| {"question_id": "20220701_0", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/investing/bed-bath--beyond-sales-decline/index.html", "text": "New York CNN Business —\n\nRetailers typically want their sales numbers to be red hot, not their customers. But Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) is reportedly dealing with cooled momentum and heated customers at its stores.\n\nA new report from Bank of America claims that the company has cut air conditioning in an effort to quickly lower expenses to make up for a slump in sales.\n\nBed Bath & Beyond told CNN that any changes in store temperature guidelines did not come from corporate. “We’ve been contacted about this report, and to be clear, no Bed Bath & Beyond stores were directed to adjust their air conditioning and there have been no corporate policy changes in regard to utilities usage,” said a representative.\n\nStill, analysts at Bank of America who have conducted store visits report mounting concerns, including labor hours that have been meaningfully cut, scaled back utilities, reduced store operating hours and canceled remodeling projects. Rewards programs have also been scaled back and replaced. The analysts expect Bed Bath & Beyond’s management will soon announce more store closures and halt openings of its Buy Buy Baby stores.\n\nMeanwhile, fire sales and price reductions run rampant. The company continues to offer elevated promotions including up to 50% off bedding and furniture, free same-day shipping, $10 off a $30 purchase and 20% off purchases by college students and their parents.\n\nBut analysts at Riley Securities don’t see those sales promotions doing much to help. They significantly reduced their price target for the retailer’s stock from $17 to $7, citing a decrease in store traffic. An easing of Covid restrictions means a lower demand for home goods and supply chain problems have led to a lack of inventory to attract customers, they said. Competitors including Walmart and Target have seen their traffic remain steady, the analysts noted, while Bed Bath & Beyond is pacing down 20% to 30% year-over-year.\n\nA customer wearing a protective mask retrieves a shopping cart outside a Bed Bath & Beyond store in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., on Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021. Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg/Getty Images\n\nThe changes come ahead of the homegoods retailer’s first quarter report, set to be released this week, and follow a devastating report last quarter when sales plunged 22%. Bed Bath & Beyond’s CEO Mark Tritton said the unavailability of certain products caused by supply chain kinks resulted in about $175 million of lost sales during the period.\n\nBank of America analysts believe sales will drop another 20% this quarter.\n\n“The company has been underperforming the industry and we think consensus estimates [of an 18% drop in sales] may be optimistic,” they wrote.\n\nThe Zacks Equity Research Consensus Estimate for the retailer’s earnings is now pegged at a loss of $1.28 per share, a 2,660% decline from the last year. Bed Bath & Beyond has an average trailing four-quarter negative earnings surprise of 4,700%, according to the financial research firm.\n\nOther troubling factors for the company include the resignation of two key financial executives in recent months, chief accounting officer John Barresi resigned in May and Heather Plutino, senior vice president of financial planning and analysis and commercial finance also left the company.\n\nA sale of the spinoff brand Buy Buy Baby also seems less likely, Bank of America analysts said. Activist investor RC Ventures, which own a nearly 10% stake in Bed Bath & Beyond, advocated selling the brand earlier this year and buyers expressed interest. However, the analysts don’t think that interest can withstand these latest downturns. “We continue to see challenges to completing a deal given BBBY’s worsening financial position and increasing high-yield spreads,” they wrote.\n\nAnalysts at Riley Securities said they had believed the sale or spin off of the business could have unlocked $1.5 billion to $2 billion in value, but they no longer believe a sale is imminent as business dries up.\n\nAlthough the retailer will likely incur a few more quarters of sustained pain, there is still hope, analysts said.\n\nTritton took over as CEO of the home-goods business after leaving his job as Target’s chief merchant officer in November 2019 and quickly instituted a massive turnaround plan.\n\nHe announced a significant store-closure road map, cleaned out the c-suite and led divestitures from companies such as Christmas Tree Shops and Cost Plus World Market. The company said it would spend about $250 million to remodel about 450 Bed Bath & Beyond shops to make shopping at stores easier and goods more accessible.\n\n“The turnaround is taking longer than expected to come to fruition due to supply chain challenges and entering a more challenging retail operating environment,” Riley Securities analysts wrote, but “we think Bed, Bath & Beyond is heading in the right direction.”\n\nCorrection: A previous version of this story's headline misstated Bank of America's report on Bed Bath & Beyond's air conditioning practices. The company is reportedly scaling back the use of its AC.", "authors": ["Nicole Goodkind"], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}]} | |
| {"question_id": "20220701_1", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/politics/white-house-free-public-tours-full-operating-schedule/index.html", "text": "CNN —\n\nPublic tours of the White House will resume a full operating schedule on July 19 for the first time since they were suspended in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the White House announced Monday.\n\nLimited tours of the White House resumed earlier this year on Fridays and Saturdays but will be offered Tuesdays through Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET, excluding federal holidays, under the full operating schedule. The tours are free to the public and can be scheduled through the office of a member of Congress.\n\nThe White House says it will continue to monitor Covid-19 and operate based on guidance provided by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Face masks are not currently required for the tours. Anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19, has symptoms or has been exposed to the virus within 10 days of their scheduled tour is being told to stay home.\n\nThe White House has hosted several large-scale events at the White House in recent months, after being unable to do so for much of President Joe Biden’s first year in office. The President and first lady Jill Biden welcomed thousands of guests to the South Lawn of the White House in April for the Easter Egg Roll, an annual holiday tradition that had been canceled for the past two years because of the pandemic. The White House also hosted spring garden tours this year, which were free and open to the public.\n\nThe Biden administration has been trying to move the country into a new phase of the pandemic that is less disruptive to Americans’ daily lives.\n\nA significant development in the nation’s fight against Covid-19 came earlier this month, when the US Food and Drug Administration expanded the emergency use authorizations for the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines to include children as young as 6 months. Moderna’s vaccine is now authorized for use in children 6 months through 17 years and Pfizer/BioNTech’s for children 6 months through 4 years. About 17 million kids under age 5 are now are eligible for Covid-19 vaccines.", "authors": ["Kate Sullivan Donald Judd", "Kate Sullivan", "Donald Judd"], "publish_date": "2022/06/27"}]} | |
