Sunday, May 17, 2020

UPDATED

12 Los Angeles firefighters recovering after explosion


AT ILLEGAL HASH OIL FACTORY


By STEFANIE DAZIO and FRANK BAKER

1 of 28


Los Angeles Police Department officers work the scene of a structure fire that injured multiple firefighters, according to a fire department spokesman, Saturday, May 16, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)


LOS ANGELES (AP) — Eight firefighters remained hospitalized Sunday after being hurt in an explosion at a hash oil manufacturer in downtown Los Angeles that sent crews running for their lives when a ball of flames shot out of the building and scorched a fire truck across the street.

The blast Saturday evening injured a dozen firefighters including some who ran out onto sidewalks, where they tore off their burning protective equipment including melted helmets, officials said.

“The was one of the worst scenes I’ve seen,” said Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Erik Scott.


He said “one significant explosion” shook the neighborhood around 6:30 p.m. Firefighters inside had to run through a wall of flames he estimated as 30 feet (9 meters) high and wide, and those on the roof scrambled down a ladder that was engulfed in fire.

Three firefighters were released after spending the night in the hospital, fire department spokesman Nicholas Prange said Sunday. Of the eight that remained hospitalized, two were in critical but stable condition, he said. Officials initially announced that 11 firefighters were injured but Prange said a 12th was treated and released for a minor injury.

All were expected to survive.

“The good news is everybody’s going to make it,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a late Saturday news conference outside the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center where all the injured were treated.

“Things could have been so much worse,” said Los Angeles Fire Department Medical Director Dr. Marc Eckstein, who works at the hospital and helped treat the injured.

Scott said people at the scene described the explosion as sounding like a freight train or jet engine.


Firefighters were called to 327 East Boyd St. in the city’s Toy District for a report of a fire at a one-story commercial building. There was light to moderate smoke when firefighters entered the building and went on the roof — normal procedures to try to quickly knock down any flames.

Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said one of the firefighters inside the building thought things didn’t seem right — the pressure from the smoke and heat coming from the rear of the building were increasing. He directed everyone to get out, and they quickly started exiting the building as it was rocked by the explosion.

Firefighters on the roof scrambled down ladders with their protective coats on fire. The wall of flames shot out the building and burned seats inside a fire truck across the street.
More than 200 firefighters rushed to the scene, and dozens of engines, trucks and rescue vehicles clogged the streets. The fire spread to several nearby buildings, but firefighters were able to douse it in about an hour.

The injured firefighters were rushed to the hospital. Those who remained at the scene, unaware of the seriousness of their colleagues’ injuries, were traumatized by what had transpired, Terrazas said.

“You can imagine the amount of emotional stress,” he said.

Scott said the building was a warehouse for SmokeTokes, which he described as a maker of “butane honey oil.” Butane is an odorless gas that easily ignites, and it’s used in the process to extract the high-inducing chemical THC from cannabis to create a highly potent concentrate also known as hash oil. The oil is used in vape pens, edibles, waxes and other products.


On its website, SmokeTokes advertises a variety of products including “puff bars,” pipes, “dab” tools, vaporizers, “torches and butane,” and cartridges. The company says it is “an international distributor and wholesaler of smoking and vaping products, and related accessories.” Founded in 2009, it offers “discounts to loyal customers, fast shipping, a huge catalog of products and customer service that is untouched.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

___
Associated Press writer Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Investigators open criminal probe into LA explosion that injured a dozen firefighters

by STEFANIE DAZIO and FRANK BAKER ASSOCIATED PRESS

Sunday, May 17th 2020A



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Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters work the scene of a structure fire that injured multiple firefighters, according to a fire department spokesman, Saturday, May 16, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police and fire investigators launched a criminal probe Sunday into the cause of an explosion at a hash oil manufacturer in downtown Los Angeles that sent firefighters running for their lives.

Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department's major crimes division were working with the city Fire Department's arson investigators to determine what might have sparked the blast that shot a ball of flames out of the building Saturday night and scorched a fire truck across the street, police spokesman Josh Rubenstein said.
“We're in the very early stages of the investigation ... to understand what happened and figure out how to move forward,” he said.

