Category: World

Talk held amid speculation that both countries are presenting a common front along LAC

The “deteriorating” situation on the Line of Control in Kashmir came up for discussion between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Friday, according to statements from Islamabad and Beijing.

“Foreign Minister Qureshi underscored that regional security situation was deteriorating and underlined that India’s belligerent posture and expansionist policies were imperiling peace in the region,” said a release from the Pakistan Foreign Ministry, which also referred to alleged human rights violations and the recent change in domicile laws. “[Mr. Qureshi] also briefed [Mr. Wang] about the repeated violations committed by India across the LOC,” the statement said.

“[Mr. Wang said] both China and Pakistan must work together to meet the risks and challenges and safeguard the common interests of the two countries and regional peace and stability. For a long time, China and Pakistan have always understood and supported each other, stood firmly on issues involving each other’s core interests, and are trusted sincere partners,” the Chinese MFA statement said, adding that the “two sides also exchanged views on a wide range of topics such as the situation in Kashmir, Afghanistan and South Asia.”

Significantly, the conversation took place on a day when Mr. Qureshi announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19.

The phone call between the two leaders comes amid speculation that China and Pakistan are presenting a common front in the standoff between the Indian army and PLA troops at the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, which may require India to prepare for a “two-front war”. On Friday, India had also issued a demarche to Pakistan over growing incidents of ceasefire violations by Pakistan forces along the Line of Control (LoC) and International Boundary (IB).

Countering Pakistan’s allegations about the LoC, sources in the government said that India had registered a “strong protest at the continued unprovoked ceasefire violations by Pakistan forces along the LoC and the IB which are in contravention to the 2003 Ceasefire Understanding.”

“This year, till June 2020, 14 Indians have been killed and 88 Indians have been injured in more than 2,432 unprovoked ceasefire violations carried out by Pakistan forces,” said the sources, adding that Pakistan’s firing was meant to provide cover for the cross-border infiltration of terrorists.

“Despite these concerns having been shared, including through the channel of Director Generals Military Operations, the Pakistan forces have not ceased such activities,” the sources said.

In their conversation, the Chinese and Pakistan FMs also referred to the UN Human Rights Council session this week, where India had raised concerns over the situation in Hong Kong.

“China appreciates that Pakistan, along with more than 50 friendly countries at the 44th session of the Human Rights Council, firmly supports Hong Kong’s national security legislation and opposes the use of Hong Kong-related issues to interfere in China’s internal affairs,” said the Chinese MFA statement.

Mr. Qureshi said he had “reiterated that Pakistan remains committed to ‘One-China policy’ and firmly supports China on its core interests including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang.”

With inputs from The Hindu

Cardiologists are seeing infected patients whose worst symptoms are not respiratory, but cardiac.

NY Times

The 64-year-old patient arrived at a hospital in Brooklyn with symptoms looking like those seen in patients having a serious heart attack.

An electrocardiogram revealed an ominous heart rhythm. The patient had high blood levels of a protein called troponin, a sign of damaged heart muscle. Doctors rushed to open the patient’s blocked arteries — but found that no arteries were blocked.

The patient was not having a heart attack. The culprit was the coronavirus.

The Brooklyn patient recovered after 12 days in the hospital and is now at home. But there have been reports of similar patients in the United States and abroad, and the cases have raised troubling questions for doctors.

What should doctors do these days when they see patients with apparent heart attacks? Should they first rule out coronavirus infection — or is that a waste of valuable time for the majority of patients who are actually having heart attacks?

Should every coronavirus patient be tested for high blood levels of troponin to see if the virus has attacked the heart?

“I don’t know what the right answer is,” said Dr. Nir Uriel, a cardiologist at Columbia University and Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.

The Brooklyn patient had myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart that has been seen in patients with other viral infections, such as MERS — also caused by a coronavirus — and the H1N1 swine flu.

But the new coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, mostly infects the lungs, causing pneumonia in severe cases. Believing it caused respiratory disease, many cardiologists thought the coronavirus was outside their specialty.

“We were thinking lungs, lungs, lungs — with us in a supportive role,” said Dr. John Rumsfeld, chief science and quality officer at the American College of Cardiology. “Then all of a sudden we began to hear about potential direct impact on the heart.”