| {"question_id": "20220701_2", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/tech/daily-harvest-recall-influencers/index.html", "text": "CNN —\n\nInstagram-friendly meal kit service Daily Harvest is facing a firestorm of online backlash over the voluntary recall of one of its products, after a slew of people who consumed it reported becoming ill with mysterious symptoms, including extremely elevated liver enzymes.\n\nThe direct-to-consumer brand has long utilized a network of online influencers to promote its products. Now several influencers, who say they were sickened, say the company’s lackluster handling of the crisis is putting new responsibility on the influencer community to warn the public.\n\nIt’s also exposing the swift fallout that can emerge when you aggrieve a demographic with such a wide internet reach.\n\n“This company was built on the backs of influencers,” said Cory Silverstein, who runs an organic skincare brand with his wife, and told CNN Business he received the product, called French Lentil and Leek Crumbles, as part of a PR package in mid-May.\n\n“That is what built them up to be like a billion-dollar valuation company, is all these influencers who did the marketing for them,” he added. “At this point, it’s the influencers who are alerting the public that you might end up in the hospital if you eat this product.”\n\nAfter consuming the product, Silverstein said, “I’ve never experienced pain like that — it’s the first time I felt kind of helpless.”\n\nIn response to CNN Business’ multiple requests for comment, Daily Harvest sent the latest update the company posted on their website related to the voluntary recall.\n\n“We want to make sure you have the latest update on our voluntary recall of French Lentil + Leek Crumbles. We are taking this very seriously and doing everything we can to get to the bottom of this. Your health and well-being are our top priority,” the blog post states, adding that it has reached out to impacted customers and is taking a number of steps to investigate the cause.\n\n“We are working with a group of experts to help us get to the bottom of this—that includes microbiologists, toxin and pathogen experts as well as allergists,” the statement from Daily Harvest adds. “All pathogen and toxicology results have come back negative so far, but we’re continuing to do extensive testing and will keep you updated.”\n\nAn image of Daily Harvest's French Lentil + Leek Crumbles meal from their website. Daily Harvest issued a voluntary recall Sunday of a lentil-based product, after receiving customer reports of gastrointestinal issues linked to its French Lentil + Leek Crumbles meal.\n\nIn an updated blog post Thursday evening, the company said it has received approximately 470 reports of illness or adverse reaction, and the investigation into the root cause remains ongoing. It added that some 28,000 units of the recalled product were distributed in the US between April 28 to June 17.\n\nOn June 17, the company first emailed people who received the product warning that “a small number of customers have reported gastrointestinal discomfort” after consuming the crumbles and urging those who still had them to throw them away. It first posted a statement warning the public not to consume the crumbles on June 19.\n\nLaunched in 2016, Daily Harvest’s emergence as a household name was linked in large part to its aggressive social media campaigns. The company has received multiple celebrity supporters, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Serena Williams (representatives for Paltrow and Williams did not immediately respond to CNN Business’ request for comment).\n\nThe meal kit company announced last November that it had secured Series D funding that valued Daily Harvest at over $1 billion.\n\nInfluencers track down a united source for mysterious symptoms\n\nSilverstein said he spent time in an urgent care center where doctors scrambled to figure out what was wrong. He tested negative for all forms of hepatitis, the initial suspect, and did a slew of blood tests that eventually indicated liver enzyme levels that were off the charts. He says that levels of important liver enzymes were elevated as much as twelve times the normal range.\n\nHe spent weeks not knowing the cause of the mysterious illness, until he said his wife saw a post from fellow influencer Luke Wesley Pearson, a content creator from Portland. Pearson was reporting shockingly similar symptoms, he said, and the two realized they had both received these crumbles from the company before they were launched on the public market.\n\nPearson told CNN Business that he underwent emergency surgery on June 12 to get his gallbladder removed after experiencing gastrointestinal issues after consuming the crumbles.\n\nVarious frozen healthy meal items (but not the crumbles that are part of the recall) are visible inside a Daily Harvest frozen meal kit box, Lafayette, California, October 14, 2021. (Photo by Gado/Getty Images) Gado/Archive Photos/Getty Images\n\nPearson says he tried the lentil crumbles twice, both times leading to intense stomach aches. It was the second try, however, that sent him to the ER. After symptoms that included “excruciating” stomach pains, fever, chills, itching of the hands and feet, and jaundice, Pearson underwent testing that revealed – just like Silverstein – elevated liver enzymes, as well as high bilirubin. Doctors ultimately decided to remove Pearson’s gallbladder.