Belarus strike action begins

Belarusian factory workers, students and pensioners have taken to the streets in a nationwide strike. President Alexander Lukashenko remains defiant after 11 weeks of mass protests



Factory workers, students and business owners in Belarus began a general strike on Monday to demand that President Alexander Lukashenko step down after more than two months of continuing mass protests following a disputed election.

Lukashenko ignored an ultimatum to surrender power by midnight over claims his August 9 re-election was rigged. The authoritarian leader had challenged his opponents to carry out a threat to paralyze Belarus with strikes.

Police used stun grenades as more than 100,000 people gathered in Minsk, Grodno, Brest and other cities. The Interior Ministry said police made 523 arrests across the country


Watch video   https://p.dw.com/p/3kRAQ
Belarus police fire stun grenades at protesters

"The regime has once again showed the Belarusians that violence is the only thing it is capable of,'' said civil rights activist and exiled opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in a statement from neighboring Lithuania.

The Belarusian human rights organization Viasna said that more than 255 people had been detained at strikes and other protests in the country on Monday.

Students in several universities refused to attend lectures and marched in Minsk in protest. Hundreds of small private companies declared Monday a non-working day. Meanwhile, shops and cafes closed their doors, with their owners and employees forming human chains all over Minsk.

Several thousand retirees marched in the capital in their regular Monday protest to demand Lukashenko quit.

"We don't see, hear or run well, but we understand perfectly well that Lukashenko lost," read one of the banners carried by the pensioners.
Lukashenko mocks strikers

Factories carrying out strikes included oil company Belarusneft, fertilizer giant Belaruskali, automakers MAZ, MZKT and Belkommunmash, tractor manufacturer MTZ and appliance maker Atlant, the opposition movement said in a statement.

Managers "tried to intimidate people with riot police in the usual collective-farm manner, yelling at the workers and resorting to ridiculous threats to deprive them of pay. This only reminds them of why they took to the streets," the statement said.

Lukashenko scoffed, asking "who will feed the kids?" if workers at state-owned enterprises went on strike.

The latest twist in the standoff was being closely watched Monday by neighboring Russia and Western governments.

Students at the Belarusian State University in Minsk carried out a sit-in as part of the general strike

No details on turnout

Tsikhanouskaya on her social media Telegram channel had called on private businesses, clergy and athletes to join and observe the general strike call.

"Employees of state factories and enterprises, transport workers and miners, teachers and students have gone on strike this morning," she announced.

The 38-year-old did not provide figures on participation.

The head of Belarus' Confederation of Democratic Trade Unions, Alexander Yaroshuk, warned that it was hard to calculate turnout, "given the authorities' massive pressure."

Accounts of Lukashenko's crackdown since August include harrowing scenes of abuse in jails, thousands of arrests, and several deaths.

Travel bans and asset freezes against Belarus officials accused of election fraud were recently imposed by the United States, the EU, Britain and Canada.

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EU agrees to target Belarus with new sanctions

mvb, ab/msh

Exclusive: EU taps Chinese technology linked to Muslim internment camps in Xinjiang

In the fight against coronavirus, the EU is using thermal cameras produced by Chinese tech giant Hikvision. The firm has been linked to the oppression of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in China's Xinjiang province.

Two EU institutions are using technology produced by China's Hikvision, a firm that has been accused of providing surveillance equipment to Muslim internment camps in the country's northwest Xinjiang province.

Hikvision describes itself as "the world's leading video surveillance products supplier."

The Chinese tech giant has its European base in the Netherlands and has not been subject to any EU sanctions or blacklist measures.

Officials at the European Parliament and the European Commission acquired the company's thermal imaging cameras as part of the fight against the spread of the new coronavirus.

The gadgets can detect a high temperature or fever, which is a common symptom of COVID-19.

Anyone with a temperature of more than 37.7°C (99.86°F) is denied entry.

Ministers, parliamentarians, senior diplomats, and staffers are asked to briefly stare into one of Hikvision's cameras as soon as they enter the buildings in question.

Many will have been unaware they will come face to face with a firm accused of contributing to human rights abuses in China.

Hikvision's thermal cameras are being used at the entrances of European Parliament

Trump blacklisted Hikvision last year

US President Donald Trump's administration decided to blacklist the Chinese company in October last year.

Washington added Hikvision to what is known as the US Entity List, a register of companies believed to pose a threat to national security or US foreign policy interests.

