Moroccans protest Arab nations normalizing ties with Israel

Despite a government ban on large gatherings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, scores of demonstrators protested outside the Moroccan Parliament to denounce Arab countries agreeing o normalize ties with Israel. Israel on Tuesday signed historic diplomatic pacts with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in a U.S.-brokered deal. Morocco was reported to be among other Arab countries considering a similar move, though the prime minister rejected the idea last month.







Future of the Iran nuclear deal could depend on 2020 election outcome

Voters in November’s presidential election will choose how the United States deals with Iran and its nuclear capabilities, according to multiple government officials and experts across the Middle East. President Barack Obama and the leaders of several other major powers signed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal — officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — which stated that “Iran's nuclear program will be exclusively peaceful.”







Future of the Iran nuclear deal could depend on 2020 election outcome

President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal, but Biden helped introduce it — U.S.-Iran relations stand at a crucial crossroads.







Stopgap bill to prevent shutdown held up over farm funding

Efforts to fashion a temporary spending bill needed to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month ran aground Friday amid a fight over farm bailout funding that's a key priority of President Donald Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans. A House Appropriations Committee spokesman said the measure, which aides had predicted would be released Friday evening, won't be unveiled until next week. A tentative proposal by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to permit Trump to keep awarding agricultural funds this campaign season in exchange for food aid for the poor ran into severe turbulence with both House and Senate Democrats.







Biden would push for less US reliance on nukes for defense

Democrat Joe Biden leaves little doubt that if elected he would try to scale back President Donald Trump's buildup in nuclear weapons spending. The two candidates' views on nuclear weapons policy and strategy carry unusual significance in this election because the United States is at a turning point in deciding the future of its weapons arsenal and because of growing debate about the threat posed by Chinese and Russian nuclear advances. China, whose relatively small nuclear force is growing in sophistication, is cited by the Pentagon's top nuclear commander as a leading reason why the United States should go all out on nuclear modernization.







How Ginsburg's death could reshape the presidential campaign

A presidential campaign that was already tugging at the nation’s most searing divides has been jolted by the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, potentially reshaping the election at a moment when some Americans were beginning to cast ballots. For months, the contest has largely centered on President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus, the biggest public health crisis in a century that has badly damaged his prospects for reelection as the U.S. death toll nears 200,000 people. With early voting underway in five states and Election Day just over six weeks away, Democrats and Republicans were largely unified late Friday in praising Ginsburg as a leading legal thinker and advocate for women's rights.







AP Explains: What happens with the Supreme Court vacancy?

The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has thrust the Senate into uncharted political terrain, with no recent precedent for a vacancy on the high court so close to a presidential election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a statement Friday night vowed that “President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate." CAN THE SENATE FILL THE SEAT BEFORE THE ELECTION?







EXPLAINER-U.S. says U.N. sanctions on Iran to be reimposed Saturday. What does that mean?









Hundreds gather at Supreme Court to mourn Ginsburg's death

Hundreds of people gathered Friday night outside the Supreme Court, singing in a candlelight vigil and weeping together as they mourned the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Scores of memorial candles flickered in the wind along the front steps of the court as people knelt to leave bouquets of flowers, small American flags and handwritten condolence messages for Ginsburg, who died Friday of metastatic pancreatic cancer at age 87 after 27 years on the court. “Thank you RBG,” one sign read.







Iran sanctions: US versus the world over 'snapback' option

The United States will unilaterally declare this weekend that UN sanctions against Iran are once again in force, a move that risks increasing Washington's diplomatic isolation while also stoking international tensions.







McConnell vows quick vote on next justice; Biden says wait

The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just six weeks before the election cast an immediate spotlight on the crucial high court vacancy, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell quickly vowing to bring to a vote whoever President Donald Trump nominates. Democratic nominee Joe Biden vigorously disagreed, declaring that "voters should pick the president and the president should pick the justice to consider.” McConnell, who sets the calendar in the U.S. Senate and has made judicial appointments his priority, declared unequivocally in a statement not long after Ginsburg’s death was announced that Trump’s nominee would receive a confirmation vote in the chamber.







The Latest: Trump orders flags at half-staff for Ginsburg

President Donald Trump has issued a proclamation directing that flags at the White House and all public buildings and grounds and military facilities be flown at half-staff until the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is interred. Former President Barack Obama is calling Ruth Bader Ginsburg “a relentless litigator and an incisive jurist” who “inspired generations, from the tiniest trick-or-treaters to law students burning the midnight oil to the most powerful leaders in the land.” Obama issued a statement Friday after Ginsburg's death from cancer complications at age 87.







