October 4 is celebrated across the globe as World Animal Day and like every year pet owners celebrated the feast of St. Francis who was also the patron saint of animals wagging tails across the globe got blessed with holy water but this time the blessings came with a twist.

Not even the COVID-19 pandemic was enough to stop pet lovers from celebrating World Animal Day across the world. Pet owners in the Philippines and Mexico flocked to celebrate the feast of Saint Francis.

In Manila, the pets received their blessings via a drive-through ceremony meant to keep everyone safe. A catholic priest blessed various breeds of cats, dogs, and birds with holy water as the pet owners lined up inside their cars, eagerly waiting for good fortunes for their animal companions.

"It's very important for us to have our pet blessed because we really feel like our pet is part of our family, we also want the best for his health too that's why we decided to join the pet blessing for today," Arlene Pedron, pet owner, said.

"The reason for my attendance at the church of Saint Francis is to bring my pet, Goyi, to be blessed in the name of Saint Francis, the patron saint of animals," Silvia Navarro, a worker, said.

In Mexico, people were seen queueing outside a church to seek blessings for their pets geared with masks and maintaining social distancing. The pet lovers believed that it was fundamental even in between a pandemic to seek blessings for their animals.

October 4 is celebrated across the globe as World Animal Day and like every year pet owners celebrated the feast of St. Francis who was also the patron saint of animals wagging tails across the globe got blessed with holy water but this time the blessings came with a twist.

October 4 is celebrated across the globe as World Animal Day and like every year pet owners celebrated the feast of St. Francis who was also the patron saint of animals wagging tails across the globe got blessed with holy water but this time the blessings came with a twist. Not even the COVID-19 pandemic was enough to stop pet lovers from celebrating World Animal Day across the world. Pet owners in the Philippines and Mexico flocked to celebrate the feast of Saint Francis. In Manila, the pets received their blessings via a drive-through ceremony meant to keep everyone safe. A catholic priest blessed various breeds of cats, dogs, and birds with holy water as the pet owners lined up inside their cars, eagerly waiting for good fortunes for their animal companions. "It's very important for us to have our pet blessed because we really feel like our pet is part of our family, we also want the best for his health too that's why we decided to join the pet blessing for today," Arlene Pedron, pet owner, said. "The reason for my attendance at the church of Saint Francis is to bring my pet, Goyi, to be blessed in the name of Saint Francis, the patron saint of animals," Silvia Navarro, a worker, said. In Mexico, people were seen queueing outside a church to seek blessings for their pets geared with masks and maintaining social distancing. The pet lovers believed that it was fundamental even in between a pandemic to seek blessings for their animals.

Pet lovers celebrate World Animal Day amid pandemic

DOHA, Qatar — They are here to end their fathers’ war.

On both sides of the negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban are nearly a dozen children of men who played key roles in the Soviet conflict in the 1980s that set off four decades of violence and loss.

Some of their fathers have since died of old age, insurgents to the end. Some faced more violent deaths, blown up in suicide bombings that have become a trademark of the war’s brutality. Many of the ones who have survived, their chests decked out in the medals and insignia of a conflict that has inflicted misery on millions, grew rich — enjoying palaces, political fortune, massive wealth. But they still play hide and seek with death.

Those fathers fought alongside each other to drive out the Soviets, then turned their guns on each other in the power vacuum that followed, waging an atrocity-filled civil war.

Now, their children know all too well what is at stake as the U.S. military continues its withdrawal with the peace talks in Qatar still up in the air: If the Afghan warring sides fail to agree on a formula of power-sharing, Afghanistan could break into another civil war, the conflict dragging on for another generation, with new enemies and new patrons.

“If we lose this opportunity, we have lost Afghanistan,” said Fatima Gailani, whose father was one of the leaders of the mujahedeen resistance to the Soviets at the dawn of Afghanistan’s descent into chaos. “If we lose this opportunity, we have betrayed the people of Afghanistan — we have betrayed every child, every woman, above all we have betrayed the people who died in this war.”

Gailani arrived in Doha, Qatar’s capital, in September as one of the 20 negotiators on the government’s side facing the Taliban, who reached a deal in February that started a U.S. military withdrawal. She got to Qatar just a week after her third surgery for throat cancer, her voice still hoarse.

The last time Afghanistan was at such an inflection point was in the 1980s. Her father was a leader of the mujahedeen guerrillas against the Soviets, and he persuaded her to abandon her pursuit of a doctorate and become a spokesperson for the mujahedeen factions as the war reached its endgame and the Soviets neared withdrawal.

That turned out to be a nightmare that never ended, she said: The guerrillas were soon at one another’s throats, and the extremists among them who saw no place for women in government outnumbered the moderate factions like her father’s.

“I am a 66-year-old woman, I cannot afford to be pessimistic,” Gailani said. “I see it as we are being given another opportunity.”

On the Taliban side, too, are several children or relatives of men who were the leaders of the anti-Soviet war.

Mawlawi Matiulhaq Khalis, almost 60, is the son of the late Mawlawi Mohammad Yunus Khalis, one of the key ideologues of the resistance. The senior Khalis’ claim to fame was that on a visit to the White House with President Ronald Reagan, who praised the mujahedeen as “freedom fighters,” he invited the American president to convert to Islam.

Among the hardened graybeards on the insurgent side of the negotiations in Qatar is an obvious outlier, a young man of just 26, tall with gentle eyes. But he carries a name — Haqqani — that has become synonymous with the deadly bombings that rack Afghanistan’s cities.

He is Anas Haqqani, the youngest son of the family patriarch, Jalaluddin Haqqani, who was once an ally of the United States against the Soviets but later founded the infamous Haqqani network of the Taliban, bent on forcing the Americans out of Afghanistan. One of his other sons, Sirajuddin, became his successor and is now the deputy supreme leader of the Taliban and a central architect of the militants’ resurgence.

But even as he represents the Taliban at the negotiating table, Anas Haqqani insists in personal conversation that he is more interested in being seen as a poet.

A sample verse:

“His ties to politics are out of obligation/ Anas’ interest is in poetry, sweeter than any throne.”

He spent five years in an Afghan prison, arrested as a 19-year-old in a joint effort by Afghan and American spies while he was in transit from Qatar in 2014. He was sentenced to death — for his family name and not for any crime he had committed, he says — before being let out in a prisoner exchange last year.

When the United States was preparing to invade Afghanistan in 2001, chasing Osama bin Laden — who had close ties to the senior Haqqani, dating back to the mujahedeen struggle — Anas was just 7. The Americans, along with Pakistani middlemen, approached the senior Haqqani to see if he would betray his Taliban allies and bin Laden by siding with them again.

Anas quotes his father, who was already in his 60s at the time, as warning the Americans: “Sort it out through talks. But if you come as invaders, I will shoot you with this same weapon that I fought the Soviets.”

The senior Haqqani developed a vast base in the tribal areas of Pakistan, built and buttressed in the lawless region by CIA money from the anti-Soviet war. He lost four of his sons to U.S. drones and assassinations, and died of old age two years ago.

His legacy is half a century of insurgency, and an entire infrastructure that trains children to chase glory in the fight against intrusive foreign powers. The example he set is clear, and feels particularly chilling right now: Old friends can always become new foes in somebody else’s war in Afghanistan.

“Those in the right might be weaker in weapons, money, numbers — but we can still take the truth, smash the head of falsehood with it, crack its skull and spread its brains,” he is shown saying in a video clip released by the Taliban this year on the second anniversary of his death. He appears frail, with his head trembling, but is still dressed in his military-style fatigues. “This is the truth with which God smashed the skull of Americans.”

“They are trying to create covers for their loss,” he continued, speaking about the United States’ search for an exit from Afghanistan. “But the cover is like putting pants on a camel — the pants rip open after the camel takes the first step, and then you see its privates.”

Across the table from the youngest Haqqani is the alternative: children of legacy and privilege who are trying to cement what their fathers won by the gun with a softer image of democratic politics. With top-class educations, advisers and resources, they have made it to Cabinet positions and parliamentary seats.

The youngest, 25-year-old Khalid Noor, received a military degree in Britain and a bachelor’s degree in the United States. His father, strongman Atta Mohammed Noor, had consolidated his grip as one of the most powerful political forces in northern Afghanistan, in part through his command of militia forces that were accused of abuses.

At 31, Batour Dostum has already inherited the leadership of a political party that his father built. His father, Abdul Rashid Dostum, is one of the most notorious civil war strongmen, and perhaps the ultimate survivor of the Afghan conflict.

After racking up accusations of human rights abuses over decades, the senior Dostum became a champion for his once-oppressed ethnic Uzbek minority, and rose to the country’s vice presidency. He did not stop there: Despite facing an open court case on charges of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a political opponent, he was recently given the honorary military rank of marshal, handed out just three times in the country’s history.

Lasting peace would take more than just Afghans agreeing.

Havens for guerrilla warfare would need to be dismantled in Pakistan, where they were first set up by the Americans, Pakistanis and Saudis, and where they seem to merely go into hibernation until a new enemy appears. Foreign nations are likely to remain involved — the country remains deeply dependent on aid. But truly helping Afghanistan would require those powers to reach some sort of equilibrium rather than continuing to fight for their interests through proxy battles there.

Peace would also require a monumental reckoning among Afghans — if not actual healing from generations of devastation, at least a decision not to perpetuate more.

