट रहे 57 प्रवासी मजदूरों के खिलाफ केस दर्ज किया है

from Latest And Breaking Hindi News Headlines, News In Hindi | अमर उजाला हिंदी न्यूज़ | - Amar Ujala https://ift.tt/2ygDRIP
via IFTTT

50 खरब डॉलर अर्थव्यवस्था के लिए 2025 तक निवेश करने होंगे 111 लाख करोड़ रुपये

भारतीय अर्थव्यवस्था को 2025 तक 50 खरब डॉलर तक पहुँचाने के लिए इंफ्रास्ट्रक्चर क्षेत्र की वृद्धि सबसे अहम होगी।

from Latest And Breaking Hindi News Headlines, News In Hindi | अमर उजाला हिंदी न्यूज़ | - Amar Ujala https://ift.tt/3aU194L
via IFTTT

Wednesday, 29 April 2020

Economic potential of ‘kadukkai’ not being realised

Elders in the Malayalee tribal community on Pachamalai Hills lament that the younger generation is not tapping the economic potential of kadukkai (har

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2YjT72w
via IFTTT

Goldsmiths struggling to make ends meet

Rise in prices of gold has not changed the plight of thousands of goldsmiths living at Palakkarai in the city.The last 40 days of lockdown has forced

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/3bQa5ZX
via IFTTT

For Boris Johnson, the birth of a baby boy marks a dizzying year of all sorts of peaks and troughs

London: Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s life has always had a you-can’t-make-this-up quality to it, never more so than this month, when he went from desperate coronavirus patient, kept alive by oxygen, to the proud father of a baby boy — his fifth, sixth or seventh child, depending on who’s counting.

The announcement by Johnson and his fiancee, Carrie Symonds, that she gave birth to a healthy baby at a London hospital Wednesday added a joyful milestone to a year of dizzying highs and lows: An election victory, a divorce, an engagement and a life-threatening illness — not to mention Brexit and a world-altering pandemic, which has killed more than 26,000 people in the country Johnson leads.

The latest twist in the Boris chronicles deprived political commentators of an important, if less anticipated moment: the prime minister’s first scheduled face-off in Parliament with the Labour Party’s new leader, Keir Starmer, at a time when the government’s handling of the virus has come under intense fire.

Johnson, who returned to work Monday, skipped the session because of his son’s birth. Starmer raised difficult questions about the rising death toll and the lack of testing or protective masks for health workers, but he prefaced them with congratulations to Johnson, 55, and Symonds, 32, who also suffered symptoms of the virus but was reported to be healthy.

Johnson’s understudy — the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab — dutifully defended the government’s performance. He functioned mostly as a reminder of why the prime minister bestrides the British political landscape. Even in his absence, Johnson was the biggest presence in the room.

“He has this theatrical ability to put himself in the middle of every scene,” said Andrew Gimson, one of Johnson’s biographers. “All these career politicians look so dreary next to him.”

So far, the prime minister has reaped public sympathy for his illness and goodwill on the birth of his child. But those sentiments will fade if the government is viewed as having bungled the response to the coronavirus, according to Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University in London.

File image of British prime minister Boris Johnson. AP

“You can talk about him as a Teflon politician,” Bale said, “but Teflon eventually loses its non-stick properties.”

The challenge Johnson confronts, as he settles back into work, will be leading his country through a grinding months-long tragedy, in which analysts said his appeals for pluck and optimism may pale next to the human cost of the virus and the economic misery caused by the efforts to suppress it.

On Wednesday, the government recalculated its death toll to include those who died in nursing homes and houses. That drove the number of fatalities to 26,097, one of the highest totals in Europe. British officials noted that on a per-capita basis, the death rate was comparable to its neighbours, except for Germany, which has a much lower death rate.

While Johnson recuperated from his own bout with the virus, Raab and other ministers have faced hard questions about why Britain has failed to secure enough masks or gloves for doctors and nurses, seems likely to fall short of a promise to test 100,000 people a day by the end of this month and has not offered a blueprint for lifting the lockdown imposed on 23 March.

During the parliamentary session, known as Prime Minister’s Questions, Starmer accused the government of being late at every step of the crisis. He noted that the death toll was “dreadful” and well above the goal of 20,000 set by the government for this phase of the epidemic.

