| Measles in DR Congo: By air, boat and foot to deliver the vaccine Posted: 05 Oct 2020 04:49 PM PDT  The health workers going to great lengths to deliver vital supplies in the fight against measles in DR Congo.
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| With COVID-19 diagnosis, Trump says 'I get it.' He doesn't. Posted: 05 Oct 2020 04:41 PM PDT  Now that he has contracted COVID-19, President Donald Trump says he does "get it." Instead, as he has in relationships with other countries, he has prioritized his own personal experience over that of experts.
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| Global Edible Packaging Industry Posted: 05 Oct 2020 02:58 PM PDT |
| Biden aims to expand map as Trump recovers from coronavirus Posted: 05 Oct 2020 02:53 PM PDT  As President Donald Trump recovers from the coronavirus, Joe Biden is capitalizing on having the campaign trail largely to himself by hitting critical swing states and investing in longtime Republican bastions that he hopes might expand his path to victory. The Democratic presidential nominee made his second trip to Florida in a little over two weeks on Monday. The progressive Vermont senator held socially distanced rallies in the swing states of New Hampshire and Michigan and proclaimed, "We need Joe Biden as our president."
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| CDC says coronavirus can spread indoors in updated guidance Posted: 05 Oct 2020 01:58 PM PDT  The top U.S. public health agency said Monday that the coronavirus can spread more than 6 feet through the air, especially in poorly ventilated and enclosed spaces. In interviews, CDC officials have also acknowledged growing evidence that the virus can sometimes spread on even smaller particles called aerosols that spread over a wider area.
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| Global Electric Griddle Industry Posted: 05 Oct 2020 01:58 PM PDT |
| Global Electric Traction Motors Industry Posted: 05 Oct 2020 01:18 PM PDT |
| Israeli police clash with mourners at rabbi's funeral Posted: 05 Oct 2020 12:40 PM PDT  Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police reached an agreement ahead of time with community leaders to allow a limited number of mourners to attend the funeral procession for Rabbi Mordechai Leifer. "Police cordoned off the area and when thousands of people arrived, police eventually dispersed the crowds in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in a public area," Rosenfeld said.
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| Canadian orphan in Syrian camp set free, will come to Canada Posted: 05 Oct 2020 12:25 PM PDT |
| Syrians linked to IS will be allowed to leave sprawling camp Posted: 05 Oct 2020 12:10 PM PDT |
| Global Electromagnetic Flowmeters Industry Posted: 05 Oct 2020 11:58 AM PDT |
| Belarus opposition leader joins Berlin protest ahead of Merkel meeting Posted: 05 Oct 2020 11:55 AM PDT  Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya urged protesters to keep up their fight against strongman Alexander Lukashenko after she arrived in Berlin Monday for a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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| Israel army strikes Gaza target after rocket attack Posted: 05 Oct 2020 11:30 AM PDT |
| Prosecutor says 'Hotel Rwanda' man to be tried with rebels Posted: 05 Oct 2020 11:20 AM PDT  Rwanda's prosecution on Monday said it intends to hold a joint trial of Paul Rusesabagina, whose story inspired the film "Hotel Rwanda," together with 16 prisoners alleged to be rebel fighters. Rusesabagina, 66, is a founder of the Rwanda Movement for Democratic Change, a coalition of opposition groups, which has an armed wing known as the National Liberation Front. The government accuses the rebel group of killing Rwandans in the country's north.
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| Some Orthodox Jews bristle at NYC's response to virus surge Posted: 05 Oct 2020 11:04 AM PDT  Amid a new surge of COVID-19 in New York's Orthodox Jewish communities, many members are reviving health measures that some had abandoned over the summer — social distancing, wearing masks. The latest blow: an order Monday from Gov. Andrew Cuomo temporarily closing public and private schools in several areas with large Orthodox populations. "People are very turned off and very burned out," said Yosef Hershkop, a Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn who works for a chain of urgent-care centers.
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| Infected senator vows 'moon suit' to vote Trump's court pick Posted: 05 Oct 2020 10:34 AM PDT  Shuttered by COVID-19 infections, the Republican-led Senate is refusing to delay confirmation of President Donald Trump's pick for the Supreme Court. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said Monday that he'll go to the Capitol "in a moon suit" to vote if he's still testing positive for the coronavirus, which has killed more than 209,000 Americans and infected millions. The push to put conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett on the high court before Nov. 3 is like nothing seen in U.S. history so close to a presidential election.
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| Nissan and Toyota want Britain to pay for no deal Brexit tariffs Posted: 05 Oct 2020 10:11 AM PDT  Nissan and Toyota has demanded a British government bailout to cover the tariffs Japan's two largest carmakers will face if there is a no trade deal Brexit. The two companies want the government to cover the expected 10 percent taxes that would hit UK automotive exports from January 1 if Britain leaves the transition period without an agreement. UK and EU negotiators are racing to finalise a zero-tariff free trade agreement by the October 15 European Council summit in Brussels. The two sides remain divided over major issues such as fishing, enforcement and dispute resolution and the level playing field guarantees, especially for subsidy law. Boris Johnson held Brexit talks with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, on Saturday and they agreed to intensify negotiations. The Prime Minister said on Sunday his preference was for an agreement but that Britain could live with no deal. Nissan warned in June that its factory in Sunderland, which employs 7,000 people, would be "unsustainable" if there was no deal. It pushed ahead with £52 million plans to build its new Qashqai sports utility vehicle after securing reassurances from the government that Brexit would not hurt its competitiveness. Toyota operates a plant in Derbyshire, central England, and produced roughly 8 percent of the 1.52 million cars made in Britain in 2018. It also produces engines at a factory in Wales. "We urge UK and EU negotiators to work collaboratively towards an orderly, balanced Brexit that will continue to encourage mutually beneficial trade," Nissan said. Neither car company commented on the demand for compensation, which was reported in the Nikkei financial daily. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, 80 percent of cars built in the UK are exported, with 55 percent of those going to the EU. Nissan and Toyota produced just under half a million vehicles in the UK last year with almost 220,000 going to the EU. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said last year that no deal tariffs could add £3.2bn a year to costs for the car industry in Britain. A Downing Street spokesman said, "We've been working with a wide range of sectors across the economy, including the automobile sector, to ensure they are prepared for the end of the transition period." The government only wants the outline of the deal by October 15 and talks on the small print could run beyond that deadline. The EU's deadline to finalise the deal is the end of October, although sources in Brussels believe that could stretch to mid-November. Angela Merkel met with Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, in Berlin on Monday. The German Chancellor said she was "optimistic" as long as negotiations continued. Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister, said it would be "totally irresponsible" to force a no deal during the coronavirus pandemic. Mr Barnier plans to contact EU fishing ministers ahead of trade talks in London this week in a bid to secure support for any future compromises. France and Denmark are the most difficult countries to convince. In London, Penny Mordaunt, the paymaster general, told MPs that peers must not block the Internal Market Bill because it would protect UK interests if there was no deal.
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| River Nile row: Ethiopia bans flights above Grand Renaissance Dam Posted: 05 Oct 2020 09:13 AM PDT  It comes a week after Ethiopia's air force warned it would defend the $4.8bn dam against any attack.
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| Vision 2020: Can a voter fix a problem on a mail-in ballot? Posted: 05 Oct 2020 09:07 AM PDT  If a ballot is tossed because of some issue — maybe a missing signature or it got damaged — will the voter be notified that the ballot's been invalidated? The National Conference of State Legislatures has a state-by-state rundown, but that list isn't comprehensive so voters should check with their local elections officials to understand their options. Voter advocacy groups worry that those unaccustomed to voting by mail will make some kind of error that could invalidate their vote.
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| Number of refugees living in Germany falls for first time in nine years Posted: 05 Oct 2020 09:05 AM PDT  The number of refugees and asylum-seekers living in Germany has fallen for the first time in nine years, according to newly released government figures. At the end of June, there were 1.77m refugees and asylum-seekers were living in Germany — 62,000 fewer than at the end of last year. They include 1.31m recognised refugees who have been granted full asylum, and 450,000 asylum-seekers whose cases are being decided or who have been given temporary permission to stay. Germany saw an influx of more than 1.1m asylum-seekers in 2015 under Angela Merkel's controversial "open-door" asylum policy. After Hungary and a number of other countries began turning migrants away, Mrs Merkel announced Germany would take them amid fears of a humanitarian crisis. Germany's refugee population had in fact already been rising since 2011, when there were 400,000. It continued to rise in the years following 2015's influx, albeit at a slower rate.
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| Capgemini Press Release// Why energy and utilities companies need to act now to help save the planet, and view sustainability as an opportunity Posted: 05 Oct 2020 08:40 AM PDT |
| The Latest: Trump video tells supporters, 'Don't be afraid' Posted: 05 Oct 2020 08:38 AM PDT  President Donald Trump has tweeted a new video taped after he returned to the White House in which he tells the American public not to be afraid of COVID-19, which has killed more than 200,000 people in the U.S. and more than a million worldwide. In message that is sure to infuriate medical doctors trying to keep the country safe, Trump says he has "learned so much" about the virus he contracted. Trump was treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center by a team of some of the country's best doctors and he received an experimental drug not readily available to the public.