“Unfortunately, all sides have made mistakes in the past 40 years, and you can see everyone is tired — everyone just wants to silence the guns,” Batour Dostum said. “We need to learn from the past, we need to be careful in the future not to repeat the mistakes. We are young, we should not be repeating those mistakes.”

When asked what he can do to heal the wounds his side has inflicted on others, Anas Haqqani tried — with a verse, again — to say that his family is accused of more than it has actually done.

“The blind tell me your face is an ugly face/ The deaf say what you are saying is wrong.”

But there is no escaping that his father’s faction, inherited by his sons, has been behind some of the most scarring violence of the war.

When pressed, he insisted that his time in prison had softened him: On social media, he cannot look at graphic images of the war — “no matter from which side” — and quickly scrolls past.

“On a personal level, I feel sympathy with everyone — that we need to do whatever we can to heal their wounds,” Haqqani said. “I have seen my own brothers blown up to pieces. I feel the pain, because I have also lost my own.”

DOHA, Qatar — They are here to end their fathers’ war. On both sides of the negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban are nearly a dozen children of men who played key roles in the Soviet conflict in the 1980s that set off four decades of violence and loss.

DOHA, Qatar — They are here to end their fathers’ war. On both sides of the negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban are nearly a dozen children of men who played key roles in the Soviet conflict in the 1980s that set off four decades of violence and loss. Some of their fathers have since died of old age, insurgents to the end. Some faced more violent deaths, blown up in suicide bombings that have become a trademark of the war’s brutality. Many of the ones who have survived, their chests decked out in the medals and insignia of a conflict that has inflicted misery on millions, grew rich — enjoying palaces, political fortune, massive wealth. But they still play hide and seek with death. Those fathers fought alongside each other to drive out the Soviets, then turned their guns on each other in the power vacuum that followed, waging an atrocity-filled civil war. Now, their children know all too well what is at stake as the U.S. military continues its withdrawal with the peace talks in Qatar still up in the air: If the Afghan warring sides fail to agree on a formula of power-sharing, Afghanistan could break into another civil war, the conflict dragging on for another generation, with new enemies and new patrons. “If we lose this opportunity, we have lost Afghanistan,” said Fatima Gailani, whose father was one of the leaders of the mujahedeen resistance to the Soviets at the dawn of Afghanistan’s descent into chaos. “If we lose this opportunity, we have betrayed the people of Afghanistan — we have betrayed every child, every woman, above all we have betrayed the people who died in this war.” Gailani arrived in Doha, Qatar’s capital, in September as one of the 20 negotiators on the government’s side facing the Taliban, who reached a deal in February that started a U.S. military withdrawal. She got to Qatar just a week after her third surgery for throat cancer, her voice still hoarse. The last time Afghanistan was at such an inflection point was in the 1980s. Her father was a leader of the mujahedeen guerrillas against the Soviets, and he persuaded her to abandon her pursuit of a doctorate and become a spokesperson for the mujahedeen factions as the war reached its endgame and the Soviets neared withdrawal. That turned out to be a nightmare that never ended, she said: The guerrillas were soon at one another’s throats, and the extremists among them who saw no place for women in government outnumbered the moderate factions like her father’s. “I am a 66-year-old woman, I cannot afford to be pessimistic,” Gailani said. “I see it as we are being given another opportunity.” On the Taliban side, too, are several children or relatives of men who were the leaders of the anti-Soviet war. Mawlawi Matiulhaq Khalis, almost 60, is the son of the late Mawlawi Mohammad Yunus Khalis, one of the key ideologues of the resistance. The senior Khalis’ claim to fame was that on a visit to the White House with President Ronald Reagan, who praised the mujahedeen as “freedom fighters,” he invited the American president to convert to Islam. Among the hardened graybeards on the insurgent side of the negotiations in Qatar is an obvious outlier, a young man of just 26, tall with gentle eyes. But he carries a name — Haqqani — that has become synonymous with the deadly bombings that rack Afghanistan’s cities. He is Anas Haqqani, the youngest son of the family patriarch, Jalaluddin Haqqani, who was once an ally of the United States against the Soviets but later founded the infamous Haqqani network of the Taliban, bent on forcing the Americans out of Afghanistan. One of his other sons, Sirajuddin, became his successor and is now the deputy supreme leader of the Taliban and a central architect of the militants’ resurgence. But even as he represents the Taliban at the negotiating table, Anas Haqqani insists in personal conversation that he is more interested in being seen as a poet. A sample verse: “His ties to politics are out of obligation/ Anas’ interest is in poetry, sweeter than any throne.” He spent five years in an Afghan prison, arrested as a 19-year-old in a joint effort by Afghan and American spies while he was in transit from Qatar in 2014. He was sentenced to death — for his family name and not for any crime he had committed, he says — before being let out in a prisoner exchange last year. When the United States was preparing to invade Afghanistan in 2001, chasing Osama bin Laden — who had close ties to the senior Haqqani, dating back to the mujahedeen struggle — Anas was just 7. The Americans, along with Pakistani middlemen, approached the senior Haqqani to see if he would betray his Taliban allies and bin Laden by siding with them again. Anas quotes his father, who was already in his 60s at the time, as warning the Americans: “Sort it out through talks. But if you come as invaders, I will shoot you with this same weapon that I fought the Soviets.” The senior Haqqani developed a vast base in the tribal areas of Pakistan, built and buttressed in the lawless region by CIA money from the anti-Soviet war. He lost four of his sons to U.S. drones and assassinations, and died of old age two years ago. His legacy is half a century of insurgency, and an entire infrastructure that trains children to chase glory in the fight against intrusive foreign powers. The example he set is clear, and feels particularly chilling right now: Old friends can always become new foes in somebody else’s war in Afghanistan. “Those in the right might be weaker in weapons, money, numbers — but we can still take the truth, smash the head of falsehood with it, crack its skull and spread its brains,” he is shown saying in a video clip released by the Taliban this year on the second anniversary of his death. He appears frail, with his head trembling, but is still dressed in his military-style fatigues. “This is the truth with which God smashed the skull of Americans.” “They are trying to create covers for their loss,” he continued, speaking about the United States’ search for an exit from Afghanistan. “But the cover is like putting pants on a camel — the pants rip open after the camel takes the first step, and then you see its privates.” Across the table from the youngest Haqqani is the alternative: children of legacy and privilege who are trying to cement what their fathers won by the gun with a softer image of democratic politics. With top-class educations, advisers and resources, they have made it to Cabinet positions and parliamentary seats. The youngest, 25-year-old Khalid Noor, received a military degree in Britain and a bachelor’s degree in the United States. His father, strongman Atta Mohammed Noor, had consolidated his grip as one of the most powerful political forces in northern Afghanistan, in part through his command of militia forces that were accused of abuses. At 31, Batour Dostum has already inherited the leadership of a political party that his father built. His father, Abdul Rashid Dostum, is one of the most notorious civil war strongmen, and perhaps the ultimate survivor of the Afghan conflict. After racking up accusations of human rights abuses over decades, the senior Dostum became a champion for his once-oppressed ethnic Uzbek minority, and rose to the country’s vice presidency. He did not stop there: Despite facing an open court case on charges of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a political opponent, he was recently given the honorary military rank of marshal, handed out just three times in the country’s history. Lasting peace would take more than just Afghans agreeing. Havens for guerrilla warfare would need to be dismantled in Pakistan, where they were first set up by the Americans, Pakistanis and Saudis, and where they seem to merely go into hibernation until a new enemy appears. Foreign nations are likely to remain involved — the country remains deeply dependent on aid. But truly helping Afghanistan would require those powers to reach some sort of equilibrium rather than continuing to fight for their interests through proxy battles there. Peace would also require a monumental reckoning among Afghans — if not actual healing from generations of devastation, at least a decision not to perpetuate more. “Unfortunately, all sides have made mistakes in the past 40 years, and you can see everyone is tired — everyone just wants to silence the guns,” Batour Dostum said. “We need to learn from the past, we need to be careful in the future not to repeat the mistakes. We are young, we should not be repeating those mistakes.” When asked what he can do to heal the wounds his side has inflicted on others, Anas Haqqani tried — with a verse, again — to say that his family is accused of more than it has actually done. “The blind tell me your face is an ugly face/ The deaf say what you are saying is wrong.” But there is no escaping that his father’s faction, inherited by his sons, has been behind some of the most scarring violence of the war. When pressed, he insisted that his time in prison had softened him: On social media, he cannot look at graphic images of the war — “no matter from which side” — and quickly scrolls past. “On a personal level, I feel sympathy with everyone — that we need to do whatever we can to heal their wounds,” Haqqani said. “I have seen my own brothers blown up to pieces. I feel the pain, because I have also lost my own.”

At Afghan peace talks, hoping to end their fathers’ war

NEW YORK —&nbsp;When Sin Yee Tsui immigrated to New York in 1982 to work as a seamstress, it took so long for her to receive letters from China that she did not learn of her father’s death until after his funeral.

Everything changed after WeChat, the Chinese messaging app, was released in 2011. She now wakes up every morning to greetings from relatives, in both her old homeland and her new one, a source of cheer during her retirement in Manhattan.

“WeChat has made my life in America much happier,” she said. “When I am feeling sad or troubled by anything, I no longer have to keep it all to myself.”

