British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won last December’s general election partly on the back of promises to unite post-Brexit Britain and to level the country up by reviving parts neglected by previous governments. Partly as a result of his pledge, the Conservative party captured seats in the de-industrialized north of England, breaching a so-called red wall of constituencies that for decades had reflexively voted for Labor, the country’s main, center-left opposition party. Johnson took aim, too, at the Scottish nationalists, vowing to block a second Scottish independence referendum. But thanks to the havoc wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, Britain’s persistent north-south divide has widened — and support for Scottish independence has never been stronger. Welsh nationalism has been stirred by the pandemic into “greater wakefulness,” according to Polly Mackenzie of Britain’s cross-party think tank Demos, with nearly half of all under-25s in Wales now saying they want secession.Northern regional leaders have wrangled with London, complaining it is not doing enough to help them weather lockdowns or to cope with the grievous economic fallout of the coronavirus. Some have opposed a new three-tiered system of restrictions and lambasted Johnson’s handling of the crisis, accusing the government of playing politics with the pandemic.Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham speaks to the media outside Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, England, Oct. 20, 2020.The north’s mayors complain the new tighter measures are being imposed on them with too little consultation by government officials in London. “They can only see numbers and blobs on the map, whereas we see names, communities, the full picture of what happens on the ground,” Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, fumed to reporters last week. On Monday, 54 Conservative lawmakers representing northern seats warned Johnson that his election pledge to “level up” the nation was being undermined by the disproportionate impact of restrictions in northern England. They said in a collective letter that the coronavirus is threatening to “send the North into reverse.”“The virus has exposed in sharp relief the deep structural and systemic disadvantage faced by our communities and it threatens to continue to increase the disparity between the North and South still further,” the lawmakers said. Their constituencies risk being left behind unless there is a clear strategy for exiting lockdown restrictions.A group of people push a dustbin after a demonstration against curfew and deprivation of rights, in Barcelona, on Oct. 26, 2020. Spain’s Catalonia region said it was studying imposing a lockdown on weekends to fight the spread of the coronavirus.Fueling separatismJohnson isn’t alone among Europe’s national leaders struggling with restive regions to forge a political consensus around a pandemic strategy. Central and regional governments in many European countries are increasingly at loggerheads. Some of the disputes revolve around what approaches to adopt to contain the coronavirus pandemic; others over how to share shrinking economic pies. Many of Europe’s poor regions are being hit harder by the pandemic; wealthy regions, such as Catalonia, Lombardy and Flanders, bristle at the idea that they will have to help bail out their less prosperous neighbors. Lack of consultation or the sidestepping of parliaments and imposing restrictions with no prior agreement are also prompting disquiet, exacerbating pre-pandemic divisions.Some analysts hazard that one of the legacies of the coronavirus crisis could well be to strengthen separatist sentiment in some countries already struggling with secessionists and to boost demands by regions for greater devolved powers. “The coronavirus pandemic is serving to catalyze pre-existing territorial disputes and empower regional nationalist movements,” says Jonathan Parker of Britain’s University of Sussex. “The pandemic is intensifying debates about the constitutional futures of several European regions. Many on the pro-independence side have been empowered by the crisis, which is highlighting the failings of central governments and underscoring the power of the regions,” Parker wrote in a commentary for Britain’s’ Financial Times.Belgium, Spain, Italy and Germany have all seen disputes flaring between national and regional leaders. In Belgium, Flemish nationalists have attacked the central government for its handling of the pandemic. Disputes have raged between Flanders and officials in Brussels. The latest came this week when Flanders declined to impose additional coronavirus restrictions, despite moves by Brussels and French-speaking Wallonia to tighten up. In the past week around 12,000 Belgians a day on average have tested positive for the coronavirus — hospitalization admissions and the death county keep on rising.Speaking to VTM news, Flemish Minister-President Jan Jambon accused the central government and Wallonia of adopting “exaggerated measures.” He warned the additional measures won’t necessarily succeed in tamping down transmissions of the potentially deadly virus, adding that cooler heads need to prevail. Flemish nationalists are bristling at the idea that wealthier Flanders should help subsidize poorer Wallonia.FILE – Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during a parliamentary session in Madrid, Spain, Oct. 21, 2020.In Spain, seven of the country’s regions have criticized the decision taken this week by the government of Pedro Sánchez to declare a state of national emergency and to impose a curfew. Other regions take an opposite view and have been clamorous for weeks for the central government to order lockdowns. Catalan separatists have argued an independent Catalonia would have tackled the pandemic better than it has as part of Spain, and that there would have been fewer deaths had the wealthy northeastern region been on its own, they say. Earlier this year, when the pandemic started to unfold in Spain, they called on the central government to impose a tough lockdown much earlier than it did.FILE – In this Feb. 10, 2020, file photo, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks during an event at the European Policy Center in Brussels.ScotlandIn Britain, already fractured by Brexit, the pandemic has witnessed a steady divergence in the handling of the pandemic between Johnson’s government in London and the devolved authorities of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The latter were more cautious than the central government in July and August when Johnson eased restrictions. They decided not to do so. Though Scottish nationalists do not like to admit it, the coronavirus has boosted their fortunes, say analysts. Their leader and Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has benefited from increased visibility and has grabbed at chances to differentiate Scotland from England. Support in opinion polls for the Scottish Nationalist Party is now running at about 50%. And backing for Scottish independence also has climbed. Support for separation rose to nearly 60% this month, panicking Conservative ministers in London. “In the 2014 referendum, the Nationalists struggled to get Scots to imagine what an independent government might look like. The pandemic was just what the doctor ordered. Health is devolved under Britain’s constitution, so Ms. Sturgeon’s administration has the trappings of a state-in-waiting,” noted The Economist magazine recently.Sturgeon has received plaudits for her handling of the pandemic — her message has been consistent and so have her policies. “The coronavirus crisis has given Nicola Sturgeon’s government renewed purpose, increased visibility, new chances to differentiate from England and the opportunity to boast about its supposed superiority,” according to Polly Mackenzie of the Demos think tank.