The move bans American companies from doing business with the firm without the government's approval.

In return, Hikvision is effectively barred from buying American products or software.

The Trump administration says the company has been "implicated in the implementation of China's campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups."

Read more: US blacklists 28 Chinese companies over Xinjiang 'rights abuses'

The US also accuses the company of being linked to the Chinese military, a charge the tech giant denies.

European Parliament, Commission turn to Hikvision

The allegations surrounding Hikvision's business dealings in Xinjiang are in the public domain.

Yet staff at the EU institutions acquired the company's thermographic cameras when they brought in new coronavirus safety measures to fight the pandemic.

The cameras have been placed at entrances throughout the European Parliament.

A DW journalist also saw similar Hikvision equipment installed at the European Commission's main offices, the Berlaymont and Charlemagne buildings, in the heart of the Belgian capital's European quarter.

A Hikvision thermographic camera at the main entrance of the Berlaymont building, the European Commission's headquarters

Two staffers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the EU's executive arm will bring in more thermal screening hardware at other offices in the Belgian capital. The Commission has some 60 buildings in Brussels.

A European Commission spokesperson, however, told DW that Hikvision equipment will not be used for the rest of the buildings.

Hikvision has faced repeated accusations over its alleged links to brutal "re-education camps" in Xinjiang.

A leaked German Foreign Ministry report, obtained by DW in January of this year, said an estimated 1 million Uighurs in China are being detained without trial.

Ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minority groups are also being imprisoned, the report said.

In July this year, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the detention centers "concentration camps" — a term disputed by Beijing.

This building, photographed in September 2018, is part of a detention center in Xinjiang

These allegations were put to Hikvision, in which the Chinese government holds a 40% controlling stake via the state-owned China Electronics Technology Group Corporation.

A Hikvision spokesperson, in an emailed statement to DW, said: "Hikvision takes all reports of human rights very seriously and recognizes our responsibility for protecting people. We have been engaging with governments globally to clarify misunderstandings about the company and address their concerns."

Hikvision, however, did not comment on DW's specific questions on the company's reported connection to the detention centers and other security contracts with authorities in Xinjiang.

A January 2020 report by the ethics council for the Norwegian government's pension fund said Hikvision signed five security and surveillance contracts in 2017 with the public authorities in Xinjiang worth more than €230 million ($273 million).

They included tenders for surveillance technology at internment camps, the report said.

It described another contract as providing "a network of around 35,000 cameras to monitor schools, streets and offices" and the "installation of facial recognition cameras at 967 mosques."

The ethics council's report recommended divesting from the company due to "an unacceptable risk that Hikvision, through its operations in Xinjiang, is contributing to serious human rights abuses."

Last month, Norges Bank, which manages the investments, said “the company is no longer in the fund's portfolio."

Hikvision has said in the past that it has no access to any data processed by its hardware and no information is sent to Beijing.

DW reported in February how technology is used to subject the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities to draconian methods of tracking and arrest.

Watch video https://p.dw.com/p/3kIDV
China's Uighurs: Imprisoned for their faith and culture

EU talks tough on China

EU officials' use of Hikvision technology seems to be at odds with the bloc's own policy goals, given that it has been a repeated critic of China's human rights record.

The European Parliament gave its annual human rights prize to Uighur activist Ilham Tohti in 2019, who has been jailed for life.

On Sunday, his daughter Jewher tweeted that she had not had any contact with him for three years.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Beijing at an EU-China summit in June that "human rights and fundamental freedoms are non-negotiable."
European Council President Charles Michel, who chairs the regular meetings of EU leaders, has also been critical of Chinese repression.

"We will not stop promoting respect for universal human rights, including those of minorities such as the Uighurs," the ex-Belgian PM said in a speech to the UN General Assembly last month.


European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel give an online press conference after the EU-China summit in June 2020

EU urged to cut Hikvision ties

German Green MEP Reinhard Bütikofer, who heads the European Parliament's China delegation, said that DW's revelations of the use of Hikvision technology were "extremely disturbing."

"It points to a shameful lack of due diligence in procurement," he told DW in a telephone interview. "Hikvision is a tech company that is deeply complicit in the terrible oppression of the Uighur people in Xinjiang which borders on genocide."

Bütikofer said EU officials should "immediately create transparency and draw the adequate consequences: i.e. sever any direct or indirect business relationship with Hikvision."

Charlie Weimers, a Swedish MEP from the European Conservatives and Reformists group, said: "The EU should have no dealings whatsoever with a Chinese firm that is alleged to be involved in some of the most abhorrent human rights abuses in the world."

"Nobel Prize winners should adhere to a higher standard," he added.

In 2012, the EU won the Nobel Peace Prize for its contribution to "peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights."

VIDEO https://p.dw.com/p/3kIDV 

Uighurs targeted: Ex-prisoners reveal forced confessions

Question marks over EU procurement

DW has been unable to locate any public tenders for the equipment on the EU's procurement websites.

Parliamentary insiders, who work on the European Parliament's budget committee, also say there is no trace of them in any public EU records.

Internal rules say that contracts can be kept secret if they are linked to "special security measures."


The European Parliament and the European Commission were asked to provide the documents linked to the hardware's acquisition.

Officials at both institutions did not provide them by the time of publication.

Given that neither Hikvision, nor its European subsidiaries, have been blacklisted by the EU, there is no suggestion of any illegality.

"The equipment is neither connected to Parliament's IT network, nor registers any data," said a European Parliament spokesperson in a written response to DW.

The spokesperson declined to confirm if Hikvision technology was being used in Brussels.

When DW provided photos of the cameras, she said: "We cannot comment further on anything related to security."

A spokesperson for the European Commission, in a written statement to DW, has since said the cameras were "purchased under an existing framework contract."

This article has been updated to include the European Commission's response to DW's exclusive report. The statement was received after the article was published.

NASA to launch delicate stowing of Osiris-Rex asteroid samples

Issued on: 27/10/2020 - 

Osiris-Rex is on a mission that scientists hope will help unravel the origins of our solar system, but that hit a snag after it picked up too big of a sample from an asteroid 

Handout NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University/AFP


Washington (AFP)

NASA's robotic spacecraft Osiris-Rex is set to begin on Tuesday a delicate operation to store the precious particles it scooped up from the asteroid Bennu, but which were leaking into space when a flap got wedged open.

The probe is on a mission to collect fragments that scientists hope will help unravel the origins of our solar system, but that hit a snag after it picked up too big of a sample.

Fragments from the asteroid's surface are in a collector at the end of the probe's three-meter (10-foot) arm, slowly escaping into space because some rocks have prevented the compartment closing completely.


That arm is what came into contact with Bennu for a few seconds last Tuesday in the culmination of a mission launched from Earth some four years ago.

The probe is thought to have collected some 400 grams (14 ounces) of fragments, far more than the minimum of 60 grams needed, NASA said previously.

Scientists need to stow the sample in a capsule that is at the probe's center, and the operation was moved up to Tuesday from the planned November 2 date due to the leak.

"The abundance of material we collected from Bennu made it possible to expedite our decision to stow," said Dante Lauretta, project chief.

Osiris-Rex is set to come home in September 2023, hopefully with the largest sample returned from space since the Apollo era.

The stowing operation will take several days, NASA said, because it requires the team's oversight and input unlike some of Osiris-Rex's other operations that run autonomously.

After each step in the process the spacecraft will send information and images back to Earth so scientists can make sure everything is proceeding correctly.

The probe is so far away that it takes 18.5 minutes for its transmissions to reach Earth, and any signal from the control room requires the same amount of time to reach Osiris-Rex.

© 2020 AFP

Facebook content moderators call for better treatment

Issued on: 27/10/2020 -

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is to face a grilling by the Senate over politically charged content on his platform: but current and former Facebook content moderators say their voices are all too often ignored 

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS AFP


San Francisco (AFP)

As Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg prepares to be grilled by a Senate committee about the handling of politically-charged posts, content moderators are insisting that properly valuing their work is key.

Two former content moderators contracted in the US to make judgment calls on posts, and one other currently tackling the same challenge took part in a conference call with reporters on Monday.

The former and current content moderators expressed concerns about posts intended to cause trouble or bedevil the outcome of the forthcoming election.

The worker still on the job spoke under condition of anonymity, since such positions involve non-disclosure agreements restricting what they can say about their work,

"I certainly am not supposed to tell the truth about my work in public," the Facebook content moderator said.

"The truth is this work is incredibly important but it's done completely wrong and while the policy is constantly changed the situation seems to get worse."

The current and former content moderators described stressful hours spent focused on torrents of hateful, disturbing posts with little regard given to their feedback or their well-being.

They called for Facebook to find a way to make them and their colleagues full-time employees, complete with the benefits for which tech companies are renowned, instead of keeping them at arms-length by outsourcing the work.

"Facebook could fix most of its problems if it would move away from outsourcing, value its moderators, and build them into its policy processes," said former content moderator Allison Trebacz.



"Moderators are the heart of Facebook’s business - that's how they should be treated."

Zuckerberg has pushed back against concerns about hateful or violent posts at the social network by saying the social network has invested heavily in artificial intelligence and real humans to take down content violating its policies.

The bulk of that army of content moderators are contracted and their viewpoints -- hard-won on the frontlines of the battle -- are typically ignored, according to those who took part in the press briefing.

"I became a Facebook content moderator because I believed I could help make Facebook safer for my community and other communities who use it," said Viana Ferguson, who left the job last year.

"But again and again, when I tried to address content that dripped with racism, or was a clear threat, I got told to get in line, our job was to agree."

Zuckerberg and Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey are to testify Wednesday before a Senate committee exploring the potential to weaken legal protections given to online platforms when it comes to what users post there.

© 2020 AFP

US elections: Four years on, many in America's coal country still trust Trump

Issued on: 27/10/2020 - 
Text by:Sam BALL
Video by:Sam BALL

Gillette, Wyoming, calls itself the 'Energy Capital of the World' and is at the centre of the state's coal mining industry. It is also one of the most pro-Donald Trump towns in America.

In 2016, 88 percent of people in Campbell County, where Gillette is located, voted for Trump after he promised to protect jobs for coal miners.

But four years on the future of the town looks uncertain. Coal production in the state is declining at almost half of what it was in 2008 and falling a further nine percent in 2019, leading to mine closures and job losses.

Lynne Huskinson was among those who found herself unemployed when two coal mines in the region shut last year after their owner went bankrupt.

Now, she is running for the Wyoming State House of Representatives as a Democrat.

"Has Donald Trump helped coal? No. Because it was a campaign ploy. I don't think he understood anything about coal, I think he knew that it was a dying resource," she told France 24.

But many here still support the president.


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Among them is coal miner and city council candidate Eric Hanson.

"I will vote on November 3rd and I will vote for President Trump," he told France 24.

"I have a lot of friends who have lost jobs and had to either look for another coal mining job at one of the mines that were still open or find a different occupation. Those are things that are out of his control. I believe he is not for getting rid of jobs in the coal industry or any of the other energy industries."

Click on the video player above to watch the full report

Giving up on on controlling Covid-19 would be 'dangerous', WHO chief says

Issued on: 26/10/2020 -

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attending a WHO executive board special session on the Covid-19 response at the health agency's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on October 5, 2020. © Christopher Black, WHO, AFP

Text by:FRANCE 24

Head of the World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday that "giving up on control" of the coronavirus pandemic was "dangerous", in response to comments from US President Donald Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows.

"We must not give up," Tedros told a virtual briefing.

He acknowledged that after months of battling Covid-19, which has claimed more than 1.1 million lives globally, a certain level of "pandemic fatigue" had set in.

"It's tough and the fatigue is real," Tedros said.

But we cannot give up," he added, urging leaders to "balance the disruption to lives and livelihoods".

"When leaders act quickly, the virus can be suppressed," he insisted.

His comment came a day after US President Donald Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows told CNN that the administration's focus had moved to mitigation, not stamping out the virus.

"We're not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigations," Meadows said, comparing the more deadly Covid-19 to the seasonal flu.

Tedros said that giving up on virus controls was "dangerous".

When asked about the comments, WHO emergencies chief Michael Ryan insisted that while mitigation of the effects of the pandemic were vital, efforts to beat the virus could not be abandoned.

"We should not give up on trying to suppress transmission," said Ryan.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Women block traffic across Poland over abortion ruling
26 Oct, 2020

Women's rights activists and their supporters block rush-hour traffic at a major roundabout on the fifth day of nationwide protests. Photos / AP

By: Monika Scislowska

Women's rights activists and many thousands of their supporters held a fifth day of protests across Poland today, defying pandemic restrictions to express their fury at a top court ruling.

It tightens the predominantly Catholic nation's already strict abortion law.

In Warsaw, mostly young demonstrators — women and men — with drums, horns and firecrackers blocked rush-hour traffic for hours at a number of major roundabouts. Some of them took off their shirts and stood topless on top of cars. Many held banners with an obscenity calling on the right-wing Government to step down.

A protesting woman was taken to hospital with slight injuries after she and another woman were hit by a car. The other woman was not injured.

Organisers said people joined their protests in more than 150 cities in Poland, including Poznan, Lodz and Katowice. It was one of the biggest protests against the Government in recent years.

In Krakow protesters chanted "This is War!" — a slogan that demonstrators have repeated often in recent days. They also shouted obscenities against the country's traditionally respected Catholic bishops.

Protesters defied a nationwide ban on gatherings intended to halt a spike in new coronavirus infections.

They have taken to the streets each day since the Constitutional Tribunal ruled on Friday that it was unconstitutional to terminate a pregnancy due to fetal congenital defects. The ruling effectively bans almost all abortions in the country.

People protest in Warsaw against a court ruling that tightened further Poland's restrictive abortion law.

The ruling has not taken effect yet, because it has not been officially published, which is a requirement of a law's validity.

The head of a doctors' group, Dr Andrzej Matyja, speaking on Radio Zet, criticised the ruling's timing during the pandemic, saying it amounted to an "irresponsible provoking of people to rallies" where social distancing cannot be maintained.

Poland's conservative leaders have also come under criticism from professors at Krakow's reputed Jagiellonian University who said that announcing such a ruling during a pandemic was an "extreme proof of a lack of responsibility for people's lives."

In a letter to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and to President Andrzej Duda, who is infected with the coronavirus, the professors appealed for a "way out of the situation ... to be urgently found."

Many gynecologists have also criticised the ruling. Dr Maciej Jedrzejko said the ban will result in a rise in the number of dangerous, illegal abortions, arguing that sex education and access to contraceptives are the best ways to limit abortions.

The ruling by the government-controlled court overturned a provision of the 1993 law forged by the country's political authorities and church leaders after the fall of communism. That law permitted abortion in only limited cases, becoming one of Europe's strictest abortion regulations.

When the ruling takes effect, the only permitted abortions will be if a pregnancy threatens the woman's health or is the result of rape or incest.

- AP

Women's rights protests block city streets over Poland's abortion law

Activists have vowed to continue their fight against a ruling that amounts to a near-total ban on abortion. Pregnancies that endanger a woman's life and those caused by rape or incest are now the only legal avenues.



Tens of thousands of protesters across almost 50 Polish cities blocked city streets in cars, on bicycles and on foot on Monday on the fifth day of demonstrations against a a supreme court decision to tighten an already strict abortion law in the predominantly Catholic country.

Carrying banners reading "Enough," "hell for women" and "I want choice, not terror", people gathered across the country in defiance of coronavirus restrictions.

"I will be here until the end," Piotr Wybanski, a 31-year-old protester in the capital Warsaw, told Reuters. "I don't care if it means a week, a month, three months or three years. I will protest here day after day."


Protests began last Thursday when the Constitutional Tribunal banned abortions related to fetal defects

Women’s rights activists in Poland said they would not back down and that more protests were planned for the week.

Marta Lempart, head of the Women's Strike group, said there would be a strike on Wednesday and a protest march on Friday in Warsaw ­ — the seat of the government, the constitutional court and the headquarters of the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party that brought the case to court.

Protests erupted last Thursday when Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal banned abortions related to fetal congenital defects.

The court ruled that an existing law allowing the termination of malformed fetuses was "incompatible" with the constitution.

The ruling ended the most common of the few remaining legal grounds for abortion in the predominantly Catholic country. Abortion is now only permitted in cases where the mother's life is at risk or if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest.


Tens of thousands of protesters across almost 50 Polish cities blocked city streets in cars, on bicycles and on foot

Read more: Opinion: Abortion ruling is a nightmare for Polish women
Protesters target churches

Protesters defied Poland’s "red zone" ban on gatherings aimed at preventing further outbreak of the coronavirus, though many did wear facemasks.

On Sunday, thousands of activists disrupted church services across the country, chanting and spraying slogans on walls to protest the ban. Angry crowds carried posters depicting a crucified pregnant woman and gave out protest cards to priests.


Poland's ruling amounts to a near-total ban on abortion

Andrzej Matyja, the leader of a doctor's group, denounced the ruling’s timing during the pandemic. Matyja told local station Radio Zet that the move has resulted in an "irresponsible provoking of people to rallies'' where physical distancing cannot be upheld.


