Pakistan, which has reported 26,435 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 599 deaths, has announced it will start lifting a countrywide lockdown from Saturday in a bid to restart economic activity.

On Monday, banks and NBFCs (non-banking finance companies) were among the biggest losers on the Indian stock exchanges. ICICI Bank ended 10.56 percent lower, HDFC 9.98 percent down, HDFC Bank 7.89 percent lower, SBI was down 5.88 percent and NSE's banking

Washington, May 06: President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic has hit the United States harder than Pearl Harbor in World War II or the 9/11 attacks. "This is worse than Pearl Harbor. This is

The Coronavirus crisis has left us all reevaluating our priorities in life. Bollywood celebrities too have had to pause their busy lives during the lockdown and spend time reflecting. Radhika Madan shared what has been the biggest learning from the crisis

The rapid spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) has forced the countries to take necessary steps, which include the use of technologies to tackle the spread of the virus. Technology is proving to be an important method in combating the novel coronavirus.

This year's Tour of Spain will not go through Portugal as planned because of the COVID-19 crisis, organisers said on Saturday.

'MLAs said they're captive, (their) phones snatched away, there is police in front of every room. They're being followed 24X7'

Millions of people worldwide are having to embrace life under lockdown -- confined to their own four walls or neighbourhoods for weeks on end as countries battle to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

Shriya Saran urges fans to help small businesses during the COVID-19 crisis

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said the unemployment rate was likely to climb to around 20% this month

Want services to resume only after at least three major airports in the country become functional

The National Zoo has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to establish a captive population of the Virginia big-eared bat at the National Zoo’s Conservation & Research Center near Front Royal, Va. Only 15,000 Virginia big-eared bats remain living in caves in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina, and these are threatened by the white-nose syndrome.

The post In face of crisis, National Zoo to start captive population of Virginia big-eared bats appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The rescue pods will be part of the project’s Amphibian Rescue Center at Summit Municipal Park, which will also include a lab with a quarantine facility.

The post Shipping industry sends help as project in Panama tackles amphibian crisis appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The clouded leopard, a native of Southeast Asia, is among the most charismatic, secretive and least understood cat species in the world. In 2002, the […]

The post Clouded leopards, from crisis to success: Q&A with Janine Brown appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) have found that poaching is an emerging crisis for Asian elephants in Myanmar. Researchers first became aware […]

The post Elephant poaching crisis in Myanmar appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The National Academies stand ready to convene America’s best minds in research, government, medicine, and private industry to marshal evidence-based insights and advice for confronting today’s pandemic and future crises.

The recently formed National Academies Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats, assembled at the request of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, has been providing rapid expert consultations on several topics, such as social distancing and severe illness in young adults.

On the 10th Anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Marcia McNutt Reflects on How Science Helped Solve the Crisis, and Its Lessons for the COVID-19 Pandemic

A spike in texts and calls to crisis hotlines reflects Americans' growing anxiety about the coronavirus and its impact on their lives.; Credit: Richard Bailey/Getty Images

Normally, Laura Mayer helps the most acutely suicidal callers find the nearest hospital emergency room. But in a pandemic, that has become a crisis counselor's advice of last resort.

"It's a difficult decision because we do know that by sending them into an overburdened health care system, they may or may not get the treatment that they need," says Mayer, who is director of PRS CrisisLink in Oakton, Va., which also takes calls for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. "The resources may or may not be there, and we're exposing them to the illness."

So instead, counselors are devoting more time to each caller, offering ad hoc therapy and coaxing them to talk through their pain. These days, that pain often has many sources: lost jobs, severed relationships and sick family.

"The type of call and the seriousness of the call is very different this year than it was in previous years," Mayer says. "There's environmental issues, internal issues, family issues. ... It's never one thing."

America's crisis centers and hotlines are themselves in crisis. As people grapple with fear, loneliness and grief, on a grand scale, those stresses are showing up at crisis hotlines. Not only are the needs greater, but their clients' problems are more acute and complex and offer a window into the emotional struggles Americans face.

Across the board, hotlines of all kinds are reporting increases in volume.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration saw a fivefold increase at its National Helpline in March. The Crisis Text Line says its volumes are up 40% in the pandemic, to about 100,000 conversations a month.

Volunteer counselors and good Samaritans are responding by lining up to help.

But Mayer says the heaviness takes its toll. Those offering this kind of support end up needing support themselves.

"This illness is starting to impact each of our crisis workers and counselors themselves personally," she says. "So everyone is kind of a client right now, and that's been really challenging."

Nancy Lublin, CEO and co-founder of the Crisis Text Line, says she is bracing for sustained need. "This echo of the physical virus, the mental health echo, we fear it's going to last a very long time and that the intensity will remain," she says.

Over the last two months, the focal point of the emotional pain has shifted, she says. Initially, the spike in traffic was over anxiety about the virus itself. That shifted to complaints of isolation. Now, texters talk of depression and grief.

"So we've doubled the number of conversations that are about grief, and there the top two words that we see are 'grandma' and 'grandpa,' " she says.

And it's no longer just young people texting. Adults are complaining of loneliness, sexual abuse and eating disorders.

"As the quarantines go on and continue, we're seeing it's the people over the age of 35 who are increasing at a higher percentage of our volume," Lublin says. "For the first time, we're seeing people over the age of 60 texting us."

Texting is an ideal medium, she says, for those stuck at home with no personal space: "You don't have to find a quiet space where no one else can hear you."

And for some, that might be the only form of escape. The text line has seen a 74% increase in references to domestic violence. "We see words like 'trapped' [and] 'hurt,' " says Lublin.

Many shelters have shut down, and some of those in-person centers, including the Salvation Army in Philadelphia, now rely on their own hotlines instead.

Arielle Curry, director of the Salvation Army's anti-human trafficking program, says many of her clients can't afford cell phones and have lost touch; those who remain in contact are in dire straits, searching for a shorter supply of money or drugs, and are often suicidal. Curry says addressing those acute emotional needs by phone is frustrating; sometimes she doesn't even know where they are and can't send help to intervene.

"You can't ... comfort someone and look them in their eyes and support them face-to-face," she says. That makes it hard, Curry says, not to feel helpless and hopeless herself.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

American Express has

"The importance of hybrid cloud and AI has accelerated. What has changed is the pace at which they're being adopted. Transformation journeys (of) last few years are now being compacted into months...They're looking for long lasting answers on what they can do with technology to address the key issues that COVID-19 has brought to light," he said.

Deployment of AI and cloud technologies is helping the energy firm maintain its operations without disruption.

In an interview with ETCIO, Vikas Varma, Chief Operating Officer, South Asia, Mastercard talks about how the company’s AI-driven secured contactless payment initiatives have helped them prevent any business losses during the crisis.

As electronics manufacturers are set to resume operations in India, it is apparent that in the short term there is no alternative to sourcing from China, as urgent replenishment of inventories clearly implies continued dependence on it.

CIOs should focus their energy on the resolution of issues that arise as almost 100% of their workforce work remotely and building resistance towards the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A Nasscom study said the central government, as well as several state governments and public sector undertakings, owed close to Rs 5,000 crore for just technology projects to the IT industry.

A mere change of governments will not make Arab countries’ economic problems go away. Indeed, the converging effects of population growth, climate change, and

Brian Schweitzer makes headlines for discussing how we use our military to protect our energy interests abroad.

Robert Alvarez, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, says the operators of the stricken Japanese nuclear plants are using a “hail Mary” met

Michael Pollan explains how healthcare costs are increasing while the amount of money people spend on good food is decreasing and suggests a change.