Studies provide good news for antiviral drug Remdesivir
In April 2020, federal scientists reported the first glimmer of hope against the new coronavirus: a large clinical trial had found that an antiviral drug, remdesivir, shortened recovery time in hospitalized patients from 15 to 11 days. The drug was authorized a few months later. But remdesivir’s use has been limited to hospitalized patients, and its intravenous administration has been an obstacle. Two new studies indicate that both issues could be improved. One found that infused remdesivir appears to be markedly effective when given earlier in the course of illness, before a patient is hospitalized. And a study in monkeys suggests that inhaled remdesivir could eventually replace infusions.
Jan. 6 panel faces difficult questions as Capitol riot anniversary approaches
The anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot arrives this week with the congressional committee investigating the attack confronting difficult questions, including how forcefully to flex its subpoena power and whether the Supreme Court will stymie a major element of its inquiry. As the panel continues to examine the events leading up to the worst attack on Congress in centuries, it is waiting to see whether the Supreme Court will refuse a request from former President Donald Trump to block the committee’s access to White House records related to the riot. The committee has not ruled out moving to subpoena members of Congress, or Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.
Sudan’s prime minister resigns
Sudan’s prime minister, who was ousted in a military coup but reinstated over a month ago, resigned Sunday, in the latest upheaval to disrupt the country’s shaky transition to democracy from dictatorship. The decision by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok came as widespread protests gripped the northeast African nation. Protesters denounced not just the coup that unseated Hamdok in October but also the deal that returned him to power in November. Opposition political groups and other major political forces rejected it as an unacceptable concession to the military, which has controlled Sudan for most of its history since it became an independent state more than six decades ago.
SKorea: Unknown person crossed heavily armed border into North
The South Korean military said Sunday that an unidentified person had crossed the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea, its latest security lapse at one of the world’s most heavily armed borders. Footage of the person climbing a tall barbed-wire fence — the southernmost of multiple fences in the 2.5-mile-wide buffer zone separating the Koreas — was captured by South Korean cameras at 6:40 p.m. Saturday, and sensors on the fence triggered an alarm, the military said in a briefing to the news media. Nevertheless, the breach went unnoticed until 9:20 p.m., when the military spotted the person in the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, as it is commonly known.
China moves to overhaul protections for women’s rights, sort of
The announcement was presented — in official news reports, on social media — as a major victory for Chinese women. The government was set to overhaul its law governing women’s rights for the first time in decades, to refine the definition of sexual harassment, affirm prohibitions on workplace discrimination and ban forms of emotional abuse. For many women in China, the response was: Hmm, really? The proposed revisions are the latest in a series of conflicting messages by the Chinese government about the country’s growing feminist movement. On paper, the changes would seem to be a triumph for activists who have long worked to push gender equality into the Chinese mainstream.
Twitter bans Rep. Greene’s personal account for COVID claims
Twitter said Sunday it had banned the personal account of far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for multiple violations of the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policy, the latest strike against the firebrand whose embrace of conspiracy theories has been called “a cancer” for the GOP and led the House to boot her from committees. The Georgia Republican’s account was permanently suspended under the “strike” system Twitter launched in March, which uses artificial intelligence to identify posts about the coronavirus that are misleading enough to cause harm to people.