The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was assisting local fire investigators, an agency spokeswoman said.

The blast injured a dozen firefighters including some who ran out onto sidewalks, where they tore off their burning protective equipment including melted helmets, officials said.


“The was one of the worst scenes I’ve seen,” said Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Erik Scott.

Firefighters first thought they were battling a routine structure fire, Scott told KNX Radio, but as they got a little farther in the building they started to hear “a loud hissing sound and a significant rumbling that you could feel vibrating throughout the area.”



Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters work the scene of a structure fire that injured multiple firefighters, according to a fire department spokesman, Saturday, May 16, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

He said “one significant explosion” shook the neighborhood around 6:30 p.m. Firefighters inside had to run through a wall of flames he estimated as 30 feet (9 meters) high and wide, and those on the roof scrambled down a ladder that was engulfed in flames.

Three firefighters were released after spending the night in the hospital, fire department spokesman Nicholas Prange said Sunday. Of the eight that remained hospitalized, two were in critical but stable condition, he said. Officials initially announced that 11 firefighters were injured but Prange said a 12th was treated and released for a minor injury.

All were expected to survive.

“The good news is everybody’s going to make it,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a late Saturday news conference outside the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center where all the injured were treated.

“Things could have been so much worse,” said Los Angeles Fire Department Medical Director Dr. Marc Eckstein, who works at the hospital and helped treat the injured.

There was light to moderate smoke when firefighters entered the one-story building in the city's Toy District and went on the roof — normal procedures to try to quickly knock down any flames.

Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said one of the firefighters inside the building thought things didn’t seem right — the pressure from the smoke and heat coming from the rear of the building were increasing. He directed everyone to get out, and they quickly started exiting the building as it was rocked by the explosion.

Firefighters on the roof scrambled down ladders with their protective coats on fire. The wall of flames shot out the building and burned seats inside a fire truck across the street.

More than 200 firefighters rushed to the scene, and dozens of engines, trucks and rescue vehicles clogged the streets. The fire spread to several nearby buildings, but firefighters were able to douse it in about an hour.

The injured firefighters were rushed to the hospital. Those who remained at the scene, unaware of the seriousness of their colleagues’ injuries, were traumatized by what had transpired, Terrazas said.

“You can imagine the amount of emotional stress,” he said.

Scott said the building was a warehouse for SmokeTokes, which he described as a supplier for makers of “butane honey oil.” Butane is an odorless gas that easily ignites, and it’s used in the process to extract the high-inducing chemical THC from cannabis to create a highly potent concentrate also known as hash oil. The oil is used in vape pens, edibles, waxes and other products.

A call to SmokeTokes went unanswered on Sunday and the company's voicemail was full.

On its website, SmokeTokes advertises a variety of products including “puff bars,” pipes, “dab” tools, vaporizers, “torches and butane,” and cartridges. The company says it is “an international distributor and wholesaler of smoking and vaping products, and related accessories.”



A local resident holds her dog as she watches Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters working the scene of a structure fire that injured multiple firefighters, according to a fire department spokesman, Saturday, May 16, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Prange, the LAFD spokesman, said carbon dioxide and butane canisters were found inside the building but that it was still not clear what caused the blast.

Adam Spiker, executive director of the cannabis industry group Southern California Coalition, said he didn't know what activities were taking place inside the building. However, if the business was using butane in cannabis extraction it would be illegal, since the city has never issued a license for that type of operation.

Because of safety concerns, such businesses are typically restricted to industrial areas and kept away from urban centers.

“If they were doing volatile extraction with butane ... they couldn’t be legal in the city of LA to do those types of activities,” Spiker said.

He said the coalition was unaware of the business having any type of license and “something about this doesn’t pass the smell test.”

Information so far “puts up a lot of alarm bells,” Spiker said.

In 2016, there was another major fire at a business called Smoke Tokes at a nearby address. The Los Angeles Times reported at the time that it took more than 160 firefighters to put out the blaze and that they encountered pressurized gas cylinders that exploded in the fire.

