| Ethiopia Tigray crisis: Rockets hit outskirts of Eritrea capital Posted: 14 Nov 2020 06:07 PM PST  An internal conflict over Ethiopia's Tigray region is spreading, with thousands of civilians fleeing.
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| US, Israel worked together to track and kill al-Qaida No. 2 Posted: 14 Nov 2020 06:00 PM PST  The United States and Israel worked together to track and kill a senior al-Qaida operative in Iran earlier this year, a bold intelligence operation by the two allied nations that came as the Trump administration was ramping up pressure on Tehran. Four current and former U.S. officials said Abu Mohammed al-Masri, al-Qaida's No. 2, was killed by assassins in the Iranian capital in August. The U.S. provided intelligence to the Israelis on where they could find al-Masri and the alias he was using at the time, while Israeli agents carried out the killing, according to two of the officials.
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| Nigeria Sars protest: Army chief denies firing live bullets at protesters in Lagos Posted: 14 Nov 2020 05:57 PM PST  Multiple eyewitnesses say they saw soldiers shoot and kill unarmed anti-police brutality protesters.
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| Letter from Africa: Culture clash over Nigeria's rival alphabets Posted: 14 Nov 2020 05:11 PM PST  A court case of the use of Arabic script on the local currency reveals deep cultural and religious divides.
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| Judge: DHS head didn't have authority to suspend DACA Posted: 14 Nov 2020 04:50 PM PST  A federal judge in New York ruled Saturday that Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf assumed his position unlawfully, a determination that invalidated Wolf's suspension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which shields young people from deportation. "DHS failed to follow the order of succession as it was lawfully designated," U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis wrote. "Therefore, the actions taken by purported Acting Secretaries, who were not properly in their roles according to the lawful order of succession, were taken without legal authority."
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| Joe Biden administration: president-elect assembles a diverse cabinet Posted: 14 Nov 2020 01:50 PM PST  Susan Rice is being considered for secretary of state and Michele Flournoy is reportedly top choice for defence secretaryJoe Biden is piecing together what he has promised to be a diverse cabinet, with Michele Flournoy reportedly top choice for US defence secretary and Susan Rice considered a frontrunner for secretary of state.Flournoy was previously a senior defense adviser in Bill Clinton and Barack Obama's administrations and is considered a political moderate. Since leaving government she has been involved in various consultancy roles around military contracts.The appointment, if confirmed by the US Senate, would end a tumultuous period under Donald Trump, who has had five male defense secretaries during his presidency. The latest, Mark Esper, was unceremoniously fired on Monday for, among other issues, disagreeing with the president over the use of force against civilian protesters.If she did become America's first female defense secretary, Flournoy would potentially be faced with the task of deploying the military to distribute a Covid-19 vaccine. It's likely she would seek to rebuild the US' international reputation, telling a conference in March that "it's going to take a lot of work over a number of years to recover that trust and that standing".Biden, who has vowed "to be a president for all Americans", will face a challenge getting his cabinet picks past a Republican-held Senate if, as expected, the party retains control of the chamber following two special elections in Georgia in January. If he does offer up political moderates and even Republicans for roles, he risks stirring anger among the progressive Democratic wing.Rice, who served as national security adviser and ambassador to the United Nations in the Obama administration, is seen as a safe pick for the state department, although some Republicans may object to her over what they consider misleading statements over the 2012 attack on a US consulate in Libya which killed four Americans.Questioned while on a bicycle ride on Saturday, Biden confirmed that he was getting closer to picking a cabinet that will face steep challenges once the president-elect enters the White House on 20 January.A largely uncontrolled spread of Covid-19 is tearing across the country, with a record number of daily cases recorded on Friday. A Biden administration will have to somehow tame the pandemic while crafting a response to the economic fallout that has cost millions of jobs, likely in the face of Republican opposition in the senate.Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana who became an effective campaigner for Biden after he dropped his own presidential ambitions, could be in line for a job, perhaps as ambassador to the United Nations.Lael Brainard, a governor at the Federal Reserve and another political moderate, is favorite to be named as treasury secretary, while Doug Jones, recently defeated as Senator from Alabama, or Sally Yates, acting attorney general under Trump before being fired, could be put forward as attorney general.
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| Nobel UN food agency warns 2021 will be worse than 2020 Posted: 14 Nov 2020 12:34 PM PST  The head of the World Food Program says the Nobel Peace Prize has given the U.N. agency a spotlight and megaphone to warn world leaders that next year is going to be worse than this year, and without billions of dollars "we are going to have famines of biblical proportions in 2021." David Beasley said in an interview with The Associated Press that the Norwegian Nobel Committee was looking at the work the agency does every day in conflicts, disasters and refugee camps, often putting staffers' lives at risk to feed millions of hungry people -- but also to send "a message to the world that it's getting worse out there ... (and) that our hardest work is yet to come." "It was so timely because we've been fighting to get above the choir," Beasley said of last month's award, pointing to the news being dominated by the U.S. elections and the COVID-19 pandemic, and the difficulty of getting global attention focused on "the travesty that we're facing around the world."
