France Suspends All Brazil Flights Due To Virus Variants

PARIS (AP) — France suspended all flights from Brazil on Tuesday amid mounting fears over the particularly contagious coronavirus variant that has been sweeping the South American country.

Prime Minister Jean Castex announced the suspension to parliament.

“We note that the situation is getting worse and so we have decided to suspend all flights between Brazil and France until further notice,” Castex said, drawing scattered applause from lawmakers.

Although France has seen comparatively few known cases of the P.1 variant striking Brazil, the ravages it is causing in Latin America’s largest nation are increasingly raising alarm bells in France.

Castex noted that travelers from Brazil already needed to test negative for the virus before their departure and upon arrival in France, and also quarantine for 10 days. But the government was also facing mounting calls from health experts for a flight suspension to further limit potential spread.

Boris Vallaud, a lawmaker for the opposition Socialists, called the flight suspension “necessary and a very good decision.”

The prime minister’s office said the suspension would start Wednesday, and concerns flights from Brazil to France. National carrier Air France cancelled all its flights both to and from Brazil on Wednesday and said its flight schedule beyond that would depend on government instructions.

France has had 5.1 million coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, the highest number in Europe, and has seen over 99,000 people die. The country is struggling with another wave of coronavirus infections and hospitalizations that is straining hospitals in Paris and elsewhere.

To curb France’s surge in cases, restrictions on travel and movement are enforced nationwide, on top of an overnight curfew. Schools are in the midst of a shutdown scheduled to last for at least three weeks.

French Health Minister Olivier Veran told parliament that a variant which first swept through Britain before spreading to continental Europe is now responsible for about 80% of infections in France and that the variants first seen in Brazil and South Africa make up less than 4% of French infections.

“Proportionally, we are seeing a retreat of these variants because they are less contagious than the English one,” Veran said.

Even before the flight suspension, passenger traffic from Brazil had already been drastically curtailed by pandemic travel limits. The transport minister said this week that as few as 50 people per day were flying into Paris’ main airport from Brazil, down from 50,000 per week before the health crisis.

Travelore News: Smithsonian To Open 1st Wing On Innovation, Business History

In this photo taken June 16, 2015, a photograph of Raoul Cortez, a community centered media pioneer, is displayed at the American Enterprise exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington. A wide range of innovations from Eli Whitney’s cotton gin to the early Google servers will help tell the story of American business history for the first time at the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will open its new innovation wing on July 1. It will galleries featuring U.S. inventions, money and hands-on activities. A major exhibition about “American Enterprise” will trace the interaction of capitalism and democracy since the mid-1700s. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A wide range of innovations from Eli Whitney's cotton gin and Thomas Edison's light bulb to the early Google servers and Apple's iPhone have been brought together to tell a broad story of American business history for the first time at the Smithsonian Institution.

On July 1, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History will open its new innovation wing, with galleries featuring U.S. inventions, money and hands-on activities and even food demonstrations. A major exhibition about "American Enterprise" will trace the interaction of capitalism and democracy since the mid-1700s, including conflicting views from some founding fathers. The centerpiece artifact in the new 45,000-square-foot (4,180-square-meter) space is the studio of home video game inventor Ralph Baer.

The newly renovated $63 million innovation wing is the first piece of a six-year overhaul of the museum's entire west wing. Construction began in late 2012 and is set to continue into 2018 on other floors.

The museum raised $43 million from the private sector and $20 million from Congress to fund the new innovation wing. Next, work will shift to a new section devoted to democracy and the peopling of America slated to open in 2017, followed by a section on American culture in 2018.

The overhaul is part of a reinvention of the Smithsonian's American history museum, said Museum Director John Gray. A 2002 blue-ribbon commission took a critical look at its less-than-inclusive presentation, questioning why the museum didn't explore capitalism or other under-represented subjects and the nation's diversity.

"History museums are not passive places but places that make it essential to understand and grow our country," Gray said during a preview of the new innovation wing. "Here visitors will learn how business has affected the nation's history as well as their own lives. ... 'American Enterprise' shows how the United States has moved from being a small, dependent nation to being one of the world's most vibrant and trend-setting economies."

It's rare in the museum's history to have such a broad range of objects together in one exhibit. In the past, the museum separated exhibits by topic and collection. Now agriculture, technology, manufacturing, retail and finance have been pulled into a more comprehensive story. In planning, curators argued the various economic sectors are interlocked and should be presented that way.

"It was definitely moving from that old way of doing exhibitions that are very narrow and deep to a much broader kind of inclusive approach," said curator Peter Liebhold, chairman of the division of work and industry. "It'll be interesting to see what people think."

With a chronological layout, the exhibit looks back at the nation's merchant era from the 1700s and early 1800s, followed by the corporate era and industrial revolution through the 1930s. Next came the consumer era and a production boom after World War II and most recently the global era since the 1980s.

Entrepreneurs from each period — banker J.P. Morgan, Barbie doll creator Ruth Handler, cosmetics maker Estee Lauder and Apple founder Steve Jobs, to name a few — are highlighted on a biography wall with some of their stories and creations. Another timeline traces the history of advertising.

"We show the stories here of people taking risks, sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing," said guest curator Kathleen Franz, an associate professor at American University. "You can't separate American history from business history because business was there from the beginning, and it's what builds the nation."

An interactive gallery asks visitors to make choices in building successful businesses, including a simulation of a farmer's critical decisions.

Major donors included M&Ms maker Mars Inc., SC Johnson, Intel, Monsanto Co. and the History Channel. Many of them are represented in the exhibit. A weekly food program will feature the history of chocolate making. But corporate donors did not dictate the exhibit content or fund specific pieces, Liebhold said. Curators did consult with supporters, businesses, academics, nonprofits and labor groups for ideas.

"The Smithsonian has a pretty firm line in the sand about no donor influence," Liebhold said, "and nobody pressured us on this exhibition."

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National Museum of American History: http://americanhistory.si.edu/