No one was injured in the fire and it was unclear whether that business and the one that burned Saturday were connected.




Hash oil factory blast injures 11 

blast at a hash oil factory in Los Angeles has injured 11 firefighters who were caught by a ball of flame as they worked to put out a blaze.


The fireball shot out of the building and scorched a fire engine across the street when the explosion happened at 18:30 on Saturday (02:30 GMT Sunday).

Some of the firefighters had to run through a wall of flames 30ft (9m) high and wide to escape, an official said.

Three are in a critical condition but all are expected to survive.

All 11 firefighters suffered burns ranging from minor to serious, and two have been placed on ventilators.

Some of them were on fire as they ran out of the building and they ripped off their protective equipment, leaving it on pavement along with melted helmets, Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Erik Scott was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

It appears that butane gas was being used in the process to extract a chemical from cannabis to create hash oil, a powerful concentrate.


Los Angeles explosion: 11 firefighters hurt as 'hash oil factory' burns

Sam Levin Los Angeles correspondent and agencies

Sun 17 May 2020



Los Angeles explosion: 11 firefighters injured in 'major emergency' – video

An explosion in downtown Los Angeles has injured 11 firefighters, with scores more sent to put out the blaze in what was described as a factory making cannabis oil.

Captain Erik Scott of the Los Angeles fire department said “one significant explosion” shook the neighborhood around 6.30pm on Saturday and as first responders arrived they saw firefighters emerge from the building with burns and other injuries. Some of their uniforms were on fire.

Four firefighters were taken to a burns intensive care unit, two were put on ventilators due to signs of swelling airways and the other five who were hospitalized suffering a range of burns. The two firefighters on ventilators appeared to have inhaled superheated gases but as of around 10pm local time it seemed none of the injuries were life-threatening, said the fire department’s medical director, Marc Eckstein.

Firefighters were initially called to 327 East Boyd Street in the city’s Toy District for a report of a fire at a one-storey commercial building.

The LA fire department issued a “mayday” call, which means a firefighter is missing, down or trapped, and characterised the blaze as a “major emergency” with more than 230 firefighters responding. The fire spread to several nearby buildings but by 7.15pm appeared largely under control.

When the firefighters first entered the building before the explosion they saw “light to moderate smoke”, but also noticed that the pressure and heat was increasing inside, said fire chief Ralph M Terrazas: “Things didn’t seem right.” The firefighters moved to evacuate at this point and as they were starting to exit, the “explosion or flash” occurred, prompting the mayday call, he said. Some of their coats caught fire.

Scott described the business as a maker of “butane honey oil.” Butane is a flammable gas. Making the oil involves extracting the high-inducing chemical THC from cannabis plants to create a highly potent concentrate also known as hash oil. The oil is used in vape pens, edibles, waxes and other products.

Small butane canisters were later found on the street, officials said. The business where the explosion erupted may have been a wholesale distributor but the nature of the operation and the cause of the fire were still under investigation late Saturday evening.

“We have every expectation the firefighters will pull through,” Eckstein told reporters, noting that all firefighters were awake and alert upon arrival to the hospital. “It could’ve been much, much worse.”

Eckstein said there were no Covid-19 patients in the unit where the firefighters were being treated but the hospital was taking precautions to protect them.

Terrazas said the department was providing mental health services for the impacted first responders: “A lot of our firefighters were traumatized. You can imagine the amount of emotional stress.”

Jeralyn Cleveland told the Los Angeles Times she was on a roof of an apartment building a few blocks away when she saw the explosion: “Everyone in my building thought there was a bomb that went off. It was like a mushroom.”
The site of the fire was not far from Skid Row, a downtown LA neighborhood that is the epicenter of the city’s homelessness crisis.

Eleven firefighters injured in structure fire in downtown Los Angeles

May 17 (UPI) -- Eleven firefighters were injured, including three critically, in explosion at a commercial smoke shop in downtown Los Angeles, officials said.

During a news conference, Saturday night, officials said several firefighters were in the intensive care unit for burns at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, including at least two on ventilators. One injured firefighters will likely need skin grafts.