Hong Kong Offers a Glimpse of One Belarus Future

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Two unpopular leaders, two powerful backers. Pictures this week of Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko beaming for the cameras, leaning in eagerly to address an impassive Russian president, evoked another pair 4,000 miles away and months earlier. Against a similar background of street unrest, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam found support from China’s President Xi Jinping last year. It’s not a parallel that bodes well for Minsk’s burgeoning opposition.Under pressure since claiming victory in a disputed election last month, and facing demonstrations that show no sign of fading, Lukashenko has turned to Vladimir Putin for succor. Moscow sees its smaller neighbor as a crucial, Russia-friendly buffer with Europe, and has no desire to see a popular uprising result in genuine democracy. Belarus’s leader, meanwhile, needs financial fortification and a hint of military support. Lam, too, received solace in Beijing last year during months of tumult and after a painful local election defeat. Both got what they wanted: a televised display of support to appease elites and security forces at home.From the start, the crowds in Minsk learned from Hong Kong’s broad-based, leaderless campaign. They, too, were making demands of a system ill-equipped to compromise. The current stalemate between the opposition and Lukashenko looks familiar. Could Hong Kong, then, offer a hint of what may be next for Belarus, as the leadership digs in? It’s a path that includes more aggressive tactics by police and protesters, more government efforts to silence opponents, and economic stagnation.There are pronounced differences between the two. Hong Kong, after all, is a Chinese autonomous territory and a financial center with a penchant for laissez-faire capitalism. Belarus is an independent country in the heart of Europe with many Soviet traits. Hong Kong’s demonstrations were triggered by efforts to preserve the former colony’s freedoms; marchers on the other side of the world were demanding a change from the status quo.Yet both are pro-democracy movements under the shadow of a superpower. Hong Kong’s endgame provides a glimpse of one possible future.In the first instance, this would include increasingly tough tactics as the government compensates for lost legitimacy. In Hong Kong, violence escalated as protests dragged on, Lam remained unmoved and police began to deploy tear gas and water cannon. Eventually huge quantities of gas were used, along with rubber bullets and even live ammunition. A Hong Kong-style escalation in Belarus would probably require the government to perceive a greater threat: say, if widespread strikes resumed in tandem with protests. That isn’t impossible. The past weeks’ demonstrations have been relatively peaceful, after the beatings and rubber bullets of the first days after the August presidential election, yet arrests continue and masked special forces police are pulling people off the street.Support from a muscular power removes the incentive to meet halfway, and Lukashenko has already hounded out or jailed all opposition leaders. Maryia Rohava of the University of Oslo points out that officials are going to great lengths to remove symbols, like the white-red-white flags associated with the opposition, or painting over protest murals. That’s familiar to Hong Kong, where Lennon Walls have been scrubbed and a television director was pressed to quit this week after rubber gloves were displayed in a sitcom in a way that hinted at a protest slogan.The former British colony shows that such crises offer the opportunity for the protecting nation to step in more forcefully. Beijing has tightened its grip, as seen with the passing of a national security law for Hong Kong. Minsk’s predicament is more complex. Lukashenko needs Putin’s support, but with few alternatives the Kremlin also needs him, says Nigel Gould-Davies, a former British ambassador to Belarus who’s now with the International Institute for Strategic Studies. The shape of a closer union and intervention is still unclear, but dependence links will be tighter.The economic front looks little better. Hong Kong has struggled since last year, as mainland tourists and shoppers stay home — a slump exacerbated by the pandemic. Multinationals have become increasingly wary, as the independence of Hong Kong’s judicial system and its broader autonomy comes into question. Still, Chinese corporates have the firepower to make a difference and are keeping the stock market active. Belarus is no global financial hub and Russia will ensure it survives, but not that it thrives: Its IT industry, a growing part of an otherwise unimpressive economy, is already seeing a brain drain. Every comparison has its limits. While Belarus may be in a Hong Kong-style impasse, its trajectory could be very different if the elite begins to crack, perhaps encouraged by an organized opposition in exile. A heavily personalized system is also limited by the mortality of the leader. Hong Kong’s precedent serves to temper any flights of optimism.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities and environmental, social and governance issues. Previously, she was an associate editor for Reuters Breakingviews, and editor and correspondent for Reuters in Singapore, India, the U.K., Italy and Russia.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.







