On Friday at a hotel in Tunisia (North Africa), a gunman dressed as a tourist opened fire, killing 38 people, including British, German and Belgian visitors. Reports say he had hidden a gun in his umbrella.
A brief look at the headlines shows that 1 German, 3 Irish, and “at least 30” Britons were killed.
AJ+ reports.
Recently, the “optical illusion dress” that came to worldwide attention was used in a Salvation Army public service announcement in South Africa. The announcement is targeting domestic violence against women and it uses the viral success of “The Dress.”
The ad featured a woman in a white and gold dress with a caption that reads, “Why is it so hard to see black and blue?”
The caption in the ad further reads: “The only illusion is if you think it was her choice. One in 6 women are victims of abuse. Stop abuse against women.”
The advertisement features the logo for Carehaven, a home for abused women and their children run by the Salvation Army.
The charity says Carehaven has helped more than 5,000 people.
Ireland/Davenport, the South African advertising agency behind the image, told BuzzFeed News in an emailed statement, “For the past few days the internet has been swarming with comments about ‘the dress’ – overall people have been commenting how they hate the fact that an insignificant thing like this could take priority on the internet over more pressing topics such as abuse.”
The agency’s creative team created it within 24 hours and then approached the Salvation Army to ask if they would like to put their name to ad.
“After the idea had been cracked by the team there was no time to spare. We approached the Salvation Army and they were nothing but helpful and overjoyed to help us get their message out there,” the agency said. “With the help of favors from suppliers and production we managed to create and publish the ad in a day.”
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According to the BBC, clinical trials to try to find an effective treatment for Ebola patients are to start in West Africa next month.
Meanwhile, the number of people killed by the worst outbreak of Ebola has risen to 5,160, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.
The medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), which has been helping lead the fight against the virus, says three of its treatment centres will host three separate research projects.
Meanwhile, Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has lifted the state of emergency imposed in the country. She warned “this is not because the fight against Ebola is over”.
It marks the progress being made in the country, where the weekly number of new infections is falling. In Guinea, the frequency of new cases no longer appears to be increasing, but remains high in Sierra Leone.
In a radio address she told the nation that night curfews would be reduced, weekly markets could take place and preparations were being made for the re-opening of schools.
Who is Al-Shabaab and why is the U.S. fighting other terrorist groups but not them?
Kyle Kulinski explains.
According to ABC News, a local doctor in Sierra Leone has died of Ebola. ABC claims he was the fifth local doctor in the West African nation to die of the disease.
ABC: “The death of Dr. Godfrey George, medical superintendent of Kambia Government Hospital in northern Sierra Leone, was a blow to efforts to keep desperately needed health care workers safe in a country ravaged by the deadly virus.”
Sierra Leone’s small health care system has been strained by the virus, making it difficult to care for patients.
Its health care system was already fragile before the Ebola epidemic because of past conflict and a lack of resources.
The country had two doctors for every 100,000 people in 2010, compared to about 240 doctors for every 100,000 people in the United States, according to the World Health Organization.
George’s overnight death was announced by Dr. Brima Kargbo, Sierra Leone’s chief medical officer. George had been driven to the capital, Freetown, after reporting that he was not feeling well.
Doctors and nurses have been particularly vulnerable to contracting Ebola, as the virus is spread through bodily fluids. WHO chief Margaret Chan has talked about the disease’s “heavy toll on frontline domestic medical staff.”
African students from Senegal (age 11 and 13) in New York were bullied and beat up after being called “Ebola.” Senegal is not one of the three countries with major Ebola outbreaks, which are Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.
Sam Seder video.
More info:
1976 – Ebola is first discovered in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo near the Ebola River. Thirty-two Ebola outbreaks would follow, bringing the total number of cases before this outbreak to 2,361, including 1,438 deaths, according to the WHO.
March 19, 2014 – What would become the largest Ebola outbreak in history begins in March 2014 with 23 deaths from what is then called a “mystery” hemorrhagic fever.
Aug. 2, 2014 – Dr. Kent Brantly is flown from Liberia to Emory for treatment. He surprises everyone by walking out of the ambulance into the hospital in his protective suit.
Aug. 5, 2014 – Missionary Nancy Writebol is flown from Liberia to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, for Ebola treatment in its isolation ward.
Sept. 5, 2014 – Dr. Rick Sacra arrives at Nebraska Medical Center for treatment. He eventually gets a blood transfusion from Dr. Kent Brantly, the American missionary who survived his bout with Ebola.