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| Downing Street slams 'vicious and cowardly' attacks on Carrie Symonds Posted: 14 Nov 2020 12:03 PM PST  Downing Street sources have condemned "vicious and cowardly" attacks on Carrie Symonds, the Prime Minister's fiancee, over a series of toxic briefings and counter-briefings that have rocked No 10. Senior insiders claimed that Ms Symonds, a former Tory adviser, was becoming too involved with the workings of No 10, with the 32-year-old perceived as seeking to "run the Government by WhatsApp" from the Prime Minister's official residence. A senior No 10 source described the claims as "cowardly, vicious, and designed to wound her". The claims came as sources also alleged that many Downing Street staff now believe Mr Johnson will have quit before the next election, with one senior insider stating: "Most don't think he'll be there a year from now." The war of words followed the departure of Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister's chief aide, and Lee Cain, his communications director, from No 10, following a bitter power struggle with Ms Symonds, who urged the Prime Minister to oust them. On Saturday evening, one senior insider claimed that Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister and Mr Johnson's former Tory leadership rival, saw the chaos "as an opportunity to get Boris out", adding: "He thinks he still has another go at becoming PM." A Government source dismissed the claim as "complete rubbish". The dramatic claims came as: Mr Johnson prepared to embark on a major effort to repair relations with disaffected backbenchers, including with invitations for MPs to join Downing Street policy task forces, and plans for the Prime Minister to spend more time with parliamentarians in the Commons tea room and No 10 Allegra Stratton, Mr Johnson's new chief spokesman, insisted to the Telegraph that she was a "Johnson Tory" and voted for Brexit, after doubt was cast on her Conservative credentials, and it emerged that she had once considered a job offer by David Miliband, the then Labour foreign secretary The Prime Minister was facing a growing revolt over Covid-19 restrictions, with more than 30 MPs who supported the current lockdown joining the new Covid Recovery Group, which opposes an extension of the measures It emerged that Downing Street has postponed a decision on whether to decriminalise non-payment of the television licence fee over fears the move would lead to elderly people being hounded by bailiffs Mr Johnson is understood to be furious at briefings against Ms Symonds, who has been the subject of newspaper reports that she is referred to by Cummings loyalists as "Princess nut nuts", among other nicknames. A senior No 10 source admitted that Ms Symonds made her views clear to the Prime Minister about "his office" and "his team", which included opposing Mr Cain's appointment as chief of staff, "because she has views about the kind of man she knows he is". But the source insisted: "She wouldn't seek to think that she had more expertise than the official advice he just been given." However, a senior insider claimed that Ms Symonds appeared "determined" to play a significant role in the workings of Government, "and that's the heart of the problem." The source said she clearly had strong views about "wholesale change at No 10", adding that the former Tory communications director is perceived as "wanting to run the government by WhatsApp from the flat". The senior insider claimed: "There is a set of meetings, decisions are taken, then the PM goes upstairs to the flat, then from 9pm WhatsApp messages start to arrive with him changing his mind." The source added: "No decision is ever final." Insiders allege that Ms Symonds has been responsible for a series of government U-turns. But a Downing Street source said: "These claims are laughable." Another No 10 source compared Ms Symonds's involvement in government work to the relationship between Theresa May and her husband Sir Philip, while the pair were in No 10. "If she would be making big decisions, she would go and have a chat with Philip ... It's a good thing, it's not surprising, and she's very good at this stuff." The source added that attacks on Ms Symonds were "cowardly" because "she is the Prime Minister's spouse so she must keep herself to herself". But another source said Ms Symonds used the No 11 flat "as a sort of private office". Meanwhile, the senior insider predicted that Rishi Sunak would be Prime Minister within six months, as they claimed of Mr Johnson: "Nobody in No 10 thinks he'll be there in 2024, most don't think he'll be there a year from now." Tensions between Mr Johnson and his Chancellor are also alleged to be growing over the Prime Minister's spending demands. A No 10 source insisted: "No one in their right mind is thinking about elections. The Prime Minister's focus is on fighting coronavirus and protecting jobs." This week, after installing Lord Udny-Lister, No 10's chief strategic adviser, as interim chief of staff, Mr Johnson will seek to bring disaffected MPs "back into the fold", including with invitations to join Downing Street taskforces on the union and the Conservatives' policy agenda to "level up" the country. No 10 is also planning to revive the Downing Street policy board, which operated under previous prime ministers, with Neil O'Brien, an influential backbencher, touted as a possible chairman. Separately Ms Stratton and Munira Mirza, the head of Mr Johnson's policy unit, will meet MPs to "listen to their concerns and ideas", a No 10 source said. This week the Prime Minister will seek to return to his domestic policy agenda with a major speech on climate change. Meanwhile, Mr Johnson is understood to have been privately reassuring anxious Brexiteers that they will not be "sold out" in negotiations over a trade deal with the EU.
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| Thousands attend weekly protest against Israel's Netanyahu Posted: 14 Nov 2020 11:17 AM PST  Several thousand protesters gathered outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's official residence in Jerusalem on Saturday night in what has become a weekly demonstration calling for the Israeli leader to resign. The protesters have been demonstrating for some five months, saying Netanyahu is unfit to lead while he is on trial for corruption charges and because of his handling of the coronavirus crisis. The pandemic has hit Israel's economy hard, and many of the protesters are students and young Israelis who have lost their jobs.
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| Romania: Fire in COVID-19 intensive care unit kills 10 Posted: 14 Nov 2020 10:41 AM PST  A fire at a hospital treating COVID-19 patients in northeastern Romania killed 10 people Saturday and injured 10 others, seven of them critically, officials said. Prosecutors quickly opened a criminal investigation. The blaze spread through the intensive care ward designated for COVID-19 patients at the public hospital in the city of Piatra Neamt, local Emergency Situations Inspectorate spokesperson Irina Popa said.
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| Egypt, Sudan launch joint military exercises Posted: 14 Nov 2020 10:13 AM PST |
| Meet the Pro-Western Woman Taking on Putin’s Mini-Me in Moldova’s Era-Defining Election Posted: 14 Nov 2020 09:53 AM PST  MOSCOW—Female leaders often face brutal treatment in post-Soviet states. It takes real courage to run for president against an autocrat, especially one supported by Vladimir Putin. All of this highlights the achievement of Maia Sandu, a Harvard grad and pro-Western democrat, who has beaten her competitor, Igor Dodon, the incumbent president of Moldova, in the first round of the country's presidential election.Sandu not only won in spite of Putin's open support and "good luck" wishes for her opponent. She has taken a surprise lead over Dodon in the first round and now, experts say, she has a high chance to win the second round of the presidential election on Sunday. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, Sandu said Dodon had launched a filthy disinformation campaign against her with constant "bombardment of fake news." She said she was disappointed in her opponent's leadership, and his lack of reform and corruption fighting. Dodon has "inherited" a corrupt state system from a wealthy man long seen as the puppeteer of Moldova's politics, Vladimir Plahotniuc, who was forced into exile, she added.By Pushing Out Filthy Rich Vladimir Plahotniuc, Moldova Takes the Lead in Ending the Era of the OligarchsMoldova convicted Plahotniuc for massive bank fraud and is seeking his extradition from Turkey. Last year, when she was prime minister, Sandu created a coalition with President Dodon in hopes of reforming the prosecutor general's office and the court system."Dodon made a big mistake by dismissing our reform-oriented government; Dodon knows that people are aware of his own corruption," she told The Daily Beast.It wasn't Sandu's first victory. The diminutive 48-year-old has huge ambitions to clean up her county of 3.2 million people. Working first as the country's minister of education and then as the prime minister, Sandu pushed for reforms, which takes courage in Moldova, as in other former Soviet states. An ineffective and corrupt elite still gripped power. "It is time for good people," her slogan says.Every time she fell and had to rise again, Sandu looked and sounded stronger. "We have gone a long way, we got rid of the thuggish oligarch Plahotniuc, it was a tough struggle, but we managed, and now we have to get rid of Dodon, although some people might feel the fatigue, fighting again and again," she told The Daily Beast."We have a huge challenge to create a clean, transparent, honest political class, so all political parties finance themselves in a transparent, legal way and not with huge money stolen from the state or taken forcefully from businesses. That is