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| Trump's Covid diagnosis puts America's friends and foes on alert Posted: 05 Oct 2020 08:37 AM PDT  Ripples of alarm, and some glee, coursed across the globe after President Donald Trump's Covid-19 diagnosis emerged, with U.S. allies and foes weighing whether the president's condition was a dangerous distraction or an opportunity. If adversaries like Russia's Vladimir Putin, North Korea's Kim Jong Un or China's Xi Jinping "were looking for a moment to test American resolve abroad, they might be tempted by a moment when the U.S. leadership situation was so precarious," former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro told NBC News.
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| Epic scale of California wildfires continues to grow Posted: 05 Oct 2020 08:36 AM PDT  The staggering scale of California's wildfires reached another milestone Monday: A single fire surpassed 1 million acres. The new mark for the August Complex in the Coast Range between San Francisco and the Oregon border came a day after the total area of land burned by California wildfires this year passed 4 million acres, more than double the previous record. Gov. Gavin Newsom said the amount of land scorched by the August Complex is larger than all of the recorded fires in California between 1932 and 1999.
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| Merkel outraged over 'attempted murder' of Jewish student Posted: 05 Oct 2020 08:18 AM PDT  German investigators said Monday they were probing an attack on a Jewish student outside a synagogue in Hamburg as attempted murder with anti-Semitic intent, a case condemned by Chancellor Angela Merkel as a "disgrace".
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| UN chief urges Libya cease-fire, warns its future at stake Posted: 05 Oct 2020 07:55 AM PDT  U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged world powers and others with interests in Libya's long-running civil war to stop sending arms to its rival governments and keep working toward a lasting cease-fire, warning that the country's very future "is at stake." Guterres implored those at a virtual ministerial meeting co-hosted by the U.N. and Germany to support peace efforts "not only in words but in actions," including immediately backing a widely violated U.N. arms embargo against Libya. "The violations of the embargo are a scandal and call into question the basic commitment to peace of all involved," he told the closed meeting.
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| Annual G20 Interfaith Forum Convenes Global Religion Representatives to Address Responses to COVID, Inequality, Climate Change, and Other Pressing Societal Challenges Posted: 05 Oct 2020 07:15 AM PDT  The G20 Interfaith Forum, a leading organization focused on bringing faith and policy together, today announced plans, participants and highlights for its seventh annual G20 Interfaith Forum to be streamed virtually from Riyadh with leaders from across the globe on Oct. 13 to 17, 2020. More than 500 leaders and representatives from several of the world's major religions and global policy institutions will participate and address crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, disaster risk reduction, hate speech and racism. In addition to attracting leaders from most major world religions, denominations and interreligious organizations, the G20 Interfaith Forum will include representatives from the United Nations, the International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID), the Organization of Islamic Cooperation), the World Muslim League, and the European Commission.
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| Cities declare racism a health crisis, but some doubt impact Posted: 05 Oct 2020 06:33 AM PDT |
| New Jersey governor: Trump fundraiser 'put lives at risk' Posted: 05 Oct 2020 06:00 AM PDT  President Donald Trump's fundraiser at his Bedminster golf club hours before he announced he had contracted the coronavirus was wrong and "put lives at risk," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday. Murphy called the trip the "wrong decision at every level" and said it should have been canceled. Guests at that event said it included a photo opportunity with Trump and an indoor roundtable with him that one attendee said lasted 45 minutes or more.
