Ukraine and Russia reached an agreement to help evacuate civilians and deliver aid. Could white-tailed deer be carrying COVID-19? And gas prices. That’s all.
👋 Hey! Laura here with all the news you need to know Thursday.
But first, what’s in a name? A Tyrannosaurus by any other name would smell as sweet. 🦖 New research suggests there was not only one or two but actually three types of Tyrannosaurus – rex, imperator and regina.
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Ukraine and Russia reach pact to evacuate civilians
Ukraine said it has agreed with Russia to create safe corridors backed by cease-fires to evacuate civilians and deliver aid as a second round of negotiations began Thursday amid Russia’s ferocious assault on its neighbor. Officials from both nations were meeting in Belarus as the war entered its second week. Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded Ukraine accept “demilitarization,” declare itself neutral and drop its bid to join NATO. Earlier Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone with Putin for 90 minutes and now believes “the worst is yet to come,“a Macron aided said. Putin reportedly vowed to conduct an “uncompromising fight” in Ukraine. Ukraine’s major cities have come under heavy bombardment, with about 90% of the 150,000 combat forces Putin deployed to Ukraine’s borders now inside the country, a senior Defense Department official said Thursday.
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Gas prices 😒
Need I say more? Some consumers are already paying more than $5 a gallon, and the average price for a gallon of regular in San Francisco hit the $5 mark Thursday. That’s the first time a US city has hit an average that high, said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. But the entire state of California will probably hit the $5-a-gallon average for regular gas in the next week or two; other major cities will probably follow suit, De Haan said. Gas prices of more than $4 a gallon by Memorial Day had been predicted before Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
What everyone’s talking about
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Could Bambi give you COVID?
A new variant of the coronavirus was found in a population of white-tailed deer in Ontario, Canada, and a similar strand was found in a human who had contact with the deer, a new study shows. For the study, researchers collected 300 samples in November and December from white-tailed deer in Canada and discovered that 17 of the deer in southwestern Ontario tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, according to the study. The Canada study was posted to the database bioRxiv and has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. Upon further research, researchers found a person who was infected with a genetically similar strain of SARS-CoV-2. The person lived in the same area and had close contact with the deer population before testing positive, according to the study. Researchers said it was at least possible the deer transmitted the virus to the human. But scientists warned that the study says only that it’s possible and doesn’t confirm the deer infected the human.
Devastating earthquake ‘could happen tomorrow’
Scientists say a massive quake could strike the San Francisco Bay Area at any time When it does, the city can expect to be slammed with a force equal to hundreds of atomic bombs. Scientists have drawn up several disaster scenarios to prepare for impending catastrophes. The HayWired Scenario is a detailed look at the cascading calamities that will happen when a major earthquake strikes the Bay Area, including the possibility of widespread power outages that will strand elevators – possibly for weeks. Depending on the scenario, thousands of people are expected to die, and hundreds of thousands more could be left without shelter. The disaster remains theoretical for now. But the United States Geological Survey estimates a 51% chance that a quake as big as the one described in HayWired will occur in the region within three decades.
real quick
Lavender spray linked to 2 deaths, severe illness
It might smell nice, but this particular spray could make you really sick. A lavender spray sold at Walmart resulted in two deaths and severe illnesses of four people, according to a case study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. All four patients had used the lavender and chamomile scent of Better Homes & Gardens Essential Oil Infused Aromatherapy Room Spray With Gemstones, which had been imported from India and sold at 55 Walmart stores. The spray was manufactured by Flora Classique Inc. and sold under the Better Homes & Gardens brand. What did all the spray bottles contain? A rare bacterium called Burkholderia pseudomallei that causes an illness known as melioidosis. Melioidosis can lead to joint pain, seizures and fevers, and it can affect the heart, brain, lungs and more.
A break from the news
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism