Roiled by concerns about the pandemic and politics? Lifting weights might help, according to a timely new study of anxiety and resistance training. The study, which involved healthy young adults, barbells and lunges, indicates that regular weight training substantially reduces anxiety, a finding with particular relevance during these unsettling, bumpy days.

We already have plenty of evidence that exercise helps stave off depression and other mental ills, and that exercise can elevate feelings of happiness and contentment. But most past studies of exercise and moods have looked at the effects of aerobic exercise, like running on a treadmill or riding a stationary bike.

Scientists only recently have begun to investigate whether and how weight training might also affect mental health. A 2018 review of studies, for instance, concluded that adults who lift weights are less likely to develop depression than those who never lift. In another study, women with clinical anxiety disorders reported fewer symptoms after taking up either aerobic or weight training.

But many of these studies involved frequent and complicated sessions of resistance exercise performed under the eyes of researchers, which is not how most of us are likely to work out. They also often focused on somewhat narrow groups, such as men or women with a diagnosed mental health condition like depression or an anxiety disorder, limiting their applicability.

So for the new study, which was published in October in Scientific Reports, researchers at the University of Limerick in Ireland and other institutions decided to see if a simple version of weight training could have benefits for mood in people who already were in generally good mental health.

To find out, they recruited 28 physically healthy young men and women and tested their current moods, with a particular emphasis on whether the volunteers felt anxious. All the participants scored in a healthy range on detailed anxiety questionnaires.

The scientists then divided these well-adjusted volunteers into two groups. Half were asked to continue with their normal lives as a control group. The others began to weight train, a practice with which few were familiar.

The scientists had devised a helpfully simple resistance training routine for them, based around health guidelines from the World Health Organization and the American College of Sports Medicine. Both those organizations recommend muscle strengthening at least twice a week, and that’s what the volunteers began doing. After initial instruction from the researchers, the volunteers took up a basic program of lunges, lifts, squats and crunches, sometimes using dumbbells and other equipment.

Their training continued for eight weeks. Throughout, both groups periodically repeated the tests of their anxiety levels, including at the end of the full program. (After the study ended, the control group was given the option of starting the weight training routine.)

As expected, the control group, for the most part, retained their original low levels of anxiety. They still felt about as tranquil as eight weeks before.

But the weight trainers scored about 20% better on the tests of anxiety. They had started with low levels of anxiety to begin with, but felt even less anxious afterward.

This effect was “larger than anticipated,” said Brett Gordon, currently a postdoctoral scholar at the Penn State Cancer Institute at Penn State College of Medicine, who was an author of the study with Matthew Herring, Cillian McDowell and Mark Lyons. The benefits for mental health were greater, in fact, than those often seen in studies of aerobic exercise and anxiety. But Gordon cautions that such comparisons are limited, since the various experiments use different amounts of exercise and measures of moods.

The new study also did not delve into how weight training can affect anxiety. But Gordon and his colleagues suspect increased physical and psychological potency figure in. The lifters became stronger over time and able to lift heavier weights. “Feelings of mastery may have occurred” then, he said, leaving people feeling generally more capable of coping. Molecular changes in the lifters’ muscles and brains probably also occurred and contributed to improvements in their moods, he said, noting that future studies may help to detail some of those changes.

Or course, this experiment featured only healthy young people performing one version of training, so the findings cannot tell us if lifting likewise eases anxiety in older people. Nor can it tell us which regimen might be enough, too much or just the right amount to bolster mental health. Finally, it also does not prove that heading to the gym today can acutely soothe any mental turmoil we may be feeling, since the improvements in the study showed up after weeks of training.

But if you are feeling tense and uptight, as so many of us are these days, becoming stronger is probably a worthwhile goal and need not be intimidating, Gordon said. “There are numerous ways to strength train with little to no equipment,” he said. “Try common body weight exercises, such as pushups, situps or squats, or use household items as weights.”

Roiled by concerns about the pandemic and politics? Lifting weights might help, according to a timely new study of anxiety and resistance training. The study, which involved healthy young adults, barbells and lunges, indicates that regular weight training substantially reduces anxiety, a finding with particular relevance during these unsettling, bumpy days.

Roiled by concerns about the pandemic and politics? Lifting weights might help, according to a timely new study of anxiety and resistance training. The study, which involved healthy young adults, barbells and lunges, indicates that regular weight training substantially reduces anxiety, a finding with particular relevance during these unsettling, bumpy days. We already have plenty of evidence that exercise helps stave off depression and other mental ills, and that exercise can elevate feelings of happiness and contentment. But most past studies of exercise and moods have looked at the effects of aerobic exercise, like running on a treadmill or riding a stationary bike. Scientists only recently have begun to investigate whether and how weight training might also affect mental health. A 2018 review of studies, for instance, concluded that adults who lift weights are less likely to develop depression than those who never lift. In another study, women with clinical anxiety disorders reported fewer symptoms after taking up either aerobic or weight training. But many of these studies involved frequent and complicated sessions of resistance exercise performed under the eyes of researchers, which is not how most of us are likely to work out. They also often focused on somewhat narrow groups, such as men or women with a diagnosed mental health condition like depression or an anxiety disorder, limiting their applicability. So for the new study, which was published in October in Scientific Reports, researchers at the University of Limerick in Ireland and other institutions decided to see if a simple version of weight training could have benefits for mood in people who already were in generally good mental health. To find out, they recruited 28 physically healthy young men and women and tested their current moods, with a particular emphasis on whether the volunteers felt anxious. All the participants scored in a healthy range on detailed anxiety questionnaires. The scientists then divided these well-adjusted volunteers into two groups. Half were asked to continue with their normal lives as a control group. The others began to weight train, a practice with which few were familiar. The scientists had devised a helpfully simple resistance training routine for them, based around health guidelines from the World Health Organization and the American College of Sports Medicine. Both those organizations recommend muscle strengthening at least twice a week, and that’s what the volunteers began doing. After initial instruction from the researchers, the volunteers took up a basic program of lunges, lifts, squats and crunches, sometimes using dumbbells and other equipment. Their training continued for eight weeks. Throughout, both groups periodically repeated the tests of their anxiety levels, including at the end of the full program. (After the study ended, the control group was given the option of starting the weight training routine.) As expected, the control group, for the most part, retained their original low levels of anxiety. They still felt about as tranquil as eight weeks before. But the weight trainers scored about 20% better on the tests of anxiety. They had started with low levels of anxiety to begin with, but felt even less anxious afterward. This effect was “larger than anticipated,” said Brett Gordon, currently a postdoctoral scholar at the Penn State Cancer Institute at Penn State College of Medicine, who was an author of the study with Matthew Herring, Cillian McDowell and Mark Lyons. The benefits for mental health were greater, in fact, than those often seen in studies of aerobic exercise and anxiety. But Gordon cautions that such comparisons are limited, since the various experiments use different amounts of exercise and measures of moods. The new study also did not delve into how weight training can affect anxiety. But Gordon and his colleagues suspect increased physical and psychological potency figure in. The lifters became stronger over time and able to lift heavier weights. “Feelings of mastery may have occurred” then, he said, leaving people feeling generally more capable of coping. Molecular changes in the lifters’ muscles and brains probably also occurred and contributed to improvements in their moods, he said, noting that future studies may help to detail some of those changes. Or course, this experiment featured only healthy young people performing one version of training, so the findings cannot tell us if lifting likewise eases anxiety in older people. Nor can it tell us which regimen might be enough, too much or just the right amount to bolster mental health. Finally, it also does not prove that heading to the gym today can acutely soothe any mental turmoil we may be feeling, since the improvements in the study showed up after weeks of training. But if you are feeling tense and uptight, as so many of us are these days, becoming stronger is probably a worthwhile goal and need not be intimidating, Gordon said. “There are numerous ways to strength train with little to no equipment,” he said. “Try common body weight exercises, such as pushups, situps or squats, or use household items as weights.”

Weight training may help ease anxiety

Archaeologists on Wednesday unveiled a fortified structure from the time of the King David on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that sheds light on the borders of a Biblical Israeli ally. The 3,000-year-old fort, found near the Jewish settlement of Hispin ahead of works to build a new neighbourhood, is believed to have belonged to the Geshurites, King David's allies.

Locally quarried basalt boulders form the metre-and-a-half (five-foot) thick walls of the hilltop complex.

Barak Tzin, who directed its excavation for the Israel Antiquities Authority, estimated that it covered more than 1,000 square metres (a quarter of an acre).&nbsp;

Diggers found a large stone with an engraving of two horned figures stretching out their arms and a statuette of a woman holding a musical instrument, possibly a drum.

"That also links us to finds from the Iron Age," Tzin said, noting similar artefacts uncovered in Bethsaida, "a site linked to the capital of the Geshur kingdom" that lies west of Hispin on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.&nbsp;

Tzin said there is source material indicating "family ties" between the Geshur kingdom and the kingdom of David.&nbsp;

The Hispin fortress, the first of its kind to be excavated, adds a rare "piece to the puzzle" of Golan archaeology, Tzin said.

"This phenomenon might be more widespread that we know. Golan research is not yet at a high level... We're only beginning to rediscover the Golan now."

Future finds might help define clearer boundaries for the Geshurite kingdom, while the Hispin fortress "fills out its middle," he said.

"We believe (the kingdom) spread to Syria -- it fills in the space between," he said of the Hispin site.&nbsp;

"The picture is beginning to get a bit more clear."

Archaeologists on Wednesday unveiled a fortified structure from the time of the King David on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that sheds light on the borders of a Biblical Israeli ally.

Archaeologists on Wednesday unveiled a fortified structure from the time of the King David on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that sheds light on the borders of a Biblical Israeli ally. The 3,000-year-old fort, found near the Jewish settlement of Hispin ahead of works to build a new neighbourhood, is believed to have belonged to the Geshurites, King David's allies. Locally quarried basalt boulders form the metre-and-a-half (five-foot) thick walls of the hilltop complex. Barak Tzin, who directed its excavation for the Israel Antiquities Authority, estimated that it covered more than 1,000 square metres (a quarter of an acre). Diggers found a large stone with an engraving of two horned figures stretching out their arms and a statuette of a woman holding a musical instrument, possibly a drum. "That also links us to finds from the Iron Age," Tzin said, noting similar artefacts uncovered in Bethsaida, "a site linked to the capital of the Geshur kingdom" that lies west of Hispin on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Tzin said there is source material indicating "family ties" between the Geshur kingdom and the kingdom of David. The Hispin fortress, the first of its kind to be excavated, adds a rare "piece to the puzzle" of Golan archaeology, Tzin said. "This phenomenon might be more widespread that we know. Golan research is not yet at a high level... We're only beginning to rediscover the Golan now." Future finds might help define clearer boundaries for the Geshurite kingdom, while the Hispin fortress "fills out its middle," he said. "We believe (the kingdom) spread to Syria -- it fills in the space between," he said of the Hispin site. "The picture is beginning to get a bit more clear."