Ginsburg, a feminist icon memorialized as the Notorious RBG

Ginsburg died Friday of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer at her home in Washington at 87, the court said. Late in her court tenure, she became a social media icon, the Notorious RBG, a name coined by a law student who admired Ginsburg’s dissent in a case cutting back on a key civil rights law. “In the word the current generation uses, it’s awesome,” Ginsburg said in 2016, shortly before she turned 83.







Coronavirus in South Africa: Relief, pride and the 'new normal'

As the "worst phase of the epidemic" is overcome, experts delve into the data to learn more about Covid-19.







Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies at 87

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a towering women’s rights champion who became the court’s second female justice, died Friday at her home in Washington. Ginsburg died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, the court said. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said late Friday that the Senate will vote on Trump’s pick to replace Ginsburg, even though it’s an election year.







UN or not, a need for united nations









US sends troops, armored vehicles to Syria to counter Russia









Stopgap bill to prevent shutdown held up over farm funding

Efforts to fashion a temporary spending bill needed to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month ran aground Friday amid a fight over farm bailout funding that's a key priority of President Donald Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans. A House Appropriations Committee spokesman said the measure, which aides had predicted would be released Friday evening, won't be unveiled until next week. A tentative proposal by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to permit Trump to keep awarding agricultural funds this campaign season in exchange for food aid for the poor ran into severe turbulence with both House and Senate Democrats.







The United Nations: Indispensable or irrelevant?









Yemen's rival sides meet in Geneva for prisoner swap talks

Yemen’s warring sides on Friday began long-awaited U.N.-brokered peace consultations in Switzerland on the exchange of prisoners, part of a deal aimed at ending a conflict that has killed thousands and set off the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Delegates from Yemen’s internationally recognized government, supported by a Saudi-led military coalition, sat down in Geneva with their rivals, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, for talks co-chaired by the Red Cross, according to Martin Griffiths, the U.N. envoy to Yemen. Griffiths urged the parties to “release detainees swiftly” and “bring relief to thousands of Yemeni families.”







NYC tries fines to get scofflaws to don masks on subway

The young man slouched against the inside of the subway doors as the No. 3 train headed south along Broadway. The agency that runs New York City's subway and bus systems implemented a fine this week for the scofflaws who, even in a region with more than 25,000 coronavirus dead, refuse to follow rules requiring masks to be worn at all times on public transit. When recalcitrant riders are identified, MTA employees and New York City police have been instructed to provide a mask first and issue a ticket only as a last resort.







Editorial: Boris Johnson's Brexit gambit casts a shadow on peace in Northern Ireland

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's attempt to tinker with the Brexit withdrawal agreement could endanger peace in Northern Ireland.







NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week

None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. THE FACTS: Maps circulating on social media with this claim include only American data.







