Raccoon dogs at Wuhan market linked to COVID origins in new study

Published

1 year ago

March 18, 2023

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Raccoon dogs have been linked to the origins of COVID in a new study suggesting the pandemic may have emanated from animals and not a laboratory leak.

International scientists identified the dogs’ DNA mixed with the virus from genetic material collected at a market near where the first human cases were detected in China in late 2019.

Samples were taken in early 2020 from surfaces at the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan and the genetic sequences were recently uploaded by China to the world’s largest public virus database.

The sequences were then removed but not before a French biologist spotted the information by chance and shared it with a group of scientists based outside China, who were looking into the coronavirus’ origins.

Data showed some samples, which were known to be positive for the coronavirus, also contained genetic material from raccoon dogs, indicating the animals may have been infected by the virus, the experts said.

Last month, the US Energy Department said the virus most likely leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan.

The World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the latest data findings do not provide a definitive answer on how the pandemic first began but stated “every piece of data is important to moving us closer to that answer”.

The WHO has criticised China for not sharing the genetic information earlier and said it should have been provided three years ago.

The international group also told the WHO they found DNA from other animals as well as raccoon dogs in the samples from the seafood market.

“There’s molecular evidence that animals were sold at Huanan market and that is new information,” said WHO’s COVID technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove.

Stephen Goldstein, a virologist at the University of Utah, who was involved in analysing the data, said: “There’s a good chance that the animals that deposited that DNA also deposited the virus.”

And Mark Woolhouse, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Edinburgh, said if analysis shows the animal viruses have earlier origins than the ones that infected people, “that’s probably as good evidence as we can expect to get that this was a spillover event in the market”.

After a weeks-long visit to China to study the pandemic’s origins, the WHO released a report in 2021 concluding COVID most probably jumped to humans from animals, dismissing the possibility of a lab origin as “extremely unlikely”.

But the UN health agency backtracked the following year, saying “key pieces of data” were still missing. And in recent months, Mr Tedros has said all hypotheses remained on the table.

The China CDC scientists, who previously analysed the market samples, published a paper as a preprint in February suggesting humans brought the virus to the market, not animals – implying COVID originated elsewhere.

Gao Fu, the former head of the Chinese CDC and lead author of the Chinese paper, told Science Magazine the sequences are “nothing new, it had been known there was illegal animal dealing and this is why the market was immediately shut down”.

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Om Fahad: Iraqi social media influencer shot dead by gunman on motorbike who posed as food delivery rider – report

Published

9 hours ago

April 27, 2024

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Om Fahad: Iraqi social media influencer shot dead by gunman on motorbike who posed as food delivery rider - report

A well-known Iraqi social media influencer has reportedly been shot dead in her car by a gunman on a motorbike.

Om Fahad, whose real name is Ghufran Sawadi, was killed outside her home in Baghdad’s Zayouna district on Friday, according to the AFP news agency, citing security officials.

It appears the unidentified attacker pretended to be delivering food to the victim, one security source said.

Om Fahad, who has nearly half a million TikTok followers, became famous for posting light-hearted videos where she dances to Iraqi music.

Six days ago, she shared footage of herself driving in a car and also posing in front of a mirror. They have each been watched hundreds of thousands of times.

The influencer was sentenced to six months in prison in February last year for sharing videos that a court ruled contained “indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality”.

A campaign was launched in 2023 by the Iraqi government to clamp down on social media content which broke the country’s “morals and traditions”.

The interior ministry set up a committee to look for “offensive” clips on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, with several influencers being arrested.

“This type of content is no less dangerous than organised crime,” the ministry declared in a promotional video which asked the public to help by reporting such content.

“It is one of the causes of the destruction of the Iraqi family and society.”

Speaking last year, interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan argued the morality campaign has “nothing to do with freedom of expression”.

In 2018, gunmen in Baghdad shot dead Tara Fares, who was a model and influencer.

After years of war and sectarian conflict following the 2003 US invasion that overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq has returned to some semblance of normality despite sporadic violence, political instability and corruption.

But civil liberties, particularly among women and sexual minorities, are still constrained in a conservative and male-dominated society.

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Anti-immigrant camp in Dublin ‘not about racism’, residents say

Published

15 hours ago

April 27, 2024

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Anti-immigrant camp in Dublin 'not about racism', residents say

In the nation of ‘Cade Mile Failte’ (a hundred thousand welcomes), the residents of Coolock want to shut the door.

They’ve set up an anti-immigrant camp in the north Dublin suburb, outside a disused factory earmarked to house asylum seekers.

With green, white and orange, they’re staking claim to this ground, their protest tents bedecked with dozens of Irish flags.

Car horns blast every four or five seconds, in response to a large poster reading: “Beep if you support Coolock.”

Their other roadside banners state: “Community concern over 1,000 male migrants being housed in this building” and “Irish lives matter”.

The camp is occupied 24 hours a day, with young men guarding it overnight and residents of all ages during the day.

Two elderly women, two younger women and half a dozen men of various ages were on site when we arrived.

Analysis: Clashes with police as anti-migration protests erupt in Ireland

Sean Crowe, who describes himself as “a concerned parent”, said: “Coolock’s message is we don’t want them here, we just don’t want them, end of story.

“We have our own gangs and trouble going on that we can’t sort out. The place is bad enough as it is.”

“It’s just going to put more of a strain,” the father-of-one added.

Asked how he would reply to those who describe protesters as “racist”, he replied: “It’s not about racism.

“It’s about the strain it’s going to put on the community and local amenities around the place.

“That’s all it’s about, concerned parents.”

The camp at Coolock is just one of several that have sprung up across the Republic in the past year.

In several places, like Newtownkennedy in County Wicklow, the tension has reached breaking point, with public order police officers deployed.

“We fear they’re going to do the same thing here,” said one protestor at Coolock, who wished to remain anonymous.

“If the Gardai [Irish police] attempt to shut down our peaceful protest, all hell will break loose here,” she added.

With the sun shining and the smell of meat cooking on their barbecue, it had a community feel about it.

But they’re fiercely critical of their current government and you can sense that the tension isn’t far beneath the surface.

“Eighty percent of them are crossing the border from Northern Ireland and they knew that would happen,” Sean told me.

“It’s time to close the border” are not words you expect to hear, when Ireland fought hard to keep it open.

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Family protests outside suspected serial killer’s lair as they wait for news of teenager who went missing 12 years ago

Published

15 hours ago

April 27, 2024

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Family protests outside suspected serial killer's lair as they wait for news of teenager who went missing 12 years ago

The family of a missing high school student who may have been the first victim of a suspected serial killer in Mexico City have protested at the site where bones were found last week.

The bones were discovered with the belongings of at least six women, police said, and Amairany Roblero’s relatives have been told that evidence was found relating to her 2012 disappearance.

Ms Roblero was 18 when she vanished and, as is often the case in Mexico, her family was left to investigate her disappearance with little help from prosecutors.

Family friend Alejandra Jimenez said: “The prosecutors had the case file but they didn’t ever give any results to her parents.”

Instead, her parents printed flyers and gave them out near her school – the last place she was seen – but they had “nothing, nowhere to start, nor any directions to the end”, Ms Jimenez added.

A suspect, identified only by his first name, Miguel, was detained by neighbours and police last week after he is alleged to have killed a seventh young woman.

He is accused of waiting for a woman to leave her apartment and then rushing inside to sexually abuse and strangle her 17-year-old daughter.

The woman returned to the apartment to see the suspect leaving and she was slashed across her neck before he ran off.

She survived but her daughter died.

Investigators searched a room rented by the suspect and found bones, mobile phones and ID cards belonging to several women in the same block, thought to be mementos.

Miguel is awaiting trial on charges of murder and attempted murder relating to the most recent victims.

City prosecutor Ulises Lara insisted the suspect was difficult to catch because “he showed no signs of violent or aggressive behaviour in his daily life”.

Ms Roblero’s family and friends were not accepting this, however.

“They (authorities) have all the means to look for missing people,” Ms Jimenez said. “Instead of focusing on their political campaigns, they should help all the women who are looking for their children.”

Juan Carlos Gutierrez, a lawyer representing the family of another victim, was also frustrated, asking why no investigation had never been launched in that case, despite missing person reports being filed in 2015.

Ms Jimenez said Ms Roblero’s family had not been told which of the items or remains in the apartment had been linked to her, adding: “This is wearing her parents down physically, mentally.”

Some 2,580 women were murdered in Mexico in 2023, according to the country’s National Public Security System but poorly funded and badly trained prosecutors have failed to stop serial killers over the years.

In 2021 a serial killer in Mexico City killed 19 people but their bodies were only found, buried at his house, after the wife of a police commander became one of the victims.

In 2018 another serial killer in Mexico City murdered at least 10 women and was only stopped after he was seen pushing a dismembered body down the street in a pram.