| Trump hails Kim reappearance, but N.Korea denuclearization prospects bleak Posted: 02 May 2020 05:14 PM PDT |
| Trump says 'glad' Kim Jong Un 'is back, and well' Posted: 02 May 2020 05:01 PM PDT  US President Donald Trump said Saturday he was "glad" about the reappearance of Kim Jong Un and that the North Korea leader is apparently healthy. "I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!" Trump tweeted, following Kim's first public appearance in nearly three weeks after intense speculation that he was seriously ill or possibly dead. Rumors about Kim's health have been swirling since his conspicuous no-show at April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather, the North's founder -- the most important day in the country's political calendar.
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| "I'm starving now": World faces unprecedented hunger crisis Posted: 02 May 2020 04:03 PM PDT  There's "a real danger that more people could potentially die from the economic impact of COVID-19 than from the virus itself," says the U.N. food agency's chief.
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| Trump says glad to see Kim Jong-un ‘back and well’ Posted: 02 May 2020 02:37 PM PDT  President Trump has said he is "glad" Kim Jong-un is back in public life and doing "well", after the North Korean leader made his first public appearance in 20 days, according to the country's state media."I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!" the president tweeted on Saturday evening and included a link to apparent new photographs of Kim Jong-un cutting the tape at a ceremony marking the completion of Sunchon Phosphatic Fertiliser Factory in North Korea.
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| Man arrested trying to quarantine on private Disney island Posted: 02 May 2020 02:22 PM PDT |
| Experts warn of difficulties ending female cutting in Sudan Posted: 02 May 2020 01:40 PM PDT  The United Nations says 9 out of 10 women between the ages of 15 to 49 have been subjected to the practice.
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| Back in session: Senate risks a return but House stays away Posted: 02 May 2020 12:33 PM PDT  Weighing the risks, the Senate will reopen on Monday as the coronavirus crisis rages and the House stays shuttered, an approach that leaves Congress as divided as the nation. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's decision to convene 100 senators at the Capitol during a pandemic gives President Donald Trump the imagery he wants of America getting back to work, despite health worries and a lack of testing. Gathering senators for the first time since March risks lawmakers as well the cooks, cleaners, police officers and other workers who keep the lights on at the Capitol complex.
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| The week that was: Lockdowns ease, and choices are complex Posted: 02 May 2020 12:22 PM PDT  Around the world, lockdowns are starting to ease as some places get coronavirus outbreaks under control and others decide the economic pain of keeping businesses closed is too much to bear. Beijing's ancient Forbidden City, along with the city's parks and museums, is open to the public for the first time in months. In the U.S., more than a dozen states are allowing stores, restaurants and other businesses to open, but with restrictions meant to keep the virus from spreading.
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| Amnesty reports chilling details of Egypt press crackdown Posted: 02 May 2020 12:17 PM PDT |
| Thousands protest Israel coalition deal on eve of court date Posted: 02 May 2020 11:31 AM PDT  Several thousand Israelis took to the streets in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, demonstrating against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new coalition deal with his chief rival a day before the country's Supreme Court is to begin debating a series of legal challenges to the agreement. Demonstrators gathered for the third consecutive weekend in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, standing more than two meters (six feet) apart in organized rows to conform with social-distancing rules to protect against the spread of the coronavirus. Netanyahu last month reached a power-sharing deal with his chief rival, Benny Gantz.
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| Reade: 'I didn't use sexual harassment' in Biden complaint Posted: 02 May 2020 10:55 AM PDT  Tara Reade, the former Senate staffer who alleges Joe Biden sexually assaulted her 27 years ago, says she filed a limited report with a congressional personnel office that did not explicitly accuse him of sexual assault or harassment. "I remember talking about him wanting me to serve drinks because he liked my legs and thought I was pretty and it made me uncomfortable," Reade said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press. Reade described the report after the AP discovered additional transcripts and notes from its interviews with Reade last year in which she says she "chickened out" after going to the Senate personnel office.
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| Lawyers: Egypt filmmaker who mocked president dies in prison Posted: 02 May 2020 10:37 AM PDT |
| What you need to know today about the virus outbreak Posted: 02 May 2020 09:28 AM PDT  In the United States, gun-carrying protesters have become a common sight at some demonstrations calling for public health restrictions to be lifted. Here are some of AP's top stories Saturday on the world's coronavirus pandemic.
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| AP: Most states fall short of coronavirus testing thresholds Posted: 02 May 2020 09:09 AM PDT  As more states begin to relax their coronavirus lockdowns, most are falling short of the minimum levels of testing suggested by the federal government and recommended by a variety of public health researchers, an Associated Press analysis has found. Three months into an unprecedented public health emergency, the White House has largely resisted calls for a coordinated plan to conduct the millions of tests experts say are needed to contain the virus. What federal officials outlined recently isn't even an official benchmark, and AP's analysis found that a majority of states are not yet meeting it.
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| Kominers's Conundrums: There's a Puzzle Hiding in This Column Posted: 02 May 2020 08:42 AM PDT |
| In US, a virus-era Ramadan presents obstacles, opportunities Posted: 02 May 2020 07:52 AM PDT  For Muslims in the United States, there is no other time more centered around gathering in congregation than the holy month of Ramadan. In every corner of the country, believers attend community iftar meals to break the fast and then pack neatly into tight rows for nightly prayers at the mosque.
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| In US, a virus-era Ramadan presents obstacles, opportunities Posted: 02 May 2020 07:51 AM PDT  For Jamilah Shakir, the first week of Ramadan has been an adjustment. Now Ramadan has come, and mosques are closed to worshippers to prevent spread of the coronavirus. "Not praying in community has been very, very different."
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| Some Trump Officials Take Harder Actions on China During Pandemic Posted: 02 May 2020 07:47 AM PDT  WASHINGTON -- Some top Trump administration officials are moving to take a more aggressive stand against China on economic, diplomatic and scientific issues at the heart of the relationship between the world's two superpowers, further fraying ties that have reached their lowest point in decades.White House aides this week have prodded President Donald Trump to issue an executive order that would block a government pension fund from investing in Chinese companies, officials said -- a move that could upend capital flows across the Pacific. Trump announced Friday that he was restricting the use of electrical equipment in the domestic grid system with links to "a foreign adversary" -- an unspoken reference to China.The administration is cutting off grants that would help support virology laboratories in Wuhan, China, the city where the coronavirus outbreak began, and is looking into scientific collaborations undertaken there by the University of Texas.Senior aides, led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have asked intelligence agencies to continue looking for any evidence to support an unsubstantiated theory that the pandemic might be the result of an accidental lab leak, even though agency analysts have said they most likely will not find proof.The open rivalry between the two nations has taken on a harder and much darker shading in the months since the coronavirus spread from a metropolis on the Yangtze River across the globe, speeding up efforts by hard-liners in both Washington and Beijing to execute a decoupling of important elements of the relationship.The bitter information war over the virus has become a core part of the competition, but the Trump administration's efforts to counter China have sharpened across the board. That is partly in response to what administration officials say are China's own aggressive moves, including the pushing of anti-America disinformation worldwide, increased military activity in the South China Sea and clampdowns on freedoms in the semiautonomous global financial city of Hong Kong.Trump's campaign aides and Republican lawmakers also aim to amplify criticism of China partly to deflect from the administration's own record on the pandemic, especially as the general election in November approaches.Those in Washington advocating a more stable relationship with China, including some of Trump's top economic advisers, warn that the administration must take care not to overreach.China is likely to emerge from the recession caused by the pandemic faster than other nations. The U.S. -- still reeling from the virus, with more than 1 million infected and more than 64,000 dead -- will probably rely on economic activity in Asia to help prop up its own economy. Part of that involves getting Beijing to comply with a trade agreement signed in January.China controls a vast supply of the masks and protective gear needed by U.S. hospitals. And if China develops a vaccine first, it will wield a powerful card, one that will bolster its global standing and give it leverage over the health of hundreds of millions of Americans."We've entered an entirely new phase of U.S.-China relations, rather than the intensification of the previous one," said Jude Blanchette, a China scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "This new paradigm is defined by the proliferation of flashpoints, the downward spiral of hostility, the rise in zero-sum thinking, and the breakdown of mediating and mitigating institutions."The rising tensions are propelled by deeply nationalist administrations in both Beijing and Washington, D.C., and domestic populations that are coming to view a rupture in the bilateral relationship as inevitable or even desirable," he added.Trump himself has vacillated in his public statements on China. In recent weeks, he has said he is "not happy" with China. But March 27, the day after a call with President Xi Jinping of China, Trump wrote on Twitter: "Much respect!" Throughout the winter, he praised Xi's handling of the outbreak.The administration's tougher moves on China are partly a result of growing anger among some White House aides.Pompeo; Matthew Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser; and Peter Navarro, a trade adviser, have long advocated hard policies on China. Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary; Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council; and Jared Kushner, a senior adviser and Trump's son-in-law, have pushed for a more measured approach. But in late April, Kushner decided to support a tougher line out of frustration with China over the pandemic and the flow of medical supplies, according to people familiar with his thinking."We want to make sure that we're bringing manufacturing back; we can't be relying on other countries," Kushner said on Fox News on April 29. "And I imagine that after this, we'll be putting in place very strong strategies to make sure that America doesn't have to rely on any other countries for critical supplies in the future."Advisers to Trump are conducting a wide search for options to hold China accountable for the pandemic. One potential move being discussed is suing China for reparations, though the administration would need to find a way around a U.S. law that follows international law in granting sovereign states immunity. Legal experts say that would be difficult, and China has already denounced the idea.The president has said his administration is doing an "investigation" into China. Advisers say the inquiry involves intelligence agencies, tasked to learn how the virus originated, and the Justice Department."Along with lost opportunities to fight the pandemic, climate change and other transnational threats, U.S. efforts to punish China could backfire badly," said Jessica Chen Weiss, a professor of government at Cornell University. "Weakening sovereign immunity to sue China could boomerang back."Trump has been less vocal about other recent actions on China. In late March, he signed into law the Taipei Act, a bipartisan bill that requires the State Department to support Taiwan's diplomatic relations around the globe. In 1979, the U.S. switched formal diplomatic relations to China from Taiwan, a self-governing island claimed by Beijing, but Washington continues to support Taiwan in ways that anger Chinese leaders, including with arms sales.Trump's announcement on electrical equipment Friday appeared to be another attempt to constrain China. He declared a national emergency and ordered the energy secretary to ban the import of foreign equipment for power plants and transmission systems, arenas in which China is becoming increasingly active around the world.While Russia is considered a major threat to the power grid -- the U.S. has long complained about Russian-made code that could sabotage the system and has implanted code of its own in Russia's own grid -- the risk from China comes from its growing role in supplying components.Last month, several agencies asked the Federal Communications Commission to ban China Telecom Americas from domestic networks. That overlaps with a global campaign by the administration to undermine efforts by Chinese companies, notably Huawei, to develop next-generation 5G communications networks.Taken together, the moves in the power and telecommunications industries amount to the most far-reaching by any administration to strip Chinese equipment and services out of critical U.S. infrastructure.An executive order being weighed by Trump would stop the Thrift Savings Plan, the retirement savings vehicle for federal government employees, from switching to a different mix of investments that would move more capital to China and other emerging markets this year, according to people familiar with the deliberations.The White House is also moving ahead with plans to replace the members of the board of the Thrift Savings Plan and is finalizing its list of nominees, the people said. The terms of all five board members have expired, though they can continue to serve until they are replaced.The proposed order and bills in Congress that are supported by some White House officials are aimed at curbing U.S. investment in Chinese companies that are opaque or believed to be involved in human rights abuses, and at limiting the access those companies have to U.S. capital markets.Roger W. Robinson Jr., president of RWR Advisory Group, a research firm, said the move on the Thrift Savings Plan was "merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to Chinese corporate bad actors in our capital markets."Some White House advisers, including Mnuchin, have cautioned against the steps, saying they could disrupt U.S. financial markets or the trade deal that the U.S. signed with China in January. Banking executives have also warned of adverse consequences.Analysts say China appears to be falling short of the monthly purchases it would need to make to fulfill its commitments in the trade deal to buy an additional $200 billion of U.S. goods by the end of the next year -- not surprising given a sharp economic slowdown in China that is leading to plummeting consumer demand."When it becomes apparent by this fall that China won't be able to meet its purchasing commitments -- regardless of COVID -- it sets the Phase 1 deal up for strong criticism in the campaign season," said Wendy Cutler, a vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute. "The Trump administration may feel cornered into taking enforcement actions against China, even on dubious grounds, to show how tough they are."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| A referendum election in November? Trump allies see risks Posted: 02 May 2020 07:47 AM PDT  Six months from Election Day, President Donald Trump's prospects for winning a second term have been jolted by a historic pandemic and a cratering economy, rattling some of his Republican allies and upending the playbook his campaign had hoped to be using by now against Democrat Joe Biden. The result: He's losing ground in some battleground states with key constituencies, including senior citizens and college-educated men — all without his Democratic challenger having devoted much energy or money to denting the president. "It's Donald J. Trump versus the coronavirus and the recovery," said Scott Reed, the senior political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
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| 7 Events In 2020 That You Probably Already Forgot Posted: 02 May 2020 06:25 AM PDT  It's only May, but 2020 has already felt like a year to some. With life drastically changing in a matter of weeks because of the coronavirus, the near past feels distant as people anxiously wait for the pandemic to end. The year kicked off with an eventful first quarter even before a pandemic was declared.Here are seven things you probably forgot occurred in 2020 so far.Australian Bushfires Although the bushfires started in 2019, they were still burning in 2020. On Jan. 2, a third state of emergency was called in New South Wales, Australia. The fires caused cities to evacuate and killed people and acres of wildlife. Some fires are still burning. US Kills Iranian General Qasem Soleimani On Jan. 2,, Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was killed by a drone strike under the orders of President Donald Trump. "General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region," according to the U.S. Department of Defense.On Jan. 8, Iran launched missiles at two military bases in Iraq that housed U.S. soldiers. The attack was believed to be in retaliation for Soleimani's killing. Megxit Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced they are stepping down from their senior roles in the royal British family. "We intend to step back as 'senior' members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen," the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said in an Instagram post Jan. 8. See Also: Why Meghan Markle Has A Tough TIme Being A PrincessUkraine International Airlines Flight 752 Crash Amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran, a Ukrainian flight crashed in Tehran, Iran on Jan. 8. It killed all 176 people on board.Iran eventually took responsibility for the incident, noting the missile was fired by human error.> Armed Forces' internal investigation has concluded that regrettably missiles fired due to human error caused the horrific crash of the Ukrainian plane & death of 176 innocent people. > Investigations continue to identify & prosecute this great tragedy & unforgivable mistake. PS752> > -- Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) January 11, 2020US-China Phase 1 Trade Deal After months of negotiations, misunderstandings and rumors ,the United States and China finally signed the Phase 1 trade agreement on Jan. 15\. Like the coronavirus pandemic, news surrounding the trade deal heavily moved the markets as increased tension between the two nations brought fear of a potential economic slowdown.President Trump's Impeachment President Trump was impeached Dec. 18, 2019, but the overall process spilled into the first quarter of 2020 when he was acquitted on the impeachment charges Feb. 5.Brexit In June 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. After many delays, the UK left the EU on Jan. 31. The U.K. and EU are in a transition period that's set to end Dec. 31, and the two will negotiate their future relationship.President Donald Trump listens as Chinese Vice Premier Liu He delivers remarks before the signing of a phase one trade agreement between the U.S. and China on Jan. 15 at the White House. White House photo by Shealah Craighead.See more from Benzinga * 12 Stocks Moving In Thursday's After-Hours Session * 13 Stocks Moving In Wednesday's After-Hours Session * 23 Stocks Moving In Tuesday's After-Hours Session(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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| Sudan moves to criminalize female genital mutilation Posted: 02 May 2020 06:21 AM PDT |
| North Korea tries to end speculation over supreme leader's health with ribbon cutting pictures Posted: 02 May 2020 05:57 AM PDT  Most ribbon cutting ceremonies are unremarkable affairs, the stuff of local newspaper photographs at most. But this one was different. It involved North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un in his first reported appearance in 20 days, during which there has been intense speculation about his health and even whether he was still alive. The newly released footage of Kim glad-handing at a North Korean fertilizer production plant north of Pyongyang on Friday would appear to have put an end to that. He was even pictured standing in front of a banner reading May 1, to drive home the point, much in the way hostages are forced to hold up that day's newspaper for the camera as proof of life. The date is also written in the Latin alphabet, in case there were any doubts about which audience this 'proof ' is for (see picture below).
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| AP FACT CHECK: Testing 'czar' rebuts Trump; vet care hyped Posted: 02 May 2020 05:54 AM PDT  Diagnostic testing for the coronavirus is bound to go down in history books as one of the most consequential failures of the U.S. response to the pandemic. Seemingly blindered on the subject, President Donald Trump persists in bragging about it. For weeks, the daily White House briefings were a platform where Trump spread misinformation, sometimes corrected by the public health officials with him or at least put in a more scientific context by them.
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| Egypt moves sphinxes to Tahrir Square despite controversy Posted: 02 May 2020 04:56 AM PDT |
| Iraq officials: IS militants kill 10 in coordinated attack Posted: 02 May 2020 02:18 AM PDT |
| 1 Houston police officer killed, 1 injured in copter crash Posted: 02 May 2020 01:55 AM PDT  A Houston police helicopter crashed early Saturday, killing one of the two officers on board and critically injuring the other, while assisting a call to search for bodies in a nearby bayou, officials said. A pilot and tactical flight officer were aboard a police helicopter when it crashed at an apartment complex around 2 a.m. They were flown to a hospital where the tactical flight officer died, police Chief Art Acevedo said hours after the crash during a news conference where he was joined by the city's mayor, Sylvester Turner. The department the officer who died as Tactical Flight Officer Jason Knox.
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| Iran rejects 'baseless' US comments on aid to Venezuela Posted: 02 May 2020 01:38 AM PDT |
| Refugees in Germany rally to help in virus battle Posted: 02 May 2020 01:36 AM PDT  In a community centre in Berlin's Spandau district, two large rooms are filled with the clunk and whirr of sewing machines, rolls of colourful fabric strewn across the tables. About a dozen migrants from countries including Iran and Afghanistan are busy making face masks to donate to the community -- and their work is in high demand, with a queue stretching down the stairs and out the front door. Germany has made masks compulsory on public transport and in many shops as part of measures to control the spread of the coronavirus, which has claimed almost 6,000 lives and led to sweeping restrictions on public life.
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| Misery of Italy's migrants grows not from virus but lockdown Posted: 02 May 2020 12:37 AM PDT  They are known as "the invisibles": Undocumented African migrants who, even before the coronavirus outbreak plunged Italy into crisis, barely scraped by as day laborers, prostitutes, freelance hairdressers and seasonal farm hands. Italy is preparing to reopen some business and industry on Monday in a preliminary easing of its virus shutdown.
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| Kim Jong Un Might Be Back in Public—but All Is Not Well Posted: 02 May 2020 12:32 AM PDT  This article was updated at 1:00 p.m. EDT, May 2, 2020.SEOUL—Hold the obituaries. In official North Korean video and photos, Kim Jong Un appears not only alive and well but thoroughly enjoying himself in the company of his younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, and a lineup of high-ranking officials at a sprawling new industrial complex.Is Kim Jong Un Dead, Injured, Comatose, Convalescing, Down with COVID-19, or Just F**king With Us?There, splashed across the front page of the party paper, Rodong Sinmun, are 21 colorful shots showing the Supreme Leader snipping a large crimson ribbon, crowds cheering, and Kim speaking from a long platform beneath the date, May Day 5/1, in large Korean lettering at the Sunchon Phosphatic Fertilizer Factory. No, it's nowhere near the compound in the east coast port city of Wonsan where he was rumored to have been hanging out, recovering from a heart operation or the coronavirus or just avoiding the dread disease. Sunchon is 30 miles north of Pyongyang, and it's anybody's guess where Kim's been since his last previous appearance on April 11, when he addressed the political bureau of the Workers' Party, calling for tougher measures to curb COVID-19.Doubts persisted, though. Skeptics said they still had to wait for moving images of Kim to be sure of the validity of the still photographs. They did not have to wait long. Several hours later, North Korean state TV broadcast a lengthy video report showing Kim at the factory walking by cheering well-wishers carrying flowers, and his sister Yo Jong formally handing him a box containing the scissors with which he cut the red tape before going on a walking tour in and around the new buildings. Judging from his waddling gait, however, Kim may have undergone a medical procedure that accounted for his prolonged absence."It's all very suspicious," said Thae Hong-ho, the former senior North Korean diplomat who defected in London nearly four years ago and was elected last month to South Korea's national assembly.Also grounds for lingering suspicion: neither Kim nor Yo Jong nor any of the toadies ranged on either side of them on the reviewing stand were wearing masks. Yes, all those well-wishers, waving as Kim strode confidently but unevenly by them, were properly masked. But massed closely together, cheering wildly as balloons floated above, they were oblivious to common sense about social distancing.Leaving such nagging details aside, however, the immediate view from here is the photos are legit and Kim has again defied all the talking heads and experts and nay-sayers who thought for sure he was either dead or dying or in any case suffering any number of ailments that might besiege a hard-working, chain-smoking, cheese-loving, 5-foot 7-inch 300-pounder."I have no reason to believe the photos are fake," said Dan Pinkston, who lectures on international relations at Troy University's campus here and just published a lengthy analysis of the whole succession process in case Kim really wasn't going to make it. "The most likely reasons [he dropped out of sight] are probably to avoid COVID-19, or he might have undergone some medical procedure."The gossip mill about Kim's mysterious absence from public view really began to churn after an April 20 report in the Daily NK, a website staffed by North Korean defectors here that often carries intriguing reports from sources inside North Korea. At one stage, Kim was said to be "in grave condition" while satellite imagery showed his special train parked at the station on the fringe of his Wonsan compound that is reserved for the exclusive use of the royal family, top aides and his formidable security team. Then, when he didn't show up on the most important day of the North Korean year, the anniversary of the birth of his grandfather Kim Il Sung, for sure something had to have been wrong. Never before had the 36-year-old Kim Jong Un failed to lay a wreath in front of the glass case containing the embalmed body of the revered "Great Leader," who was born on April 15, 108 years ago and founded the regime and the Kim dynasty in 1945.After having been completely silent on whatever Kim was doing after April 11, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency waxed ecstatic on his appearance at the fertilizer factory, reporting "thunderous cheers of 'hurrah' extending the greatest glory of the Supreme Leader."As KCNA would have it, Kim personally had "brought about a new change in the development of the Juche-based fertilizer industry"—Juche meaning self-reliance, a watchword of North Korean propaganda. Indeed, said KCNA, in verbiage typical of state media reports of Kim's visits outside Pyongyang, he "has led the grand revolutionary advance for strengthening self-supporting economy to a victory with his outstanding leadership."This appearance was far from typical, however. The Rodong Sinmun report, below a banner headline, suggested deep relief that all was well. The same sense prevailed in South Korea, where the unification minister had denounced media reports that Kim was incapacitated, criticizing what he called an "infodemic" that might impede President Moon Jae-in's efforts at restoring dialog with the North in a quest of inter-Korean reconciliation.The general impression was that Kim had scored a propaganda success by lying low. "Nobody was paying attention to his missile launches," said Jang Sung-eun, an office worker here. "He had to disappear for a while for people to pay attention.""If photos of Kim's reappearance are authentic, one lesson is that the world should listen more to the South Korean government and less to unnamed sources," said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international relations at Ewha University here. Easley cautioned, however, that "all is not well inside North Korea" and Kim's rule has suffered from "unmet expectations" after "Kim's failed bid for sanctions relief, possible community spread of COVID-19, and negative economic effects from tightened border restrictions with China."What had been going on remained a mystery. One clue to a power struggle was the absence for the occasion of Choe Ryong Hae, president of the Supreme People's Assembly and Kim's deputy on the state affairs commission, the real center of national power.Nor was there any real assurance that Kim would remain in good health for long. "You don't have to be a physician, and be Kim's physician, to conclude that he doesn't look well," Dan Pinkston said in an email. "And he's only 36 or 37. On the bright side (for him), he's young enough to change his habits—quit smoking, clean up his diet, and lose some weight."On the other hand, said Pinkston, "he does not look good (at any age), and if he continues this trajectory, I don't think he will live as long as his father or grandfather." Kim Il Sung ruled for almost 50 years and died at the age of 82. Kim Jong Il ruled for 17 years, and died at the age of 70.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Weary Moroccan medics fight virus, nightmares and tears Posted: 02 May 2020 12:04 AM PDT  When Moroccan nurse Mofadal Ahyane lost his first patient to COVID-19, he had a recurring nightmare: His patient in agony slips from his body, which gradually transforms into Ahyane's own father, then brother, then friend. "The death of that man will never leave me as long as I live," Ahyane said, his voice cracking as he recalled the vain efforts of doctors and nurses at the hospital in the northern city of Tetouan to save the man's life. The virus has upended life for Morocco's medical workers.
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| US tweets support for Taiwan, sparking opposition from China Posted: 01 May 2020 11:56 PM PDT |
| Facebook video pries open rift within Syria's ruling family Posted: 01 May 2020 11:54 PM PDT  A cousin who has been a bulwark of support for President Bashar Assad posted a video on Facebook late Thursday pleading with the Syrian leader to prevent the collapse of his major telecommunication company through what he called excessive and "unjust" taxation. The unprecedented video pries open what has been rumored as a major rift in the tight-knit Assad family, which has ruled Syria for nearly 50 years. Disputes and intrigue are not new to the family, including feuds and defections within its inner circle, particularly in the course of the country's nine-year war.
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| End of lockdown to uncork pent-up mourning for the lost Posted: 01 May 2020 11:28 PM PDT  As body after body has passed through his rubber-gloved hands, sealed in double-layered bags for disposal, Paris undertaker Franck Vasseur has become increasingly concerned about the future after the coronavirus pandemic. With lockdowns easing and people thawing out their on-hold lives, Vasseur suspects the enormity of so much loss will now start to sink in, unleashing pent-up grief that couldn't be fully comprehended and expressed when everyone was sealed away. Ashes await collection in funeral parlors.
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| Air travel wanes, but bodies still fly to Israel for burial Posted: 01 May 2020 11:24 PM PDT  Air travel to Israel has come to a near standstill due to coronavirus restrictions, but one type of voyage still endures: the final journey of Jews wishing to be buried in Israel. For centuries, Jews have sought to be interred in the Holy Land, going to great lengths to secure their final resting place in the land of their biblical forefathers. "The Land of Israel is a very special place for Jewish people to be buried," said Rabbi Michoel Fletcher, who facilitates purchases of burial plots in Israel for Jews from abroad.
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| The Sea of Galilee is full, but the beaches are empty Posted: 01 May 2020 11:05 PM PDT  After an especially rainy winter, the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel is at its highest level in two decades, but the beaches and major Christian sites along its banks are empty. Tourism usually peaks in April, when Christians flock to the holy sites during the Easter season and Israelis descend on the beaches and nearby national parks to enjoy the spring weather and see the wildflowers bloom. The borders have been closed and Israelis have been largely confined to their homes since mid-March.
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| Active Measures review: how Trump gave Russia its richest target yet Posted: 01 May 2020 10:00 PM PDT  In divided, chaotic and fearful times, Thomas Rid's 'secret history of disinformation and political warfare' is a must-readThe president-elect arrived in Washington under a cloud manufactured in Moscow and St Petersburg. Less than a month after Donald Trump took office, the national security adviser Michael Flynn was ousted for lying to the vice-president about a conversation with Russia's ambassador. All that, however, was a prelude to the firing of the FBI director James Comey and years of resulting turmoil. The Kremlin had succeeded beyond its wildest dreams.Under the subtitle The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare, Thomas Rid helps remind us how we reached this morass, one with antecedents reaching back to Czarist Russia and the Bolshevik revolution. To be sure, the US can use all the help it can get as it navigates the current election cycle and the lies, rumours and uncertainty that shroud the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.Rid was born in West Germany amid the cold war. The Berlin Wall fell when he was a teenager. He is now a professor at Johns Hopkins.So what are "active measures"? Previously, Rid testified they were "semi-covert or covert intelligence operations to shape an adversary's political decisions"."Almost always," he explained, "active measures conceal or falsify the source."The special counsel's report framed them more narrowly as "operations conducted by Russian security services aimed at influencing the course of international affairs". Add in technology and hacking, and an image of modern asymmetric warfare emerges.Rid travels back to the early years of communist Russia, recounting the efforts of the government to discredit the remnants of the ancien régime and squash attempts to restore the monarchy. The Cheka, the secret police, hatched a plot that involved forged correspondence, a fictitious organization, a fake counter-revolutionary council and a government-approved travelogue.Words and narratives morphed into readily transportable munitions. The émigré community was declawed and the multi-pronged combination deemed "wildly successful". The project also "served as an inspiration for future active measures". A template had been set.Fast forward to the cold war and the aftermath of the US supreme court's landmark school desegregation case. The tension between reality and the text and aspirations of the Declaration of Independence was in the open again. Lunch-counter sit-ins and demands for the vote filled newspapers and TV screens. The fault lines were plainly visible – and the Soviet Union pounced.In 1960, the KGB embarked on a "series of race-baiting disinformation operations" that included mailing Ku Klux Klan leaflets to African and Asian delegations to the United Nations on the eve of a debate on colonialism. At the same time, Russian "operators posed as an African American organization agitating against the KKK".More than a half-century later, Russia ran an updated version of the play. Twitter came to host the fake accounts of both "John Davis", ostensibly a gun-toting Texas Christian and family man, and @BlacktoLive", along with hundreds of others.The Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian troll factory, organized pro-Confederate flag rallies. As detailed by Robert Mueller, the IRA also claimed that the civil war was not "about slavery" and instead was "all about money", a false trope that continues to gain resonance among Trump supporters and proponents of the "liberate the states" movement. According to Brian Westrate, treasurer of the Wisconsin Republican party, "the Confederacy was more about states' rights than slavery."Depicting West Germany as Hitler's heir was another aim. At the time, "some aging former Nazis still held positions of influence", Rid writes. In the late 1960s, "encouraging 'anti-German tendencies in the West' was very much a priority".In 1964, with Russian assistance, Czech intelligence mounted Operation Neptun, sinking Nazi wartime documents to the bottom of the ominous sounding Black Lake, near the German border. The cache was then "discovered" – media pandemonium ensued. Four years later the mastermind of the scheme, Ladislav Bittman, defected to the US.Prior to 2016, Russia's most notable active measure using the US as a foil was the lie that Aids was "made in the USA". In retaliation for US reports of Soviet use of chemical weapons in Afghanistan, the KGB unfurled Operation Denver, a multi-platformed campaign that falsely claimed "Aids was an American biological weapon developed at Fort Detrick, Maryland". Central to the effort was the earlier publication of an anonymous letter with a New York byline by an Indian newspaper. The forged missive claimed "Aids may invade India: mystery disease caused by US lab experiments."Rid writes that the letter was "a masterfully executed disinformation operation", an amalgam of "20% forgery and 80% fact". The reality was that the Pentagon and the CIA had tested "new types of biological weapons in densely populated areas of the US and Canada", and conducted research on disease and psychotropic drugs on an array of human guinea pigs.The KGB doubled down and published a reworked version of the story in an English-language Soviet publication. At the same time and without any apparent nexus to the Soviet campaign, the Amsterdam News, a paper with a readership base in New York's African American community, opined that Aids was a likely result of US bacteria warfare. Once again, social mistrust helped weaponize a concocted narrative.To be clear, Russian "active measures" did not tip the 2016 election to the Republicans. On that score, the FBI and Comey had a greater impact. Instead, the Russians caused the US to stare into a mirror, red and blue Americans each seeing what they expected.Nor is an end in sight. According to the Senate intelligence committee, "Russian disinformation efforts may be focused on gathering information and data points in support of an active measures campaign targeted at the 2020 US presidential election", with an emphasis upon "gathering personal information" from "US-based audiences sympathetic to Russian disinformation topics".America remains mired in a cold civil war. Active Measures is another book for such troubled times.
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| NY hospital lobby's power stretches to DC in stimulus battle Posted: 01 May 2020 09:45 PM PDT  The stated mission of The Greater New York Hospital Association is simple enough: to help members deliver "the finest patient care in the most cost-effective way." While the association, which represents health care providers at the epicenter of the pandemic, is a nonprofit organization, it has the balance sheet of a robust private company, pays executive salaries that top $3 million and spent millions more to lobby in Washington for some of the nation's most profitable hospitals.
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| Michigan militia puts armed protest in the spotlight Posted: 01 May 2020 09:34 PM PDT  Gun-carrying protesters have been a common sight at some demonstrations calling for coronavirus-related restrictions to be lifted. The "American Patriot Rally" started on the statehouse steps, where members of the Michigan Liberty Militia stood guard with weapons and tactical gear, their faces partially covered.
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| New Zealand's Cannabis Reform Is Akin To Canada's But With A Protectionist Tinge Posted: 01 May 2020 01:47 PM PDT  In New Zealand, a legal reform on cannabis was proposed. It will be voted on in a national referendum, along with the general elections and referendum on Euthanasia.This reform promises to lead the international legalization movement by proposing a series of highly progressive issues.In general terms, it will be very similar to the Canadian reform, although it will have an extremely protectionist tinge on native and more vulnerable communities.Market shares would be reserved for micro-cultivators, businesses led by indigenous people would be prioritized and consumption areas would be enabled.On the other hand, there will also be a limit to the amount of cannabis produced annually and the THC levels that the products may have.New Zealand released recreational marijuana legislation that is set to be voted on in a nationwide referendum in September.Local business leaders are calling the proposed legislation -- the Cannabis Legalization and Control Bill -- "world-leading" for provisions that would reserve market share for micro cultivators, prioritize indigenous-run business and allow for consumption lounges.However, the bill would also ask the Cannabis Regulatory Authority to establish a yearly cap on the amount of cannabis available for sale in the licensed market.And it would set potency limits through controls on the amount of THC permitted in cannabis products."We've long advocated for a binding referendum with legislation setting out a clear, evidence-based regulatory framework" Chloe Swarbrick, a Green Party member of New Zealand's Parliament, tweeted last year. "That way, we avoid a Brexit-type situation figuring out what a 'yes' vote means after the fact, and cut grey moral panic from the debate."For legislators, legalizing it is not just promoting the creation of a new industry that will boost the national economy, create jobs, and a huge tax collection. It is also about doing social justice, adapting the laws to the real customs of the place and cutting with the legislative hypocrisy.> A substantial number of MPs have admitted to past illegal drug use, and they now preside over law that criminalises people who do the same. I'm calling on all politicians to live up to their rhetoric and remove criminal sanctions for those who use drugs. @NZParliament nzpol pic.twitter.com/8ZtFUSeTc6> > -- Chloe Swarbrick (@_chloeswarbrick) November 7, 2018There will be a clear choice for New Zealanders in the referendum, a Yes/No question based on the draft legislation that includes. * A minimum age of 20 to use and purchase recreational cannabis, * Regulations and commercial supply controls, * Limited home-growing options, * A public education programme, * Stakeholder engagement.The bill regulates every aspect of cannabis, in the supply aspect it limits vertical integration, producers won't be able to be sell nor distribute directly to the consumer. When settling the annual amount of licensed cannabis allowed to grow, the total cap will be awarded among holders of cultivation licenses making emphasis on micro-growers.Personal cultivation is allowed, a person may not grow more than two plants and the maximum allowed number of plants for a property is four.Español: Referendum por la Legalizacion en Nueva ZelandaSee more from Benzinga * Cannabis Stock Gainers And Losers From April 30, 2020 * Body and Mind Appoints Michael Mills As CEO * Vireo Health Forms New Company To Commercialize 'Scientific Advancements'(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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