Iranian Hackers Can Now Beat Encrypted Apps, Researchers Say

Iranian hackers, most likely employees or affiliates of the government, have been running a vast cyberespionage operation equipped with surveillance tools that can outsmart encrypted messaging systems -- a capability Iran was not previously known to possess, according to two digital security reports released Friday.The operation not only targets domestic dissidents, religious and ethnic minorities and anti-government activists abroad but can also be used to spy on the general public inside Iran, said the reports by Check Point Software Technologies, a cybersecurity technology firm, and the Miaan Group, a human rights organization that focuses on digital security in the Middle East.The reports, which were reviewed by The New York Times in advance of their release, say that the hackers have successfully infiltrated what were thought to be secure mobile phones and computers belonging to the targets, overcoming obstacles created by encrypted applications such as Telegram and, according to Miaan, even gaining access to information on WhatsApp. Both are popular messaging tools in Iran. The hackers also have created malware disguised as Android applications, the reports said.A spokesperson for Telegram said that the company was unaware of the Iranian hacker operation but that "no service can prevent being imitated in 'phishing' attacks when someone convinces users to enter their credentials on a malicious website." WhatsApp declined to comment.The reports suggest significant advances in the competency of Iranian intelligence hackers. And they come amid warnings from Washington that Iran is using cybersabotage to try to influence U.S. elections. Federal prosecutors on Wednesday identified two Iranian individuals they said had hacked into U.S. computers and stolen data on behalf of Iran's government and for financial gain."Iran's behavior on the internet, from censorship to hacking, has become more aggressive than ever," said Amir Rashidi, director of digital rights and security at Miaan and the researcher for its report.According to the report by Check Point's intelligence unit, the cyberespionage operation was set up in 2014, and its full range of capabilities went undetected for six years.Miaan traced the first operation to February 2018 from a malicious email targeting a Sufi religious group in Iran after a violent confrontation between its members and Iranian security forces.It traced the malware used in that attack and further attacks in June 2020 to a private technology firm in Iran's northeast city of Mashhad named Andromedaa. Miaan researchers determined that Andromedaa had a pattern of attacking activists, ethnic minority groups and separatist opposition groups but also had developed phishing and malware tools that could target the general public.The hackers appeared to have a clear goal: stealing information about Iranian opposition groups in Europe and the United States and spying on Iranians who often use mobile applications to plan protests, according to the Miaan report.Among the most prominent victims of the attacks, the reports said, are the Mujahedeen Khalq, or MEK, an insurgent group that Iranian authorities regard as a terrorist organization; a group known as the Association of Families of Camp Ashraf and Liberty Residents; the Azerbaijan National Resistance organization; citizens of Iran's restive Sistan and Balochistan province; and HRANA, an Iranian human rights news agency. Human rights lawyers and journalists working for Voice of America have also been targeted, Miaan said.According to Check Point, the hackers use a variety of infiltration techniques, including phishing, but the most widespread method is sending what appear to be tempting documents and applications to carefully selected targets.One of these is a Persian-language document titled "The Regime Fears the Spread of the Revolutionary Cannons.docx," referring to the struggle between the government and the MEK, sent to members of that movement. Another document was disguised as a report widely awaited by human rights activists on a cybersecurity researcher.These documents contained malware code that activated a number of spyware commands from an external server when the recipients opened them on their desktops or phones. According to the Check Point report, almost all of the targets have been organizations and opponents of the government who have left Iran and are now based in Europe. Miaan documented targets in the United States, Canada and Turkey as well as the European Union.The spyware enabled the attackers to gain access to almost any file, log clipboard data, take screenshots and steal information. According to Miaan, one application empowered hackers to download data stored on WhatsApp.In addition, the attackers discovered a weakness in the installation protocols of several encrypted applications including Telegram, which had always been deemed relatively secure, enabling them to steal the apps' installation files.These files, in turn, allow the attackers to make full use of the victims' Telegram accounts. Although the attackers cannot decipher the encrypted communications of Telegram, their strategy makes it unnecessary. Rather, they use the stolen installation files to create Telegram logins to activate the app in the victims' names on another device. This enables the attackers to secretly monitor all Telegram activity of the victims."This cutting-edge surveillance operation succeeded in going under the radar for at least six years," said Lotem Finkelstein, head of threat intelligence at Check Point. "The group maintained a multiplatform, targeted attack, with both mobile, desktop and web attack vectors, that left no evasion path for victims on the target list."The attackers, Finkelstein said, "designed their cyberweapons to technically target instant messaging apps, even ones considered secured."Miaan experts said the Iranian company linked to the attackers, Andromedaa, has been mentioned in at least three previous reports linking them to stealing information through malware. The Miaan report said the attack tools in those cases suggested they were "designed, built and run by the same hacker(s)."Rashidi, the Miaan researcher, attributed the success of the hackers partly to what he described as their social skills in creating deceptions that lured victims into a trap.For example, one malware targeting dissidents in Sweden was designed as a Persian-language instructions tool for Iranians seeking Swedish driver's licenses. Another application targeting ordinary Iranians promises to give users a larger exposure on social media apps like Instagram and Telegram.Finkelstein said it was "highly possible" that the hackers were freelancers employed by Iranian intelligence, as has been true in previous Iranian hacking episodes. He also said the infrastructure of the operation led Check Point to conclude that the attacks are "administered by Iranian entities against regime dissidents."Babak Chalabi, 37, the spokesperson of the Azerbaijan National Resistance Organization, which promotes the rights of ethnic Turks in Iran, said his computer was hacked by this group in late 2018 when he received an email with a link and clicked on it.Chalabi said he had done an interview with the Al-Arabiya television channel about Iran's cybersecurity, and three days later he received an email from a person disguised as an Al-Arabiya editor informing him that the network had received complaints from Iran about his interview and asking him to look at the complaints through a link.When Chalabi clicked on the link, his computer was infiltrated, he said. He contacted Rashidi of Miaan. Rashidi reviewed his files and the email and confirmed this group of hackers was behind it.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company







One family's desperate, deadly attempt to flee Lebanon

Mohammed Sufian did not dream of much: a job, food on the table, the chance to buy his 2½-year-old son the little things a toddler wants. The city is also home to tens of thousands of Syrians who fled civil war in their country that broke out in March 2011.







