Month: June 2020

Enlarge / Australian reporter Amelia Brace speaks on camera shortly after the police punched her cameraman. (credit: Channel 7 of Australia)

The prime minister of Australia has called for an investigation into the assault of an Australian cameraman that aired live on a national television news show on Tuesday morning, Australia time. That's Monday evening in Washington DC, where the attack occurred.

Amelia Brace, a reporter for Australia's Channel 7, and her cameraman, Tim Myers, were covering a protest near the White House in Washington DC. It was around 6:30pm—half an hour before a 7pm curfew was scheduled to start.

"We've just had to run about a block as police moved in," Brace said as she stood amid protestors outside the White House. "We've been fired at with rubber bullets. My cameraman has been hit."

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  Your actual hand may vary. Actually, we hope it does, because this one looks a bit weird...

In honor of the company's 60th anniversary, Sega has announced the coming Japanese release of the Game Gear Micro. What Sega is calling a "portable mascot" will ship in Japan on October 6 for an MSRP of ¥4,980 (about $50). No release plans have been announced for other markets.

The "Micro" moniker is well-earned here—the system measures just 3.14-inches wide, 1.69-inches high, and 0.79-inches deep (80mm×40mm×20mm). That's roughly a 92-percent volume reduction (or an 86-percent "footprint area" reduction) from the original Game Gear, which was bulky even by early '90s portable console standards. That also means the Game Gear Micro is set to take the "smallest gaming portable" crown from 2005's Game Boy Micro, which held the previous record at 4×2×0.7 inches with a 2-inch diagonal screen.

Despite the tiny size, the Game Gear Micro's 1.15-inch screen manages a 240×180 pixel resolution, which actually improves on the 160×144 pixel resolution of the original Game Gear's 3.2-inch screen. That puts the display at roughly 260 pixels per inch, or just short of Apple's roughly 300 dpi "retina display" standard.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty)

The Lancet medical journal on Tuesday issued an “expression of concern” over the validity of a recent study suggesting that the anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine raise the risk of death and heart complications in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

More than a hundred researchers have raised questions and skepticism about the data and analysis, even as researchers halted clinical trials in light of the study's findings.

The two drugs at the center of the controversy have had a high profile during the pandemic, with many prominent figures—most notably President Donald Trump—promoting them as effective against COVID-19. On May 18, Trump even told reporters that he was taking the drugs himself to prevent infection from the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.