The incident was first reported at 6:26 p.m. in the city's Toy District in a one-story building.








The department posted on Twitter: "An explosion on scene has caused a MAYDAY with approx 10 firefighters down and multiple buildings on fire. This has been upgraded."
"A Mayday to us means a firefighter is missing, down or trapped," Fire Chief Ralph M. Terrazas said at the news conference.
Eyewitnesses said they saw firefighters coming out with their turnout coats on fire.
Within minutes, hundreds of firefighters responded to help. More than 230 firefighters responded to the blaze and the fire was put out just after 8 p.m.
Initially, the fire occurred at butane honey oil supplier.
Upon arrival, the blaze was described as having moderate smoke, Terrazas said, and smoke pressure was escalating when firefighters entered the building. They were directed to get out of the building as the explosion or flash occurred.
"Our hearts go out to their loved ones and fellow first responders," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti posted on Twitter. "We are keeping them in our prayers.
Garcetti was on the scene.

'Coronatoon': A selection of COVID-19 caricatures

For weeks, there's been nothing but news about all things coronavirus. Cartoonists need no more than a few lines to trigger emotions like fear and sadness, but also hope for the day when this crisis is finally over.

FROM DW GERMANY

4 OF 12

Mass for Nazi-allied 'victims' sparks protest in Sarajevo

 Antifascist protesters marched in Sarajevo as the local Catholic cardinal served a mass for "Bleiburg victims" executed by Yugoslav partisans at the end of World War II. Most of those killed were pro-Nazi militants.    

Bosnian Cardinal Vinko Puljic held a mass to honor "Bleiburg victims" who died when the Yugoslavian communist regime executed thousands of mostly pro-Nazi militants in the immediate aftermath of WWII. The group also included a large number of civilians.
Leading the Saturday ceremony in Sarajevo, the Catholic cardinal said that "the victims cannot be forgotten" and that the prayer was aimed to "cleanse all bitter feelings and negative tensions that come up when the victims are remembered."
Only 20 people attended the service in the Sarajevo cathedral due to the coronavirus restrictions.
'It is not normal'
Meanwhile, thousands of protesters marched through the city in opposition of the event. The protesters slammed the mass as a thinly disguised attempt to rehabilitate Nazi collaborators, most notably Croatia's Ustasha militia that served the wartime fascist regime in Zagreb. With the support of the Axis forces, Ustasha held sway in Croatia and large parts of Bosnia, where they predominantly targeted Serbs and Jews during WWII.
In the closing months of the war, the Ustasha militia implemented a brutal terror campaign in Sarajevo, which included a public hanging of 55 of the city's residents. Over 10,000 residents of Sarajevo are believed to have lost their lives during the occupation.
On Saturday, anti-fascist protesters posted pictures of the hanged residents and displayed a banner reading "I am anti-fascist too" across Sarajevo's main street.
"My two grandfathers, their brothers and my grandmother were all killed by these fascists who have been honored today," 63-year-old retired electro-technician Cedomir Jasksic told the Reuters news agency.
"It is not normal that a city such as Sarajevo... allows something like this to happen," he added.
Catholic Zvonimir Nikolic described the mass as a "disaster for Sarajevo," while Bosniak Sead Sahovic, who was born in the Ustasha concentration camp Stara Gradiska, slammed the commemoration as a "horrifying farce."'
Puljic unmoved by protests
The decision to hold the mass prompted a storm of criticism in Bosnia & Herzegovina, including a condemnation from the Israeli and the US embassies. However, the Croatian parliament endorsed the event, and the country's ambassador to Sarajevo attended the Saturday mass.
In the days leading up to the commemoration, Cardinal Puljic seemed to shrug off the accusations of praising Nazi collaborators.
Talking to Croatian Catholic Radio, Puljic said that "the Church has always respected innocent victims" and was the mass was not intended to celebrate anyone.
He added that a "crime cannot be defended by (another) crime."
Police standing in front of the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Sarajevo (Reuters/D. Ruvic)
Canceled due to coronavirus
With the breakdown of Nazi Germany in April and May of 1945, members of pro-Nazi militias from various parts of Yugoslavia fled towards Austria with their family members. Their goal was to surrender to British forces at Bleiburg, but the British army rejected their surrender and extradited them to Communist forces, which also included a large percentage of ethnic Croatians. Many of the prisoners were executed without trial during the return march through Slovenia.
The executions remained a taboo topic until the breakup of socialist Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. A large event to commemorate the victims is now held annually in Bleiburg, with many of the visitors displaying Ustasha and Nazi symbols. Last year, the Austrian diocese denied permission to hold a mass at the site, prompting criticism from their Croatian counterparts. It also prompted a reaction from Croatia's then-president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, who said that she "deeply regrets" the ban as a "Croatian and a woman of faith." The Bleiburg rally of 2020 has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
dj/mm
 (Reuters, AP, Beta, AFP. dpa)

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Germany: Radiation leak detected at research reactor

A research reactor near Munich has emitted excess C-14 radiation, says the Bavarian city's technical university. The "slight" leak late March had shown up Thursday when monthly readings were collated.


Munich's technical university (TUM) said Saturday a neutron reactor located at Garchingjust north of the metropole was found to have leaked nuclides into the atmosphere "slightly" above the level permitted annually in its license.

Neither human beings nor the surrounding environment had been endangered, said the TUM and Bavaria's environmental ministry — responsible for oversight.

Monthly figures collated on Thursday had shown an excess in C-14 particles 15% above the permitted yearly level, with the potential to cause "theoretically" a load for the public of 3 Mikrosieverts at the maximum.

That was less than the level a patient undergoing an x-ray at the dentists' would endure, said Anke Görg spokesperson for the TUM's operating institute, known as FRMII.

"An individual error during the installation of the mobile drying unit used for this purpose caused the discharge of the C-14 over a short period of time," Görg added, referring to a method used to extract C-14 in resin from water in the reactor's tank.

The Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper said the notifiable incident was ranked "0," very low on the international scale.

Read more: Germany's anti-nuclear movement: Still going strong after four decades of activism

Garching's divisive 'Egg'

Garching's special campus, where an "egg"-shaped dome covers an older reactor — used between 1957 and 2000 — draws annually about 1,000 international researchers who experiment with its newer neutron reactor, the so-called FRMII.

The facility was put on hold on March 17 because of the current pandemic, leaving many scientists unable to glean results for industry and medicine, said Görg.

The FRMII reactor, inaugurated in 2005, remains controversial among organizations like Germany's branch of Friends of the Earth (BUND) and opposition Greens in Bavaria's state assembly.

Detection of the isotope C-14 is a key method in so-called carbon-dating to determine the age of ancient objects containing organic material.

Read more: Winds of change push German power grid to brink

Decades of turmoil

Bavaria, which in the 1970s went through political turmoil over the siting of six nuclear reactors, now has only two of them in operation — Isar 2 east of Munich, and Gundremmingen C, west of Augsburg.

As a whole, Germany currently has six reactors running as a whole, according to the federal environment ministry, as it continues its nuclear-power phase-out, spurred by Japan's 2011 Fukushima disaster, as it pushes for renewables.

Read more: Nuclear reactor to shut down amid Germany's atomic phase-out

Europe still has 108 reactors running

Positioned just outside Germany's borders are further nuclear plants, for example, Cattenom, a four-reactor French power station.

It lies alongside the Moselle river in France's Lothringia region, adjacent to Germany's states of Saarland and Rhineland Palatinate, and EU hub Luxembourg.

Downwind in terms of prevailing weather are German cities such as Frankfurt, Mainz and Heidelberg.

Western Europe currently has 108 operational reactors, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEO) based in Paris.

ipj/mm (dpa, SZ)


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Date 16.05.2020
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Germany exports millions in arms to Libya war belligerents, despite embargo

Despite supporting an embargo, Germany has exported €330 million in weapons to countries involved in the war in Libya. The conflict has escalated since Khalifa Haftar's forces seized Tripoli.





Since hosting a Libya summit four months ago, the German government has approved arms exports worth €331 million ($358 million) to countries accused of supporting warring parties in the country, according a report from the German Economy Ministry seen by news agency DPA.

Between January 20 and May 3, Germany approved €308.2 million in arms destined for Egypt alone, the ministry said. The information was provided in response to a request from Germany’s leftist die Linke party.


The German government also approved €15.1 million in arms exports for Turkey and €7.7 million for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), DPA reported.Turkey supports the Government of National Accord (GNA), which is backed by the UN, while Russia, Egypt, and the UAE support rival forces led by Khalifa Haftar.

Read more: Khalifa Haftar's repressive proto-state and the 'myth' of stability

Embargo on ice?

Libya has been plagued by warfare since the Western-backed toppling of Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi in 2011. Multiple groups continue to fight for power in the oil-rich country, often with backing from foreign powers.

In January, Germany hosted a summit of world leaders whose countries have sent arms or soldiers to Libya.

In a closing declaration, 16 countries and international organisations agreed to a weapons embargo for Libya.

Read more: UN welcomes Libya peace commitments from Berlin summit

Deep frustration from UN

Egypt, Turkey, Russia, and the UAE were among the signatories. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres later accused these four countries of breaching the embargo and continuing to provide arms for the conflict.

"I am deeply frustrated with what’s happening in Libya," Guterres said at a press conference in February. "They committed not to interfere in the Libyan process and they committed not to send weapons or participate in any way in the fighting. The truth is that the Security Council (arms) embargo remains violated."

Conflict has escalated since April last year, when Haftar's forces seized Tripoli from the GNA.

Violence has continued in recent weeks despite international calls for a cease-fire in light of the coronavirus outbreak.

Read more: Germany threatens 'consequences' over Libya arms sales


Watch video 12:35 Hell on Earth: Refugees in Libya 

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3cLnv 


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Power struggle in Libya: Does peace have a chance?



Date 17.05.2020
Author Kristie Pladson
Related Subjects Libya, Germany
Keywords Germany, Libya, weapons, arms exports, arms
New coronavirus study recalls Germany's 'Patient Zero'

Interviews with 16 patients infected by a visiting Chinese colleague at a company in southern Germany reaffirms that the virus often stays hidden. Most of them exhibited no or only mild symptoms, researchers say.



Global efforts to contain Covid-19 still face a "huge challenge," warns The Lancet Infectious Diseases magazine in a Bavaria case study confirming that some patients were infected before symptoms emerged or only as they started.

The London-based medical publisher focused on Europe's first case in January, explaining how the virus Sars-Cov-2 spread from a Chinese colleague visiting Munich to workmates of the firm Webasto and then their households.

From "Patient Zero" a sequence of four "generations" of infection was traced with "all patients recovered fully" via quarantine, said the magazine, citing testing and interviews done mainly by German epidemiologists and health authorities.

The potentially lethal virus' incubation period — between initial infection and symptoms — was four days, concluded the authors, who included Chinese and Spanish contributors.

Read more: 1.8 million people in Germany could be infected with coronavirus, researchers find

Hidden infectiousness

Viral transmission to one and up to "possibly five more" patients had occurred before symptoms became apparent; in at least four cases on the day of symptom onset and the remainder once symptoms were apparent, according to the study.

That pattern of hidden "infectiousness was "substantial" and had also thrown up "false-negative tests," suggesting infection was present but only became evident later.

Bavaria study matches other evidence

The data from "Patient 0" matched other results that suggested the occurrence of pre-symptomatic transmission was estimated at up to half of all infections, said infectiology researchers at Cologne's University Clinic [Uniklinik Köln] in a Lancet commentary.

"This is one of the most serious obstacles to controlling the pandemic,'' said the Cologne team, adding: "new technologies such as contact tracking apps are urgently needed to effectively control the pandemic."

Watch video Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3cMzy

Vaccine efforts a mix of competition and cooperation

"All countries that have introduced rigorous contact tracing were most effective in keeping the number of newly infected small, said Annelies Wilder-Smith of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).

She cited South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore as "clear examples of countries that do not economize on resources and technology to carry out rigorous contact tracing. All were successful."

Read more: Germany to spend €750 million on coronavirus vaccine

Deprived more at risk

Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper in a four-page Sunday special entitled "The Wasted Weeks" quoted German Health Minister Jens Spahn at the end of January — when the Webasto case had just emerged in Munich — as saying that the course of the disease was "relatively moderate."

Already on Januar 22, virologist Alexander Kekule on during a television science broadcast had contradicted Germany's Robert Koch Institute, saying: "I also reckon on cases in Europe; we must also prepare ourselves for them in Germany."

Another study published Friday by The Lancet, conducted by University of Oxford researchers, found that people living in the most deprived areas of Britain were more than four times likelier to test positive for COVID-19 than those living in the richest neighborhoods.

The Oxford study looked at more than 3,600 COVID-19 test results from national programs and found that statistical deprivation, age and chronic liver disease all increased the likelihood of testing positive.

Among its sample of 660 people living in most deprived areas, 29.5 percent had tested positive, compared with just 7.7 percent of those in richer areas, the study found.

ipj/mm (dpa, AFP)

Germany's data chief tells ministries WhatsApp is a no-go


Germany's data privacy chief has told federal bodies not to use WhatsApp, amid concerns that it feeds Facebook with data. Ulrich Kelber said it appeared that the government has failed to establish enough safe services.



Date privacy commissioner Ulrich Kelber said any use of WhatsApp was prohibited for federal ministries and institutions, even if some had resorted to using it during the current pandemic.

In a letter to branches of the federal government, Kelber said that bodies must respect, and not neglect, data protection "even in these difficult times."

Read more: WhatsApp in India — Scourge of violence-inciting fake news tough to tackle

He stressed that federal entities were obliged to uphold Germany law and had a role model function.

The Düsseldorf newspaper Handelsblatt said Kelber, previously a Social Democrat (SPD) federal parliamentarian, was reacting to complaints from citizens about the use of WhatsApp by unnamed federal authorities.

"Just by sending messages, metadata is delivered to WhatsApp every time," said Kelber, adding that it could be assumed that these data snippets were then forwarded directly to Facebook, WhatsApp's parent concern.

Read more: Security lapses plague messaging and video apps

"These contribute, even if only as a small piece of the mosaic, to the increased storage of personal profiles," he wrote, referring to IP addresses and locations.

WhatsApp, cited in Handelblatt's Monday edition, rebutted Kelber's warning, saying the messaging service did not forward user data to Facebook — for example, to enable more accurately the distribution of online advertising.

Watch video 03:15 
Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3cN8

DW investigation finds private Whatsapp groups can still be found online

"WhatsApp cannot read messages because they are encrypted throughout by default," said its spokesman. 




Only the people who sent messages to each other could read them — but not WhatsApp, Facebook or anyone else, asserted the commercial service.

In recent weeks, Kelber has also entered debate in Germany about plans to create viral tracing and vaccination apps, warning that a person's health data must be especially protected in the online realm.

ipj/rc (AFP, KNA)


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Videos depicting horrific violence and rape have been found circulating in high school students' chat groups across the country. Youngsters are often unaware of the consequences of being caught with illegal content. (19.02.2020)


WhatsApp security flaw: Thousands of links to groups can still be easily found online

A DW journalist recently discovered WhatsApp links that lead to closed groups could be found with a simple Google search. (27.02.2020) 


Date 17.05.2020

Related Subjects Facebook
MLB 
NO SHOWERS NO SPITTING 
NO SHOWERS OF SPIT 

I'D LIKE TO TEACH THE WORLD TO SING  

FIFTY YEARS LATER

 meme


"I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)" is a pop song which originated as an advertising jingle, produced by Billy Davis and sung by the Hillside Singers, for Coca-Cola, and was featured in 1971 as a TV commercial. The Hillside Singers' version was released as a successful single the same year. The New Seekers also had a hit with the song around the same time.



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