Activists said they would not back down and that more protests were planned for the week

EU slams ruling

According to health ministry figures, 1,110 legal abortions were carried out in Poland in 2019, mostly due to fetal defects.

Poland already has some of the European Union’s most stringent restrictions on abortion.

Polish opposition parties, the EU's human rights commissioner as well as international human rights organizations have also condemned the court's decision as violating women's rights.

US election: Gun, ammo sales soar as Americans 'hope for the best, prepare for the worst'

26 Oct, 2020 
By: Jamie Seidel

ANALYSIS:

Left, right, black, white: Americans are frantically buying assault rifles, body armour and ammunition. All are flying out the door as fearful US citizens prepare for the worst even as they hope for the best.

The economy has tanked. Unemployment has spiked. Social media is awash with hate and conspiracy theories.

Add a string of police killings, mass Covid-19 fatalities and a bitterly contested presidential election and the outcome is a volatile rift extending through all sectors of US society.

Which is why citizens of all colours and creeds are spending up big on combat gear.

Gun shops across the country are reporting they have sold out of ammunition. Firearm stocks are running low. And there's been a run on body armour, helmets, gas masks and tactical webbing, too.

A slew of studies reveal it's a trend being seen across the US.

Monthly firearm sales in the US from 2010 to 2020. Graphic / Brookings Institution

And its outcome can be seen in the streets.

While weapons sales usually rise during US election years, this year has been unlike any other. Photo / AP

Camouflage-clad demonstrators are everywhere, adding the severity of their uniforms to whatever their message may be. Their weapons stand testament to the rigidity of their beliefs.
'My worst nightmare'

"The militias and the white supremacists … they're going to put out the call to arms," 73-year-old Milwaukee resident Jim Jackson told the Los Angeles Times. "That's my worst nightmare."

Meanwhile, Trump supporter Jeanine Davis said she expected a violent backlash from disaffected Democrats: "It's going to be like war among citizens," she said.

While weapons sales usually rise during US election years, this year has been unlike any other

Data released by Statistica shows a doubling of firearms sales in March and June. Anecdotally, sales have continued to surge since then.

US President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on October 26. Photo / AP

"It's evidence of what many people have been expressing concern about for the last six months – the stress associated with the pandemic, a frustration or anger about various government mitigation efforts and a belief that those efforts are infringing on their individual liberties," former assistant secretary for threat prevention at the Department of Homeland Security, Elizabeth Neumann, told Bloomberg.

Such statistics don't record race or political ideology. But shop owners are reporting a flood of first-time buyers – and women – among their exploding new clientele.

"If I dial 911, I'm not going to get the police officer," Texas gunshop owner Michael Cargill said, explaining his customers' reasoning to Politico, "I'm going to have to be my own first responder. I'm going to have to get a gun."

Another Texas gun shop owner, Roman Zrazhevsky, told media that sentiment was universal.

"It doesn't matter who gets elected," he said. "They think that no matter who wins, Biden or Trump, there are going to be people who are upset about the result."

The highlights from Donald Trump and Joe Biden's clash in the final Presidential debate. Video / AP
Identity crisis

Tactical gear speaks "to a form of militaristic patriotism, a way for them to find their identities", said Neumann.

Which may be why US militias are experiencing a surge in membership.

Once the domain of disillusioned vets and kids wanting to wear camo, these armed groups have surged into the streets in recent months.

Their profiles have exploded across social media.

And they're not just the usual suspects.

Standing against the ranks of the largely white, far right armed gangs is an all-African American group called the "Not F**king Around Coalition" (NFAC). The Atlanta-based group's ranks has swelled amid the frustration and outrage fanned by months of protests against police brutality.

"We're not 'effing' around anymore with the continued abuses within our community and the lack of respect for our men, women and children," founder John Johnson told CNN.

He's claiming the same Second Amendment right to bear arms as the largely white groups standing opposite him. And trade group studies indicate a 60 per cent surge in gun sales to black Americans in the first six months of the year.

This has not gone down well.

Louisiana Republican Representative Clay Higgins used Facebook to declare he would "drop 10 of you where you stand", if NFAC was to visit his state.

But NFAC insists it has the constitutional right to do the same as its opponents.

"Nobody says anything when other demographics pick up weapons, decide to arm themselves and confront the government over anything from wearing a mask to being cooped up in the house, but when certain demographics arm themselves all of a sudden people tend to act as if the Constitution doesn't matter," Johnson, who also calls himself "Grand Master Jay", said.