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Month: October 2020
FCC Proposes New Rules for Foreign-Sponsored Broadcasts
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing a rule change that would require television and radio broadcasters to publicly disclose if any of their content is sponsored by foreign governments.The “American people deserve to know when a foreign government has paid for programming, or furnished it for free, so that viewers and listeners can better evaluate the value and accuracy of such programming,” the proposal, which was released Monday, reads.According to the new requirements, broadcasters would be required to reveal foreign government sponsorship, directly or indirectly, at the time of the broadcast. Current rules do not give guidance as to when or how such foreign sponsorship should be disclosed, according to the Reuters news agency.“Right now, we are awash in reports that foreign actors are attempting to influence our political process and democratic elections in the United States,” said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, in a written statement. “But it’s mind boggling that the FCC has yet to update its policies…to ensure that the public knows when foreign actors who may wish to do us harm are paying to access our airwaves and influence our citizens.”Last month, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said content sponsored by China and Russia provide a reason “to update our rules and shed more sunlight on these practices.”“Today we begin to fix this situation,” Rosenworcel said. “We propose to adopt specific disclosure requirements for broadcast programming that is paid for or provided by a foreign government or its representative. This is about basic transparency, and it frankly shouldn’t have taken us so long.”She added that Democrats in Congress have been pushing for the rule changes for three years.
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With US Election a Week Away, Trump and Biden Campaign in Contested States
With one week until Election Day, Republican U.S. President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, headed Tuesday to political battleground states in a frantic push to shore up critical support to win a four-year term in the White House.Their travel plans reflect the state of the race, with polls showing Biden ahead of Trump by seven to nine percentage points nationally and about half that in contested states that are likely to determine the overall outcome.On Tuesday, Trump is on defense, headed to three midwestern states he won in his upset victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 — Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska – and likely needs to capture again to win a second term. But polls show him trailing in Michigan and Wisconsin and, while he is ahead statewide in reliably Republican Nebraska, he trails in the race to win a single elector in an Omaha-based congressional district that could play a role in deciding next week’s national winner. Meanwhile, the seemingly confident Biden is on offense, headed to two stops in the southern state of Georgia, which has not backed a Democrat for president since 1992. Pollsters show Biden and Trump locked in a tossup to win the state’s 16 Electoral College votes.Typically, all of a state’s Electoral College votes go to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in that state. Both Trump and Biden are looking to piece together state-by-state victories to get to a majority of 270 in the 538-member Electoral College, where the most populous states hold the most sway.Trump lost the national popular vote four years ago and is likely to again this time, but he retains a chance to win the presidency a second time in the Electoral College if he can claim wins in key battleground states he is visiting in the final days of the contentious campaign.
Four years ago, Trump narrowly won three northern states – Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – that traditionally have voted for Democrats. He likely needs to capture at least Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes, along with holding other key states he won in 2016, in order to remain the U.S. leader.Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden arrives to speak with supporters outside a voter service center, in Chester, Pennsylvania, Oct. 26, 2020.Forecasts show Biden has numerous paths to 270 votes in the Electoral College, including recapturing Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin while holding on to all the states Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton won in 2016. Currently, polls show Biden ahead of Trump in all the states she captured, making Trump’s climb to winning even steeper.Later in the week, Biden is headed to another state Trump won last time — the Midwest farm state of Iowa. Biden’s vice-presidential running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris, is visiting two more 2016 Trump states — Arizona, where polling shows Biden narrowly pulling ahead, and populous Texas with 38 electors, where Trump is maintaining a slight advantage.But the former vice president is also mindful of Clinton’s downfall at the end of the 2016 campaign when she shunned a last-minute stop in Wisconsin. Biden is visiting there later in the week, as well as Michigan and the pivotal southeastern state of Florida, Trump’s adopted home state where he maintains a mansion along the Atlantic coastline.On Tuesday, Trump, fresh from presiding over Monday night’s White House swearing-in ceremony for newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, is heading to a rally in the Michigan capital of Lansing and a stop in the small city of West Salem, Wisconsin, before leaving for the visit to Omaha, Nebraska’s biggest city.At large outdoor rallies, Trump has contended that he successfully helped build the American economy before it was decimated this year by the onslaught of the coronavirus, and that he can restore the economy again.Trump has several times this week said the national news media continue to report extensively on the devastation the pandemic has wrought on the U.S., which has recorded a world-leading 225,000 deaths and 8.7 million infections, according to the Johns Hopkins University.In all caps, Trump tweeted, “ALL THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA WANTS TO TALK ABOUT IS COVID, COVID, COVID. ON NOVEMBER 4th, YOU WON’T BE HEARING SO MUCH ABOUT IT ANYMORE. WE ARE ROUNDING THE TURN!!!”ALL THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA WANTS TO TALK ABOUT IS COVID, COVID, COVID. ON NOVEMBER 4th, YOU WON’T BE HEARING SO MUCH ABOUT IT ANYMORE. WE ARE ROUNDING THE TURN!!!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2020But Biden has regularly assailed Trump’s handling of the virus, saying in a statement that the moment “required presidential leadership – and when we needed it, President Trump panicked. He froze. And today, eight months into this crisis, he still has no plan to get the virus under control, no interest in listening to the scientists, and no ability to lead our country through this moment.”More than 66 million Americans have already cast early ballots, two-thirds of them by mail and one-third in person at polling stations. Many voters say they are looking to avoid coming face-to-face with others in the expected long lines of people waiting to cast ballots next Tuesday.
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South Africans Watch US Election With Interest, Trepidation
South Africa, Africa’s most mature democracy, is watching the American election with great interest — and trepidation.
Residents of the country, for the most part, say four years of U.S.-Africa relations under President Donald Trump have done nothing for their lives. VOA spoke to analysts and citizens in Johannesburg, the economic hub of the continent, about what matters to them as America votes.
VOA has, during the past four years, spoken to hundreds of South Africans of all backgrounds about U.S. politics and found few who openly support Trump. Most pin their disapproval on reports that he made disparaging comments about African nations.
On the streets of Johannesburg, entrepreneur Katyala Maine says he’s pulling for former Vice President Joe Biden. Here’s what he thinks of the current president:
“He wants to make America great again, but America needs the rest of the world in order for it to be great. The fact that he believes that disinvestment or lesser aid to African countries is warranted, well, that’s his opinion,” Maine said.
Others, like technical support worker Itumeleng Mofokeng, say they pine for the past, and try to ignore the deluge of news.
“Personally, I’m still all for [former President] Barack Obama. I wish America could do the right thing and bring back Barack Obama. I’m not feeling … who’s our new president? Donald Trump? Personally, no, he’s not my favorite,” Mofokeng said.
American diplomat-turned-journalist Brooks Spector, who has lived in South Africa since the 1970s, says South Africans’ fascination with the U.S. is understandable.
“It’s a kind of mirror image of their own society with a lot of the same prickly bits and wounds, but phrased or framed in a different kind of way so that they see — and Americans see this too, obviously — race relations in the United States is a topic of surpassing importance to the American society, history politics life, religion – the whole thing,” Spector said.
The most important policy aspect, he said, is the African Growth and Opportunities Act, which expires in 2025. The act allowed South Africa to export $8.55 billion dollars’ worth of goods, duty free, to the U.S. in 2018.
But some South Africans, like photographer Ezra Qua-Enoo, say they are indifferent to the world’s largest economy.
“Donald Trump and his policy on Africa? I actually don’t know what his policy on Africa is. But, like, I actually don’t care for what’s happening in America at all, to be honest,” Qua-Enoo said.
Africa has not come up often on the campaign trail, but Trump’s periodic tweets about the continent — from his concerns about killings of white farmers in South Africa to more recent comments about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam — have sparked criticisms from African leaders.
Biden has also seldom brought up the continent but counts former Obama-era policy experts on his campaign team — a sign he may seek to restore the previous administration’s Africa policy.
This election may be unfolding on the other side of the world, South Africans say, but the result could affect their lives too — and they are watching.
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New Storm Bears Down on Flood-Damaged Central Vietnam
The third typhoon in a month is bearing down on Central Vietnam, where residents are still reeling from historic flooding and landslides that have claimed 130 lives and affected more than 5 million people.Another 20 people are still missing in the wake of two storms that ravaged the central provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue, Da Nang, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh.Typhoon Linfa and Typhoon Nangka both hit in the first two weeks of October. Now Typhoon Molave is bearing down and expected to hit the same region within hours.A monk hands out food supplies to locals in a pagoda in Quang Tri.Local authorities have asked residents in Da Nang and Hue to stay indoors through Tuesday night for their own safety, and are preparing to potentially evacuate nearly 1.3 million people from the most vulnerable areas.The storm’s eye was forecast to be directly over Da Nang’s coastline by 10 am Thursday with winds reaching up to 150 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 167-183 kilometers per hour.Residents in Da Nang have been taking preventive measures by sandbagging the entrances to their homes and businesses. Meanwhile, local workers have been frantically lopping treetops in the My Khe beach neighborhood.Residents have been told to expect power cuts and more potential flooding and landslides over the coming days.Last week, 22 soldiers went missing in a landslide at a military camp in Quang Tri and as of now 14 bodies have been found. This is likely to be the greatest loss of life to strike Vietnam’s military since the end of its civil war.Quang Tri was a significant battlefront in the Vietnam War and underground military tunnels as well as tanks from the war are still on display today.A woman pushes a child on a bicycle through a flooded street in Quang Tri.Each year the central coastal provinces of Vietnam are prone to massive storms; however, the severity of this year’s flooding is the worst the country has seen in over two decades.The heavier than usual downpours this year are being attributed to a “La Nina” climate pattern, which as many as five or six more tropical depressions could reach Vietnam’s 2,000-mile coastline this year.“The flooding in Quang Tri is worse than the floods in 1999, but we are Vietnamese and we are strong,” said Ms Anh, a local resident who is assisting with the relief effort. “The government is of course helping us and other locally-run charities are helping as well.”Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh said last week that the government will be provide the equivalent of about $21.5 million to five of the hardest hit provinces.The wetlands of Quang Tri are home to many farmers who mainly grow rice and raise livestock, much of which has been lost in the floods.“We will collect the money and other items to provide for the local people… these days, the local people have nothing to eat, nothing to drink… so we will try to provide them with something to eat and drink,” said a local female volunteer helping out at a Buddhist pagoda in Quang Tri.A local man wearing a raincoat stands near a home that was recently flooded in Quang Tri.The monks and other members of the pagoda have been providing food and assistance for 200 households in a flood-affected village in Quang Tri. The damage to rice paddies, roads, homes, schools, shops and other businesses is clearly visible throughout the coastal areas of the province.Almost every remaining house in the wetland areas shows a distinct muddy line just a few meters from the ceiling, showing how high the water levels rose. Other houses were completely submerged.Lacking electricity and pumps, residents have been laboriously sweeping out the muddy water with brooms and wheelbarrows. Schools have been shut for over two weeks and many facilities, including computers, playground equipment, textbooks and toys have been destroyed.Locals walking through a flooded road in Quang Tri.Since the beginning of October, dramatic images and videos carried in the local media have shown distressed people searching for their missing loved ones, fisherman caught at sea being rescued by emergency workers in helicopters, and locals climbing onto their roofs as they wait to be rescued.The United States Agency for International Development gifted the Vietnam Red Cross Society $100,000 on Saturday, and another $100,000 has been promised by the U.N. Development Program and Save the Children Vietnam. The Australian Ambassador to Vietnam, Robyn Mudie, announced Friday that Australia will be providing the equivalent of $71,000 in relief funds as well.Pacific Links Foundation and Blue Dragon are two prominent organizations that are working on the ground in the flood zones helping families at risk by donating aid and raising money.
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UN Urges End to Violence, Intimidation in Run-Up to Ivory Coast Elections
The U.N. human rights office is urging the government of Ivory Coast to restrain its security forces and curb violent inter-communal clashes and political protests in the run-up to Saturday’s presidential elections.
At least 20 people reportedly have been killed in inter-communal clashes and violent confrontations between Ivorian security forces and opposition protesters.
U.N. human rights monitors report that demonstrations between Oct. 17 and 21 in Bongouanou, Dabou, Abidjan and other locations have become increasingly violent.
A spokesman for the human rights office, Ravina Shamdasani, told VOA there has been a worrying uptick in violent crackdowns on demonstrations by security forces and particularly aggressive attacks by unidentified individuals.
“These unidentified individuals are known as microbes who have carried out these assaults, threats, intimidating protesters wielding machetes and knives. There are allegations that the modus operandi of these microbes, as they are called, are known to the state authorities,” Shamdasani said.
Tension was stoked when President Alassane Ouattara said he would seek a third term, which critics say is unconstitutional. That tension has grown as the election draws closer, as has the use of threatening and discriminatory tactics to stifle dissent.
Shamdasani said there is a deeply worrying and persistent use of hate speech aimed at manipulating ethnic differences for political ends.
“Given the history of electoral violence in Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), we appeal to all parties to refrain from using discriminatory and provocative language along ethnic affiliations that could lead to more divisions in society and, ultimately, violence,” Shamdasani said.
Thousands were killed in the aftermath of the 2010 election when then-president Laurent Gbabgo refused to concede defeat to Ouattara.
The U.N. human rights office is calling on authorities to conduct prompt, thorough and impartial investigations into all human rights violations and abuses regardless of political affiliation and to hold the alleged perpetrators accountable.
The agency is appealing for calm in the lead up to the Oct. 31 election and in its aftermath to resolve differences through dialogue.
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Embattled Malaysian PM Receives Support From Former Ruling Party
Embattled Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has received crucial support from a key ally in his attempt to keep his fragile governing coalition together.
The United Malays National Organization issued a statement Monday offering its support for the prime minister as the country faces a surge of new coronavirus cases.
Prime Minister Muhyiddin appeared to be on the brink of being forced from power a day earlier after King Al-Sultan Abdullah rejected his request to declare a state of emergency due to the pandemic. Had the king approved Muhyiddin’s request, the state of emergency would have suspended parliament before the prime minister is due to present a budget in early November.
Failure to pass the budget would be the equivalent of a no-confidence vote against Muhyiddin and put pressure on him to call for a general election.
Muhyiddin has been prime minister since February, when he was chosen by King Abdullah after then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad unexpectedly resigned and his government collapsed. His slim alliance includes UMNO, which had ruled Malaysia for more than six decades since it gained independence from Britain in 1957.
UMNO leaders have been angered over Muhyiddin’s failure to place its members in senior leadership positions.
Veteran opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim met with the king last month and said he gave the monarch the names of 120 members of the 222-seat parliament who are ready to defect from the prime minister’s coalition. Anwar led a coalition that ousted scandal-tainted Prime Minister Najib Razak and the ruling UMNO-led coalition from power in a historic election in 2018.
But Najib, who remains in parliament despite a conviction on corruption charges, has called on UMNO to join forces with Anwar’s coalition.
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Russia Issues National Mask Mandate After Coronavirus Cases Surge
Russian authorities issued a national mask requirement Tuesday as the country set a single day record for coronavirus deaths amid a resurgence of new cases.Health officials reported 16,550 new cases and 320 new deaths Tuesday, the highest daily death toll since the pandemic started.In response, Russia’s consumer safety and public health agency, Rospotrebnadzor, ordered all Russians to wear masks in crowded public spaces, on public transit, in taxis, parking lots and elevators starting on Wednesday.The agency also recommends regional authorities put a curfew on entertainment events, cafes, restaurants and bars from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.Russia has the world’s fourth largest tally of more than 1.5 million confirmed cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the pandemic.The government’s coronavirus task force has been reporting more than 15,000 new infections every day since Sunday, which is much higher than in spring.Russia has reported more than 26,000 virus-related deaths.Despite the sharp spike in daily infections, Russian authorities have repeatedly dismissed the idea of imposing a second national lockdown or shutting down businesses.Most virus-related restrictions were lifted in July as cases dropped, but masks were still encouraged.
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Italians Protest New COVID Restrictions
Violent protests erupted in more than 15 cities across Italy after the government announced new measures to rein in a second wave of COVID-19 infections. Italian leaders are rushing to stave off criticism with a financial rescue package for struggling businesses.
Angry protesters took to the streets of some of Italy’s largest cities but also smaller ones from the north to the south of the country to show their discontent with the new nationwide COVID-19 restrictions.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told Italians he was well aware “this is a complex moment as this is a pandemic that is harshly challenging us, causing anger, frustration and new inequalities. Aware of how many businesses are suffering, Conte said the government had worked out a plan.
He said that compensation has already been earmarked for all those who will suffer under the new restrictions.
Government officials hope the measures will be enough to quell the anger.
Italians were the first to face a widespread outbreak of the virus earlier this year and were hit with one of the world’s toughest lockdowns, which did serious damage to the country’s economy.
At the time, they complied with the government’s rules and the tough action managed to rein in the virus by the summer.Police officers are seen in front of a garbage bin set on fire during a protest against new government restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus, in Turin, Italy, Oct. 26, 2020.This time, reactions were far from measured and it appeared not everyone in the country was ready to adhere to the government’s guidelines and rules. Far-right groups and organized crime also appear to be behind the recent clashes.
In cities like Turin, Milan, Naples and Rome, hundreds of protesters ransacked stores, vandalized trams and set garbage cans on fire. Groups of young people threw glass bottles and chanted “freedom, freedom.”
Many opposition politicians and even some members of parliament of the ruling coalition government voiced their disapproval of the tough new measures saying the already battered economy would not be able to cope. Far-right leader Matteo Salvini announced he was launching a legal challenge to the government’s decisions.
Business owners are in despair saying some will have to close forever. But some scientists say the measures adopted until November 24 still do not go far enough and that beds in intensive care units of hospitals are quickly running out.
Up for approval Tuesday was a package of up to $6 billion to support businesses in the restaurant, sports and entertainment sectors, hard hit by the new restrictions.
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Protests Flare in Philadelphia After Police Fatally Shoot Black Man
Street protests broke out on Monday night in the western part of the U.S. city of Philadelphia, injuring four police, after police had shot and killed a Black man they said had been armed with a knife.
The violence is the latest in months of anti-racism protests across the United States since the May death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American, after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
Four officers were hit with bricks when Monday’s protest outside a police station in Philadelphia turned violent and they had to be taken to hospital, broadcaster NBC said.
Earlier, a man identified by officials as Walter Wallace, 27, had approached two police officers who drew their guns after warning him to put down the knife, video of the afternoon’s shooting on social media showed.
The incident raised questions and was being investigated, Mayor Jim Kenny and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said in separate statements.
“The Officer Involved Shooting Investigation Unit of the Philadelphia police department will conduct a full investigation,” Kenney said.
Outlaw said she heard “the anger of the community” after Wallace’s death.
Reuters could not immediately verify the video on social media, recorded by a bystander, which showed the two officers point their guns at Wallace as he walked in the street.
He approached them as they backed away, with guns still aimed at him, while yelling to him to put down his knife.
Both then fired several shots and Wallace collapsed in the street, according to the video.
Tension rose as the death of Wallace sparked clashes between protesters and local police.
Since the incident in Minneapolis, demonstrators have turned out nationwide to demand racial equality and an end to police brutality, with protests sometimes turning violent.
Activist groups reiterated a demand to defund the police, with the American Civil Liberties Union saying state violence could not be the answer to society’s problems.
“It is time to divest in police and invest in community programs, including the kind of mental health services that allow intervention that may have prevented Mr. Wallace’s killing,” said Reggie Shuford, executive director of the Pennsylvania ACLU.