\n\nFor Pearson, it was only after seeing a viral TikTok by Abby Silverman that he realized the issues could be connected to the food he ingested immediately before his issues began. Silverman, a creative director in New York, posted a video that has garnered more than 100,000 likes on TikTok detailing her own experience after eating the Daily Harvest product. She said the lentils similarly landed her in the ER, twice, with alarmingly high liver enzyme levels. While she suspected it may be from the crumbles, she said she formally connected her medical crisis with the lentils after an email from Daily Harvest on June 19 recalling the food item led her to a Reddit thread of scores of other people detailing similar symptoms. Silverman’s lawyer, Mark Apostolos, confirmed to CNN Business in a statement that medical records document her illness and symptoms.\n\n“It’s interesting because I have seen a lot of people on social media over the years try Daily Harvest, which is why I said yes to the PR package,” Silverman told CNN Business.\n\n“This whole health situation has just caused so much anxiety,” said Silverman, who has retained a lawyer, Apostolos, to deal with the fallout. “Obviously, I didn’t expect this. I made the video that I did because I feel like they weren’t doing enough to make people aware of what was going on – I figured people probably still had this in their freezer.”\n\n“We are investigating and evaluating all legal remedies for Abby, who was stricken with illness after consuming this product that was mailed to her,” said Apostolos in a statement.\n\nAnother customer who had her gallbladder removed was Candice Smith, who told CNN Business she initially thought she was having a heart attack after consuming the product. “It was the worst night of my life,” said Smith, the CEO of French Press Public Relations in Raleigh, of the night she rushed to the hospital – where she says she stayed for four days undergoing tests on her enlarged liver and elevated liver enzymes. Her gallbladder was removed on June 19.\n\nThe company declined to comment on claims that customers underwent gallbladder surgeries related to its product. All of the people who spoke to CNN Business said doctors were initially puzzled by their symptoms.\n\nSmith said she had no relevant pre-existing medical conditions before the hospital visit. “I try to be healthy. I eat plant-based, I’m trying to do all the right things,” said Smith. “What am I doing here? Why am I even here? Why am I experiencing this level of pain in my life?”\n\nCompany’s response slammed as insensitive\n\nCaroline Sweet, a freelance actor and writer in Los Angeles, said she was in the emergency room emerging from a CT scan after enduring days of being “completely doubled-over in pain” when she received an email on June 17 from Daily Harvest informing her to throw away the crumbles and offering her a $10 store credit. (The company said in a blogpost all consumers were issued a credit for the recalled product).\n\n“It was just like a huge f**k you,” Sweet said of the email. “The fact that they’re just handling it so poorly feels like such a huge slap in the face.”\n\nSarah Schacht, a consultant and property manager in Seattle, said she similarly became “violently ill” after consuming the product that she said she was initially drawn to for its organic and health-forward marketing. “Everyone who’s on the internet has been served Daily Harvest ads, right?” she said.\n\nSchacht has been vocal on Twitter about urging people to take samples to local health departments or their Food and Drug Administration offices.\n\nSilverstein, meanwhile, said he was incredibly dismayed by the Instagram post Daily Harvest used to alert customers of the recall. The post, which was published on June 19, simply used a previous promotional picture of the crumble – and directed people to click a link for an “important message,” which directed them to a blog post about the voluntary recall. At a first glance, Silverstein said most people would assume that the post was promoting the product. Daily Harvest has since removed the post he referenced from their Instagram, which was widely blasted as insensitive.\n\nThe FDA told CNN Business in a statement that it cannot confirm or deny if an investigation is occurring that is not already listed on its website. “However, the FDA takes seriously reports of possible adulteration of a food that may also cause illnesses or injury,” an FDA spokesperson said in a statement.\n\nThe agency added that when specific consumer guidance can be developed, the FDA and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will publish outbreak advisories communicating that guidance to the public.\n\n“I’m very angry because we are all being left in the dark without answers,” said Pearson. “I know that accidents happen all the time in the food industry, and I’ve just seen other companies who are completely transparent, speaking up and making loud and clear announcements of what’s going on and what the next steps are and what they found out so far.”\n\nSilverstein added that he feels that some of the onus has fallen on influencers to alert their followers. While the company emailed customers and posted a statement on its website, he thinks they should be doing more to make people aware on social media.\n\nWhile he and his wife have worked with Daily Harvest for some five years now, and never had any issues in the past, he said they have no choice but to “cut off our relationship with them.”", "authors": ["Catherine Thorbecke Jennifer Korn", "Catherine Thorbecke", "Jennifer Korn"], "publish_date": "2022/06/27"}]} | |
| {"question_id": "20220701_3", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/australia/nasa-launch-first-space-rocket-alpha-centauri-australia-intl-hnk/index.html", "text": "CNN —\n\nNASA has successfully launched a rocket from Australia’s remote Northern Territory, making history as the agency’s first commercial spaceport launch outside the United States.\n\nThe rocket blasted off at just past midnight local time Monday from the Arnhem Space Center on the Dhupuma Plateau, near the township of Nhulunbuy, according to Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA), the developer, owner and operator of the center.\n\nThe rocket is expected to travel more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) into space on its mission to observe the Alpha Centauri A and B constellations – the nearest star systems to the Earth.\n\nAlpha Centauri bears a special meaning for Australia. It is mostly only visible from the Southern Hemisphere and is one of the “pointers” to the Southern Cross constellation that appears on the country’s flag, according to Reuters.\n\nMonday’s event also made history for Australia as the first commercial space launch in the country. It was the first of three launches, with a further two planned for July 4 and July 12. These will carry out astrophysical studies that can only be done from the Southern Hemisphere, according to NASA.\n\nMichael Jones, executive chairman and group CEO of ELA, said it was a historic night.\n\n“We could never have dreamed of having such a supportive, experienced and professional partner as NASA. They have been unbelievably generous in helping us through this journey and we will be a much better organization for their support,” Jones said in a statement.\n\n“Today’s launch not only puts ELA at the forefront of global commercial space launch, it also confirms that we and Australia can provide access to space and this is just the beginning for us,” he added.\n\nAustralian National University astrophysicist Brad Tucker, who was on site to watch the launch, said wind and rain beforehand had caused some nervousness about whether it would go ahead.\n\nBut after a delay of more than an hour, excitement broke out as the rocket took off.\n\n“At that final time, nearly everyone ran outside to see the launch and watch in awe. Even after we lost sight of the rocket, people stood outside for such a long time,” Tucker said.\n\nTucker said the suborbital missions were aimed at better understanding the star systems and whether any habitable planets existed there.\n\nNASA is the first client for the commercial spaceport operated by ELA and 70 of its staff have traveled to Australia for the three missions.\n\nThe American space agency said the mission will study the evolution of galaxies by measuring X-rays produced by hot gases that fill the space between stars.\n\nThe Arnhem Space Center describes itself as the only commercially owned and run multi-user equatorial launch site in the world.", "authors": ["Kathleen Magramo"], "publish_date": "2022/06/27"}]} | |
| {"question_id": "20220701_4", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/sport/brittney-griner-court-hearing-spt-intl/index.html", "text": "CNN —\n\nA Russian court on Monday scheduled Brittney Griner’s trial to start Friday, according to her lawyer, and ruled the WNBA star’s detention be extended six months pending its outcome.\n\nGriner – who has been held in Russia since her arrest at a Moscow airport on allegations of attempted drug smuggling – attended the preliminary hearing in person Monday, arriving at court handcuffed and flanked by guards in black vests, according to a photo by AFP photographer Kirill Kudryavstev.\n\nHer lawyer, Alexander Boykov, previously told CNN the hearing would occur behind closed doors at the Khimki court, just outside Moscow.\n\nGriner, 31, a Phoenix Mercury player who plays in Russia during the WNBA’s offseason, was arrested February 17. Russian authorities claimed she had cannabis oil in her luggage and accused her of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance, an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.\n\nThe US State Department, however, has classified Griner as “wrongfully detained,” a department official told CNN in May.\n\nWNBA star Brittney Griner arrives at a hearing at the Khimki court outside Moscow on Monday. Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images\n\nGriner’s detention, which has been repeatedly extended, has sparked a wave of support among dozens of organizations in the US that have joined Cherelle Griner, Brittney Griner’s wife, in urging President Joe Biden to strike an exchange deal with Russian authorities to release Griner and bring her home safely as soon as possible.\n\nGriner’s supporters have expressed concern that she might be used as a political pawn, given rising tensions amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.\n\nREAD: Dozens of organizations sign letter calling on President Biden to strike deal for Brittney Griner’s release\n\nMore than 40 organizations – including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, the National Urban League and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association – signed a letter to President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris calling for action to get Griner released.\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Cherelle Griner one-on-one last Wednesday, according to a senior State Department official. And US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday he and Blinken spoke with Cherelle “in the last few days … to convey that we just can’t even begin to imagine what the family must be going through” and what “Brittney must be going through.”\n\nCherelle Griner said last week she hasn’t talked to her wife since February 17.\n\n“I’ve got no higher priority than making sure that Americans who are being illegally detained in one way or another around the world come home,” Sec. Blinken told CNN’s “State of the Union” at the Group of 7 summit Sunday.\n\n“That includes Paul Whelan, that includes Brittney Griner, that includes people in a number of other countries,” he added. Whelan is a US citizen who was detained in Moscow in 2018 and arrested on espionage charges. He has denied the charges.\n\n“I can’t comment in any detail on what we’re doing, except to say this is an absolute priority,” Blinken said.\n\nWhile Griner’s trial has been scheduled, that should not prevent US officials from trying to negotiate her release, her agent said on Twitter, calling Monday’s hearing “administrative in nature and not on the merits.”\n\n“The negotiation for her immediate release regardless of the legal proceedings should remain a top priority,” Lindsay Kagawa Colas wrote, “and we expect @POTUS and @VP to do everything in their power, right now, to get a deal done to bring her home.”\n\nThe US Embassy in Moscow will send a US diplomat to Brittney Griner’s hearing on Friday, a US official told CNN.\n\nA State Department spokesperson reiterated that the Griner is “wrongfully detained,” and said that support for her and her family will continue. “The US government will continue to provide appropriate support to Ms. Griner and her family. We will continue to press for her release.”\n\nGriner was named an honorary WNBA All-Star Game starter last week, with the All-Star Game scheduled to take place on July 10 in Chicago.\n\nGriner’s detention abroad is still “tough on our team,” Phoenix Mercury head coach Vanessa Nygaard told reporters before the team’s game Monday against the Indiana Fever.\n\nShe expressed hope Griner will return home soon and that President Joe Biden will “take the steps to ensure that she comes home.”", "authors": ["Anna Chernova Dakin Andone", "Anna Chernova", "Dakin Andone"], "publish_date": "2022/06/27"}]} | |