'Phony war'

The Office of the President of the United States has a three-month transition period between the November 3 elections and the January 20 handover date.

Whatever the outcome, this is likely to be a period of immense political tensions.

The validity of the vote is already being challenged. Doubts are being cast on the integrity of postal votes, in particular.

Scandals over foreign deals and influence, debts and addictions, nepotism and corruption will undoubtedly continue to flare. Covid-19 cases continue to soar, with the calamitous death toll following just a few weeks behind.

And adding to the uncertainty is President Donald Trump's reluctance to willingly embrace the idea of handing over power if he is defeated.

No matter what side they are on, US voters appear convinced that if the opposition wins – it's a win for the "forces of evil". To vote for one's opponent isn't a difference in opinion, it's treason.

It's a polarised precipice from which no side seems prepared to step back.

Some 21 per cent of both left and right believe violence would be "somewhat" justified if they lost the presidential election, according to recent polling.

And those not busy arming themselves are preparing for a siege. Grocery and camping stores are reporting empty shelves among their non-perishable and dry goods sections.

Floridian Trump supporter Ashley Avis summed up the pervading mood: "We're hoping for the best. We're preparing for the worst."

Covid 19 coronavirus: Study shows Covid leading death for young in some US states

26 Oct, 2020 

Despite US president Donald Trump claiming his son Barron's coronavirus infection was "gone" after "15 minutes", a new study says the virus has likely become the leading cause of death among young people in some regions of the United States.

For people aged between 25 and 44 living in one of 11 states with high infection rates - such as New York, Arkansas and Arizona - the chance of dying from Covid-19 is greater than any other risk, the researchers found.

In these states, 2,450 young adults died of coronavirus between March and July, slightly more than those killed in 2018 (the latest figure available) by accidental drug overdose, previously the leading cause of death in this age group.

"In these regions, Covid-19 mortality also resembles that of the HIV/Aids epidemic at its apex in the United States," said the team led by Dr Jeremy Samuel Faust of the Harvard Medical School in a non-peer-reviewed paper posted on medrxiv.org on Sunday.

Faust and his colleagues examined the data released by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and found that in 2020 the number of deaths from all causes among young people to the end of July this year was a quarter higher than the same period last year.

The 14,155 excessive deaths had a peak rise in May, but only a small fraction were attributed directly to the coronavirus.

This implies "the mortality of Covid-19 has been substantially underdetected in the younger adult population," they said.

During his recently rallies in locations around the country, Trump has been using Barron's apparent rapid recovery from coronavirus as an example for why it's okay for schools to reopen.

President Donald Trump, right, and his son Barron Trump wave from the top of the steps to Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport. Photo / AP

"Young, strong immune systems, right?" Trump said during a rally in battleground state Wisconsin on Saturday.

"Go back to school. Let's go back to school. No, it's true. We tested positive and then 15 minutes later I said, 'How's he doing, doc? He's fine,"' Trump said during that speech.
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A Shanghai-based life scientist studying the Sars-CoV-2 virus said the study deepened her worry about young people in the US.

"It is immoral and irresponsible to let the young Americans get infected to achieve herd immunity," she said.

A study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases this month reported that a 25-year-old man in Nevada had considerably worse symptoms after contracting the novel coronavirus for the second time.

The Shanghai-based researcher said that there could be more cases of reinfection, including a woman in her 30s in Wisconsin that the researcher knew personally.

"This could be the beginning of an explosion," said the researcher who asked not to be named because she does not have Chinese government approval to comment.

Trump has claimed - without evidence - that American doctors and hospitals were inflating data, including coronavirus-related deaths, to increase their own financial interest.

Students arrive for in-person classes at Erasmus High School in Brooklyn's Flatbush neighbourhood in New York. Photo / AP

"If somebody's terminally ill with cancer and they have Covid, we report them. And you know doctors get more money and hospitals get more money, think of this incentive," said Trump during a rally in Illinois on Saturday.

Trump added he would "start looking into things" as "their reporting systems are really not doing it right".


Faust said that "physicians are angry right now" at Trump's allegations.

"But we are data-driven, and we want to offer solutions," he tweeted on Sunday.

"If we were cooking the books, why do all-cause excess deaths and official Covid-19 deaths so closely track over time," he said in a separate tweet.

