Michigan’s health department announced Thursday a human case of bird flu in a dairy worker. It’s the third human case reported to date in the current U.S. avian flu outbreak among dairy cows.

Unlike the previous two cases which only involved eye infection, this patient has respiratory symptoms, according to a statement from Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, chief medical executive with the Michigan health department. The patient had direct exposure to an infected cow and wasn’t wearing any personal protective equipment.

“This tells us that direct exposure to infected livestock poses a risk to humans,” said Bagdasarian.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement that its labs tested a sample from the Michigan patient and confirmed it was H5N1 bird flu. The patient had flu-like symptoms, including a cough and eye discomfort. The patient was treated with antivirals and is isolating at home. No other workers or household contacts of the patient have gotten sick so far.

The CDC said that risk to the general public remains low. Like the other two recent cases, this infection came from direct exposure to an infected animal. “There is no indication of person-to-person spread of A(H5N1) viruses at this time,” according to the CDC.

The CDC is monitoring data from influenza surveillance systems, and said “there has been no sign of unusual influenza activity in people.”

Nonetheless, scientists following the outbreak say this human case is troubling development.

“Our concerns about this outbreak are coming true,” says Dr. Rick Bright, a virologist and the former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). “The longer the U.S. allows this outbreak to continue, without appropriate measures to stop it, without conducting testing in cows and people, more people will be at increased risk for exposure and infection.”

The Biden administration has decided to allow Ukraine to strike inside Russia with U.S.-made weapons with the aim of blunting Russia’s attacks in the Kharkiv area, senior American officials said on Thursday.

The decision follows weeks of discussion with the Ukrainians after Russia began a major assault on Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine.

Because Kharkiv is near Russia, in the northeast of Ukraine, the Russian military has been hitting the area around the city with artillery and missiles fired or launched from inside Russian territory, and the Ukrainians have asked the Americans to give them greater leeway in defending Kharkiv, an American official said.

The permission from President Biden is intended solely for Ukraine to strike military sites in Russia being used to attack the Kharkiv area, U.S. officials said.

A senior American official in Washington said the administration’s policy prohibiting Ukraine from using U.S.-made weapons for “long range” attacks inside Russia had not changed.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told reporters traveling with him in Moldova that the United States would “adapt and adjust” to battlefield conditions. He was responding to a question about whether Mr. Biden would soon allow Ukraine to use American-made weapons to strike in Russia. It was a strong suggestion that the president was making the decision to give permission to Ukraine.

The leaders of NATO, France and Germany had recently urged the United States to make that decision. In internal administration discussions, Mr. Blinken has advocated moving in that direction. He is attending a NATO meeting in Prague on Thursday and Friday and visited Ukraine more than two weeks ago.

The decision by Mr. Biden was reported earlier on Thursday by Politico.

The Pentagon is charged with giving Ukraine the exact guidelines of what it can strike in Russia, U.S. officials said.

In addition to artillery and missile launchers, the Ukrainians are concerned about Russian aircraft releasing glide bombs at Kharkiv from inside Russian airspace. Glide bombs are simple munitions fitted with fins. Ukrainian officials say they want to use American-made weapons to attack Russian aircraft in Russia’s airspace and air bases inside Russia.

NEW DELHI, May 29 (Reuters) - Delhi recorded an all-time high temperature of 52.9 degrees Celsius (127.22 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday as extreme heat conditions gripped the north and western parts of India, causing students to faint in schools and drinking water taps to dry up.

A heat wave alert has been in place for large parts of India since last week but on Wednesday the temperature in Mungeshpur, a densely packed corner of Delhi, crossed the 50 C mark, the weather office said.

The Indian capital has had temperatures of over 45 C in previous years but never gone as high as 52.9 C.

Streets in Mungeshpur in northwest Delhi were deserted and most shops were shut as people stayed indoors to avoid the searing heat, while residents handed out free cold drinks in Narela after temperatures went up to 49.9 C on Tuesday.

"When we go outside it seems like someone is slapping our faces. It has become difficult to live in Delhi," said resident Akash Nirmal.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) said it is examining the data and sensors to look into Mungeshpur's temperature which was an outlier compared to other stations.

