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At least 14 civilians killed by booby traps in Egypt’s Sinai

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 11:01:06 GMT

Thai protesters rally ahead of parliamentary debate
Pro-democracy protesters in Thailand gathered again Sunday in Bangkok, seeking to keep up pressure on the government a day ahead of a special session of Parliament called to try to ease political tensions. Few protesters turned out in the first hour of the rally, as a better publicized protest had already been called for Monday. The rallies were called Saturday night after Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha ignored the protesters’ deadline to step down.

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 10:23:35 GMT

Egyptians vote in second day of parliamentary elections
Egyptians on Sunday trickled into polling stations on the second day of voting for the country’s parliamentary election amid a slight uptick in daily recorded coronavirus cases. The vote is likely to produce a toothless House of Representatives packed with supporters of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi that further rubber-stamps his policies, leaving the former military general with almost unchecked powers.

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 09:20:00 GMT

Afghanistan claims killing an al-Qaida leader wanted by FBI
Afghanistan claimed Sunday it killed a top al-Qaida propagandist on an FBI most-wanted list during an operation in the country's east, showing the militant group's continued presence there as U.S. forces work to withdraw from America's longest-running war amid continued bloodshed. The reported death of Husam Abd al-Rauf, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Muhsin al-Masri, follows weeks of violence including an Islamic State-claimed suicide bombing Saturday at an education center near Kabul that killed 24 people. Meanwhile, the Afghan government continues to fight Taliban militants even as peace talks in Qatar between the two sides take place for the first time.

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 07:37:28 GMT

Ukraine's local elections test leader and his young party
Ukrainians were voting Sunday in local elections that are considered a test for President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a former comedian who took office last year vowing to bring peace, uproot endemic corruption and shore up a worsening economy. Zelenskiy was elected president by a landslide in April 2019 after campaigning on promises to end fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists in the country's east. Despite his lack of prior political experience, he quickly cemented his grip on power by calling a parliamentary election that resulted in his party winning a strong majority.

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 07:23:58 GMT

The Glue of the United Kingdom Is Slowly Dissolving
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Six years ago Scotland voted by a 10-point margin to stay part of the U.K. Yet the last nine consecutive opinion polls show the backing for leave as high as 58 per cent, and averaging at 53 per cent. This sustained lead for independence spells trouble for Boris Johnson’s government, which fears demands for a second referendum will become overwhelming.The Scottish National Party is expected to sweep to victory in local elections in May 2021, giving it an outright majority in the Edinburgh Assembly. The SNP has already been trying in the Scottish courts to circumvent a Johnson veto on another referendum. Whatever happens, the nationalists will ramp up their provocations.Last week Bloomberg News revealed that Hanbury Strategy, a consultancy firm close to the Conservatives, had drawn up a detailed plan for ministers to defeat the nationalists. The main tidbit in the leaked memo was the advice that the government should “coopt the European Union” into arguing that an independent Scotland would struggle to rejoin the bloc. That would be an embarrassing last resort for an administration hellbent on Brexit, with or without a trade deal. The EU wouldn’t easily be coopted by Johnson.The last independence referendum was meant to settle the issue of the Union for a generation. Yet now it’s in peril again. The threat has international ramifications.The end of the United Kingdom would raise a question about Britain’s standing in the world, a deeper one than that posed by Brexit. If Northern Ireland were ever to vote to join the Irish republic, the damage could be limited: The status of the North has been unsettled since partition in 1921. But if Scotland were to secede that would be the end of the extraordinarily successful 307-year-old partnership that created the British Empire and fought two world wars.Post-independence, London would lose its Scottish nuclear submarine bases and its permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council might be challenged. The rump U.K. would be diminished, in self-confidence and size.Independence would impoverish the Scots, too. That argument clinched the vote last time and its force has redoubled since Covid-19. Sooner or later the Conservatives must make it again. But is Johnson the right man to do it?Before the pandemic, the Treasury in London already subsidized Edinburgh by up to 12 billion pounds ( billion) a year. Scotland’s implicit budget deficit pre-crisis was 8.6% of gross domestic product, about 6 percentage points higher than the U.K. as a whole, according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies. Post-Covid, the Office for Budget Responsibility estimates those numbers could balloon to a 19% implicit deficit. Total borrowing was already equivalent to £2,776 per person in Scotland as opposed to £855 for the U.K.Pre-Covid even the SNP’s own Sustainable Growth Commission proposed holding down growth in public spending to 0.5%, “implying cuts to areas other than health, social care and pensions.” Post-Covid that would mean sharp tax increases and spending cuts.As it stands, London’s subsidies play into the nationalists’ hands, allowing them to implement popular — and expensive — policies. They bankroll spending on services that are largely devolved to the Scottish government: the abolition of prescription charges, university tuition fees and free personal care for the elderly. Scotland spends 22% more per person on education than England, with no better results. Some 10 percent of Scottish pupils are thought not to have been in education regularly since the start of the Covid outbreak.Even if Scotland gained EU admission — a big if given Europe’s fear of encouraging separatists — the country would have a hard border with the rest of the U.K. over which 60% of its exports flow.Yet heart can overrule head when the self-determination of a proud people is the issue.There are three reasons for the recent pro-independence surge. Scots voted against Brexit by almost two to one and were dismayed by their vastly more populous southern neighbor’s decision to leave. That has pushed many pro-Europeans into the independence camp. Second, not since Margaret Thatcher has an English Conservative been so disliked north of the border as Johnson. His louche, blustering image doesn’t sit well with puritan Scots. Scottish Tories ask whether his heart is in Unionism or English nationalism.Lastly, Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish nationalist leader, has become a commanding figure during the crisis. Her administration’s many Covid failures replicate the blunderings of Westminster, but her reassuring language has boosted her standing. She has deployed Scotland’s devolved powers over health to eye-catching effect. London has discovered to its consternation that all the nations of the U.K., minus England, can go their own way in this epidemic. Historians see the glue of Union slowly dissolving. Linda Colley’s influential book “Britons,” published 30 years ago, observed that the causes that kept the two nations together — Protestantism, empire and fear of invasion from the continent — had vanished. But there are no inevitables in history. Unionists must put up a fight.The Conservatives have one important ally: The opposition Labour Party ’s leader, Keir Starmer, has so far ruled out a bargain with the SNP in return for their future support in forming a government. But Johnson isn’t the man to lead a crusade to preserve the U.K. Michael Gove, his Scottish-born cabinet minister, holds the brief. Although a talented administrator, Gove is too hot-blooded in his attachment to the Union and is burdened with other responsibilities, including Brexit.Ruth Davidson, a recent Scottish Conservative leader with a cult following, relished combat with Sturgeon and often bested her before giving up full-time politics after starting a family and falling out with Johnson over Brexit. She is amusing and punchy — the most convincing figure the Tories have to make the case that breaking up the Union would be bad for both sides of the border . Johnson needs to find the right woman or man fast. Otherwise Scottish independence might turn into a bad idea whose time has come.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Martin Ivens was editor of the Sunday Times from 2013 to 2020 and was formerly its chief political commentator. He is a director of the Times Newspapers board. 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.