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Long COVID-19 Lockdown Ends In Australia’s Second Most Populous City
One of the world’s longest COVID-19 lockdowns is coming to an end in the Australian city of Melbourne. Beginning Tuesday, all shops, cafes and restaurants can re-open, and strict-stay-at home orders will be lifted. The lockdown was imposed in early July in response to a deadly second wave of infections. Victoria, Australia’s second most populous state, has for a second consecutive day recorded no new coronavirus infections or fatalities. A sustained fall in daily cases has allowed the authorities to end one of the world’s longest COVID-19 lockdowns in the city of Melbourne. Starting on Tuesday, the retail and hospitality industries can reopen, although conditions still apply. Face coverings remain mandatory, and cafes and restaurants can serve a maximum of 20 people inside and 50 people outdoors. Weddings can now proceed with up to 10 guests and funerals with 20 mourners. Strict stay-at-home orders imposed on Melbourne’s five million residents will end. Victoria premier Daniel Andrews says now is the time to bring the lockdown to an end.“We are able to say that now is the time to open up. This belongs to every single Victorian, every single Victorian who has followed the rules, stayed the course, worked with me and my team to bring this second wave to an end. But it is not over. This virus is not going away. It is going to continue to be a feature of our lives every day until a vaccine turns up. These are big steps,” Andrews said.Men queue for a haircut outside a barber shop in Melbourne on October 19, 2020, as some of the city’s three-month-old stay-at-home restrictions due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak were further eased on falling infection rates.Victoria state has been at the center of Australia’s COVID-19 crisis. It has had the majority of infections and almost 90 per cent of the nation’s virus fatalities. The lockdown has not been universally popular. Two people have been charged over an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne last week, including a woman who allegedly kicked a police horse. The state government has been accused of being too cautious while jobs were lost and there are concerns that the mental health consequences will be dire. Victoria’s conservative opposition leader is Michael O’Brien. “There will be scars on the psyche of this state that will not heal. There are many, many people whose lives have changed permanently because of what they have had to endure over the last few months,” O’Brien said.More than 27,500 coronavirus cases have been diagnosed in Australia, and 905 people have died. The federal government has said there have been four critical parts to the nation’s response to the pandemic: the closure of its international borders to foreign travelers, widespread testing, reliable contact tracing and community respect for hygiene and physical distancing protocols. Victoria’s state government has indicated it plans to ease other restrictions in early November that are likely to include reopening gyms and allowing residents to travel more than 25 kilometers from home. As Melbourne’s lockdown comes to an end, there is immense relief and celebration among residents, or as local media have put it, there have been “cheers, tears and beers.”
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Alleged Financier of Rwanda’s 1994 Genocide Moved to the Hague to Await Trial
The Rwandan businessman suspected of financing the country’s 1994 genocide has been transferred to the Hague to await trial. The United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals said in a statement Monday that 87-year-old Felicien Kabuga would soon go before a judge. Kabuga was moved to the Hague Monday from France, where he evaded arrest for more than 22 years before his capture near Paris in May. Kabuga’s attorneys sought to have him tried in France, but last month the country’s top court approved his transfer to the Hague. Kabuga faces multiples charges, including complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity. Kabuga allegedly bankrolled Hutu militia groups and the Radio television Libre des Mille Collines broadcasts that encouraged the killings. The U.N. court has already identified the judges who will hear Kabuga’s case. So far, no trial date has been set, but a spokesman for the U.N. court said it is likely Kabuga’s trial will begin in 2021.
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Senate Approves Trump’s Third Supreme Court Nominee
The U.S. Senate approved President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, on Monday. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports on the crucial vote that is happening a little over a week before Election Day.Produced by: Katherine Gypson Camera: Adam Greenbaum
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Thousands Flee Homes Near LA as Wildfire Rages
Some 60,000 people fled their homes near Los Angeles on Monday as a fast-spreading wildfire raged across more than 7,200 acres (3,000 hectares), blocking key roadways and critically injuring two firefighters. The so-called Silverado Fire erupted early in the morning in the foothills of Irvine, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, and quickly spread with no containment, fueled by dry conditions and erratic winds that prevented firefighting aircraft from flying. “It’s nuts — even inside the car, my eyes, my nose and my throat stung,” said Frederic Tournadre, a French man whose company in Irvine sent all its employees home. The inferno nearly quadrupled in size by afternoon, jumping a highway and covering the area with a huge plume of smoke and ash. About 20,000 homes were evacuated along with several public schools that were set to remain shut on Tuesday. The National Weather Service warned that the combination of low humidity, dry vegetation and strong winds had created “the most dangerous fire weather conditions” this year. It said the region will remain under a red flag warning — signifying a high risk of wildfire — through Tuesday evening. “New fire ignitions in Los Angeles and Ventura counties will likely have very rapid-fire growth, extreme fire behavior, and long-range spotting, resulting in a significant threat to life and property,” the Weather Service said. Officials said the two injured firefighters sustained second- and third-degree burns and both had to be intubated at an area hospital. “I got an opportunity to talk to members of their families and spend time with both firefighters in the emergency room while they were being treated, but they were not in a position where they could speak with me,” Orange County Fire Authority chief Brian Fennesy told reporters. He added that winds of 20 to 40 miles per hour (mph), with gusts up to 60 mph, had made it extremely difficult for the 500 firefighters trying to control the flames. Dry conditions, high winds”Any time winds are that bad you can’t fly, and that certainly has an impact on both hand crews and bulldozers and firefighters at the end of those hose lines,” he said. Meanwhile another blaze in Yorba Linda, located about 17 miles north of Irvine and dubbed the Blue Ridge Fire, erupted in early afternoon Monday, scorching more than 1,100 acres and also forcing evacuations. The Silverado and Blue Ridge fires were burning as California and much of the US west are under major fire risk because of dry conditions and strong seasonal winds. More than four million acres have been devoured this season by flames in California alone, where 31 people have died in some of the largest fires in the state’s history. Evacuations have been complicated by the coronavirus pandemic which has hit the Golden State hard and hampered the work of firefighters. The state fire agency Cal Fire said Monday that more than 4,000 firefighters are battling 22 wildfires, with 34 million people under red flag warnings. It said that wind gusts upwards of 80 miles (130 kilometers) an hour were expected in mountain areas of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The critical fire weather prompted Southern California Edison to shut off power to hundreds of customers in the two counties in a precautionary move to avert any electrical equipment from sparking blazes.
