RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Sixty people died and 101 are missing due to heavy flooding in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities reported Sunday.
At least 155 people were injured and damage from the rains forced more than 80,000 people to abandon their homes. Approximately 15,000 took refuge in schools, gyms and other temporary shelters.
The floods have caused great devastation, impassable roads and collapsed bridges throughout the state. Companies reported power and communications outages. More than 800,000 people are without water, according to civil defense, which cited figures from the Corsan company.
On Saturday afternoon, the inhabitants of the Canoas town, with water up to their shoulders, formed a human chain to rescue people in boats, according to a video shared by the local news network UOL.
The Guaiba River rose to a record of 5.33 meters on Sunday at 8 in the morning, surpassing the channel it registered in the 1941 floods, of 4.76 meters.
“I repeat and insist: The devastation to which we have been subjected is unprecedented,” said state governor Eduardo Leite on Sunday morning. He had previously said that the state “will need something like the Marshall Plan to rebuild.”
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva arrived in Rio Grande do Sul on Sunday, accompanied by Defense Minister José Múcio, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad and Environment Minister Marina Silva, among others.
At the Vatican, Pope Francis said he was praying for the state’s residents. “May the Lord welcome the dead and give comfort to their families, and to those who had to leave their homes,” declared the pontiff.
The downpour began on Monday and is expected to last until Sunday night. In some areas, such as valleys, mountain slopes and cities, more than 300 millimeters of rain fell in less than a week, Brazil’s National Institute of Meteorology, known as INMET, said Thursday.
They are the fourth torrential rains in a year: similar rains occurred in July, September and November 2023 that in total killed 75 people.
The climate in South America is affected by the El Niño climate phenomenon, a periodic natural event that warms the waters of the Equatorial Pacific region. In Brazil, El Niño has historically caused droughts in the north and heavy rains in the south.
This year, the impact of El Niño has been particularly dramatic, with a historic drought in the Amazon. Scientists say extreme weather conditions are occurring more frequently due to human-caused climate change.
Steward Health Care, Nation’s Largest Private Hospital Chain, Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in Texas
Reinventing the For-Profit Hospital Model: Lessons from Steward Health Care’s Bankruptcy
Steward Health Care, the largest private for-profit hospital chain in the US, has filed for bankruptcy. The announcement comes after months of financial uncertainty and an ongoing struggle to maintain its position as a major player in the healthcare industry. Steward operates over 30 hospitals across several states and employs tens of thousands of workers, but it is its Massachusetts hospitals that are under special scrutiny, with state officials preparing for a potential transfer of ownership.
The Problems with For-Profit Hospitals
This situation brings to mind a number of issues related to for-profit hospitals and their role in our healthcare system.
- A Lack of Transparency: Steward has defied the Massachusetts rule requiring hospital companies to disclose detailed financial information. This lack of transparency makes it difficult for stakeholders to assess their financial stability and plan accordingly.
- Greed & Mismanagement:The governor blamed company leaders’ greed and mismanagement on this bankruptcy filing.
- Crisis Prone:The COVID-19 pandemic exposed how vulnerable Steward was due to its debt obligations and high operating costs amidst revenue shortfalls resulting from halted non-emergency procedures during shelter-in-place orders.
- Potential Negative Impact on Communities :If such companies are allowed to continue operating-for profit without significant government oversight that prioritizes community health thinking people can end up being hurt like those affected by bankruptcy filings leading loss medical quality standards when sold off or shut down.
Solutions For A Better Healthcare System
“When we take away profit-making motives from healthcare providers – care can become the main focus,” emphasized Dr. Smith, a healthcare advocate and professor of public health.
Providing more accountability and transparency in the system is one solution to avoiding future bankruptcies in healthcare systems. Rather than rely on for-profit models, the government could perhaps consider incentivizing non-profit hospitals with financial support for community outreach activities and quality of medical care standards as well as encouraging their expansion into underserved communities where profitable models tend not to operate.
The US government should also provide low-cost loans or grants to non-profits facilitates larger capital investments that are crucial for these types of hospitals with hundreds of millions in revenue operating in diverse markets across several states.
As a society, we need to focus on enhancing opportunities for patients while prioritizing accessibility by granting federal funding to medical institutions that are making advancements toward innovative multi-disciplinary collaboration models combining effective cost containment strategies alongside high levels of preventive care (source).
Conclusion
The bankruptcy filing by Steward Health Care highlights the challenge faced by large private hospital chains operating under the highly competitive and often capricious American healthcare system. It’s time we start considering structural reforms that prioritize patient care above profitability.
“It’s time we return healing back into our medical care industry,” says Jeryl Aronson,
a health journalist at Forbes(March 2020).
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New Canon Products Expected to be Announced Next Week: What to Look Out For
Subject: Owen
It was said last month that Canon would announce new products between May 21 (Tuesday) and 23 (Thursday), but as May has just come in, the news is becoming more and more apparent. A few days ago Canon USA on social media X(formerly Twitter) has posted that a new product will be released next week, and the most popular day will probably be the 15th of this month (next Wednesday)!
It is not surprising that Canon will release new products this summer, after all, the European Cup of Nations and the Olympic Games in Paris are about to take place If we do not take advantage of the international sporting events on a scale big to show our muscles beforehand, when will we wait? Among the new product candidates, the most likely one is that the almost 4-year-old EOS R5 will be succeeded by the EOS R5 Mark II As for the first Dual RF 5.2mm F2.8L Fisheye with 3D shooting function, it not available. This column) The RF 35mm F1.4L USM angle fixed focus RF red ring adapter is also true.
What I personally think is the “undercurrent” is that “1 boy” EOS R1 still has variables, because YouTuber “Common Filmmaker” recently made a video stating that there are still some problems to be solved in EOS R1, mainly the environment buffer does not work properly, so it is officially announced It may be left between July and September Of course, it is not ruled out that development details will have will be published next week. Another “dark horse” is the EOS R6 Mark III, but Canon only released the EOS R6 Mark II in November 2022. Although the EOS R6 series is the best-selling model among EOS R full-frame mirrorless models, it took less than two years. If it is updated again, I think the performance will not improve much.
As for the UK, London Camera Exchange, a large local chain of photographic equipment dealers, is collaborating with Canon UK to host free events at its Derby branch on May 17th and 18th. The text of the event’s introduction describes that participants will have the opportunity to try Canon’s “latest cameras and lenses”, and the location of the event is also The Boardroom Studio near the London Camera Exchange branch, and use “related equipment” to shoot portraits . Since the time of the London Camera Exchange photography event (one or two days after Canon’s planned release date of new products), the location of the event (photo studio), and even the format of the event (portrait shooting) are very similar to the purpose of the high-pixel EOS R5 series, it can’t help but be a surprise It’s doubtful that the protagonist of the event will be the EOS R5 Mark II at any point. Of course, the London Camera Exchange event didn’t promote specific bodies or lenses, but the EOS R5 and even the EOS R3 have been around for a while Logically speaking, Canon UK doesn’t need to spend an extra marketing budget to promoting “re-. the EOS R5 and EOS R3, so the editor has reason to think that the EOS R5 Mark II could have a chance to become the “hidden figure” of the day.
Source: Asobinet
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New Canon Products Expected to be Announced Next Week: What to Look Out For