| Coronavirus in South Africa: Why the low fatality rate is misleading Posted: 26 Jul 2020 04:14 PM PDT  As coronavirus infections surge, Andrew Harding notes meaningless statistics and a fear of hospitals.
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| UN says over 60 killed in renewed violence in Sudan’s Darfur Posted: 26 Jul 2020 03:43 PM PDT |
| Trump aims barb at Reagan Foundation in fundraising coin kerfuffle Posted: 26 Jul 2020 01:18 PM PDT  * Campaign and Republican party told to stop selling 'iconic' coins * President ties predecessor to Washington Post, a familiar targetDonald Trump famously fell out with the Bush family and has regularly claimed to be the greatest Republican president since the first, Abraham Lincoln. He has largely avoided attacking another claimant to that title, Ronald Reagan. Until now.On Sunday, after the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation asked Trump and the Republican party to stop fundraising off the 40th president's name, the 45th fired a characteristic volley in return."So the Washington Post is running the Reagan Foundation," Trump tweeted on Sunday afternoon, linking Reagan to a mortal media enemy, shortly after sallying out of his New Jersey golf club to throw red campaign hats to a group of supporters.In doing so, the president retweeted Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, who noted that "Frederick J Ryan Jr, who chairs the Reagan foundation board, is also publisher and chief executive of the Washington Post".Sabato added: "Hmmm…"The source of the strife was a Post column published on Saturday. It said the Reagan foundation "has demanded that Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) quit raising campaign money by using Ronald Reagan's name and likeness."The complaint concerned an email sent on 19 July. From "Donald J Trump" and titled "Ronald Reagan and yours truly", it offered for donations of $45 or more a "limited edition" set of two "iconic" gold-coloured coins, one showing Reagan, one Trump."The coins," the Post reported, "were mounted with a 1987 photograph of Reagan and Trump shaking hands in a White House receiving line – the type of fleeting contact that presidents have with thousands of people a year."The email was sent to a list that included reporters but it also said: "This offer is NOT available to the general public, so please, do NOT share this email with anyone."The RNC had agreed to stop, the Post said, though it noted that on Saturday the coins remained available. The Post also noted its connection to Ryan Jr, who it said declined to comment.Reagan, who made Jimmy Carter a one-term president, is a modern Republican hero. Trump, staring at being a one-term president himself, less so.Like most Republican politicians, he has sought to tie himself to Reagan. In July 2019, for example, Trump shared a tweet which contained a fake Reagan quote pasted over the same picture used in the fundraising email."For the life of me," the fake quote read, "and I'll never know how to explain it, when I met that young man, I felt like I was the one shaking hands with the president."Trump's retweet contained one word of his own: "Cute."Relations between the Reagans and the Trumps have not been uniformly cordial. In April 2019, the former president's daughter Patti Davis wrote a column for the Post entitled "Dear Republicans: Stop using my father, Ronald Reagan, to justify your silence on Trump.""At this moment in America's history," she wrote, "when the democracy to which my father pledged himself and the constitution that he swore to uphold … are being degraded and chipped away at by a sneering, irreverent man who traffics in bullying and dishonesty, you stay silent."You stay silent when President Trump speaks of immigrants as if they are trash, rips children from the arms of their parents and puts them in cages… You stayed silent when this president fawned over Kim Jong-un and took Vladimir Putin's word … and now you do not act when Trump [shows] his utter contempt" for Congress.In his Sunday tweet, Trump also showed contempt for a member of the Republican establishment, former House speaker Paul Ryan."RINO Paul Ryan is on the Board of Fox which has been terrible," the president wrote, using an acronym for "Republican in name only"."We will win anyway, even with the phony Fox News suppression polls (which have been seriously wrong for five years)!"Trump also lumped Fox News in with the Post, as part of "the Lamestream Media".One hundred days out from the election, most mainstream polling, including from Fox News, puts the president behind Joe Biden nationally and in battleground states.
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| Influential German politician Hans-Jochen Vogel dies aged 94 Posted: 26 Jul 2020 01:13 PM PDT  Hans-Jochen Vogel, the former leader of Germany's centre-left Social Democrats who once tried to take on Helmut Kohl for the chancellorship, died at the age of 94 on Sunday. Chancellor Angela Merkel led the tributes, praising Vogel on Twitter as "one of the defining political figures" of postwar Germany whose achievements were "an inspiration and an example" to many. The SPD party issued a statement calling Vogel "a great Social Democrat" who worked tirelessly for "a just world and a unified Europe".
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| ProPublica posts NYPD records, bypassing judge's blockade Posted: 26 Jul 2020 12:53 PM PDT  Days after a federal judge paused the public release of New York City police disciplinary records, a news website has published a database containing complaint information for thousands of officers. ProPublica posted the database Sunday, explaining in a note to readers that it isn't obligated to comply with Judge Katherine Polk Failla's temporary restraining order because it is not a party to a union lawsuit challenging the release of such records. Deputy Managing Editor Eric Umansky said ProPublica requested the information from the city's police watchdog agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, soon after last month's repeal of state law that for decades had prevented the disclosure of disciplinary records.
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| Israeli drone crashes in Lebanon amid tensions with Syria Posted: 26 Jul 2020 12:05 PM PDT |
| Kim Jong Un Finally Admits Coronavirus is in North Korea Posted: 26 Jul 2020 11:40 AM PDT  North Korea just announced its first case of COVID-19, casting blame most conveniently on a defector who had fled to South Korea and then re-defected back to the North, supposedly bringing the bug with him.That's the spin that North Korea's state media, KCNA, is putting on the case after a meeting of the politburo of the Workers' Party, at which Kim Jong Un himself made a rare appearance Whether he was there in person or "virtually," on screen, was not clear. But there was no doubt, from the the crisis atmosphere surrounding the meeting, of the severity of the pandemic that's been afflicting the North for months—despite the regime's refusal to acknowledge what's going on. Also implicit in the unusually detailed KCNA dispatch, published in Rodong Sinmun, the party paper, was the need to buttress Kim's image as a strong leader capable of dealing with the crisis.Does Trump Know How Scary Things Are Getting in Korea?Kim, generally called simply "supreme leader," was reported by KCNA to have revealed "a critical situation in which the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country."The quotes on KCNA were not attributed directly to Kim, and it's not certain if he personally made them or simply approved them. At the same time, he was reported to have taken what KCNA called "the preemptive measure of totally blocking Kaesong City," just above the Demilitarized Zone about 40 miles north of Seoul. That's where the defector may have crossed the line, possibly by swimming across the Imjin River as it flows from North to South.Never previously has the North so much as hinted at any COVID-19 cases, even while announcing a series of precautions beginning with the closure of its borders with China in January and severe restraints imposed on the movement of diplomats. The defector story, said Robert Collins, a long-time intelligence analyst for the U.S. command in Korea, "gives the Kim regime plausible excuse as to how virus infections started." Collins, who has written numerous books and studies on North Korean issues, cited reports of areas "put under strict isolation" in North Korea—"about the only method the Kim regime has in containing any spread of the virus."The politburo meeting, as reported by KCNA, acknowledged the crisis precipitated by a pandemic of epic proportions—the country faces economic and food instability exacerbated by the U.S. and U.N. sanctions that make it extremely difficult for the North to carry on normal trade and commerce despite help from China. Having previously denied that anyone had come down with the disease, the state media had to stress Kim's presence as party chairman when announcing the coronavirus case—critical to spreading the bad word after months of official obfuscation and denial of the disease.The tone of the KCNA report suggests the need to reinforce Kim's leadership at a time when confidence in his ability to control the pandemic is obviously in doubt. Often out of sight for weeks at a time since onset of the coronavirus in January, Kim has reappeared most recently on a visit to a chicken farm at which he called for increased production and, several days before, to a hospital under construction in Pyongyang. At the hospital, he reportedly berated managers and workers for going too slow, definitely a sign of the immediate need for a vast improvement of medical facilities, including many more beds. On both visits, it was not clear exactly when he had been there, but he did look healthy if overweight, at least to judge from the photos released by KCNA. Kim's Sister Is on the WarpathKim's reported appearance at the politburo was his most important in weeks—a chance to shore up confidence in the midst of a pandemic that appears beyond the ability of the North's medical facilities to combat. Significantly, the North Korean state media was careful not to pin the blame on anyone living in the North but on a lone defector made to appear responsible for the entire outbreak.Kim himself did not mention the defector, but KCNA opened its report by declaring "an emergency event happened in Kaesong City where a runaway who went to the south three years ago, a person who is suspected to have been infected with the vicious virus, returned on July 19 after illegally crossing the demarcation line."That's the only mention of the defector until the last paragraph at which the politburo meeting "sternly took up the issue of the loose guard performance in the frontline area in the relevant area where the runway to the south occurred." The politburo promised "severe punishment: for "the military unit responsible for the runaway case." South Korea's military leadership is equally concerned about how a defector could have made it back to the North. An official with the South's joint chiefs of staff rated the probability of the report of the defector returning to North Korea as "high" and said the military was "looking into the detailed routes" of his crossing. He was believed to be a 24-year-old man under investigation for raping a female defector.Meanwhile, Kim has revealed "anxiety about his mortality," said Lee Sung-yoon, professor at the Fletcher School of Tufts University, in his "rush to bolster his sister's credentials"—that is, the role of Kim Yo Jong, who has denounced defectors as "mongrels" and is believed largely responsible for the decision to blow up the North-South liaison office built at South Korean expense at Kaesong. "How convenient a narrative to blame a 'mongrel' for bringing the coronavirus into Paradise on Earth," said Lee. "Now, Kim can claim that despite the threat of mass infection, he has acted swiftly and resolutely by locking down Kaesong City in order to contain the spread."North Korea has seized on the case with an alacrity that betrayed the severe unease of the regime about its stability, even its ability to function, during the pandemic. It was as though they badly needed just such a case to transfer the blame to an outside influence—and affirm the role of the "supreme leader" at a time when he has been largely away from public view. Kim was reported to have said, again without quotes attributed directly to him, "that everyone needs to face up to the reality of emergency" and to have "appealed to all to overcome the present epidemic crisis by not losing the focus of thinking and action, practicing responsibility and devotion to be faithful and true to the leadership of the Party Central Committee, being rallied closer behind it so as to defend the welfare of the people and security of the country without fail."Behind those ponderous words is the widespread suspicion that the pandemic may have had a more devastating impact on North Korea than on most other countries, certainly than on South Korea, which has acted firmly to bring it under control while publishing daily numbers of new cases. "COVID-19 definitely has a very negative impact on North Korea, regardless of how many people were dead or sick," said Choi Jin-wook, former director of the Korea Institute for National Unification. They've "closed down the border with China for seven months"—meaning "no food, no daily manufactured goods."No one doubts the North's medical system is incapable of dealing effectively with the pandemic. "Their healthcare system was severely deteriorated during the arduous march of the mid-1990's famine," said Robert Collins, referring to the period in which as many as two million North Koreans are believed to have died of starvation or disease. "Doctors have little to offer patients who must buy their medicine on the black market. Few can afford anything significant in that line."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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| Ted Cruz says more Chinese consulates in U.S. 'may well be closed' Posted: 26 Jul 2020 10:49 AM PDT  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told CBS News' Margaret Brennan during an appearance on Sunday's edition of Face the Nation that more Chinese consulates in the U.S. "may well be closed" after the one in Houston shut down over allegations of spying and intellectual property theft.The senator, of course, can't unilaterally make that decision, but Washington's latest actions, including shuttering the Houston consulate and declaring Beijing's South China Sea claims to be unlawful, suggest that the White House and State Department are leaning more toward's Cruz traditionally hawkish view on China nowadays.On Sunday, Cruz, who was recently barred from entering China, said the big takeaway during the coronavirus pandemic in terms of foreign policy is indeed that "people are understanding the threat China poses" to the world, which he said he has argued for years.Cruz then went on to blame the Chinese government for covering up the origins of the coronavirus by silencing whistleblowers and subsequently allowing it to spread across the globe. > NEWS: @SenTedCruz suggests to @margbrennan more Chinese consulates in the U.S. may close after China's consulate in Houston, Texas shuttered this week. > > Adds, "The most significant foreign policy consequence of this pandemic is people are understanding the threat China poses." pic.twitter.com/YrjMbpSbkM> > -- Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) July 26, 2020More stories from theweek.com 5 scathing cartoons about Trump's use of federal force Trump's old tricks aren't working North Korea may be 'reaching out to the world for help' after finally announcing a suspected coronavirus case
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| Watch John Lewis' casket travel over famed Selma bridge Posted: 26 Jul 2020 09:29 AM PDT  The multi-day memorial procession for the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) continued Sunday as the civil rights icon's body crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, for the final time.> Rep. John Lewis' casket travels over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where he was beaten while marching for voting rights 55 years ago. pic.twitter.com/Gyk2lEN9dh> > -- NBC News (@NBCNews) July 26, 2020In 1965, when Lewis was just 25, he helped lead a march across the bridge -- which many people hope will be renamed in his honor -- for Black voting rights. The protesters met resistance from Alabama state troopers, and Lewis was among those beaten on the bridge during an incident that came to be known as Bloody Sunday. The march actually almost never happened since several leaders were concerned about the danger, but it was Lewis who insisted on going through with the demonstration. > One thing many people don't know is Bloody Sunday march in Selma almost didn't happen> > SNCC voted against it & MLK sent Andrew Young to stop it > > But John Lewis insisted on marching. "If the people want to march, I'm going to march with them" he said> > [p 20 Give Us the Ballot] pic.twitter.com/iSpitTa5ZU> > -- Ari Berman (@AriBerman) July 26, 2020More stories from theweek.com 5 scathing cartoons about Trump's use of federal force Trump's old tricks aren't working North Korea may be 'reaching out to the world for help' after finally announcing a suspected coronavirus case
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| Police and protesters clash in violent weekend across the US Posted: 26 Jul 2020 09:23 AM PDT  Protests took a violent turn in several U.S. cities over the weekend with demonstrators squaring off against federal agents outside a courthouse in Portland, Oregon, forcing police in Seattle to retreat into a station house and setting fire to vehicles in California and Virginia. A protest against police violence in Austin, Texas, turned deadly when police said a protester was shot and killed by a person who drove through a crowd of marchers. The unrest Saturday and early Sunday stemmed from the weeks of protests over racial injustice and the police treatment of people of color that flared up after the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
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| North Korea Locks Down Town After First Suspected COVID-19 Case Posted: 26 Jul 2020 09:01 AM PDT  KCNA said the person deserted North Korea three years ago for South Korea, but returned illegally last week. Additionally, North Korea is interviewing people they've come into contact with requiring anyone who visited Kaesong to quarantine. If confirmed, this would be North Korea's first reported case since the coronavirus pandemic began.
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| CDC's Atlanta-area antibody study 'freaked out' residents after community outreach failure Posted: 26 Jul 2020 08:22 AM PDT  Back in April, experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention traveled throughout Georgia's DeKalb and Fulton counties to conduct a coronavirus antibody project with the goal of tracking how the virus was spreading disproportionately among Black residents. It quickly backfired and sowed distrust among residents, Politico reports.The first issue was how quickly everything happened — the project got the green light from the CDC just a day before it began, and Sandra Elizabeth Ford, the director of the DeKalb County Board of Health, said her office barely got a heads up.The lack of notice led to the second flaw in the plan. The CDC had failed to do any community outreach before arriving, and many residents were reportedly upset when officials knocked on their doors. Ford's office reportedly tried to do some last minute damage control and convince community members the project was not a "police event" and had "no malicious intent," but to little avail. "People were asking me, 'What do I do if they come to my door and ask for my blood. Do I give it to them?'" said Nse Ufot, executive director of the New Georgia Project. "It freaked out a lot of seniors and a lot of African American leaders and community members."The CDC later apologized at a town hall. Dr. Joseph Bresee, associate director of global health affairs for the CDC's influenza division, said "we clearly fell short in doing the appropriate outreach to the community before this happened." Read more at Politico.More stories from theweek.com 5 scathing cartoons about Trump's use of federal force Trump's old tricks aren't working North Korea may be 'reaching out to the world for help' after finally announcing a suspected coronavirus case
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| Economists explain why they expect Europe to 'bounce back more sharply' than the U.S. Posted: 26 Jul 2020 07:55 AM PDT  Jari Stehn, chief European economist at Goldman Sachs, told Bloomberg "it's pretty rare that the euro area would outgrow the U.S. over a horizon of one to two years," yet that's exactly what Stehn and other economists anticipate will happen as both economies try to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.JPMorgan Chase & Co. predicts the euro area's economy to shrink more than the U.S.'s this year -- 6.4 percent to 5.1 percent, respectively -- but, subsequently, the bank anticipates a 6.2 percent rebound for the Euro area, which is more than double the 2.8 percent growth expected for the U.S. That's because the euro area has "broken the link," meaning that mobility numbers are increasing, but the virus has not been resurgent. The success is largely the result of initially aggressive lockdowns followed by good contact tracing programs, mask-wearing, and continued social distancing measures as things open up, Bloomberg reports.In the U.S., meanwhile, where the economy didn't ground to such an extreme halt, several states in the South and West have had to reimpose some lockdown measures as cases continue to spike, likely leading to a more prolonged recovery. Read more at Bloomberg. > Europe's Economy Set to Outpace U.S. in Upending of Past Roles - Bloomberg > *Tough lockdowns mean euro area suffered a deeper contraction > *But recent measures of activity suggest a stronger recovery > *Link: https://t.co/sDXRmcGnMb pic.twitter.com/4y0kEBRT7c> > -- Christophe Barraud (@C_Barraud) July 26, 2020More stories from theweek.com 5 scathing cartoons about Trump's use of federal force Trump's old tricks aren't working North Korea may be 'reaching out to the world for help' after finally announcing a suspected coronavirus case
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| From police chief to VP? Inside Val Demings' unlikely path Posted: 26 Jul 2020 07:45 AM PDT  Val Demings has already been vice president. In 1972, the future Florida congresswoman was a young Black girl struggling to make friends at a predominantly white Jacksonville high school. Hartley was president and Demings was her second-in-command.
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| US diplomat says America keeps pushing to end Qatar crisis Posted: 26 Jul 2020 07:11 AM PDT  The U.S. continues to push for an end of the four-nation boycott of Qatar, even after the hospitalization of Kuwait's ruling emir who led talks to resolve the yearslong dispute, a U.S. diplomat said Sunday. U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook acknowledged the challenge ahead on ending the crisis that's torn apart the Gulf Cooperation Council, with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates part of the boycott that's targeted fellow member Qatar since June 2017. Egypt as well joined the boycott, which saw nations close their airspace and borders to Qatar.
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| Kenyan police officers arrested after fatal shooting in Garissa Posted: 26 Jul 2020 06:24 AM PDT  Two people were killed during a protest in Garissa sparked by the arrest of a murder suspect.
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| Colleges plan for virus testing, but strategies vary widely Posted: 26 Jul 2020 06:01 AM PDT  For students heading to Colby College in Maine this fall, coronavirus testing is expected to be a routine part of campus life. Colby, a private school of 2,000 students, joins a growing number of colleges announcing aggressive testing plans to catch and isolate COVID-19 cases before they spread. Harvard University says all students living on campus will be tested when they arrive and then three times a week.
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| North Korea may be 'reaching out to the world for help' after finally announcing a suspected coronavirus case Posted: 26 Jul 2020 05:25 AM PDT  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared an emergency and imposed a lockdown in the border city of Kaesong after the country reported its first suspected coronavirus case, state media said Sunday, adding that a person who defected three years ago to South Korea returned last week and exhibited COVID-19 symptoms after "illegally crossing the demarcation line."Pyongyang shut its borders and put thousands of people in isolation six months ago when the coronavirus pandemic began, but Kim's regime has not acknowledged any coronavirus cases during that span, a feat analysts say was always unlikely. Still, the announcement appears to be a significant step for the secretive state — experts believe it may represent a cry for help. "It's an ice-breaking moment for North Korea to admit a case," said Choo Jae-woo, a professor at South Korea's Kyung Hee University. "It could be reaching out to the world for help. Perhaps for humanitarian assistance."The description of the infected person, and the fact that the alleged case was imported, also may be meaningful. "North Korea is in such a dire situation, where they can't even finish building the Pyongyang General Hospital on time," said Cho Han-bum, a senior fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul. "Pointing the blame at an 'imported case' from South Korea, the North can use this as a way to openly accept aid from the South." Read more at Reuters and BBC.More stories from theweek.com 5 scathing cartoons about Trump's use of federal force Trump's old tricks aren't working Actress Olivia de Havilland dies at 104
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| AP-NORC poll: US course at record low, Trump sinks on virus Posted: 26 Jul 2020 05:01 AM PDT  With the November election 100 days away, more Americans say the country is heading in the wrong direction than at any previous point in Donald Trump's presidency, putting the incumbent in a perilous position as his reelection bid against Democrat Joe Biden enters a pivotal stretch. After spending months playing down the pandemic and largely ignoring the virus' resurgence in several states, Trump warned this past week that the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. After repeatedly minimizing the importance of wearing masks to limit the spread of the virus, Trump urged Americans to do exactly that.
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| Why Democrats Don’t Hold Trump Accountable Posted: 26 Jul 2020 05:00 AM PDT |
| South Africa jailbreak: Malmesbury prison inmates rearrested Posted: 26 Jul 2020 04:57 AM PDT  Dozens of inmates fled after a group at Malmesbury Prison overpowered staff during exercise on Friday.
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| Boris Johnson's government is privately 'desperate' for Trump to lose the election to Joe Biden Posted: 26 Jul 2020 04:54 AM PDT  Biden and Johnson are not natural allies. The Democrat challenger opposed Johnson's pet project of Brexit and reportedly called him a Trump "clone."
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| Hanna downgraded to tropical storm, but 'catastrophic flooding' remains possible in Texas Posted: 26 Jul 2020 04:53 AM PDT  Hurricane Hanna made landfall in Texas twice as a Category 1 storm Saturday before the National Hurricane Center downgraded it to a tropical storm once again Sunday morning. At that point, Hanna had maximum sustained 60 mile per hour winds.Despite weakening, the storm is still dangerous, and parts of northeastern Mexico and southern Texas are on alert. Tidal surges, dangerous surf, and tornadoes all remain possibilities, but heavy rainfall presents the most significant threat, The Associated Press reports. Forecasters said Hanna could bring 6 to 12 inches of rain through Sunday night, with isolated totals of 18 inches. "We're not even close to over at this point," said Chris Birchfield, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Brownsville, Texas. "We're still expecting catastrophic flooding."In a press conference Saturday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said he signed a disaster declaration for 32 Texas counties and has requested a federal emergency declaration. He added that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard are already in the state and ready to respond to potentially "severe" and "life-threatening flash floods." Any rescue operations will reportedly account for the coronavirus pandemic and incorporate social distancing guidelines and mask wearing. Read more at The Associated Press and NBC News.More stories from theweek.com 5 scathing cartoons about Trump's use of federal force Trump's old tricks aren't working North Korea may be 'reaching out to the world for help' after finally announcing a suspected coronavirus case
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| Putin says Russian Navy to get hypersonic nuclear strike weapons Posted: 26 Jul 2020 03:39 AM PDT |
| Trump's old tricks aren't working Posted: 26 Jul 2020 03:35 AM PDT  On July 21, a day on which America would record 1,127 deaths from COVID-19 — its highest number since late May — and over 65,000 new infections, President Trump tweeted the following: "Looking forward to live sports, but any time I witness a player kneeling during the National Anthem, a sign of great disrespect for our Country and our Flag, the game is over for me!"For Trump — whose political brand depends on such inflammatory chestnuts — the tweet recalled his 2017 declaration that NFL owners should respond to kneeling players by saying, "'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he's fired.'" Back then, the comment dominated the news, inflamed the controversy, and led the league — fearful of Trump's clout and the loss of conservative fans — to devise new rules surrounding the anthem. And Trump received what he presumably craves: the sense that he is at once the origin and subject of our national narrative.But with the country now routed by a disease that will not "just disappear," as Trump predicted it would in early July, the tactic has lost its edge. Instead of igniting a debate around athletes' supposed disrespect of the flag, Trump's recent kneeling tweet felt laughably out of touch, leading to comments like "Why aren't you… encouraging people to wear a mask and practice social distancing[?]" It's not just a valid question; amid a historic crisis, it's essentially the only question.The culture-war nuggets Trump wants to feed us are no longer what the public — drained financially, medically, and emotionally by COVID-19 — has the appetite to consume. In the past week and a half alone, he has accused Barack Obama of treason, called his own niece a criminal, and asserted that Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, wants to abolish — deep breath — the police, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the bail system, the second amendment, and intriguingly, the suburbs. None of these charges caused much of a ripple beyond Trump's Twitter feed. And until the virus subsides — likely sometime next year, regardless of who is president — that pattern is likely to hold.Trump seems to be grasping this, holding his first coronavirus press conference in weeks on the same day as his anti-kneeling tweet. Although his performance was drowsy, muddled, and teeming with untruths, his newfound willingness to address the crisis showed that for perhaps the first time since he took office, he isn't driving the news — the news is driving him. His admission that "Florida is in a little tough or in a big tough position" was a reflection of the big tough position he is also in: since late March, his average approval rating has dropped six points, to 40 percent; approval of his handling of the virus, meanwhile, has fallen through the floor.Clearly, Trump has little concern for the public's health; if he did, as my colleague Ryan Cooper pointed out months ago, he would have acted decisively when the disease began to spread. Trump's greater concern is likely that he cannot rally supporters and win undecided voters — especially in COVID-ravaged southern states — when they are worried about their lives and livelihoods. To defeat Biden in November, Trump needs to feed upon the country's resentments as he did so ably in 2016. He needs both sides to get stirred up when he opines on football players or rails against "fake news" or poses with cans of beans. In short, he needs us to play along. But that's far less likely to happen when swaths of the nation are caught in the virus' grip.What can a provocateur do when his usual provocations grow stale? If Trump's use of federal force in Portland over the past week is any indication, he will shift to unusual provocations. His quick, cynical embrace of the "law and order" tag may now be his only move: flailing against COVID, unable to conduct rallies or weaponize social media, he is portraying himself as the country's best defense against the loathsome "Radical Left." This is familiar territory for him, of course; last November, for instance, he decried New York's early release of "900 Criminals, some hardened & bad," and added, "The Radical Left Dems are killing our cities." But it's a role he may have to play with increasing vigor if he is to dig himself out from the double-digit hole he is stuck in against Biden, who, Trump warns, "will destroy our Country as we know it."Whatever this president does, the coronavirus will persist until there is a vaccine — which, Trump promises with hyperbolic vagueness, is "coming a lot sooner than anybody thought possible." That fact — more than anything he tweets or directs his proxy forces to do — is likely to drive the national conversation between now and Election Day. Thanks to Trump's no-show leadership early in the COVID fight, it is a problem of his own making. He must now figure out how to win re-election when a thing like a kneeling athlete has been revealed to be what it always was: nothing worth getting that worked up about.More stories from theweek.com 5 scathing cartoons about Trump's use of federal force North Korea may be 'reaching out to the world for help' after finally announcing a suspected coronavirus case Actress Olivia de Havilland dies at 104
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| UN says thousands of anti-Pakistan militants in Afghanistan Posted: 26 Jul 2020 03:26 AM PDT  A U.N. report says more than 6,000 Pakistani insurgents are hiding in Afghanistan, most belonging to the outlawed Pakistani Taliban group responsible for attacking Pakistani military and civilian targets. The report released this week said the group, known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), has linked up with the Afghan-based affiliate of the Islamic State group. The Afghan government did not respond Sunday to requests by The Associated Press for comment.
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| Putin attends naval parade, promises new ships to navy Posted: 26 Jul 2020 03:22 AM PDT  President Vladimir Putin said the Russian navy will get 40 new ships and vessels this year, as he attended a naval parade in St. Petersburg on Sunday marking the Navy Day in Russia. The parade in St. Petersburg and the nearby town of Kronshtadt featured 46 ships and vessels and over 4,000 troops and aimed to "demonstrate the growing power of our navy," Putin said Friday.
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| Why are scientists creating genetically modified mosquitoes? Posted: 26 Jul 2020 02:45 AM PDT  Scientists plan to release altered mosquitoes designed to sabotage the species' ability to reproduce. Is this safe? Here's everything you need to know:Who's doing this? The federal Environmental Protection Agency has approved a plan by a British biotech company called Oxitec to release about 1 billion genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes in the Florida Keys and, next year, Texas. The mosquitoes (code-named OX5034) will only be male — the gender that does not bite humans — and will carry a new gene that will be passed on to their female offspring and cause them to die while they're still larvae. Repeated releases of such "Trojan horse" mosquitoes should kill, in theory, 90 percent of the local population of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is capable of transmitting the Zika and West Nile viruses, as well as dengue and yellow fever. Oxitec claims it's safe and notes that the species is invasive to south Florida, anyway. But the plan has drawn protest from residents and some in the scientific community. "People here in Florida do not consent to the genetically engineered mosquitoes or to being human experiments," said Barry Wray of the Florida Keys Environmental Coalition. Henry Greely, a Stanford law professor and bioethicist, said the Oxitec plan reflects the almost limitless possibilities — and dangers — of genetic technology. "We can remake the biosphere to be what we want, from woolly mammoths to nonbiting mosquitoes," he said. "How should we feel about that? Do we want to live in nature, or in Disneyland?"How does this technology work? Scientists first genetically modified an animal — a mouse — in 1974. But the process remained cumbersome and slow until the development of the CRISPR technique and other "gene-editing" technology this decade. Now scientists can target exactly which genes they want to modify using RNA, break the DNA apart at the gene's location using an enzyme, and then insert a new gene. Last year, University of Georgia researchers created the first genetically modified reptile, a brown anole, and an Indiana company, AquaBounty, expects to begin harvesting tons of salmon genetically modified to grow faster at an indoor facility later this year. Critics say this is all moving too fast, without adequate study of risks and unintended consequences. Jaydee Hanson, policy director for the International Center for Technology Assessment and Center for Food Safety, calls Oxitec's project a "Jurassic Park experiment, except without the island."Where do the plans stand? In May, the EPA greenlighted Oxitec's plans for both Florida and Texas, issuing the company an experimental use permit. Florida state authorities followed suit with their own approval. Texas authorities and the Florida Keys Mosquito Control commission still need to sign off, and may face lawsuits. More than 31,000 people filed objections with the EPA — and only 56 expressed support — with some accusing the agency of relying solely on data supplied by Oxitec to issue permits. "What could possibly go wrong?" asked Hanson. "We don't know, because they unlawfully refused to seriously analyze environmental risks."What could go wrong? Some geneticists, including Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher of EcoNexus, a public-interest research organization, have raised alarms that Oxitec's altered mosquitoes haven't been adequately studied. The researcher said "the underlying mechanism(s) leading to cell death" in the larvae aren't "fully understood" and thus can't yield "precise and predictable results." An independent group of researchers also claimed that some of the larvae produced from an earlier Oxitec field study in Brazil survived to sexual maturity and were able to reproduce — introducing the mosquitoes' modified DNA into the local population. (So far, there is no evidence that the resulting hybrid is more robust or dangerous to humans.) Critics also warn that the potential removal of even an invasive species from the food chain and ecosystem could have profound unintentional consequences; many kinds of birds and bats, for example, eat mosquitoes. "I'm not sure I care if mosquitoes suffer, if they can suffer," Greely said. "But mammals or birds, I do care."What's the upside? Some see world-changing possibilities. Florida witnessed its first mosquito-to-human transmission of the Zika virus (which causes serious birth defects) in 2016, and West Nile is a perennial problem. As these diseases spread northward in a warming world, the elimination of a species that transmits them could prevent many illnesses and save lives. Meanwhile, a team of scientists led by the renowned botanist Joanne Chory is using CRISPR to create plants capable of storing extra carbon dioxide. Theoretically, if applied on a large scale, such plants could suck more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and arrest the forces of climate change. "I feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders," Chory has said. In Australia, researchers are devising a genetically modified coral capable of withstanding rising sea temperatures. "The worst thing that we could do is ignore genetic engineering because it's frightening for some people," said coral geneticist Line Bay, "and then get 10 or 15 years down the road and realize it's the only option."Oxitec's modified moths South Florida and Texas aren't the only places that Oxitec is testing its genetically modified insects. Earlier this year, Cornell University scientists announced the results of a project they had conducted with the company involving its genetically modified diamondback moths, or Plutella xylostella. The pest reportedly wreaks between $4 billion and $5 billion a year of damage to crops like broccoli, canola, cauliflower, and cabbage. Scientists and farmers are eager to find ways of limiting the damage as well as reducing the $19 billion worth of chemical pesticides sprayed on crops each year. The modified male moths come with a self-limiting gene that causes their female progeny to die. The Cornell team declared the test a success, saying that the modified moths should "effectively suppress populations of pest P. xylostella in the field." The company is also at work developing a modified, self-limiting version of the fall armyworm, which is responsible for terrible crop losses across sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. An Oxitec scientist who co-authored the Cornell report hailed the "immense potential" of protecting plants without resorting to potentially toxic pesticides.This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, you can try six risk-free issues of the magazine here.More stories from theweek.com 5 scathing cartoons about Trump's use of federal force Trump's old tricks aren't working North Korea may be 'reaching out to the world for help' after finally announcing a suspected coronavirus case
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| Senior UN official skips Pakistan visit, citing flight issue Posted: 26 Jul 2020 02:27 AM PDT |
| N. Korea reports first suspected infection as global cases top 16m Posted: 26 Jul 2020 01:02 AM PDT  North Korea declared its first suspected coronavirus case on Sunday, becoming one of the last countries to do so as the number of people infected worldwide passed 16 million. At least 645,000 people around the world have succumbed to the respiratory disease, with North Korean arch-rival the United States the worst-hit country by far. "The vicious virus could be said to have entered the country," leader Kim Jong Un said, according to the official KCNA news agency.
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| Arrests and clashes follow anti-Netanyahu protests in Israel Posted: 26 Jul 2020 01:02 AM PDT  Police said Sunday they arrested more than a dozen Israelis in country-wide protests the previous night that drew thousands of people in a growing and persistent show of force against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his handling of the coronavirus crisis. For the first time since the wave of protests began weeks ago, hundreds also assembled outside Netanyahu's private home in the upscale coastal town of Caesarea, where heavy security greeted them. Demonstrators across bridges and intersections waved black flags, the symbol of one of the movements behind the protests that is demanding Netanyahu's ouster.
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| North Korea declares emergency over suspected virus case Posted: 26 Jul 2020 12:23 AM PDT  North Korean authorities have imposed a lockdown on the border city of Kaesong after discovering what they say is the country's first suspected coronavirus case, state media reported Sunday. Leader Kim Jong Un convened an emergency politburo meeting on Saturday to implement a "maximum emergency system and issue a top-class alert" to contain the virus, the official Korean Central News Agency said. If confirmed, it would be the first officially recognised case of COVID-19 in North Korea, where medical infrastructure is seen as woefully inadequate to deal with any epidemic.
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| South Africa warns COVID-19 corruption puts 'lives at risk' Posted: 26 Jul 2020 12:07 AM PDT  South Africa's COVID-19 response is marred by corruption allegations around its historic $26 billion economic relief package, as the country with the world's fifth highest number of COVID-19 cases braces for more. President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a wide-ranging investigation into claims that unscrupulous officials and private companies are looting efforts to protect the country's 57 million people. "More so than at any other time, corruption puts our lives at risk," he said in a national address Thursday night.
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| Police corral crowds as movers leave US Consulate in China Posted: 25 Jul 2020 11:23 PM PDT  Moving trucks and vehicles with diplomatic plates pulled out of a U.S. Consulate in southwest China on Sunday, as its impending closure over rising bilateral tensions drew a steady stream of onlookers for the second straight day. People stopped to take selfies and photos, jamming a sidewalk busy with shoppers and families with strollers on a sunny day in the city of Chengdu. The capital of Sichuan province, along with Houston in Texas, has found itself in the limelight of international politics as China and the U.S. exchanged tit-for-tat orders last week to close each other's consulates in the two heartland cities.
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| Hanna's rain remains biggest threat to virus hot spot Texas Posted: 25 Jul 2020 10:16 PM PDT  South Texas braced for flooding Sunday after Hanna roared ashore as a hurricane the day before, bringing winds that lashed the Gulf Coast with rain and storm surge to a part of the country trying to cope with a spike in cases of the coronavirus. The first landfall happened at around 5 p.m. about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of Port Mansfield, which is about 130 miles (209 km) south of Corpus Christi. Hanna came ashore with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (145 kph).
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| Body of civil rights icon John Lewis crosses Selma bridge Posted: 25 Jul 2020 10:04 PM PDT  The late U.S. Rep. John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, for the final time Sunday as remembrances continue for the civil rights icon. The bridge became a landmark in the fight for racial justice when Lewis and other civil rights marchers were beaten there 55 years ago on "Bloody Sunday," a key event that helped galvanize support for the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Lewis returned to Selma each March in commemoration.
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| Portland protesters breach fence around federal courthouse Posted: 25 Jul 2020 09:51 PM PDT  Authorities declared a riot early Sunday in Portland, Oregon, where protesters breached a fence surrounding the city's federal courthouse building where U.S. agents have been stationed. Police demanded people leave the area surrounding the courthouse, around 1:20 a.m. Sunday, and said that those who fail to adhere may be arrested or subjection to teargas and impact weapons. Protesters remained in the streets past 2:30 a.m., forming lines across intersections and holding makeshift shields, as police patrolled and closed blocks abutting the area.
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| Hunger organization pushes out Yoho after Capitol incident Posted: 25 Jul 2020 07:20 PM PDT  A nonpartisan Christian organization that seeks to end hunger said Saturday it asked for and received the resignation of Rep. Ted Yoho from its board of directors following what it called his "verbal attack" on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., accused Yoho, R-Fla., of using a vulgar and sexist insult while upbraiding her during a confrontation last Monday on the steps of the Capitol. In a statement, Bread for the World said its board met Friday with Yoho and sought his resignation "as an action that reaffirms our commitment to coming alongside women and people of color, nationally and globally, as they continue to lead us to a more racially inclusive and equitable world."
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| Poor Countries Are Running Out of Time to Get Rich Posted: 25 Jul 2020 05:30 PM PDT |
| Kim Jong Un locks down border city on coronavirus outbreak fears Posted: 25 Jul 2020 05:00 PM PDT |
| Scotland is tipping in favour of independence Posted: 25 Jul 2020 05:00 PM PDT |
| North Korea locks down border city over suspected virus case Posted: 25 Jul 2020 04:52 PM PDT  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un placed the city of Kaesong near the border with South Korea under total lockdown after a person was found there with suspected COVID-19 symptoms, saying "the vicious virus" may have entered the country, state media reported Sunday. If the person is officially declared a coronavirus patient, he or she would be North Korea's first confirmed case. The North has steadfastly said it has had no cases of the virus, a claim questioned by outside experts.
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| Police declare riot at Seattle protests, make arrests Posted: 25 Jul 2020 01:05 PM PDT  Seattle police declared a riot Saturday following large demonstrations in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood and deployed flash bangs and pepper spray to try to clear an area near where weeks earlier people had set up an "occupied protest zone" that stretched for several blocks. Earlier, protesters in Seattle broke through a fence where a youth detention facility was being built, with some people setting a fire and damaging a portable trailer, authorities said.
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