But if WeChat — and its billion users worldwide — have created a sense of community and belonging for immigrants like Tsui, the app has also exposed her to a cascade of information, disinformation and Chinese government propaganda on subjects as varied as the pandemic, Black Lives Matter and the democracy movement in Hong Kong.

Even neighborhood news can be distorted: In August, a false post that said a beloved Chinatown bakery was closing caused a crowd to descend on the storefront. Tsui’s son, Justin Tsui, 37, even walked to the Manhattan bakery to prove to her that the post was wrong.

This powerful combination — the comfort and convenience of connections around the world, the isolation and distortion of an echo chamber — is common to many social media platforms. But WeChat is unique on the American digital landscape in that it has quietly and profoundly reshaped the immigrant experience for one of the nation’s fastest growing ethnic populations, the estimated 5 million people of Chinese descent living in America.

It has also drawn the ire of President Donald Trump, who is trying to prohibit it.

On Friday, the legal fight over WeChat’s future in the United States intensified when the Trump administration appealed a federal judge’s ruling that had halted the federal government’s ban on the app.

The administration has argued that WeChat endangers national security by collecting data from American users that could be retrieved by China’s Communist government. The federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary injunction last month preventing the ban from taking effect, citing free speech concerns after lawyers compared it to an attempt to shut down a newspaper or television station.

The prospect of a ban, though, has rippled through Chinese-speaking communities across the country, with many like Justin Tsui and his mother expressing alarm, if also acknowledging some ambivalence.

“Even if our parents believe a little bit of this garbage on WeChat, they are still connected to their relatives, people they may never be able to see again,” he said.

With 19 million regular users in the United States, the app is a vital bridge to China, where almost everyone uses it and the authorities block its global competitors, including Facebook. WeChat has facilitated trade and commerce, while making it far easier for Chinese immigrants in America — students, tech workers and others — to maintain ties to friends and family.

But critics say the app has also created a Chinese-language information silo that has given Beijing’s propagandists and censors a foothold in the United States. Because WeChat is owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent, keeping it under the watchful eye of the Chinese government, posts that criticize China’s leader, Xi Jinping, or mention sensitive topics like human rights can be quickly removed, even if the authors are in the United States.

The situation is of particular concern to officials who are suspicious of China’s efforts to meddle in U.S. elections, because WeChat has already helped inspire activism among a population that has long felt ignored by American politicians.

Still, for Americans to communicate with people in mainland China, there are few alternatives. WeChat is an all-in-one tool that allows users to text, share photos and videos, read news, make payments and even send virtual red envelopes of cash, a Chinese New Year tradition.

WeChat helped raise awareness about the coronavirus when it first spread in China, prompting some Chinese people in America to begin avoiding indoor dining as early as January. In New York City, Asian Americans have had the lowest virus infection rates of any racial group, the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said.

During the initial surge of cases in New York, Chinese Americans quickly mobilized on WeChat to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars and ship medical supplies from China to doctors in America at a time of dire shortages.

WeChat was also filled with fearmongering rumors, including messages claiming cashiers at certain grocery stores in New York had the virus.

David Wang, 50, a UPS supervisor living in Queens, is active in WeChat groups to discuss Bible passages with his friends from church, most of whom are native Chinese speakers. The online communities, which are akin to Facebook groups, form around common interests or backgrounds.

Earlier this year, one of those friends sent Wang a video on WeChat, which showed bodies floating in water with Chinese captions that falsely claimed Americans were feeling so hopeless during the pandemic that they were committing mass suicide.

“We were like, where did you get this thing?” said Wang, who immigrated to the United States from Taiwan in 1983. “It’s so absurd. We told her not to believe a lot of these things. It’s bad, but it’s not this crazy bad.”

He has also regularly clicked on articles sent by friends, only to find the links disabled by WeChat’s censors — including articles about dissidents like imprisoned Christian pastor Wang Yi.

Often, the rumors on WeChat are more trivial but still can lead to real-world consequences.

In August, a WeChat post falsely claimed that Taipan Bakery, a popular Chinese bakery in Manhattan and Queens, was about to close. Older customers rushed to the stores to cash in their gift cards, waiting for hours on narrow sidewalks in the heat.

The chaos overwhelmed the bakery’s cooks, who worked late into the night to prepare more pastries. Since the gift cards were prepaid, the purchases were not generating much extra profit for the business.

An employee stood in line to reassure customers, and the stores put up paper signs in Chinese dispelling the rumor. But some customers insisted on using their gift cards immediately, according to a family member of the bakery’s owner. The family still does not know how the rumor started.

WeChat is a vital tool for political activism by Chinese immigrants, whose political engagement and voter turnout have traditionally been low amid a lack of outreach by both major parties.

The narratives that gain the most traction on WeChat often pit Chinese Americans against other minority groups and portray Chinese people as victims of bullying and discrimination.

In 2016, WeChat groups mobilized tens of thousands of Chinese people across the United States to protest in the streets — some for the very first time — the manslaughter conviction of Peter Liang, a Chinese American New York City police officer, in the killing of Akai Gurley, a Black man.

WeChat has played a significant role in organizing campaigns that accuse high school and college admissions of discriminating against Asian American applicants, including a closely watched lawsuit against Harvard University.

Right-leaning WeChat groups had a wider reach than left-leaning ones, according to a 2017 study. Many WeChat users have questioned why Trump would ban a platform that is used by so many of his supporters.

Viral efforts on WeChat have also focused on elevating Chinese people regardless of political party. Last year, many groups rallied behind Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, the child of Taiwanese immigrants.

Phil Wong, 54, a parent and civil rights organizer in Queens, said WeChat groups helped him to galvanize thousands of Chinese parents to protest a 2018 proposal by New York City officials to eliminate the entrance exam for admission to the city’s top public high schools.

They believed the change would hurt their children’s chances of getting into the schools, whose makeup is disproportionately Asian.

After the uproar from Chinese and other Asian parents, the proposal failed.

Even though WeChat has invigorated political protests by Chinese Americans, Wong said he was often appalled by the anti-American propaganda on the app, including videos from the protests after George Floyd’s killing in May that were repackaged to amplify footage of looting and arson to promote a narrative that American democracy was evil.

“It gets me so mad,” Wong said. “This is not happening to every street in every city.”

In June, WeChat was set aflame by a viral open letter written by a Chinese American student at Yale University, who said the Chinese community suffered from “rampant anti-Blackness.”

Amelia Wang, 17, a Shanghai native who moved to the United States in 2017, discussed the letter with her mother, who responded by sharing a different WeChat article by a Chinese parent. The article accused Chinese American children of being “brainwashed” by the American education system.

Still, Wang and others said WeChat offered more nuanced articles about China, providing a fuller picture than Western news outlets, which they said often portrayed China as a monolithic threat.

“I don’t think there should be an expectation that if you’re in America, you shouldn’t be consuming news from back home,” said Tianyu Fang, a Beijing native who is a freshman at Stanford University. “That is cruel and condescending.”

Xing Lu, a professor emeritus in the College of Communication at DePaul University in Chicago, immigrated to the United States in 1987 from China. Early on, she often felt embarrassed at work when she was unable to understand why her American colleagues would laugh at certain jokes.

WeChat, she said, eased her sense of isolation. It became a virtual home where she and other Chinese immigrants could plan parties and share stories about their children.

She has fought in WeChat groups with friends and former classmates about their views of Xi and Trump. Eventually, she said, like-minded friends would form new subgroups to discuss politics, which silenced the fighting in the main group.

“We are trying to acculturate into American society, and WeChat provides this bridge for us to empower one another,” Lu said. “I know the U.S. government has its own reasons to remove WeChat, but it’s still a loss for the Chinese community.”

NEW YORK — When Sin Yee Tsui immigrated to New York in 1982 to work as a seamstress, it took so long for her to receive letters from China that she did not learn of her father’s death until after his funeral.

