WHO says COVID-19 can be contained; Supreme Court steps up, Gui Minhai sentenced, VA moves on gun control + 'Hands On'
NewsHero - Fen 25, 2020 - Issue 41
Welcome to this edition of NewsHero for Tuesday, February 25, 2020.
We decided that being NewsHero—putting the hero of every story in the headlines as our priority—we’d go ahead and readily identify those heroes in each piece of coverage.
Going forward, heroes will be designated as follows:
🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️ - the hero, hands down. -Meaning that it wasn’t even a close call.
🦸♀️🦸♀️ - the hero, but… - Meaning that in this situation the call needed to be looked at in a little more detail. For example, in this case, they did the right thing but there have been some questionable calls in the past.
🦸♀️ - the hero, but only here, and it was a close call. - Meaning that in this instance they did the right thing but it was either out of character or a maddeningly close call.
We love feedback. Whether it’s about this system or our choice of hero or anything else, feel free to let us know what you think here.
As always, thank you for your support as we strive to grow as an independent news source so we can offer more for our readers.
Please share us with anyone you think might like what we do—or might need another perspective.
NewsHero Notes
Scotland - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
The Scottish parliament may approve plans to make sanitary products freely available to all women—the first nation in the world to do so. The legislation would make tampons and sanitary pads free for all women in Scotland, available at designated public places such as community centers, youth clubs and pharmacies.
Ayasel Slay - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
A Saudi female rapper is facing arrest after Mecca’s governor deemed the woman’s appearance in a music video offensive to the customs and traditions of the holy city. In a video for her song Bint Mecca, or Girl from Mecca, a Saudi woman identified as Ayasel Slay raps about her pride in being from Mecca, home to the holiest site in Islam, the Kaaba.
Afternoon Brief
Supreme Court
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a scathing dissent last week, saying the government keeps turning to the Supreme Court on an emergency basis for controversial policies, and that her conservative colleagues are too quick to side with the Trump administration. “Claiming one emergency after another, the government has recently sought stays in an unprecedented number of cases, demanding immediate attention and consuming limited court resources in each,” Sotomayor wrote. “And with each successive application, of course, its cries of urgency ring increasingly hollow.”
Likely responding to the dissent, Donald Trump said liberal Supreme Court justices Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg should recuse themselves from cases involving the president, including upcoming cases regarding Trump’s tax returns and financial records. “I just don't know how they cannot recuse themselves for anything Trump or Trump related,” Trump said Tuesday at news conference in New Delhi.
U.S. Supreme Court - 🦸♀️🦸♀️
The Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to Walgreens, turning away an appeal by a fired former Florida employee of the pharmacy chain who asked not to work on Saturdays for religious reasons as a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
U.S. Supreme Court - 🦸♀️🦸♀️
Also on Monday the Supreme Court agreed to hear a major religious rights dispute involving the city of Philadelphia’s refusal to place children for foster care with a Catholic agency that bars same-sex couples from serving as foster parents.
Bookseller Sentenced
Gui Minhai - 🦸♀️🦸♀️
Swedish bookseller Gui Minhai has been sentenced to ten years in prison by a Chinese court for “providing intelligence” overseas. According to a court statement posted online, Gui pleaded guilty to the charge and said he would not appeal.
Rights groups condemned the “harsh sentence” and called for his release. Sweden's foreign minister called for Gui's release, calling him a citizen. “We have not had access to the trial," said Ann Linde in a tweet. “[We] demand that Gui be released and that we have access to our citizens to provide consular support.”
Gui was one of five Hong Kong-based booksellers who went missing in late 2015, before resurfacing in Chinese police custody. He is known to have previously published books on the personal lives of Chinese Communist Party members.
Gun Safety
Ralph Northam and Virginia - 🦸♀️🦸♀️
After shooting down a ban on assault-style weapons, Virginia is now pushing other new gun safety legislation forward. Seven gun control measures supported by Governor Ralph Northam made it out of a state Senate committee on Monday, moving just one step away from becoming law. The Virginia House of Delegates already passed the measures earlier this month. The full state Senate is expected to vote on the measures this week, while a joint committee will meet to iron out the final language in the bill if the wording is changed slightly between houses.
WHO Says Coronavirus ‘Can Be Contained’
‘Too early’ to declare COVID-19 a ‘pandemic’
Director-General of the WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a news conference on the coronavirus in Geneva, Switzerland February 24, 2020. (Reuters/Denis Balibouse)
The journalists and health officials working to spread facts, not fear - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
With a headline that could be considered dramatic or designed to cause anxiety, The Atlantic nevertheless put forward an insightful piece on the spread of the coronavirus, presenting thoughts on globalized response and containment. In “You’re Likely to Get the Coronavirus,” staff writer James Hamblin, MD, points out that most cases of coronavirus infections are non-life-threatening. While that’s perhaps a relief to know, it’s also said to be something that makes the virus difficult to contain. Unlike SARS and MERS (two previous coronavirus outbreaks), COVID-19 (the coronavirus disease we’re all talking about) “is unlike most that capture popular attention: It is deadly, but not too deadly. It makes people sick, but not in predictable, uniquely identifiable ways.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday that it’s premature to declare the COVID-19 a pandemic and that the outbreak can be beaten. “The key message that should give all countries hope, courage and confidence is that this virus can be contained, indeed there are many countries that have done exactly that,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva. “Using the word ‘pandemic’ now does not fit the facts but may certainly cause fear,” he added.
Dr. Andre Kalil, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, speaks in Omaha, Neb., Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Reports of new cases in Iran, Italy and South Korea fueled worries of a global pandemic. In South Korea, officials in the city of Daegu aren’t overly restricting the movement of people, unlike in China with some cities effectively “closing.” A New York Times article suggests that this tactic could be a template as the virus moves around the world. “If it works to contain the crisis, the strategy—aggressively monitoring for infections while keeping the city running—could be a template for more democratically inclined societies as the virus spreads worldwide, testing civil liberties.”
Amid new cases emerging in Iran, the country’s deputy health minister announced he’s contracted the virus and put himself in isolation. Iraj Harirchi posted a video on social media today acknowledging he had caught the virus. The news came shortly after he appeared at a press conference where he said mass quarantines were unnecessary.
In the United States, the first clinical trial of a possible coronavirus treatment is underway in Nebraska and is eventually expected to include 400 patients at 50 locations around the world. Dr. Andre Kalil, who will oversee the study at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said the clinical trial was developed quickly in response to the virus outbreak that originated in China. Patients who are hospitalized with the COVID-19 will be eligible to join the trial if they have at least moderate symptoms.
Extra! Extra!
Last week we talked here about an incident in the U.K. in which the Autopilot feature on two Teslas saved the lives of eight people. Both vehicles reacted automatically to a falling tree, stopping the cars faster than the human drivers could. Having that technology onboard can clearly be helpful, but knowing the limits of that technology can be equally life-saving.
A report today from the Associated Press stated: “The National Transportation Safety Board says the driver of a Tesla SUV who died in a Silicon Valley crash two years ago was playing a video game on his smartphone while his vehicle was being controlled by a partially automated driving system.” As NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt put it, “If you own a car with partial automation, you do not own a self-driving car.” He added, “This means that when driving in the supposed ‘self-driving’ mode, you can’t read a book, you can’t watch a movie or TV show, you can’t text and you can’t play video games.”
That may sound obvious, but understanding just how much responsibility we have in the driver’s seat can’t be lessened by a reliance on automation. Autopilot and other such features can be welcome helping hands, but just don’t let them be the only hands on the steering wheel.
Sources:
Scotland to approve free sanitary products for all women - Reuters
Mecca governor orders arrest of Saudi female rapper - Al Jazeera
Trump Says Sotomayor, Ginsburg Should Recuse Themselves From Cases Involving Him - NPR
Trump says 2 justices should sit out cases, but they decide - AP News
Sotomayor issues scathing dissent in Supreme Court order that could reshape legal immigration - CNN
U.S. Supreme Court turns away religious bias claim against Walgreens - Reuters
U.S. Supreme Court to hear religious fight over same-sex foster care - Reuters
Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai sentenced to ten years in Chinese jail - CNN
Gui Minhai: Hong Kong bookseller gets 10 years jail - BBC News
Hong Kong Bookseller Sentenced By China To 10 Years For Passing ‘Intelligence' - NPR
Virginia Senate panel advances seven gun control bills - Washington Post
Virginia Senate panel advances Northam gun restrictions - CNN
Gun control legislation advances in Virginia's legislature - Reuters
You’re Likely to Get the Coronavirus - The Atlantic
Virus can still be beaten, too early to declare pandemic: WHO - Reuters
In Coronavirus Crisis, Korean City Tries Openness, a Contrast to China - NY Times
Study begins in US to test possible coronavirus treatment - AP News I
ran's deputy health minister: I have coronavirus - The Guardian
NTSB: Driver in fatal Tesla crash was playing video game - AP News