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| A proposed mine threatens Minnesota's Boundary Waters, the most popular wilderness in the US Posted: 05 Oct 2020 05:10 AM PDT  President Trump has worked aggressively to dismantle the environmental legacy of his predecessor Barack Obama since taking office in 2017. The latest example is a mining project that could affect the most heavily visited wilderness area in the United States: the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which stretches over a million acres in the Superior National Forest in remote northern Minnesota. This bucket-list destination for paddling, fishing and camping contains more than 1,200 miles of canoe routes among thousands of lakes and streams, drawing some 250,000 visitors yearly. Just to its southwest are large metal deposits – part of Minnesota's Iron Ranges, which have been a major mining region since the mid-1800s. For over a decade a company called Twin Metals has been seeking permission to build and run an underground copper, nickel, cobalt and platinum mine there. Opponents, including local residents, conservation groups and outdoor businesses, argue that this operation could release toxic contaminants that would wash into the Boundary Waters and adjoining parks, poisoning wildlife and contaminating soils.The Obama administration opposed the project and declined to renew expiring leases for Twin Metals in 2016. But the Trump administration granted new leases in May 2019. As a scholar who studies public land management, I see this controversy as a classic debate over environmental protection versus job creation, with a twist: There's a compelling economic argument for conservation. Short- and long-term benefitsU.S. national forests are managed with multiple uses in mind, including logging, livestock grazing, biodiversity, air and water quality and recreation. Designating part of a national forest as wilderness is a big step that prohibits some of those uses. It means, in the language of the 1964 Wilderness Act, that "there shall be no commercial enterprise and no permanent road within any wilderness area," nor any motorized vehicles that would mar the land's "primeval character," its "outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation."The Boundary Waters first received protection as a roadless wilderness area in 1926 at the recommendation of the Forest Service's first landscape architect, Arthur Carhart. "There is one outstanding feature found in the Superior National Forest which is not present in any other nationally owned property," Carhart asserted. "This is a lake type of recreation. The Superior is unquestionably one of the few great canoe countries of the world."This was just the second officially protected U.S. wilderness area at the time. Today Northeast Minnesota's outdoor recreation economy generates more than US$900 million in annual revenues and sustains over 17,000 jobs. A 2016 study estimated that the Boundary Waters alone accounts for 1,000 jobs and $77 million in annual economic output. "Outdoor recreation is an export industry for northeastern Minnesota, providing for stable employment and sustainable jobs year after year," the report observed. For comparison, Twin Metals projects that its mine would operate for 25 years and generate more than 2,250 jobs. A Harvard economist who assessed these two options in 2018 concluded that over 20 years, protecting the Boundary Waters would provide greater economic benefits than approving the mine.Critics of the proposed mine are worried because mining generates large quantities of waste rock. Metals in these rocks can produce highly acidic runoff that pollutes rivers, streams and groundwater. A 2012 study of 15 U.S. sulfide-ore copper mines, published by the environmental advocacy organization Earthworks, found that 14 of the projects experienced accidental releases that resulted in significant water contamination. Since the Boundary Waters exists within a vast network of interconnected lakes and streams, toxic mining pollution upstream could be disastrous for fish, wildlife and wilderness values. Polls show that an overwhelming majority of Minnesotans, including residents of the northern counties, want to protect the Boundary Waters and the jobs and revenues that the wilderness generates. On the other side, unions, business organizations and local elected officials argue that the mine will boost the regional economy while producing "strategic minerals critical to the transition to a green economy and our national security." Fast-tracking developmentAs often is true of mining proposals, several agencies are involved. The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management controls all minerals on U.S. public lands. Because 400 acres of the proposed mine's 1,156-acre footprint is within the Superior National Forest, the bureau needs the Forest Service's consent to approve the project.In 2016, after analyzing the mine's potential impacts, the Forest Service refused to consent to the lease, and the Obama administration imposed a 20-year moratorium on mining near the Boundary Waters. But things changed a year later, shortly after President Trump's inauguration, when his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner rented a District of Columbia mansion from a Chilean businessman named Andrónico Luksic. [Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation's newsletter and get expert takes on today's news, every day.]Luksic was the chief executive officer of Antofagasta, a Chilean conglomerate that owned Twin Metals. Within weeks, senior U.S. officials were meeting with Antofagasta leaders and reexamining the leases. Company representatives and a spokesperson for the Kushners said there was no link between the rental and action on the mine, but ethics experts said even the appearance of a conflict was troubling.Administration officials have sought to weaken the Forest Service's authority over mineral leases across its 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands. On June 12, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, whose agency includes the Forest Service, issued a memo that directed the Forest Service to "streamline processes and identify new opportunities to increase America's energy dominance and reduce reliance on foreign countries for critical minerals." And the agency has signaled its willingness to do so. Ecological valueTrump has claimed credit on the campaign trail for saving Minnesota's mining economy from stifling environmental regulation. "Our miners are back on the job and wages have increased by as much as 50%…. But if Biden wins the Iron Range we'll be shut down forever, you know that," he told an audience in Mankato, Minnesota, on Aug. 17.Ironically, just a few days later the Trump administration hit the pause button on another large mining project: the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska, which critics assert would pollute Bristol Bay, the site of several lucrative wild salmon fisheries. The administration reportedly reversed course after Donald Trump Jr. and other prominent conservatives who are avid hunters and anglers objected to it. While jobs and economic impacts loom large in this debate, they aren't the only issues at stake. At an international biodiversity summit on Sept. 30, United Nations officials issued a call to action to protect nature from degradation. With biodiversity declining "at rates unprecedented in human history, with growing impacts on people and our planet," they specifically pointed out that some 85% of global wetlands have been lost to development, with 35% of that total disappearing between 1970 and 2015. That makes the Boundary Waters, with its 1,000 glacier-gouged lakes, both a relic and an opportunity for Minnesotans, Americans and the planet.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Mine waste dams threaten the environment, even when they don't fail * Spending time alone in nature is good for your mental and emotional healthChar Miller is a board member at the National Museum of Forest Service History and a senior fellow at the Pinchot Institute for Conservation.