“I’m asking the government to be clear with the public about what comes next,” said Starmer, who was elected Labour leader last month. “We’d like to support the government’s strategy if we knew what it was.”

The shortage of gloves and masks was dire enough that The Daily Mail, a tabloid that traditionally aligns with Johnson’s Conservative Party, stepped in to help organise the delivery of 20 tonnes of gear from China for health workers.

Criticisms that Johnson was slow to order the lockdown have been compounded by the government’s reluctance to talk about how and when it can be relaxed. In Scotland, the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has given more details about her government’s plan and has encouraged the public to wear masks, while ministers in London have continued to deliberate over their use.

On Wednesday, the government said it had the capacity to conduct more than 73,000 tests, though fewer than 53,000 tests were carried out on the last day for which figures were available. That makes it highly likely that the government will miss its target of 100,000 daily tests by at least a couple of days.

For Johnson, the crisis will complicate being a new father. He is expected to take a short paternity leave but will put it off until later in the year to deal with the epidemic, an official said. He and Symonds, a former Conservative Party press agent, said in February that they expected the child in early summer.

Downing Street offered no information on the baby’s name, weight or the hospital in which he was born, though officials said Johnson was present at the birth. The prime minister spent three nights in the intensive care unit of St Thomas’ Hospital, later thanking the nurses for saving his life.

Johnson’s talent for engaging and entertaining voters has enabled him to defy political gravity throughout his career. No recent prime ministers have refused to say publicly how many children they have, for example. With four children from his second marriage and possibly two from extramarital relationships, the exact number of his progeny remains a matter of conjecture.

In the past year alone, Johnson has bounced back after resigning from the previous British government; suffered a landmark legal defeat when he suspended Parliament; ended his second marriage, to Marina Wheeler; and survived the virus.

Johnson’s resilience and seat-of-the-pants style, some analysts said, might help him navigate an unpredictable crisis.

“His whole life is a preparation for being unprepared, and that isn’t a bad way to be in a crisis,” Gimson said. “That means he is capable of changing tack quickly.”

But despite Johnson’s talents, others said the public would be unforgiving if Britain’s death toll ranked at the top of the list in Europe.

“In a year’s time,” Bale said, “if people realise that the UK has done worse than many other countries, no amount of goodwill can protect a politician.”

Mark Landler and Stephen Castle c.2020 The New York Times Company

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/35gSEiV
via IFTTT

Asian stocks set to track U.S. gains as virus treatment hopes lift confidence

Asian equity markets were poised to gain on Thursday, tracking Wall Street's rally after positive trial results of an experimental COVID-19 treatment, a U.S. Federal Reserve pledge to shore up the economy and a jump in oil prices.

from Reuters: Money News https://ift.tt/2yf4uht
via IFTTT

Coronavirus | 35 U.S. states release formal opening plans

More than 61,000 Americans have lost their lives due to coronavirus and over 10 lakhs have tested positive with COVID 19; the highest for any country in the world.

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2W8NPnO
via IFTTT

HUL Q4 Preview: Lower tax, strong operating income may boost profit

Among brokerages, Kotak Institutional Equities expects the maximum 19.5 percent growth in profit for the quarter while Emkay sees 10.4 percent rise in bottomline.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/2Wcq6Tr

Tech Mahindra expected to announce dull Q4 numbers; here's what to watch for

Brokerage firm Kotak Institutional Equities expects a 21.9 percent year-on-year (YoY) fall and 22.8 percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) fall in Tech Mahindra's adjusted net profit at Rs 884 crore for Q4FY20.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/2yThauj

Coronavirus India LIVE Updates: COVID-19 cases in Delhi near 3,500; US records 2,502 deaths in 24 hours

Live updates of the novel coronavirus pandemic and its socio-economic impact. Total confirmed cases in India have risen to 31,787.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/3f2jkbC

Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor admitted to hospital

"He is in the hospital. He is suffering from cancer and he has some breathing problem, so he has been admitted to the hospital. He is stable now," Randhir told PTI.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/35jArB6

Right to access internet not fundamental right, says J&K in SC, opposes restoration of 4G services

The administration told the apex court that a very reasonable quantum of restrictions have been imposed by reducing the speed of internet to protect the sovereignty, integrity and security of the country.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/2W5Iu0o