Donor cash surges to Harrison, the Democrat taking on Graham

It won't be known until Election Day if a poll showing a tightening contest between Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democrat Jaime Harrison portends an upset — but the gains are real enough in the Democrat's campaign account. On the heels of a Quinnipiac University poll that has him tied with Graham among likely voters in South Carolina, Harrison's campaign has marked two back-to-back fundraising days of million apiece, bringing his total fundraising to over million. It's a staggering sum, unheard of for a Democrat competing in this conservative state, and matches what Graham has also raised in his pursuit of a fourth term.







Running out of storm names, Atlantic season goes Greek

The Atlantic’s record-breaking “crazy” hurricane season got a bizarre European remake Friday as forecasters ran out of traditional names and trotted out the Greek alphabet for subtropical storm Alpha. The busy Atlantic is beta testing the Greek alphabet as Beta formed late Friday afternoon. This is only the second time National Hurricane Center forecasters have had to pull out the Greek alphabet for names, with the last time being 2005.







Manager ordered census layoffs despite judge's ruling

Two weeks after a federal judge prohibited the U.S. Census Bureau from winding down the 2020 census, a manager in Illinois instructed employees to get started with layoffs, according to an audio of the conversation obtained by The Associated Press. During a conference call Thursday, the Chicago area manager told supervisors who report to him that they should track down census takers who don't currently have any cases, collect the iPhones they use to record information, and bid them goodbye. It was unclear whether such actions would violate U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh's temporary restraining order prohibiting the Census Bureau from winding down field operations while she considers a request to extend the head count by a month.







Homeland Security whistleblower not yet ready to testify









CDC drops controversial testing advice that caused backlash

U.S. health officials on Friday dropped a controversial piece of coronavirus guidance and said anyone who has been in close contact with an infected person should get tested. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention essentially returned to its previous testing guidance, getting rid of language posted last month that said people didn’t need to get tested if they didn't feel sick. It was "not consistent with the basic principles of controlling an epidemic,”said Dr. Silvia Chiang, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Brown University who applauded the change announced Friday.







Coronavirus pandemic shrinks Europe's monitoring of US vote

Europe’s largest security organization said Friday that it has drastically scaled back plans to send as many as 500 observers to the U.S. to monitor the Nov. 3 presidential election and now will deploy just 30 because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe — which has observed U.S. elections since 2002 but is better known for monitoring voting in countries such as Belarus or Kyrgyzstan — has spent months trying to figure out how to safely keep tabs on an election it worries will be “the most challenging in recent decades” as Americans pick a president in the throes of a global health crisis. The OSCE's mission originally was to have involved 100 long-term and 400 short-term observers to the U.S. starting this month, but health concerns and restrictions on travel prompted the Vienna-based organization to pare that back to 30 observers, spokesperson Katya Andrusz told The Associated Press.







Firefighters battle exhaustion along with wildfire flames

Firefighters trying to contain the massive wildfires in Oregon, California and Washington state are constantly on the verge of exhaustion as they try to save suburban houses, including some in their own neighborhoods. Oregon firefighter Steve McAdoo’s shift on Sept. 7 seemed mostly normal, until late evening, when the team went to a fire along a highway south of Portland.







US carrier transits Strait of Hormuz amid tensions with Iran

The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier safely transited on Friday through the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important chokepoint for oil shipments, the U.S. Navy said, as tensions with Iran continue to simmer. In a “scheduled” maneuver, the U.S. sent the carrier and several other warships through the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, according to the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th fleet. The Nimitz, America’s oldest carrier in active service, carries some 5,000 sailors and Marines.







Guatemalan president tests positive for new coronavirus

Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said Friday he has tested positive for the new coronavirus, but he told a local radio station he feels well. Giammattei, 64, has multiple sclerosis and uses canes to walk. The government press office said in a statement that Giammattei “will be isolating himself from all public activity, and so all communication will be conducted remotely.”