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| Delta grows into hurricane in Caribbean; eyes Yucatan, Cuba Posted: 05 Oct 2020 05:04 AM PDT |
| Poll: Many Americans blame virus crisis on US government Posted: 05 Oct 2020 05:01 AM PDT  More Americans blame the U.S. government instead of foreign nations for the coronavirus crisis in the United States, a rebuke to the Trump administration's contention that China or other countries are most at fault, a new poll shows. The poll by The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research was conducted before President Donald Trump tested positive for the virus Friday and was hospitalized. Trump has downplayed the severity and impact of the pandemic in recent months.
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| Social capitalism is at the peak of the trend: in a period of social upheaval, Igor Rybakov and other billionaires launch social preschool program Posted: 05 Oct 2020 05:00 AM PDT  Russian billionaire Igor Rybakov has launched a network of schools and kindergartens - the Rybakov PlaySchool. Igor Rybakov and his wife Ekaterina (Silver Stevie Award Winner in nomination Female Executive of the Year) are the founders of the Rybakov Foundation, which aims to provide high-quality education for everyone in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal 4, set by the United Nations. That is why the Rybakov Foundation and its program the Rybakov Academy will provide grant support for education at the Rybakov PlaySchool for children from low-income families.
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| Oman reinstates ambassador to Syria after years-long hiatus Posted: 05 Oct 2020 04:53 AM PDT |
| WHO: 10% of world's people may have been infected with virus Posted: 05 Oct 2020 04:47 AM PDT  The head of emergencies at the World Health Organization said Monday the agency's "best estimates" indicate roughly 1 in 10 people worldwide may have been infected by the coronavirus — more than 20 times the number of confirmed cases — and warned of a difficult period ahead. Dr. Michael Ryan, speaking to a special session of the WHO's 34-member executive board focusing on COVID-19, said the figures vary from urban to rural areas, and between different groups, but that ultimately it means "the vast majority of the world remains at risk."
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| August Browne: The Nigeria-born man who joined the Polish resistance Posted: 05 Oct 2020 03:08 AM PDT  August Agboola Browne is thought to have been the only black person in the Polish resistance.
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| Trump's anti-leadership in the pandemic Posted: 05 Oct 2020 03:04 AM PDT  How do I know that Donald Trump is going to lose by a big margin in the Philadelphia suburbs where I live? Because everyone in our area wears a mask in public.Refusing to wear a mask has become a vivid expression of resistance to government authority in many countries around the world. But in the U.S., the decision about whether or not to wear one has been transformed into a statement of partisan solidarity on both sides of our yawning political divide.I have no objection to Democrats "virtue signaling" over masks because demonstrating a commitment to public health during the worst pandemic in a century contributes in an important way to the common good. Republican recalcitrance, which led directly to the president and several other prominent members of his party becoming infected, is another matter entirely. What explains it, especially when the GOP controls so much of the government, including the executive branch agencies and departments tasked with fighting the pandemic?That question hovers over a recent disturbing article in The New York Times about the way people working in the White House have been received by the president and his senior aides over the past few months when they have showed up to work wearing masks. They've been treated like unpopular kids being picked on by a pack of bullies in a high school cafeteria.There are many possible explanations for the ridicule and derision, none of which make much sense. The first and most significant is denial of reality and the delusion that pretending the virus isn't a threat will make it true. It's distressing to think that the people in charge of keeping us safe from a deadly contagion view the world that way, but it does appear to be the case. Then there's the peculiarly pig-headed conviction among those in the White House that the administration shouldn't defer to anyone, not even epidemiologists, doctors, and other medical experts, especially if doing so threatens to make the president, his staff, and his party look weak in the eyes of a certain class of Republican voters. (This they apparently fear more than anything else, very much including COVID-19).But this being the Trump White House, we haven't even had the benefit of a coordinated attack on mask-wearing from the administration. That would be terribly irresponsible, but at least it would be consistent. Instead, we've gotten that most Trumpian of alternatives: an incoherent, inconstant jumble