| North Korea's Kim wishes Trump recovery from coronavirus Posted: 02 Oct 2020 05:21 PM PDT  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday sent a message of sympathy to President Donald Trump and his wife Melania, wishing they would recover from the COVID-19 illness, state media reported. Trump said Friday he and his wife had tested positive for the coronavirus, and leaders across the world have sent messages of goodwill to the couple. Kim and Trump once exchanged threats of total destruction and crude insults after North Korea in 2017 carried out a series of high-profile weapons tests aimed at acquiring an ability to launch nuclear strikes on the U.S. mainland.
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| An abundance of risk, not caution, before Trump's diagnosis Posted: 02 Oct 2020 04:45 PM PDT  Standing well apart on the debate stage, President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden looked out at an odd sight — one section of the room dutifully in masks, the other section flagrantly without. The mostly bare-faced contingent was made up of Trump's VIP guests, who had flouted the rules by removing their masks once inside the hall despite the best efforts of the debate's health advisers from the Cleveland Clinic to keep everyone safe. No one knows how, when or from whom Trump became infected.
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| August Browne: The Nigeria-born man who joined the Polish resistance Posted: 02 Oct 2020 04:24 PM PDT  August Agboola Browne is thought to have been the only black person in the Polish resistance.
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| What we know, and what we don't, about Trump's coronavirus Posted: 02 Oct 2020 03:50 PM PDT  There are many unanswered questions surrounding President Donald Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said he only had mild symptoms, and his doctor said Trump was fatigued. Trump, who typically shuns masks, was around hundreds if not thousands of people this week, traveling to a campaign rally, his golf club, the presidential debate, fundraisers and meetings with people involved in his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
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| AP Explains: Transfer of power under 25th Amendment Posted: 02 Oct 2020 03:36 PM PDT  President Donald Trump announced early Friday on Twitter that he has been diagnosed with the coronavirus, and he will spend several days at Walter Reed Medical Center for treatment and evaluation. The 25th Amendment provides some answers about how presidential power could be transferred, either temporarily or more permanently. Trump has not invoked the amendment in this case.
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| After Trump gets virus, Congress reconsiders testing its own Posted: 02 Oct 2020 01:58 PM PDT  Congressional leaders said Friday they are taking a fresh look at requiring virus testing on Capitol Hill after President Donald Trump's virus infection revived fears of an outbreak in the close, increasingly tense quarters of the House and Senate. Just hours after news of Trump's diagnosis shook Washington and the 2020 campaign, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, became the latest member of Congress to test positive for the virus that has killed more than 205,000 Americans. Each had appeared publicly without masks at various events; Lee attended the introduction Saturday of Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett.
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| UN chief: World is living in `shadow of nuclear catastrophe' Posted: 02 Oct 2020 01:55 PM PDT  U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Friday that the world is living "in the shadow of nuclear catastrophe," fueled by growing distrust and tensions between the nuclear powers. The U.N. chief told a high-level meeting to commemorate the recent International Day for Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons that progress on ridding the world of nuclear weapons "has stalled and is at risk of backsliding." As examples, Guterres has expressed deep concern at the escalating disputes between the Trump administration and China.
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| War chest offered to 'Red Wall' MPs as Boris Johnson bids to keep 2019 intake onside Posted: 02 Oct 2020 12:36 PM PDT  Conservative MPs in former Labour strongholds have been offered a funding war chest to help them keep their seats at the next election as Boris Johnson battles to keep their loyalty. A swathe of so-called "Red Wall" seats in the north of England, many of which had only ever voted Labour, fell to the Conservatives at last year's election. Tory bosses have set up a crowdfund to establish campaign infrastructure in those seats before the next election in a bid to maintain the party's gains. The move continues a charm offensive by Downing Street to maintain the support of the new cohort of MPs following backbench rebellions on both Brexit and the Coronavirus Act. Amanda Milling, the Conservative Party co-chairman, will announce the new fund on Saturday, the first day of the virtual Conservative conference. It will be funded entirely by members and supporters, not from the party's existing coffers, and will be open after the announcement.
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| Misinformation spikes as Trump confirms COVID-19 diagnosis Posted: 02 Oct 2020 12:26 PM PDT  News Friday that President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for COVID-19 sparked an explosion of rumors, misinformation and conspiracy theories that in a matter of hours littered the social media feeds of many Americans. Tweets shared thousands of times claimed Democrats might have somehow intentionally infected the president with the coronavirus during the debates. Others speculated in Facebook posts that maybe the president was faking his illness.