Israel uncovers King David-era fortress on Golan Heights

Hong Kong's pro-democracy legislators said on Wednesday that they were resigning en-masse after Hong Kong government's move to expel four legislators in the exercise of the new powers given to it by China. These 15 lawmakers made this announcement in a press conference just hours after four legislators were expelled. China has given Hong Kong powers to disqualify politicians that are deemed to be a threat to national security. The resolution was passed by China on Thursday.

The resignations are the latest blow to the city's beleaguered pro-democracy movement, which has been under sustained attack since China imposed a sweeping national security law, including arrests for social media posts and activists fleeing overseas.

"We, from the pro-democracy camp, will stand with our colleagues. We will resign en masse," Wu Chi-wai, convener of the 15 remaining pro-democracy legislators, told a press conference.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Hong Kong government ousted four pro-democracy members minutes after one of China's top lawmaking committees ruled that authorities in the semi-autonomous city could remove any legislator deemed a threat to national security without going through the courts.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/hong-kong-ousts-four-pro-democracy-lawmakers-for-endangering-security-342326">Hong Kong ousts four pro-democracy lawmakers for 'endangering security'</a> 
 
Hong Kong's leader is chosen by pro-Beijing committees, but half of its legislature's 70 seats are directly elected, offering the city's 7.5 million residents a rare chance to have their voices heard at the ballot box.

The mass resignation will leave the legislature composed almost entirely of those toeing Beijing's line.

The inability of Hong Kongers to elect their leaders and all of their lawmakers has been at the heart of swelling opposition to Beijing's rule that sparked months of huge and often violent protests last year.

China passed the security law in June to quell the protests, describing it as a "sword" hanging over the head of its critics.

(With AFP inputs)

Hong Kong's pro-democracy legislators said on Wednesday that they were resigning en-masse after Hong Kong government's move to expel four legislators in the exercise of the new powers given to it by China.

Hong Kong's pro-democracy legislators said on Wednesday that they were resigning en-masse after Hong Kong government's move to expel four legislators in the exercise of the new powers given to it by China. These 15 lawmakers made this announcement in a press conference just hours after four legislators were expelled. China has given Hong Kong powers to disqualify politicians that are deemed to be a threat to national security. The resolution was passed by China on Thursday. The resignations are the latest blow to the city's beleaguered pro-democracy movement, which has been under sustained attack since China imposed a sweeping national security law, including arrests for social media posts and activists fleeing overseas. "We, from the pro-democracy camp, will stand with our colleagues. We will resign en masse," Wu Chi-wai, convener of the 15 remaining pro-democracy legislators, told a press conference. Earlier on Wednesday, the Hong Kong government ousted four pro-democracy members minutes after one of China's top lawmaking committees ruled that authorities in the semi-autonomous city could remove any legislator deemed a threat to national security without going through the courts. Also Read | Hong Kong ousts four pro-democracy lawmakers for 'endangering security' Hong Kong's leader is chosen by pro-Beijing committees, but half of its legislature's 70 seats are directly elected, offering the city's 7.5 million residents a rare chance to have their voices heard at the ballot box. The mass resignation will leave the legislature composed almost entirely of those toeing Beijing's line. The inability of Hong Kongers to elect their leaders and all of their lawmakers has been at the heart of swelling opposition to Beijing's rule that sparked months of huge and often violent protests last year. China passed the security law in June to quell the protests, describing it as a "sword" hanging over the head of its critics. (With AFP inputs)

Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers resign en masse to protest expulsion of four colleagues

Diwali 2020 is just around the corner and as the country prepares to welcome the festive times, stock exchanges are gearing up for Muhurat Trading. Stock exchanges open for one hour on the day of Diwali for a symbolic trade that goes on for around an hour. The usual hustle-bustle and aggressive investor behaviour is seldom seen in this symbolic trading hour. It is believed by many that if you trade stocks during Muhurat trading, good luck follows you for the rest of the year till next Diwali. Here are few key things you need to know about Muhurat Trading 2020

When is Muhurat Trading this year?

It is usually held in the most auspicious hour on the day of Diwali. This year Diwali is falling on November 14. The Muhurat Trading will be carried out between 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm on the day

Who decides the time of the Muhurat trading?

Stock exchanges specify the time. During this hour, live trading takes place.

 
What is the schedule of Muhurat Trading 2020 session?

Here is how the time around Muhurat Trading is allotted

5.45 pm to 6 pm: Block deal session 
6 pm to 6.08 pm: Pre-opening 
6.15 pm to 7.15 pm: Muhurat trading 
6.20 pm to 7.05 pm: Periodic call auction 
7.15 pm to 7.30 pm: Closing session

Trade modification cut-off time is till 7:45 pm

How does market behave during Muhurat Trading?&nbsp;

Historically, markets have remained positive during the symbolic trading session. However, trading volume has been low. Stock movements tend to below as well.