Sept. 9, 2014 – An unnamed American Ebola patient arrives at Emory University Hospital for treatment. This patient had been working for the WHO in Sierra Leone.
Sept. 20, 2014 – Thomas Duncan arrives in the United States from Liberia to visit family.
Oct. 5, 2014 – Sacra hospitalized in Massachusetts with what doctors fear is an Ebola relapse. They isolate him out of what they said was an abundance of caution.
Oct. 6, 2014 – Ashoka Mukpo, 33, a freelance American cameraman who contracted Ebola in West Africa, arrives at Nebraska Medical Center for Ebola treatment.
Oct. 12, 2014 – Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas says that nurse Nina Pham has tested positive for Ebola. Pham is a nurse at the hospital and had tended to Thomas Duncan.
Oct. 13, 2014 – Amber Vinson flies from Cleveland to Dallas on Frontier Airlines Flight 1143, arriving at 8:16 p.m. She has no symptoms, but her temperature was 99.5 degrees that morning, according to health officials. She notified the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before boarding, and no one told her not to fly.
Oct. 14, 2014 – Vinson is taken to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas with a fever.
Oct. 16, 2014 – Nina Pham is flown from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas to the National Institutes of Health hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. Pham treated Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where she works.
Oct. 23, 2014 – Dr. Craig Allen Spencer is diagnosed with Ebola the same day he went into isolation at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan.
Oct. 27, 2014 – A five-year-old boy was transported to Bellevue hospital in New York with symptoms of Ebola. The boy tested negative for Ebola that same evening.
With the exception of Thomas Duncan, who passed away, all of these patients have been declared virus-free and have been released. Kaci Hickox, who was detained in New Jersey and put in quarantine, tested negative twice for Ebola. She is now at her home in Maine. At this time, there is only one known case of Ebola in the U.S. – Dr. Craig Spencer in New York.
Though the state of Maine has a quarantine order on Hickox, she supposedly defied it by taking a bike ride on Thursday. She has stated that she feels healthy. Oddly, reporters in Maine routinely come within one or two feet of Hickox while questioning her.
On Friday, New York governor Cuomo and New Jersey governor Christie announced a mandatory quarantine for people who had been in West Africa and had contact there with people infected with Ebola. Illinois and other states soon followed suit.
California on Wednesday became the latest state to order a 21-day quarantine for travelers who have been in close contact with Ebola patients.
In an attempt to avoid the criticism lodged against New York, New Jersey and Maine that had blanket quarantine orders, California will allow county health agencies to impose the quarantine on a case-by-case basis.
It is unclear when the former patients intend on returning to work.
The sites are marked in red at these locations:
Incirlik Air Base, Turkey
Qatar
United Arab Emirates
Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti
Arba Minch, Ethiopia
Victoria, Seychelles
Niamey, Niger
According to the Washington Post, there are two sites in Niger and another in Chad.
After months of negotiations, the government of Niger has authorized the U.S. military to fly unarmed drones from the mud-walled desert city of Agadez, according to Nigerien and U.S. officials.
This will be the second U.S. surveillance hub in Niger and third in the region.
It advances a little-publicized U.S. strategy to tackle counter-terrorism threats alongside France, the former colonial power in that part of the continent.
In Niamey, Niger’s capital, U.S. and French forces set up neighboring drone hangars last year to conduct reconnaissance flights over Mali, where about 1,200 French soldiers are trying to suppress a revolt from 2012.
It is unclear whether the Pentagon will continue to operate drones from Niamey, about 500 miles southwest of Agadez, though some officials said it was unlikely. About 120 U.S. troops are deployed there at a Nigerien military base adjacent to the international airport.
The third drone base in the region is reportedly in Chad. U.S. surveillance drones have used that base to search for the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram since May 11.
Although officials have not said where those drones have been flying from, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday that having the new unit in Chad, which borders the northeastern tip of Niger, will enable longer surveillance flights.
“Locating this force in Chad allows us to spend more time flying over the search area,” said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Myles B. Caggins III.
The White House approved $10 million in emergency aid on Aug. 11 to help airlift French troops and provide midair refueling for French aircraft deployed to the region. Analysts said the monetary sum was less important than what it symbolized: U.S. endorsement of a new French plan to deploy 3,000 troops across the region.
Updated to correct the title.
OK, Fine. 