the situation now and that is not a fair competition."In September, Sandu's opponents started producing dozens of YouTube videos and distributing flyers claiming she had promised to quit Moldova's partnership with Russia, close Russian language schools and establish a NATO military base on the territory of Moldova. Her opponents claimed she would order a full lockdown for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, which would be catastrophic for Moldovan small businesses.As Elections Approach, Moldova's President Tries to Prove He's Putin's Mini-Me No MoreBut Sandu said none of those claims have ever been addressed in her presidential program. "Our people hear too many of Dodon's lies," she said. "We plan to improve our partnership with Russia; we have never mentioned any NATO bases, since only 20 percent of [the] Moldovan population are in favor of joining NATO." She has never mentioned ending Moldova's partnership with Russia.The old way to keep power is to terrify the population and what could be the bigger fear for Moldova than losing Moscow's support? That's the logic the creators of the disinformation campaign are tapping into."Igor Dodon has always been bragging about his good relations with Moscow, but he has failed to satisfy Moscow's expectations," Sandu said. "His promises included the renouncing of our association agreement, as well as the trade agreement with the European Union and closing the NATO office in Moldova—he created too many expectations, so now even Russia does not seem to believe him."Independent experts believe Sandu has solid chances to win on Sunday. Vladimir Solovyev, a long-time Moldova observer and founder of independent news outlet NewsMaker.md, said that the Kremlin made a mistake by pinning all their hopes on one politician, Dodon. "People could see that while [the] European Union worked on real politics in Moldova, Moscow counted on just one politician," Solovyev told The Daily Beast on Saturday. "Dodon's failure would be associated directly with Putin."Solovyev added that nobody in Moldova is surprised to see fake news about Sandu. "Dodon has been trying to criticize her for being a single woman without children for years, there is nothing new. I expect her to win this election."On the eve of the Election Day, a Moldovan court decided to ban Dodon's fliers, since they contained "defamatory information" about Sandu. That was one more little victory for the pro-European candidate.Sandu feels strong about her chances. And she already has a plan for her first meeting with the Russian leader. "We need to ensure proper conditions for Moldovan people working in Russia, we need to discuss export programs, the Transnistria conflict and the withdrawal of Russian soldiers from the territory of Moldova," she said.Russian schools will not be closing, she insisted, adding that she was determined to protect them. "We need to stabilize the number of students—one third of the population have left the country in the last four years, including more than 140,000 young people." She said that this drain is "tragic" for a population of 3.2 million.At least 2000 people have fallen victim to COVID-19 in this small country, and Sandu said it's unfair for her opponents to put the fault on her shoulders. "Dodon was in power during the pandemic. Instead of answering the question, 'Why have [they] not been able to tackle the pandemic?' they blame me, while I had no public position during this time," she said. "The fake news scare people, that I would close schools, hospitals and even churches, while Dodon has nothing good to report of his work... He knows people know that he is corrupt."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Thousands rally behind Trump, insisting he won race he lost Posted: 14 Nov 2020 09:45 AM PST  Fervent supporters of President Donald Trump rallied in Washington on Saturday behind his spurious claim of a stolen election and swarmed his motorcade in adulation when he detoured for a drive-by on his way out of town. Hours later, after night fell in the nation's capital, demonstrators favoring Trump and counterprotesters clashed in the streets, videos posted on social media showing fistfights, projectiles and clubs. A week after Democrat Joe Biden was declared the winner of the election, demonstrations in support of Trump took place in other cities.
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| 'I’m a Johnson Tory and voted for Brexit' insists new face of No 10 Posted: 14 Nov 2020 09:00 AM PST  The Prime Minister's new chief spokesman has insisted she is a "Johnson Tory" and voted for Brexit, after doubt was cast on her Conservative credentials. Allegra Stratton admitted to The Telegraph that she had previously voted for Labour and the Green Party and had once considered a job offer from David Miliband, the then Labour foreign secretary. However, she said she had supported the UK's exit from the EU and accepted Boris Johnson's job offer because she regards him as "one of the most talented politicians in the country". Mr Johnson appointed Ms Stratton, a former broadcast and newspaper journalist, as his new press secretary, to lead televised US-style press conferences on behalf of No 10. The move, which was opposed by Lee Cain, his communications director, set in train a toxic clash that led to Mr Cain and Dominic Cummings's (see video below) departures from Downing Street. Insiders claimed that Ellie Price, a BBC journalist, emerged as easily the best candidate in an audition process overseen by Mr Cain, Mr Cummings, No 10 officials and Isaac Levido, the Tory strategist, who led focus groups to gauge public opinion on both women.
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| Army identifies 5 Americans killed in Egypt helicopter crash Posted: 14 Nov 2020 08:24 AM PST |
| The Tories needed Dominic Cummings's drive and discipline, even if they don't admit it Posted: 14 Nov 2020 08:20 AM PST  Within months of quitting as the Conservative Party's director of strategy in September 2002, Dominic Cummings penned an excoriating public critique of his former employer, in The Telegraph. Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the then leader of the Opposition, was, according to the 31-year-old Mr Cummings, "incompetent, would be a worse prime minister than Tony Blair, and must be replaced". Gratifyingly for Sir Iain, Mr Cummings judged him to be the "symptom rather than cause", of "a party desperately short of the political essentials: understanding, talent, will and adaptation". Some 17 years later, Sir Iain might be forgiven for celebrating Mr Cummings' third departure from the upper echelons of his party in as many years, this time with Boris Johnson at its helm. The former Tory leader grudgingly accepted some of the qualities associated with Mr Cummings, but added: "Intellectual brilliance isn't enough, it needs to be tempered by experience as well." Many Brexiteer MPs dislike Mr Cummings (and the feeling is mutual) as a result of his abrasive leadership of the Vote Leave campaign, which went on to win the 2016 Brexit referendum. Like Sir Iain, such figures generally acknowledge the qualities that helped Mr Cummings to steer the campaign to victory, but say that the Prime Minister's adviser was always ill-suited to his No 10 role and destined for a dramatic fall. Yet some observers went even further last week, claiming that Mr Cummings has left little to no imprint on the political landscape, despite two decades spent on campaigns and strategy. James Frayne, who began a long association with Mr Cummings when he took a job at as policy researcher at Business for Sterling, the anti-euro campaign, said: "Those people laughing that Cummings supposedly couldn't hack it in a Tory Government won't realise he'll spend the weekend drinking martinis and laughing at how much he managed to achieve in two decades in dysfunctional Tory world." Formidable campaigner Born in Durham in 1971, to an oil rig project manager and a special educational needs teacher, Mr Cummings went to Durham School before studying at Exeter College, Oxford from 1991. He began to establish himself as a formidable campaigner while director of Business for Sterling from 1999, honing the style that became as divisive as it was successful. Ultimately, Tony Blair decided against joining the single currency, following fierce opposition from Gordon Brown. "I think it's rubbish to say we would have joined the euro without Business for Sterling," said another former colleague. "But what it did was to show how a professional Eurosceptic group could be formed and one that would appeal to the mainstream, with senior business figures feeling comfortable being part of it. That was important."
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| Britain's Supreme Court faces overhaul over concerns US-style election controversies may become routine Posted: 14 Nov 2020 07:50 AM PST  Britain's Supreme Court is facing an overhaul that could see it renamed over concerns that US-style controversies may become routine in the UK, The Telegraph can disclose. Ministers are understood to be discussing plans to change the name of the court, cut the number of permanent judges and bring in those with "specialist" knowledge to hear individual cases. The proposals are based on concerns that Tony Blair "botched" the reforms that introduced the body, leaving it increasingly under pressure to "settle political arguments". The court, which was introduced by Mr Blair and Lord Falconer, the then Lord Chancellor, in 2005, drew the ire of senior Conservatives last year after ruling that Boris Johnson's prorogation of Parliament during a stand-off over Brexit was unlawful. At the time, the Prime Minister said he "strongly disagreed" with the judgment, and ministers believe judges "overstepped" the jurisdiction of the court in its ruling. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, privately accused the Supreme Court judges of a "constitutional coup".