"There is so much heat in Delhi that students are fainting, some are falling sick, some are facing dehydration. The students are facing a lot of trouble in this heat. The fans don't work in our institutions," said Nidhi, a student, who gave only their first name.

An unusual transition from El Nino to La Nina and the lack of winds bringing moisture, has resulted in prolonged heating, leading to record temperatures, Gufran Beig, chair professor at the Indian Institute of Science told Reuters.

El Nino is the warming of Pacific waters that is typically accompanied by drier conditions over the Indian subcontinent while La Nina is characterised by unusually cold temperatures in the Pacific Ocean.

"We suspect that it is all associated with climate change," he told Reuters.

A spot of light rain in other parts of Delhi later on Wednesday brought some respite and weather officials expect the heat to ease later this week over northwest and central India.

India declares a heatwave when the maximum temperature is 4.5 degrees C to 6.4 degrees C higher than usual and a severe heat wave when it is 6.5 degrees C higher than normal or more.

Rose Brooks is now the first unionized domestic violence shelter in the state. Organizers say they hope the union helps stabilize an industry with high levels of burnout and turnover.

Workers at the Rose Brooks Center in Kansas City voted Thursday to become the first unionized domestic violence shelter in Missouri. More than two-thirds of eligible workers at one of Kansas City’s largest and oldest shelters opted to unionize with the Laborers Local 955.

The vote was 27-18, though shelter leadership has contested one ballot. The union includes workers who handle community programs, patient care, housing and economic services.

Maret Miller has been with Rose Brooks for about a decade, starting as a volunteer. She said the union effort began because shelter management did not respect workers’ insights on how to improve shelter operations.

“We're the ones answering the hotline 24/7,” Miller said. “We're the ones that are seeing people when they first come into the shelter. We are talking to survivors at the scene of a crime. We touch on a lot of different areas of the community and often those are in very stressful, dire situations.”

The 45 employees began their union campaign last year and petitioned to unionize in April.

I would like to submit at least the first two seasons of Twin Peaks for Hextube showings. Not sure if it’s been shown before but it’s definitely kino and I loooove just about everything David Lynch has done.

@wombat@hexbear.net

@Grebgreb@hexbear.net

https://www.reddit.com/r/kansas/s/tQTuFuN42E

So in the state I currently reside, I can buy a firearm from a friend with cash. There is no bill of sale, no record at all tying me to that firearm.

While this is ideal for maintaining my own privacy from our government, it applies to everybody, including those people down the street that fly a thin blue line flag in their yard.

I'm really conflicted on how I feel about it, but it's pretty clear which gun owners have a propensity for unreasonable violence.

Case in point: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Ralph_Yarl

DUBAI, May 19 (Reuters) - A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister crashed on Sunday as it was crossing mountain terrain in heavy fog, an Iranian official told Reuters, and rescuers were struggling to reach the site of the incident.

The official said the lives of Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian were "at risk following the helicopter crash", which happened on the way back from a visit to the border with Azerbaijan in Iran's northwest.

"We are still hopeful but information coming from the crash site is very concerning," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Iranian state media said bad weather was the cause of the crash and was complicating rescue efforts. The chief of staff of Iran's army ordered all the resources of the army and the elite Revolutionary Guard to be put to use in search and rescue operations.

"It is dark and it has started raining, but the search continues. Rescue teams have reached the area ... however, the rain has created mud, making the search difficult," a local reporter told state TV.

State TV had earlier stopped all its regular programming to show prayers being held for Raisi across the country and, in a corner of the screen, live coverage of rescue teams deployed on foot in the mountainous area in heavy fog.

The rescue teams were expected to reach the probable site of the crash later on Sunday evening.

WASHINGTON, May 17 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will push fellow G7 finance officials next week to agree to a plan to bring forward the interest earnings on frozen Russian assets to provide more money to Ukraine quickly, a senior U.S. Treasury official said on Friday.

The official told reporters ahead of Yellen's May 21-25 trip to Frankfurt, Germany, and the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Stresa, Italy, that the G7 is "making progress" toward consensus on a plan to harness some $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets frozen since Moscow's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The G7 finance ministers have been tasked with recommending a plan for G7 leaders to adopt at a summit in June in southern Italy. The G7 industrial democracies are the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada.