| {"question_id": "20220701_5", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/health/cdc-eoc-monkeypox/index.html", "text": "1. How relevant is this ad to you?\n\nVideo player was slow to load content Video content never loaded Ad froze or did not finish loading Video content did not start after ad Audio on ad was too loud Other issues", "authors": ["Virginia Langmaid"], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}, {"url": "https://e.newsletters.cnn.com/click?EYWxleGFuZHJhLm1lZWtzQHdhcm5lcm1lZGlhLmNvbQ/CeyJtaWQiOiIxNjU2NDk4OTY5MjM2Y2Y1YTVhODc2YjQ3IiwiY3QiOiJjbm4tODk1OTFkM2MzMjUxM2ZjNjA0MGY5YmFmYjNiNmY3NWQtMSIsInJkIjoid2FybmVybWVkaWEuY29tIn0/HWkhfQ05OX2lfTmV3c19OREJBTjA2MjkyMDIyNjM4MjY0MSxjbjEsaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY25uLmNvbS8yMDIyLzA1LzI0L2hlYWx0aC93aGF0LWlzLW1vbmtleXBveC12aXJ1cy1leHBsYWluZXItdXBkYXRlLXdlbGxuZXNzL2luZGV4Lmh0bWw/qP3V0bV90ZXJtPTE2NTY0OTg5NjkyMzZjZjVhNWE4NzZiNDcmdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1jbm5fRml2ZStUaGluZ3MrZm9yK1dlZG5lc2RheSUyQytKdW5lKzI5JTJDKzIwMjImdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZidF9lZT1PYmpPb3phc0xhTzNKVHc2emsxeFh4cEN3MVdIQUJ6N3NsTDFLU2E4SzlkakJ2ZjR1U1dsaE9oRHBENEVJNU5IJmJ0X3RzPTE2NTY0OTg5NjkyMzk/sv447c84a9a", "text": "CNN —\n\nAn extremely rare disease called monkeypox, a cousin of smallpox, has again made its way to the United States. A case of monkeypox was reported Wednesday in a patient hospitalized in Massachusetts who had recently traveled to Canada in private transportation.\n\n“The countries that are reporting monkeypox now are countries that do not normally have outbreaks of monkeypox,” Rosamund Lewis, head of the smallpox secretariat, WHO Emergencies programme, said Tuesday during a news briefing at the United Nations in Geneva.\n\nMonkeypox is endemic near tropical rainforests in central and west Africa, but it has increasingly been seen near urban areas, according to WHO.\n\n“This is an emerging disease. It has been emerging for the last 20 to 30 years, (so) it’s not unknown, it’s very well described,” Lewis told reporters. “The risk for the general public, therefore, appears to be low, because we know that the main modes of transmission have been as described in the past.”\n\nIn the United States, the first case of monkeypox in 2022 was diagnosed in a patient hospitalized in Massachusetts who had recently traveled to Canada in private transportation. In 2021, two people traveling from Nigeria to the US were diagnosed with the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nMonkeypox is mostly found in West and Central Africa, but additional cases have been seen in Europe, including the United Kingdom, and other parts of the world in recent years. Those cases are typically linked to international travel or imported animals infected with the pox, the CDC said.\n\nSeveral cases of monkeypox in the UK among people who have no known travel or contact with others with the virus have health officials there and at the CDC concerned, but there is no cause for alarm, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said Thursday on CNN’s “New Day.”\n\n“At this time, we don’t want people to worry,” Murthy said. “These numbers are still small; we want them to be aware of (the) symptoms, and if they have any concerns to reach out to their doctor.”\n\nWhat are the initial symptoms of monkeypox?\n\nThere is an incubation period of some seven to 14 days, the CDC said. Initial symptoms are typically flu-like, such as fever, chills, exhaustion, headache and muscle weakness, followed by swelling in the lymph nodes, which help the body fight infection and disease.\n\n“A feature that distinguishes infection with monkeypox from that of smallpox is the development of swollen lymph nodes,” the CDC said.\n\nNext comes a widespread rash on the face and body, including inside the mouth and on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.\n\nThe painful, raised poxes are pearly and fluid-filled, often surrounded by red circles. The lesions finally scab over and resolve over a period of two to three weeks, the CDC said.\n\nIn the current outbreak, there appear to be a higher number of cases causing rash in the groin area of patients, according to the WHO and CDC.\n\n“In some cases, during the early stages of illness, the rash has been mostly in the genital and perianal area,” Dr. John Brooks, chief medical officer for the CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention said Monday in a news briefing.\n\n“In some cases, it has produced anal or genital lesions that look like other diseases like herpes or chickenpox or syphilis,” he said.\n\nA “notable fraction of cases” in the current outbreak have been seen among gay and bisexual men, “but by no means is the current risk of exposure to monkeypox exclusively to the gay and bisexual community in the US. Anyone, anyone, can develop [and] spread monkeypox,” Brooks said.\n\nOverall, monkeypox risk is moderate for people with multiple sexual partners and low for the broader population, according to a rapid risk assessment report published Monday by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.\n\nHowever, monkeypox is not considered a sexually-transmitted disease.\n\nHow is monkeypox spread?\n\nClose contact with an infected individual is required for the spread of the monkeypox virus, experts say.\n\nInfection can develop after exposure to “broken skin, mucous membranes, respiratory droplets, infected body fluids or even contact with contaminated linen,” Neil Mabbott, personal chair in immunopathology at the veterinary school of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, said in a statement.\n\n“When the lesions have healed, the scabs (which might carry infectious virus) can be shed as dust, which could be inhaled,” said Dr. Michael Skinner, who is on the faculty of medicine in the department of infectious disease at Imperial College London, in a statement.\n\nTransmission between people occurs primarily through large respiratory droplets, and because such droplets typically travel only a few feet, “prolonged face-to-face contact is required,” the CDC said.\n\nMonkeypox creates fluid-filled poxes that are contagious until scabs fall off, experts say. www.visualdx.com\n\n“Smallpox patients became contagious as soon as they developed sores spread the virus though droplets with coughing or sneezing. They remained contagious until their lesions resolved,” said Dr. Paritosh Prasad, director of the Highly Infectious Disease Unit at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York.\n\nHowever, based on available historical information, monkeypox appears to be less contagious than smallpox, Prasad said.\n\n“Monkeypox can be a serious infection, with mortality rates from this type of monkeypox virus having been around 1% in other outbreaks. These are often in lower-income settings with limited access to health care,” said Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton in the UK.\n\nHowever, in the developed world, “it would be very unusual to see anything more than a handful of cases in any outbreak, and we won’t be seeing (Covid)-style levels of transmission,” Head said in a statement.\n\nCommon household disinfectants can kill the monkeypox virus, according to the CDC.\n\nHow is monkeypox treated?\n\nThere are no specific drugs available to treat the symptoms of monkeypox, so “treatment is generally supportive,” Jimmy Whitworth, professor of international public health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said in a statement.