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 06:00:12 GMT

Kleptopia review: power, theft and Trump as leader in Putin’s own image
Tom Burgis’s study of dark global realities casts a wide net, from Washington to Moscow, Kazakhstan and the Congo * Opinion: tn in possible corrupt activity and KleptopiaIn a year dominated by a US presidential election between a kleptocrat and a democrat, a book about world-class thieves laundering trillions ought be the perfect bedtime reading for anyone curious about the unprecedented amounts of money that have been looted and hidden over the last 20 years.Tom Burgis, a reporter for the Financial Times, is certainly an impressive investigator. He works hard to explain how myriad financial institutions, from the Bank of New York to Merrill Lynch and HSBC, have tried to deceive regulators and wash the ill-gotten gains of countless dictators.The oligarchs of Putin’s Russia are big players in these pages. So are Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, British bankers turned regulators, a trio of Central Asian billionaires, and no fewer than 30 other major characters, all listed at the beginning.This results in so many competing storylines that it becomes almost impossible to keep track. We bounce back and forth, from the Russian and Italian gangsters of Brooklyn to the oil fields of the former Soviet Union, from the platinum mines of Zimbabwe to the copper and cobalt of the Congo.> Burgis draws useful parallels between Putin’s kleptocracy and Hitler’s GermanyThere are long sections about the wholesale theft of natural resources in post-Soviet Russia and the birth of the oligarchs, all of whom were forced to become Putin’s partners – or face imprisonment or death. For example, the purchase of a three-quarter stake in Yukos, for 0m, made Mikhail Khodorkovsky the richest man in Russia. Five years later, the vast oil company with 100,000 employees was worth bn. Khodorkovsky was arrested, jailed and eventually sent into exile.Burgis draws useful parallels between Putin’s kleptocracy and Hitler’s Germany, each home to both a “normative state” that generally respects its own laws and a “prerogative state” that violates most of them.According to the German-Jewish lawyer who was the author of the theory in the 1930s, “Nazi Germany was not a straightforward totalitarian system. It retained some vestiges of the rule of law, chiefly in matters of business, so that the capitalist economy had the basic rules it needed to keep going. But the prerogative state – Hitler’s political machinery – enjoyed … ‘jurisdiction over jurisdiction.”> Trump helped to construct a new 'global alliance of kleptocrats'. Their whole goal is the privatization of powerPutin has used his jurisdiction over everything to vanquish almost all of his enemies. And since Donald Trump has been collaborating with Russians in one way or another for almost 40 years, our kleptocrat-in-chief does finally make an appearance in Kleptopia, on page 250. After we’ve read a lot about Felix Sater, a second-generation Russian mobster connected to several schemes including the Trump Soho in lower Manhattan, Trump is identified as the “crucial ingredient” in Sater’s “magic potion for transforming dirty money”.Once the ratings of The Apprentice had washed away the public memory of multiple bankruptcies and “reinvented” his name as “a success”, Trump’s role in real estate deals became simply to “rent out his name”.“The projects could go bust,” Burgis writes, and “they usually did – but that wasn’t a problem.” The money had completed “its metamorphoses from plunder to clean capital”.Then there was the notorious sale of Trump’s Palm Beach mansion, to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev for m, more than twice what Trump paid a few years before. According to Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, Trump thought the real buyer was Putin – a story which hasn’t gotten nearly as much attention as it should.With his election as president, as Burgis puts it, Trump helped to construct a new “global alliance of kleptocrats”. Their whole goal is the privatization of power, and they control “the three great poles” – the US, China and Russia.In our new world of alternate facts, corruption is “no longer a sign of a failing state, but of a state succeeding in its new purpose”. The new kleptocrats have subverted their nations’ institutions, “to seize for themselves that which rightfully belonged to the commonwealth”.This is a ghastly and very important story. But the secret to great storytelling is knowing what to leave out. If Burgis had found a more focused way to tell this one, he would have written a much more powerful book.

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 05:00:44 GMT

Eyes turn to Texas as early voting surge surpasses 2016
Texas has already cast nearly 7 million votes, more than anywhere in America, and Glen Murdoch couldn’t get his ballot in fast enough after becoming a U.S. citizen this summer. “I was champing at the bit,” said Murdoch, who moved to Austin from Australia shortly after President Donald Trump took office, and cast a ballot last week to vote him out. It’s a rush to the polls in Texas like seldom seen before.

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 04:16:44 GMT

Pence to keep up travel despite contact with infected aide
Vice President Mike Pence plans to maintain an aggressive campaign schedule this week despite his exposure to a top aide who tested positive for the coronavirus, the White House said Saturday. Pence himself tested negative, his office said. Under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria, the vice president is considered a “close contact” of his chief of staff, Marc Short, but will not quarantine, said spokesman Devin O’Malley.

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:50:16 GMT

UN: Nuclear weapons ban treaty to enter into force
The United Nations announced Saturday that 50 countries have ratified a U.N. treaty to ban nuclear weapons triggering its entry into force in 90 days, a move hailed by anti-nuclear activists but strongly opposed by the United States and the other major nuclear powers. As of Friday, the treaty had 49 signatories, and the United Nations said the 50th ratification from Honduras had been received. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres commended the 50 states and saluted “the instrumental work" of civil society in facilitating negotiations and pushing for ratification, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 23:47:08 GMT

Eyes turn to Texas as early voting surge surpasses 2016
Texas has already cast nearly 7 million votes, more than anywhere in America, and Glen Murdoch couldn’t get his ballot in fast enough after becoming a U.S. citizen this summer. “I was champing at the bit,” said Murdoch, who moved to Austin from Australia shortly after President Donald Trump took office, and cast a ballot last week to vote him out. It’s a rush to the polls in Texas like seldom seen before.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 23:02:35 GMT

Cameroon school attack kills 8 students: UN
Attackers armed with guns and machetes killed at least eight children Saturday in a raid on a school in southwestern Cameroon, the United Nations said.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 22:26:38 GMT

Nigeria protests: Police chief deploys 'all resources' amid street violence
The shooting of unarmed protesters earlier this week sparked the worst street violence seen in two decades.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 21:25:19 GMT

Crews vacuum 'murder hornets' out of Washington nest
Heavily protected crews in Washington state worked Saturday to destroy the first nest of so-called murder hornets discovered in the United States. The state Agriculture Department had spent weeks searching, trapping and using dental floss to tie tracking devices to Asian giant hornets, which can deliver painful stings to people and spit venom but are the biggest threat to honeybees that farmers depend on to pollinate crops. The nest found in the city of Blaine near the Canadian border is about the size of a basketball and contained an estimated 100 to 200 hornets, according to scientists who announced the find Friday.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 20:24:29 GMT

What the US election means for the special relationship - would Trump or Biden be best for the UK?
Donald Trump and Joe Biden have radically different views on many subjects. Each could enhance, or weaken the special relationship, in a variety of areas. Here, we look at who would be best for Britain. Post-Brexit trade deal There is no dispute about where Donald Trump stands on Brexit. He has been an enthusiastic supporter from the start. A trade deal with the UK would be near the top of his in-tray in a second term. In recent weeks both the US and UK expressed optimism as talks entered a fifth round. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he was "very pleased" with progress and predicted a trade deal "reasonably soon".

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 20:18:49 GMT

Israeli leader confirms consent to US arms sales to UAE
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday appeared to confirm that Israel has given its consent for the United States to sell F35 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates following a recent agreement establishing diplomatic relations between the Mideast countries. The expected sale would make the UAE the first Arab nation - and just the second country in the Middle East after Israel — — to possess the stealth warplanes. Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted the deal establishing ties with the UAE amounted to “peace for peace" and that arms deals were not part of the agreement.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 20:02:23 GMT

Israelis press ahead with weekly anti-Netanyahu protests

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 19:56:31 GMT

France reacts after Erdogan questions Macron's mental health
France recalled its ambassador to Turkey for consultations after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said President Emmanuel Macron needed mental health treatment and made other comments that the French government described as unacceptably rude. Erdogan questioned his French counterpart's mental condition while criticizing Macron’s attitude toward Islam and Muslims. “What is the problem of this person called Macron with Islam and Muslims?” Erdogan asked rhetorically during his Justice and Development party meeting in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 19:31:54 GMT

Cameroon: Children killed in attack on school in Kumba
Officials have blamed Anglophone secessionists for the attack on a private school in a restive region.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 19:13:07 GMT

Trump comment on 'blowing up' Nile Dam angers Ethiopia
Its PM condemns "aggressions" after Donald Trump says Egypt might destroy a controversial Nile dam.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 18:33:27 GMT