of assertions and acts that mirrors the president's mishmash of claims about the virus itself: It's no big deal. It's terrible. It's a plague. It'll just disappear. It's still a threat. It is what it is. It's behind us. All while the deaths keep piling up, now to nearly 215,000.With masks, Trump has been just as variable, often defending them while refusing to wear one himself and then wearing one days before or after mocking others for doing the same. Only in the last six weeks or so, since the maskless Republican National Convention and resumption of the campaign's maskless rallies, has the message become consistent in public and behind the scenes: Don't wear them. And if you do, you can expect to be ridiculed.This isn't good leadership or bad leadership. It's anti-leadership.Those who study the techniques employed by authoritarians like Vladimir Putin call this kind of wildly inconsistent messaging polluting the information space. We saw it just this past Saturday, when the Trump administration put out diametrically opposed messages about the president's condition, with his team of doctors at Walter Reed providing an upbeat assessment that was quickly followed by a much bleaker statement by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. This isn't disseminating truth or lies so much as spreading a miasma of disinformation that inspires cynicism, conspiracies, and despair about ever learning the truth at all apart from efforts to manipulate it on the part of the powerful. Whether it's a deliberate effort at national gaslighting or a result of rank incompetence, the consequences for our public life are terrible.Consider a series of tweets last Friday morning from a producer for the NPR program Radio Times on Philadelphia's WHYY, hours after the president's diagnosis was announced. According to Jon Ehrens, "Ninety percent of listener emails/comments are very insistent that the diagnosis is a lie." What did those reaching out to express their incredulity propose as alternatives to believing the president's claim about his medical condition? "Theories include: getting out of the [next] debate (though the campaign currently says he is still going to debate), to garner sympathy, finding an excuse for why he will lose the election, to prove that the coronavirus is no big deal, and to get him to stay put."NPR listeners tend to be highly educated and liberal, and to get their news and information from mainstream outlets, not the darker, more conspiratorial corners of the internet. Yet those writing in to Radio Times last Friday morning so thoroughly lacked trust in the president of the United States that they were prepared to put forth a series of unverified conspiracy theories as more plausible than the official account.That's what can happen when living in a country where streams of information have been thoroughly polluted by the powers that be. Unlike in a totalitarian state, where the government puts forth a unified, consistent message of lies that conceals a unified, consistent truth, life in Trump's America has become far murkier. Instead of being forced to affirm a stable falsehood, we have been flooded by a deluge of chaotic mental garbage for the past four years that has left us drowning in an epistemological quagmire. At first it was absurdities about the size of the crowd at the president's inauguration. But now it quite literally concerns matters of life and death.Wear your mask because it's a good way to protect yourself and your neighbors from a deadly disease. But also wear it as an act of defiance against those who would contaminate your mind with deranging nonsense and leave you flailing about, unmoored from the stable ground of the real.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com 4 plausible election scenarios after Trump's coronavirus diagnosis The pandemic wake-up call America needs Trump is sick. So is the GOP.
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| 2020 Watch: How long will Trump be quarantined? Posted: 05 Oct 2020 02:22 AM PDT  President Donald Trump spent the weekend in the hospital after testing positive for COVID-19, a development that added a new layer of chaos to an already turbulent 2020 contest just one month before Election Day. No first-term president has suffered such a serious health setback so close to an election. Trump's hospitalization has refocused the election right where Democrat Joe Biden wants it: on Trump's uneven leadership throughout the pandemic.
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| Armenia and Azerbaijan clash as Iran works on peace plan Posted: 05 Oct 2020 02:07 AM PDT  Armenia accused Azerbaijan of firing missiles into the capital of the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday, while Azerbaijan said several of its towns and its second-largest city were attacked. Iran, which borders both countries, said it was working on a peace plan for the decades-old conflict, which reignited last month and has killed scores of people on both sides. The region of Nagorno-Karabakh lies inside Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since the end of a separatist war in 1994.