Coronavirus red alert declared in Iran as death toll nears 24,000

Iran has declared a coronavirus red alert due to a third wave of infections, with thousands more deaths likely to follow in the Middle East’s worst affected country. The red alert will cover the entire country, according to Iranian state media reports, as the death toll rose on Friday by 144 to 23,952 and the total number of cases exceeded 400,000. Iranian officials have carved up the country into white, orange and red areas based on the number of infections and deaths. But the country’s deputy health minister said the system was now redundant as “the entire country is red.” "The colour classification doesn't make sense anymore,” Iraj Harirchi said on an Iranian television programme. "If the current course continues, the death toll will reach 45,000," he added. According to Reuters news agency, in the northwestern city of Tabriz, the number of hospitalised patients has risen from under 40 per day to 160. And in the Shia Muslim holy city of Qom, it has increased from ten a day to 160. Mr Harirchi said that if 95 per cent of the country wore masks and the number of gatherings fell by half then the severe death toll could be reduced. It comes after leaked documents revealed that the number of deaths from coronavirus in Iran was at least triple the figure reported by the authorities. The papers, obtained by BBC Persian, showed that an even more severe third wave of the virus was underway. Even by the government’s public figures, Iran is the worst affected country in the Middle East. Iran formally reported its first coronavirus case in mid-February, with the deaths of two people in Qom, though health workers and Iranian journalists had given earlier warnings about the illness. Since then, Iran has been accused of deliberately underreporting infections. “Everyone knew that the number of Covid cases was significantly higher than what officials were reporting,” an Iranian journalist in Tehran told The Telegraph earlier this month. Iran has also struggled under crippling US sanctions targeting the regime’s leadership, which even before the pandemic had led to severe medicine shortage.







Amal Clooney Quits U.K. Special Envoy Role Over Country’s Plans to Break International Law









Push is underway to test COVID-19 vaccines in diverse groups

In front of baskets of tomatoes and peppers, near a sizzling burrito grill, the “promotoras” stop masked shoppers at a busy Latino farmers market: Want to test a COVID-19 vaccine? Aided by Spanish-speaking “health promoters” and Black pastors, a stepped-up effort is underway around the U.S. to recruit minorities to ensure potential vaccines against the scourge are tested in the populations most ravaged by the virus. Scientists say a diverse group of test subjects is vital to determining whether a vaccine is safe and effective for everyone and instilling broad public confidence in the shots once they become available.







Flooding affects more than 1 million across East Africa

Flooding has affected well over a million people across East Africa, another calamity threatening food security on top of a historic locust outbreak and the coronavirus pandemic. The Nile River has hit its highest levels in a half-century under heavy seasonal rainfall, and large parts of Sudan, Ethiopia and South Sudan have been swamped amid worries about climate change. As warnings of a new famine grow in South Sudan, the United Nations says flooding there has affected at least a half-million people, many in areas of Jonglei state that saw eruptions of deadly intercommunal violence this year.







Africa's week in pictures: 11 - 17 September 2020

A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent and beyond.







Trump and other world leaders won't attend UNGA in person this year

The U.N.'s annual meeting of world leaders will be almost fully virtual.







Turkey's Halkbank urges dismissal of Iran sanctions criminal case in U.S.









Amal Clooney Quits UK Media Envoy Role Over Government’s “Lamentable” Brexit Actions









Hundreds of thousands still without power in Sally cleanup

Hundreds of thousands of people were still without power Friday along the Alabama coast and the Florida Panhandle in the aftermath of Hurricane Sally as officials assessed millions of dollars in damage that included a broken bridge in Pensacola and ships thrown onto dry land. While the cleanup pressed on, the record-shattering hurricane season notched another milestone: Forecasters ran out of traditional names for storms after three new systems formed in about six hours. In Loxley, Alabama, Catherine Williams lost power and some of her roof to Sally.