Diwali 2020 is just around the corner and as the country prepares to welcome the festive times, stock exchanges are gearing up for Muhurat Trading. Stock exchanges open for one hour on the day of Diwali for a symbolic trade that goes on for around an hour.

Diwali 2020 is just around the corner and as the country prepares to welcome the festive times, stock exchanges are gearing up for Muhurat Trading. Stock exchanges open for one hour on the day of Diwali for a symbolic trade that goes on for around an hour. The usual hustle-bustle and aggressive investor behaviour is seldom seen in this symbolic trading hour. It is believed by many that if you trade stocks during Muhurat trading, good luck follows you for the rest of the year till next Diwali. Here are few key things you need to know about Muhurat Trading 2020 When is Muhurat Trading this year? It is usually held in the most auspicious hour on the day of Diwali. This year Diwali is falling on November 14. The Muhurat Trading will be carried out between 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm on the day Who decides the time of the Muhurat trading? Stock exchanges specify the time. During this hour, live trading takes place. What is the schedule of Muhurat Trading 2020 session? Here is how the time around Muhurat Trading is allotted 5.45 pm to 6 pm: Block deal session 6 pm to 6.08 pm: Pre-opening 6.15 pm to 7.15 pm: Muhurat trading 6.20 pm to 7.05 pm: Periodic call auction 7.15 pm to 7.30 pm: Closing session Trade modification cut-off time is till 7:45 pm How does market behave during Muhurat Trading? Historically, markets have remained positive during the symbolic trading session. However, trading volume has been low. Stock movements tend to below as well.

Diwali 2020 Muhurat Trading: Here is what you need to know

Within minutes of news networks declaring&nbsp;Joe Biden victorious in US Presidential election 2020, Biden changed his Twitter bio to mention 'President-Elect'. On Saturday evening, Associated Press declared Joe Biden to be the victor in his race against incumbent President Donald Trump in US Presidential Election 2020.

<img alt="Biden tweet" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="e1355230-4896-4ebe-bb7d-e224e41c46e6" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/biden%20tweet_0.JPG" />

The counting of votes is still going on in many states in the US but as per projections by CNN, NBC News and CBS News and AP, Biden has crossed the finish line and has secured 270 electoral votes.

Soon after news networks declared Biden the winner, he took to Twitter to express his gratitude to fellow Americans.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
America, I’m honored that you have chosen me to lead our great country. 
 
The work ahead of us will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans — whether you voted for me or not. 
 
I will keep the faith that you have placed in me. <a href="https://t.co/moA9qhmjn8">pic.twitter.com/moA9qhmjn8</a>
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1325118992785223682?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

There were no signs in the immediate aftermath of Joe Biden's victory that Donald Trump&nbsp;was ready to concede. Earlier on Saturday evening (Indian Time) Donald Trump took to Twitter to claim again that there was widespread fraud in US Election 2020. He claimed that he had won without offering any evidence. Twitter immediately put a disclaimer on the tweet saying&nbsp;'official sources may not have called the race when this was tweeted'.

&nbsp;

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
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I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1325099845045071873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

Two hours before the tweet above, Trump fired a series of tweets suggesting there was a fraud in elections.&nbsp;

Twitter stuck a disclaimer to each and every one of these tweets

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-election-2020-result-live-updates-us-networks-declare-biden-president-after-projecting-pennsylvania-victory-341275">Click here for latest on US Election 2020</a>

'Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.' it read.

In these tweets, Trump has gone on to specifically mention the state of Pennsylvania (the undecided state with maximum number of electoral college votes) and claimed that 'tens of thousands' of votes were illegally brought in on election day. Apparently he suggested&nbsp;that these votes favoured Biden.

Within minutes of news networks declaring Joe Biden victorious in US Presidential election 2020, Biden changed his Twitter bio to mention 'President-Elect'. On Saturday evening, Associated Press declared Joe Biden to be the victor in his race against incumbent President Donald Trump in US Presidential Election 2020.

Within minutes of news networks declaring Joe Biden victorious in US Presidential election 2020, Biden changed his Twitter bio to mention 'President-Elect'. On Saturday evening, Associated Press declared Joe Biden to be the victor in his race against incumbent President Donald Trump in US Presidential Election 2020. The counting of votes is still going on in many states in the US but as per projections by CNN, NBC News and CBS News and AP, Biden has crossed the finish line and has secured 270 electoral votes. Soon after news networks declared Biden the winner, he took to Twitter to express his gratitude to fellow Americans. America, I’m honored that you have chosen me to lead our great country. The work ahead of us will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans — whether you voted for me or not. I will keep the faith that you have placed in me. pic.twitter.com/moA9qhmjn8 — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 7, 2020 × There were no signs in the immediate aftermath of Joe Biden's victory that Donald Trump was ready to concede. Earlier on Saturday evening (Indian Time) Donald Trump took to Twitter to claim again that there was widespread fraud in US Election 2020. He claimed that he had won without offering any evidence. Twitter immediately put a disclaimer on the tweet saying 'official sources may not have called the race when this was tweeted'. I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020 × Two hours before the tweet above, Trump fired a series of tweets suggesting there was a fraud in elections. Twitter stuck a disclaimer to each and every one of these tweets Click here for latest on US Election 2020 'Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.' it read. In these tweets, Trump has gone on to specifically mention the state of Pennsylvania (the undecided state with maximum number of electoral college votes) and claimed that 'tens of thousands' of votes were illegally brought in on election day. Apparently he suggested that these votes favoured Biden.