A report on heart problems among coronavirus patients in Wuhan, China, was published in JAMA Cardiology on Friday.

The study, led by Dr. Zhibing Lu at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, found that 20 percent of patients hospitalized with Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, had some evidence of heart damage.

Many were not known to have underlying heart disease. But they often had abnormal electrocardiograms, like the patient in Brooklyn, in addition to elevated troponin levels, which sometimes soared to levels seen in patients with heart attacks.

The risk of death was more than four times higher among these patients, compared with patients without heart complications.

The journal also published a report, by doctors in Italy, describing a previously healthy 53-year-old woman who developed myocarditis.

Like the patient in Brooklyn, her electrocardiogram was abnormal, and she had high levels of troponin in her blood. Because of the coronavirus outbreak in Italy, doctors thought to test her and found she was infected.

Dr. Enrico Ammirati, an expert in myocarditis at Niguarda Hospital in Milan who consulted on the case, said the patient’s heart problems were likely caused by her body’s immune response to the virus.

But so much about this new pathogen is unknown, and it is not yet clear what might cause heart damage following infection.

“Myocarditis can likely be caused either by the virus itself, or the body’s immune and inflammatory response to the virus,” said Dr. Scott Solomon, a cardiologist at Harvard Medical School.

Infected patients who get myocarditis do not necessarily have any more virus in their bodies than those who do not develop the condition, he said.

It is possible — but not yet established — that myocarditis results from an immune system that lurches out of control while trying to turn back the coronavirus, pumping out such excessive levels of chemicals called cytokines that cause inflammation that they damage the lungs and the heart alike.

The condition, called a cytokine storm, is more serious in older people and in people with underlying chronic diseases, Dr. Solomon said. It is the primary reason for the severe respiratory complications that can lead to death in patients with the coronavirus.

Cytokines also promote blood coagulation and interfere with the body’s clot-busting system, said Dr. Peter Libby, a cardiologist at Harvard Medical School. Blood clots in coronary arteries can block blood flow and cause heart attacks.

Another possibility, Dr. Libby said, is that some coronavirus patients develop heart problems as a consequence of infections in their lungs.

“The lungs are not working, so there is not enough oxygen,” he said. “That increases the risk for arrhythmias.”

At the same time, fever caused by the virus increases the body’s metabolism and the heart’s output of blood. The result is that the patient’s heart must struggle with an increased demand for oxygen but a reduced supply, an imbalance that may lead to heart damage.

But doctors cannot rule out the possibility that the coronavirus directly damages the heart, several experts said.

In Seattle, a patient infected with the virus recently died after experiencing so-called heart block: The electrical signals originating in the top of the organ, which sets the heart’s normal rhythm, were not reaching the bottom of the heart.

When that happens, the heart goes into an emergency mode with so-called escape rhythm, which causes it to beat very slowly. The man had underlying lung disease, which worsened his prognosis.

Dr. April S. Stempien-Otero, a cardiologist at the University of Washington, hopes an autopsy will show whether the virus attacked the man’s heart.

“We thought it was older-person heart block,” she said. “Then all of a sudden Covid raises its head.”

From now on, she said, “we have to think, maybe that is what is going on.”

Source: NY Times

Disclaimer: This story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed

Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, said on Friday that he has tested positive for coronavirus. He added that he has started observing quarantine protocol as well as gone into self-isolation. “By the grace of Allah, I feel strong and energetic. I will continue to carry on my duties from home. Please keep me in your prayers,” he wrote in his tweet.

The foreign minister, also added in the tweet that “This afternoon I felt a slight fever and immediately quarantined myself at home. I have now tested positive for Covid 19.”

This afternoon I felt a slight fever and immediately quarantined myself at home. I have now tested positive for Covid 19. By the grace of Allah, I feel strong and energetic. I will continue to carry on my duties from home. Please keep me in your prayers.

— Shah Mahmood Qureshi (@SMQureshiPTI) July 3, 2020

Many politicians across the array of political parties have tested positive for Coronavirus.

– Agencies

Former Pakistan cricketer Shahid Afridi on Thursday announced that his wife and two daughters have tested negative for coronavirus. Afridi and his family had been diagnosed with COVID-19 last month. Afridi was the second international cricketer from Pakistan to test positive for the novel coronavirus after former batsman Taufeeq Umar.

Afridi had earlier provided an update on his health while he was in self-quarantine at home. In the video shared on Facebook, the former Pakistan captain had said he wanted to address the rumours over his degrading health doing rounds on social media. Afridi had also thanked his fans and followers for their wishes.

On Thursday, he posted a picture with his daughter on Twitter and wrote, “Alhamdulillah, my wife & daughters, Aqsa & Ansha have re-tested after our previously positive results for #COVIDー19, & are now clear. Thanking u all for your continuous well wishes, & may the Almighty bless you and yours. Now back to family time; I’ve missed holding this one.”

PTI

After nearly three months of differences and negotiations, the UN Security Council on Wednesday unanimously adopted the first COVID-19-related resolution, demanding a general and immediate cessation of hostilities around the world.

The France and Tunisia drafted resolution “demands a general and immediate cessation of hostilities in all situations on its agenda and supports the efforts undertaken by the Secretary-General and his Special Representatives and Special Envoys in that respect.”

It calls upon all parties to armed conflicts to engage immediately in a durable humanitarian pause for at least 90 consecutive days, in order to enable the “safe, unhindered and sustained delivery of humanitarian assistance, provisions of related services by impartial humanitarian actors,” in accordance with the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, and medical evacuations.

The Council has been strongly criticised for its inaction and lack of leadership in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and its failure to adopt even a single resolution on the global health and humanitarian crisis caused by the outbreak that has wreaked havoc across the world since early 2020.

The resolution came after months of negotiations as divisions among Council’s two permanent veto-wielding members – the US and China – hindered attempts to adopt a resolution.

A key sticking point between the US and China over the resolution was reference related to the World Health Organisation. Washington has strongly criticised the WHO for its handling of the pandemic, with President Donald Trump halting funding to the health body.

The resolution affirms that this “general and immediate” cessation of hostilities and humanitarian pause “do not apply to military operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as Da’esh), Al Qaeda and Al Nusra Front (ANF), and all other individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with Al Qaeda or ISIL, and other terrorist groups, which have been designated by the Security Council.”

PTI

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday that he has approached the UN over the issue of the grant of domicile certificates by India to the people not originally from Jammu and Kashmir.

As per the new domicile law, non-permanent residents who have residency proof of at least 15 years in Jammu and Kashmir are entitled to get domicile certificates.

“I have approached UN Secretary General and am reaching out to other world leaders…,” Khan tweeted.

I have approached UN Secretary General and am reaching out to other world leaders. India must be stopped from this unacceptable path that further usurps the legal & internationally guaranteed rights of the Kashmiri people & seriously imperils peace and security in South Asia.

— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) June 30, 2020

Pakistan has been trying to drum up international support against India for withdrawing Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on August 5 last year and bifurcating it into two Union territories.

India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution was its internal matter.

Mr. Trump has been under pressure over a New York Times report on Friday that a Russian military intelligence unit had offered bounties for U.S. and allied soldiers

Reuters

Democrats and a leading Republican hawk on Tuesday called for U.S. President Donald Trump to consider imposing new economic sanctions on Russia if a reported Russian effort to pay the Taliban to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan was confirmed.

Mr. Trump has been under pressure over a New York Times report on Friday that a Russian military intelligence unit had offered bounties for U.S. and allied soldiers and later reported that he received a written briefing on the matter in February.

After Mr. Trump initially said he was not briefed on the matter, the White House said Mr. Trump was not “personally” briefed but did not address whether he had received a written report, read it, and why he had not responded more aggressively if so.

The shifting statements have generated controversy among his fellow Republicans as well as Democrats and the suggestion that Mr. Trump may have ignored or not known about a threat to U.S. troops could damage him as he seeks re-election on Nov. 3.

House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a Democrat, said Mr. Trump should be looking to impose costs on Moscow.

“We should be considering what sanctions are appropriate to further deter Russia’s malign activities,” he told reporters after a briefing for House Democrats at the White House.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden called Mr. Trump ‘s handling of the matter a “dereliction of duty.”