Yellen had previously pushed for full confiscation of the largely euro-denominated assets, but officials in Europe, concerned about risks to the euro and problematic legal precedents, have balked, opting instead for a more conservative plan to put the earnings -- estimated at around $3.5 billion per year -- into a fund for Ukraine.

Since then, the U.S. has proposed a plan to pull forward the interest on the assets to back a bond or a loan that would provide Ukraine perhaps $50 billion in the near term as it battles increasing Russian military pressure in its east and north.

The plan comes with some controversy, because it would require Western powers to hold the assets for around 20 years, said Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council's GeoEconomics Center.

"It's a big mountain to climb, and the U.S. is going to push this strongly at the G7," Lipsky said. "If it doesn't happen now, I'm not sure that it will in the near future."

The reaction from G7 finance ministries so far has been cautious. Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Friday that any proposals to use the frozen Russian assets must comply with international law.

The French Economics and Finance Ministry said in a statement: "France supports and shares the fact that more resources are needed for Ukraine. We have taken note of the U.S. proposal and we will work together technically at the G7 level and at the European level to determine the best option."

These and other measures announced Friday marked Beijing's latest efforts to address issues in the massive real estate sector.

The People's Bank of China will provide 300 billion yuan ($42.25 billion) to financial institutions to lend to local state-owned enterprises (SOEs) so they can buy unsold apartments that have already been built.

Also Friday, the PBOC removed a floor on mortgage interest rates, and lowered the minimum down payment ratio for first- and second-time home buyers.

BEIJING — Chinese authorities on Friday pledged new support for state-owned enterprises to enable them to buy unsold apartments, in an effort that could help developers get more funding to finish construction on pre-sold properties.

These and other measures announced Friday marked Beijing's latest efforts to address issues in the massive real estate sector.

"I think it is encouraging that the policy is taking a turn of direction trying to support the housing market," said Zhu Ning, a professor of finance at Tsinghua University and author of the book "China's Guaranteed Bubble."

People's Bank of China Deputy Governor Tao Ling told reporters at a briefing Friday the central bank would provide 300 billion yuan ($42.25 billion) to financial institutions to lend to local state-owned enterprises (SOEs) so they can buy unsold apartments that have already been built.

The central bank expects the support to release 500 billion yuan in financing for such purchases, which the SOEs could turn into affordable housing.

The real estate companies can then use funds earned from those sales to complete construction on other apartments, the central bank said.

As for unfinished, pre-sold properties, the National Financial Regulatory Administration Deputy Director Xiao Yuanqi told reporters that commercial banks have provided 935 billion yuan in loans to finish construction on whitelisted projects since the program was released in January.

"The government's purchase of housing inventory can inject more liquidity to developers, who could then have more resources for housing delivery," Larry Hu, chief economist at Macquarie, told CNBC. "Finally the government stepped in as the buyer of the last resort."

"At this stage, it's mainly SOEs and local governments to implement the policies, but their resources may be too limited to move the needle at the macro level," he said. "Later on, we might see more efforts from the central government."

Developers "that must go bankrupt should go bankrupt, while those that need to be restructured should be restructured," Dong Jianguo, deputy head of the ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, told reporters in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. He said homebuyers' interests and rights should be prioritized, and those that violate the law should be punished.

The Arab League has called for a United Nations peacekeeping force in the occupied Palestinian territory at a summit dominated by Israel’s continuing deadly assault of the Gaza Strip.

The meeting of Arab heads of state and government convened in Bahrain on Tuesday more than seven months into Israel’s offensive in Gaza that has convulsed the wider region.

The “Manama Declaration” issued by the 22-member bloc called for “international protection and peacekeeping forces of the United Nations in the occupied Palestinian territories” until a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict is implemented.

It called for an immediate end to fighting in the Gaza Strip and blamed Israeli “obstruction” for failed negotiations for a ceasefire.

“We stress the need to stop the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip immediately, withdraw the Israeli occupation forces from all areas of the Strip [and] lift the siege imposed on it,” the statement said.

The statement blamed Israel for the war continuing.

“We strongly condemn Israel’s obstruction of cease-fire efforts in the Gaza Strip and its continued military escalation by expanding its aggression against the Palestinian city of Rafah, despite international warnings of the disastrous humanitarian consequences,” it said.