The week of pantomime-like negotiations that brought Britain back to the Brexit negotiating table
It was only a week ago that Boris Johnson declared the Brexit trade talks over, and said the UK would “embrace” WTO terms. Just days later, both sides were back around the table. The resumption of talks followed a series of carefully choreographed moves which saw the European Union meet British conditions to restart the negotiations. Many in Brussels have suggested that they never believed Boris Johnson was serious when he threatened a no deal Brexit. The EU is, after all, used to fiery summit walkouts during tense negotiations, which traditionally happen just before a deal is done. It clears the atmosphere and rolls the pitch for concessions. Nevertheless, Mr Johnson had said that unless a trade deal was “in sight” by the October 15 EU summit, the UK should quit negotiations. Once it was clear his deadline would be missed, the Prime Minister called the presidents of the European Commission and Council. On the eve of the summit, he told them to agree to round the clock talks or else. As EU leaders arrived in Brussels for their first in depth discussion of Brexit this year, it became clear they planned to call his bluff. A commitment to “intensified negotiations” was removed from the summit conclusion. EU leaders told the UK to make the “necessary moves” on the three major issues of fishing, level playing field and enforcement. David Frost, in a breach of protocol that infuriated EU officials, took to Twitter and let rip just as Michel Barnier began a summit press conference.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 15:46:47 GMT

Guinea elections: Alpha Condé wins third term amid violent protests
The opposition leader says he will contest the result giving Alpha Condé, 82, a third term.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 15:09:01 GMT

Boat parades, road rallies buoy Trump and his supporters
When a flotilla of pontoon and fishing boats decked out with "Trump 2020” flags cruised past him this summer, Dale Fullenkamp got an idea. “They are enthusiastic in ways I haven’t seen,” said Pennsylvania-based Republican political strategist Charles Gerow.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 15:00:09 GMT

European buildings turn blue for UN's 75th anniversary
More than 150 monuments and buildings across Europe will be lit up blue on Saturday to mark the 75th anniversary of the United Nations.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 14:48:42 GMT

'We don't speculate': How AP counts votes and calls races
As it has for more than 170 years, The Associated Press will count the nation's vote in real time on Election Day and report the results of presidential, congressional and state elections on Nov. 3 and beyond. AP will use that vote count to declare winners in some 7,000 races, so the world knows who wins not only the White House, but control of Congress and every state legislature. “There is no national election commission in the United States that tells us who won on Election Day,” said David Scott, a deputy managing editor who helps oversee AP's coverage of elections.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 14:02:04 GMT

Russians Who Pose Election Threat Have Hacked Nuclear Plants and Power Grid
Cybersecurity officials watched with growing alarm in September as Russian state hackers started prowling around dozens of American state and local government computer systems just two months before the election.The act itself did not worry them so much -- officials anticipated that the Russians who interfered in the 2016 election would be back -- but the actor did. The group, known to researchers as "Dragonfly" or "Energetic Bear" for its hackings of the energy sector, was not involved in 2016 election hacking. But it has in the past five years breached the power grid, water treatment facilities and even nuclear power plants, including one in Kansas.It also hacked into Wi-Fi systems at San Francisco International Airport and at least two other West Coast airports in March in an apparent bid to find one unidentified traveler, a demonstration of the hackers' power and resolve.September's intrusions marked the first time that researchers caught the group, a unit of Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, targeting states and counties. The timing of the attacks so close to the election and the potential for disruption set off concern inside private security firms, law enforcement and intelligence agencies."One possible explanation is that they are calling in the real pros -- the A Team -- who is used to operating in this really sensitive critical infrastructure where you want to keep quiet until you don't," said Suzanne Spaulding, the former undersecretary for cybersecurity and critical infrastructure at the Department of Homeland Security.In 2016, Russian hackers from other groups were unusually noisy in their efforts to penetrate some state election databases. "You could argue they didn't care about being quiet," Spaulding said. But now that Russia has been called out and punished for interfering in the election, President Vladimir Putin "may want to keep this quiet until the circumstances are set for their use in information operations," she added.American officials described the hackings in an advisory on Thursday as "opportunistic," rather than a clear attack on election infrastructure, but conceded the group had targeted dozens of state and local systems and stolen data from at least two targets' servers."They're broadly looking to scan for vulnerabilities and they're working opportunistically," said Christopher C. Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which issued the warning along with the FBI.That hardly reassured researchers who have tracked Energetic Bear for years. "This appears to be preparatory, to ensure access when they decide they need it," said Adam Meyers, the head of threat intelligence at CrowdStrike, a security firm that has monitored the group.Energetic Bear typically casts a wide net, then zeros in on a few high-value targets. In Germany and the United States, the group has infected websites popular in the energy sector, downloading malware onto the machines of anyone who visited the sites, then searching for employees with access to industrial systems.In other attacks, it has hijacked the software updates for computers attached to industrial control systems. It has also blasted targets with phishing emails in search of employees, or co-workers, who might have access to critical systems at water, power and nuclear plants.And it has done so with remarkable success. A disturbing screenshot in a 2018 Department of Homeland Security advisory showed the groups' hackers with their fingers on the switches of the computers that controlled the industrial systems at a power plant.The group has thus far stopped short of sabotage, but appears to be preparing for some future attack. The hackings so unnerved officials that starting in 2018, the U.S. Cyber Command, the arm of the Pentagon that conducts offensive cyberattacks, hit back with retaliatory strikes on the Russian grid.Some called the counterattacks the digital era's equivalent of mutually assured destruction. But any hope that U.S. officials had that their strikes would deter Russia dissipated when the group started targeting American airports in March.Officials at San Francisco International Airport discovered Russia's state hackers had breached the online system that airport employees and travelers used to gain access to the airport's Wi-Fi. The hackers injected code into two Wi-Fi portals that stole visitors' user names, cracked their passwords and infected their laptops.The attack began on March 17 and continued for nearly two weeks until it was shut down. By then, officials at two other airports discovered their Wi-Fi portals had also been compromised. Researchers would not name the other victims, citing nondisclosure agreements, but said they were on the West Coast.As pervasive as the attacks could have been, researchers believe Russia's hackers were interested only in one specific person traveling through the airports that day."Ostensibly, hundreds of thousands of people could have been compromised," said Eric Chien, a cybersecurity director at Symantec, who examined the attack. "But only 10 were."Chien's team discovered that the hackers were "fingerprinting" the machines of anyone who logged onto the Wi-Fi network in search of one older version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. If they found a match, the hackers infected those laptops. If the Wi-Fi visitors used any other browser, the hackers left them alone."From what we could see, they were going after a specific individual," Chien said.In the government alert on Thursday, officials said that the Russian group was again targeting aviation systems. It did not name the targets but did suggest in some technical language that one could have been the airport in Columbus, Ohio.In a previous homeland security warning about the group, officials said it "targets low security and small networks to gain access and move laterally to networks of major, high-value asset owners within the energy sector."Security researchers warned that the spate of attacks on American state and local systems could mirror the trajectory of those attacks: Russia's hackers using their foothold in seemingly random victims' networks to mine for more interesting targets closer to the election on Nov. 3. They could take steps like pulling offline the databases that verify voters' signatures on mail-in ballots, or given their particular expertise, shutting power to key precincts."The most disconcerting piece is that it demonstrates Russia's intent and ability to target systems near and dear to us, but that shouldn't surprise us," said Frank Cilluffo, the director of Auburn University's McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security.By deputizing the FSB's stealthiest infrastructure hackers to target state and local systems, some security experts believe Russia may be hedging its bets.If, for example, Putin believes President Donald Trump will be reelected and wants to forge a better relationship with the United States, he may want to limit the degree to which Russia is seen as interfering.Likewise, the experts said, if former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, is elected, Russia may try to use its foothold in the systems to weaken or delegitimize him, or it may hold back so as not to provoke the new administration."By doing this more quietly, you give yourself more options," Spaulding said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 13:58:06 GMT

Trump Used 'Kids in Cages' to Blur Responsibility for Child Separation
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump has never been known for making apologies or displaying regret, but when his policy of separating children from their families at the southwestern border arose during his debate with former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday, he had a ready deflection for the "kids in cages" accusation.It was Biden's fault."They said, 'Look at these cages; President Trump built them,' " Trump said. "And then it was determined they were built in 2014. That was him."Trump is correct that the Obama administration expanded the number of border facilities with chain-linked enclosures in 2014, but the journey from their construction to contend with a surge of Central American children crossing the border to Trump's "zero tolerance" policy that led to the separation of thousands of families was not captured by the president's evasions. Nor is it explained by the "kids in cages" catchphrase often hurled by Trump's opponents."It is one of the definitive phrases, but I don't think sloganeering will ever bring you closer to why this disaster happened in the first place," Cristobal Ramon, a senior policy analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said of the "kids in cages" catchall. "You have to get beyond slogans."The Obama administration separated children from adults at the border only in cases in which there was a doubt about the familial relationship between a child and an accompanying adult or if the adult had a serious criminal record.Trump's "zero tolerance" policy was a deliberate act of family separation, meant to deter migrants from trying to enter the United States. It directed prosecutors to file criminal charges against everyone who crossed the border without authorization, including parents, who were then separated from their children when they were taken into custody.That policy was ended amid international outcry, but its repercussions remain. Court documents filed this week showed 545 children still have not been reunited with their parents after the Trump administration resisted sharing information with a court-appointed committee of lawyers and advocacy groups tasked with finding their guardians.But as with many of Trump's prevarications, there was a nugget of truth to his assertions Thursday night. The holding of migrant children in chain-linked enclosures predated his administration.Traditionally, migrants who crossed the border initially were held by the Border Patrol in stations designed for the short-term stay of a specific population: single Mexican adults who could be quickly returned to Mexico. In 2014, the demographic at the border shifted dramatically, to Central American families and unaccompanied children who surrendered to agents with the hope of obtaining protection in the United States.A law designed to protect migrant children, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, prevented the U.S. government from rapidly turning away such families because they had not traveled from a neighboring country. The families, who fled poverty, torture and persecution, were instead packed into the stations, prompting agents to cram some into adjacent concrete sally ports -- essentially large garages -- in the sweltering heat."I went back to Washington and said you have a humanitarian disaster in front of you," said Gil Kerlikowske, a former commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, recalling his message to the Obama administration after a visit to the facilities in 2014.The Obama administration then converted a warehouse in McAllen, Texas, into a facility that could hold more than 1,000 detainees. That facility, with chain fencing installed to separate adult men from mothers and children, would later be known as the Central Processing Center."They stood up what we thought would be a temporary structure" that would be better for families and children, said Ronald D. Vitiello, former deputy chief of the Border Patrol in the Obama administration and a former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Trump. "In a nontechnical sense, are those cages? I guess you could call them that."The design, he said, was to "be open so you can see from one side of the facility to the other to protect people in it."But expediency led to cruelty. Trump claimed Thursday that the migrants were "so well taken care of," but in reality, his own policies fueled overcrowding in the holding facilities.After drawing widespread condemnation from lawmakers in both parties, immigration activists and the United Nations, Trump signed an executive order in June 2018 that largely ended the policy of family separation.But the president's anti-immigration messaging helped fuel another surge of Central American families seeking refuge at the border in 2019. Smugglers purchased radio spots warning families that there was a brief window to go to the United States before the next crackdown.After they are processed in a Border Patrol facility, migrant children traveling alone are supposed to be transferred to a shelter managed by the Health and Human Services Department, where many are subsequently released to a relative sponsor.But Trump deterred many sponsors from claiming those children by requiring they provide fingerprints and other personal information that some feared would later be used to find and deport them. With spaces limited in those shelters as well as longer-term detention facilities managed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the holding cells along the border were once again crammed with children lacking proper hygienic resources and exposed to disease. They were held in the border cells for weeks, even though the government is supposed to transfer them to shelters within 72 hours."There was the front-end policy of separating children through zero tolerance," Ramon said. "There was the back-end policy of requiring fingerprints to get children out of detention."That's where you create this backlog of children in facilities that weren't designed for them," he added.The detention facilities are not as relevant now -- but not because migration has halted. Instead, through its "Remain in Mexico" policies, the Trump administration has forced tens of thousands of asylum-seekers to wait on the other side of the border for court hearings, creating squalid refugee camps in some of Mexico's more dangerous areas.The administration has also cited the coronavirus in using a public health emergency rule to rapidly return migrants, including children traveling alone, back to Mexico or their home country.At the debate Thursday, Trump hurled his "They built the cages" accusation at Biden repeatedly, so often that it was difficult for Biden to answer. But the former vice president did manage to say that parents had their children "ripped from their arms and separated, and now they cannot find over 500 sets of those parents and those kids are alone, nowhere to go, nowhere to go.""It's criminal," Biden added.Lee Gelernt, the primary lawyer challenging the family separation policy, said Trump was trying "to switch the debate" away from a policy that was exclusive to his administration."The fact is no other administration, Democrat or Republican, has ever systematically separated children," Gelernt said. "The Trump administration's actions to systematically separate children is unprecedented, and what made that much more horrific is that there was no age limit. Even babies and toddlers were separated."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 13:57:05 GMT

Despite rhetoric, GOP has supported packing state courts
Republican claims that Democrats would expand the U.S. Supreme Court to undercut the conservative majority if they win the presidency and control of Congress has a familiar ring. It's a tactic the GOP already has employed in recent years with state supreme courts when they have controlled all levers of state political power. Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia have signed bills passed by GOP-dominated legislatures to expand the number of seats on their states’ respective high courts.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 13:57:04 GMT

Inside the Refugee Camp on America's Doorstep
MATAMOROS, Mexico -- A butter yellow sun rose over the crowded tent camp across the river from Texas, and a thick heat baked the rotten debris below, a mixture of broken toys, human waste and uneaten food swarming with flies.Clothing and sheets hung from trees and dried stiff after being drenched and muddied in a hurricane the week before.As residents emerged from the zipper-holes of their canvas homes that morning in August, some trudged with buckets in hand toward tanks of water for bathing and washing dishes. Others assembled in front of wash basins with arms full of children's underwear and pajamas. They waited for the first warm meal of the day to arrive, though it often made them sick.The members of this displaced community requested refuge in the United States but were sent back into Mexico and told to wait. They came there after unique tragedies: violent assaults, oppressive extortions, murdered loved ones. They are bound together by the one thing they share in common -- having nowhere else to go."Sometimes I feel like I can't hold on anymore," said Jaqueline Salgado, who fled to the camp from southern Mexico, sitting outside her tent on a bucket as her children played in the dirt. "But when I remember everything I've been through, and how it was worse, I come back to the conclusion that I have to wait."Salgado is one of about 600 people stranded in a place that many Americans might have thought would never exist. It is effectively a refugee camp on the doorstep of the United States, one of several that have sprung up along the border for the first time in the country's history.After first cropping up in 2018, the encampment across the border from Brownsville, Texas, exploded to nearly 3,000 people the following year under a policy that has required at least 60,000 asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for the entirety of their legal cases, which can take years.Those who have not given up and returned home or had the means to move into shelters or apartments while they wait have been stuck outside ever since in this camp, or others like it that are now strung along the southwest border.Many have been living in fraying tents for more than a year.The Trump administration has said the "remain in Mexico" policy was essential to end exploitation of American immigration laws and alleviate overcrowding at Border Patrol facilities after nearly 2 million migrants crossed into the United States between 2017 and 2019.The Mexican authorities have blamed the U.S. government for the situation. But they have also declined to designate the outdoor areas as official refugee camps in collaboration with the United Nations, which could have provided infrastructure for housing and sanitation."It has been the first time we have been in this situation," Shant Dermegerditchian, director of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' office in Monterrey. "And we certainly don't support this."The U.S. Supreme Court agreed this week to review the policy after it was successfully challenged in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The case will not be resolved until after the election, so those living in the camp have months of waiting ahead, if not longer.The camp drew attention during Thursday night's presidential debate, when former Vice President Joe Biden noted, "This is the first president in the history of the United States of America that anybody seeking asylum has to do it in another country," he said. "They're sitting in squalor on the other side of the river."The arrival of the coronavirus has made things much worse. Though only a few cases broke out at the camp, most of the American aid workers who entered regularly to distribute supplies stopped coming, hoping to avoid transporting the virus.The Gulf Cartel, which traffics drugs across the border and is as powerful a force as local law enforcement, moved in to fill the void.The gang charges tolls to camp residents who decide to swim across the river on their own and sometimes kidnaps them for ransom. Beatings and disappearances have also become more common -- sometimes to protect women or children who are being abused, but other times because camp residents have violated the gang's rules about when and where they are permitted to roam outside their tents.Nine bodies have washed ashore on the banks of the Rio Grande near the camp in the last two months; the Mexican authorities said most of the deaths were a result of a rise in gang activity during the pandemic."I haven't done anything, I haven't stolen anything, and still I have to keep escaping. Why?" Salgado said that day in August.She said she and her children were on the run from her abusive husband, who drank excessively and would beat them when he was upset, and because her brother had been kidnapped and killed. Just then, her 11-year-old son, Alexander, who seemed to have only vaguely been paying attention, put down his toys and started to heave."He is constantly nervous," his mother said. "Every time we fought, his anxiety would make him sick and he would end up vomiting."Most children in the camp have not attended formal schooling since they left home. Parents agonize over whether they will be able to make up for the lost time. Some have become worried enough to launch their children across the river on the backs of smugglers, sending them alone on the last leg of their dangerous journey to the United States.Those who cannot bear to make such a decision are often tormented by second-guessing."I was scared I would never see him again because he's all I have," said Carmen Vargas, clinging to the arm of her 13-year-old son, Cristopher, who has a mop of curly brown hair and is tall for his age. "But my son needs to go to school. He's only 13 years old, and practically he has lost two years already."Cristopher teared up listening to his mother describe the life they had left behind. She pulled out identification cards showing that she had been a municipal police officer in Honduras, but said her success became a liability when she put a powerful drug cartel member in jail in 2018. Within hours, the cartel announced a hit on Vargas. She and Cristopher fled, leaving behind the ornate wooden furniture she had saved up to buy and a refrigerator full of food.With cupped palms, Vargas caught beads of sweat that dripped down her forehead as she spoke. She apologized for the stench; just outside her tent, insects crawled around a pile of feces that had washed up when the river flooded. "You have to withstand everything here: sun, water, cold, heat, we have it all."The camp residents are chronically sick with flulike viruses and stomach bugs that wend endlessly through the tents and with respiratory problems aggravated by the dusty air. Their skin is pockmarked from the throngs of mosquitoes that overwhelm the camp after it rains.Most acknowledge that life on the other side of the border would hardly be charmed -- especially if they lost their asylum cases and had to live in the shadows."Without papers, is it still better to be in the U.S. rather than here? Yes, it's a thousand times better," said Lucia Gomez, from Guerrero, Mexico, as she picked up clothing and toys that had been scattered outside their tent by hurricane winds. "They might find you, detain you and deport you," she said. "But if you manage to avoid them, you will be able to put food on the table."In her arms, she held her youngest child, an 8-month-old boy named Yahir, whose back was covered in a bumpy heat rash. Her son William, 16, plopped cherries into his mouth from a plate that was covered in flies.Gomez said her family had made a run for the camp from southern Mexico after their home was ransacked and her husband and father-in-law were shot to death. "A man came in and shouted, 'Put your hands up!'" her 8-year-old son Johan chimed in, holding his arms up as if he were holding an imaginary gun."That is why we wait," she said. "We try to get through this unworthy life. And we try to resist for our children's sake."Volunteer groups bought the laundry basins and water tanks, as well as hand-washing stations and a row of concrete showers that, after months of laying dry in the middle of the camp, were recently connected to a water source.But their efforts have often felt futile. Since the camp appeared, the invisible wall of policies blocking its inhabitants from being allowed into the United States has only grown taller and more fortified.Some have found ways to improvise a modicum of comfort. Antonia Maldonado, 41, from Honduras, stood in a kitchen she had cobbled together under tattered blue tarps suspended from trees. She placed raw chicken onto a grate over an open flame, using a scavenged piece of wood resting on two stacks of upside-down buckets as a countertop.She said she had been looking toward the election for hope that a new administration might ease some of the restrictions put into place by President Donald Trump."Not a leaf gets into that country without his permission," Maldonado said, adding, "I just want to live with dignity. I'm not asking for riches."Some parents pinch pesos to buy decorations and treats from supermarket reject bins for their children's birthdays. But many walk around the camp with bloodshot eyes, constantly on the brink of tears, or in a zombielike state, as if they have shut down emotionally.When Rodrigo Castro de la Parra arrived in Matamoros, he alternated between emotional extremes. In the span of a year, he had gone from being a shy high school student who liked to stay up late at night and draw flowers in his notebook to the head of his entire family. That was after the 18th Street Gang, the most brutal and powerful gang in Guatemala, murdered his mother and sister -- signaling a grudge that meant he and the rest of his relatives could be next on its kill list."I can't sleep," he said one afternoon, sitting outside the tents where he lived with his wife, daughter, grandmother, orphaned niece and his 16-year-old-sister, who had given birth after arriving at the camp. "Sometimes I feel hysterical." He said he worried that someone else in his family could be killed.But only two weeks later, it was Castro de la Parra's body that washed out of the river at one edge of the camp. His death was a mystery. The police investigated it as a possible homicide but ultimately determined that he had drowned.His wife, Cinthia, was still in shock when she took a bus back to Guatemala City for the repatriation of her husband's body. She also hoped to replace her travel documents that had been soaked in his pants when he died.She would need them when she went back with their 2-year-old to try again.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 13:55:49 GMT

In Trump Donations, Big Tax Write-Offs and Claims That Don't Always Add Up
In President Donald Trump's telling, he is a committed philanthropist with strong ties to many charities. "If you don't give back, you're never ever going to be fulfilled in life," he wrote in "Trump 101: The Way to Success," published at the height of his "Apprentice" fame.And according to his tax records, he has given back at least 0 million since 2005, his second year as a reality TV star.But the long-hidden tax records, obtained by The New York Times, show that Trump did not have to reach into his wallet for most of that giving. The vast bulk of his charitable tax deductions, 9.3 million worth, came from simply agreeing not to develop land -- in several cases, after he had shelved development plans.Three of the agreements involved what are known as conservation easements -- a maneuver, popular among wealthy Americans, that typically allows a landowner to keep a property's title and receive a tax deduction equal to its appraised value. In the fourth land deal, Trump donated property for a state park.The New York attorney general is investigating whether the appraisals on two of Trump's easement donations were improperly inflated to win larger tax breaks, according to court filings.Trump's pronouncements of philanthropic largesse have been broadly discredited by reporting, most notably in The Washington Post, that found he had exaggerated, or simply never made, an array of claimed contributions. His own charitable foundation shut down in 2018 amid allegations of self-dealing to benefit Trump, his businesses and his campaign.But the tax data examined by the Times lends new authority and far greater precision to those findings. The records, encompassing his reported philanthropic activity through 2017, reveal not only its exact dimensions; they show that much of his charity has come when he was under duress -- facing damage to his reputation or big tax bills in years of high income.Of the .5 million in business and personal cash contributions reported to the IRS since 2005, more than 40% -- .2 million -- came starting in 2015, when Trump's philanthropy fell under scrutiny after he announced his White House bid. In 2017, his first year in office, he declared .9 million in cash gifts. In 2014, by contrast, he contributed ,499.And his first two land-easement donations were made in what the tax records show was a period of significant taxable income -- 2005 and 2006, prime time for his reality TV fame.The president's Trump Organization biography says he is "involved with numerous civic and charitable organizations." When he announced his campaign in 2015, he said he had given more than 2 million to charity over the previous five years.While it is possible that he chose not to report some of his giving, his tax records for 2010 to 2014 reflect far less than he claimed -- 5,238 in cash and .8 million in land easements and other noncash gifts. Six months into the campaign, in December 2015, another easement, valued at .1 million, was completed.In response to questions from the Times, Amanda Miller, a spokesperson for the Trump Organization, said: "President Trump gives money privately. It's impossible to know how much he's given over the years."The tax information analyzed by the Times includes annual totals for business and individual giving but lists only certain corporate donations.The single largest cash donation he reported for his businesses, made to his own foundation, was the 0,000 he received in 2011 for being roasted on Comedy Central. In 2014, his Virginia winery contributed a glass sculpture valued at ,600 to a small historical society in Pennsylvania. And in 2016, another one of his companies gave ,000 to the American Hotel & Lodging Education Foundation.Even without the details of Trump's individual giving, the Times was able to identify public philanthropic promises that appear either to have been exaggerated or to have never materialized. In each case, the size of his pledge exceeded what he told the IRS he had given in a particular year.In 2009, for example, he agreed to rent his Seven Springs estate in Westchester County, New York, to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who hoped to stay in a tent on the grounds during a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.Though the plans fell apart when local residents objected, Gadhafi made a payment of 0,000, which Trump told CNN in 2011 he had given to charity. His 2009 tax returns, however, reported only ,796 in business and personal cash gifts.In 2015, Trump promised to donate the earnings from his book "Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again.''"The profits of my book? I am giving them away to a lot of different -- including the vets," he said at a news conference.The tax records show that Waxman Leavell Literary Agency, which represented Trump's book, made two payments to him in 2015 and 2016, totaling roughly .5 million. In those years, Trump reported giving a total of .3 million in cash to charity.Many wealthy individuals create their own foundations, often as a way to have greater control over their philanthropy. While Trump's foundation, started in 1988, gave millions to charity before shutting down in 2018, most of it was other people's money. Trump himself donated .4 million to the foundation, with the last contribution in 2008, according to the organization's tax filings.The majority of the president's philanthropy, though, has consisted of his four land deals with conservation groups or the government.His first easement donation, which yielded a tax deduction of .1 million in 2005, involved a parcel of land at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.The next year, he donated 436 acres of land for a state park in Westchester and Putnam counties in New York after development plans ran up against tough regulatory restrictions. While the precise value of the easement is not clear, he reported noncash charitable contributions of million that year.Trump had bought the property in the 1990s for million, according to numerous published reports. Today it is overgrown and has few facilities or visitors.The two most recent easement deductions are being examined by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, part of a broader investigation into whether the Trump Organization inflated the value of assets to get loans and tax benefits.In 2014, after abandoning plans to develop an 11.5-acre property being used as a driving range at his Los Angeles golf club, Trump received a .1 million tax deduction for an easement agreement with a land conservancy. Few details of the inquiry into the deal have emerged.Court papers shed more light on the other easement under investigation.In late 2015, Trump got a .1 million tax break for 158.6 acres of land at the Seven Springs estate, after years of unsuccessful attempts to build a golf course on it.The attorney general's court filing says that after Trump abandoned plans to develop Seven Springs, he asked Sheri Dillon, a tax lawyer at Morgan Lewis who had advised him in the past, to have the land appraised.Dillon told Cushman & Wakefield, the firm that did the appraisal, that "the client blew up at her," and she leaned on the appraisers to take steps that would push the value up, according to the court filing.Several weeks ago, after months of delays, Trump's son Eric gave a deposition in the case.Trump has denied any wrongdoing. "President Trump was not involved in the appraisals mentioned, which were done by the most respected appraisal and brokerage company in the country," said Miller, the Trump Organization spokesperson.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 13:54:47 GMT