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Pentagon: State Department OKs Potential Arms Sales to Taiwan
The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of 100 Boeing-made Harpoon Coastal Defense Systems to Taiwan in a deal that has a potential value of up to $2.37 billion, the Pentagon said Monday. The move comes days after the State Department approved the potential sale of three other weapons systems to Taiwan, including sensors, missiles and artillery that could have a total value of $1.8 billion which prompted a sanctions threat from China. Earlier Monday in Beijing, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman told reporters China will impose sanctions on Lockheed Martin, Boeing Defense, Raytheon and other U.S. companies it says are involved in Washington’s arms sales to Taiwan. The U.S. moves come as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on China in the run-up to the November 3 presidential election and concerns rise about Beijing’s intentions toward Taiwan. Beijing sees Taiwan as a renegade province that it has vowed to reunite with the mainland, by force if necessary.
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Trump Campaign Focuses on Hunter Biden Emails as October Surprise
Trailing in the polls, President Donald Trump has seized upon recently disclosed emails allegedly from the son of Democratic candidate Joe Biden as an “October Surprise” that could alter the race. VOA’s Brian Padden reports on how this development compares to past October Surprises.Producer: Brian Padden
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US Envoy Urges Fresh Approach to Middle East Peace
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft touted recent U.S.-brokered breakthroughs in normalizing relations between Israel and three Arab countries on Monday, and urged her U.N. Security Council colleagues to shed their “decades-old approaches” to Middle East peace and reconsider President Donald Trump’s proposal. “The conversation in the region is changing,” said Craft. “As the president said, a new chapter is beginning.” She pointed to the Sept. 15 signing at the White House of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and two Arab Gulf countries — the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. They were the first such agreements between Israel and an Arab state in 25 years. U.S. President Donald Trump is seen on the phone with leaders of Israel and Sudan in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington.On Friday, Trump announced that the U.S. would take Sudan off the list of state sponsors of terrorism after the transitional government agreed to financially compensate American victims of terror and their families and to normalize relations with Israel. Craft said these developments show that a different approach is needed to forging regional peace. “We encourage our regional partners and the members of this body to thoughtfully consider the United States Vision for Peace and to play a constructive role in encouraging direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians on its basis,” she said of Trump’s plan. The Palestinians have dismissed the proposal outright, but have left the door open to negotiations with Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also rejected the recent peace deals between Israel and the Arab Gulf countries and urged others not to follow suit “at the expense of Palestinian rights.” Then-Israel Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan is seen as he receives Italy’s interior minister at a hotel in Jerusalem on Dec. 11, 2018.Israel’s new U.N. envoy, Gilad Erdan, told the council in his first appearance at their monthly Middle East meeting that while their talking points have not changed for decades, the region has. He criticized the Palestinian leadership for their reaction to the peace deals. “The fact that the Palestinians attack those who make peace with Israel demonstrates that for years, the council has been applying pressure to the wrong side,” Erdan said. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki reiterated his call for an international conference early next year to reinvigorate the stalled peace process. “The international community must act to salvage peace, or we will all bear the consequences,” he told the virtual meeting. Several council members supported the idea of an international conference on the Palestinian-Israeli issue. Craft said the U.S. does not object but does not see how it would be any different than past meetings. “We cannot keep doing what we have been doing and expect things to change. We are failing the Israeli and Palestinian people,” she said. Many council members on Monday also expressed concern about Israel’s Oct. 15 announcement that it is advancing 5,000 settlements. The U.N. said about 85% of the units are in settlements in outlying locations, deep inside the West Bank, and all are in areas that would impede the contiguity of a future Palestinian state. “While the location of these units is particularly worrying, I reiterate that all settlements are illegal under international law and remain a substantial obstacle to peace,” Nickolay Mladenov, U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East Peace process, told the council from Jerusalem. In addition to Bahrain, the UAE and Sudan, Jordan and Egypt also have diplomatic relations with Israel.
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NASA Scientists Discover Water in Sunlit Areas of Moon
The U.S. space agency, NASA, reported Monday it has confirmed water can be found in sunlit areas of the moon, indicating water may be far more widespread than previously thought. NASA said it confirmed the discovery using its Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a flying laboratory onboard a specially modified 747 aircraft. It was previously believed that water molecules could only be found in cold, shadowy areas of the lunar surface. The results of the study are also published in the latest issue of Nature Astronomy. Drier than the SaharaNASA says SOFIA detected water molecules in Clavius – one of the largest craters visible from Earth – in the moon’s southern hemisphere. The data indicates the presence of water in concentrations of 100 to 412 parts per million – roughly equivalent to a 12-ounce bottle of water – trapped in a cubic meter of soil spread across the lunar surface. NASA says by comparison, the Sahara Desert has 100 times the amount of water that SOFIA detected in the lunar soil. But regardless how tiny the amount, the discovery raises new questions about how water is created and how it persists on the harsh, airless lunar surface. NASA scientists say the recent finding is encouraging for the agency’s plans to establish a sustainable human presence on the moon by the end of the decade. It remains to be determined if the water SOFIA found is easily accessible for use as a resource. When people first landed on the moon in 1969, it was believed to be completely dry. But observations from Earth and spacecraft since then have revealed evidence of ice and hydration in a variety of regions. But before now, scientists were not able to distinguish in what form the water was present. Future SOFIA flights will look for water in additional sunlit locations and during different lunar phases to learn more about how the water is produced, stored and moved across the moon. The data will add to the work of future moon missions to create the first water resource maps of the moon for future human space exploration.
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Zimbabwe Hopes Farming Technique Will End Food Shortages
Zimbabwe is hoping to one day regain its former title as the breadbasket of southern Africa.Millions of farmers are being trained in a United Nations-backed program called “Pfumvudza,” which means “early shoots” in Shona. Pfumvudza is a method of conservation agriculture that focuses on small plots that retain water easily, and it is more efficient than large-scale ploughing.“It is easy to maintain,” said George Nyamakawa, 52, who lives in Murehwa district about 100 kilometers east of Harare. “At the same time, it gives more food to the nation.”George Nyamakawa is one of the farmers in Zimbabwe being trained in a United Nations-backed program called “Pfumvudza,” October 23, 2020. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has trained government officials on the method to help combat food shortages that have plagued Zimbabwe for over a decade.Zimbabwe’s government has touted the program as a possible food security solution, but the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) is still providing food aid to about 8 million Zimbabweans – more than half the population.“I think it will take a bit of more time to work towards zero hunger and eradicate the problem all together,” said Niels Balzer, WFP Zimbabwe deputy director.“We have a La Nina season ahead, that means normal to above normal rainfall, which the scientists predict, and we are very happy about that,” he added. “So combined with the Pfumvudza approach or method, I think it will make a difference and we can increase the output.”“Early shoots” farming has its limitations, according to Mandivamba Rukuni, a former economics professor at the University of Zimbabwe who now directs a charity focused on farming innovation in Africa.Mandivamba Rukuni, a former economics professor at the University of Zimbabwe who now directs a charity focused on farming innovation in Africa, says “early shoots” is labor intensive, October 24, 2020. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)He thinks Pfumvudza has advantages, especially in that it uses easily available labor technology – “anyone can dig a small hole and plant” – and that it conserves water. As for disadvantages, he said, “The main one is it’s very labor intensive.”In Zimbabwe, like in many other countries, labor is becoming scarce, especially in rural areas as people move to urban areas.Farmers like Nyamakawa say they are willing to do the extra work if the yields are higher and if they can count on authorities for support.
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British Special Forces Storm Tanker After Reports of Possible Hijacking
British officials say a Liberian-registered oil tanker is docked safely in Southampton and its crew “safe and well” after British naval special forces stormed the ship following a report that stowaways threatened violence. In a statement, ship operator Navios Tanker Management, says the Nave Andromeda left Lagos, Nigeria, on October 6 and had been due to dock in Southampton on Sunday when the ship’s master became “concerned for the safety of the crew due to the increasingly hostile behavior of the stowaways.” A report by the British Broadcasting Corporation indicates the crew had been aware of the stowaways – believed to have been from Nigeria – but said they became unruly and even violent as the ship neared Britain. The ship was circling an area a few kilometers southeast of the Isle of Wight, south of Southampton, and when it failed to dock, local authorities were contacted. A statement on the British ministry of Defense’s Twitter account indicates police requested assistant from the military. The coast guard was also called in and scrambled helicopters to reach the scene. A nearly five-kilometer exclusion zone was established around the vessel. After several hours, commandos from the Royal Navy Special Boat Service were lowered from helicopters onto the ship, whose crew had locked themselves in a secure area. Within minutes, the commandos had detained seven people and secured the vessel. Speaking to reporters Monday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson thanked both the police and armed forces for what they did “to keep our shores safe.”
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Sudan: Normalization With Israel Was US Condition But Will Be Beneficial
Sudan’s transitional government said the decision to normalize relations with Israel was a necessary move that will benefit the Sudanese people economically.Speaking to the al-Hadath TV channel Sunday night, General Yassir Al Atta, a member of Sudan’s ruling Sovereign Council, said that normalizing relations was one of the conditions set by the U.S. government to remove Sudan from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism.Atta said the decision will not hurt anyone in Sudan and was taken after lengthy discussions about protecting the interest of the Sudanese people.“We were compelled to choose this and we know nothing will harm our people,” Atta said. “We have been fighting along our Arab sisterly countries on many war fronts since 1948 to regain our rights. But now, we have come to a conclusion that all the Arab nations are not in any form of war with Israel.”Sudan joins Egypt, JordanRelations between Israel and many Arab countries have remained hostile for decades due to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Palestinians want as land for a future state. Until this year, only Egypt and Jordan had made peace with the Jewish state.Sudan’s justice minister, Nasruddeen Abdulbari, issued a statement on Saturday saying building ties with Israel is legal and falls within the mandate of the transitional government which is enshrined in the constitution. The transitional government was formed last year after the 30-year rule of Islamist President Omar al-Bashir.Both Atta and Abdulbari said they believe improved relations with Israel will benefit Sudan economically.Umma party supports moveMubarak al-Fadil, chairman of the Umma party reform faction, also welcomed the move.Speaking to VOA’s South Sudan in Focus program, al-Fadil said Sudan is an agricultural land and Israel has pledged to support Sudan with new agricultural technology which will boost local production.“Sudan needs very much advanced technology in agriculture and irrigation, especially that Sudan is an agricultural country with vast arable lands amounting to 200 million hectares,” he said. “We only now cultivate 45 million hectares with very low productivity and high cost.”Israeli adviser praises decision A special adviser to Israeli Minister of Intelligence Eli Cohen echoed those comments, saying the deal will give Sudan access to advanced Israeli technologies in agriculture, medicine, and other fields.Israel official Arye Shalicar said Israeli and Sudanese officials and experts have been in negotiations for months to re-establish relations after several decades of belligerence.“We believe it’s a win-win situation for both sides: Sudan is definitely a very big country strategically located in the heart of Africa, [and] is a relatively close neighborhood of Israel as well, just south of Egypt. So for us [it’s] a very important location or area that we would like to be friends with rather than enemies with,” Shalicar told VOA Monday from Israel.Terror listSudan was put on the U.S. state sponsors of terror list in 1993 because al-Qaida leaders including Osama bin Laden were given safe harbor in Sudan. Bin Laden lived in Khartoum from 1991 to 1996.Al Fadil said now that Sudan will be off the list, Israel should work with its allies in Europe and other countries to support the transitional government in Sudan so it can rejoin the world financial system.The normalization agreement which was brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump is the third such deal the president has mediated to establish relations between Israel and Arab countries after decades of hostility. Last month, the Jewish state signed normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Bahrain in a White House ceremony.The Israeli official said he is confident that relations between his country and Sudan will grow and benefit both countries and the region in terms of greater cooperation and security.“It’s just a matter of time before both countries will join forces in various fields together with our new friends in the Gulf: Emirates and Bahrain and hopefully other countries in the region will follow.”Opposition notedShalicar said his government is aware that there’s opposition to the Sudan-Israel normalization deal inside Sudan.“This is unfortunate but we understand that some people in the society — not just in Sudan but we see this in other countries and regions as well — they have been educated by radical preachers, often preachers with radical Islamic world views.”Shalicar said opposition to the normalization deal inside Sudan will not deter the two countries from moving forward with their new relationship.“In the end the Sudanese leadership is doing the right thing for the people of Sudan,” he said.
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Erdogan Calls for Boycott of French Goods
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Turkish citizens to boycott French goods in response to what he says is France’s “anti-Islam” agenda.During a televised speech Monday, he also called for European Union countries to pressure France to end French President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to fight what he called “Islamist separatism.” Macron has said separatism threatens to take over some Muslim communities in France.”Never give credit to French-labeled goods. Don’t buy them,” Erdogan said, according to the BBC. He added that “European leaders should tell the French president to stop his hate campaign.”Tensions between the two NATO allies have risen in recent months as Macron vowed to defend secularism in the wake of the public beheading of a French teacher earlier this month by a Muslim militant over cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad.French President Emmanuel Macron speaks after meeting with the medical staff of the Rene Dubos hospital center, in Pontoise, outside Paris, Oct. 23, 2020.Macron called Islam a religion “in crisis,” the BBC reported, and announced measures to stem what he called separatism. France has the largest Muslim community in Western Europe.Just how much of an impact a boycott would have remains to be seen. France is the 10th largest source of imports to Turkey. France is also Turkey’s seventh biggest market for exports, Reuters reported.France and Turkey have also clashed recently over policy in Syria and Libya, as well as Turkish oil and gas exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. More recently, the two have been at odds over the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
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Trump Rejects Biden Assertion He’s Waved ‘White Flag’ on Coronavirus
U.S. President Donald Trump says he has not given up on the fight against the coronavirus, rejecting criticism from his Democratic election opponent Joe Biden that his administration has waved “the white flag of defeat.” Speaking to reporters on the tarmac at an airport in Allentown just before the first of three rallies Monday in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Trump said Biden is “waving the white flag on life. He has to leave his basement. This guy doesn’t leave his basement.” FILE – Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a drive-in campaign stop at Bucks County Community College in Bristol, Pa., Oct. 24, 2020.Biden on Saturday held two drive-in rallies in Pennsylvania, adhering to social distancing restrictions, but he is not campaigning Monday. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that the United States is “not going to control” the coronavirus pandemic, defending the decision by the Trump administration and campaign to hold packed rallies, where mask use is sparse, and other events despite surging COVID-19 cases. FILE – White House chief of staff Mark Meadows speaks with reporters at the White House, Oct. 21, 2020, in Washington.Meadows added that “We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigations, because it is a contagious virus — just like the flu.” “This wasn’t a slip by Meadows, it was a candid acknowledgement of what President Trump’s strategy has clearly been from the beginning of this crisis: to wave the white flag of defeat and hope that by ignoring it, the virus would simply go away. It hasn’t, and it won’t,” said a Sunday statement from Biden. “He’s not going to give up until all Americans are safe and we’ve defeated this virus,” Meadows clarified to reporters at the White House on Monday, saying his comment of the previous day needs to be taken in full context and that therapeutic drugs and an eventual vaccine will be effective. Five of the vice president’s closest aides, including his chief of staff, Marc Short, have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days. Despite the close contact with Short and others who have been infected, the vice president has said he plans on continuing with his schedule, deeming his work “essential.” Vice President Mike Pence makes a fist at the end of a rally in Kinston, North Carolina, Oct. 25, 2020.Pence headed to Minnesota for a quick campaign stop on Monday and is holding events on Tuesday in both North Carolina and South Carolina. An aide to Pence said he no longer plans on presiding over Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Senate confirmation vote to the Supreme Court late Monday “unless his vote is needed.” Members of Senate Democratic leadership, in a letter to Pence, had said his attendance would “be a clear violation of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, it would also be a violation of common decency and courtesy.” The United States has reported more COVID-19 cases than any country — more than 8.6 million with 225,000 deaths attributed to the virus, according to data from John Hopkins University.
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From Cold War to Gray War: Internet Conflict Intensifying
A former top security adviser to Boris Johnson has revealed that Britain has launched recently a series of covert cyber-based attacks on Russian leaders and their interests to “impose a price greater than one they might have expected” for their cyber-offensive against the West. Other allied powers, including the U.S., are doing so, too, say Western intelligence officials in what is becoming a “like-for-like” cyber-conflict with the Kremlin in the so-called the “gray space,” the gap between normal state relations and armed conflict. “The fact you don’t see that we use it doesn’t mean we don’t, because we wouldn’t necessarily talk about those things,” said Mark Sedwill, until recently Britain’s top civil servant and national security adviser to Britain’s Boris Johnson. But in an interview with The Times newspaper, Sedwill underscored that Britain is using its cyber-offense capabilities to retaliate for Russian cyberattacks, information warfare and disruption campaigns. FILE – A still image taken from video shows Mark Sedwill, the top civil servant at Britain’s Home Office at the time. giving evidence at a Commons Home Affairs Select Committee hearing in London, July 8, 2014.“We seek to impose a price, usually a price greater than one they might have expected when we believe it is right and necessary,” he said. “We can’t leave the initiative to our adversaries,” he added. Britain has had an offensive cyber capability for more than decade and used it against the Islamic State, including targeting the terror group’s low-tech drones in the Iraqi town of Mosul in 2018. But officials rarely discuss how they defend against or carry out hacking attacks — nor have they spelled out what they consider legitimate targets outside a full-scale declared war. Last month, Gen. Patrick Sanders, who heads Britain strategic command, raised the veil a little, telling reporters that in theory Britain has the ability to “degrade, disrupt and even destroy critical capabilities and infrastructure of those who would do us harm, ranging from strategic to tactical targets.” The British military partners with GCHQ, Britain’s electronic intelligence agency. Sanders said: “The binary distinction between war and peace as we have approached it no longer applies.” From the first time, Sedwill said Britain had used its cyber-offensive capabilities to retaliate for the 2018 novichok attack on Sergei Skripal, the former Russian double agent in the English city of Salisbury. FILE – Police officers stand guard outside the home of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, Britain, March 8, 2018.“After the Salisbury attack, first use of chemical weapons against a country in Europe in a century, we retaliated in visible ways. We expelled the entire Russian intelligence network in the UK,” he said. “But we also took a series of other discreet measures including tackling some of the illicit money flows out of Russia, and covert measures as well, which obviously I can’t talk about,” he added. Sedwill’s comments suggest Western powers are increasingly taking the gloves off in an intensifying “gray war” with Russia, as well as with Iran, China, and North Korea. “It is important that we are capable of maneuvering in the grey space, in that zone, and doing so effectively. We can’t leave the initiative to our adversaries,” he said. Last week, U.S. federal prosecutors unveiled indictments of six Russian military intelligence operatives for a series of cyber-attacks in an offensive spree aimed at undermining Western democracies by sowing confusion in everything from the 2016 U.S. presidential election to the South Korean Olympics in 2018. The indictments were the result of prolonged investigations by FBI analysts in cooperation with Google, Cisco, Facebook and Twitter as well with allied Western intelligence agencies, including Britain’s. FILE – A general view shows the headquarters of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, formerly known as the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), in Moscow, Russia, Oct. 4, 2018.Thomas Rid, an American academic and author of the recently published book “Active Measure” said the level of detail in the indictment probably reflected the degree to which the GRU hacking operations had been infiltrated. “The Five Eyes intelligence communities, I would suspect, must have stunning visibility into Russian military intelligence operations if today’s disclosures are considered dispensable,” he tweeted after the indictments were made public.
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