\n\n“However, a vaccine is available that can be given to prevent the development of disease,” Whitworth said.\n\nIn the US, a two-dose vaccine called Jynneos is currently licensed to prevent monkeypox and can also be used for smallpox. The vaccine has been stockpiled by the US government in case of a resurgence of the eradicated disease.\n\n“Right now, we have over 1,000 doses of that available and we expect that level to ramp up very quickly in the coming weeks as the company provides more doses to us,” Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, deputy director of the Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology within the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, told reporters during a call Monday.\n\n“We are hoping to maximize vaccine distribution to those that we know would benefit from it,” McQuiston said. “Those are people who’ve had contact with a known monkeypox patients, health care workers, very close personal contact, and those in particular who might be at high risk for severe disease.”\n\nWhere did monkeypox originate?\n\nMonkeypox got its name in 1958 when “two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research,” the CDC said.\n\nHowever, the main disease carrier of monkeypox is still unknown, although “African rodents are suspected to play a part in transmission,” the agency said.\n\nThe first known case of monkeypox in people was “recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo during a period of intensified effort to eliminate smallpox,” the CDC said.\n\nA outbreak occurred in the US in 2003 after forty-seven people in six states – Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin – became ill due to contact with their pet prairie dogs, the CDC said.\n\n“The pets were infected after being housed near imported small mammals from Ghana,” the CDC said. “This was the first time that human monkeypox was reported outside of Africa.”", "authors": ["Sandee Lamotte"], "publish_date": "2022/05/24"}]} | |
| {"question_id": "20220701_6", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/26/sport/colorado-avalanche-stanley-cup-winner/index.html", "text": "CNN —\n\nThe Colorado Avalanche defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in Game 6 to win the team’s first Stanley Cup since 2001 on Sunday night. It’s the team’s third Stanley Cup title overall.\n\nWith the score tied 1-1 a little over halfway through the second period, Avalanche winger Artturi Lehkonen scored the game-deciding goal.\n\nColorado Avalanche players celebrate after defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Mike Carlson/Getty Images\n\nThe Lightning won the last two Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021.\n\nAvalanche defenseman and 2021-2022 Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player throughout the playoffs after scoring 29 points in the postseason.\n\n“I was trying not to look at the clock too much. Just trying to stay in the moment.” Makar said after the game.\n\n“Pure joy being able to throw the gloves off and experience that again. Like I said, it’s so amazing to experience it with such a great group of guys,” he added.\n\nAvalanche players gather at the boards, celebrating their victory in Game 6. John Bazemore/AP\n\nAvalanche head coach Jared Bednar recounted the final moments of the game.\n\n“I was nervous as I could be. I didn’t even know what the time was when it was ending. I saw guys starting to celebrate on the bench and I was like, ‘there’s still seven seconds left; what are they celebrating for?’ That’s the kind of intensity we had back there.”\n\nThe Avalanche finish the 2022 NHL playoffs with a record of 9-1 as the visiting team. The team’s only loss came against Tampa Bay in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals.\n\nTheir nine road wins set a franchise record for most in a playoff year and finish as the second-highest total in NHL history behind six clubs with 10, most recently coming when the St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019.", "authors": ["Jacob Lev"], "publish_date": "2022/06/26"}]} | |
| {"question_id": "20220701_7", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/politics/roe-v-wade-polling/index.html", "text": "CNN —\n\nMultiple polls conducted since the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade find that broad majorities of the public disapprove and suggest that in the immediate aftermath of the ruling, the decision could be more motivational for Democrats than Republicans.\n\nIn a new Monmouth University survey released on Tuesday, 60% of US adults disapprove of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, with just 37% approving. There’s also a significant intensity gap: 53% of Americans strongly disapprove of the ruling, including 84% of Democrats, compared with 29% who strongly approve, including 58% of Republicans.\n\nThat’s similar to the finding of two other polls conducted after the ruling: an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey (56% of US adults oppose the court’s decision, 40% support it) and a CBS News/YouGov survey (59% of US adults disapprove, 41% approve).\n\nIn the CBS/YouGov survey, 52% overall call the decision a step backward for America, compared with 31% who see it as a step forward. In that poll, 51% also say it will make the lives of most American women worse, compared with 18% who say it will make their lives better.\n\nDemocrats are more apt to call it a step backward (77%) than Republicans are to say it’s a step forward (64%), and while three-quarters of Democrats say it will make life for American women worse (76%), only 33% of Republicans see the ruling as making life better for American women.\n\nJust shy of half of US adults, 46%, say it would bother them a lot if abortion were banned in certain states, according to the Monmouth poll, with Democrats 60 percentage points more likely than Republicans to say they would be bothered a lot, 78% vs. 18%.\n\nAn 85% majority overall say that any such state bans should include exceptions in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at risk; 72% say it would bother them a lot of state abortion bans did not include such exceptions.\n\nIt’s still too early to draw strong conclusions about what effect the decision might have on the outcome of the midterm elections. Future polling will show whether the ruling leads to significant and lasting changes either on which party voters prefer, or on which side’s voters are more likely to turn out.\n\nMost Democrats in the CBS/YouGov poll report that the decision left them feeling upset (78%) and angry (72%), while a somewhat smaller majority of Republicans describe themselves as happy (60%).\n\nHalf (50%) of Democrats said in the CBS/YouGov poll that the decision makes them more likely to vote in the midterms, compared with just 20% of Republicans who said the same. While this question does not provide an accurate gauge of actual shifts in voters’ intention to turn out, it suggests that Democrats are currently more likely than Republicans to consider the Supreme Court’s decision a good reason for voting later this year.", "authors": ["Ariel Edwards-Levy"], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}]} | |