Joe Biden changes Twitter bio to President-Elect within minutes of declared victory

Indian Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Saturday congratulated Joe Biden and Kamala Harris after Biden was declared winner of US Presidential Election 2020 by news networks in the USA. The former Indian National Congress president expressed the pride he felt owing to USA's first woman vice-president having roots in India. Gandhi said that he was confident that Biden would 'unite America'.

"Congratulations to President-elect @JoeBiden. I’m confident that he will unite America and provide it with a strong sense of direction," tweeted Rahul Gandhi

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Congratulations to President-elect <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JoeBiden</a>. I’m confident that he will unite America and provide it with a strong sense of direction.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) <a href="https://twitter.com/RahulGandhi/status/1325123569240559617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

For Kamala Harris, Rahul Gandhi had these words.

"Congratulations, Vice-President-elect @KamalaHarris! It makes us proud that the first woman to serve as Vice President of the USA traces her roots to India,"

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Congratulations, Vice-President-elect <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KamalaHarris</a>! It makes us proud that the first woman to serve as Vice President of the USA traces her roots to India.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) <a href="https://twitter.com/RahulGandhi/status/1325128340693397506?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

Kamala Harris was born on October 20, 1964 in Oakland, California to a Jamaican father and Indian mother. Her mother Shyamala Gopalan carved out a career as a cancer researcher while her father Donald Harris taught Economics at Stanford University. Kamala Harris' younger sister Maya is a public policy advocate.

Kamala Harris has her family roots in Thulasethirapuram in Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The villagers have been proud of Kamala Harris ever since she was picked as a running mate of Joe Biden.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/joe-biden-changes-twitter-bio-to-president-elect-within-minutes-of-declared-victory-341470">Joe Biden changes Twitter bio to President-Elect within minutes of declared victory</a> 
 
A few days ago the villagers even prayed for Kamala Harriss' victory. Large posters were erected in the vicinity of the village with Kamala Harris on it.

Villagers gathered in Sri Dharmasastha temple in the village and prayed for her victory.

Kamala Harris is not just first woman to assume Vice-Presidential office but she is also first non-white woman to win Vice-Presidential ticket of a major political party in the USA.

Indian Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Saturday congratulated Joe Biden and Kamala Harris after Biden was declared winner of US Presidential Election 2020 by news networks in the USA.

Indian Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Saturday congratulated Joe Biden and Kamala Harris after Biden was declared winner of US Presidential Election 2020 by news networks in the USA. The former Indian National Congress president expressed the pride he felt owing to USA's first woman vice-president having roots in India. Gandhi said that he was confident that Biden would 'unite America'. "Congratulations to President-elect @JoeBiden. I’m confident that he will unite America and provide it with a strong sense of direction," tweeted Rahul Gandhi Congratulations to President-elect @JoeBiden. I’m confident that he will unite America and provide it with a strong sense of direction. — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) November 7, 2020 × For Kamala Harris, Rahul Gandhi had these words. "Congratulations, Vice-President-elect @KamalaHarris! It makes us proud that the first woman to serve as Vice President of the USA traces her roots to India," Congratulations, Vice-President-elect @KamalaHarris! It makes us proud that the first woman to serve as Vice President of the USA traces her roots to India. — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) November 7, 2020 × Kamala Harris was born on October 20, 1964 in Oakland, California to a Jamaican father and Indian mother. Her mother Shyamala Gopalan carved out a career as a cancer researcher while her father Donald Harris taught Economics at Stanford University. Kamala Harris' younger sister Maya is a public policy advocate. Kamala Harris has her family roots in Thulasethirapuram in Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The villagers have been proud of Kamala Harris ever since she was picked as a running mate of Joe Biden. Also Read | Joe Biden changes Twitter bio to President-Elect within minutes of declared victory A few days ago the villagers even prayed for Kamala Harriss' victory. Large posters were erected in the vicinity of the village with Kamala Harris on it. Villagers gathered in Sri Dharmasastha temple in the village and prayed for her victory. Kamala Harris is not just first woman to assume Vice-Presidential office but she is also first non-white woman to win Vice-Presidential ticket of a major political party in the USA.

Proud that first woman Vice President of USA has Indian roots: Rahul Gandhi

After opposition accused the ruling party of rigging tightly contested parliamentary elections thousands of opposition supporters rallied on streets of Georgia, an ex-Soviet country. The protesters gathered outside parliament in Georgian capital Tbilisi. Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire ex-PM who leads ruling Georgian Dream party has denied accusations of electoral fraud. The party has won the elections with a margin of two per cent.

All of Georgia's opposition parties have refused to enter the new parliament sparking fears of another political crisis in the Black Sea nation where elections are often followed by accusations of fraud and mass demonstrations.

In an unprecedented show of unity before the vote, the country's main opposition force, exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM), agreed with smaller opposition groups to form a coalition government if elected.

"We demand the replacement of the totally discredited electoral administration and the holding of a fresh vote," one of the UNM's leaders, Salome Samadashvili, told AFP.

"This would allow for maintaining stability in the country," she said, adding that "Georgian Dream has failed to receive a democratic mandate to remain in power."

Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia of Georgian Dream has said the elections marked "another important milestone in Georgia's democratic development" and criticised the opposition for staging mass rallies amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Gakharia, who has tested positive for the virus, has been in self-isolation for a week and announced a nighttime curfew starting Monday. 
Georgia has seen a rapid daily increase in new virus cases after it lifted a lockdown in September aimed at containing the spread of the disease.&nbsp;

The electoral commission has yet to formalise early results that showed Georgian Dream had won 48 per cent of the proportional vote, against 46 per cent for opposition parties.

The proportional vote decides 120 of the 150 seats in the legislature.

With another 30 seats to be assigned in single-mandate constituencies requiring up to two rounds of voting, the final makeup of the new parliament may only become clear in late November.

(With AFP inputs)

After opposition accused the ruling party of rigging tightly contested parliamentary elections thousands of opposition supporters rallied on streets of Georgia, an ex-Soviet country.

After opposition accused the ruling party of rigging tightly contested parliamentary elections thousands of opposition supporters rallied on streets of Georgia, an ex-Soviet country. The protesters gathered outside parliament in Georgian capital Tbilisi. Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire ex-PM who leads ruling Georgian Dream party has denied accusations of electoral fraud. The party has won the elections with a margin of two per cent. All of Georgia's opposition parties have refused to enter the new parliament sparking fears of another political crisis in the Black Sea nation where elections are often followed by accusations of fraud and mass demonstrations. In an unprecedented show of unity before the vote, the country's main opposition force, exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM), agreed with smaller opposition groups to form a coalition government if elected. "We demand the replacement of the totally discredited electoral administration and the holding of a fresh vote," one of the UNM's leaders, Salome Samadashvili, told AFP. "This would allow for maintaining stability in the country," she said, adding that "Georgian Dream has failed to receive a democratic mandate to remain in power." Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia of Georgian Dream has said the elections marked "another important milestone in Georgia's democratic development" and criticised the opposition for staging mass rallies amid the coronavirus pandemic. Gakharia, who has tested positive for the virus, has been in self-isolation for a week and announced a nighttime curfew starting Monday. Georgia has seen a rapid daily increase in new virus cases after it lifted a lockdown in September aimed at containing the spread of the disease. The electoral commission has yet to formalise early results that showed Georgian Dream had won 48 per cent of the proportional vote, against 46 per cent for opposition parties. The proportional vote decides 120 of the 150 seats in the legislature. With another 30 seats to be assigned in single-mandate constituencies requiring up to two rounds of voting, the final makeup of the new parliament may only become clear in late November. (With AFP inputs)

Thousands march in ex-Soviet Georgia after allegations of electoral fraud

More than 500 people were detained by the police in Belarus as protests against country's president Alexander Lukashenko continued. The opposition reached out to US President-Elect Joe Biden. The protests in Belarus have been going on for more than three months. Tens of thousands have taken to the streets of Belarus in this period. The people are protesting result of August 9 election in which Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory.

His opponents are demanding he hand power to Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a political novice who ran for president against Lukashenko 
Several thousand protesters, many carrying the red-and-white opposition flag, joined a march in central Minsk on Sunday.

On&nbsp;Saturday, Tikhanovskaya congratulated Joe Biden and said she hoped to meet the newly elected US president.

"This was a real race of ideas, programmes and teams, unlike Belarus, where votes at elections were simply stolen, in the United States the vote of every voter was taken into account," she said.

She said she believed Biden will "soon meet with the fairly elected president of the new, free Belarus".

Democrat Biden has previously voiced support for the Belarusian opposition and promised he would expand sanctions against the regime.&nbsp; 
Lukashenko on Saturday called the US vote a "mockery of democracy" and said he doesn't expect relations with Washington to change no matter the election outcome.

Also Read | <a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/belaruss-lukashenko-and-son-put-on-sanctions-list-of-european-union-341210">Belarus's Lukashenko and son put on sanctions list of European Union</a> 
 
On Sunday, police vans and water cannons had been deployed to the centre of the city with police sporadically detaining protesters in various locations.

Local media reported a heavy police presence, with human rights group Viasna saying that at least 395 people had been detained in the capital Minsk and other cities.

Olympic decathlete Andrei Kravchenko and the 2008 Miss Belarus pageant winner Olga Khizhinkova were among those detained, according to the Tut.by news website.

Pensioner Yelena Vasilyevich told AFP that she was taking part in the Sunday protest with her family and friends.

"I want to finally live in a free and democratic country," said Vasilyevich, 65.

From exile in Lithuania, Tikhanovskaya said protests would continue "until victory" and that the past 90 days had shown authorities they had "lost legitimacy and power".

"The regime doesn't want to give us the right to decide what will happen next to our country," she wrote on her Telegram channel on Sunday.

In October, several state universities expelled students who organised sit-in protests on campus.

"We are citizens who have a conscience and who cannot be silent if lawlessness is happening in the country," law student Tamara Babina, 20, told AFP at Sunday's protest.

EU sanctions

The European Union has slapped sanctions on Lukashenko, 66, and several of his allies, imposing a travel ban and asset freezes, for vote-rigging and police violence.

Earlier protests in Minsk were met with a brutal crackdown with police using stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse the gatherings.&nbsp; 
Many of those detained reported brutal treatment including beatings and torture at the hands of security forces.