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| The 22-Year-Old Force Behind Egypt's Growing #MeToo Movement Posted: 02 Oct 2020 12:01 PM PDT  CAIRO -- Nadeen Ashraf had a burning secret. Earlier this summer, an anonymous Instagram page that named and shamed a man accused of being a notorious sexual harasser at Egypt's most prestigious university was causing a sensation among her friends. Unknown to them, she was running it.The experiment started, in a flash of fury, in the dead of night. On July 1, Ashraf, a 22-year-old philosophy major, was up late to cram for an exam the next morning when she became preoccupied with the fate of a Facebook post that had mysteriously disappeared.Days earlier, a fellow student at the American University in Cairo had posted a warning on Facebook about a man she said was a sexual predator -- a brash, manipulative young man from a rich family said to be harassing and blackmailing women on campus. Now, Ashraf realized as she stared at her laptop, the post had been deleted without explanation.Enraged, she set aside her textbooks and created an Instagram page under a pseudonym -- @assaultpolice -- that identified the man, Ahmed Bassam Zaki, alongside his photo and a list of accusations of misdeeds against women."This guy had been getting away with stuff since the 10th grade," she said. "Every time a woman opened her mouth, someone taped it shut. I wanted to stop that."After creating the page, Ashraf flopped into bed at 6 a.m. and slept through her exam. But when she awoke, she found hundreds of notifications from people who applauded her post and about 30 messages from women who confided that they, too, had been assaulted by Zaki. Some said they had been raped.An Egyptian MeToo moment was born.Within a week, Zaki had been arrested, the @assaultpolice account had amassed 70,000 followers, and the page had prompted an outpouring of testimonies from other Egyptian women fed up with being humiliated and violated.Sexual assault is endemic in Egypt -- a United Nations study in 2013 found that 99% of women had experienced harassment or violence -- but reporting it is notoriously difficult. Police officials are reluctant to register assault cases. Powerful institutions prefer to sweep accusations under the carpet. Even the families of victims, wary of scandal or feeling a misplaced sense of shame, tend to hush it up.Ashraf's bold page offered a new way."It was so wonderful," she recalled, sitting in her family home. "A lot of the girls who got in touch said, 'I can't believe I'm finally being heard.' Even though it was a dark time, here they were, speaking out. There was a sense of empowerment, of relief."On Sept. 1, authorities charged Zaki, 21, with three counts of sexual assault against underage women as well as multiple counts of blackmail and harassment. He remains in detention, awaiting trial.But then a second high-profile case came to light, also through Ashraf's Instagram page, that complicated matters. It promised to be even more sensational -- an account of a gang rape by five young men in a five-star hotel overlooking the Nile. In recent weeks, however, the case has become clouded in a murk of counteraccusations and leaked images that threatens to overshadow the progress Ashraf has made -- and possibly even reverse it."It's very worrisome," she said.Ashraf, 22, is not an archetypal Egyptian rebel. She comes from an apolitical family that lives in a gated community in eastern Cairo -- a place of manicured lawns and hushed streets lined with luxury vehicles where support for Egypt's authoritarian leader, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, runs relatively high.Her father owns a software company, her mother is a nutritionist, and her family stayed in the suburbs during the 2011 uprising that toppled Egypt's longtime ruler, Hosni Mubarak, and the 2013 protests that ushered in a military takeover and el-Sissi's rule.When the MeToo movement erupted in the United States in 2017, driven by accusations against disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein, she didn't pay much attention -- even if she did have her own experience of assault.When she was 11 years old, a delivery man carrying laundry approached her as she walked down the street and slapped her bottom. "I had no idea why he was doing this," she said. "It took me years to realize it was sexual."Public outrage over sexual assault has been growing in Egypt for about a decade, driven by high-profile attacks and, last year, harassment accusations against a famous soccer player. Even so, men continue to assault with impunity.Working-class women run a gantlet of harassment in crowded public buses, Ashraf said. Among the rich, although dating is tolerated, young men exploit their family connections to misbehave with license, she said, and many parents reflexively blame their daughters when things go wrong."The first response is that it's your fault," she said. "How did he get your number? Why did you let him in?"Ashraf initially shielded her activism from her parents, who thought she was locked in her bedroom to study. When she finally came clean to her father weeks later, he was alarmed. "He went silent for three minutes," she recalled. "Then he said, 'You can't tell anyone.'"Ashraf told him it was a little late for that.Is