WHO updates coronavirus guidelines

The World Health Organization released new guidelines yesterday acknowledging some reports of airborne transmission of the coronavirus. [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [View in your browser]( [Top of The World]( --------------------------------------------------------------- In the news today WHO releases new guidelines, sends team to China [Passengers wearing protective face masks stand inside a train at a subway station in Brasilia, Brazil, July 8, 2020.]( Credit: Adriano Machado/Reuters The World Health Organization released new guidelines yesterday [acknowledging some reports]( of airborne transmission of the coronavirus. The announcement came after more than 200 scientists signed an open letter accusing the WHO of [underestimating the possibility]( of airborne transmission among people in crowded, indoor settings. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said yesterday that despite a dearth of evidence on airborne transmission, "I think it's a reasonable assumption that it does occur." And, the WHO [sent a team to China today]( to lay the groundwork for an investigation on the origins of the novel coronavirus. The virus is believed to have emerged in a wet market in Wuhan late last year. Two WHO experts will work with Chinese scientists to determine the investigation's scope and itinerary. Meanwhile, several countries are making additional moves to reopen. The UK government [announced that starting today](, visitors arriving in England from 58 selected countries will no longer be required to self-isolate for 14 days. The US and China didn’t make the list. And in France, the Eiffel Tower [opened its summer terrace last night]( to visitors. DJs are scheduled to play every Thursday and Friday through the summer. What The World is following Voting [is underway in Singapore]( amid the pandemic, and Poland is holding its presidential election [on Sunday](. And, a Turkish court has [annulled a 1934 government decree](turning Istanbul's Hagia Sophia into a museum. The ruling could pave the way for a move to convert the UNESCO World Heritage Site back into a mosque despite international warnings. Tomorrow is the [25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre](, in which Bosnian Serb forces killed about 8,000 Muslim men and boys during the Balkan conflict in the largest genocide to take place in Europe since the Holocaust. On The World today, we’ll be speaking to David Scheffer, who was US ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues from 1997 to 2001, about the uneven prosecution of those who've perpetrated atrocities. --------------------------------------------------------------- From The World [Russian bounty allegations shine spotlight on what Trump admin knew and when]( [Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley are seen during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on "Department of Defense Authorities and Roles Related to Civilian Law Enforcement" in Washington, DC, July 9, 2020.]( Credit: Michael Reynolds/Reuters According to reports, senior White House officials were aware as early as the beginning of 2019 of classified intelligence indicating that Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for killing US troops. [The World spoke with Mark Galeotti](, a senior associate fellow at the British-based Royal United Services Institute, who says that if the allegations are true, they represent an astonishing escalation by the Russians. "Up to now, essentially — yes, the Kremlin kills, but it kills people it regards as traitors. In other words, its own people who have turned against it. They have a very different calculus for the potential costs of going after outsiders and especially Americans. They would know there'll be a massive political price tag on any dead Americans that could be ascribed to Russian machinations." [Global network of young people writes poems to cope with climate crisis]( [Jordan Sanchez rehearses her poem about climate change in the New School auditorium where students prepare for final auditions for "Climate Speaks," a social justice spoken word program in New York, May 11, 2019.]( Credit: Kate Ryan/Reuters Some people might find it naïve to talk about poetry as a climate solution, but the arts represent one of the more powerful ways that people transform deeply held worldviews and beliefs about the natural world, according to Julia Bentz, who runs the project Art for Adaptation, which looks at the relationship between the arts and climate change. “The natural sciences alone are not capable of fully addressing the challenges that we're facing in this time,” she said. Access to art and poetry, said Bentz, [can change the way someone thinks about nature](, which can be quite compelling and promote thinking about transformational change in our society. --------------------------------------------------------------- Podcast: [The wrong apocalypse — this is not a drill]( Are we in the middle of a new Cold War — or have we rewritten the game? With old nuclear arms treaties expiring and no new ones being signed, are we adapting to the times — or playing with fire? In episode four of the third season of "Things That Go Boom," our partner podcast from PRX, host Laicie Heeley looks at the past and present of civil defense and nuclear arms control and asks what we can do — as individuals and as a nation — to prevent the existential threat of nuclear war. --------------------------------------------------------------- Bright spot Something to ponder for your weekend — why are Linkin Park T-shirts all the rage in China right now? Our partners [at Wired investigate](. Enjoy. --------------------------------------------------------------- In case you missed it on The World - [Bolsonaro, lasers and mutants]( - [The disappearance of Yanomami babies in Brazil]( - [Indian American hip-hop artist makes cover of Rolling Stone India]( - [Videos from US racial justice protests show human rights abuses]( - [From Louisiana to Taiwan, environmental activists stand up to plastics company]( - [You can ride a roller coaster in Japan. But don’t scream.]( - [The Big Fix: How poetry can help us confront climate change]( - [UK plans to reopen schools in September]( - [Prison-to-ICE transfers under scrutiny during the pandemic]( - [Banks affected by SCOTUS ruling on Trump financial records]( - [A Syrian rock band finds an audience in Lebanon]( - [Alleged Russian bounties on US troops]( Don't forget to subscribe to The World's Latest Edition podcast using your favorite podcast player: [RadioPublic](, [Apple Podcasts](, [Stitcher](, [Soundcloud](, [RSS]( [The World logo]( [The World on Facebook]( [The World's Twitter account]( [Donate]( | [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [Edit your subscription]( | [Unsubscribe]( | [View in your browser]( Top of the World is written weekday mornings by the team at [The World](. [The World]( is produced by [PRX]( and [WGBH](.