Authorities have also threatened to use live ammunition on protesters.&nbsp;

With Moscow-backed Lukashenko refusing to step down and the opposition unable to force his resignation, the political situation appears to have reached an impasse.

Last week, Belarus closed land borders with Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine and Poland, and banned foreigners from entering the country via land border crossings.

Two weeks ago, the opposition announced a nationwide strike but it did not gain momentum and its effects on the country's economy appear to have been limited.

More than 500 people were detained by the police in Belarus as protests against country's president Alexander Lukashenko continued. The opposition reached out to US President-Elect Joe Biden.

More than 500 people were detained by the police in Belarus as protests against country's president Alexander Lukashenko continued. The opposition reached out to US President-Elect Joe Biden. The protests in Belarus have been going on for more than three months. Tens of thousands have taken to the streets of Belarus in this period. The people are protesting result of August 9 election in which Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory. His opponents are demanding he hand power to Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a political novice who ran for president against Lukashenko Several thousand protesters, many carrying the red-and-white opposition flag, joined a march in central Minsk on Sunday. On Saturday, Tikhanovskaya congratulated Joe Biden and said she hoped to meet the newly elected US president. "This was a real race of ideas, programmes and teams, unlike Belarus, where votes at elections were simply stolen, in the United States the vote of every voter was taken into account," she said. She said she believed Biden will "soon meet with the fairly elected president of the new, free Belarus". Democrat Biden has previously voiced support for the Belarusian opposition and promised he would expand sanctions against the regime. Lukashenko on Saturday called the US vote a "mockery of democracy" and said he doesn't expect relations with Washington to change no matter the election outcome. Also Read | Belarus's Lukashenko and son put on sanctions list of European Union On Sunday, police vans and water cannons had been deployed to the centre of the city with police sporadically detaining protesters in various locations. Local media reported a heavy police presence, with human rights group Viasna saying that at least 395 people had been detained in the capital Minsk and other cities. Olympic decathlete Andrei Kravchenko and the 2008 Miss Belarus pageant winner Olga Khizhinkova were among those detained, according to the Tut.by news website. Pensioner Yelena Vasilyevich told AFP that she was taking part in the Sunday protest with her family and friends. "I want to finally live in a free and democratic country," said Vasilyevich, 65. From exile in Lithuania, Tikhanovskaya said protests would continue "until victory" and that the past 90 days had shown authorities they had "lost legitimacy and power". "The regime doesn't want to give us the right to decide what will happen next to our country," she wrote on her Telegram channel on Sunday. In October, several state universities expelled students who organised sit-in protests on campus. "We are citizens who have a conscience and who cannot be silent if lawlessness is happening in the country," law student Tamara Babina, 20, told AFP at Sunday's protest. EU sanctions The European Union has slapped sanctions on Lukashenko, 66, and several of his allies, imposing a travel ban and asset freezes, for vote-rigging and police violence. Earlier protests in Minsk were met with a brutal crackdown with police using stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse the gatherings. Many of those detained reported brutal treatment including beatings and torture at the hands of security forces. Authorities have also threatened to use live ammunition on protesters. With Moscow-backed Lukashenko refusing to step down and the opposition unable to force his resignation, the political situation appears to have reached an impasse. Last week, Belarus closed land borders with Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine and Poland, and banned foreigners from entering the country via land border crossings. Two weeks ago, the opposition announced a nationwide strike but it did not gain momentum and its effects on the country's economy appear to have been limited.

Belarus: Police detain hundreds as opposition reaches out to Biden

A day after Joe Biden was declared victorious in US Election 2020, sitting US President Donald Trump continued to level allegations that US Election 2020 was 'stolen' from him. The president went on yet another tweet spree on Sunday evening (Indian time) and renewed allegations of fraud in recently concluded US Presidential Election 2020.

Quoting Newt Gingrich, his colleague in Republican Party, Donald Trump made the following tweets.

“We believe these people are thieves. The big city machines are corrupt. This was a stolen election. Best pollster in Britain wrote this morning that this clearly was a stolen election, that it’s impossible to imagine that Biden outran Obama in some of these states....Where it mattered, they stole what they had to steal"

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....Where it mattered, they stole what they had to steal. <a href="https://twitter.com/newtgingrich?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@newtgingrich</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1325442345396039680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

About an hour before these tweets, Trump quoted Jonathan Turley, a US Attorney.

“We should look at the votes. We’re just beginning the tabulation stage. We should look at these allegations. We’re seeing a number of affidavits that there has been voter fraud. We have a history in this country of election problems. In Pennsylvania you had an order by a...Supreme Court Justice to compel them to separate ballots that were received after the legislative deadline. It required the intervention of Justice Alito. That’s a large group of ballots. When you talk about systemic problems, it’s about.......how these ballots were authenticated, because if there’s a problem in the system about authentication, that would seriously affect the ENTIRE ELECTION - And what concerns me is that we had over a hundred million mail-in ballot in cites like Philladelphia......and Detroit with a long series of election problems (to put it mildly).” read this series of tweets.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
...and Detroit with a long series of election problems (to put it mildly).” <a href="https://twitter.com/JonathanTurley?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JonathanTurley</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1325432476215500800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Donald Trump is yet to concede defeat. He was&nbsp;alleging 'fraud' even before the voting was conducted.

