Many Americans might consider it decidedly odd that the recent impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump also featured constant vilification of President Vladimir Putin, to such an extent that one might have though that the Russian leader was also in the dock awaiting sentencing. The irony is, of course, that while “Russian interference” has virtually become a cliché, its actual impact on the 2016 election outcome was less than negligible.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's Disease Control Department is
preparing for "an epidemic all over the country" because data proves
the coronavirus can continuously double the number of infected people
in less than a week.

If that occurs here, it could multiply Thailand's confirmed 33 victims
to become thousands of infected cases in less than two months.

"If you look at Chinese data, the doubling time or the time when the
number of cases will be doubled, is around a week," said Dr. Thanarak
Plipat, deputy director of Thailand's Bureau of Epidemiology under the
Health Ministry's Department of Disease Control.

"So every week, the number of cases in China will be double. If they
have 1,000 cases, next week it will be 2,000 or a little bit more
because actually the doubling time is a little bit shorter than a
week," Dr. Thanarak said.

"The reproductive numbers are one infected person can spread to more
than two persons, and can infect more than two persons. That's how
quickly it spreads.

It’s early 2019, and Brazil’s up surging right-wing elects Jair Bolsonaro, a retired army Captain. With it, comes a new administration alongside him, carrying the promises of a political shift away from the claws of corruption which have historically scarred the Latin American country’s turbulent political past.

Brazil’s still young democracy felt the tension of electing a pro-military strongman figure considering its worrisome relation with its military, which ruled the country through means of a dictatorship up until 1985. 

Known for his controversial remarks, ranging from misogynistic statements to outright disregard for the rights of minorities and democratically established institutions, Bolsonaro’s reputation did not favor him when he came into office. Having significant low approval ratings from the start, the new president would have to gain the public’s trust. And by appointing lauded experts of their field as ministers of his administration, he found a way.

55 years ago (July 2, 1961) an American literary icon, Ernest Hemingway, committed suicide at his beloved vacation retreat in Ketchum, Idaho. He had just flown to Ketchum after being discharged from a psychiatric ward at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN where he had received a series of electroconvulsive “treatments” (ECT) for a life-long depression that had started after he had experienced the horrors of World War I. In the “War To End All Wars” he had been a non-combatant ambulance driver and stretcher-bearer.

One of Hemingway’s wartime duties was to retrieve the mutilated bodies of living and dead humans and the body parts of the dead ones from the Italian sector of the WWI battle zone. In more modern times his MOS (military occupational specialty)might have been called Grave’s Registration, a job that - in the Vietnam War - had one of the highest incidences of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that arose in that war’s aftermath.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's health minister has provoked outrage
by demanding a warning to embassies and the deportation of all "those
damn Caucasian tourists" if they do not wear medical face masks, even
if they do not suffer from the coronavirus.

Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who is not a doctor, shocked the
public when he broke medical protocol and pulled down his own mask, so
it dangled under his chin before angrily cursing Caucasian tourists on
February 7 at a busy public rail station in Bangkok.

He had offered -- with his bare, ungloved hands -- some unwrapped,
unsterilized medical face masks to wary random foreigners who walked
away.

Mr. Anutin then unleashed a stream of verbal abuse during a photo
opportunity showcasing to the media how he dealt with the coronavirus.

"Those damn Caucasian tourists, that is something the embassies should
be notified of, and the public as well, that they are not wearing
medical face masks.

"We are handing them [medical face masks] out and they still refuse.