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| With Dominic Cummings gone, here's how the Government can reboot itself Posted: 14 Nov 2020 07:20 AM PST  The light at the end of the tunnel is getting nearer. With the first coronavirus vaccines performing better than expected, there is a new sense of optimism allowing us to start cautiously looking forward to life slowly returning to normal. EU trade deal talks will come to a conclusion one way or another by the end of the year too. So next year we'll turn the page, and for the first time in ages, the news won't just be about Brexit or coronavirus. How should the Government reboot itself for this new era? I think there's three things we must do. The economy will be behind where we hoped it would be before coronavirus. So our first priority must be doing everything we can to get growth going and unemployment down. That means questioning everything across Government: is the tax system doing everything it can to encourage investment and innovation? Are regulations governing insurance firms and pensions holding back productive investments? How do we change government spending in ways that support business growth – for example, supporting business R&D;? Second, we must get ready for a new fight to save Britain. The Scottish Parliament elections on May 6 are crucial. Despite the fact that we're in the middle of a pandemic, the SNP is gearing up to demand for another referendum immediately afterwards. Breaking up Britain would mean years of paralysis as we argued over currencies, pensions, debts, and state assets. Every part of the UK would suffer. But the SNP is preparing to go into overdrive after May. So if we don't want this nightmare to become a reality, an equally strong campaign will be needed to fight back. That means the whole of Government needs to be swung behind a coordinated campaign to win hearts and minds and show the benefits of working together. Having the massive UN climate change conference in Glasgow next year is one nice demonstration. But more is needed and the various forces resisting the SNP will need to start coordinating too to fight the SNP's ruthless use of the Scottish government machine.
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| 10 things you need to know today: November 14, 2020 Posted: 14 Nov 2020 07:11 AM PST |
| Al-Qaida's No. 2, Accused in U.S. Embassy Attacks, Is Secretly Killed in Iran Posted: 14 Nov 2020 07:10 AM PST  WASHINGTON -- Al-Qaida's second-highest leader, accused of being one of the masterminds of the deadly 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa, was killed in Iran three months ago, intelligence officials have confirmed.Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, who went by the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was gunned down on the streets of Tehran by two assassins on a motorcycle on Aug. 7, the anniversary of the embassy attacks. He was killed along with his daughter, Miriam, the widow of Osama bin Laden's son Hamza bin Laden.The attack was carried out by Israeli operatives at the behest of the United States, according to four of the officials. It is unclear what role if any was played by the United States, which had been tracking the movements of al-Masri and other Qaida operatives in Iran for years.Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York TimesThe killing occurred in such a netherworld of geopolitical intrigue and counterterrorism spycraft that al-Masri's death had been rumored but never confirmed until now. For reasons that are still obscure, al-Qaida has not announced the death of one of its top leaders, Iranian officials covered it up, and no country has publicly claimed responsibility for it.Al-Masri, who was about 58, was one of al-Qaida's founding leaders and was thought to be first in line to lead the organization after its current leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.Long featured on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list, he had been indicted in the United States for crimes related to the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people and wounded hundreds. The FBI offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture, and as of Friday, his picture was still on the Most Wanted list.That he had been living in Iran was surprising, given that Iran and al-Qaida are bitter enemies. Iran, a Shiite Muslim theocracy, and al-Qaida, a Sunni Muslim jihadi group, have fought each other on the battlefields of Iraq and other places.American intelligence officials say that al-Masri had been in Iran's "custody" since 2003, but that he had been living freely in the Pasdaran district of Tehran, an upscale suburb, since at least 2015.Around 9 on a warm summer night, he was driving his white Renault L90 sedan with his daughter near his home when two gunmen on a motorcycle drew up beside him. Five shots were fired from a pistol fitted with a silencer. Four bullets entered the car through the driver's side and a fifth hit a nearby car.As news of the shooting broke, Iran's official news media identified the victims as Habib Daoud, a Lebanese history professor, and his 27-year-old daughter Maryam. The Lebanese news channel MTV and social media accounts affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard reported that Daoud was a member of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant organization in Lebanon.It seemed plausible.The killing came amid a summer of frequent explosions in Iran, mounting tensions with the United States, days after an enormous explosion in the port of Beirut and a week before the U.N. Security Council was to consider extending an arms embargo against Iran. There was speculation that the killing may have been a Western provocation intended to elicit a violent Iranian reaction in advance of the Security Council vote.And the targeted killing by two gunmen on a motorcycle fit the modus operandi of previous Israeli assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists. That Israel would kill an official of Hezbollah, which is committed to fighting Israel, also seemed to make sense, except for the fact that Israel had been consciously avoiding killing Hezbollah operatives so as not to provoke a war.In fact, there was no Habib Daoud.Several Lebanese with close ties to Iran said they had not heard of him or his killing. A search of Lebanese news media found no reports of a Lebanese history professor killed in Iran last summer. And an education researcher with access to lists of all history professors in the country said there was no record of a Habib Daoud.One of the intelligence officials said that Habib Daoud was an alias Iranian officials gave al-Masri and the history teaching job was a cover story. In October, the former leader of Egypt's Islamic Jihad, Nabil Naeem, who called al-Masri a longtime friend, told the Saudi news channel Al-Arabiya the same thing.Iran may have had good reason for wanting to hide the fact that it was harboring an avowed enemy, but it was less clear why Iranian officials would have taken in the Qaida leader to begin with.Some terrorism experts suggested that keeping Qaida officials in Tehran might provide some insurance that the group would not conduct operations inside Iran. American counterterrorism officials believe Iran may have allowed them to stay to run operations against the United States, a common adversary.It would not be the first time that Iran had joined forces with Sunni militants, having supported Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Taliban."Iran uses sectarianism as a cudgel when it suits the regime, but is also willing to overlook the Sunni-Shia divide when it suits Iranian interests," said Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Center.Iran has consistently denied housing the Qaida officials. In 2018, the Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said that because of Iran's long, porous border with Afghanistan, some Qaida members had entered Iran, but they had been detained and returned to their home countries.However, Western intelligence officials said the Qaida leaders had been kept under house arrest by the Iranian government, which then made at least two deals with al-Qaida to free some of them in 2011 and 2015.Although al-Qaida has been overshadowed in recent years by the rise of the Islamic State, it remains resilient and has active affiliates around the globe, a U.N. counterterrorism report issued in July concluded.Iranian officials did not respond to a request for comment for this article. Spokesmen for the Israeli prime minister's office and the Trump administration's National Security Council declined to comment.Al-Masri was a longtime member of al-Qaida's highly secretive management council, along with Saif al-Adl, who was also held in Iran at one point. The pair, along with Hamza bin Laden, who was being groomed to take over the organization, were part of a group of senior Qaida leaders who sought refuge in Iran after the 9/11 attacks on the United States forced them to flee Afghanistan.According to a highly classified document produced by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center in 2008, al-Masri was the "most experienced and capable operational planner not in U.S. or allied custody." The document described him as the "former chief of training" who "worked closely" with al-Adl.In Iran, al-Masri mentored Hamza bin Laden, according to terrorism experts. Hamza bin Laden later married al-Masri's daughter, Miriam."The marriage of Hamza bin Ladin was not the only dynastic connection Abu Muhammad forged in captivity," Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent and Qaida expert, wrote in a 2019 article for West Point's Combating Terrorism Center.Another of al-Masri's daughters married Abu al-Khayr al-Masri, no relation, a member of the management council. He was allowed to leave Iran in 2015 and was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Syria in 2017. At the time, he was the second-ranking Qaida official after Zawahri.Hamza and other members of the bin Laden family were freed by Iran in 2011 in exchange for an Iranian diplomat abducted in Pakistan. Last year, the White House said Hamza bin Laden had been killed in a counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.Abu Muhammad al-Masri was born in Al Rarbiya district of northern Egypt in 1963. In his youth, according to affidavits filed in lawsuits in the United States, he was a professional soccer player in Egypt's top league. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, he joined the jihadi movement that was coalescing to assist the Afghan forces.After the Soviets withdrew 10 years later, Egypt refused to allow al-Masri to return. He remained in Afghanistan where he eventually joined bin Laden in the group that was later to become the founding nucleus of al-Qaida. He was listed by the group as the seventh of its 170 founders.In the early 1990s, he traveled with bin Laden to Khartoum, Sudan, where he began forming military cells. He also went to Somalia to help the militia loyal to Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. There he trained Somali guerrillas in the use of shoulder-borne rocket launchers against helicopters, training they used in the 1993 battle of Mogadishu to shoot down a pair of U.S. helicopters in what is now known as the Black Hawk Down attack."When al-Qaida began to carry out terrorist activities in the late 1990s, al-Masri was one of the three of bin Laden's closest associates, serving as head of the organization's operations section," said Yoram Schweitzer, head of the Terrorism Project of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. "He brought with him know-how and determination and since then was involved in a large part of the organization's operations, with an emphasis on Africa."Shortly after the Mogadishu battle, bin Laden put al-Masri in charge of planning operations against U.S. targets in Africa. Plotting a dramatic, ambitious operation that, like the 9/11 attacks, would command international attention, they decided to attack two relatively well-defended targets in separate countries simultaneously.Shortly after 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 7, 1998, two trucks packed with explosives pulled up in front of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The blasts incinerated people nearby, blew walls off buildings and shattered glass for blocks around.In 2000, al-Masri became one of the nine members of al-Qaida's governing council and headed the organization's military training.He also continued to oversee Africa operations, according to a former Israeli Intelligence official, and ordered the attack in Mombasa, Kenya, in 2002 that killed 13 Kenyans and three Israeli tourists.By 2003, al-Masri was among several Qaida leaders who fled to Iran which, although hostile to the group, seemed out of American reach."They believed the United States would find it very difficult to act against them there," Schweitzer said. "Also because they believed that the chances of the Iranian regime doing an exchange deal with the Americans that would include their heads were very slim."Al-Masri was one of the few high-ranking members of the organization to survive the American hunt for the perpetrators of 9/11 and other attacks. When he and other Qaida leaders fled to Iran, they were initially kept under house arrest.In 2015, Iran announced a deal with al-Qaida in which it released five of the organization's leaders, including al-Masri, in exchange for an Iranian diplomat who had been abducted in Yemen.Abdullah's footprints faded away, but according to one of the intelligence officials, he continued to live in Tehran, under the protection of the Revolutionary Guards and later the Ministry of Intelligence and Security. He was allowed to travel abroad and did, mainly to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria.Some American analysts said al-Masri's death would sever connections between one of the last original Qaida leaders and the current generation of Islamist militants, who have grown up after bin Laden's 2011 death."If true, this further cuts links between old-school al-Qaida and the modern jihad," said Nicholas J. Rasmussen, a former director of the National Counterterrorism Center. "It just further contributes to the fragmentation and decentralization of the al-Qaida movement."--TIMELINE1963Abu Muhammad al-Masri was born in northern Egypt, and grew up to play soccer in Egypt's top professional league. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, he joined the jihad movement there.1980sAfter the Soviets withdrew, Egypt refused to allow al-Masri to return. He remained in Afghanistan, and eventually joined Osama bin Laden in a group that was later to become the nucleus of al-Qaida.EARLY 1990sAl-Masri traveled with bin Laden to Khartoum, Sudan, where he began forming military cells. He also went to Somalia, where he helped train the fighters who fought U.S. troops in a battle popularly known as the Black Hawk Down attack.1998Al-Masri was one of the masterminds of the deadly attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.2000Al-Masri became one of the nine members of al-Qaida's governing council and was put in charge of the organization's military training activities.2002While overseeing African operations, he issued orders for the attacks in Mombasa, Kenya, that killed 15 people, according to a former Israeli Intelligence official.2003After the 9/11 attacks, al-Masri was among several Qaida leaders who fled to Iran. They were initially held under house arrest.2015Iran and al-Qaida announced a deal in which Iran released five of the organization's leaders, including al-Masri, from prison in exchange for an Iranian diplomat who had been abducted in Yemen.2020Al-Masri was secretly assassinated in Tehran at the behest of the U.S., officials said. But no one -- Iran, al-Qaida, the U.S. or Israel -- publicly acknowledged the killing.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Biden likely to break barriers, pick woman to lead Pentagon Posted: 14 Nov 2020 06:14 AM PST  President-elect Joe Biden is expected to take a historic step and select a woman to head the Pentagon for the first time, shattering one of the few remaining barriers to women in the department and the presidential Cabinet. Michele Flournoy, a politically moderate Pentagon veteran, is regarded by U.S. officials and political insiders as a top choice for the position. The most recent defense secretary to go was Mark Esper, who was fired by Trump on Monday after pushing back on issues including troop withdrawals and the use of the military to quell civilian unrest.
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| No longer mirror of US, Ohio's electoral bellwether quiets Posted: 14 Nov 2020 06:04 AM PST  As Ohio goes, so goes the nation. Biden becomes the first president elected without carrying Ohio since fellow Democrat John F. Kennedy in 1960. Trump's statewide victory — his second, after carrying Ohio in 2016 — brings an end to Ohio's role as a presidential bellwether and even puts its future as a battleground state in doubt.