Senior patients are several hundred times more likely to die from Covid-19 than younger populations, according to studies by researchers around the globe. The burden of the disease on younger generations thus received relatively less attention, according to Faust.

Dr Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist and currently the top scientific adviser to the White House' pandemic response team, said there was no issue with young people getting infected as long as their elders stayed in protective care.

"It doesn't matter if younger, healthier people get infected ? They have nearly zero risk of a problem from this," he said in a television interview in July.

But a study by British researchers released on medrxiv.org this month found that young adult patients with no previous medical history could get long-lasting health problems after recovering from Covid-19. More than 70 per cent of young patients were impaired in one or more organs four months after the initial infection.

Enduring symptoms included fatigue, muscle pain, difficulty to breathe and headaches.

- South China Morning Post

Trump admin dismantles 'firewall' for editorial independence at U.S.-funded media outlets
Lawmakers and press freedom groups fear the administration is trying to turn the U.S.-funded news outlets into partisan mouthpieces.

The Voice of America building in Washington, on June 15, 2020.Andrew Harnik / AP file



Oct. 27, 2020, 12:47 AM MDT
By Dan De Luce


A senior U.S. official appointed by President Donald Trump has scrapped a federal regulation designed to protect the editorial independence of Voice of America and other U.S.-funded media outlets, amid accusations he is undermining the journalistic credibility of the broadcasters.

Michael Pack, CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media who rescinded the editorial “firewall” regulation late Monday night, said the federal rule was legally flawed, infringed on the president’s right to conduct U.S. foreign policy and was "unworkable.”


Reporters at the U.S.-funded broadcasters have accused Pack of trying to turn the service into a mouthpiece for Trump, and former executives said they expected legal challenges to the decision.

JUNE: Firings at U.S. funded media agency spark concerns of politicization as Trump-appointee takes helm  JUNE 22, 202004:38

The federal regulation granting editorial independence was introduced in June by an outgoing board of governors that used to oversee the U.S.-funded broadcasters. The board was dissolved once Pack was confirmed by the Senate in a party-line vote as CEO of the U.S. Global Media Agency (USAGM), the parent agency for Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other federally funded broadcasters.

The regulation, titled “Firewall and Highest Standards of Professional Journalism,” had prohibited any interference in the editorial work of the U.S. media outlets. It barred executives or officials outside the newsroom from “attempts to direct, pressure, coerce, threaten, interfere with, or otherwise impermissibly influence any of the USAGM Networks, including their leadership, officers, employees, or staff, in the performance of their journalistic and broadcasting duties and activities.”

In announcing his decision Monday night, Pack argued that the regulation wrongly described the U.S.-funded outlets as equivalent to private news organizations and maintained that VOA and the other broadcasters have a mission to promote U.S. foreign policy interests, unlike private-sector media.

He also said that the regulation was impractical and could prevent him from carrying out his legally mandated duties.

“Not only was this rule based on flawed legal and constitutional reasoning, it made the agency difficult to manage and less able to fulfill its important mission to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy,” Pack said in his statement.

“No agency run by a CEO, or another type of head, has any kind of ‘firewall’ between himself and the rest of his agency,” he said.

Press freedom groups, lawmakers from both parties, former executives at the agency and current and former journalists at the U.S.-funded outlets have blasted Pack’s tenure as CEO, saying he has tarnished the reputation of the broadcasters and hurt America’s image abroad as a champion of a free press.

At a congressional hearing last month, former USAGM officials sharply criticized Pack for placing commentaries on the news outlets’ homepages, firing the head of editorial standards, sacking the chiefs of all the broadcasters, refusing to renew visas for foreign journalists working at the agency, withholding funding for some daily operations and saying the agency would be “a great place to put a spy.”

“Our reputation for telling the truth has been a core element of our strength as a nation. Now, it is in danger, putting at risk not only our national values, but also our national security,” Ryan Crocker, a retired senior diplomat who served on the former board of governors for the U.S.-funded broadcasters, told lawmakers at a September congressional hearing.

Republican lawmakers have expressed frustration in particular over Pack’s decision to block about $20 million in funding for a non-profit that provides anti-censorship technology to people in repressive societies, including Belarus, China and Iran. They said the move had cut off democracy activists in Hong Kong and elsewhere in their hour of need.

The U.S. Global Media Agency, with of budget of about $800 million, oversees broadcasters that reach an estimated 350 million people a week in 62 languages.
Dan De Luce

Dan De Luce is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit.