| UN votes to crack down on Somalia's al-Shabab extremists Posted: 12 Nov 2020 05:42 PM PST |
| Top officials: Nov. 3 election most secure in US history Posted: 12 Nov 2020 04:28 PM PST  A coalition of federal and state officials said Thursday that they have no evidence that votes were compromised or altered in last week's presidential election, rejecting unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud advanced by President Donald Trump and many of his supporters. The statement from cybersecurity experts, which trumpeted the Nov. 3 election as the most secure in American history, amounted to the most direct repudiation to date of Trump's efforts to undermine the integrity of the contest. It echoed repeated assertions by election experts and state officials over the last week that the election unfolded smoothly without broad irregularities.
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| Africa's week in pictures: 6 - 12 November 2020 Posted: 12 Nov 2020 04:22 PM PST  A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent.
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| Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: 'My little brother needs medicine' Posted: 12 Nov 2020 04:18 PM PST  A BBC journalist on the fears she has for her family in Ethiopia's Tigray region following an outbreak of fighting.
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| CAP Excluded from FPT Meeting on United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Posted: 12 Nov 2020 03:40 PM PST |
| CAP Excluded from FPT Meeting on United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Posted: 12 Nov 2020 03:40 PM PST  OTTAWA, ON, Nov. 12, 2020 /CNW/ - The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) condemns the exclusion of its voices from a high level meeting on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
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| Trump, stewing over election loss, silent as virus surges Posted: 12 Nov 2020 02:21 PM PST  President Donald Trump has publicly disengaged from the battle against the coronavirus at a moment when the disease is tearing across the United States at an alarming pace. Trump, fresh off his reelection loss to President-elect Joe Biden, remains angry that an announcement about progress in developing a vaccine for the disease came after Election Day. Public health experts worry that Trump's refusal to take aggressive action on the pandemic or to coordinate with the Biden team during the final two months of his presidency will only worsen the effects of the virus and hinder the nation's ability to swiftly distribute a vaccine next year.
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| McEnany wears 2 hats as WH press secretary, campaign adviser Posted: 12 Nov 2020 01:37 PM PST  A White House press secretary who refers questions to the White House? Kayleigh McEnany is wearing two hats, one as a Trump 2020 campaign adviser and the other as the White House press secretary, charged with articulating the administration's policies and positions to the press and the public. On Thursday morning, McEnany appeared on Fox News as a campaign adviser and punted when asked if President Donald Trump should be providing President-elect Joe Biden access to the President's Daily Briefing on top intelligence matters.
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| A few cracks but no big GOP break with Trump on Biden's win Posted: 12 Nov 2020 01:27 PM PST  The most powerful Republicans in Washington stood firmly behind President Donald Trump and his unsupported claims of voter fraud on Thursday, but new cracks emerged among GOP leaders elsewhere who believe it's time to treat Democrat Joe Biden like the president-elect he is. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who endorsed Trump's reelection, became the latest Republican official to say what Trump and his allies refuse to accept. The GOP governor acknowledged that Biden's lead is getting "bigger and bigger by the day" and Trump's legal options are dissipating.
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| Labour should apologise over its Brexit stance, Sir Keir Starmer told Posted: 12 Nov 2020 01:19 PM PST  Sir Keir Starmer has been told by three former frontbenchers that Labour must apologise for its Brexit stance at the last election to win back voters who deserted the party. Ian Lavery, Jon Trickett and Laura Smith, who were in Jeremy Corbyn's shadow ministerial team, said working class Leave voters remain "highly sceptical" about Labour, which went into the election promising a second referendum. Sir Keir, who was Mr Corbyn's shadow Brexit secretary, played a major role in getting the party to campaign for another vote. The party's Brexit policy was seen as one of the contributing reasons that Labour lost the election. Writing for HuffPost UK Mr Lavery, Mr Trickett and Ms Smith, who lost her seat in the election, said: "Labour got it wrong on a second referendum. "The party went against one of the only times in recent history that people felt they could finally express their justified anger at the present political system.
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| Even the Dalai Lama is losing patience with world leaders over climate change Posted: 12 Nov 2020 01:10 PM PST |
| Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: 'Civilians massacred', says Amnesty International Posted: 12 Nov 2020 12:39 PM PST  "Scores and probably hundreds" were hacked to death on Monday in the Tigray region, the group says.
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| Vatican calling: Pope congratulates Joe Biden on election Posted: 12 Nov 2020 12:24 PM PST  President-elect Joe Biden, a lifelong Roman Catholic, spoke to Pope Francis on Thursday, despite President Donald Trump refusing to concede. Trump claims — without evidence — that the election was stolen from him through massive but unspecified acts of fraud. Biden's transition team said in a statement that the president-elect thanked Francis for "extending blessings and congratulations and noted his appreciation."
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| Virus surge: Schools abandon classes, states retreat Posted: 12 Nov 2020 11:52 AM PST  School systems in Detroit, Indianapolis, Philadelphia and suburban Minneapolis are giving up on in-person classes, and some governors are reimposing restrictions on bars and restaurants or getting more serious about masks, as the coast-to-coast resurgence of the coronavirus sends deaths, hospitalizations and new infections soaring. The crisis deepened at hospitals, with the situation so bad in North Dakota that the governor this week said nurses who test positive but have no symptoms can still work. Idaho clinics struggled to handle the deluge of phone calls from patients.
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| Eating This Spicy Food Can Help You Live Longer, Doctors Say Posted: 12 Nov 2020 11:38 AM PST  If you're a spicy food fan, you're in for some good news. Eating chili peppers may significantly reduce your risk of dying from cancer or cardiovascular disease, according to the preliminary results of international research.Chili peppers contain capsaicin, a chemical compound which gives the fruits their spicy characteristic, according to the American Heart Association. Researchers previously discovered capsaicin's anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and blood-sugar regulating properties—but they wanted to dig a little deeper.The new research was compiled by experts from institutions such as the CHI Saint Joseph Health, Cleveland Clinic, and the University of Missouri-Kansas School of Medicine. It draws from four large studies of nearly 600,000 people living in the U.S., Iran, Italy, and China. Compared to those who rarely or never eat chili peppers, those who regularly consume the fruit are 26% less likely to die of cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to the analysis. Eating spicy dishes with chili pepper may also reduce your risk of dying from cancer by 23% and all-cause mortality by 25%.Related: 21 Best Healthy Cooking Hacks of All Time"We were surprised to find that in these previously published studies, regular consumption of chili pepper was associated with an overall risk-reduction of all cause, CVD and cancer mortality," senior author and cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic's Heart, Vascular&Thoracic Institute Bo Xu, M.D, says. "It highlights that dietary factors may play an important role in overall health."Because the amount and types of chili peppers consumed differed among the studies, it's hard to conclusively say which type of chili peppers may have health benefits, as well as how often they should be eaten in certain amounts. More research is needed to draw these conclusions, according to Dr. Xu.Think you're truly eating clean? Watch out for the 9 "Healthy" Foods Dietitians Actually Hate.
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| Joe Biden advised against Osama bin Laden raid, Barack Obama writes Posted: 12 Nov 2020 11:22 AM PST  The then vice-president suggested Obama wait before ordering the mission that killed the al-Qaida leader in 2011, new memoir says• Obama: 'Americans spooked by black man in White House' led to Trump presidencyJoe Biden advised Barack Obama to wait to order the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the former president writes in his new memoir."Joe weighed in against the raid," Obama writes in A Promised Land, about discussion of the Navy Seals mission, which he ordered to go ahead as intended in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on the night of 1-2 May 2011.Obama's book will be published on Tuesday. Guardian US has seen a copy. Obama writes that his vice-president, who will follow him to the White House in January, immediately supported his decision to proceed with the Bin Laden raid.Whether Biden advised against the raid has been a contentious issue in US politics. During this year's election, Republican attack ads claimed Biden opposed taking Bin Laden out altogether.Biden has said that during group discussion of whether to order the raid, he advised Obama to take more time, saying: "Don't go." He has also said he subsequently told Obama to "follow your instincts".In his memoir, Obama echoes the accounts of other senior aides present in the White House Situation Room nine years ago who have said Biden counselled caution.Like the defense secretary, Robert Gates, Obama writes, Biden was concerned about "the enormous consequences of failure" and counselled that the president "should defer any decision until the intelligence community was more certain that bin Laden was in the compound".In the event, a Navy Seal team flew from Afghanistan to Pakistan and shot dead the al-Qaida leader, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks."As had been true in every major decision I'd made as president," Obama writes, "I appreciated Joe's willingness to buck the prevailing mood and ask tough questions, often in the interest of giving me the space I needed for my own internal deliberations."Obama also writes that he "knew that Joe, like Gates, had been in Washington during Desert One".Desert One, in April 1980, was a failed attempt to free American hostages held in Iran, resulting in the deaths of eight US servicemen in a helicopter crash and severely damaging Jimmy Carter's hopes of re-election.Gates, Obama writes, reminded him "that no matter how thorough the planning, operations like this could go badly wrong. Beyond the risk to the team, he worried that a failed mission might adversely impact the war in Afghanistan."Obama calls that "a sober, well-reasoned assessment".Biden was a US senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009, then Obama's vice-president until 2017. Though Donald Trump is refusing to concede defeat in this year's election, Biden has achieved a clear victory in the electoral college as well as the popular vote and will be inaugurated as the 46th president on 20 January.Obama's views of his vice-president will be scrutinised keenly.He also writes that amid intense discussion in the Situation Room, with the Seal team waiting in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, he himself characterised the raid as "a 50-50 call".The CIA chief, Leon Panetta, homeland security adviser, John Brennan, and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Adm Mike Mullen, favoured mounting the raid, Obama writes. Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, thought it was a "51-49 call" – and "came down on the side of sending in the Seals".Brennan has called Obama's decision to go after Bin Laden one of the "gutsiest calls of any president in memory".Obama does not write about any subsequent conversation with Biden. But in his account of the immediate aftermath of the mission, he writes: "As the helicopters took off, Joe placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed."'Congratulations, boss,'" he said.
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| Key role for Black policy leaders on Biden's transition team Posted: 12 Nov 2020 10:53 AM PST  Black policy leaders will play a pivotal role in President-elect Joe Biden's transition, marking one of the most diverse agency review teams in history. Of the 500-plus team members announced this week, more than half are women, and Black men and women are leading more than one-quarter of the teams. "The agency review process will help lay the foundation for meeting these challenges on Day One," said Tony Allen, a transition advisory board member and president of historically Black Delaware State University.
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| Georgia counties prepare for hand tally of presidential race Posted: 12 Nov 2020 10:53 AM PST  As Georgia counties prepare for a hand tally of the presidential race, the state's top elections official plans to quarantine after his wife tested positive for the coronavirus, his office said Thursday. "The point of the audit is to show the machines counted the ballots fairly," said Gabriel Sterling, who oversaw the implementation of the state's new voting system for the secretary of state's office. County election officials must begin the hand tally by 9 a.m. Friday and complete it by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, state officials said.
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| Justice Dept.: 'Poor judgment' used in Epstein plea deal Posted: 12 Nov 2020 10:48 AM PST  A Justice Department report has found former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta exercised "poor judgment" in handling an investigation into wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein when he was a top federal prosecutor in Florida. The 350-page report, obtained by The Associated Press, is a culmination of an investigation by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility into Acosta's handling of a secret plea deal with Epstein, who had been accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls.
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| Coronavirus: What's happening to the numbers in Africa? Posted: 12 Nov 2020 10:34 AM PST  There's been a rise recently in cases and deaths in some areas, but is this a longer-term trend?
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| Cyprus, Israel, Greece agree to boost defense cooperation Posted: 12 Nov 2020 10:26 AM PST  The defense ministers of Greece, Israel and Cyprus agreed Thursday to step up military cooperation they said will keep their armed forces better prepared, help create more jobs and bolster security in a fraught region. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said it was agreed during talks in Nicosia to "promote large-scale industry cooperation that will bolster our defense abilities and create thousands of jobs for all three economies."
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| At least 74 migrants dead in shipwreck off Libya: UN Posted: 12 Nov 2020 10:21 AM PST  At least 74 migrants died in a "devastating" shipwreck on Thursday off the Libyan coast, the United Nations said, the latest in a spate of migrant vessel sinkings in the central Mediterranean.
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| Jerry Rawlings: Ghana's ex-president dies aged 73 Posted: 12 Nov 2020 10:09 AM PST  The charismatic figure vowed to stamp out corruption but was accused of human rights abuses.
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| Europe migrant crisis: Scores die in shipwreck off Libya - UN Posted: 12 Nov 2020 09:47 AM PST  The UN says nations must take decisive action to stem a "mounting loss of life in the Mediterranean".
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| Post-election rancor clouds chances for COVID relief bill Posted: 12 Nov 2020 09:29 AM PST  President-elect Joe Biden's top allies on Capitol Hill adopted a combative posture on COVID-19 relief on Thursday, pressing their case for a $2 trillion bill that's a nonstarter for Republicans and faulting the GOP for dragging its feet on acknowledging Biden's victory. The message from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. — both of whom witnessed disappointing outcomes in House and Senate races last week — was that Republicans should concede Biden won and immediately return to negotiations on COVID relief, with the Democrats' $2.4 trillion "HEROES Act" as the starting point.
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| Trudeau: UK's lack of negotiating practice could delay Canada trade deal Posted: 12 Nov 2020 09:14 AM PST  Britain may lack 'bandwidth to move forward' as Brexit transition nears end, say PM Canada could easily negotiate a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK, Justin Trudeau has said, but he warned that talks could be delayed because British negotiators are so out of practice.Speaking at an online event hosted by the Financial Times, the Canadian prime minister said he remained upbeat about the prospect of a trade deal between the two countries before the end of the year."We know how to negotiate trade deals," said Trudeau, alluding to a string of recent pacts sealed by Canada. "The UK hasn't had to negotiate trade deals in the past few decades."Any barrier to an agreement was likely to come from the UK as its negotiators juggled talks with multiple nations, Trudeau warned. "There is an issue of not really having the bandwidth within the [UK] government to move forward on this," he said.As the Brexit transition comes to an end, Boris Johnson's government has the difficult task of lining up deals with key non-EU nations, including Australia, New Zealand and the United States.With the 31 December deadline rapidly approaching and a number of deals still outstanding, the shadow trade secretary, Emily Thornberry, recently condemned the Conservative government's inability to show completed trade pacts as an "abysmal and shambolic state of affairs".Trudeau and the UK prime minister spoke earlier this week, discussing how to strengthen trade and economic co-operation between the two allies.Trade with Canada is worth nearly £17.4bn (C$30bn), according to government figures. About 700 UK-based firms have a presence in Canada, and 1,100 businesses in the UK are owned or controlled by Canadians.Trudeau's government has signed a number of large trade pacts in recent years. In addition to joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership with 10 other Pacific nations, Canada recently completed a bruising and unpredictable set of free trade negotiations with the United States.Currently, economic relations between Canada and the UK are governed by the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (Ceta), a broad free-trade deal recently negotiated between Canada and the European Union that eliminated a number of pre-existing tariffs. Despite the challenges, Trudeau said he remained "very optimistic" that key provisions of Ceta could form the basis of the new agreement."I'm very hopeful that it's going to get done, but that really is up to the UK government because we're there for it," said Trudeau. "I just hope they can come around to it."
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| States ramp up for biggest vaccination effort in US history Posted: 12 Nov 2020 09:09 AM PST  With a COVID-19 vaccine drawing closer, public health officials across the country are gearing up for the biggest vaccination effort in U.S. history — a monumental undertaking that must distribute hundreds of millions of doses, prioritize who's first in line and ensure that people who get the initial shot return for the necessary second one. The push could begin as early as next month, when federal officials say the first vaccine may be authorized for emergency use and immediately deployed to high-risk groups, such as health care workers. "The cavalry is coming," Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
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| Russia imposes sanctions on European officials over Navalny Posted: 12 Nov 2020 08:58 AM PST |
| Mexico to stop holding child migrants in detention centers Posted: 12 Nov 2020 08:51 AM PST |
| UN migration agency: 74 drown after boat capsizes near Libya Posted: 12 Nov 2020 08:14 AM PST  At least 74 migrants drowned after their Europe-bound ship capsized off the coast of Libya on Thursday, the U.N.'s migration agency said, in the latest in a series of at least eight shipwrecks in the Central Mediterranean since last month. The boat was carrying over 120 migrants, including women and children, when it capsized off the coast of the Libyan port of al-Khums, said the International Organization for Migration. Only 47 people were rescued by the Libyan coast guard and fishermen and brought to shore.
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| Ghana's former president Jerry Rawlings dies at 73 Posted: 12 Nov 2020 08:10 AM PST  Ghana's former president Jerry Rawlings, who staged two coups and later led the West African country's transition to a stable democracy, has died, according to the state's Radio Ghana and the president. Rawlings was 73. President Nana Akufo-Addo said that Rawlings died Thursday morning at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in the capital, Accra, where he had been receiving treatment after a short illness.
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| Islamic State group claims attack at Saudi WWI ceremony Posted: 12 Nov 2020 07:56 AM PST  The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Thursday for the explosion the previous day at a cemetery in Saudi Arabia, saying it primarily targeted French diplomats attending the ceremony in remembrance of the end of World War I. Other Europeans and Americans were attending the ceremony at the Non-Muslims Cemetery in the kingdom's coastal city of Jiddah. IS said in a posting on its news agency, Aamaq, that it primarily targeted the French consul attending the ceremony because of his country's publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
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| 'Held to ransom' by Dominic Cummings: How Boris Johnson's late-night call helped avert mass exodus Posted: 12 Nov 2020 07:31 AM PST  It was a damage limitation exercise like no other. Shortly after 10pm on Wednesday, aides at Number 10 were frantically trying to contact other colleagues to persuade them not to resign. There was a very real fear that as many as half a dozen advisers could walk out following the resignation of Lee Cain, Downing Street's head of communications, an hour earlier. Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson's chief adviser, had made it clear some weeks earlier that if Mr Cain resigned he would go too – and take others with him. When staff left work at 9pm on Wednesday, shortly after Mr Cain's resignation, they believed that Oliver Lewis, Mr Johnson's deputy Brexit adviser, and possibly Mr Cummings, who are considered to be "of one mind" by colleagues, had made up their minds to go.
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| South Bronx restaurant turns into soup kitchen to help poor Posted: 12 Nov 2020 07:00 AM PST  The special dish at La Morada, a small Mexican restaurant in the Bronx, varies from day to day: Perhaps it's enfrijoladas, handmade tortillas covered with black bean sauce and pico de gallo. The family-run restaurant, which opened in 2009 and has won Michelin acclaim for its Oaxacan food, has also served as a soup kitchen during the pandemic. The Mexican owners of the restaurant are activists who speak up in defense of immigrants without authorization to live in the U.S. — a sign, "No Deportations," hangs behind the door.
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| IMF's Georgieva says G20 should synchronize investments to achieve faster growth Posted: 12 Nov 2020 06:59 AM PST |
| Appeals court clears Harvard of racial bias in admissions Posted: 12 Nov 2020 06:54 AM PST  Harvard does not discriminate against Asian American applicants, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday in a decision that offers relief to other colleges that consider race in admissions, but also sets the stage for a potential review by an increasingly conservative U.S. Supreme Court. The decision came from two judges on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston who rejected claims from an anti-affirmative action group that accused the Ivy League University of imposing a "racial penalty" on Asian Americans. The judges upheld a previous ruling clearing Harvard of discrimination when choosing students.
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| WHO says in talks with Russian institute on Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine Posted: 12 Nov 2020 06:36 AM PST |
| Jerry Rawlings: Why he divided opinion in Ghana Posted: 12 Nov 2020 06:35 AM PST  The former air force officer who first seized power in 1979 leaves a divided legacy.
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| The Latest: Pennsylvania judge sides with Trump campaign Posted: 12 Nov 2020 06:19 AM PST  A Pennsylvania judge has sided with President Donald Trump's campaign and ordered counties not to count a small number of mail-in or absentee ballots for which the voter didn't submit valid identification within six days after the Nov. 3 election. While the Trump campaign's general counsel, Matt Morgan, called the order a "win," the ballots affected may not have been tabulated and are unlikely to affect the outcome in Pennsylvania. The Associated Press called the presidential contest for Democrat Joe Biden on Saturday after determining the remaining ballots in Pennsylvania would not allow Trump to catch up.
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| Zimbabwean journalist denied bail for alleging corruption Posted: 12 Nov 2020 06:10 AM PST  A Zimbabwean magistrate Thursday denied bail to an investigative journalist who has been in detention for more than a week for alleging corruption in the country's prosecuting agency, sending him back to a harsh prison in which he recently spent six weeks on a separate charge. Hopewell Chin'ono is being charged with obstruction of justice arising from a tweet he made alleging corrupt practices within Zimbabwe's National Prosecuting Authority. Chin'ono was denied bail on the grounds that he could commit other offenses if released.
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| California Senate sweepstakes: Who gets Kamala Harris' job? Posted: 12 Nov 2020 06:04 AM PST  Election Day is over, but California already is consumed with its next high-profile political contest — the competition to fill Kamala Harris' soon-to-be-vacant U.S. Senate seat. The selection falls to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is being pressured by rival interest groups, fellow Democrats and even friends intent on swaying his decision. Harris will be sworn in as President-elect Joe Biden's vice president on Jan. 20, and it's not yet clear how soon before then she will give up her seat.
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| Peacekeeping force says 8 killed in Egypt helicopter crash Posted: 12 Nov 2020 05:28 AM PST  The international force that monitors the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement said Thursday that eight peacekeepers, including six Americans, were killed when one of its helicopters crashed during a routine mission in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. A ninth peacekeeper was badly injured. The Multinational Force and Observers said a French peacekeeper and Czech member of the force were also killed.
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| Trump Stacks the Pentagon and Intel Agencies With Loyalists. To What End? Posted: 12 Nov 2020 05:24 AM PST  WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's abrupt installation of a group of hard-line loyalists into senior jobs at the Pentagon has elevated officials who have pushed for more aggressive actions against Iran and for an imminent withdrawal of all American forces from Afghanistan over the objections of the military.Trump made the appointments of four top Pentagon officials, including a new acting defense secretary, this week, leaving civilian and military officials to interpret whether this indicated a change in approach in the final two months of his presidency.At the same time, Trump named Michael Ellis as a general counsel at the National Security Agency over the objections of the director, Gen. Paul M. Nakasone.Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York TimesThere is no evidence that these new appointees harbor a secret agenda on Iran or have taken up their posts with an action plan in hand. But their sudden appearance has been a purge of the Pentagon's top civilian hierarchy without recent precedent.Administration officials said the appointments were partly about Afghanistan, where the president has been frustrated by what he sees as a military moving too slowly to fulfill his promise that all U.S. troops will be home by Christmas. The Pentagon announced Wednesday that Douglas Macgregor, a retired Army colonel and fierce proponent of ending American involvement in Afghanistan, would serve as a senior adviser.The hires come as Trump and some of his aides have been pressing to declassify documents that would describe sources of information inside the Kremlin. The president's advocates have long argued that these could prove that four years of allegations about the 2016 actions by President Vladimir Putin of Russia in support of Trump's candidacy were a hoax, despite the fact that Trump's Justice Department has indicted Russian military intelligence officers.Administration officials said that Gina Haspel, the director of the CIA, could be next on Trump's list of dismissals because of her long-running effort to keep classified a series of documents on the agency's information inside the Kremlin. Among her biggest recent critics is Donald Trump Jr.Most of the officials and former officials interviewed over the past day agreed that there was a large element of score-settling and attention-grabbing by Trump and his aides as they have defied calls to concede to President-elect Joe Biden.Kashyap Patel, Anthony J. Tata and Ezra Cohen-Watnick -- three aides whose promotions were announced in a Pentagon statement Tuesday -- are viewed as highly ideological Trump foot soldiers. Patel has a long history of trying to discredit the investigations into Russian interference, Tata's nomination was withdrawn over the summer in part because he had called President Barack Obama a "terrorist leader," and Cohen-Watnick was quietly eased out of the National Security Council in 2017 after clashes with Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, then the national security adviser.The three are not believed to have the stature to bully Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, the head of the military's Central Command, into initiating operations, whether overt or secret, against Iran or other adversaries during the final days of Trump's presidency.And a senior official close to Christopher C. Miller, the new acting defense secretary appointed Monday, said that it was clear from Miller's meetings with Trump that the president has deep reluctance in launching offensive military operations as his time in office nears an end. That is not what his political base seeks, and it runs counter to Trump's calls to get troops out of so-called forever wars in places like Afghanistan and Iraq.During a meeting at the White House, Trump's message to Miller, the official said, was to do nothing new or provocative.When jobs open in the last days of an administration, they are usually filled by deputies, whose only charge is to keep the wheels of government turning at least until Inauguration Day.It was a sign of the changed atmosphere that when James H. Anderson, an expert on military strategy and missile defense, left the Pentagon after being fired from the No. 3 position -- acting under secretary for policy -- he was "clapped out," or applauded by officials lining the halls. A report on Twitter by William Kristol, the conservative commentator who has opposed Trump, said the White House sought the "names of any political appointees who joined in so they could be fired."It is possible, some officials say, that what is happening is no more than resume padding, allowing some of Trump's loyalists to claim they held top posts, albeit briefly, or to cement some policy changes before Biden can take office and seek to reverse them.Several current and former Pentagon and administration officials expressed concern that the shake-up could usher in a period of instability and possibly even overseas adventurism. But others offered a more prosaic interpretation of some of the events this week."I'm only 2-on-a-scale-of-10 concerned," said Kori Schake, who directs foreign and military policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and served in the Pentagon under President George W. Bush. "It looks like the last gasp of vengefulness and cronyism from an administration that has always preferred unctuousness to qualifications."In his final weeks as president, Trump faces a series of decisions that could shape his legacy in national security. He must decide whether to leave Iran with far more nuclear material than it possessed when he entered office, a direct result of his decision to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal that Biden has said he would seek to rejoin. Similarly, Trump confronts the likelihood that he will leave his successor with a North Korea armed with more nuclear weapons than it had before multiple summit meetings with the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, and a China that is more expansionist, and more dismissive of legal constraints, than ever before.Iran could also test the departing president. But if there are provocations, Miller, the new acting defense secretary, best knows one response: counterterrorism strikes. Miller, a career Army Special Forces officer who held counterterrorism staff jobs on the National Security Council and at the Pentagon this year before Trump tapped him to lead the National Counterterrorism Center in August, is facing a daunting challenge in assuming the helm of the Pentagon for which he has little training or experience at such a tumultuous moment.Friends and colleagues say Miller is not an ideologue, but rather a career soldier and creative, unconventional thinker who impressed Trump and top White House officials with his deft handling of a portfolio at the National Security Council that centered on counterterrorism and hostage issues. On Miller's watch at the council, a U.S. commando raid in October 2019 in northwestern Syria killed the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.After a brief afternoon at the Pentagon following his appointment Monday, Miller spent Tuesday in meetings, including a weekly coronavirus update teleconference with the military's combatant commanders around the globe. He also met with service secretaries and received several briefings. On Wednesday, Veterans Day, Miller gave his first speech as acting secretary at the opening of a new Army museum.Pentagon officials point to one source of continuity, saying that, for now, Milley's job as chairman seems secure, despite his public apology after joining Trump in walking across Lafayette Square in June during the protests in Washington.Aides have told Trump that he would face stiff resistance from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress to firing Milley, who is in the middle of a four-year term as the military's top officer. After the dismissal of Mark T. Esper as defense secretary on Monday, Milley convened the Joint Chiefs and gave them a steady-as-she goes message. He did the same on a conference call later with the combatant commanders.It is not impossible that the shake-up of Pentagon personnel could presage some volatile and dangerous period, to include even overt or covert operations against adversaries like Iran. But the push for any attack against Iran, for instance, would seem to need the heft of much more seasoned Cabinet officers, such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.It is possible, however, that Israel could see the next 70 days as a window to conduct significant attacks to set back Iran's nuclear program. It is widely believed to have been responsible for an explosion in July at an advanced centrifuge facility.Any more significant strikes would presumably require a provocation, though the news that Iran now has enough material to produce about two weapons might be enough.Rocket attacks by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq against bases where U.S. troops are situated have quieted in recent weeks, partly as Iraqi officials crack down in response to Pompeo's threat to close the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, and partly because some power brokers in Iran want to give negotiations with the new Biden administration a chance."I'd be astonished if the DOD firings were laying the predicate for military action, because there just isn't time remaining in his term to get U.S. personnel out of theater," Schake said. "And there's the formidable bulwark of the American military, which would have concerns and surely consult the other civilian control, the Congress."John Gans, a former chief Pentagon speechwriter and author of "White House Warriors," a history of the National Security Council, said Patel, Cohen-Watnick and Ellis were all veterans of what he called the Trump's administration's "war on government."The Pentagon, more than other departments, has resisted Trump's directives, slowing the withdrawal of troops from Syria and Afghanistan, a breach that led to the resignation of Jim Mattis as defense secretary."The three men have risen, in good measure because they were successful at pushing back against the bureaucracy," Gans said. "These are the people who go in and do whatever they think is required to achieve his agenda," he said. "They are true soldiers in the war on government, the war on what Trump calls the deep state."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Women, Islamists suffer setbacks in election in Jordan Posted: 12 Nov 2020 04:52 AM PST |