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| Intelligence officials reportedly confirm al Qaeda's second-in-command killed in Iran Posted: 14 Nov 2020 05:56 AM PST  Intelligence officials have confirmed that Israeli operatives, at the behest of the United States, assassinated Abu Muhammad al-Masri, al Qaeda's second-highest leader, in Iran in August, The New York Times reports.Al Qaeda has not announced al-Masri's death, and Iran, which considers al Qaeda a bitter enemy, denies the claims he was killed in Tehran, warning media outlets not to fall for the "Hollywood script." It's unclear why Iran would have been harboring al-Masri, but the Times reports some terrorism experts have suggested keeping al Qaeda leaders in the country would provide some insurance that the group would not conduct operations within its borders, while American counterterrorism officials have theorized Iran may have allowed them to stay to carry out operations against the U.S, a common adversary. Regardless, the Shiite Muslim nation has been "willing to overlook the Sunni-Shia divide" before "when it suits Iranian interests," Colin Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Center, told the Times.Per the Times, al-Masri was driving his car with his 27-year-old daughter and Hamza bin Laden's widow, Miriam, when two gunmen drew up beside him on a motorcycle and fired five shots. At the time, Iran identified the victims as Habib Daoud, a Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese history professor, and his daughter, Maryam, but intelligence officials told the Times those were aliases provided by the Iranian government, and an education researcher with access to lists of all history professors in Iran told the Times there was no record of anyone by that name. One of al Qaeda's founding members, al-Masri was a mastermind behind the 1998 attacks on American embassies in multiple African countries and considered the likely successor to the groups's current leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri; experts believe his death, if true, "further cuts links between old-school al Qaeda and the modern Jihad." Read more at The New York Times and Al Jazeera.More stories from theweek.com 7 scathingly funny cartoons about Trump's refusal to concede Trump is reportedly 'very aware' he lost the election but is putting up a fight as 'theater' Texas senator suggests it's too soon to declare Biden the winner because Puerto Rico is still counting votes
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| Rockefeller Center Christmas tree goes up; lighting Dec. 2 Posted: 14 Nov 2020 05:52 AM PST  A 75-foot (23-meter) Norway spruce arrived Saturday at New York City's Rockefeller Center to serve as one of the world's most famous Christmas trees. The tree was trucked in early Saturday morning and later lifted into its spot by a crane. The tree was donated by Al Dick of Daddy Al's General Store in Oneonta, in central New York.
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| Trump putting democracy to the test after his loss to Biden Posted: 14 Nov 2020 05:30 AM PST  Winston Churchill was not known for leaving his thoughts unspoken. One of them was this: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried." President Donald Trump, who has professed admiration for, if not deep knowledge of, the British prime minister, is putting Churchill's observation to one of its greatest tests by refusing to accept the results of an election that delivered victory for Democrat Joe Biden.
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| AP FACT CHECK: Trump falsehoods on Biden win, vaccine myths Posted: 14 Nov 2020 05:10 AM PST  President Donald Trump rebelled this past week against Democrat Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election with denial, delay and outright misrepresentation. Trump raged about widespread cases of fake ballots that aren't so and undertook legal challenges that even state GOP election officials say can't overcome Biden's lead. As the coronavirus surged nationwide, Trump said little about public safety measures.
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| Lebanon begins two-week lockdown to limit spread of virus Posted: 14 Nov 2020 04:47 AM PST |
| Armenians torch their homes on land ceded to Azerbaijan Posted: 14 Nov 2020 04:32 AM PST  In a bitter farewell to his home of 21 years, Garo Dadevusyan wrenched off its metal roof and prepared to set the stone house on fire. Thick smoke poured from houses that his neighbors had already torched before fleeing this ethnic Armenian village about to come under Azerbaijani control. The village is to be turned over to Azerbaijan on Sunday as part of territorial concessions in an agreement to end six weeks of intense fighting with Armenian forces.
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| Egypt unveils ancient coffins, statues found in Saqqara Posted: 14 Nov 2020 04:17 AM PST  Egyptian antiquities officials on Saturday announced the discovery of at least 100 ancient coffins, some with mummies inside, and around 40 gilded statues in a vast Pharaonic necropolis south of Cairo. Colorful, sealed sarcophagi and statues that were buried more than 2,500 years ago were displayed in a makeshift exhibit at the feet of the famed Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. Archaeologists opened a coffin with a well-preserved mummy wrapped in cloth inside.
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| Diplomats: Rockets fired at Eritrea amid Ethiopian conflict Posted: 14 Nov 2020 03:37 AM PST  Rockets were fired at Eritrea's capital on Saturday, diplomats said, as the deadly fighting in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region appeared to spill across an international border and bring some of observers' worst fears to life. At least three rockets appeared to be aimed at the airport in Eritrea's capital, Asmara, hours after the Tigray regional government warned it might attack. It has accused Eritrea of attacking it at the invitation of Ethiopia's federal government since the conflict in northern Ethiopia erupted on Nov. 4.
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| Lebanese general was in Syria over missing American reporter Posted: 14 Nov 2020 03:17 AM PST  A top Lebanese security official said Saturday that he visited Syria for two days to speak with officials there about American journalist Austin Tice, who has been missing in the war-torn country since 2012. Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim did not give further details in an interview with the local Al-Jadeed television channel, but his comments came two weeks after his return from Washington where he is believed to have discussed Tice's case with U.S. officials. "After my visit to Washington, I went to Syria for two days and discussions over this matter are continuing and will continue," Ibrahim said, referring to Tice's disappearance.
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| Iran mocks Al-Qaeda No. 2 killed in Tehran report Posted: 14 Nov 2020 02:49 AM PST  Iran on Saturday dismissed a US newspaper report that Al-Qaeda's second-in-command was killed in Tehran by Israeli agents as "made-up information" and denied the presence of any of the Sunni jihadist group's members in the Islamic republic.
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| Europe's Populists Loved Trump, Now They Are Dropping Him Hard Posted: 14 Nov 2020 02:27 AM PST  ROME—How quickly they forget. During the height of Trump's pre-pandemic presidency bounce, Georgia Meloni, Italy's most prominent farthest right leaning politician and leader of the Brothers of Italy party quoted him every chance she could, in hopes that his star power among populists would lend her some credibility. But since his apparent loss to Joe Biden, Meloni has seemingly forgotten her man in Washington. "I share ideas and values with Trump and in recent years I have worked to strengthen ties," she told reporters this week. "But I'm not anybody's cheerleader."Meloni's sentiments have been echoed by some of Trump's strongest supporters. The U.K. prime minister Boris Johhson—seen by some as Europe's Trump—is already cuddling up to Biden over climate change, an issue almost no one agreed with Trump on. Many of the lawmakers in Germany's Trump-supporting Alternative for Germany party have also shown a reluctant willingness to accept Biden's victory after initially repeating Trump's claims of voter fraud.And Hungary's Victor Orban was one of the first European leaders to congratulate Biden on his victory, after being the only European leader to openly endorse Trump's re-election, calling a second term his "Plan A." It helps little that Biden has spared little love for Orban, referring to him as a Trump henchman on the campaign trail this fall. "You see what's happened in everything from Belarus to Poland to Hungary, and the rise of totalitarian regimes in the world," Biden said. "This president embraces all the thugs in the world."Donald Tusk, former president of the European Council who now leads Europe's largest moderate consdervative party called the European People's Party, was quick to claim the end of Trump would be the end of populism. "Trump's defeat can be the beginning of the end of the triumph of far-right populisms also in Europe," he wrote after Biden's win was called. But it is far more complicated than that say analysts.Rosa Balfour, the European director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, predicts Europe's populists who rode the Trump and Brexit wave will be just fine without him. "We saw Trump use populism but then it was more about undermining the rule of law than populism itself," she told The Daily Beast, pointing out that while the leaders of Poland and Hungary have used the same "systematic attack on democracy and the rule of law" as Trump, they don't really need him to keep it up."With respect to Hungary and Poland, they will adapt to the Biden presidency, and in the big picture, they know many strategic issues like security are better served by Biden," she said. "Orban is a very clever politician, he is very pragmatic, he managed to get very far with very little scrutiny, that won't change."Like in the U.S., Balfour says that it will be voters not Trump's absence who eventually oust leaders like Orban and Polish President Andrzej Duda, whose Poland's Law and Justice Party win in recent elections has been largely attributed to Duda's White House visit with Trump and who has so far failed to recognize Biden's victory. "It won't change anything," she says. "Trump won't be what might change Poland and Hungary, it'll be the Hungarians and the Polish."Pawel Zerka, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations says the Trump-free era will have an impact and the sooner Europe's populist leaders find a new hero, the better for them. "The U.S. 2020 election also matters to them because it deprives them of either an ally or, at least, a useful reference point on the global political map; one that, more than anyone else, has contributed to the shifting of the range of what is or is not acceptable in the public discourse," he wrote in a post-election essay. "Trump's legacy in this area may well outlive his presidency—and he will likely continue to make trouble wherever he is."It is the second-tier leaders who have only skirted the halls of power like Italy's Meloni and erstwhile leader Matteo Salvini who gained the most by Trump's presidency because their strength lies in a set of circumstances they can exploit, from identity and inequality to being afraid of being left behind. "They don't have power, but they were empowered," Balfour says. "He really emboldened them, he helped them see that if you create chaos, even if you run risks and create shambles, you undermine the governing coalition." These learned techniques don't need Trump at the helm to work.Still, the very fact that Trump once won is still more important for European populists, Zerka writes. The fact that Trump was elected at all gives them hope "making them more electable or giving them hope that one day they, too, could win" he says. More even "than the fact that he eventually lost. It will be giving them hope for years to come."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Ethiopia Tigray crisis: Rights commission to investigate 'mass killings' Posted: 14 Nov 2020 01:55 AM PST  It comes as the UN's human rights chief warns of possible war crimes happening in northern Tigray state.