| {"question_id": "20220701_8", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/26/us/florida-heaviest-python-captured-scn-trnd/index.html", "text": "CNN —\n\nShe’s massive, invasive and covered in scales: A record breaking 215-pound, 18-foot-long Burmese python has been captured in Florida.\n\nThe python is the heaviest ever captured in the state, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida announced on Wednesday.\n\nThe huge reptile was captured by the conservancy as part of its invasive Burmese python research program.\n\nBiologists found the female by tracking a male “scout snake” named Dionysus with a radio transmitter. Males are attracted to the largest females, according to the conservancy. So by following a breeding male like Dionysus, they can find and remove large breeding females and their eggs.\n\nIan Bartoszek, a project manager for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, biologist Ian Easterling and intern Kyle Findley caught and euthanized the huge female python before hauling her back to their field truck last December.\n\nBartoszek says that they didn’t realize just how large the snake was until they weighed her at the lab. There was “collective disbelief” when they realized she was a whopping 215 pounds, breaking the previous record of 185 pounds for a Burmese python captured in Florida.\n\nBut it wasn’t until several months later, on April 28, that biologists had a chance to perform a necropsy on the snake. They discovered she broke another record: she had the largest number of eggs ever found, with 122 developing eggs in her abdomen.\n\nBurmese pythons are indigenous to southeast Asia, where they are considered vulnerable to extinction due to overhunting.\n\nBut renegade snakes from the pet trade, who either escaped or were released into the wild, have established a population in the Florida Everglades since the 1980s. As an invasive species, the pythons threaten Florida’s native fauna, Bartoszek tells CNN. Florida state authorities have taken measures to minimize the population, like by hosting an annual “Python Challenge” to see who can remove and kill the most pythons.\n\nThere is “no other Everglades in the world,” said Bartoszek. “It’s a unique bioregion, it’s a gem” – which is jeopardized by the invasive pythons.\n\nThe necropsy revealed that the 215-pound female python had hoof remnants from a white-tailed deer in her stomach, one indicator of how pythons affect Florida’s native wildlife. White-tailed deer are an important food source for Florida’s native panthers, which are endangered.\n\nThe python “is a generalist predator,” said Bartoszek. “It doesn’t discriminate.”\n\nBartoszek says that while for the moment “eradication seems off the table,” his three-person team is working to reduce and control the Burmese python population by removing breeding females. Over the past 11 years, they’ve removed over 1,000 pythons weighing a total of 26,000 pounds from a small portion of the Everglades totaling around 100 square miles.\n\nDionysus, the scout snake that led the scientists to the record-breaking female, is the season’s “MVP – most valued python,” said Bartoszek. He led the team to an additional four female Burmese pythons that were euthanized and removed.\n\n“We’re not here for accolades,” he said. “We’re here to raise awareness on this issue.”\n\nHe added that the scientists have “tremendous respect for this animal. They’re a pretty remarkable species.”\n\n“We’re on the science side, and in a way for conservation of our native fauna,” Bartoszek said.", "authors": ["Zoe Sottile"], "publish_date": "2022/06/26"}]} | |
| {"question_id": "20220701_9", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/29/politics/joe-biden-nato-day-2/index.html", "text": "Madrid CNN —\n\nNATO formalized its invitation to Sweden and Finland to join its alliance Wednesday, a historic expansion of the defense bloc that directly undercuts Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aims as his war in Ukraine grinds ahead.\n\nThe group collectively decided to approve countries’ applications to join after Turkey dropped its objections Tuesday, paving the way for NATO’s most consequential enlargement in decades.\n\n“The accession of Finland and Sweden will make them safer, NATO stronger, and the Euro-Atlantic area more secure. The security of Finland and Sweden is of direct importance to the Alliance, including during the accession process,” the statement said.\n\nThe decision will now go to the 30 member states’ parliaments and legislatures for final ratification. NATO’s leaders said they expected the process to move quickly, allowing for an unprecedentedly swift accession and a show of unity against Putin.\n\nThe leaders entered Wednesday’s talks propelled by a diplomatic victory after Turkey dropped its objections to the two nations joining NATO, setting the stage for the two longtime neutral countries to enter the defensive bloc. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg called the formal invitation from the alliance to Sweden and Finland to join the defense bloc a “historic decision.”\n\n“The agreement concluded last night by Turkey, Finland and Sweden paved the way for this decision,” the secretary general said in a news conference.\n\nHe recounted how two rounds of talks were held by senior officials in Brussels under his auspices in the advance of Monday’s consequential meeting between Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Turkey agreed on Tuesday to drop its objections to their membership bids, removing a major hurdle to them joining NATO.\n\nThe expansion vote, paired with substantial new commitments bolstering NATO’s force posture in Europe, combined to make this week’s summit in Madrid one of the most productive in recent memory. The alliance endorsed a new “Strategic Concept” document that outlines the NATO’s goals for the next decade. The document, last updated in 2010, lays out the security challenges facing the defensive alliance while outlining a course of actions.\n\nFor the first time, the document outlined the China “challenge,” saying that the country’s “ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values.” This was the first time the Strategic Concept document mentioned China; the 2010 version made no mention of Beijing. It also states that climate change is “a defining challenge of our time.”