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| Oldest Living CIA Agent Says Russia Probably Targeted Trump Decades Ago Posted: 05 Oct 2020 01:49 AM PDT  On Aug. 18, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a 1,300-page report characterizing the involvement of Russian intelligence operatives with officials of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign as an "aggressive, multifaceted effort to influence, or attempt to influence, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election." The report detailed the longstanding relationship between Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's campaign manager, and a Russian intelligence operative named Konstantin Kilimnik, while also describing the links of other Russian intelligence figures to Trump family members, notably Donald Jr. and Jared Kushner, and to such Trump confidants as Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, briefly the president's national security adviser.As to be expected, President Trump immediately denounced the report as "a hoax" (never mind that it was authored by a Republican-controlled committee), while his inner circle adopted their usual stance on such matters, either staying mum or decrying the committee's work as a tired retread of last year's Mueller report. The real scandal, the president declaimed, was the deep state "witch hunt" against him that spurred these investigations in the first place.If this latest chapter in the four-year Russiagate drama is unlikely to change many minds, at least one person has examined the Senate's findings with both great interest and alarm. His name is Peter Sichel and, at the age of 97, he is the last surviving member of the early CIA that faced off with the Soviets at the start of the Cold War.Final Senate Report on 'Aggressive' Russian Interference: Manafort Was a 'Grave Counterintelligence Threat'An escapee from Nazi Germany in the mid-1930s, Sichel served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the United States' wartime intelligence agency, during World War II. In October 1945, just months after war's end, he was dispatched to Berlin to take charge of the local clandestine wing of an embryonic American intelligence outfit called the Strategic Services Unit, a precursor to the CIA. That posting placed Sichel at ground zero of the Cold War already beginning to take shape between the Soviet Union and its wartime Western allies, and gave him a front-row seat in observing precisely how the Soviets were taking over in Eastern Europe."Most people have this idea that they came in and grabbed all those countries by force," Sichel explained, "but that is not true. In almost every case, they worked within the structure of the prewar political parties and just gradually coopted them."Through his contacts in Soviet-controlled eastern Germany, Sichel witnessed how the Soviets first coerced the local left and center-left political parties to join together, and to then accept the overall leadership of the embryonic German communist party. "They did this both by threats—if a political figure resisted, he could be threatened with arrest as a Nazi war criminal—and enticements. Remember, Germany was in absolute ruins at the time, so it didn't take much—the offer of a car or an allotment of food—to bring people in line. Their ambition was to take over the political parties, but to pretend it was the will of the people."Sichel's early 1946 report on the methods the Soviets were using to coopt the eastern German political parties was the first detailed examination of the phenomenon, one soon emulated in the other Eastern European nations under their military control. Once they comprised a sizeable minority in the government, the communist-led coalitions would then start taking control of key ministries, notably the police and internal security services, until they could take over outright. One of the ultimate beneficiaries of this approach, a Hungarian communist leader named Matyas Rakosi, called it "salami tactics," the process of joining the existing political system and then slicing away at it until there was nothing left.In this regard, one revelation in the Senate Intelligence Committee report stood out to Sichel. Contrary to most previous assumptions, Senate investigators found that the Russian intelligence campaign to gain influence with the Republican party began well before Trump emerged as a viable candidate, in keeping with Vladimir Putin's scheme to help thwart a Hillary Clinton presidency however he could. This fit with the pattern the old CIA hand had seen in Eastern Europe."One great advantage the Soviets always had over us," Sichel explained, "is that they played the long game. We thought in terms of quarters, whereas they thought in terms of years or even decades. They were opportunistic, willing to let matters gradually develop until the right political faction or right leader to support had emerged."This found echo in the years prior to 2016 in the series of ties that Putin, an old KGB man himself, fostered with right-wing political figures and fringe groups across the breadth of Europe. However much those ties may have appeared to run counter to Putin's open nostalgia for the good old days of Soviet communist rule, they shared the common ground of ultra-nationalism.This paid great dividends for the Russian ruler, for these same nationalist groups were at the forefront in their respective countries in calling for the dissolution or weakening of NATO and the European Union, two long-term Putin goals. For the same reason, the Russian leadership could only have been thrilled by Trump's steady climb toward the Republican nomination. Far more than with any other Republican running for president, Trump's xenophobic, America First rhetoric dovetailed with Putin's own version, while Trump's promise of a diminished American role on the global stage was the stuff of Russian fantasy. Little wonder that Putin's minions would do anything in their power to help propel the hotel magnate and reality show host into the White House.But of course, one can't rely on jingoistic fraternity alone to achieve one's goals, and limning the pages of the Senate Intelligence Committee report is the specter of another old KGB standby: kompromat, or blackmail. During his Cold War days in Berlin, Peter Sichel had to remain constantly vigilant against kompromat schemes targeting himself and his CIA colleagues, as well as western German political figures. "The KGB were absolute masters at it," he recalled, "and they would use whatever they could get their hands on. A favorite was honey traps [or sexual entrapments], but bribes, favors, whatever they could find. And once they had their hooks into you, they owned you."Scattered throughout the Senate report is a litany of instances in which Trump's associates left themselves open to Russian blackmail: Manafort's many dealings with