Bhinneka News Online: Friday Morning Briefing: Trump pushes anti-immigrant message even as coronavirus dominates campaign

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Trump pushes anti-immigrant message even as coronavirus dominates campaign
President Donald Trump is powering ahead with his anti-immigration agenda, even as voters say they are more concerned with the coronavirus pandemic and the economic destruction it has wrought. The Republican president won the White House in large part due to his hard-line stance on immigration, a bedrock issue that animates his base. His administration has maintained that focus despite intense pressure to respond to the world’s worst coronavirus outbreak and nationwide protests against police brutality and racism that have fueled a summer of discontent.

Trump has amplified new issues this election cycle, including law and order in the wake of the protests, and unsubstantiated claims that a surge of mail voting due to coronavirus concerns will lead to widespread fraud. Still, he has instituted sweeping new immigration policies during the pandemic and made it a campaign advertising priority on Facebook.

Track the spread of the virus with this state-by-state and county map.

Texas, California governors take heat over school reopenings Texas Governor Greg Abbott sought to reassure parents he is doing all he can to keep students safe as most schools in the state prepare to reopen next week. But a top adviser to Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden’s campaign in Texas blasted Abbott, a Republican, for what he called a lack of planning and funding for safely reopening schools, with the statewide coronavirus positivity rate hitting a record 24.5% this week. “What we learned from the reopening of the Texas economy is that if you don’t do it right, people are going to die,” said Mike Collier, senior adviser to the Biden campaign in Texas.

COVID-19 ensnares elderly ICE detainee from Canada
After dozens of transferees to a Virginia ICE detention center tested positive for COVID-19, the virus engulfed nearly everyone inside. That included one 72-year-old detainee.

Trump holds up coronavirus aid to block funding for mail-in voting
Trump said he was blocking Democrats’ effort to include funds for the U.S. Postal Service and election infrastructure in a new coronavirus relief bill, a bid to block more Americans from voting by mail during the pandemic. Congressional Democrats accused Trump of trying to damage the struggling Postal Service to improve his chances of being re-elected as opinion polls show him trailing presumptive Joe Biden.

China Sinopharm's potential COVID-19 vaccine triggers antibodies in clinical trials
A coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by a unit of China National Pharmaceutical Group, Sinopharm, appeared to be safe and triggered antibody-based immune responses in early and mid-stage trials, researchers said. The candidate has already moved into a late-stage trial, one of a handful of candidates being tested on several thousand people to see if they are effective enough to win regulatory approval.

Britain lines up more potential COVID-19 vaccine supplies with J&J and Novavax deals
Britain will buy potential COVID-19 vaccines from drugmakers Johnson & Johnson and Novavax, the companies said, boosting the number of deals it has with drugmakers as the global vaccine race rages on. Britain and the United States are in the lead with six vaccine deals with drugmakers each, as companies and governments worldwide work overtime to find a vaccine against the global pandemic. The latest agreements bring Britain’s total number of doses secured to 362 million for a population of 66 million.

From Breakingviews - Corona Capital: Baidu, Hapag-Lloyd, Dutch jobs.
Read concise views on the pandemic’s financial fallout from Breakingviews columnists across the globe.

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Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced that they will normalize diplomatic ties and forge a broad new relationship, a move that reshapes the order of Middle East politics from the Palestinian issue to the fight against Iran. Trump managed to pull off a rare victory for U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East ahead of his Nov. 3 re-election bid by helping to broker a deal between American allies Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

Israel talked of “history” and Palestinians of “betrayal” after Thursday’s surprise announcement. In a nationwide televised address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal would lead to “full and formal peace” with the Gulf Arab state and voiced hope that other countries in the region would follow the UAE’s example. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose officials seemed to be taken by surprise, issued an unusually strong condemnation of a regional Arab neighbour and instructed the Palestinian ambassador to the UAE to return immediately.

The campaign of Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden has raised $48 million in the 48 hours since he named U.S. Senator Kamala Harris the Democratic vice presidential nominee, a campaign spokesman told Reuters. Biden picked Harris as his choice for VP, making her the first Black woman on a major-party U.S. presidential ticket.

The Justice Department accused Yale University of illegally discriminating against Asian American and white applicants in its undergraduate admissions process in violation of U.S. civil rights law. The findings are the result of a two-year investigation in response to a complaint by Asian-American groups concerning Yale’s conduct, the department said in a statement. The department said it was prepared to file a lawsuit against Yale if the school did not take “remedial measures.”

Oregon State Police said they were withdrawing protection from Portland’s federal courthouse over frustration at a prosecutor’s decision not to indict many people arrested in protests there. The state police were deployed to Portland two weeks ago under an agreement between Oregon Governor Kate Brown and Vice President Mike Pence to withdraw federal agents after weeks of clashes with protesters. Trump threatened to send National Guard troops to Portland, if requested by Oregon authorities, if local law enforcement was unable to protect the federal courthouse.

Google said it would no longer provide data in response to requests from Hong Kong authorities following the enactment of a new national security law imposed by China. The U.S. tech giant had not produced any data since the sweeping new law took force in June and would not directly respond to such requests henceforth, it added.

2 min read

Gold rush at Turkish bazaar a test of trust for lowly lira

Hasan Ayhan followed his wife’s instructions last week and took their savings to buy gold at Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar as Turks scooped up bullion worth $7 billion in a just a fortnight. “I think it is the best investment right now so I converted my dollars to buy gold,” the 57-year-old said, adding: “I might withdraw my lira and buy gold with it too, but I am scared to go to the bank right now because of coronavirus.”

7 min read