How wearing face masks can help reduce Covid-19 symptoms
14 September
Research has indicated that wearing face masks can help in limiting the exposure of the Covid virus and in turn generate an immune response in the body.
Masks can help in increasing asymptomatic cases and slow the spread of the disease.
Adam Ozimek, chief economist at Upwork, shared an article on how wearing masks can help in providing immunity against the Covid-19 virus.
Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine notes that wearing masks can help in reducing the severity of the virus.
Wearing a mask can help in creating a form of inoculation that can generate immunity against the virus and slow its spread as a vaccine is awaited.
The research indicates that the amount of virus a person is exposed to determines the severity of the illness.
Meanwhile, Colin Williams, professor of public policy at University of Sheffield, shared an article on the rise in Covid-19 cases in the UK.
According to research conducted at the Imperial College London, the number of cases is doubling every 7.7 days.
At this rate, the UK will have 10,000 new cases each day in the next two weeks.
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
\The Invisibles: Inhumane Conditions of Italy’s Migrant Farmworkers|
Over 200,000 migrant laborers, mostly from Africa, work in Italy’s fields. After being exploited for years, the coronavirus global pandemic made these workers “essential” overnight — but without labor rights or even access to basic sanitation, these farmworkers are living and working in conditions that have been described as modern slavery. Union leader Aboubakar Soumahoro has been documenting these inhumane conditions and is now helping the workers organize to demand real and lasting change.
HUMAN RIGHTS
The Exploitative System that Traps Nigerian Women as Slaves in Lebanon
Nigerian migrants arrive in Lagos from Libya. Nigeria has, in the last two years, evacuated thousands of its citizens from Libya and Lebanon after they suffered several forms of abuses, including enslavement. Trafficking has resulted in at least 80,000 Nigerian women being held as sex slaves and forced labour in the Middle East. Credit: Sam Olukoya/IPS
- “I need help, right now I cannot walk properly,” trafficking victim Nkiru Obasi pleaded from her hospital bed in a video she posted online.
The young Nigerian woman had been injured in the Aug. 4 Beirut blast, which ripped through the Lebanese capital, killing 190 people injuring a further 6,500 and damaging 40 percent of the city. However, it’s not her injuries keeping her in Lebanon but a restrictive and abusive system of migrant laws.
Obasi is just one of thousands of young Nigerian women trafficked to Lebanon with false promises of a better life. The Lagos-based New Telegraph newspaper quoted a source in the Nigerian embassy in Lebanon as saying that some 4,541 Nigerian women were trafficked to the country last year. The chair of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, described the rate at which Nigerian women are trafficked to Lebanon as “an epidemic”.
After sustaining injuries in the blast, Obasi tried to return to Nigeria but she and four others were stopped at the airport under the exploitative Kafala system.
The system, which is widely practiced in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East, prohibits migrant workers from returning to their countries without the permission of their employer.
“Lebanon’s restrictive and exploitative kafala system traps tens of thousands of migrant domestic workers in potentially harmful situations by tying their legal status to their employer, enabling highly abusive conditions amounting at worst to modern-day slavery,” according to Aya Majzoub, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. The rights organisation called for a revised contract that recognises and protects workers’ internationally guaranteed rights.
In late May, Nigeria attempted to repatriate 60 trafficked women from Lebanon but only 50 could return home. Anti-trafficking activists in the Middle East said the remaining 10 women were held back in Lebanon under the Kafala system.
The Kafala system operates alongside a system that enslaves trafficked women. In April, a Lebanese man posted an advert under the “Buy and Sell in Lebanon” Facebook group. “Domestic worker from Nigeria for sale with new legal document, she is 30 years old, she is very active and very clean,” the advert said in Arabic. The price tag was $1,000.
An outcry from Nigeria forced Lebanese authorities to rescue the woman while a man thought to be responsible for the Facebook post was arrested. The Lebanese Ministry of Labour said the man would be tried in court for human trafficking.
But this is not an isolated case. Many Nigerian women trafficked to the Middle East have spoken out about being sold as slaves.
In January, 23-year-old Ajayi Omolola appeared in an online video saying she and a few other Nigerian women were being held under harsh conditions and that their lives were at risk.
“When we are ill, they don’t take us to the hospital, some of those I arrived in Lebanon with have died,” she said.
Omolola said on arrival in Lebanon, her passport was taken away and she was “sold”.
“I did not realise that they had sold me into slavery,” she said, adding that she only realised the gravity of her situation when her boss told her she could not return to Nigeria because he had “bought her”.
Kikelomo Olayide had a similar account. On arrival in Lebanon from Nigeria she was taken to a market. “In that market, they call us slaves,” she said.
Roland Nwoha, head of programmes/coordinator of migration and human trafficking at Idia Renaissance, a Nigerian organisation working to discourage irregular migration and human trafficking, told IPS that even though Europe is a major attraction for Nigerians in search of a better future abroad, the Middle East is proving an alternative for many.
Nwoha explained that unlike the journey to Europe, which involves a dangerous land journey through the desert and an equally dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea, traffickers fly their victims to the Middle East after procuring visas for them with the promise of good jobs.
The chair of Nigeria’s House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora Affairs Tolulope Akande-Sadipe said 80,000 Nigerian women are being held as sex slaves,and forced labour in the Middle East, especially in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
Nigerian women trafficked to the Middle East “almost always end in labour and sexual exploitation,” Daniel Atokolo Lagos commander of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons said.
Gloria Bright, a Nigerian teacher who was promised a teaching job with a monthly salary of $1,000 in Lebanon, was held captive and made to work as a domestic worker upon her arrival. She posted an online video in which she pleaded for help and to be rescued. She said besides being made to work under very harsh conditions, her boss sexually harassed her. “At times he will ask me to massage him, he will hug me, he will kiss me,” she said.
Bright was fortunate to be rescued by Nigerian authorities before the Aug. 4 Beirut blast.
Dabiri-Erewa said the trafficking of Nigerians to Lebanon “is becoming a big embarrassment and it has to be stopped”. In an effort to stop the crime, Nigerian authorities have arrested several people, including Lebanese residents in Nigeria. A Lebanese is being investigated in connection with the trafficking of 27 women to Lebanon, two of whom have been rescued.
The Lebanese ambassador to Nigeria, Houssam Diab, says his embassy is assisting the Nigerian government to stop the trafficking of women to his country. He said the issuance of work visas to Nigerians has been suspended following cases of the abuse of Nigerian women at the hands of their Lebanese employers.
The ambassador said the Lebanese Ministry of Labour will work out a “legal and systemic way to make domestic staff to come into Lebanon legally without the fear of inhuman treatment”.
Nigerian activists, like Nwoha, who are working against human trafficking say the Nigerian government has to do more to curtailing the activities of the traffickers. They said the government should make conditions at home better to stop Nigerians desperately seeking a better life abroad.
This is part of a series of features from across the globe on human trafficking. IPS coverage is supported by the Airways Aviation Group.
The Global Sustainability Network ( GSN ) is pursuing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 8 with a special emphasis on Goal 8.7 which ‘takes immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms’.
The origins of the GSN come from the endeavours of the Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders signed on 2 December 2014. Religious leaders of various faiths, gathered to work together “to defend the dignity and freedom of the human being against the extreme forms of the globalisation of indifference, such us exploitation, forced labour, prostitution, human trafficking” and so forth.
Will Trump Threaten to Pullout or De-fund the United Nations?
World leaders have been urged to stay home in the first “virtual” UN General Assembly sessions in the 75-year history of the United Nations. The annual high-level sessions, with mostly pre-recorded video speeches, begin September 22. The UN says there will be “no marvelling at seemingly endless presidential motorcades on First Avenue and no “standing-room only” moments in the gilded General Assembly Hall, as the Organization’s busiest time of the year is reimagined in the time of COVID-19. Credit: Anton Uspensky, UN News
- Back in 1998, Senator Jesse Helms, a rightwing Republican from the US state of North Carolina, carried out a virulent one-man hate-campaign against the UN– and its very presence in New York.
A fulltime chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee– and a part-time UN basher—the late Helms publicly complained that providing funds to the UN is like “pouring money into a rathole”. Helms wanted the “Glass House by the East River” shipped out of New York — for good.
Fast forward to 2020.
There is widespread speculation that when US president Donald Trump addresses the General Assembly on September 22 –one of the few, or perhaps the only head of state, to do so “in person” in a virtually virus-locked down world body– he may either threaten to pull out of the UN (very unlikely), warn of possible cuts in financial contributions (likely), or downsize the US role in the world body (most likely).
But with a highly unpredictable US president, everything is up in the air.
Meanwhile, the cry to “de-fund the police”, triggered by anti-black violence by law enforcement officials in the US, has prompted a new hashtag “de-fund the UN”.
Asked for his comments, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters September 8: ”I have seen the hashtag.”
“I think we prove every day the worth in investing in the United Nations for the betterment of peoples everywhere and the value that it brings, whether it is helping during the pandemic… or what we’re doing all over the world, what we’re doing in our peacekeeping missions… So, we do our utmost to prove our worth every day by the work that we do,” said Dujarric.
Any proposed cuts – or attempts to “‘de-fund” the UN –will also likely be a retaliation against the failed US resolution last month in the UN Security Council against the resumption of sanctions on Iran.
Suffering a devastating defeat, the Trump administration was both isolated and humiliated when only one UN member state, the Dominican Republic, voted with the US in the 15-member Security Council, the most powerful body in the UN.
The vote was short of the minimum nine “yes” votes required for adoption—and 11 members, including Western allies such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom abstained, while China and Russia voted against the resolution.
Asked what the Security Council rejection would mean to the US on the world stage, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters: “Well, it’s disappointing, because privately, every world leader, every one of my counterparts tells me that America is doing the right thing.”
No one, he said, “has come to me and advocated for allowing Iran to have these weapon systems. And so, for them not to stand up and tell the world publicly at the United Nations, yep, this is the right thing, it’s incomprehensible to me. To side with the Russians and the Chinese on this important issue at this important moment in time at the UN, I think, is really dangerous for the world.”
Asked why there was no support from the European countries on the Security Council, he was blunt: “You’ll have to ask the Europeans that”
If the de-funding does happen, and since the US pays 22 percent of the UN’s budget, it will be devastating blow to a world body commemorating its 75th anniversary later this month.
As a hard-core unilateralist, Trump has been openly antagonistic towards multilateral institutions.
Since he took office back in January 2017, the Trump administration has either de-funded, withdrawn from, or denigrated several UN agencies and affiliated institutions, including the World Health Organization, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the UN Human Rights Council and the International Criminal Court (ICC), among others.
And according to a report in the New York Times September 4, Trump is very likely to withdraw from the iconic 71-year-old military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) — if he wins a second term as president.
The Times quotes former US officials as saying that such a move would be one of the biggest global strategic shifts in generations and a major victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
So, will the UN be far behind?
Norman Solomon, executive director of the Washington-based Institute for Public Accuracy, told IPS the Trump administration is a wrecking crew that seeks to undermine if not demolish any international institutions that do not serve Trump’s idiosyncratic whims or, more substantially, don’t serve narrow interests of U.S.-based corporations and the military-industrial complex.
While top leaders of the U.S. government have routinely seen the United Nations as primarily an instrument to be used to advance America’s geopolitical interests, during the last three-quarters of a century some have recognized the overlap between humanitarian and nationalistic goals.
“No longer”, he declared.
“The Trump regime has operated almost entirely from the basis of narrowly defined self-interest, to the point that it should be understood as the gravest threat not only to the UN but to the world as a whole”, said Solomon, author of “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death”
“When we evaluate international institutions, they should not be conflated. The United Nations and its potential are very far from comparable to NATO.”
The UN — while significantly and by some measures deeply flawed, and badly in need of power restructuring — has laudable aspirations, he argued.
“NATO, on the other hand, is far more of a threat to peace than a defender. Trump’s hostility to the concept of the United Nations is in many ways categorical, whereas his intermittent criticisms of NATO are inconsistent and largely a function of unhinged nationalism”, said Solomon.
During what are hopefully his last several months as president, he pointed out, Trump should be ostracized as much as possible by world leaders and civil society.
His so-called leadership is a toxic brew of greed, calculated stupidity and narcissistic prerogatives of supposed “American exceptionalism.”
Many U.S. presidents during the last 75 years have aspired to see the United States government work its will on the entire world, but Trump has taken such conceits to an extreme that requires complete rejection, said Solomon.
Ian Williams, President of the Foreign Press Association in New York and author of “UNtold: The Real Story of the United Nations in Peace and War”, told IPS the UN system is in the sad position where the US acts as if it hates the organization, but the other members do not love it enough to step into the gap.
Historically, the US prizes the organization’s dependence on Washington as was shown when the US rebuffed Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme’s 1985 proposal to restrict its contributions to 10%.
VIDEO: Blaze rips through Zaha Hadid-designed Beirut souks building
Fire erupted in a building in Beirut souk. (Twitter)
Short Url
https://arab.news/n36g4
CLICK FOR VIDEOS
NAJIA HOUSSARI
September 15, 202009:11
5498
DUBAI: A fire broke out in a building in the souk area of Beirut, designed by the company founded by famous UK-Iraqi architect, Zaha Hadid, on Tuesday, as it underwent repairs caused by the devastating Aug. 4 blast.
Mobile phone footage shows flames lapping up the side of the building, and debris can be heard falling to the ground.
First Lieutenant Michel Al-Murr, of the Beirut Fire Brigade, told Arab News that “the fire was large, but firefighters were quick to respond and were able to bring it under control, preventing it from spreading further.”
Al-Murr said the fire was mostly on the exterior of the building which has materials made from “fiberglass and resin, and compressed.”
An investigation into the cause of the blaze is underway, but local media has quoted a worker as saying that black tar was being worked on at the site using a gas fueled flame.
Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects & Samir Khairallah & Partners, the 26,370 m² mixed use development, that is still under construction, includes retail and residential spaces and was due for completion in 2019 , but was delayed.
“The building was severely damaged by the Aug. 4 blast," Abdul Rahman Sultan, the owner of the steel company that was working on the implementation of the design of the building’s facade, told Arab News.
"The value of the damage was up to $7 million, and with this fire, the damage must have doubled,” he said.
“It should have been finished in 2019, but bad events continue in downtown Beirut, the date of its opening has delayed. Now, I doubt that it will rise again in light of these losses.”
يعمل عناصر من الدفاع المدني في هذه الاثناء على إخماد النيران التي اندلعت داخل مجمع تجاري قيد الانشاء في وسط بيروت. وقد تمت السيطرة على الحريق ولم يسجل وقوع اي اصابات. https://t.co/C0TlzMaVW0
— Salman Andary (@salmanonline) September 15, 2020
Tuesay’s incident is Beirut’s second major fire in less than a week, on Thursday a blaze ripped through a warehouse in Beirut’s port area that contained aid.
It is little over a month since the devastating explosion in the city’s port, that killed scores and injured more than 6,000 people on Aug. 4, 2020.
(With agencies)
Fire erupted in a building in Beirut souk. (Twitter)
The reason behind the fire is still unknown
The affected building was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects & Samir Khairallah & Partners
The affected building was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects & Samir Khairallah & Partners
Short Url
https://arab.news/n36g4
CLICK FOR VIDEOS
NAJIA HOUSSARI
September 15, 202009:11
5498
DUBAI: A fire broke out in a building in the souk area of Beirut, designed by the company founded by famous UK-Iraqi architect, Zaha Hadid, on Tuesday, as it underwent repairs caused by the devastating Aug. 4 blast.
Mobile phone footage shows flames lapping up the side of the building, and debris can be heard falling to the ground.
First Lieutenant Michel Al-Murr, of the Beirut Fire Brigade, told Arab News that “the fire was large, but firefighters were quick to respond and were able to bring it under control, preventing it from spreading further.”
Al-Murr said the fire was mostly on the exterior of the building which has materials made from “fiberglass and resin, and compressed.”
An investigation into the cause of the blaze is underway, but local media has quoted a worker as saying that black tar was being worked on at the site using a gas fueled flame.
Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects & Samir Khairallah & Partners, the 26,370 m² mixed use development, that is still under construction, includes retail and residential spaces and was due for completion in 2019 , but was delayed.
“The building was severely damaged by the Aug. 4 blast," Abdul Rahman Sultan, the owner of the steel company that was working on the implementation of the design of the building’s facade, told Arab News.
"The value of the damage was up to $7 million, and with this fire, the damage must have doubled,” he said.
“It should have been finished in 2019, but bad events continue in downtown Beirut, the date of its opening has delayed. Now, I doubt that it will rise again in light of these losses.”
يعمل عناصر من الدفاع المدني في هذه الاثناء على إخماد النيران التي اندلعت داخل مجمع تجاري قيد الانشاء في وسط بيروت. وقد تمت السيطرة على الحريق ولم يسجل وقوع اي اصابات. https://t.co/C0TlzMaVW0
— Salman Andary (@salmanonline) September 15, 2020
Tuesay’s incident is Beirut’s second major fire in less than a week, on Thursday a blaze ripped through a warehouse in Beirut’s port area that contained aid.
It is little over a month since the devastating explosion in the city’s port, that killed scores and injured more than 6,000 people on Aug. 4, 2020.
(With agencies)
North Korean hackers ramp up bank heists,
says US government cyber alert
WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - North Korean hackers are tapping into banks around the globe to make fraudulent money transfers and cause ATMs to spit out cash, the US government warned on Wednesday (Aug 26).
A technical cybersecurity alert jointly written by four different federal agencies, including the Treasury Department and FBI, said there had been a resurgence in financially motivated hacking efforts by the North Korean regime this year after a lull in activity.
"Since February 2020, North Korea has resumed targeting banks in multiple countries to initiate fraudulent international money transfers and ATM cash outs," the warning reads.
US law enforcement titled the hacking campaign "Fast Cash" and blamed North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau, a spy agency, for it.
They described the operation as going on since at least 2016 but ramping up in sophistication and volume recently.
Over the last several years, North Korea has been blamed by US authorities and private sector cybersecurity companies for hacking numerous banks in Asia, South America and Africa.
"North Korean cyber actors have demonstrated an imaginative knack for adjusting their tactics to exploit the financial sector as well as any other sector through illicit cyber operations," Bryan Ware, a senior cybersecurity official at the US Homeland Security Department, said in a prepared statement.
Cybersecurity experts and foreign policy analysts have said these types of hacking operations are conducted to help fund the North Korean government, which is cash-strapped due to expansive sanctions continuously placed on it by the US and other western countries.
"The continued attacks are proof of the reliance the regime has on these funds, along with being a testament to their technical ability and determination," said Vikram Thakur, a technical director for US cybersecurity firm Symantec.
US fired missiles in 2017 to show it could target North Korea's Kim Jong Un, says Woodward's new book Rage
Mr Mattis even slept in his clothes so he would be ready in case of a provocation by the North and went to the nearby Washington National Cathedral to pray, Mr Woodward reported.
Mr Woodward said the US Strategic Command in Omaha, Nebraska, had carefully reviewed Operation Plan 5027 - the war plans in case of a North Korean invasion - which included "the use of 80 nuclear weapons".
"This weighed heavily on me every day. I had to consider every day this could happen. This was not a theoretical concern," Mr Mattis was quoted as saying, raising concern that "the worst possible situation might dictate the use of nuclear weapons".
For the book, Mr Woodward - a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who is best known for uncovering the Watergate scandal - conducted 18 interviews with Mr Trump between December and July.
During one of the interviews, Mr Trump told Mr Woodward that Washington came closer to war with Pyongyang than anyone can imagine in 2017.
"Much closer than anyone would know. Much closer," Mr Trump said, insisting that Mr Kim, too, must have known.
"But he knows. I have a great relationship, let me just put it that way," Mr Trump said.
Bob Woodward had conducted 18 interviews with President Donald Trump between December 2019 and July 2020.PHOTO: EPA-EFE
SEOUL (THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The United States came close to nuclear war with North Korea in 2017, launching a precision missile to demonstrate to Pyongyang that it could strike any target, including North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to a new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward.
In response to Pyongyang test-firing its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the US on July 4, 2017, retired general Vincent Brooks, who headed US Forces Korea from 2016 to 2018, ordered troops to fire a tactical missile that travelled 300km before dropping into the East Sea, also known as Sea of Japan, according to Mr Woodward's Rage, a revelatory book about the presidency of Mr Donald Trump set for release on Tuesday (Sept 15).
"That was the exact distance between the launching point of the US missile and the North Korean missile test site, as well as a tent where satellite photos showed Kim Jong Un was watching the missile launch," Mr Woodward wrote, according to excerpts obtained by Yonhap News Agency.
"The meaning was meant to be clear: Kim Jong Un needed to worry about his personal safety," Mr Woodward said, adding that it was never confirmed whether the North had got the message.
Following its ICBM test, the North upped provocations, launching a more powerful ICBM on July 28 and another ballistic missile over Japan on Aug 29, which Mr Woodward described as a "clear escalation" that "changed the character of the threat".
Then defence secretary James Mattis mulled over whether the US should carry out a military attack in response, but reconsidered due to the consequences that would likely entail.
"(Mattis) began looking for more aggressive response options and wondered if they should take some actual bombing action in a North Korean port to send the message," Mr Woodward said. "(Mattis) did not think that President Trump would launch a pre-emptive strike on North Korea, although plans for such a war were on the shelf."
With the escalation of provocations in 2017, Mr Trump's national security team also believed the potential for nuclear war with the North was there.
"We never knew whether it was real or whether it was a bluff," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was quoted as saying in the book.
SEOUL (THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The United States came close to nuclear war with North Korea in 2017, launching a precision missile to demonstrate to Pyongyang that it could strike any target, including North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to a new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward.
In response to Pyongyang test-firing its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the US on July 4, 2017, retired general Vincent Brooks, who headed US Forces Korea from 2016 to 2018, ordered troops to fire a tactical missile that travelled 300km before dropping into the East Sea, also known as Sea of Japan, according to Mr Woodward's Rage, a revelatory book about the presidency of Mr Donald Trump set for release on Tuesday (Sept 15).
"That was the exact distance between the launching point of the US missile and the North Korean missile test site, as well as a tent where satellite photos showed Kim Jong Un was watching the missile launch," Mr Woodward wrote, according to excerpts obtained by Yonhap News Agency.
"The meaning was meant to be clear: Kim Jong Un needed to worry about his personal safety," Mr Woodward said, adding that it was never confirmed whether the North had got the message.
Following its ICBM test, the North upped provocations, launching a more powerful ICBM on July 28 and another ballistic missile over Japan on Aug 29, which Mr Woodward described as a "clear escalation" that "changed the character of the threat".
Then defence secretary James Mattis mulled over whether the US should carry out a military attack in response, but reconsidered due to the consequences that would likely entail.
"(Mattis) began looking for more aggressive response options and wondered if they should take some actual bombing action in a North Korean port to send the message," Mr Woodward said. "(Mattis) did not think that President Trump would launch a pre-emptive strike on North Korea, although plans for such a war were on the shelf."
With the escalation of provocations in 2017, Mr Trump's national security team also believed the potential for nuclear war with the North was there.
"We never knew whether it was real or whether it was a bluff," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was quoted as saying in the book.
Mr Mattis even slept in his clothes so he would be ready in case of a provocation by the North and went to the nearby Washington National Cathedral to pray, Mr Woodward reported.
Mr Woodward said the US Strategic Command in Omaha, Nebraska, had carefully reviewed Operation Plan 5027 - the war plans in case of a North Korean invasion - which included "the use of 80 nuclear weapons".
"This weighed heavily on me every day. I had to consider every day this could happen. This was not a theoretical concern," Mr Mattis was quoted as saying, raising concern that "the worst possible situation might dictate the use of nuclear weapons".
For the book, Mr Woodward - a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who is best known for uncovering the Watergate scandal - conducted 18 interviews with Mr Trump between December and July.
During one of the interviews, Mr Trump told Mr Woodward that Washington came closer to war with Pyongyang than anyone can imagine in 2017.
"Much closer than anyone would know. Much closer," Mr Trump said, insisting that Mr Kim, too, must have known.
"But he knows. I have a great relationship, let me just put it that way," Mr Trump said.
US fired missile into East Sea right after N. Korea’s ICBM launch in 2017, says renowned US journalist
Posted on : Sep.15,2020 17:57 KST Modified on : Sep.15,2020 17:57 KST
WW3.0
South Korea says no use of nuclear weapons in joint operational plans with US
\
\A presidential official has said any use of force cannot be implemented without South Korea's consent.PHOTO: AFP
SEOUL (REUTERS) - South Korea said on Tuesday (Sept 15) that none of its joint military action plans with the United States includes any use of nuclear weapons, after a book by a US journalist sparked debate over whether scenarios of a full-blown war with North Korea would entail a nuclear attack from either side.
In his new book, titled Rage, Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward wrote that the US had devised plans for a possible armed clash with North Korea, such as "the US response to an attack that could include the use of 80 nuclear weapons".
The book was based on multiple interviews with US President Donald Trump.
The passage fuelled debate in South Korea over whether it meant Washington or Pyongyang would detonate 80 bombs against each other.
Seoul's defence ministry said on Tuesday its joint operational plans (OPLAN) with the US did not include any use of nuclear weapons, reiterating the view of the presidential office.
A presidential official said on Monday that there must not be another war on the peninsula and any use of force cannot be implemented without South Korea's consent.
"I can say clearly that the use of a nuclear weapon does not exist in our OPLANs, and it is impossible to use military force without our agreement," the official told reporters.
Seoul officials say there appears to be confusion in the book because the OPLAN 5027 it referred to was not designed for nuclear war but to map out troop deployment plans and key targets.
"It might indicate the maximum levels of the bombs the North could resort to in an all-out war, but the number itself is too high and hardly comprehensible in any case without clear contexts," said Mr Kim Hong-kyun, a former South Korea nuclear envoy.
After trading insults and nuclear threats that had pushed their countries to the brink of war, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held an unprecedented summit in Singapore in 2018.
But negotiations aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes have stalled since their second summit early last year.
The two leaders continued to exchange letters, however, often expressing thanks for their previous meetings and at times calling for concessions, the book said.
In an August 2019 letter, Mr Kim urged that South Korea-US military exercises be cancelled or postponed before working-level negotiation. Planned drills, which Pyongyang has called a rehearsal for war, were scaled back later on, and both sides described it as a move to expedite the talks.
"I am clearly offended and I do not want to hide this feeling from you. I am really, very offended," Mr Kim wrote, referring to the exercises.
Mr Trump also said during their first summit that he did not want to "remove" Mr Kim, and that North Korea could become "one of the great economic powers" if it abandons weapons programmes, the book said.
SEOUL (REUTERS) - South Korea said on Tuesday (Sept 15) that none of its joint military action plans with the United States includes any use of nuclear weapons, after a book by a US journalist sparked debate over whether scenarios of a full-blown war with North Korea would entail a nuclear attack from either side.
In his new book, titled Rage, Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward wrote that the US had devised plans for a possible armed clash with North Korea, such as "the US response to an attack that could include the use of 80 nuclear weapons".
The book was based on multiple interviews with US President Donald Trump.
The passage fuelled debate in South Korea over whether it meant Washington or Pyongyang would detonate 80 bombs against each other.
Seoul's defence ministry said on Tuesday its joint operational plans (OPLAN) with the US did not include any use of nuclear weapons, reiterating the view of the presidential office.
A presidential official said on Monday that there must not be another war on the peninsula and any use of force cannot be implemented without South Korea's consent.
"I can say clearly that the use of a nuclear weapon does not exist in our OPLANs, and it is impossible to use military force without our agreement," the official told reporters.
Seoul officials say there appears to be confusion in the book because the OPLAN 5027 it referred to was not designed for nuclear war but to map out troop deployment plans and key targets.
"It might indicate the maximum levels of the bombs the North could resort to in an all-out war, but the number itself is too high and hardly comprehensible in any case without clear contexts," said Mr Kim Hong-kyun, a former South Korea nuclear envoy.
After trading insults and nuclear threats that had pushed their countries to the brink of war, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held an unprecedented summit in Singapore in 2018.
But negotiations aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes have stalled since their second summit early last year.
The two leaders continued to exchange letters, however, often expressing thanks for their previous meetings and at times calling for concessions, the book said.
In an August 2019 letter, Mr Kim urged that South Korea-US military exercises be cancelled or postponed before working-level negotiation. Planned drills, which Pyongyang has called a rehearsal for war, were scaled back later on, and both sides described it as a move to expedite the talks.
"I am clearly offended and I do not want to hide this feeling from you. I am really, very offended," Mr Kim wrote, referring to the exercises.
Mr Trump also said during their first summit that he did not want to "remove" Mr Kim, and that North Korea could become "one of the great economic powers" if it abandons weapons programmes, the book said.
US wildfires: Donald Trump dismisses science and predicts cooler temperatures
By Associated Press • last updated: 15/09/2020 - 10:51
President Donald Trump listens as California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a briefing at Sacramento McClellan Airport, California, Sept. 14, 2020, on western wildfires. - Copyright AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
With the smell of California wildfires in the air, President Donald Trump on Monday ignored the scientific consensus that climate change is playing a central role in historic West Coast infernos and renewed his unfounded claim that failure to rake forest floors and clear dead timber is mostly to blame.
The fires are threatening to become another front in Trump’s reelection bid, which is already facing hurdles because of the coronavirus pandemic, joblessness and social unrest. His Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, in his own speech Monday said the destruction and mounting death toll across California, Oregon and Washington require stronger presidential leadership and labeled Trump a “climate arsonist.”
Trump traveled to Northern California to be briefed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state and federal officials. At one point, state Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot urged the president to “recognize the changing climate and what it means to our forests.”
“If we ignore that science and sort of put our head in the sand and think it’s all about vegetation management, we’re not going to succeed together protecting Californians,” Crowfoot added.
Trump responded, “It will start getting cooler, just you watch.”
Crowfoot politely pushed back that he wished the science agreed with the president. Trump countered, “I don’t think science knows, actually.
Biden: US needs 'leadership not scapegoating'
That striking moment came on a day of dueling campaign events, with Trump and Biden dramatically contrasting their outlooks on climate change — and the impact it has had on the record-setting fires ravaging the West Coast.
Trump’s suggestion that the planet is going to start to unexpectedly cool is at odds with reality, experts say.
“Maybe there is a parallel universe where a pot on the stove with the burner turned to high ‘starts getting cooler.’ But that is not our universe,” said Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field.
Biden lashed at Trump, saying the moment requires “leadership, not scapegoating” and that “it’s clear we are not safe in Donald Trump’s America.”
“This is another crisis, another crisis he won’t take responsibility for,” Biden said. He said that if voters give “a climate denier” another four years in the White House, “why would we be surprised that we have more of America ablaze?”
Trump, who was briefed during a stop near Sacramento before a campaign visit to Phoenix, had been mostly quiet as the catastrophe on the West Coast has unfolded over the past few weeks. He tweeted appreciation of firefighters and emergency responders on Friday, the first public comments he had made in weeks about the fires that have killed dozens, burned millions of acres and forced thousands from their homes.
Trump offers no evidence for wild claims
The president arrived at at Sacramento McClellan Airport to the powerful scent of smoke from the fires burning some 90 miles away.
He contended anew that Democratic state leaders are to blame for failing to rake leaves and clear dead timber from forest floors. Trump offered no evidence to support his claim, and wildfire experts and forest managers say raking leaves makes no sense for vast U.S. wilderness and forests. And many of the blazes have roared through coastal chaparral and grasslands, not forest.
“When you have years of leaves, dried leaves on the ground, it just sets it up,” Trump said. “It’s really a fuel for a fire. So they have to do something about it.”
University of Colorado fire scientist Jennifer Balch called Trump’s deflecting blame on forest managers “infuriating.”
“It’s often hard to know what Trump means,” Balch added. “If by forest management he means clear-cutting, that’s absolutely the wrong solution to this problem. ... There’s no way we’re going to log our way out of this fire problem.”
Biden, who gave his climate speech in Delaware on Monday, released a $2 trillion plan in July to boost investment in clean energy and stop all climate-damaging emissions from U.S. power plants by 2035.
The president arrived at at Sacramento McClellan Airport to the powerful scent of smoke from the fires burning some 90 miles away.
He contended anew that Democratic state leaders are to blame for failing to rake leaves and clear dead timber from forest floors. Trump offered no evidence to support his claim, and wildfire experts and forest managers say raking leaves makes no sense for vast U.S. wilderness and forests. And many of the blazes have roared through coastal chaparral and grasslands, not forest.
“When you have years of leaves, dried leaves on the ground, it just sets it up,” Trump said. “It’s really a fuel for a fire. So they have to do something about it.”
University of Colorado fire scientist Jennifer Balch called Trump’s deflecting blame on forest managers “infuriating.”
“It’s often hard to know what Trump means,” Balch added. “If by forest management he means clear-cutting, that’s absolutely the wrong solution to this problem. ... There’s no way we’re going to log our way out of this fire problem.”
Biden, who gave his climate speech in Delaware on Monday, released a $2 trillion plan in July to boost investment in clean energy and stop all climate-damaging emissions from U.S. power plants by 2035.
Monday, September 14, 2020
Soviet WWII propaganda revised to hail detained Belarus opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova
By Seana Davis & Naira Davlashyan • last updated: 10/09/2020
The artist tells Euronews that her work "has to help and support people" through protests in Belarus. - Copyright INSTAGRAM @ania_redko_
One month on from Belarus' disputed election result, the opposition movement remains active on the streets and online.
Despite a series of internet outages, citizens have grown accustomed to using social media, such as the popular app Telegram, to communicate and source information.
And through these channels, a number of photos and graphics have been widely shared, becoming symbols of the protests movement.
One digital illustration on Instagram by artist Anna Redko has received nearly 10,000 likes since it was uploaded on Tuesday.
They described her as a "hero" and the Deputy Interior Minister of Ukraine has also labelled Kolesnikova as a "brave woman".
Online users have noted the move of ripping up her passport as ironically become a symbol of patriotism, and has thrust Kolesnikova to the forefront of opposition feeling in Belarus.
A large projection of Anna Redko's artwork has also appeared on the wall of a high-rise residential building in Belarus' capital, Minsk.
Speaking to Euronews, Redko said her work had become a symbol of support for citizens.
"Now in Belarus, a lot of very important events are happening... everybody who is worried about what's going on, they want to support the people of Belarus, support people, and support justice.
"I'm painting especially to be with people and to show the situation from a different angle - the artist's angle."
"I do believe that art has to help and support people."
Click on the player above to watch Seana Davis' report.
By Seana Davis & Naira Davlashyan • last updated: 10/09/2020
The artist tells Euronews that her work "has to help and support people" through protests in Belarus. - Copyright INSTAGRAM @ania_redko_
One month on from Belarus' disputed election result, the opposition movement remains active on the streets and online.
Despite a series of internet outages, citizens have grown accustomed to using social media, such as the popular app Telegram, to communicate and source information.
And through these channels, a number of photos and graphics have been widely shared, becoming symbols of the protests movement.
One digital illustration on Instagram by artist Anna Redko has received nearly 10,000 likes since it was uploaded on Tuesday.
The artwork shows Maria Kolesnikova - a leading figure of the Belarusian opposition movement - in the design of a famous Soviet WWII poster.
In 1941, artist Irakli Toidze designed a poster entitled "Motherland Is Calling!" as wartime propaganda to encourage conscription.
It showed a woman dressed in red, flanked by the rifles, and holding a letter of conscription, which encouraged citizens to sign up for the war effort.
Irakli Toidze's "Motherland Is Calling!" posterCleared
Anna Redko's design shows Kolesnikova, similarly dressed in red, surrounded by white flowers, which have been used by women in Belarus as a symbol of solidarity during demonstrations.
Kolesnikova is also pictured holding a ripped passport in her right hand, in a piece entitled "The Motherland is calling you, Maria".
Anna Redko's design shows Kolesnikova, similarly dressed in red, surrounded by white flowers, which have been used by women in Belarus as a symbol of solidarity during demonstrations.
Kolesnikova is also pictured holding a ripped passport in her right hand, in a piece entitled "The Motherland is calling you, Maria".
ania_redko_"The Motherland Calls"# Belarus2020digital illustrationAnna Redko————————-# zhyvebelarus @kalesnikava #art #digitalillustration #mywork“Kolesnikova tore her passport so that she was not allowed to enter the territory of Ukraine, a source told Interfax-Ukraine.“It was a forcible removal from her native country. Maria Kolesnikova could not be taken out of Belarus, because this brave woman took measures to prevent her movement across the border,” said Gerashchenko, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.6d
On Monday, her opposition colleagues claimed that Kolesnikova had torn her passport at the border with Ukraine to avoid being pushed out of Belarus.
They described her as a "hero" and the Deputy Interior Minister of Ukraine has also labelled Kolesnikova as a "brave woman".
Online users have noted the move of ripping up her passport as ironically become a symbol of patriotism, and has thrust Kolesnikova to the forefront of opposition feeling in Belarus.
A large projection of Anna Redko's artwork has also appeared on the wall of a high-rise residential building in Belarus' capital, Minsk.
Speaking to Euronews, Redko said her work had become a symbol of support for citizens.
"Now in Belarus, a lot of very important events are happening... everybody who is worried about what's going on, they want to support the people of Belarus, support people, and support justice.
"I'm painting especially to be with people and to show the situation from a different angle - the artist's angle."
"I do believe that art has to help and support people."
Click on the player above to watch Seana Davis' report.
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