Kilimnik; the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting at which Donald Jr., Jared Kushner, and Michael Flynn met with Russian intelligence operatives who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton; the backchannel communications between Flynn, by then Trump's national security adviser-designate, and the Russian ambassador."The key thing is that all of them then lied about it to investigators," Sichel explained, "and that's where the potential blackmail comes in. Imagine if the FBI hadn't caught Flynn out, and he had remained in his post. The Russians knew he lied—I'm sure they taped all their communications with him—so they would have had him over a barrel forever."In this way, the old spymaster contended, the various investigations into Russiagate have actually been of great service to Trump."I know he doesn't see it this way," Sichel said, "but by having all this stuff brought out in public, it removes the blackmail threat. The smartest thing Trump could have done when all this started to break was to just come out and say, 'Yes, it appears there was Russian involvement with my campaign, but that's over with now, I'm the president, so let's move on.' But he didn't do that, obviously. Perhaps there were reasons why he couldn't."Even long-retired intelligence officers tend to be circumspect by nature—Sichel left the CIA in 1960—and while he left that last comment to dangle, his allusion seemed fairly clear. After all, what to make of an American president whose foreign policy initiatives have included weakening NATO and urging on the fracturing of the European Union. Who has repeatedly tried to reinstate Russia into the G-8 council of industrialized of nations, over the strenuous objections of America's European allies, and who defends Putin's propensity for killing his political opponents by stating, "I think our country does plenty of killing also." And it's not as if Trump's obeisance to his Russian friend is a thing of the past. On Aug. 20, two days after the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report, Putin's principal surviving political opponent, Alexei Navalny, was left near death by a poison almost certainly administered by Russian intelligence agents. Even as European leaders have lodged protests against the Kremlin and demanded an investigation, President Trump has yet to say a word on the matter. Hardly an original thought, but did Sichel think the president himself could be hostage to Russian kompromat?"Well, I couldn't possibly say," he replied, "because I think we're still in the early stages of unlocking all that has gone on. What I can say is that the past four years have been very, very good for Vladimir Putin. And if Trump is reelected, the next four will be even better."Scott Anderson is the author of The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War—A Tragedy in Three Acts. He is also the author of two novels and four other works of nonfiction, including Lawrence in Arabia, an international bestseller that was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book. A veteran war correspondent, he is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine.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. 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| Uganda reports blood shortages amid coronavirus pandemic Posted: 05 Oct 2020 01:05 AM PDT  Health authorities in Uganda say the supply of blood has sharply declined since the start of the coronavirus pandemic as fewer people donate and schools remain closed. Students, especially those in secondary school, are the largest group of blood donors in the East African country but schools have been closed since March amid efforts to curb the spread of the virus. Dr. Emmanuel Batiibwe, the director of a hospital that looks after many of the poorest residents of the capital, Kampala, cited multiple deaths there in recent months related to blood shortages.
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| Not getting post-Brexit trade deal would be irresponsible, Germany says Posted: 04 Oct 2020 11:59 PM PDT |
| Under fire over LGBT rights, Polish leader blames activist Posted: 04 Oct 2020 11:41 PM PDT  Bart Staszewski felt angry and hopeless when local governments in Poland started passing resolutions last year declaring themselves to be free of "LGBT ideology." At least 100 municipalities or regions, mostly in conservative southeastern Poland, have passed declarations that vowed to keep out "LGBT ideology" or adopted "family charters" that backed heterosexual unions. In response, he settled on a protest around the communities that are now widely referred to as "LGBT-free zones," a move that has enraged Poland's conservative, nationalist government as his posts have gone viral.
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| Britain open to Aussie-style EU trade deal but Australia wants more Posted: 04 Oct 2020 11:00 PM PDT |
| Goldman says 'thin' Brexit trade deal likely but won't rule out breakdown Posted: 04 Oct 2020 10:38 PM PDT |
| Trump seizes on small election issues to spread concern Posted: 04 Oct 2020 10:03 PM PDT  A mail carrier who altered a handful of affidavit ballot applications. In the run up to Election Day, President Donald Trump is seizing on small, potentially routine voting issues to suggest the election is rigged. "Mail ballots, they cheat," Trump said last month.
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| Conservation success or pests? Seals spark passionate debate Posted: 04 Oct 2020 10:00 PM PDT  Nick Muto has fished up and down the New England coast and there is nothing that gets his blood boiling more than the sight of a seal. Muto, whose two boats fish for groundfish such as skate and monkfish as well as lobster, is among a growing group of anglers, beach goers and local officials who are quick to blame everything from disease to depleted fisheries to increased shark sightings on the exploding seal population. "Areas that we used to traditionally fish that were as close to guarantees as you could get have been strip mined of fish, and the fish have been driven out of there by seals," Muto said.
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| COVID-19 and no-deal Brexit could cost UK $174 bln a year - Baker & McKenzie Posted: 04 Oct 2020 10:00 PM PDT |
| Pence takes lead role in campaign with Trump travel stopped Posted: 04 Oct 2020 09:39 PM PDT  With President Donald Trump ill with COVID-19, Vice President Mike Pence took the lead role in campaigning Monday, starting a swing through key states to bolster the president's chance for reelection. Trump left Walter Reed Military Medical Center and returned to the White House Monday evening, but it's unclear when he'll be able to travel. Pence wants to keep the president's supporters energized and deflect criticism of the administration's handling of a virus that has killed more than 205,000 Americans.
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