Moneycontrol daily home isolation planner: April 30

Below is a daily planner to help you with the quarantine period.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/2SfitdZ

अच्छी खबर: भारत में वैक्सीन का ट्रायल जल्द, आठ वैज्ञानिक दलों को मिली सफलता

वैक्सीन के लिए भारतीय वैज्ञानिकों का शोध अब जानवरों के ट्रायल के स्तर पर पहुंच चुका है। एक या दो सप्ताह में यह परीक्षण शुरू होगा। इसमें सफलता के बाद इसका इंसानों पर परीक्षण होगा।

from Latest And Breaking Hindi News Headlines, News In Hindi | अमर उजाला हिंदी न्यूज़ | - Amar Ujala https://ift.tt/2KIKYfJ
via IFTTT

लॉकडाउन के चलते 70 लाख अनचाहे गर्भधारण संभव, यूएन का दावा

दुनियाभर में कोरोना संक्रमण रोकने के लिए लगाए गए लॉकडाउन भले ही कई मायनों में प्रकृति के लिए वरदान साबित हो रहे हों लेकिन इसके कुछ बुरे नतीजे भी आ सकते हैं।

from Latest And Breaking Hindi News Headlines, News In Hindi | अमर उजाला हिंदी न्यूज़ | - Amar Ujala https://ift.tt/2ybfvAl
via IFTTT

अमेरिका के सात राज्यों में मौतों की संख्या सरकारी आंकड़ों से 50 फीसदी ज्यादा

कोरोना वायरस ने सबसे अधिक तबाही अमेरिका में मचाई है। यहां विश्व में सबसे अधिक 10,48,834 मरीज हैं जबकि 60,000 से अधिक लोगों की मौत हो चुकी है।

from Latest And Breaking Hindi News Headlines, News In Hindi | अमर उजाला हिंदी न्यूज़ | - Amar Ujala https://ift.tt/2zD3xzK
via IFTTT

Arthur keen to stay at FC Barcelona despite Italy move rumours

Barcelona midfielder Arthur Melo insists he is keen to stay at the Catalan club despite being linked to a move to Juventus, the Brazil international s

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2SkEjgh
via IFTTT

White House briefly follows Twitter accounts of host country during presidential visit, says official on ‘unfollowing’ PM Modi

The official was responding to a question on the reasons for the White House ‘following’ and then ‘unfollowing’ the Twitter handles of President Kovind, PM Modi, the PMO and other Indian officials.

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/3cU6j1U
via IFTTT

Cabinet’s advice binding on Governor: experts

He can seek clarification if there is acceptable material against a decision, says Justice Sathasivam

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2xpiMM8
via IFTTT

Coronavirus | Rajasthan launches mission to save people in high-risk groups from COVID-19

Focus on the elderly, people suffering from high blood pressure, cancer, heart and pulmonary diseases

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/3aK5MOx
via IFTTT

Irrfan Khan, a versatile actor: Rahul Gandhi

Tributes for Irrfan Khan poured in as several Congress leaders took to twitter on Wednesday to pay their homage.“I’m sorry to hear about the passing o

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2y2njED
via IFTTT

Coronavirus lockdown | Three migrant workers return to Ganjam from Surat on cycles

‘We felt to cycle all the way back was our only way out of Surat’

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2KHnGqG
via IFTTT

Prime Minister Modi greets Hasina on Ramadan, discusses pandemic situation

Both leaders satisfied at continuation of supply of essential items across the border

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2VMleWk
via IFTTT

Right to access Internet not a fundamental right, J&K tells SC

Right to access the Internet is not a fundamental right. Free speech and expression, including the fundamental right to trade, business and occupation

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2VMldle
via IFTTT

तीसरे लॉकडाउन में जीरो से शुरू होगी दिल्ली ...'लाल धब्बा' हटाने पर काम शुरू

लॉकडाउन 2.0 की अवधि खत्म होने में अब सिर्फ चार दिन शेष हैं।

from Latest And Breaking Hindi News Headlines, News In Hindi | अमर उजाला हिंदी न्यूज़ | - Amar Ujala https://ift.tt/2YiKjtq
via IFTTT

Tuesday, 28 April 2020

Asia shares cautious ahead of Fed, corporate earnings

Asian shares were cautiously higher on Wednesday as investors paused ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy decision while oil prices jumped on hopes demand will pick up as many countries lift some of the coronavirus-related restrictions.

from Reuters: Money News https://ift.tt/2W9Ihcu
via IFTTT

Oil prices climb as storage fills less rapidly than feared

Oil prices climbed on Wednesday, trimming some of this week's steep losses after U.S. stockpiles rose less than expected and hopes grew for demand to pick up as some European countries and U.S. cities moved to ease coronavirus lockdowns.

from Reuters: Money News https://ift.tt/2SiCkZM
via IFTTT

Migrant labourers housed in school

A group of migrant labourers hailing from Maharashtra who were proceeding by foot from Tiruchi to their home state in view of the lockdown were inter

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2YbyRjv
via IFTTT

Headmistress helps families of poor students

With the lockdown affecting the livelihood of many poor families, the Headmistress of Panchayat Union Primary School at Thuppapuram near T. Pazhur in

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/3cWxIAf
via IFTTT

Railway helpline gets unnecessary calls

Despite suspension of passenger train services, the 182 Security Helpline number of the Railway Protection Force in Tiruchi Division has been receivin

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2yPYmMw
via IFTTT

Lockdown leaves tutorials, tuition centres groping in the dark

Tutorials and tuition centres have their fingers crossed due to the prevailing uncertainty over how long the duration of the COVID 19 lockdown would t

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2xXvbqV
via IFTTT

U.S. coronavirus death toll surpasses American deaths from the Vietnam War

On Tuesday the U.S. recorded its one millionth case of the novel coronavirus, about one-third of the entire world's case load, according to Johns Hopkins data

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2W7qeDJ
via IFTTT

Moneycontrol daily home isolation planner: April 29

Below is a daily planner to help you with the quarantine period.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/3aQzu4p

No. of coronavirus cases in US crosses 1 million, fatalities 58,000

The US on Tuesday became the first country in the world to have more than one million cases of coronavirus. It accounts for nearly one-third of the 3.1 million cases globally.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/2Yc69yV

Coronavirus India News LIVE Updates: COVID-19 cases in US cross 10 lakh; India’s tally just short of 30,000

Live updates of the novel coronavirus pandemic and its socio-economic impact. Total confirmed cases in India have risen to 29,974.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/35d08Ud

धार्मिक स्वतंत्रता: अमेरिकी आयोग की सिफारिश को भारत ने किया खारिज, बताया पक्षपाती और विवादास्पद

अमेरिकी आयोग (यूएससीआईआरएफ) ने भारत समेत 14 देशों को ‘विशेष चिंता वाले देश’ (सीपीसी) के रूप में नामित करने की सिफारिश की है। दूसरी ओर भारत ने इस रिपोर्ट पर कड़ी प्रतिक्रिया देते हुए इसे खारिज किया है।

from Latest And Breaking Hindi News Headlines, News In Hindi | अमर उजाला हिंदी न्यूज़ | - Amar Ujala https://ift.tt/3d19Yef
via IFTTT

न्यूजीलैंड-ऑस्ट्रेलिया ने रोकी महामारी, फ्रांस-स्पेन लॉकडाउन खोलने को तैयार

कोरोना वायरस महामारी के दो सर्वाधिक प्रभावित देश फ्रांस और स्पेन ने मंगलवार को पहली बार लॉकडाउन खत्म करने के लिए अलग-अलग योजनाएं रखीं।

from Latest And Breaking Hindi News Headlines, News In Hindi | अमर उजाला हिंदी न्यूज़ | - Amar Ujala https://ift.tt/2SgRcI2
via IFTTT

NMPT distributes 6,000 essential supplies kits

New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) on Tuesday distributed kits containing essential supplies to the needy in its surroundings. About 6,000 such kits were

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2xilPWn
via IFTTT

14 in quarantine in hospital in Udupi

As many as seven persons from a petrol bunk at Thekkatte village and an equal number of persons from the toll plaza at Sasthan village were quarantine

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2KI8KIX
via IFTTT

Six new COVID-19 cases in Kalaburagi district

The detection of new cases of COVID-19 continued in Kalaburagi district which has been one among the worst-hit districts in the State. Late on Monday