Stressed freshmen missing quintessential college experience
In these hardly normal times, when the quintessential college experience exists only in catalogs, freshmen are being challenged like never before. Amid pandemic restrictions aimed at keeping students safe and healthy, colleges are scrambling to help them adjust. This is freshman year 2020 for many college students nationwide.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 13:48:40 GMT

Voter advocates hoping to stave off intimidation at polls
Voting rights advocates and state officials are on high alert over fears that U.S. polling stations could attract the same strain of partisan violence and civil unrest that erupted on American streets this year, fueled by a deadly pandemic, outrage over police brutality and one of the most contentious elections ever. Anti-government extremists and other armed civilians have flocked to protests against racial injustice and COVID-19 lockdowns. Paramilitary group members are accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan’s governor before the election.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 13:38:44 GMT

The daily business briefing: October 24, 2020

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 13:38:00 GMT

'All talk, no action' defense likely in Michigan kidnap case
When members of a Michigan paramilitary group were accused a decade ago of scheming to overthrow the U.S. government, their defense was based largely on one claim: We were all talk, no action. A defense lawyer in that case now represents Ty Garbin, one of six men accused of conspiring to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer because of anger over her stay-at-home policies to contain the coronavirus. Again, attorney Mark Satawa contends his client had no intention to carry out the alleged plan, whatever he might have said in recorded or online conversations.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 13:13:39 GMT

Trump is waging a quiet war against civilians in Iran as the coronavirus pandemic drags on
The sanctions Trump has layered on Iran have gone largely unnoticed in the US. But for Iranians, they are impossible to ignore.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 13:08:00 GMT

Reid says Biden should end Senate filibuster after 3 weeks
Former Senate leader Harry Reid says if Democrats win the presidency and the Senate, Joe Biden should take “no more than three weeks” to test bipartisanship before ending the filibuster so Democrats can overcome what they call Republican obstruction and pass bills. The retired Nevada Democrat told The Associated Press in an interview that he understands Biden wants to work with Republicans, as the former vice president and Delaware senator has in the past.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 13:06:34 GMT

Attack, then pandemic: Pittsburgh Jewish congregations cope
Two years ago, the three congregations sharing space at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue relocated after an anti-Semitic gunman killed 11 worshippers. Last March, the congregations dispersed from their new locations due to the coronavirus pandemic and switched to virtual services. Maggie Feinstein of the 10.27 Healing Partnership, which has been supporting those affected by the attack, was impressed by how the congregations have coped with the pandemic.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 13:02:26 GMT

Statement by the Prime Minister on United Nations Day
OTTAWA, ON, Oct. 24, 2020 /CNW/ - The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on United Nations Day:"Today, on United Nations Day, we recognize what we can achieve when countries around the world work together toward shared goals.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 13:00:00 GMT

Statement by the Prime Minister on United Nations Day

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 13:00:00 GMT

Amid turmoil, Kyrgyzstan sets presidential vote for Jan. 10
Authorities in Kyrgyzstan on Saturday called an early presidential election for January after the nation's previous president was driven from power by protests triggered by a disputed vote. The Oct. 4 parliamentary election was swept by pro-government parties and triggered protests by the opposition, who rejected the official results as rigged. Demonstrators freed several opposition leaders, including Sadyr Zhaparov, who was quickly named the new prime minister.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 12:46:41 GMT

Iran's top leader says fighting virus trumps other concerns
Iran’s supreme leader Saturday urged authorities to prioritize public health above any economic or security concerns, amid the Mideast's worst outbreak of the coronavirus. Iran's death toll from the global pandemic topped 32,000 this week. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told officials during a meeting with the country's top counter-coronavirus committee that “the main priority in decision-making is people’s health.”

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 12:25:07 GMT

Election Meddling Is a 100-Year Russian Tradition
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- As one may have predicted four years ago, the final weeks of the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign have unfolded amid a flurry of accusations about a hostile power undermining American democracy. What one was less likely to predict was that this nemesis would be not Russia but Silicon Valley. So, amid the controversy over Facebook, Twitter and a heretofore obscure section of federal communications law, has Russian President Vladimir Putin chosen to let American democracy undermine itself? Not likely. The U.S. and Russia (FKA the Soviet Union) have a century-long tradition of seeking geopolitical advantage through electoral meddling around the globe. And no matter which candidate is victorious on Nov. 3 — or, alas, some days or weeks after — that rivalry is going to continue.This week I sought guidance on the past and future of this competition from David Shimer, author of “Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference.” Shimer is also a global fellow at the Wilson Center and an associate fellow at Yale University. Here is a lightly edited transcript:Tobin Harshaw: When the full extent of the Russian manipulation of social media became clear after 2016, everybody was looking ahead at how to stop it in 2020. But you chose to look backward first. What gave you that insight?David Shimer: I was alarmed, frankly, that so many commentators were treating Russia’s 2016 operation as entirely unprecedented. I knew enough about Soviet history to know that Putin was not the first leader in the Kremlin to target a foreign election, and I believed — and still believe — that it would be to America’s benefit to use that history both to understand what Russia achieved in 2016 and to map out how to defend our elections in November and beyond. So I decided, as you said, to look backward. I spent years examining CIA, KGB and East German Stasi files, and interviewing more than 130 officials, including eight former CIA directors. The result, which is “Rigged,” restores history to the subject of covert electoral interference: How the Soviet Union interfered in foreign elections during the interwar period, how the CIA and the KGB went toe-to-toe in elections around the world during the Cold War, and how Putin’s Russia is again interfering in elections on a global basis today. Only then, with this instructive and fascinating history in the backdrop, do I examine Russian interference in America’s 2016 election and provide policy recommendations for the future. TH: Timothy Snyder, whose “On Tyranny” adorns every self-respecting liberal’s bookshelf these days, was your mentor. What wisdom did he pass along that proved most helpful in writing the book?DS: I can never thank Professor Snyder enough. He has ingrained in me the idea that it’s not just possible but essential to write books that fuse the past with the present. It’s an idea that underpins his teaching at Yale, where I was his student and advisee.As for “Rigged,” when Knopf took on my book project — and gave me five and a half months to complete it — Professor Snyder remained my intellectual guide. In that period of time, he and I would meet in his office every few days, and we would talk through whatever part of my book I was drafting and the historical arc I was seeking to restore. He’s an astonishingly generous mentor and friend. TH: You tracked down the former Soviet spymaster Oleg Kalugin and seem to have had an enjoyable chat. Old spooks are the best spooks. His goal during the Cold War, he said, was to “provide money and support to people who we thought would be friendly and would change the foreign and domestic policies of their countries.” Do you see today’s manipulation of social media as a continuation of those efforts, or something entirely new for a technological age unimaginable to the Soviets?DS: Definitely the former. Every aspect of Russia’s interference in 2016 had roots in the past. Take what Russia was after: To sow discord, advantage one candidate, and damage another. That’s exactly what the Soviet Union did in various U.S. elections during the Cold War. Each of Russia’s tactics also marked a direct continuation of past practices. First, Russia targeted our actual election infrastructure. Well, in the immediate postwar period, Joseph Stalin and his collaborators manipulated election systems across Eastern Europe, and Putin’s Russia has more recently sabotaged election systems in countries like Ukraine. Second, Russia stole and released the private correspondence of public figures in the form of sensitive emails. This is yet another long-running idea: In the 1976 U.S. election, for instance, the KGB leaked private — and false — information about Senator Henry Jackson, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, to try to undermine his campaign. And third, Russia used fake social media accounts to carry out familiar moves: to spread disinformation, scare some voters, target other voters, inflame racial tensions, turn out key voting groups, and suppress other voting groups. The KGB, using pre-digital means, ran each of those plays during the Cold War, in elections around the world. So in 2016, Russia absolutely broke new ground, in using the Internet to manipulate an American election at scale; but the ideas behind its operation were consistent with past practices and can be used to help us anticipate what Putin will do in the final stretch.TH: During the 2016 campaign, Trump infamously encouraged hacking and other measures against Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. Do you think that emboldened the Russians, or were they already prepared to do what they did?DS: I can’t say whether Trump’s public rhetoric affected Russian policymaking, although Russian intelligence did escalate its hacking attempts just after the remarks you’re referencing. But what history does make clear is that America’s leaders should be defending against rather than soliciting foreign interference in our elections. This is not a partisan issue. In 1960 and 1968, the Soviet Union targeted the campaigns of Richard Nixon, a Republican. In 1976 and 1984, the Soviet Union targeted the campaigns of Ronald Reagan, a Republican. Now, Russia is seeking to help a Republican, but the purpose of these operations is to advance Russia’s objectives, which are to choose our leaders for us, to sabotage our democratic processes, and to undermine the viability of the democratic model in the eyes of the world — and that should offend and alarm all Americans, regardless of their party loyalties. TH: At the end of the book, you list 10 historical lessons that could guide future U.S. leaders in protecting against foreign interference. We don’t have time to discuss them all. But perhaps you could choose one you find particularly vital right now, and if learned, what would be the immediate steps to take?DS: The lesson that comes to mind is that pre-existing societal divisions present opportunities for interfering actors. The more polarized a democracy, the more vulnerable it is to foreign subversion. Russia is tearing at fissures that already exist, so to protect itself, America should be renewing itself at home and abroad.Domestically, that means securing our infrastructure, mitigating the effectiveness of influence operations, and investing in core priorities like education and health care, which will in turn fortify our democracy. And abroad, that means working with our allies to detect and deter covert operations to interfere in our electoral processes. If we can do both of those things at once, we’ll make long-lasting progress in securing our elections.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Tobin Harshaw is an editor and writer on national security and military affairs for Bloomberg Opinion. He was an editor with the op-ed page of the New York Times and the paper’s letters editor.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.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 12:00:15 GMT

No escaping from Wales: UK police to enforce travel ban
A police force in England says it will try to stop people from leaving Wales, which has started a 17-day lockdown to slow a surging rate of coronavirus infections. The Gloucestershire Constabulary will patrol routes from Wales and pull over drivers they believe are making long journeys. If they don’t comply, officers will inform their Welsh counterparts so they can take action because Gloucestershire police don’t have the authority to fine people traveling from Wales, the department said.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 11:53:26 GMT

Attack in Kabul kills 18; al-Qaida leader killed in Ghazni
The death toll from the suicide attack Saturday in Afghanistan's capital has risen to at least 18 killed and 57 people wounded, including students, the interior ministry said. Afghan security officials separately announced on Saturday that a senior al-Qaida commander had been killed in a recent operation in the country's east. Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian says that the attacker was trying to enter the center when he was stopped by security guards.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 11:07:37 GMT

US sets coronavirus infection record; deaths near 224,000
The U.S. coronavirus caseload has reached record heights with more than 83,000 infections reported in a single day, the latest ominous sign of the disease’s grip on the nation, as states from Connecticut to the Rocky Mountain West reel under the surge. The U.S. death toll, meanwhile, has grown to 223,995, according to the COVID-19 Dashboard published by Johns Hopkins University. The total U.S. caseload reported on the site Friday was 83,757, topping the 77,362 cases reported on July 16.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 10:46:34 GMT

Fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh goes on despite US mediation
STEPANAKERT, Nagorno-Karabakh (AP) — Rocket and artillery barrage hit residential areas in Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday hours after the United States hosted top diplomats from Armenia and Azerbaijan for talks on settling their decades-long conflict over the region. The heavy shelling forced residents of Stepanakert, the regional capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, into shelters, as emergency teams rushed to extinguish fires. Local officials said the city was struck with Azerbaijan's Smerch long-range multiple rocket systems, a devastating Soviet-designed weapon intended to ravage wide areas with explosives and cluster munitions.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 10:26:08 GMT

California ‘shattering prior election returns’ with 6m ballots already cast
With voters homebound and receiving ballots in the mail due to the pandemic, elections officials are seeing a surge in early returnsOn 22 October, almost three weeks before one of the most consequential presidential election days in recent American history, more than 6 million Californians had already voted.The number was several times that of people who had cast their ballot at the same point in 2016. The pandemic, the massive wildfires and the ongoing fight against police brutality have galvanized voters in America’s most populous state to cast their vote early.“We knew the Covid-19 pandemic would pose significant challenges, but elections officials have prepared and voters have responded,” Alex Padilla, the secretary of state, said in a recent statement.California has sent mail-in ballots to 22 million registered voters, and the flood of votes that have been returned so far make up about 25%. It’s still unclear whether voter turnout in the state overall will be higher this year than in previous years. But the early turnout is “shattering prior election returns”, said Paul Mitchell of Political Data Inc, a bipartisan voter data firm based in California.“We’ve been tracking this kind of stuff for over a decade, and there’s just nothing that compares to how quickly voters have been returning their ballots this election cycle,” he said.That more people are now homebound due to the pandemic, and all voters have been mailed ballots this year is probably part of the reason so many are voting early, Mitchell said. Fears that their votes won’t be counted, and ballots getting stuck in the mail as the postal service is under duress are accelerating returns, he added.And then there’s the incumbent. For the liberal and progressive voters who constitute the majority in this deep-blue Democratic state, Donald Trump’s attacks on science, the environment, the immigration system and healthcare have been motivating, particularly in a year marked by historic wildfires and a global pandemic. Just last week, the president drew ire for tweeting, “California is going to hell. Vote Trump!” and vacillating on whether to approve major disaster relief for several regions wrecked by the wildfires. Since Trump took office, California has filed dozens of lawsuits against the administration in legal battles over its policies.“There’s six months of Californians being in their houses, coupled with essential workers risking their lives on the frontlines. There’s the cruelty and apathy from the highest levels of government and the lack of trust that people have in this administration to protect people and protect democracy,” said Aimee Allison, the founder and president of She the People, a non-profit that aims to elevate the political power of women of color. “We here in California have been waiting for this moment,” she said.The inclusion on the ticket of Kamala Harris, a Californian and the first Black and Asian American woman to be nominated for national office by a major political party, was helping, too, Allison added. But personally, she said she had been motivated by frustration this election cycle. “I woke up very angry. I’m pissed. And I know I’m not the only Black woman who must feel this way.”In Oakland, Jackie Hammonds, 73, admitted, “I would put Winnie-the-Pooh in office over Trump. You know – he’s the United Nations’ ambassador of friendship.” Though Hammonds said Biden and Harris weren’t her top choice in the Democratic primaries, “They’ll do,” she said.Whether Californians vote early or late, the outcome of the presidential race here is almost guaranteed for Biden. Republicans make up 24% of registered voters in the state. But down the ballot, Democrats are hoping this rush of enthusiasm will trickle down to boost the party’s congressional candidates in the state’s rare swing districts.In the Los Angeles region, Republican Mike Garcia and Democrat Christy Smith are having a rematch after Garcia narrowly won the congressional seat vacated by Democrat Katie Hill, who resigned amid allegations of an inappropriate affair with a staffer. In Orange county, Republican Young Kim is challenging incumbent Democrat Gil Ciseneros for a seat the latter narrowly won two years ago.As the party makes a final pitch to voters in the region, Democrats also hope that a full-force showing of liberal voters will send a bigger message: “As California goes, so goes the country. For a lot of people, around the county, we can be that shiny, blue beacon of hope,” said Drexel Heard, director of the Los Angeles County Democratic party.Meanwhile, many Republicans running in local races are seeking to distance themselves from the president, said Bill Whalen, a Republican political consultant in California and a fellow at the conservative Hoover Institute. “Since Ronald Reagan, Republicans have been looking for a national figure that relates to Californians,” he said. “And that figure has not emerged.”More than the national or congressional elections, how the state votes on a host of progressive ballot proposals, including ones seeking to reinstate affirmative action and allowing people on parole to vote, will be a true indication of whether the California electorate is shifting further to the left – or whether voters are simply repelled by Trumpism, Whalen said.Trump’s far-right ideology doesn’t tend to appeal to fiscally conservative, business-minded conservatives in the Golden State. He agrees with Heard that, “California is where you’ll see previews of national coming attractions.” Post election, Republicans will have to “adapt to changing sensibilities”.So far, Democrats have been returning ballots at slightly higher rates than Republicans, per data that Mitchell has been tracking. He suspects that older Republicans – who have traditionally voted early and by mail in past elections – may wait to vote in person, as Trump told his supporters to do. It’s impossible to predict how turnout overall and electoral trends will shift based on early voting data, he noted.On an unseasonably hot afternoon in Oakland, 26-year-old Tobi Akomolede sought a sliver of shade while waiting at an early voting station. “I didn’t want to miss my chance to vote,” he said, adding that he wanted to cast his ballot in person to ease worries about postal service delays.“Why is it important to vote? Because everything,” he said.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 10:00:21 GMT

Ethiopia blasts Trump remark that Egypt will 'blow up' dam
Ethiopia on Saturday denounced “belligerent threats” over the huge dam it has nearly completed on the Blue Nile River, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said downstream Egypt will “blow up” the project it has called an existential threat. Ethiopia's foreign minister summoned the U.S. ambassador to seek clarification, saying “the incitement of war between Ethiopia and Egypt from a sitting U.S. president neither reflects the longstanding partnership and strategic alliance between Ethiopia and the United States nor is acceptable in international law governing interstate relations,” a statement said. Without naming Trump or the U.S., Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office issued a separate critical statement amid an outcry in Ethiopia over Trump’s latest threat over the dam.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 09:47:58 GMT

Merkel reinforces appeal to reduce contacts as German infections rise

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 09:42:14 GMT

Donald Trump's China adviser suggests Beijing's Xinjiang activities are a 'crime against humanity'
US President Trump's top national security adviser for China appeared to endorse an accusation by The Economist magazine that Beijing's policies towards Uygurs and other Muslim minority groups in China's far west Xinjiang region amount to crimes against humanity.In a speech on Friday he delivered in Mandarin, Matthew Pottinger, a deputy national security adviser, described the Chinese government's detention facilities in Xinjiang - which the UN says are holding one million Uygurs and other Muslim minorities - as concentration camps, and implored China's citizens to learn for themselves what is happening there."It is in a spirit of friendship, reflection, and, yes, candour, that I ask friends in China to research the truth about your government's policies toward the Uygur people and other religious minorities," he said to a video conference hosted by the think tank Policy Exchange in London.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China."Ask yourselves why the editors of The Economist, in a cover article this week, called those policies 'a crime against humanity'," he said. "There is no credible justification I can find in Chinese philosophy, religion or moral law for the concentration camps inside your borders."The White House's deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, shown in 2017 in Beijing, said on Friday he could find "no credible justification ... in Chinese philosophy, religion or moral law for the concentration camps inside [China's] borders". Photo: AP alt=The White House's deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, shown in 2017 in Beijing, said on Friday he could find "no credible justification ... in Chinese philosophy, religion or moral law for the concentration camps inside [China's] borders". Photo: APThe comments were among the sharpest yet from the Trump administration about the human rights situation in Xinjiang, and represent the growing alarm among both political parties in Washington about the widespread human rights abuses believed to be taking place there.Just minutes after Pottinger finished his speech - his second this year in Mandarin - a bipartisan group of 31 members of Congress said they had sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, urging them to do more to help Uygurs seeking to flee to the US, and to protect Uygurs already living in the US from what they say is Chinese persecution.The Chinese government vehemently denies any wrongdoing in Xinjiang, and has described the camps there as job training centres. Its diplomats call criticism of the policies there interference in China's internal affairs.And on social media, China's state media outlets pump out messages seeking to discount first-hand reports from Uygurs who spent time in the camps or whose family members have disappeared.Yet widespread evidence has emerged out of Xinjiang in recent years of mass detentions, forced labour, and a government campaign to eradicate Uygur culture, which some observers have called "cultural genocide". The Chinese government has also been accused of harassing Uygurs living overseas.In August, Politico reported that the Trump administration was considering whether to label the situation in Xinjiang a genocide - a rare governmental step that would likely imperil the US-China relationship far beyond where it has already fallen.In a sign of the bipartisan consensus in Washington on Xinjiang, a spokesman for former vice-president Joe Biden, Trump's Democratic opponent in the coming presidential election, responded to the report by saying the Biden camp not only agreed with the label but had said so first.As US-China relations have deteriorated in the last year over trade policy, the coronavirus pandemic and the Hong Kong protests, along with human rights, the Trump administration has sought to punish a range of companies and government officials in Xinjiang with tools like financial sanctions, export controls and visa bans.In July, the administration sanctioned Chen Quanguo, the top Communist Party official in Xinjiang. It has reportedly considered an import ban on all cotton products originating there, and has blocked the import of products from multiple textile companies operating in the region. Xinjiang is one of the world's largest cotton-producing regions.Xinjiang Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, the highest ranking Chinese official in the region to have been sanctioned by the United States for alleged human rights abuses against Uygurs and other Muslim minorities. Photo: AFP alt=Xinjiang Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, the highest ranking Chinese official in the region to have been sanctioned by the United States for alleged human rights abuses against Uygurs and other Muslim minorities. Photo: AFPBut even as the administration has set its sights on Xinjiang, President Trump has faced criticism for not speaking out publicly about human rights in the region.According to Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton, the president last year reportedly told Chinese leader Xi Jinping that he should "go ahead with building" the camps in Xinjiang. Trump has denied that.In response to a question suggesting that Trump viewed the US-China relationship only in transactional terms without regard for morals, Pottinger, a former Beijing correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, defended the president and said to look at what he had done, "and not what the media says"."The Trump administration is the only government on earth that has imposed costs - concrete costs - on the People's Republic of China for the concentration camps in Xinjiang," he said.This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 09:30:00 GMT

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