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| US sec'y of state begins difficult 7-nation tour in France Posted: 14 Nov 2020 01:23 AM PST  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed "global challenges" with a handful of members of a Paris think tank Saturday at the start of a seven-country tour of Europe and the Middle East, travels that were certain to be awkward since all the nations on his schedule have congratulated President-elect Joe Biden for winning the White House. Pompeo was an all but invisible U.S. envoy on what may be his last official trip to France, tweeting out news of his arrival and from his private meeting with members of the Institut Montaigne, accompanied by photos. The trip is aimed at shoring up the priorities of the outgoing administration of President Donald Trump.
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| The 2nd Graduates Forum of the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate is here! Posted: 14 Nov 2020 01:22 AM PST |
| Iota threatens 2nd tropical strike for Nicaragua, Honduras Posted: 14 Nov 2020 01:06 AM PST  Tropical Storm Iota was brewing in the Caribbean Sea on Saturday, threatening a second tropical strike for Nicaragua and Honduras, countries recently clobbered by a Category 4 Hurricane Eta. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Iota could bring dangerous wind, storm surge and as much as 30 inches (76 centimeters) of rainfall to the two Central American countries, approaching their coasts as early as Monday.
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| Amid virus surge, Paris hospitals begin to see signs of hope Posted: 13 Nov 2020 11:22 PM PST  Dry-coughing as he pedals — a hack, hack, hack after-effect of his own personal battle with COVID-19 — the doctor cycles through the dark of pre-dawn Paris, speeding to a crisis meeting at his hospital where, way back in February, the disease carried away the first of what has now become more than a quarter-million dead in Europe. In the nine months since then, critical care chief Philippe Montravers and the 150 doctors and nurses he leads at the towering Bichat Hospital in Paris have become experts about their enemy. Puffing and spluttering as he pedals, because his lungs are still congested, Montravers details the progress that he and his team have made in their care since they fought off the gruesome initial wave of cases last spring, therapeutic advances that are helping Bichat and other hospitals better resist the renewed tide of infections.
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| Iran denies report al Qaeda operative killed in Iran Posted: 13 Nov 2020 10:25 PM PST |
| Bloomberg's big spending struggles to sway election outcomes Posted: 13 Nov 2020 09:39 PM PST  After pouring more than $1.2 billion of his personal fortune into presidential politics this election, former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg has little to show for it. Bloomberg, who built a media and financial services empire before turning to electoral politics, has long used his $55 billion in estimated wealth to play kingmaker, with no shortage of candidates and causes seeking favor.
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| GOP leaders in 4 states quash dubious Trump bid on electors Posted: 13 Nov 2020 09:34 PM PST  Republican leaders in four critical states won by President-elect Joe Biden say they won't participate in a legally dubious scheme to flip their state's electors to vote for President Donald Trump. State GOP lawmakers in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have all said they would not intervene in the selection of electors, who ultimately cast the votes that secure a candidate's victory. "I do not see, short of finding some type of fraud — which I haven't heard of anything — I don't see us in any serious way addressing a change in electors," said Rusty Bowers, Arizona's Republican House speaker, who says he's been inundated with emails pleading for the legislature to intervene.
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| Progressives look to make early mark on Biden White House Posted: 13 Nov 2020 09:25 PM PST  Leading progressives are pressuring President-elect Joe Biden to embrace their policy agenda even as more centrist Democrats argue such proposals prevented the party from retaking full control of Congress. For now, much of the lobbying centers on who Biden should — or should not — appoint to key posts as he builds out the administration that will take office in January. The left-leaning think tank Progressive Change Institute partnered with more than 40 activist groups and on Friday released a detailed list of 400 progressive policy experts they want Biden to bring on.
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| Asia Today: India virus surge continues in New Delhi Posted: 13 Nov 2020 09:11 PM PST  India's overall tally of new coronavirus cases remained steady on Saturday, but officials were watching a surge of cases in the capital that comes as people socialize during the festival season. India's Health Ministry reported 44,684 new positive cases in the past 24 hours and 520 deaths. Of those, 7,802 new cases were reported in New Delhi, with 91 deaths.
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| Peru president's ouster sparks wave of youth-led protests Posted: 13 Nov 2020 09:03 PM PST  University student Yessenia Medina was trying to concentrate on her virtual psychology class when a stunning headline popped up on her screen: Peru's Congress had voted to oust the nation's popular president. Furious, the 23-year-old joined the thousands of students, workers and others protesting this week, decrying Congress and refusing to recognize the new president, Manuel Merino. Peru's Congress voted overwhelmingly to remove now ex-President Martín Vizcarra on Monday, complaining about his handling of the pandemic and accusing him of corruption.
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| Trump, still not conceding defeat, trumpets vaccine progress Posted: 13 Nov 2020 08:59 PM PST  Gliding over significant challenges still to come, President Donald Trump offered a rosy update on the race for a vaccine for the resurgent coronavirus as he delivered his first public remarks since his defeat by President-elect Joe Biden. Trump spoke from the the Rose Garden Friday as the nation sets records for confirmed cases of COVID-19, and as hospitalizations near critical levels and fatalities climb to the highest levels since the spring. 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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| A Connecticut Mom Was Slaughtered. Everyone Was a Suspect. Posted: 13 Nov 2020 08:58 PM PST  On March 3, 2010, Barbara Hamburg was found murdered outside her home at 44 Middle Beach Road in the quiet, affluent seaside town of Madison, Connecticut. It was a slaying that shocked the region and shattered the Hamburg family, and the ensuing investigation's failure to come up with a single potential culprit worth charging only compounded the air of mystery surrounding the crime. In an attempt to find out who committed this atrocity, Barbara's son Madison began a documentary inquiry into the case, and the result, HBO's riveting four-part Murder on Middle Beach, reveals a tale rife with suspects—all of them Hamburg's closest relatives, who had varying motives for wanting to kill his mother.It's an intimate real-life approximation of Clue, except that in this case, solving the whodunit is only part of the story.Murder on Middle Beach (debuting Nov. 15) details the first-person quest carried out by Madison, who was a teenager at the time of his mom's death, and whose desire for answers leads him on an excavation of the past, rummaging around the shadows and digging beneath cheery surfaces in the hope of unearthing revelations. His quest begins with a look into the strange circumstances surrounding his father Jeffrey, a former multi-millionaire CEO of Southern Electric whose marriage to Barbara turned sour after 13 years, leading to a bitter divorce. Barbara was murdered on the morning she was due to attend court in order to send Jeffrey to jail for failure to fulfill his financial obligations to her and the kids. If that wasn't enough to give him motive, Madison uncovers a wealth of documents (many from Barbara) suggesting that Jeffrey was involved in all sorts of shady Middle East shell-company shenanigans that may have been criminal in nature, and might have put his clan in danger.Werner Herzog on Why He's a Fan of Putin and How Democrats Neglect America's HeartlandBy the end of Murder on Middle Beach's initial episode, it seems likely that Jeffrey was somehow responsible for Barbara's demise—especially since, when pressed by Madison, he stubbornly refuses to provide meaningful details or explanations about his behavior, thus making him look like a guilty man with much to hide. Nonetheless, Madison's docuseries soon complicates its narrative by surveying the various ups and downs of his sister Ali, and aunts Conway and Jill. On the face of things, all three of them make for reasonable suspects, thanks to the sorts of thorny conflicts and resentments found in many families. Consequently, Madison finds himself turning his critical gaze toward those closest to him, marked by interviews in which he directly asks these figures if they murdered his mother—moments that are wrenching for their mixture of tension and discomfort.Like Conway, Barbara was an alcoholic who had gotten clean via AA. The two sisters were close, and after many booze-related hardships, Conway had moved in with Barbara and Ali, the latter of whom thought that her aunt was taking advantage of her mother's kindness. Conway, meanwhile, thought Ali was mean and angry to Barbara. Jeffrey makes his own claims about Ali's supposed borderline personality disorder, which contributed to her flip-flopping attitude toward her estranged parents, and Ali admits that her teenage years were tough. Conway eventually proclaims that she's sure Ali took her mother's life. Yet because Conway is herself less than stable, and admits that—during a catastrophic descent into alcoholic insanity—she once tried to hire a hitman to assassinate Barbara, her accusations have to be taken with a big grain of salt.Further muddying Murder on Middle Beach's saga is the fact that, unbeknownst to Madison at the time, Barbara was engaged in hosting and recruiting members for "Gifting Tables," a secretive pyramid scheme-type scam that involved women (and only women) giving each other money as a means of moving up a hierarchy and making lucrative wads of non-taxable cash. Jill and her cohort Donna Bellow went to prison for this scheme, which was only discovered after police examined the deceased Barbara's computer. Given that Barbara and Jill were at odds before the former's death, and that Barbara had made enemies by recruiting Gifting Table members from AA, it's soon clear that any number of people might have had cause to kill her.Madison tackles all of this from a highly invested vantage point, grounding the material in his own anguish, confusion, regret and fury over both the murder itself, and the lasting, destructive effect it's had on his once-tight-knit family. Whether he's surreptitiously recording conversations with his father and the Madison Police Department (who stymie his efforts to learn about the investigation), revisiting the scene of the crime, poring over old mementos, compassionately (if confrontational) chatting with relatives, or pondering the thicket of facts and conjecture before him, Madison puts himself front and center throughout Murder on Middle Beach. In doing so, he transforms it into a search not only for a homicidal fiend but, just as importantly, for the real Barbara—a woman with plenty of secrets whom Madison only knew as the doting and loyal mother we see in recurring home-movie clips.To convey a sense of chaos and madness lurking beneath picturesque exteriors, Madison replays old childhood footage of himself and his mom in rapid-fire schizoid montages, and employs 1950s-era narration about affluent Connecticut and women's traditional roles that ends with the audio warping into sludgy distortion. As with the diagrams that decorate each episode's title card—where family-tree connections are laid out beneath a stump—these formal devices speak to the emotional turmoil of his ordeal, and make the proceedings feel like a jumbled jigsaw puzzle (or board game) that can't be completed because a key piece or two is missing.To a greater degree than most true-crime efforts, Murder on Middle Beach balances its sleuthing with a three-dimensional portrait of its central victim. In VHS recordings, photographs, and recollections from those closest to her—including her still-grief-stricken mother Barbara Lund—Madison's non-fiction venture presents a warts-and-all appreciation for Barbara. Neither saint nor sinner, she comes across, instead, as a complex individual who adored her brood, suffered at the hands of her once-beloved spouse, made more than a few mistakes (some of them possibly prosecutable), and was ultimately slaughtered for reasons that—even with all these messy elements, and Madison's dogged determination to locate the truth—are hard to comprehend.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Al-Qaeda's number two secretly killed in Iran: NYT Posted: 13 Nov 2020 07:58 PM PST  Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, indicted in the US for the 1998 bombings of its embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, was secretly killed in Iran in August, The New York Times reported Friday.
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| Israeli operatives in Iran killed al-Qaeda’s second-in-command in August, report claims Posted: 13 Nov 2020 07:27 PM PST  Israeli agents on motorcycles gunned down the deputy leader of al-Qaeda on the streets of Tehran during a secret mission requested by Washington, US media reports have claimed. Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, who was wanted in the United States for the 1998 bombing of its embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, was shot dead by two Israeli operatives in August, the New York Times reported. Iran strongly denied the report on Saturday, claiming it was a "Hollywood scenario" dreamed up by "American and Zionist officials." The New York Times cited intelligence sources who said Abdullah, who was better known under his nom-de-guerre Mohammed al-Masri, was killed along with his daughter, Miriam. Two Israeli agents riding motorcycles are said to have fired five shots with a silenced pistol at Masri's car, killing the deputy leader of al-Qaeda and the widow of Osama bin Laden's son, Hamza, in one fell swoop. Hamza bin Laden was once a candidate to take over al-Qaeda's leadership, but he was killed during a US counterterrorism operation near Afghanistan shortly after Donald Trump took office. The Tehran mission was carried out at the behest of the United States, which had been seeking to bring Masri to justice for the embassy attacks and ongoing terror plots, sources told the New York Times.
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| Exclusive from Long Island University - Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Hopes Biden Has the "Courage" to Return to the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal and Renegotiate "an Even Better Agreement." Says Trump and Netanyahu Both Failed as Leaders in Handling COVID Posted: 13 Nov 2020 06:27 PM PST  Exclusive from Long Island University - Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Hopes Biden Has the "Courage" to Return to the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal and Renegotiate "an Even Better Agreement." Says Trump and Netanyahu Both Failed as Leaders in Handling COVIDPR NewswireBROOKVILLE, N.
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