And John Bolton, Mr. Trump ‘s former national security adviser, told Reuters if the allegations were true it was “tantamount to an attack on Americans directly.”

“That requires a very serious response,” he said. “It could well be asymmetric economic sanctions.

The White House has sought to play down reports in the Times and the Washington Post that it knew of accusations that Russia paid the Taliban bounties to kill U.S. and coalition troops but had not briefed Mr. Trump or acted on the information.

Four U.S. government sources have confirmed to Reuters that credible U.S. intelligence suggested Russia offered such bounties.

A fifth person familiar with the matter said such intelligence was first brought to the White House’s attention around March 2019 but it was then uncorroborated and “could have been disinformation.”

The White House has said there was no consensus on the intelligence and it would not be elevated to the president until verified.

However, the New York Times cited two unnamed officials as saying officials gave Mr. Trump a written briefing in late February laying out their conclusion that Russia had offered and paid bounties.

The newspaper said it was in the Presidents Daily Brief (PDB) document – the premier product of U.S. intelligence agencies that is prepared for him to read.

A U.S. government source declined to confirm or deny the threat information was in a PDB in February but told Reuters material is sometimes included in PDBs so that other senior officials can evaluate it and follow up.

In this case, the source said that the matter was raised at a high level earlier this year, the intelligence is regarded as credible, and steps were taken to formulate a response.

The source suggested a response was still under discussion and Mr. Trump arguably did not have to be involved while the information was checked out.

However, a Congressional source voiced skepticism that such information would be included in a PDB with an expectation the president would not read it and that others would deal with it.

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that U.S. officials had intercepted data showing big financial transfers from an account controlled by Russia’s military intelligence agency to a Taliban-linked account. It said this eased disagreements in the U.S. intelligence community and undercut White House officials claim that the intelligence was too uncertain to brief Mr. Trump .

Unless Americans wear masks and recommit to social distancing, the daily increase in new cases nationwide, currently around 40,000, could reach 100,000, Dr. Fauci said

Reuters

The United States government’s top infectious diseases expert on Tuesday warned that daily COVID-19 cases could more than double if Americans fail to take countermeasures and cautioned against pinning hopes on a vaccine.

California, Texas and several other states are reporting record increases in cases of the sometimes deadly illness caused by the novel coronavirus, leading to a sobering reassessment of efforts to contain it and raising the stakes for the scores of vaccine candidates being developed at unprecedented speed.

Unless Americans wear masks and recommit to social distancing, the daily increase in new cases nationwide, currently around 40,000, could reach 100,000, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told a U.S. Senate committee.

“Clearly we are not in total control right now,” Dr. Fauci said. ”I am very concerned because it could get very bad.”

Dr. Fauci said “there is no guarantee” that ongoing efforts will produce a safe and effective vaccine to prevent infection by the virus, pouring cold water on hopes for a quick fix to the health crisis.

Many countries in Asia and Europe have succeeded in controlling the pandemic with strong, coordinated government responses marked by stringent lockdowns and mandatory mask wearing in public.

In the United States, wearing masks has become a divisive political issue, and many southern and western states began reopening businesses without having met government health benchmarks for doing so safely, with younger adults in particular letting their guards down in recent weeks.

With the virus on the rise in most U.S. states, the European Union has excluded the United States from its initial “safe list” of countries from which the bloc will allow non-essential travel beginning on Wednesday

COVID-19 cases more than doubled in June in at least 10 states, including Texas and Florida, a Reuters tally showed. In parts of Texas and Arizona, hospital intensive care beds for COVID-19 patients are in short supply.

More than 126,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and millions have lost their jobs, as businesses and schools shut to curtail the virus. The economy contracted sharply in the first quarter and is expected to crater in the April-June period.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday launched a fresh attack on President Donald Trump’s “historic mismanagement” of the pandemic, arguing he could have saved lives and the economy by acting earlier to control the virus.

“It didn’t have to be this way,” the former vice president said in a speech in Delaware, in which he unveiled an updated plan to tackle the pandemic, including more testing and hiring at least 100,000 contract tracers. “Donald Trump failed us.”

Fourth of July worries

The fresh surge in new cases and hospitalizations has dimmed hopes that the worst of the human and economic pain had passed for the country, and renewed criticism of Mr. Trump’s handling of the crisis as he seeks re-election on Nov. 3.

In the past few days California, Texas and Florida have all moved to close bars, which public health officials have warned are among the riskiest non-essential businesses and likely one of the larger contributors to the recent spikes.

On Tuesday, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut added California and seven other states to a list of those from which visitors must self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. Texas and Florida were on the original list announced last week.

South Carolina has also emerged as a hotspot, reporting a record single-day increase of 1,755 cases on Tuesday.

In Texas, many eyes are on Houston hospitals, where beds are quickly filling up with COVID-19 patients.

Dr. Marc Boom, Houston Methodist Hospital System’s chief executive, told CNN on Tuesday that his 2,400-bed system has seen a “very significant” increase in COVID-19 patients, although the death rate has lowered recently.

Dr. Boom said he was worried about July 4 Independence Day celebrations, when Americans traditionally flock to beaches and campgrounds and gather to watch fireworks displays. Some experts pointed to Memorial Day gatherings in late May for a spike in cases.

“We’re looking at the Fourth of July coming up in a couple of days, and frankly it scares me,” he said.

PTI

Washington: A group of Pakistani dissidents have expressed dismay over Prime Minister Imran Khan calling slain al-Qaeda chief and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden a “martyr,” saying this could be out of a “sinister reason” of putting the West, especially the US on notice.

Under the banner of South Asians Against Terrorism & For Human Rights (SAATH) Forum, the group that includes Pakistan’s former envoy to the US Hussain Haqqani, condemned Khan for making such a statement in Parliament.

What makes this doubly disgusting is that Imran Khan made this claim on the floor of Pakistan’s National Assembly. For, another Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yusaf Raza Gillani, had in selfsame, National Assembly on May 9, 2011, denounced bin Laden as a terrorist and had welcomed his elimination, it said in a statement.

Speaking in Parliament during the budget session on June 25, Khan called bin Laden a “shaheed” (martyr) and said that Islamabad faced “embarrassment” by taking part in America’s war on terror.

“For Pakistanis across the globe, it was an embarrassing moment when the Americans came and killed Osama bin Laden at Abottabad…martyred him. The whole world started abusing us after that. Our ally came inside our country and killed someone without informing us. And, 70,000 Pakistanis died because of the US’ war on terror,” Khan had said.

Bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals in Pakistan’s garrison city of Abbottabad in May, 2011.

Criticising Khan’s statement, SAATH said, It should be noted that in addition to the havoc wreaked on 9/11, and later upon the wider world, bin Laden was directly responsible for the deaths and maiming of tens of thousands of Pakistanis and Afghans during the years he was plotting his terrible schemes whilst remaining hidden in Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to former president General Pervez Musharraf probably known to certain people in Pakistan’s Intelligence Services.”

“Many people explain this classification of bin Laden as a martyr’ to Khan’s known proclivity to be appreciative of extremist, Jihadist thought, therefore coming to be known by the nickname Taliban Khan’ some years ago, a nickname which has stuck, it added.

“However, there could be a deeper, even more sinister reason: that of putting the West, especially the US on notice, now that the endgame in Afghanistan is in sight, and the state of the Pakistan economy is in shambles,” the SAATH members said.

The group termed it as a “ploy” to inveigle more money out of Pakistan’s traditional donors.

Prominent SAATH members include former ambassadors Haqqani and Kamran Shafi, parliamentarians Bushra Gohar and Afrasiab Khattak and columnists Mohammed Taqi, Marvi Sirmed, Gul Bukhari and Taha Siddiqui.

Khan’s remarks also drew criticism from Opposition parties in Pakistan.

India had said it had nothing to do with the assault.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan told parliament on Tuesday he had ‘no doubt’ that India was behind an attack on the stock exchange building in Karachi a day earlier.

Four gunmen armed with grenades attacked the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday, killing two guards and a policeman before security forces killed the attackers.

India said on Monday it had nothing to do with the assault.

“There is no doubt that India is behind the attack,” Mr. Khan said in his address to Parliament. “For the last two months my cabinet knew (there would be an attack) I had informed my ministers. All our agencies were on high alert,” he added.

With inputs from The Hindu