NEW YORK — When Sin Yee Tsui immigrated to New York in 1982 to work as a seamstress, it took so long for her to receive letters from China that she did not learn of her father’s death until after his funeral. Everything changed after WeChat, the Chinese messaging app, was released in 2011. She now wakes up every morning to greetings from relatives, in both her old homeland and her new one, a source of cheer during her retirement in Manhattan. “WeChat has made my life in America much happier,” she said. “When I am feeling sad or troubled by anything, I no longer have to keep it all to myself.” But if WeChat — and its billion users worldwide — have created a sense of community and belonging for immigrants like Tsui, the app has also exposed her to a cascade of information, disinformation and Chinese government propaganda on subjects as varied as the pandemic, Black Lives Matter and the democracy movement in Hong Kong. Even neighborhood news can be distorted: In August, a false post that said a beloved Chinatown bakery was closing caused a crowd to descend on the storefront. Tsui’s son, Justin Tsui, 37, even walked to the Manhattan bakery to prove to her that the post was wrong. This powerful combination — the comfort and convenience of connections around the world, the isolation and distortion of an echo chamber — is common to many social media platforms. But WeChat is unique on the American digital landscape in that it has quietly and profoundly reshaped the immigrant experience for one of the nation’s fastest growing ethnic populations, the estimated 5 million people of Chinese descent living in America. It has also drawn the ire of President Donald Trump, who is trying to prohibit it. On Friday, the legal fight over WeChat’s future in the United States intensified when the Trump administration appealed a federal judge’s ruling that had halted the federal government’s ban on the app. The administration has argued that WeChat endangers national security by collecting data from American users that could be retrieved by China’s Communist government. The federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary injunction last month preventing the ban from taking effect, citing free speech concerns after lawyers compared it to an attempt to shut down a newspaper or television station. The prospect of a ban, though, has rippled through Chinese-speaking communities across the country, with many like Justin Tsui and his mother expressing alarm, if also acknowledging some ambivalence. “Even if our parents believe a little bit of this garbage on WeChat, they are still connected to their relatives, people they may never be able to see again,” he said. With 19 million regular users in the United States, the app is a vital bridge to China, where almost everyone uses it and the authorities block its global competitors, including Facebook. WeChat has facilitated trade and commerce, while making it far easier for Chinese immigrants in America — students, tech workers and others — to maintain ties to friends and family. But critics say the app has also created a Chinese-language information silo that has given Beijing’s propagandists and censors a foothold in the United States. Because WeChat is owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent, keeping it under the watchful eye of the Chinese government, posts that criticize China’s leader, Xi Jinping, or mention sensitive topics like human rights can be quickly removed, even if the authors are in the United States. The situation is of particular concern to officials who are suspicious of China’s efforts to meddle in U.S. elections, because WeChat has already helped inspire activism among a population that has long felt ignored by American politicians. Still, for Americans to communicate with people in mainland China, there are few alternatives. WeChat is an all-in-one tool that allows users to text, share photos and videos, read news, make payments and even send virtual red envelopes of cash, a Chinese New Year tradition. WeChat helped raise awareness about the coronavirus when it first spread in China, prompting some Chinese people in America to begin avoiding indoor dining as early as January. In New York City, Asian Americans have had the lowest virus infection rates of any racial group, the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said. During the initial surge of cases in New York, Chinese Americans quickly mobilized on WeChat to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars and ship medical supplies from China to doctors in America at a time of dire shortages. WeChat was also filled with fearmongering rumors, including messages claiming cashiers at certain grocery stores in New York had the virus. David Wang, 50, a UPS supervisor living in Queens, is active in WeChat groups to discuss Bible passages with his friends from church, most of whom are native Chinese speakers. The online communities, which are akin to Facebook groups, form around common interests or backgrounds. Earlier this year, one of those friends sent Wang a video on WeChat, which showed bodies floating in water with Chinese captions that falsely claimed Americans were feeling so hopeless during the pandemic that they were committing mass suicide. “We were like, where did you get this thing?” said Wang, who immigrated to the United States from Taiwan in 1983. “It’s so absurd. We told her not to believe a lot of these things. It’s bad, but it’s not this crazy bad.” He has also regularly clicked on articles sent by friends, only to find the links disabled by WeChat’s censors — including articles about dissidents like imprisoned Christian pastor Wang Yi. Often, the rumors on WeChat are more trivial but still can lead to real-world consequences. In August, a WeChat post falsely claimed that Taipan Bakery, a popular Chinese bakery in Manhattan and Queens, was about to close. Older customers rushed to the stores to cash in their gift cards, waiting for hours on narrow sidewalks in the heat. The chaos overwhelmed the bakery’s cooks, who worked late into the night to prepare more pastries. Since the gift cards were prepaid, the purchases were not generating much extra profit for the business. An employee stood in line to reassure customers, and the stores put up paper signs in Chinese dispelling the rumor. But some customers insisted on using their gift cards immediately, according to a family member of the bakery’s owner. The family still does not know how the rumor started. WeChat is a vital tool for political activism by Chinese immigrants, whose political engagement and voter turnout have traditionally been low amid a lack of outreach by both major parties. The narratives that gain the most traction on WeChat often pit Chinese Americans against other minority groups and portray Chinese people as victims of bullying and discrimination. In 2016, WeChat groups mobilized tens of thousands of Chinese people across the United States to protest in the streets — some for the very first time — the manslaughter conviction of Peter Liang, a Chinese American New York City police officer, in the killing of Akai Gurley, a Black man. WeChat has played a significant role in organizing campaigns that accuse high school and college admissions of discriminating against Asian American applicants, including a closely watched lawsuit against Harvard University. Right-leaning WeChat groups had a wider reach than left-leaning ones, according to a 2017 study. Many WeChat users have questioned why Trump would ban a platform that is used by so many of his supporters. Viral efforts on WeChat have also focused on elevating Chinese people regardless of political party. Last year, many groups rallied behind Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, the child of Taiwanese immigrants. Phil Wong, 54, a parent and civil rights organizer in Queens, said WeChat groups helped him to galvanize thousands of Chinese parents to protest a 2018 proposal by New York City officials to eliminate the entrance exam for admission to the city’s top public high schools. They believed the change would hurt their children’s chances of getting into the schools, whose makeup is disproportionately Asian. After the uproar from Chinese and other Asian parents, the proposal failed. Even though WeChat has invigorated political protests by Chinese Americans, Wong said he was often appalled by the anti-American propaganda on the app, including videos from the protests after George Floyd’s killing in May that were repackaged to amplify footage of looting and arson to promote a narrative that American democracy was evil. “It gets me so mad,” Wong said. “This is not happening to every street in every city.” In June, WeChat was set aflame by a viral open letter written by a Chinese American student at Yale University, who said the Chinese community suffered from “rampant anti-Blackness.” Amelia Wang, 17, a Shanghai native who moved to the United States in 2017, discussed the letter with her mother, who responded by sharing a different WeChat article by a Chinese parent. The article accused Chinese American children of being “brainwashed” by the American education system. Still, Wang and others said WeChat offered more nuanced articles about China, providing a fuller picture than Western news outlets, which they said often portrayed China as a monolithic threat. “I don’t think there should be an expectation that if you’re in America, you shouldn’t be consuming news from back home,” said Tianyu Fang, a Beijing native who is a freshman at Stanford University. “That is cruel and condescending.” Xing Lu, a professor emeritus in the College of Communication at DePaul University in Chicago, immigrated to the United States in 1987 from China. Early on, she often felt embarrassed at work when she was unable to understand why her American colleagues would laugh at certain jokes. WeChat, she said, eased her sense of isolation. It became a virtual home where she and other Chinese immigrants could plan parties and share stories about their children. She has fought in WeChat groups with friends and former classmates about their views of Xi and Trump. Eventually, she said, like-minded friends would form new subgroups to discuss politics, which silenced the fighting in the main group. “We are trying to acculturate into American society, and WeChat provides this bridge for us to empower one another,” Lu said. “I know the U.S. government has its own reasons to remove WeChat, but it’s still a loss for the Chinese community.”

WeChat, wild rumours and all, is their lifeline. Washington may end that

World Health Organizations emergencies director Michael Ryan said today that "about 10 per cent of the global population may have been infected by <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/india-gives-3000-vials-of-remdesivir-to-friendly-myanmar-to-help-fight-covid-19-332616">coronavirus</a>".

Watch:

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/pandemic-prompts-drive-through-pet-blessing-in-philippines-332695/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Amid the rising number of cases worldwide, WHO's Michael Ryan said that<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/a-student-dies-and-a-campus-gets-serious-about-coronavirus-332714"> infection </a>levels varied "from urban to rural, it varies between different groups," but warned that "what it does mean is that the vast majority of the world remains at risk".

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/bars-cafes-in-paris-to-close-as-french-capital-placed-on-maximum-covid-19-alert-332645">Also Read: Bars, cafes in Paris to close as French capital placed on 'maximum' COVID-19 alert</a>

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus added that it is a&nbsp;"wake-up call for all of us."

At least 35 million <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/boris-johnson-warns-bumpy-covid-winter-mulling-three-tier-lockdown-332606">coronavirus</a> cases have been confirmed worldwide with over 1 million deaths.

"We must all look in the mirror and ask what we can do better," Tedros said.

"We're not on the wrong path. We're on the right path, but we need to go faster," the WHO chief said while asserting that the UN health body had acted swiftly after received news of the virus and had and declared the highest level of alert on January 30.

"Ten months ago, this virus was completely unknown to the world," the WHO chief said, adding,"We have now published more than 400 guidance documents for individuals, communities, schools, businesses, industries, health workers, health facilities and governments."

"WHO doesn’t have the mandate or the capacity to do everything," he said, although he informed that it is positioned to coordinate the global response against the virus.

World Health Organizations emergencies director Michael Ryan said today that "about 10 per cent of the global population may have been infected by coronavirus". Watch: Amid the rising number of cases worldwide, WHO's Michael Ryan said that infection levels varied "from urban to rural, it varies between different groups," but warned that "what it does mean is that the vast majority of the world remains at risk".

World Health Organizations emergencies director Michael Ryan said today that "about 10 per cent of the global population may have been infected by coronavirus". Watch: Amid the rising number of cases worldwide, WHO's Michael Ryan said that infection levels varied "from urban to rural, it varies between different groups," but warned that "what it does mean is that the vast majority of the world remains at risk". Also Read: Bars, cafes in Paris to close as French capital placed on 'maximum' COVID-19 alert WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus added that it is a "wake-up call for all of us." At least 35 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed worldwide with over 1 million deaths. "We must all look in the mirror and ask what we can do better," Tedros said. "We're not on the wrong path. We're on the right path, but we need to go faster," the WHO chief said while asserting that the UN health body had acted swiftly after received news of the virus and had and declared the highest level of alert on January 30. "Ten months ago, this virus was completely unknown to the world," the WHO chief said, adding,"We have now published more than 400 guidance documents for individuals, communities, schools, businesses, industries, health workers, health facilities and governments." "WHO doesn’t have the mandate or the capacity to do everything," he said, although he informed that it is positioned to coordinate the global response against the virus.

10% of the global population may have been infected by the virus: WHO

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/nato-appeals-to-azerbaijan-ally-turkey-to-calm-tensions-amid-nagorno-karabakh-conflict-with-armenia-332659">NATO appeals to Azerbaijan ally Turkey to calm tensions amid Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia</a>

<img alt="Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="05739e24-5afb-47f9-b4d7-f27ef5627b62" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Armenia1.jpg" />

Amid the raging conflict, Azerbaijan defence ministry said Armenian forces had shelled several towns, including Ganja, Terter, Beylagan and Barda.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-british-scientists-win-nobel-prize-in-medicine-for-hepatitis-c-virus-discovery-332626">US-British scientists win Nobel Prize in medicine for Hepatitis C virus discovery</a>

<img alt="Nobel Prize" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2b3bcc16-77c4-4db0-b92c-d2763011a58b" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Harvey1.JPG" />

The Nobel Committee said the "three scientists have made a decisive contribution to the fight against blood-borne hepatitis".

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/bars-cafes-in-paris-to-close-as-french-capital-placed-on-maximum-covid-19-alert-332645">Bars, cafes in Paris to close as French capital placed on 'maximum' COVID-19 alert</a>

<img alt="Cafe lockdown in Paris" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="9c28e967-e76d-4781-8214-6c91c03801e2" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Pari1.jpg" />

The health agency said that Paris had crossed three thresholds to be classified as a &nbsp;maximum alert area

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/doctors-to-decide-on-trump-hospital-discharge-later-on-monday-white-house-332683">Doctors to decide on Trump hospital discharge 'later' on Monday: White House</a>

<img alt="Donald Trump" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="155f516a-9919-44b5-9598-dc9a7c9d3c76" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Donald1.jpg" />

The president has, meanwhile, signalled his determination to return to the election campaign with an early morning tweetstorm.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/guatemala-sends-back-3500-honduran-migrants-headed-to-us-332689">Guatemala sends back 3,500 Honduran migrants headed to US</a>

<img alt="Gautemala" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a76bd3f0-f1c0-4cb7-8123-3ad103ad792e" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Gaute.jpg" />

Mexico had closed its borders after the caravan entered eastern Guatemala on Thursday after it broke through a &nbsp;military cordon on the Corinto border.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/cargo-spacecraft-ss-kalpana-chawla-arrives-at-iss-332675">Cargo spacecraft SS Kalpana Chawla arrives at ISS</a>

<img alt="US spacecraft" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="ae460757-a5da-44ec-ab95-dd1e1efc3dcd" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/space1.jpg" />

Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian-born woman to enter space, has had the spacecraft named after her for her key contributions to human spaceflight.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/a-president-in-the-hospital-and-a-nation-in-the-dark-332668">A president in the hospital and a nation in the dark</a>

<img alt="Donald Trump" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="d8eaa58e-a5d5-4db8-a0ce-c580e4071424" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/TR1_1.jpg" />

The coronavirus’s rampage through the White House has had the same effect. What we have seen over recent days is Donald Trump’s presidency in miniature, his worst traits distilled.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/german-police-probing-attempted-murder-of-jewish-student-332663">German police probing 'attempted murder' of Jewish student</a>

<img alt="German police" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="927bc968-c6ab-43f0-aa45-d6cf3c9fe498" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Tweet1.jpg" />

&nbsp;A 26-year-old student was badly injured on Sunday by a man who repeatedly struck him on the head with a shovel outside the synagogue.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/eu-chief-von-der-leyen-self-isolating-after-exposure-to-covid-19-332650">EU chief von der Leyen 'self-isolating' after exposure to COVID-19</a>

<img alt="Van Der" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a8bc80b6-ace9-408d-a469-4c9abc677fc2" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Van%20Der.jpg" />

Von der Leyen said she was at a meeting on Tuesday last week attended by a person who tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/chinas-treatment-of-uyghurs-sparks-anger-near-new-embassy-site-in-london-332647">China's treatment of Uyghurs sparks anger near new embassy site in London</a>

<img alt="Uighurs" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2f95ef45-e31f-40b9-9db5-72d18496e125" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/East1.jpg" />

Some people in the locality have said the embassy isn't welcome until Beijing stops its alleged mistreatment of Muslims in China.

NATO appeals to Azerbaijan ally Turkey to calm tensions amid Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia Amid the raging conflict, Azerbaijan defence ministry said Armenian forces had shelled several towns, including Ganja, Terter, Beylagan and Barda.

NATO appeals to Azerbaijan ally Turkey to calm tensions amid Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia Amid the raging conflict, Azerbaijan defence ministry said Armenian forces had shelled several towns, including Ganja, Terter, Beylagan and Barda. US-British scientists win Nobel Prize in medicine for Hepatitis C virus discovery The Nobel Committee said the "three scientists have made a decisive contribution to the fight against blood-borne hepatitis". Bars, cafes in Paris to close as French capital placed on 'maximum' COVID-19 alert The health agency said that Paris had crossed three thresholds to be classified as a maximum alert area Doctors to decide on Trump hospital discharge 'later' on Monday: White House The president has, meanwhile, signalled his determination to return to the election campaign with an early morning tweetstorm. Guatemala sends back 3,500 Honduran migrants headed to US Mexico had closed its borders after the caravan entered eastern Guatemala on Thursday after it broke through a military cordon on the Corinto border. Cargo spacecraft SS Kalpana Chawla arrives at ISS Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian-born woman to enter space, has had the spacecraft named after her for her key contributions to human spaceflight. A president in the hospital and a nation in the dark The coronavirus’s rampage through the White House has had the same effect. What we have seen over recent days is Donald Trump’s presidency in miniature, his worst traits distilled. German police probing 'attempted murder' of Jewish student A 26-year-old student was badly injured on Sunday by a man who repeatedly struck him on the head with a shovel outside the synagogue. EU chief von der Leyen 'self-isolating' after exposure to COVID-19 Von der Leyen said she was at a meeting on Tuesday last week attended by a person who tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday. China's treatment of Uyghurs sparks anger near new embassy site in London Some people in the locality have said the embassy isn't welcome until Beijing stops its alleged mistreatment of Muslims in China.

Top 10 world news today: NATO appeals to Azerbaijan ally Turkey, Nobel Prize in medicine announced & more!

BOONE, N.C. — Since Sept. 28, when a sophomore at his school died from suspected COVID-19 complications, Chase Sturgis says he has been thinking about his own bout with the coronavirus — and his own mortality.

Sturgis, 21, had been avoiding socializing over the summer, but as students at his school, Appalachian State University, began returning to campus in August, he yielded to temptation. “We went out to a bar,” he said. Within days he felt ill and then tested positive for coronavirus: “To this day I have no sense of taste or smell.”

But even more unnerving is the “really, honestly scary” realization that he and the student who died, 19-year-old Chad Dorrill, were sick at about the same time, with similar symptoms and no known preexisting conditions.

“He died a week or two after he got the virus,” Sturgis said. “It has been about two weeks for me.”

Young people have generally been at lower risk of developing severe cases of COVID-19, and there have been only a few student deaths linked to the virus. But while that statistical advantage may have led to apathy about the pandemic at some institutions, Dorrill’s death has shaken the rural Appalachian State campus in the Blue Ridge Mountains, sparking questions about whether the college is doing enough to keep its students and faculty safe.

“It’s not a hoax, that this virus really does exist,” said a classmate of Sturgis, Emma Crider. “Before this, the overall mentality was ‘out of sight, out of mind.’”

As if to underscore that point, cases at Appalachian State, part of North Carolina’s state university system, spiked sharply last week. On Thursday, the school canceled an upcoming football game and announced outbreaks in four residence halls, two fraternity houses, the volleyball team and the football program. The school’s dashboard shows more than 700 confirmed COVID-19 cases at the 20,000-student campus since early June.

Aside from athletes, who must be tested under NCAA rules, Appalachian State has not conducted the kind of costly, widespread mandatory testing and tracing of people with and without symptoms that has helped control the virus at some campuses. Rather, the school has offered voluntary testing at its student health center and at “pop-up” test sites where students can walk up and be tested twice weekly.

That approach, the school’s website says, is based on CDC guidance, which has advised against testing all students upon arrival to campus. Health experts have criticized the CDC’s guidance as weak and confusing, but many large public colleges have based their coronavirus health regimens on it.

Surrounding Watauga County also experienced its worst seven-day period in the pandemic this past week, according to data collected by The New York Times. Coronavirus cases in the county have more than doubled since Sept. 1, to more than 1,300, and an update last week found the largest percentage of cases in the 18-24-year-old age group.

Despite efforts by most colleges and universities to contain the virus by banning large gatherings, mandating face masks and expanding remote instruction, many have nevertheless become some of the nation’s most virulent hot spots.

A CDC report released last week said cases among people ages 18-22 rose 55% in the month from early August to early September, as students were returning to campuses. A New York Times survey has documented more than 130,000 cases on campuses since the pandemic began.

Tensions around reopening have already run high in the 16-campus University of North Carolina system, where the push to maintain sports and dorm occupancy has met with intense opposition from worried faculty members. Days after the semester began, the flagship campus in Chapel Hill pivoted to all remote instruction amid spiking infections.

At Appalachian State, which continued to allow students to live in dorms and take classes in person, the faculty senate voted in August to hold the system responsible for any illness or death as a result of reopening.

Dorrill, a seemingly fit basketball player, was among some 5,000 students on campus and thousands more off-campus attending a blend of in-person and remote classes. He went home to Wallburg, North Carolina, feeling under the weather, in early September. He tested positive for the virus there. His family said he remained isolated at home for two weeks and then returned to Boone, but fell ill again less than a day later, calling to say he couldn’t remember how he had gotten back to college.

His neurological condition swiftly deteriorated. Three weeks after his positive test, Dorrill died at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem. An autopsy is pending.

Relatives said that though he had recovered from the respiratory symptoms of COVID-19, the virus had also attacked his brain, possibly triggering a previously undetected case of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare disorder in which the body’s nerves are attacked by its immune system.

“Any loss of life is a tragedy, but the grief cuts especially deep as we mourn a young man who had so much life ahead,” the university system’s president, Peter Hans, said in a statement after Dorrill’s death.

The events of the past week have caused mounting alarm among both staff and students, and some tensions over whether the school needs to take stronger measures to contain the virus.

“There has been polarization between those who say, ‘Just wear a mask, we’ll be OK,’ and the faculty who just don’t want to be in the room,” said Rick Rheingans, chairman of Appalachian State’s department of sustainable development, who has been tracking the school’s health measures. “My argument has been that we need rigorous testing and active tracing, quarantining and isolation. We can’t reopen if we’re not safe.”

One graduate teaching assistant, Chloe Dorin, called on the university to cancel athletics, shut down the dorms, disband Greek life and return to online instruction, in a letter to university leaders that was posted on Facebook on Saturday. “Our lives,” she wrote, “are in your hands.”

In a letter to students, Chancellor Sheri Everts said the school had added an extra pop-up testing event, expanded contact tracing resources and suspended football practice.

“Should we need to, we are ready to pivot to all-remote learning,” Everts wrote, urging students to wear masks and “hold one another accountable.”

As students absorbed the latest blows from the pandemic, the campus was quiet Friday, bereft of the usual student crowds shuffling in and out of academic buildings. Signs posted in flower beds and around buildings warned students to wear masks. Most seemed to be complying.

Emma Metzger, a senior and communications major, said the death was “a big wake-up call for a lot of people,” though many students “still only wear masks because they don’t want people to think badly of them in public.”

Metzger said she had her own COVID scare about two weeks ago when her roommate’s boyfriend learned he had been with infected students. With her parents planning to visit that weekend, she said, she tried to get a rapid test on campus, only to be told she would have to wait four days. The closest CVS pharmacy offering rapid results was in Tennessee, so she called her family physician, who sent her to a health facility 90 minutes away.

She tested negative, she said, but the experience left her impatient with those who shrug off precautions. A friend texted her Thursday, saying that he had tested positive, she said, “and then literally, two hours later, a girl in our sorority posted a picture, and he was in the picture!”

Metzger laughed, shaking her head at the scene: “No one is wearing masks. And they’re all over each other.”

On their patio at an apartment complex in Boone, Kathryn Behmer, 19, Makenzie Thompson, 20, and Anna Goebelbecker, 20, said they weren’t sure they would even come back to Appalachian State next semester.

Just last weekend, hundreds of students had swarmed the streets on football game day. Now each new development, they said — Dorrill’s death, the canceled game with Louisiana-Lafayette, the spikes in new cases — amplified the seriousness of the situation. Friday was Goebelbecker’s 20th birthday, but having a party felt “disrespectful.”

“I think when someone our age actually passes away, it’s harder,” Behmer said. “We thought it wouldn’t affect us. We’re young, we’re healthy.”

Austin Nykamp, 21, a junior majoring in computer information systems, said he was even wondering whether the local 25-person cap on gatherings was sufficient.

“Paying full tuition for this is kind of a rip-off, if you ask me,” he said.

That unease resonated with students in a Zoom class on health development and the coronavirus, where Sturgis shared his health scare with about 15 classmates last week. Some students blamed their peers for not following health rules; some questioned whether the university, having invited them back for the semester, was doing enough to protect them.

“All of us must remain vigilant with our safety behaviors,” Everts reminded in her email on the death of Dorrill, noting that “I wear my mask for Chad” had become a catchphrase on campus.

But that wasn’t what stuck with Hannah Mitchell.

“I didn’t have much reaction to Chad’s death until I read the email,” she said. “Now, all I can think is, ‘What if this had been me?’”

BOONE, N.C. — Since Sept. 28, when a sophomore at his school died from suspected COVID-19 complications, Chase Sturgis says he has been thinking about his own bout with the coronavirus — and his own mortality.

BOONE, N.C. — Since Sept. 28, when a sophomore at his school died from suspected COVID-19 complications, Chase Sturgis says he has been thinking about his own bout with the coronavirus — and his own mortality. Sturgis, 21, had been avoiding socializing over the summer, but as students at his school, Appalachian State University, began returning to campus in August, he yielded to temptation. “We went out to a bar,” he said. Within days he felt ill and then tested positive for coronavirus: “To this day I have no sense of taste or smell.” But even more unnerving is the “really, honestly scary” realization that he and the student who died, 19-year-old Chad Dorrill, were sick at about the same time, with similar symptoms and no known preexisting conditions. “He died a week or two after he got the virus,” Sturgis said. “It has been about two weeks for me.” Young people have generally been at lower risk of developing severe cases of COVID-19, and there have been only a few student deaths linked to the virus. But while that statistical advantage may have led to apathy about the pandemic at some institutions, Dorrill’s death has shaken the rural Appalachian State campus in the Blue Ridge Mountains, sparking questions about whether the college is doing enough to keep its students and faculty safe. “It’s not a hoax, that this virus really does exist,” said a classmate of Sturgis, Emma Crider. “Before this, the overall mentality was ‘out of sight, out of mind.’” As if to underscore that point, cases at Appalachian State, part of North Carolina’s state university system, spiked sharply last week. On Thursday, the school canceled an upcoming football game and announced outbreaks in four residence halls, two fraternity houses, the volleyball team and the football program. The school’s dashboard shows more than 700 confirmed COVID-19 cases at the 20,000-student campus since early June. Aside from athletes, who must be tested under NCAA rules, Appalachian State has not conducted the kind of costly, widespread mandatory testing and tracing of people with and without symptoms that has helped control the virus at some campuses. Rather, the school has offered voluntary testing at its student health center and at “pop-up” test sites where students can walk up and be tested twice weekly. That approach, the school’s website says, is based on CDC guidance, which has advised against testing all students upon arrival to campus. Health experts have criticized the CDC’s guidance as weak and confusing, but many large public colleges have based their coronavirus health regimens on it. Surrounding Watauga County also experienced its worst seven-day period in the pandemic this past week, according to data collected by The New York Times. Coronavirus cases in the county have more than doubled since Sept. 1, to more than 1,300, and an update last week found the largest percentage of cases in the 18-24-year-old age group. Despite efforts by most colleges and universities to contain the virus by banning large gatherings, mandating face masks and expanding remote instruction, many have nevertheless become some of the nation’s most virulent hot spots. A CDC report released last week said cases among people ages 18-22 rose 55% in the month from early August to early September, as students were returning to campuses. A New York Times survey has documented more than 130,000 cases on campuses since the pandemic began. Tensions around reopening have already run high in the 16-campus University of North Carolina system, where the push to maintain sports and dorm occupancy has met with intense opposition from worried faculty members. Days after the semester began, the flagship campus in Chapel Hill pivoted to all remote instruction amid spiking infections. At Appalachian State, which continued to allow students to live in dorms and take classes in person, the faculty senate voted in August to hold the system responsible for any illness or death as a result of reopening. Dorrill, a seemingly fit basketball player, was among some 5,000 students on campus and thousands more off-campus attending a blend of in-person and remote classes. He went home to Wallburg, North Carolina, feeling under the weather, in early September. He tested positive for the virus there. His family said he remained isolated at home for two weeks and then returned to Boone, but fell ill again less than a day later, calling to say he couldn’t remember how he had gotten back to college. His neurological condition swiftly deteriorated. Three weeks after his positive test, Dorrill died at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem. An autopsy is pending. Relatives said that though he had recovered from the respiratory symptoms of COVID-19, the virus had also attacked his brain, possibly triggering a previously undetected case of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare disorder in which the body’s nerves are attacked by its immune system. “Any loss of life is a tragedy, but the grief cuts especially deep as we mourn a young man who had so much life ahead,” the university system’s president, Peter Hans, said in a statement after Dorrill’s death. The events of the past week have caused mounting alarm among both staff and students, and some tensions over whether the school needs to take stronger measures to contain the virus. “There has been polarization between those who say, ‘Just wear a mask, we’ll be OK,’ and the faculty who just don’t want to be in the room,” said Rick Rheingans, chairman of Appalachian State’s department of sustainable development, who has been tracking the school’s health measures. “My argument has been that we need rigorous testing and active tracing, quarantining and isolation. We can’t reopen if we’re not safe.” One graduate teaching assistant, Chloe Dorin, called on the university to cancel athletics, shut down the dorms, disband Greek life and return to online instruction, in a letter to university leaders that was posted on Facebook on Saturday. “Our lives,” she wrote, “are in your hands.” In a letter to students, Chancellor Sheri Everts said the school had added an extra pop-up testing event, expanded contact tracing resources and suspended football practice. “Should we need to, we are ready to pivot to all-remote learning,” Everts wrote, urging students to wear masks and “hold one another accountable.” As students absorbed the latest blows from the pandemic, the campus was quiet Friday, bereft of the usual student crowds shuffling in and out of academic buildings. Signs posted in flower beds and around buildings warned students to wear masks. Most seemed to be complying. Emma Metzger, a senior and communications major, said the death was “a big wake-up call for a lot of people,” though many students “still only wear masks because they don’t want people to think badly of them in public.” Metzger said she had her own COVID scare about two weeks ago when her roommate’s boyfriend learned he had been with infected students. With her parents planning to visit that weekend, she said, she tried to get a rapid test on campus, only to be told she would have to wait four days. The closest CVS pharmacy offering rapid results was in Tennessee, so she called her family physician, who sent her to a health facility 90 minutes away. She tested negative, she said, but the experience left her impatient with those who shrug off precautions. A friend texted her Thursday, saying that he had tested positive, she said, “and then literally, two hours later, a girl in our sorority posted a picture, and he was in the picture!” Metzger laughed, shaking her head at the scene: “No one is wearing masks. And they’re all over each other.” On their patio at an apartment complex in Boone, Kathryn Behmer, 19, Makenzie Thompson, 20, and Anna Goebelbecker, 20, said they weren’t sure they would even come back to Appalachian State next semester. Just last weekend, hundreds of students had swarmed the streets on football game day. Now each new development, they said — Dorrill’s death, the canceled game with Louisiana-Lafayette, the spikes in new cases — amplified the seriousness of the situation. Friday was Goebelbecker’s 20th birthday, but having a party felt “disrespectful.” “I think when someone our age actually passes away, it’s harder,” Behmer said. “We thought it wouldn’t affect us. We’re young, we’re healthy.” Austin Nykamp, 21, a junior majoring in computer information systems, said he was even wondering whether the local 25-person cap on gatherings was sufficient. “Paying full tuition for this is kind of a rip-off, if you ask me,” he said. That unease resonated with students in a Zoom class on health development and the coronavirus, where Sturgis shared his health scare with about 15 classmates last week. Some students blamed their peers for not following health rules; some questioned whether the university, having invited them back for the semester, was doing enough to protect them. “All of us must remain vigilant with our safety behaviors,” Everts reminded in her email on the death of Dorrill, noting that “I wear my mask for Chad” had become a catchphrase on campus. But that wasn’t what stuck with Hannah Mitchell. “I didn’t have much reaction to Chad’s death until I read the email,” she said. “Now, all I can think is, ‘What if this had been me?’”

A student dies, and a campus gets serious about coronavirus

The Guatemala government sent back at least 3,500 Honduran migrants from a caravan who were heading to the United States.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/thousands-of-us-bound-migrants-surge-into-guatemala-331883">Also Read: Thousands of US-bound migrants surge into Guatemala</a>

President Alejandro Giammattei said that security forces were able to "contain" the caravan which he said was responsible for the spread of coronavirus.

Mexico had closed its borders after the caravan entered eastern Guatemala on Thursday after it broke through a &nbsp;military cordon on the Corinto border.

According to Guatemala government, 2,800 people had crossed the border initially, however, some migrant were still in Tecun Uman, near the Mexico border and some others scattered between Honduras and Peten.

"We respect the right to migration as long as it is regulated and the requirements and protocols that have been established are complied with, and not as happened with this group of migrants who broke into our country with violence," Giammattei said.

Mexico had said earlier that illegal migrants who knowingly put others at risk of COVID-19 could face jail.

Vice Minister of Foreign Relations Eduardo Hernandez said that Honduras has not "assumed the responsibility to take preventative actions to avoid the problem" while adding that government has been working to prevent people from migrating illegally.

Honduras had said earlier that 533 people had returned after setting out for Guatemala on Saturday.

President Donald Trump had made the migrant issue from Mexico his main poll plank in 2016. The Trump administration has threatened Mexico with tariffs if it fails to stop illegal migrants.

The Guatemala government sent back at least 3,500 Honduran migrants from a caravan who were heading to the United States. Also Read: Thousands of US-bound migrants surge into Guatemala President Alejandro Giammattei said that security forces were able to "contain" the caravan which he said was responsible for the spread of coronavirus.

The Guatemala government sent back at least 3,500 Honduran migrants from a caravan who were heading to the United States. Also Read: Thousands of US-bound migrants surge into Guatemala President Alejandro Giammattei said that security forces were able to "contain" the caravan which he said was responsible for the spread of coronavirus. Mexico had closed its borders after the caravan entered eastern Guatemala on Thursday after it broke through a military cordon on the Corinto border. According to Guatemala government, 2,800 people had crossed the border initially, however, some migrant were still in Tecun Uman, near the Mexico border and some others scattered between Honduras and Peten. "We respect the right to migration as long as it is regulated and the requirements and protocols that have been established are complied with, and not as happened with this group of migrants who broke into our country with violence," Giammattei said. Mexico had said earlier that illegal migrants who knowingly put others at risk of COVID-19 could face jail. Vice Minister of Foreign Relations Eduardo Hernandez said that Honduras has not "assumed the responsibility to take preventative actions to avoid the problem" while adding that government has been working to prevent people from migrating illegally. Honduras had said earlier that 533 people had returned after setting out for Guatemala on Saturday. President Donald Trump had made the migrant issue from Mexico his main poll plank in 2016. The Trump administration has threatened Mexico with tariffs if it fails to stop illegal migrants.

Guatemala sends back 3,500 Honduran migrants headed to US

The twelfth BRICS summit will be held on November 17 with Chinese President Xi Jinping and PM Modi set to attend the meeting virtually.

Watch:&nbsp;

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/iaf-chief-ready-for-a-two-front-war-warns-china-and-pakistan-332611/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/the-7th-india-china-corps-commanders-meet-on-october-12-332388">Also Read:&nbsp;&nbsp;India-China corps commanders meet on October 12</a>

The meeting between the Chinese president Xi Jinping and PM Modi will be the first since the border standoff along the Line of Actual Control(LAC).

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/the-7th-india-china-corps-commanders-meet-on-october-12-332388">Also Read:&nbsp;&nbsp;India-China corps commanders meet on October 12</a>

The BRICS NSA meeting had taken place virtually in Russia with NSA Ajit Doval representing the Indian side and the Chinese side was headed by diplomat Yang Jiechi.&nbsp;

The theme of the meeting of the leaders of BRICS countries this time would be “BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Shared Security and Innovative Growth”.

"The main purpose of the Russian BRICS chairmanship in 2020 is to contribute to raising living standards and quality of life our peoples," it said in a statement.

“Despite the current global situation due to the spread of the coronavirus infection, the activities under the Russian BRICS Chairmanship in 2020 are carried out in a consistent manner. Since January 2020 more than 60 events have been organized, including via videoconferencing," Anton Kobyakov, adviser to the President of the Russian Federation, said.

The twelfth BRICS summit will be held on November 17 with Chinese President Xi Jinping and PM Modi set to attend the meeting virtually. Watch: Also Read: India-China corps commanders meet on October 12 The meeting between the Chinese president Xi Jinping and PM Modi will be the first since the border standoff along the Line of Actual Control(LAC).

The twelfth BRICS summit will be held on November 17 with Chinese President Xi Jinping and PM Modi set to attend the meeting virtually. Watch: Also Read: India-China corps commanders meet on October 12 The meeting between the Chinese president Xi Jinping and PM Modi will be the first since the border standoff along the Line of Actual Control(LAC). Also Read: India-China corps commanders meet on October 12 The BRICS NSA meeting had taken place virtually in Russia with NSA Ajit Doval representing the Indian side and the Chinese side was headed by diplomat Yang Jiechi. The theme of the meeting of the leaders of BRICS countries this time would be “BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Shared Security and Innovative Growth”. "The main purpose of the Russian BRICS chairmanship in 2020 is to contribute to raising living standards and quality of life our peoples," it said in a statement. “Despite the current global situation due to the spread of the coronavirus infection, the activities under the Russian BRICS Chairmanship in 2020 are carried out in a consistent manner. Since January 2020 more than 60 events have been organized, including via videoconferencing," Anton Kobyakov, adviser to the President of the Russian Federation, said.

PM Modi, Chinese President Xi to attend BRICS summit 'virtually' on November 17

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called for a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh amid rising death toll.&nbsp;

Watch:

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Stoltenberg said he expected Azerbaijan ally Turkey to use its "considerable" influence to calm tensions while adding that he was "deeply concerned" over the escalation of hostilities.

France, Russia and the United States had earlier called for an immediate halt to the conflict however the fighting continues.

Amid the raging conflict, Azerbaijan defence ministry said Armenian forces had shelled several towns, including Ganja, Terter, Beylagan and Barda with artillery fire being used in the escalating conflict.

At least 250 people have been killed so far with reports of increasing civilian casualties. The International Committee of the Red Cross criticised the conflict with "indiscriminate shelling and other alleged unlawful attacks" which had hit populated areas, cities and towns.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan President Aliyev said that Armenian forces must leave our territories, not in words but in deeds and provide a timetable for a full withdrawal, apologise to the Azerbaijani people and recognise the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan escalating tension in the region.

"Nagorno-Karabakh is our land. We have to go back there and we are doing it now," Aliyev said, adding, "This is the end. We showed them who we are. We are chasing them like dogs."

Armenia had earlier accused Turkey of sending mercenaries from Syria and Libya to join the fighting.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called for a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh amid rising death toll. Watch: Stoltenberg said he expected Azerbaijan ally Turkey to use its "considerable" influence to calm tensions while adding that he was "deeply concerned" over the escalation of hostilities.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called for a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh amid rising death toll. Watch: Stoltenberg said he expected Azerbaijan ally Turkey to use its "considerable" influence to calm tensions while adding that he was "deeply concerned" over the escalation of hostilities. France, Russia and the United States had earlier called for an immediate halt to the conflict however the fighting continues. Amid the raging conflict, Azerbaijan defence ministry said Armenian forces had shelled several towns, including Ganja, Terter, Beylagan and Barda with artillery fire being used in the escalating conflict. At least 250 people have been killed so far with reports of increasing civilian casualties. The International Committee of the Red Cross criticised the conflict with "indiscriminate shelling and other alleged unlawful attacks" which had hit populated areas, cities and towns. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan President Aliyev said that Armenian forces must leave our territories, not in words but in deeds and provide a timetable for a full withdrawal, apologise to the Azerbaijani people and recognise the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan escalating tension in the region. "Nagorno-Karabakh is our land. We have to go back there and we are doing it now," Aliyev said, adding, "This is the end. We showed them who we are. We are chasing them like dogs." Armenia had earlier accused Turkey of sending mercenaries from Syria and Libya to join the fighting.

NATO appeals to Azerbaijan ally Turkey to calm tensions amid Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia

The French government on Monday ordered new restrictions to be placed in capital Paris due to rising <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/new-zealand-pm-jacinda-ardern-says-we-beat-the-virus-again-332552">coronavirus</a> cases which will come into force from Tuesday and last for two weeks.

Watch:

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/bars-in-paris-to-close-for-two-weeks-as-city-placed-on-maximum-covid-alert-332635/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Bars and cafes in Paris will be shut for two weeks under the new measures, however, restaurants will remain open but the restaurants would have to impose new sanitary protocols in order to stay open.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/boris-johnson-warns-bumpy-covid-winter-mulling-three-tier-lockdown-332606">Also Read:&nbsp;Boris Johnson warns bumpy COVID winter; mulling 'three-tier lockdown'&nbsp;</a>

The health agency said that Paris had crossed three thresholds to be classified as a &nbsp;maximum alert area which included general rate of virus, spread among older people and the number of intensive care hospital beds with COVID-19 patients.

Aurelien Rousseau, director of the ARS regional health agency, said that there were 203 active COVID-19 "clusters" in Ile-de-France in Paris.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex's office said there was no improvement in the Paris region while asserting that working from home should be prioritised "now more than ever". The French government also stipulated that university lecture halls should not be more than half full.

"These measures, indispensable in the fight to curb the virus' spread, will apply to Paris and the three departments immediately surrounding it, for a duration of two weeks," the French government said.

France had reported 12,565 coronavirus cases on Sunday with 893 coronavirus patients admitted into intensive care last week.

The French government on Monday ordered new restrictions to be placed in capital Paris due to rising coronavirus cases which will come into force from Tuesday and last for two weeks.

The French government on Monday ordered new restrictions to be placed in capital Paris due to rising coronavirus cases which will come into force from Tuesday and last for two weeks. Watch: Bars and cafes in Paris will be shut for two weeks under the new measures, however, restaurants will remain open but the restaurants would have to impose new sanitary protocols in order to stay open. Also Read: Boris Johnson warns bumpy COVID winter; mulling 'three-tier lockdown' The health agency said that Paris had crossed three thresholds to be classified as a maximum alert area which included general rate of virus, spread among older people and the number of intensive care hospital beds with COVID-19 patients. Aurelien Rousseau, director of the ARS regional health agency, said that there were 203 active COVID-19 "clusters" in Ile-de-France in Paris. French Prime Minister Jean Castex's office said there was no improvement in the Paris region while asserting that working from home should be prioritised "now more than ever". The French government also stipulated that university lecture halls should not be more than half full. "These measures, indispensable in the fight to curb the virus' spread, will apply to Paris and the three departments immediately surrounding it, for a duration of two weeks," the French government said. France had reported 12,565 coronavirus cases on Sunday with 893 coronavirus patients admitted into intensive care last week.

Bars, cafes in Paris to close as French capital placed on 'maximum' COVID-19 alert

The Nobel Committee on Monday announced this year's Nobel prize for medicine jointly to&nbsp;American Harvey J. Alter, Charles M. Rice and Briton&nbsp;Michael Houghton&nbsp;“for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus.”

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BREAKING NEWS: 
The 2020 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NobelPrize?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NobelPrize</a> in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice “for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus.” <a href="https://t.co/MDHPmbiFmS">pic.twitter.com/MDHPmbiFmS</a>
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) <a href="https://twitter.com/NobelPrize/status/1313049505802194945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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The Committee said the "three scientists have made a decisive contribution to the fight against blood-borne hepatitis" while adding that it is a "major global health problem that causes cirrhosis and liver cancer in people around the world."

"Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice made seminal discoveries that led to the identification of a novel virus, Hepatitis C virus. Prior to their work, the discovery of the Hepatitis A and B viruses had been critical steps forward, but the majority of blood-borne hepatitis cases remained unexplained," the Nobel Committee informed.

"The Nobel Laureates’ discovery of Hepatitis C virus is a landmark achievement in the ongoing battle against viral diseases," it said, adding," Thanks to their discovery, highly sensitive blood tests for the virus are now available and these have essentially eliminated post-transfusion hepatitis in many parts of the world, greatly improving global health.

The Committee said that due to their discovery it allowed rapid development of anti-viral drugs directed at hepatitis C.

"For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating Hepatitis C virus from the world population," it asserted while informing that to achieve the goal international efforts facilitating blood testing and making anti-viral drugs available across the globe will be required.

The Nobel Committee on Monday announced this year's Nobel prize for medicine jointly to American Harvey J. Alter, Charles M. Rice and Briton Michael Houghton “for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus.

The Nobel Committee on Monday announced this year's Nobel prize for medicine jointly to American Harvey J. Alter, Charles M. Rice and Briton Michael Houghton “for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus.” BREAKING NEWS: The 2020 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice “for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus.” pic.twitter.com/MDHPmbiFmS — The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 5, 2020 × The Committee said the "three scientists have made a decisive contribution to the fight against blood-borne hepatitis" while adding that it is a "major global health problem that causes cirrhosis and liver cancer in people around the world." "Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice made seminal discoveries that led to the identification of a novel virus, Hepatitis C virus. Prior to their work, the discovery of the Hepatitis A and B viruses had been critical steps forward, but the majority of blood-borne hepatitis cases remained unexplained," the Nobel Committee informed. "The Nobel Laureates’ discovery of Hepatitis C virus is a landmark achievement in the ongoing battle against viral diseases," it said, adding," Thanks to their discovery, highly sensitive blood tests for the virus are now available and these have essentially eliminated post-transfusion hepatitis in many parts of the world, greatly improving global health. The Committee said that due to their discovery it allowed rapid development of anti-viral drugs directed at hepatitis C. "For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating Hepatitis C virus from the world population," it asserted while informing that to achieve the goal international efforts facilitating blood testing and making anti-viral drugs available across the globe will be required.

US-British scientists win Nobel Prize in medicine for Hepatitis C virus discovery

New York mayor Bill de Blasio said today that he planned to put nine neighbourhoods under shutdown.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trumps-oxygen-levels-dropped-twice-could-be-discharged-monday-doctors-332513">Also Read:&nbsp;Trump's oxygen levels dropped twice, could be discharged Monday, say&nbsp;Doctors</a>

"Today, unfortunately, is not a day for celebration," de Blasio said.

The proposal must be approved by Governor Andrew Cuomo. New York authorities had imposed strict lockdown measures after the virus hit the city in March.

New York City has reported nearly 24,000 fatalities due to the virus.

De Blasio said he wants to “contain the situation” and “avoid a bigger second wave” with schools and non-essential businesses set to close. The restrictions would include public and private schools and daycares, reports said.

The Mayor said schools may be closed for two to four weeks.&nbsp;

De Blasio said another eleven areas in the city had a problem but there won't be any shutdown as of now.

New York mayor Bill de Blasio said today that he planned to put nine neighbourhoods under shutdown. Also Read: Trump's oxygen levels dropped twice, could be discharged Monday, say Doctors "Today, unfortunately, is not a day for celebration," de Blasio said.

New York mayor Bill de Blasio said today that he planned to put nine neighbourhoods under shutdown. Also Read: Trump's oxygen levels dropped twice, could be discharged Monday, say Doctors "Today, unfortunately, is not a day for celebration," de Blasio said. The proposal must be approved by Governor Andrew Cuomo. New York authorities had imposed strict lockdown measures after the virus hit the city in March. New York City has reported nearly 24,000 fatalities due to the virus. De Blasio said he wants to “contain the situation” and “avoid a bigger second wave” with schools and non-essential businesses set to close. The restrictions would include public and private schools and daycares, reports said. The Mayor said schools may be closed for two to four weeks. De Blasio said another eleven areas in the city had a problem but there won't be any shutdown as of now.

New York mayor Bill de Blasio plans to shutdown 9 neighbourhoods amid virus surge

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