EU leaders to discuss Brexit at summit in boost to trade deal hopes

European Union leaders will discuss Brexit at their European Council September summit , a month earlier than planned, in a boost to British hopes of hitting Boris Johnson's October deadline for a trade deal. Charles Michel, the European Council president, and Michel Barnier met in Brussels on Friday, the day after the EU's chief negotiator met with David Frost. As recently as Thursday, senior EU diplomats were insisting there was no way Brexit would force itself onto the agenda of the summit. EU officials inisted the discussion would be a brief analysis of the state of play. UK sources told the Telegraph that the decision to put the trade negotiations before the heads of state and government of the EU-27 was hopefully a sign the EU had begun to take the Prime Minister's October 15 deadline seriously. Mr Johnson has said that if the trade deal is not finalised by October 15, shortly before another EU summit the same month, both sides should prepare for a no deal Brexit, which will mean trading on WTO terms and with tariffs. In London, George Eustice, the Brexiteer Environment Secretary predicted that even if there was a no deal exit, “common sense” would break out in the new year and an agreement would be signed. “I just think it is implausible that it would be a long term scenario where we will have no free trade agreement or partnership at all with our nearest neighbour,” he told BBC radio, “If there is to be no deal as you put it, it is more likely to be no deal yet.” Sources in Brussels have made it clear that if Britain was forced back to the negotiating table after an economically damaging no deal, it would be faced with the same demands over issues such as the level playing field guarantees but enjoy far less goodwill from the EU. The last round of trade negotiations in London were overshadowed by the row over Mr Johnson's Internal Market Bill, which Brussels says breaks the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and international law. On Friday Amal Clooney, the famous human rights lawyer quit as the UK’s special envoy on media freedom in protest at the “lamentable” bill, which will face stiff opposition in the House of Lords despite a compromise being brokered with Tory rebel MPs. The EU has threatened to walk away from negotiations and to take legal action against Britain unless the offending clauses are excised before the end of the month. "Brexit will be discussed at the European Council next week in an information point. It will be an occasion to briefly analyse the situation." an EU official said. The official said there was a need to fully implement the Withdrawal Agreement. "The EU is neither intimidated or impressed but breaking an international agreement is extremely worrying," the official said. The source said the EU leaders remained "firm and steady" and was still looking to agree a trade deal with the UK "but that requires substantial progress on key issues such as the level playing field and fisheries." The official said time was short to agree the deal by the October deadline and prevent a no deal exit at the end of the year, when the UK leaves the transition period and the Single Market and Customs Union. On Thursday, a senior EU diplomat briefed reporters in Brussels that "It is very clear that there is going to be no Brexit on the end of the agenda." He said that the time for any concrete decisions on Brexit by the EU's leaders would be the October summit. That is when they will be expected to either back the draft trade deal, if the agreement is ready in time. The next round of trade negotiations is in Brussels at the end of the month.







U.N. approves EU resolution on monitoring Belarus human rights









AP-NORC poll: Majority plan to vote before Election Day

A majority of President Donald Trump's supporters plan to cast their ballot on Election Day, while about half of Joe Biden's backers plan to vote by mail, a sign of a growing partisan divide over how best to conduct elections in the United States. Overall, 39% of registered voters say they will vote by mail, well above the 21% who say they normally do so, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Fifty-seven percent of Trump's supporters say they'll vote in person on Nov. 3.







VIRUS DIARY: Always learning from 'happy little accidents'

I'm not alone in confessing that I have always enjoyed those Bob Ross instructional painting programs that ran on PBS for many years. Maybe it was his Mr. Rogers-like guidance that there were no mistakes, “just happy little accidents.” Bob died 25 years ago.







Amanda Milling: ‘The PM still has support of Red Wall despite locking down the North’

Amanda Milling, chairwoman of the Conservative party, is wincing at the memory of being a government whip at the height of last year’s parliamentary paralysis over Brexit. The MP was one of the tellers when yet another knife-edge crunch vote was tied 310 for and 310 against, leaving Speaker Bercow to cast the deciding vote. “I was literally shaking,” she reveals as she recalls the extraordinary events of April last year, when the Commons was split over a motion to hold more indicative votes. “There was a long 10 minutes when the two chief whips went off to talk about it. We had no idea what Bercow was going to do. I was literally standing by the clerks’ desk, quivering, thinking this is so nerve wracking.” In the end the former Speaker voted "no" in accordance with precedent, and the motion did not pass. Monday’s ‘mini’ rebellion over the Internal Market Bill has given the MP for Cannock Chase a hint of deju vu, although she insists the latest row over Brexit is “nothing like” the shenanigans of 2019. It seems an eternity ago to the 45-year-old who was appointed chairwoman in February after backing Boris Johnson’s leadership bid from the very beginning. Even the December election feels “far away”, she admits, although ever the party patriot, she insists the Prime Minister remains “hugely popular” in the Red Wall seats which turned Blue under the Tories. What, even in the post-coronavirus era, when the competence of Mr Johnson’s fledgling administration is called into question on a daily basis? “When you get out of Westminster and actually talk to people, the mood is really quite positive. They are incredibly supportive of the PM.” Honestly? “Seriously. You only have to look at my Facebook page to see the warmth with everyone getting behind him when he was ill.” A cursory search of her social media feed finds it awash with videos of Milling touring the UK along with re-posted manifesto pledges, criticisms of Labour and even a picture of her black labrador, Milly. Milling has spent the three months since lockdown restrictions were lifted in June touring what she insists on calling the ‘Blue Wall’, following her party’s 80-seat majority. “I have to correct people actually when they talk about the Red Wall. I say: ‘Stop there, it is very much the Blue Wall now’. And we need to turn it from light Blue to dark Blue.” Yet while the business people Milling meets are largely supportive of the furlough scheme, and initiatives like Eat Out To Get Out, is she not worried about the effect coronavirus might have on next May’s local elections? Even the party’s own MPs have expressed concerns about how the Tories may fare at the ballot box, without the dual threat of no Brexit and Jeremy Corbyn to wield over voters. Insisting the Conservatives will still stick to their big-spending infrastructure pledges, despite the debt being wracked up by the pandemic, she says: “Despite coronavirus, we are still fully committed to those manifesto commitments. One of my key priorities is levelling up.” But in planting enough “magic money trees” to rival Corbyn’s allotment as they strive to keep their more diverse electorate happy, might the Conservatives be in danger of leaving the party faithful behind? “I don't think we're leaving our old school Tories behind. We have gone through an unprecedented period, over the last six months, which none of us could have predicted, but we are still fully committed to reflecting the country that we serve. “Look at the parliamentary party now in terms of who has been elected and their backgrounds. The party is more diverse and I want to continue that journey.” It is certainly a far cry from the party Milling aspired to join when she left independent Moreton Hall School in 1993 to study economics and statistics at University College London. Back then there were just 60 female MPs out of 650 - under 10 per cent. “I was fascinated by politics but it was something which was just not achievable,” she says. “But then parliament has changed over the last 25 years and so has the Conservative party.” Brought up in a Tory household under Margaret Thatcher’s leadership, Milling was a party activist from a young age. “Even as a teenager, I was delivering leaflets from one of our local councillors.” A portrait of the Iron Lady adorns her office, in tribute to the woman who made her “aspire to something”. Yet it was not until Milling divorced in the early Noughties that she finally decided to give up a successful career in market research to follow in Thatcher’s footsteps, having served as a Conservative councillor in Lancashire. “It was after the 2010 election and I remember somebody saying to me: “Have you thought about going to Parliament?” And I thought: “No”. And then you start thinking about it a bit more. I think it was my grandfather who said: “There's no such word as can’t”. That's really in my DNA.” Milling was selected for her Staffordshire seat in May 2014, after the incumbent Tory MP Aidan Burley announced he would be standing down after helping to organise a Nazi-themed stag party. “I’d separated a couple of years earlier and I thought, I can do it, because I actually had the bandwidth to be able to literally pack up my bags, wrap up work and relocate. I just turned my life upside down in two weeks. “Somebody said: “What are you going to do if you lose?” And I said: “My job for the next nine months is to make sure I don't lose.” I'd be in the office until midnight, just making sure I won that election.” Even with the next general election three and a half years away, Milling remains in campaign mode, although she hopes Labour under Sir Keir Starmer will fight cleaner than the Corbynistas. “Some of the stories from the last election were horrendous.” Regaling tales of posters being torn down, she adds: “Sir Keir does need to clean it up because last year was not a pleasant experience and it shouldn't be like that.” In the meantime there is next month’s Conservative party conference to finalise - a virtual four-day event that Milling insists “will not be a giant Zoom call”. Although secretive about the finer details, she reveals there will be five keynote speeches this year, from the PM, Chancellor, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and herself, as chairwoman. But no keynote speech from Health Secretary Matt Hancock in the midst of a global pandemic? “We are using different platforms and methods of communication to achieve what everyone would normally do on a stage, but in a more interactive way,” she says. With criticism having already surfaced over her co-chairman Ben Eliot’s handling of potential donors in light of Robert Jenrick’s role in a controversial development by Richard Desmond, Milling appears keen to keep the party’s powder dry. “There are a whole load of obligations in terms of transparency and we fully adhere to all of those,” she insists. While the focus remains on “keeping those donations going, keeping the membership going, and keeping the campaign going”, Milling points out that, unlike her recent predecessors: “I'm not five weeks away from the next general election.” “I always talk about it being like car servicing,” she adds. “Until now we haven’t really had the chance to get the bonnet open and see which bits need some oil.” In the wake of an unprecedented national breakdown, the Conservatives’ chief mechanic can only hope that Johnson’s party passes its first MOT.







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