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/3bSPsg4
via IFTTT

WhatsApp doubles participant limit for group voice, video calls

However, to access the new, higher participant limit on WhatsApp calls, all participants in a call need to update to the latest version of WhatsApp available on iPhone or Android

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2ShiNZQ
via IFTTT

Coronavirus | Death toll crosses 5,000 in Brazil

The overall death toll from the pandemic in Brazil has exceeded China

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2VMKYBZ
via IFTTT

Coronavirus | In J&K, one more death, and 20 new cases

Door-to-door survey of 10,000 households in Srinagar conducted by 700 teams

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/2xilKSz
via IFTTT

Government starts planning for Haridwar Kumbh Mela

National Mission for Clean Ganga discusses funds needed by Uttarakhand for providing community toilets and urinals

from The Hindu - Home https://ift.tt/35f1FZE
via IFTTT

China mobilises media, diplomats to mount aggressive defence against calls for coronavirus compensation

China is pushing back against the growing chorus of voices around the world calling for the country to pay compensation for the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Politicians in the United States are “lying through their teeth”, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, Geng Shuang, said at a news briefing on Tuesday.

The spokesman’s comments came one day after President Donald Trump suggested that the United States would seek “substantial” compensation for Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

Richard McGregor, a China analyst with the Lowy Institute in Sydney, said the dispute reflects China’s refusal to accept criticism at a time when its rival, the United States, seems weak and continues to struggle with the virus, political division and mass unemployment.

“Beijing is mounting an all-hands-on-deck, no-holds-barred, global diplomatic effort to stem any move anywhere to censure it over its handling of the initial coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan,” McGregor said.

He stressed that the Chinese government sees this as a pivotal moment “to make a generational advance in their global position at the expense of Washington.”

Representational Image. AP

At a news briefing on Monday, Trump put forth the idea that China could have prevented the coronavirus from spreading beyond its borders. “We believe it could have been stopped at the source,” he said, without offering an explanation of the steps the country could have taken.

He added that the administration was conducting “serious investigations” into the origins of the pandemic and that “there are a lot of ways you can hold them accountable,” referring to China. “We are not happy with China.”

The Chinese government fired right back.

“We advise American politicians to reflect on their own problems and try their best to control the epidemic as soon as possible, instead of continuing to play tricks to deflect blame,” Geng said Tuesday.

China is also defending itself in Australia. China’s ambassador to Australia warned Monday that the government’s call for an independent international inquiry into the origins of the pandemic could lead to a Chinese consumer boycott of Australian products and services.

“Maybe the ordinary people will say, ‘Why should we drink Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?’ ” the ambassador, Cheng Jingye, said in an interview published in The Australian Financial Review.

In response, the Australian foreign minister, Marise Payne, dismissed China’s attempt at “economic coercion.”

For a country that relies heavily on China — a third of its exports go there — the conflict could carry serious consequences. It reflects a sharp acceleration in tensions, which were simmering before the pandemic over the Chinese government’s attempts to influence Australian politics through donations and pressure.

The current war of words appears to have begun 17 April, when Australia’s minister for home affairs, Peter Dutton, demanded greater transparency from China on the origins of the coronavirus.

The Chinese Embassy accused him of parroting American propaganda, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison — who has worked hard to stay close to Trump — continued to press for more accountability in line with White House demands.

Morrison spoke to Trump on 21 April, and announced a day later that he supported an overhaul of the World Health Organisation, including the recruitment of investigators akin to “weapons inspectors” to determine the source of major disease outbreaks.

In the United States, the state of Missouri filed a lawsuit alleging that Chinese officials were to blame for the pandemic. Geng, the foreign ministry spokesman, called the suit “very absurd” and said it “has no factual and legal basis at all.”

In France earlier this month, the Chinese ambassador was summoned by the foreign ministry to discuss an article posted on the embassy’s website that claimed Western countries were letting older people die in nursing homes. That had led French lawmakers to complain Beijing was spreading misinformation.

That same week, Britain’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said, “There absolutely needs to be a very, very deep dive after-the-event review of the lessons, including on the outbreak of the virus.”

The Chinese diplomats and government-approved voices who are speaking out with boldness may simply be falling in line with the more aggressive efforts by President Xi Jinping to rewrite China’s history with the virus, emphasising its successful containment, according to McGregor.

But they are showing no signs of backing down. Even as editorials in the Australian media argued that China has shown its true colours, as an unreliable, authoritarian partner, on Tuesday night, China’s response intensified.

“Australia is always messing around,” Hu Xijin, the editor of Global Times, a nationalist tabloid controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, wrote in a social media post. “I feel it is a bit like chewing gum stuck to the soles of China’s shoes. Sometimes you have to find a stone to scrape it off.”

Damien Cave and Amy Qin c.2020 The New York Times Company

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3cXXTqp
via IFTTT

पहली बार वुहान की लैब ने दावे किए खारिज, कहा- हमारे पास वायरस बनाने की क्षमता नहीं

चीन में वुहान स्थित प्रयोगशाला में कोरोना वायरस को पैदा करने के दावों के बीच वुहान इंस्टीट्यूट ऑफ वायरोलॉजी (डब्ल्यूआईवी) के प्रमुख ने इसे खारिज किया है।

from Latest And Breaking Hindi News Headlines, News In Hindi | अमर उजाला हिंदी न्यूज़ | - Amar Ujala https://ift.tt/2YfT1Zu
via IFTTT

टेस्ट किट बनाने के मामले में मई 2020 तक आत्मनिर्भर हो जाएगा देश: डॉ. हर्षवर्धन

उन्होंने समीक्षा के दौरान कहा कि स्वदेशी रैपिड टेस्ट और आरटी-पीसीएस डायग्नोस्टिक किट बनाने के मामले में मई 2020 तक हमारा देश आत्मनिर्भर हो जाएगा।

from Latest And Breaking Hindi News Headlines, News In Hindi | अमर उजाला हिंदी न्यूज़ | - Amar Ujala https://ift.tt/3eZYN7B
via IFTTT

Ford expects $5 billion loss in current quarter as coronavirus hits demand

Ford Motor Co said on Tuesday its second-quarter loss would more than double to over $5 billion from $2 billion in the first quarter due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, but added it had enough money despite the crisis to last the rest of 2020.

from Reuters: Money News https://ift.tt/2y6xfwA
via IFTTT

Monday, 27 April 2020

Market LIVE Updates: SGX Nifty indicates positive start for the Indian indices

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the broader index in India.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/3bMqLl6

Hot Stocks | Granules India, Dr Lal Path Lab, Navin Flourine are short-term buys

Positional Support for Nifty is seen at 8,900, and unless that is breached, the short-term trend of the market would be considered bullish only.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/3eYwaI0

Have a very good idea about status of Kim Jong Un: Donald Trump

“I can't tell you exactly - yes, I do have a very good idea but I can't talk about it now. I just wish him well,” Trump told reporters at a White House news conference Monday.

from Moneycontrol https://ift.tt/2KD7Op0

'Afraid to be a nurse': Celebrated in some countries for efforts against COVID-19, healthcare workers face abuse in others

Mexico City: The senior nurse went on national television to make a plea on behalf of her fellow healthcare workers: Please stop assaulting us.

Nurses working under her auspices had been viciously attacked around Mexico at least 21 times, accused of spreading the coronavirus. Many were no longer wearing their uniforms as they travelled to or from work for fear of being hurt, said the official, Fabiana Zepeda Arias, chief of nursing programmes for Mexico’s Social Security Institute.

“We can save your lives,” she said, addressing the assailants. “Please help us take care of you, and for that we need you to take care of us.”

In many cities, doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers have been celebrated with choruses of applause and cheers from windows and rooftops for providing the front-line defence against the pandemic.

But in some places healthcare workers, stigmatised as vectors of contagion because of their work, have been assaulted, abused and ostracised.

In the Philippines, attackers doused a nurse with bleach, blinding him. In India, a group of medical workers was chased by a stone-throwing mob. In Pakistan, a nurse and her children were evicted from their apartment building.

Dozens of attacks on healthcare workers have been reported in Mexico, where intense outbreaks among hospital staff of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, have unnerved residents and members of the medical community alike. Scores of doctors and nurses have fallen ill in several hospitals around the country, and widespread demonstrations have erupted among healthcare workers complaining about inadequate protective equipment.

Nurses in the state of Jalisco reported being blocked from public transportation because of their occupation. A nurse in Culiacán, capital of the state of Sinaloa in Mexico’s northwest, said she was drenched with chlorine while walking along the street.

In Merida, a city on the Yucatán Peninsula, a nurse said he was hit with an egg thrown by someone passing on a motorcycle.

Zepeda Arias, who spoke last week at a news conference, said 21 of her Social Security Institute nurses had been attacked in the past month.

“It hurts to talk about this; it hurts to talk about what happens to your people,” she said, fighting back tears. “Aggression is not something that anyone wants. We truly invite you to respect us.”

The attacks against medical workers seem to be rooted in fear and ignorance fed by misinformation, said Edith Mujica Chávez, president of the Inter-Institutional Commission of Nurses in the state of Jalisco.

“It is understandable, considering how much uncertainty and misinformation there is out there,” she said in an interview. “You have some people panicking and locking themselves in their houses, others thinking nothing will happen to them and going around carefree, and others thinking it is nurses and doctors who will spread the virus because we are in contact with patients.”

Mexico moved more slowly than other countries in the region to require social distancing and encourage people to stay home, and the number of coronavirus cases has risen sharply in recent weeks. On Sunday night, government officials reported 14,677 confirmed cases in the country and 1,351 deaths.

Authorities have said that the confirmed cases include more than 500 healthcare workers.

Mexican officials have condemned the aggression against doctors and nurses and characterised the episodes as isolated.

At a news conference Friday night, Dr Hugo López-Gatell, a deputy health minister, called the attacks and discrimination against medical crews working to keep the country safe “extremely worrying, absolutely unacceptable.”

“All of this is inexplicable to a certain extent; it is surprising,” he said. “Precisely the people who have the best possibility and the best intention of helping — the health workers who are on the front line of response — are attacked for the fact that they are health workers.”

Scattered accounts of hostility have circulated around the world.

In the Philippines, a nurse in the southern province of Sultan Kudarat was attacked by five men who thought he was infected with the virus because of his work. They poured bleach on his face, leaving him with what his doctors said could be permanent damage to his eyesight.

In a televised speech this month, the country’s president, Rodrigo Duterte, warned that people who discriminated against healthcare workers would be dealt with swiftly.

“I want to order the police to arrest anyone who harasses them,” he said. “ Once in prison, do not feed them. Let them starve.”

In India, healthcare workers have reported being physically attacked, spat at and threatened with sexual violence for treating patients with the coronavirus.

Doctors in protective gear were chased by a stone-throwing mob early this month in the central city of Indore after they tried to screen a woman for COVID-19.

“They screamed, ‘Catch them! Hit them!’ ” one of the doctors, Zakia Sayed, recalled in an interview with India Today. “We don’t know how and why the situation got so bad.”

Reports of healthcare workers being blocked from their homes by fearful neighbours — or evicted altogether by landlords — have proliferated in several countries.

Ghazala Bhatti, a nurse in Karachi, and the mother of three children, said her landlord had asked her to vacate their apartment because of fears that she would infect others in the building after treating COVID-19 patients.

“The landlord told me that he is worried about the health of his 72-year-old father battling cancer, who also lives on the first floor of the building,” said Bhatti, who moved in with her brother because she was unable to find a place to rent with the city on lockdown.

“I am heartbroken,” she said. “I have never felt afraid to be a nurse until it happened.”

A doctor at a government hospital in Odisha filed a police complaint against residents of her apartment building after they accused her of spreading the virus. In her statement, the doctor said one resident threatened her with rape if she did not move out.

Dr Sanjibani Panigrahi, who works at a hospital in Surat, said neighbours had tried to bar her from entering her building, telling her she should be “shunted out of society”.

“I don’t know how long I can stay here,” she said in an interview. “There is so much panic and hysteria right now. Being a doctor has become a stigma.”

Kirk Semple c.2020 The New York Times Company

Exclusive: Traders book Jones Act tankers for storage, foreign trips as U.S. fuel glut swells - sources

Oil traders are hiring expensive U.S. vessels, normally only used for domestic shipments, to store gasoline or ship fuel overseas, five shipping sources said, in a sign of the energy industry's desperation for places to park petroleum amid a 30% drop in worldwide demand.

from Reuters: Money News https://ift.tt/3aJwsz4
via IFTTT