| UPDATE -- Forestry, Conservation and Environmental CEOs Establish Common Ground on the Role of Private Working Forests as a Natural Climate Solution Posted: 12 Nov 2020 04:46 AM PST |
| Iran arrests separatist leader accused of attack killing 25 Posted: 12 Nov 2020 04:32 AM PST |
| Who is Lee Cain, and what does his resignation mean for Dominic Cummings and Downing Street? Posted: 12 Nov 2020 04:26 AM PST  Boris Johnson has lost his chief spin doctor after a power struggle in Downing Street. Until now, the cracks that have been spreading through Team Johnson in the wake of the coronavirus crisis have been largely kept under wraps. This latest row has laid bare the tensions at the heart of Mr Johnson's fledgling administration. Here are some of the key questions around the turmoil in Number 10. What has happened? Lee Cain is quitting the Number 10 operation, where he had been Mr Johnson's director of communications, although he will remain in post until the end of the year. He had been offered a promotion to become the Prime Minister's chief of staff, but a leak of that news prompted a backlash within the Tory ranks - reportedly including Mr Johnson's fiancee Carrie Symonds - which effectively forced Mr Cain out. Why is Lee Cain controversial? Along with Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson's senior adviser, Mr Cain was one of the key players in the Vote Leave campaign for Brexit who were brought into Government by the Prime Minister. He fought a divisive battle with the press which culminated in a walkout by senior members of the lobby - the reporters covering Westminster - after journalists from some outlets were banned from a briefing on UK-EU trade talks. The coronavirus crisis has also seen a series of communications missteps, with information leaked out or selectively briefed before being formally announced. What about other Downing Street figures? Mr Cummings was reportedly considering his position after Mr Cain quit. The position of Lord Frost, the Prime Minister's Europe adviser, was also reported to be uncertain, although he too appears to be staying. Mr Cummings is at "the beginning of the end" of his time in Downing Street, sources said on Thursday night. The Prime Minister's chief adviser signalled he could be gone by Christmas as he said his plan had always been to make himself "largely redundant" by the end of the year. Mr Cummings was left hugely weakened after Mr Johnson effectively called his bluff over the resignation of Mr Cain as director of communications. Mr Cummings had allegedly threatened to walk out immediately if Mr Cain was allowed to go, and had said up to half a dozen staff would follow him, but he failed to carry out the threat leaving him diminished after the bruising civil war. Asked about rumours he would be gone by Christmas, Mr Cummings told the BBC: "My position hasn't changed since my January blog," when he wrote that he intended to make improvements to the Downing Street operation that would mean he was no longer needed by the end of 2020.
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| Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: UN warns aid could run out Posted: 12 Nov 2020 04:19 AM PST  Flour and fuel shortages are reported in Tigray, where federal and regional forces are fighting.
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| Iran passes grim milestone of 40,000 deaths from coronavirus Posted: 12 Nov 2020 04:15 AM PST  Iran on Thursday passed the grim milestone of 40,000 coronavirus deaths, with the latest 10,000 added in less than a month, as the country struggles to contain its most widespread wave of infection yet. Nearly half of Iran's coronavirus deaths are recorded in the capital of Tehran, according to health officials, where medical workers have warned that the health system may soon be overwhelmed and demanded a strict month-long lockdown in all provincial capitals to slow the virus' spread. The Trump administration reimposed sanctions in 2018 after withdrawing from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers.
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| US envoy insists pressure on Iran will persist under Biden Posted: 12 Nov 2020 04:06 AM PST  The U.S. special representative for Iran insisted Thursday that a pressure campaign of sanctions targeting Iran would persist into the administration of Joe Biden, even as the president-elect has pledged to potentially return America to Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. Elliott Abrams, who also serves as the U.S. special representative to Venezuela, said sanctions targeting Iran for human rights violations, its ballistic missile program and its regional influence would go on. Iran now has far more uranium than allowed under the deal since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018.
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