her brand of vigilantism open to abuse, or even fair? False accusations are a hazard, she admitted, adding that she tried to confirm the charges against Zaki through her network of friends. Even so, she had to delete one accusation, from his time as a business student in Spain, after it was found to be untrue.In a country like Egypt, such methods were necessary, she said. "It's not like the West. You can't just walk into a police station."The real difficulties started, though, with the second high-profile case.In late July, Ashraf posted to Instagram about five men in their 20s, from wealthy families, who were said to have gang-raped a teenage woman in a suite at the Fairmont Nile City hotel after a party in 2014. A video of the assault, made by a sixth man, had been distributed to their friends.The accusation caused a sensation. Although Ashraf didn't identify the accused men, copycat accounts sprang up on Instagram that did. One is the son of a prominent steel tycoon; another is the son of a well-known soccer coach.Within one week the victim, who said her drink had been spiked by the assailants, approached police and pressed charges. In late August, Egypt's prosecutor general announced five arrests -- two men in Egypt and three in Lebanon, who have since been extradited to Egypt. At least three other men are being sought.But the investigation became muddied after investigators moved against several people who had come forward in connection to the case. Two men were accused of "debauchery" -- code for homosexuality -- based on photos found in their phones that were later leaked to the news media.They have been detained, as has a woman -- a former partner of one of those accused of rape -- whose intimate photos have been leaked onto the internet.Just who leaked those photos is unclear, and the cases are expected to come to court in the coming weeks. But they have already sent a chill through the ranks of Egyptian women who hoped it had become safer to report sexual violence."Fairmont has become our case of the century," Ashraf said. "But it shouldn't be a precedent for assault cases. There's so many other things coming up that prove we are on the side of girls."After threats to her security, Ashraf suspended her Instagram page for 10 days in August. Now it is up and running again, but with a focus on educating women about their rights."You use the word 'consent' all the time in English," she said. "But I've never heard its Arabic equivalent: taraadi. So we try to translate these concepts, break them down, explain."The only name she's made public of late is her own. Realizing that her identity was leaking out and fearing retribution from men who were threatened by the page, she decided it was safest to end her anonymity. "I figured that if the bad guys knew who I was, good people should too," she said. "There's protection in that."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| CAXXOR is committed to a “new era in Latin America”: Carlos Ortíz Posted: 02 Oct 2020 11:52 AM PDT |
| Global Enteric Disease Testing Industry Posted: 02 Oct 2020 11:41 AM PDT |
| Rochester mayor indicted in campaign finance probe Posted: 02 Oct 2020 11:34 AM PDT  Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren was indicted Friday on charges she broke campaign finance rules and committed fraud during her reelection campaign three years ago, adding another layer of crisis in a city that has been reeling over its handling of a police killing. The indictment dramatically increases political peril for Warren, who was already facing calls to resign for the city's handling of the suffocation of Daniel Prude.
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| Amnesty: Hundreds detained as Egyptian police quash protests Posted: 02 Oct 2020 11:24 AM PDT  Egyptian authorities have arrested hundreds of people in their effort to clamp down on a spate of small but exceptionally rare protests across the country, a global watchdog and human rights lawyers said Friday. Riot police forcibly dispersed the limited demonstrations over economic grievances that erupted across several impoverished, rural villages over the past few weeks, firing tear gas and birdshot, according to a new report from London-based rights group Amnesty International. Two men were killed in the crackdown, the group said, one hit with birdshot by security forces south of Cairo and another during a police raid in the southern city of Luxor.
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| Global Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) Industry Posted: 02 Oct 2020 11:21 AM PDT |
| GOP faces reckoning over Trump's virus strategy, diagnosis Posted: 02 Oct 2020 11:19 AM PDT  President Donald Trump's coronavirus diagnosis on Friday was a moment of reckoning for his Republican Party, whose leaders largely adopted his strategy of downplaying the disease but are now confronted with a stark political nightmare weeks from Election Day. The president's infection thrust the pandemic front and center at a time when Republicans would rather be talking about Trump's Supreme Court nominee, law enforcement or the economy as early voting is underway in most states. As Trump headed to Walter Reed military hospital for quarantine, the virus seemed to spill into every corner of the party.
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| Sexual, gender minorities much likelier to be crime victims Posted: 02 Oct 2020 11:09 AM PDT  The first study of its kind found that people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer or gender non-conforming are nearly four times as likely to be victims of violent crime than those outside such communities. Although other research has long shown that LGBTQ people and gender minorities are disproportionately affected by crime, the study published in Science Advances, a multidisciplinary journal, on Friday looked at data that has only been collected since 2016, making for the first comprehensive and national study to examine the issue. It found that members of such communities, referred to as sexual and gender minorities, experienced a rate of 71.1 violent victimizations per 1,000 persons a year, compared with 19.2 per 1,000 a year among non-sexual and gender minorities.
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| Canada forms own probe into Iran downing of Ukraine plane Posted: 02 Oct 2020 10:54 AM PDT |
| How long could I be contagious before a positive virus test? Posted: 02 Oct 2020 10:47 AM PDT  In fact, right before developing symptoms is when people are likely the most contagious, said Dr. Werner Bischoff, an infectious disease specialist at Wake Forest University. A negative test within less than seven days after exposure "is a very, very poor indicator of whether you have virus on board," said Dr. Alan Wells of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. A negative test between seven and 10 days of exposure is a better indicator, Wells said, but even then some people might not test positive until later.
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| Global Ethylene Copolymers Industry Posted: 02 Oct 2020 10:41 AM PDT |
| Exclusive: Boris Johnson vows to put 'Generation Buy' on the housing ladder Posted: 02 Oct 2020 10:24 AM PDT  Boris Johnson has promised to create "Generation Buy" with low-deposit mortgages to help get young people onto the housing ladder. The Prime Minister said he would "fix" the problem of unaffordable deposits that has caused millions of people to put their dreams of home ownership on hold. Mr Johnson told The Telegraph ahead of the virtual Conservative Party conference that he was determined to press ahead with a "massive domestic agenda" and deliver on manifesto promises, despite the coronavirus crisis. He also insisted he remained a low-tax, libertarian Conservative who would pay for the cost of the pandemic through a "free market-led recovery" and dismissed talk of rivalry between him and Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, as "untrue". In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Johnson also addressed criticism of his Covid restrictions by saying there was a "moral imperative" to save lives, as well as discussing the chances of a Brexit deal and revealing how he gets his baby son Wilfred to sleep. Speaking in his Downing Street office, the Prime Minister outlined his plans for a successor to Margaret Thatcher's Right to Buy policy as he explained how he would solve the problem of "Generation Rent". He said: "I think a huge, huge number of people feel totally excluded from capitalism, from the idea of home ownership, which is so vital for our society. And we're going to fix that – 'Generation Buy' is what we're going for."
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| UK looks to EU to break Brexit talks impasse Posted: 02 Oct 2020 10:16 AM PDT  Britain and the European Union on Friday said post-Brexit trade talks remained deadlocked on key areas, as London urged Brussels to give ground to avoid a damaging "no-deal" at the end of the year.
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| UN authorizes inspection of vessels for migrants from Libya Posted: 02 Oct 2020 09:37 AM PDT |
| US signs 10-year military cooperation deal with Morocco Posted: 02 Oct 2020 09:17 AM PDT  The United States and Morocco on Friday signed an accord that aims to strengthen military cooperation and the North African kingdom's military readiness over the next decade. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper signed the 10-year agreement during a two-day visit to Morocco, his last stop on a tour of three North African nations, which began this week in Tunisia, where a military accord also was signed.
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| The week's big question: What are the implications of Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis? Posted: 02 Oct 2020 09:15 AM PDT |
| OPCW probes couldn't prove chemical use in 2 Syria attacks Posted: 02 Oct 2020 08:17 AM PDT |
| EU's Barnier: "serious" gaps persist after latest Brexit trade talks Posted: 02 Oct 2020 07:29 AM PDT |
| Trump's age, health woes raise his risk for COVID-19 illness Posted: 02 Oct 2020 07:21 AM PDT  President Donald Trump has several strikes against him — age, obesity, elevated cholesterol and being male — that could put him at greater risk of becoming seriously ill from the coronavirus infection he disclosed early Friday. Trump's doctor said later in the day that he felt fatigued and that he had been given an experimental treatment aimed at staving off a severe case of COVID-19. Being there would allow for closer monitoring, such as if doctors decide they'd like scans of his lungs, and a quicker reaction time if he takes a turn for the worse.
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| Activists seek justice on anniversary of Khashoggi killing Posted: 02 Oct 2020 07:21 AM PDT  The activists denounced the journalist's slaying, which cast a shadow over the reputation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and criminal proceedings in Saudi Arabia as inadequate. "Justice has still not materialized," journalist Turan Kislak, who was a friend of Khashoggi's, said. Last month, a court in Saudi Arabia issued final verdicts convicting eight unnamed Saudi nationals in Khashoggi's 2018 killing.
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| The scary foreign policy implications of Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis Posted: 02 Oct 2020 07:16 AM PDT  As of Friday morning, President Trump's COVID-19 symptoms are reportedly mild and Vice President Mike Pence has tested negative for the virus. But if things take a turn for the worse in the White House, with House Speaker (and Democrat) Nancy Pelosi next in line of succession, things could get scary very quickly — and nowhere more so than in foreign policy.The greatest danger would be the possibility of foreign powers taking advantage of the domestic chaos embroiling the senior leadership of the country to make bold moves on the world stage, perhaps in coordination. Imagine Vladimir Putin making a deeper incursion into Ukraine or attempting to seize one of the Baltic states (probably Lithuania) — while China, in the boldest and riskiest act of all, makes a move against Taiwan.One or both of these scenarios are likely in the coming decade, as rising or defiant powers seek to test American resolve in attempting to uphold the liberal international order. But a succession crisis would present a unique opportunity to undertake the test ahead of schedule, at a moment when the United States is maximally distracted.Of course our internal confusion wouldn't guarantee that the U.S. would let the provocation(s) stand. On the contrary, one could imagine a scenario in which some combination of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff bypass a sidelined West Wing to mount a military response.Would this be a responsible act of bold statesmanship by unelected officials? Or a military coup? Two weeks ago, it seemed we were already living through interesting times. Two weeks from now, we could learn that we hadn't seen anything yet.More stories from theweek.com Steve Barnes of Cellino & Barnes law firm reportedly dies in plane crash Chris Wallace says Trump family actually didn't get tested before debate Trump aides reportedly think he'll 'face a harsh judgment from voters' after COVID-19 diagnosis
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| Deaths at Saudi Arabia detention centre for Ethiopians - Amnesty Posted: 02 Oct 2020 07:15 AM PDT  Thousands of Ethiopian detainees are facing "unimaginable cruelty", Amnesty International says.
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| State aid, fish among "open issues" after latest Brexit trade talks - source Posted: 02 Oct 2020 07:01 AM PDT |
| Coronavirus curbs evoked East Germany memories: Merkel Posted: 02 Oct 2020 06:47 AM PDT  Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday that the drastic limits placed on people's freedoms to curb the coronavirus earlier this year had weighed heavily on her, bringing back memories of life in surveillance-riddled East Germany.
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| Judge: Census violated order; demands mass text to workers Posted: 02 Oct 2020 06:41 AM PDT  A federal judge ordered the Census Bureau to text every 2020 census worker by Friday, letting them know the head count of every U.S. resident is continuing through the end of the month and not ending next week, as the agency previously had announced in violation of her court order. The new order issued late Thursday by U.S. District Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, instructed the Census Bureau to send out a mass text saying an Oct. 5 target data for finishing the nation's head count is not in effect and that people can still answer the questionnaire and census takers can still knock on doors through Oct. 31. The judge also ordered Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham to file a declaration with the court by the start of next week confirming his agency was following a preliminary injunction she had issued last week.
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| Lebanon orders 111 towns, villages closed to curb pandemic Posted: 02 Oct 2020 06:29 AM PDT  Authorities on Friday ordered the lockdown of more than 100 towns and villages across Lebanon after hundreds of people tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days and amid a shortage of hospital beds. Outgoing Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi said in a statement the complete lockdown of 111 towns and villages will go into effect Sunday morning and last until Oct. 12. Lebanon has witnessed a sharp increase of cases in recent weeks with more than 40,000 cases registered since February in the small country of 5 million.
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| Trump's virus hospitalization rocks final stage of campaign Posted: 02 Oct 2020 06:25 AM PDT  An election year already defined by a cascade of national crises descended further into chaos Friday, with President Donald Trump quarantined at a military hospital with the coronavirus after consistently playing down the threat. Democratic challenger Joe Biden took down his attack ads and pressed a bipartisan message in battleground Michigan after he and his wife tested negative. While Biden vowed to continue his cautious approach to campaigning during the pandemic, the president's diagnosis injected even greater uncertainty into an election already plagued by crises that have exploded under Trump's watch: the pandemic, devastating economic fallout and sweeping civil unrest.
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| Israeli tourism minister resigns to protest Netanyahu Posted: 02 Oct 2020 06:06 AM PDT  Israel's tourism minister resigned from the fractious government Friday, saying he doesn't have an "ounce of trust" in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and accusing him of putting his personal and legal issues ahead of the response to the coronavirus crisis. Asaf Zamir is a member of the centrist Blue and White Party, which battled Netanyahu's right-wing Likud in three stalemated elections in under a year before forming an emergency government with it in May to combat the pandemic. Israel went into a second nationwide lockdown last month and is now grappling with one of the worst outbreaks in the world on a per capita basis.
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| Trump Tests Positive for COVID-19, and the World Shudders Posted: 02 Oct 2020 05:39 AM PDT  LONDON -- President Donald Trump's disclosure that he had been infected by the coronavirus sent a shudder around the world on Friday, drawing sympathy from leaders who have grappled with the pandemic in their own countries and more pointed responses from critics who noted Mr. Trump's own cavalier handling of the threat.Trump is not the first world leader to be infected. Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain and President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil both tested positive. Johnson ended up in an intensive care unit where, he said later, "things could have gone either way."But Trump, 74, is older and at higher risk than either of those men. And the news of an American president contracting a potentially lethal virus carried global repercussions beyond that of any other world leader. Financial markets fell in Asia and looked set to open lower in Europe and the United States.Expressions of concern and good wishes for Trump's speedy recovery -- as well as that of first lady Melania Trump, who also was infected -- poured in from officials in India, Britain and other countries."Wishing my friend @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and @FLOTUS a quick recovery and good health," Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India said on Twitter."My best wishes to President Trump and the First Lady," Johnson said on Twitter, making no mention of his own bout with COVID-19. "Hope they both have a speedy recovery from coronavirus."President Vladimir Putin of Russia said he hoped Trump would have a "swift recovery," according to the Interfax news agency. In a telegram to the president, Putin added, "I am certain that your inherent vitality, good spirits and optimism will help you cope with this dangerous virus."Some commentators noted that it was a grim reminder of a virus that does not distinguish between rich and poor, weak and powerful.The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction tweeted, "Nobody is immune from COVID19."In Myanmar, a Baptist minister who met with Trump in the Oval Office last year, and told him about oppression and torture by the military, said that having COVID-19 could help the president better understand the pain of others."There are many critics of Trump regarding COVID-19," said the minister, Hkalam Samson. "Now he is suffering himself and he should be compassionate for his people by now."Wang Huiyao, the founder and president of the Center for China and Globalization, an influential research group in Beijing, said, "When the president of the United States, the most powerful person in the world, can catch this, the virus has no boundaries."Wang said that the president's positive test result might become a global reminder of the value of wearing face masks, which are still widely worn in mainland China even though it has not reported a locally transmitted case in more than six weeks."He has also had large crowds, shaking hands and greeting people, and he seldom wears a mask," Wang said. "He probably serves as a good reminder to the whole world that, as U.S. experts have said, it is important to wear a mask."Others suggested a degree of justice in his diagnosis, given Trump's record of diminishing the threat of the virus, refusing simple precautions like wearing a mask and running risks like holding campaign rallies with little to no social distancing. During the presidential debate Tuesday, he mocked former Vice President Joe Biden for wearing a mask.For allies and adversaries alike, as they woke up Friday to the news of Trump's infection, the immediate concerns involved security as the world's most powerful nation confronted the potential incapacitation of its commander-in-chief.The United States has a well-established chain of succession if the president is unable to fulfill his duties. But the spread of the virus within the White House complex -- and the close proximity of Hope Hicks, the aide who first showed symptoms of COVID-19, to Trump and others in his circle -- raised worries about how many other top officials may be at risk, including Vice President Mike Pence.Trump's erratic style has itself been a recurring source of anxiety, according to several analysts. Some said the major worry was not about continuity of government -- given the depth of contingency planning in the United States -- but how the president would react to enforced confinement and the specter of illness."This highlights that what has always been destabilizing about Trump's administration is not really his policies -- it is him," said Jeremy Shapiro, an Obama administration national security official who is now research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations. "In this sense, the worry from foreign governments will likely be its effect on the president's fragile psyche."Britain's experience shows that even in a country with a well-organized political system, a leader's sudden illness can be deeply unsettling. When Johnson contracted the virus in March, the government was adrift for several days while he struggled to keep leading the response to the pandemic, via Zoom calls, from isolation in his official residence on Downing Street.When Johnson, 56, was admitted to the hospital and then to intensive care, he deputized the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, to act in his absence. But that did little to dispel the uncertainty, especially since unlike in the United States, there is no legal line of succession if a prime minister dies in office or is permanently incapacitated.The government issued upbeat but unrevealing reports of Johnson's health, and after he was released from the hospital on Easter Sunday, he disclosed that his condition had been more grave than was reported.In Brazil, Bolsonaro's bout with the virus was less serious. He said he suffered only mild fever and body aches before testing positive July 7. After quarantining on the grounds of the presidential residence in Brasilia, he pronounced himself recovered July 25, posting a photo of himself smiling and giving a thumbs up.Bolsonaro, 65, who has adopted Trump's approach of playing down the virus and promoting miracle cures, appeared to brandish a box of hydroxychloroquine pills, the anti-malaria medicine. Despite claims by Trump, there is growing scientific consensus that the drug is not effective in treating COVID-19.Inevitably, given Trump's history of playing down the virus, there was an element of "I told you so" in some of the reactions abroad.In China, which Trump has blamed as the source of the virus, the news set off an online firestorm and within an hour had rocketed to the top of the most-searched topics on Sina Weibo, a popular though heavily censored social media platform.The commentary reflected a mix of sympathy, disbelief and even celebration from some who saw the development as just retribution for Trump, who is widely seen in China as having spearheaded the recent downward spiral in relations between the United States and China."The whole world rejoices!" read one comment on Sina Weibo that was liked 55,000 times in the hour after it was postedHu Xijin, the chief editor of The Global Times, a nationalist Chinese state-owned tabloid, put it in brash terms."President Trump and the first lady have paid the price for his gamble to play down the COVID-19. The news shows the severity of the US' pandemic situation," Hu tweeted. "It will impose a negative impact on the image of Trump and the US, and may also negatively affect his reelection."Others took the opportunity to ridicule Trump."Covid, stand back and stand by," Raphael Bob-Waksberg, an American comedian, wrote in a viral tweet, referring to comments made by the president about a far-right militant group.Radoslaw Sikorski, a former foreign minister of Poland who is now a member of the European Parliament, wrote on Twitter, "Mr. President @realDonaldTrump, I suggest you do not try to treat yourself with bleach."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| McMaster, Mostly Silent Until Now, Says Trump Is 'Aiding and Abetting Putin's Efforts' Posted: 02 Oct 2020 05:37 AM PDT  Retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster became the latest of President Donald Trump's former aides on Thursday to declare that the president was aiding Russia's disinformation campaign by failing to acknowledge how President Vladimir Putin was trying to manipulate American voters."He is aiding and abetting Putin's efforts by not being direct about this," McMaster, a former national security adviser who is now a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said in an interview on MSNBC. "This sustained campaign of disruption, disinformation and denial is aided by any leader who doesn't acknowledge it."Compared with some other former national security aides, McMaster has been mostly reluctant to criticize the president, with whom he split in early 2018 after a year in the post. He has declined to sign letters written by other Republicans and former military officers rebuking Trump, and his new book, "Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World," is about his vision of U.S. strategy -- avoiding the kind of tell-all that his successor, John Bolton, published this summer.In previous interviews to promote his book, McMaster has avoided direct censure of Trump, steering the conversation to what he terms the struggle the United States faces with two "revisionist" powers, Russia and China. The opening of his book acknowledges that an insider account "might be lucrative" but would not be "useful or satisfactory for most readers."But in speaking with Hallie Jackson of MSNBC on Thursday, he went further than he has at any point in the past in criticizing Trump for failing to call out Russian action -- even as his administration has indicted intelligence officers involved in the 2016 breach of the Democratic National Committee, and imposed sanctions on Russian hackers.Trump has often undercut those efforts by calling into question whether Russia was involved in the 2016 hacking, and by criticizing his own appointees, most recently FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, for focusing on Russia rather than China and Iran."Russia is the primary problem in this area," McMaster said flatly.He continued, "This is why I think the president has to be much stronger in condemning this effort to really reduce our confidence in who we are as Americans."He argued that parts of the Trump administration were pushing back harder against Russia than ever before, and alluded to the action taken by U.S. Cyber Command in the 2018 midterm elections, when it shut down the Internet Research Agency, the propaganda operation in St. Petersburg, Russia, for several days.McMaster did not offer an explanation of why Trump appeared to be so deferential to Putin. But he did say that the president "conflates" three separate issues: whether Russia interfered in the election four years ago, whether that meddling was on Trump's behalf, as the intelligence agencies concluded, and whether those efforts affected the outcome.On the first question, he said, "Heck yes, of course they did," siding with the unanimous conclusion of the intelligence agencies. As national security adviser, McMaster shared that view, including during a speech at the Munich Security Conference, leading Trump to chide him on Twitter. His aide, the president noted, "forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians." It was one of the issues that led Trump to begin to freeze him out, and to later replace him.On the second question, McMaster said "you can debate" whether the Russians favored Trump in 2016. Like others, he said, the Russians expected Hillary Clinton to win, and "they had a whole disinformation campaign ready to go to say that the election was rigged." Many believe that is what is happening now: that the Russians believe Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, will win, and that in an effort to diminish Biden's influence if he takes office, they are amplifying Trump's allegations that the election will be fraudulent.And on the third question, whether the Russians influenced voters in 2016, "We'll never know that," McMaster said.But Trump, he added, is focused on the third question and believes "that if he confronts Putin directly, you know," he will "inadvertently draw his own election into question."Another prominent retired general who served under Trump has also been highly critical in recent months. Former defense secretary Jim Mattis, who often clashed with McMaster inside the White House, broke his silence after the president moved against protesters demonstrating after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. "I have watched this week's unfolding events, angry and appalled," he wrote in June. "Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people -- does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us."John F. Kelly, a retired four-star general who served as secretary of homeland security before becoming White House chief of staff, has also called into question the president's judgment and character. But he declined to speak out when Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic reported that the president had privately referred to U.S. soldiers who were killed in combat as "suckers" and "losers." Kelly's son, a Marine, was killed in 2010 in Afghanistan.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Putin says Trump's 'inherent vitality' will see him through COVID-19 Posted: 02 Oct 2020 05:17 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin wished Donald Trump a swift recovery on Friday after the U.S. president tested positive for COVID-19.
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| Trump envoy warns of potential harm from UK's latest Brexit bill Posted: 02 Oct 2020 05:03 AM PDT  US President Donald Trump's special envoy for Northern Ireland said Friday that British Brexit legislation could endanger peace in the province and a UK-US trade deal, but backed London's efforts to resolve the issue.
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| AP-NORC poll: Americans concerned by foreign interference Posted: 02 Oct 2020 04:59 AM PDT  Most Americans are concerned at least somewhat by the potential for foreign interference in November's election, and a majority believes that Russia sought in 2016 to influence the outcome of that race, according to a new poll that underscores the anxiety and political divisions heading into the final weeks of the presidential contest. The poll from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that about three-quarters of Americans are at least somewhat concerned about interference, whether in the form of tampering with voting systems and election results, stealing data from candidates or parties or influencing the candidates themselves or the way voters think about them.
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| Get well soon: World leaders send best wishes to Trump and first lady Posted: 02 Oct 2020 04:47 AM PDT  World leaders sent best wishes to President Donald Trump and the first lady on Friday after the news the couple had tested positive for the coronavirus. "Hope they both have a speedy recovery from coronavirus," said Britain's prime minister Boris Johnson, who himself caught the virus in March. Russian state media reported a statement in which President Vladimir Putin assured Trump that his "innate stamina, high spirits and optimism will help you cope with this deadly virus," while Indian Prime Minister Modi took to twitter to wish his "friend" a quick recovery.
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