\n\nThe document identifies Russia as the “most significant and direct threat to allies’ security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area” and addresses NATO’s support for an independent Ukraine. In the 2010 version of the document, Russia was referred to as a “Euro-Atlantic partner.”\n\nThe outcome is exactly what Putin was hoping to fend off when he invaded Ukraine more than four months ago.\n\n“I said Putin’s looking for the Finlandization of Europe. He’s going to get the NATOization of Europe. And that is exactly what he didn’t want, but exactly what needs to be done to guarantee security for Europe. And I think it’s necessary,” US President Joe Biden said when he arrived at the summit site in Madrid.\n\nBiden announces strengthening of NATO forces\n\nBiden and fellow NATO leaders assembled in the Spanish capital to unveil a significant strengthening of forces along the alliance’s eastern flank as Russia’s war in Ukraine shows no signs of slowing.\n\nSpeaking alongside Stoltenberg, Biden listed new troop movements, equipment shipments and military installations meant to demonstrate the importance of security in the face of Moscow’s aggression.\n\n“The United States and our allies, we are going to step up – we are stepping up. We’re proving that NATO is more needed now than it ever has been and is as important as it ever has been,” Biden said.\n\nHe said the US would establish a permanent headquarters for the Fifth Army Corps in Poland, maintain an extra rotational brigade of 3,000 troops in Romania, enhance rotational deployments to the Baltic states, send two more F-35 fighter jet squadrons to the United Kingdom and station additional air defense and other capabilities in Germany and Italy.\n\n“Together with our allies, we are going to make sure that NATO is ready to meet threats from all directions – across every domain, land, air and the sea,” Biden said.\n\nThe United States did not convey to Russia its plans to bolster its force posture in Europe ahead of time.\n\n“There has been no communication with Moscow about these changes nor is there a requirement to do that,” John Kirby, the NSC coordinator for strategic communications, said after Biden announced the series of measures.\n\nA second official told reporters the announcements did not violate any agreements between Russia and NATO, which stipulate parameters for positioning troops in Europe.\n\n“The decision to permanently forward station the Five Corps headquarters forward command post does not, you know, is consistent with that commitment and our understanding of the NATO Russia founding act,” said Celeste Wallander, United States assistant secretary of defense for international affairs.\n\nZelensky asks what Ukraine has to do to join NATO\n\nYet even if Putin’s aims have backfired and the conflict grinds on, momentum is favoring Russia at the moment. That has left Biden and fellow western leaders this week searching for ways to alter the trajectory of the war.\n\nDespite enthusiasm at the summit for NATO’s two newest members, another leader – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky – voiced frustration that his country’s NATO ambitions have been ignored, despite coming under siege by Russia.\n\nAddressing the NATO summit in Madrid virtually, Zelensky asked rhetorically, “Has Ukraine not paid enough” to join the alliance and review its open door policy.\n\n“Is our contribution to the defense of both Europe and the whole civilization still insufficient?” he asked. “What else is needed then?”\n\nUkraine has sought unsuccessfully to join NATO for years, hampered by concerns over provoking Russia and other issues related to its governance practices.\n\nSpeaking after Zelensky’s address, Stoltenberg said the alliance welcomed the speech.\n\n“Ukraine can count on us for as long as it takes,” Stoltenberg stressed to journalists. He commended Zelensky’s “leadership and courage” and called the Ukrainian leader “an inspiration to us all.”\n\nAlliance turns the pressure up on Russia but wary of effects back home\n\nAlready this week, the US and European nations have slapped new rounds of sanctions on Moscow, banned new imports of its gold and agreed to limit the price of its oil. New rounds of security assistance, including a US-provided missile defense system, have been added to the queue of artillery and ammunition flowing in Ukraine.\n\nWhether any of that is enough to fundamentally alter the way the war is going remains to be seen. Zelensky told leaders attending the G7 summit in Germany he wanted their help staging a major initiative to win the war by the end of the year. In an interview with CNN’s Jim Sciutto on “Newsroom” Wednesday, Kirby pushed back on the idea that the US would lean on Zelensky to give up territory to Russia in order to end the war.\n\n“This victory has got to be decided by President Zelensky, and he gets to decide what that looks like for his country. Our job is to make sure he can continue to defend himself,” Kirby said.\n\nLeaders worry the growing cost of the war, seen in rising gas and food prices, could lead to diminished support for Ukraine in the months ahead. A few have warned that fatigue is setting in, adding to the growing concerns that the alliance could fracture.\n\n“When we agreed we were going to respond, we acknowledged there was going to be some costs to our people, our imposition of sanctions on Russia. But our people have stood together. They’ve stood up and they’ve stood strong,” Biden said Tuesday when he was meeting with King Felipe VI at the Royal Palace in Madrid.\n\nIt was during that meeting Biden received word Turkey was dropping its objections to Finland and Sweden’s applications to join NATO, ending a months-long standoff with NATO’s most challenging member.\n\nIn order to get the deal struck before the summit, Biden dangled the prospect of a formal bilateral meeting with Erdoğan in a phone call on Tuesday morning. The leaders met Wednesday to discuss the myriad issues that have caused the relationship between Washington and Ankara to sour over the past several years.\n\n“I want to particularly thank you for what you did, putting together the situation with regard to Finland and Sweden, and all the incredible work you’re going to try to get the grain … out of Ukraine,” Biden told Erdogan.\n\nBiden also met jointly with Japan’s Prime Minister and South Korea’s President to focus on the threat from North Korea. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and President Yoon Suk Yeol are invited guests of the NATO summit, but their countries’ ties have deteriorated recently amid disputes over wartime histories, making the joint meeting with Biden a rarity.", "authors": ["Kevin Liptak Niamh Kennedy Sharon Braithwaite", "Kevin Liptak", "Niamh Kennedy", "Sharon Braithwaite"], "publish_date": "2022/06/29"}]} | |
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