On Sunday, just around the time when Biden was declared winner by various TV networks, Trump claimed again that he had won the election&nbsp;

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I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1325099845045071873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Hours after they were declared winners, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris addressed supporters in Delaware in what was widely considered to be the acceptance speech.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/son-in-law-jared-kushner-urges-donald-trump-to-concede-the-election-report-says-341734">Son-in-law Jared Kushner urges Donald Trump to concede the election, report says</a>

Donald Trump's tweets, made especially around the time when it gradually became clear that momentum was shifting in favour of Biden, have resulted in action from Twitter. Twitter has attached various disclaimers to the tweets posted by Trump. These include declaring that 'claim about election fraud' was 'disputed' and those mentioning status of result announcements as made/ not made by election officials.

A day after Joe Biden was declared victorious in US Election 2020, sitting US President Donald Trump continued to level allegations that US Election 2020 was 'stolen' from him.

A day after Joe Biden was declared victorious in US Election 2020, sitting US President Donald Trump continued to level allegations that US Election 2020 was 'stolen' from him. The president went on yet another tweet spree on Sunday evening (Indian time) and renewed allegations of fraud in recently concluded US Presidential Election 2020. Quoting Newt Gingrich, his colleague in Republican Party, Donald Trump made the following tweets. “We believe these people are thieves. The big city machines are corrupt. This was a stolen election. Best pollster in Britain wrote this morning that this clearly was a stolen election, that it’s impossible to imagine that Biden outran Obama in some of these states....Where it mattered, they stole what they had to steal" ....Where it mattered, they stole what they had to steal. @newtgingrich — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2020 × About an hour before these tweets, Trump quoted Jonathan Turley, a US Attorney. “We should look at the votes. We’re just beginning the tabulation stage. We should look at these allegations. We’re seeing a number of affidavits that there has been voter fraud. We have a history in this country of election problems. In Pennsylvania you had an order by a...Supreme Court Justice to compel them to separate ballots that were received after the legislative deadline. It required the intervention of Justice Alito. That’s a large group of ballots. When you talk about systemic problems, it’s about.......how these ballots were authenticated, because if there’s a problem in the system about authentication, that would seriously affect the ENTIRE ELECTION - And what concerns me is that we had over a hundred million mail-in ballot in cites like Philladelphia......and Detroit with a long series of election problems (to put it mildly).” read this series of tweets. ...and Detroit with a long series of election problems (to put it mildly).” @JonathanTurley — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2020 × Donald Trump is yet to concede defeat. He was alleging 'fraud' even before the voting was conducted. On Sunday, just around the time when Biden was declared winner by various TV networks, Trump claimed again that he had won the election I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020 × Hours after they were declared winners, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris addressed supporters in Delaware in what was widely considered to be the acceptance speech. Also Read | Son-in-law Jared Kushner urges Donald Trump to concede the election, report says Donald Trump's tweets, made especially around the time when it gradually became clear that momentum was shifting in favour of Biden, have resulted in action from Twitter. Twitter has attached various disclaimers to the tweets posted by Trump. These include declaring that 'claim about election fraud' was 'disputed' and those mentioning status of result announcements as made/ not made by election officials.

Donald Trump continues to say that US Election 2020 was 'stolen'

U.S. relations with China are the worst since the countries normalized ties four decades ago. America’s allies in Europe are alienated. The most important nuclear anti-proliferation treaty is about to expire with Russia. Iran is amassing enriched nuclear fuel again, and North Korea is brandishing its atomic arsenal.

Not to mention global warming, refugee crises and looming famines in some of the poorest places on earth, all amplified by the pandemic.

President-elect Joe Biden is inheriting a landscape of challenges and ill will toward the United States in countries hostile to President Donald Trump’s “America First” mantra, his unpredictability, embrace of autocratic leaders and resistance to international cooperation. Biden also could face difficulties in dealing with governments that had hoped for Trump’s reelection — particularly Israel and Saudi Arabia, which share the president’s deep antipathy toward Iran.

But Biden’s past as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as vice president in the Obama administration has given him a familiarity with international affairs that could work to his advantage, foreign policy experts who know him say.

“President Trump has lowered the bar so much that it wouldn’t take much for Biden to change the perception dramatically,” said Robert Malley, chief executive of the International Crisis Group and a former adviser in the Obama White House. “Saying a few of the things Trump hasn’t said — to rewind the tape on multilateralism, climate change, human rights — will sound very loud and significant.”

Here are the most pressing foreign policy areas the Biden administration will face:

The Challenge of U.S.-China Relations

Nothing is more urgent, in the eyes of many experts, than reversing the downward trajectory of relations with China, the economic superpower and geopolitical rival that Trump has engaged in what many are calling a new Cold War. Disputes over trade, the South China Sea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and technology have metastasized during Trump’s term, his critics say, worsened by the president’s racist declarations that China infected the world with the coronavirus and should be held accountable.

“China is kind of the radioactive core of America’s foreign policy issues,” said Orville Schell, director of the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations.

Biden has not necessarily helped himself with his own negative depiction of China and its authoritarian leader, President Xi Jinping, during the 2020 campaign. The two were once seen as having developed a friendly relationship during the Obama years. But Biden, perhaps acting partly to counter Trump’s accusations that he would be lenient toward China, has recently called Xi a “thug.”

The Middle East: Shifts on Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iran?

Biden has vowed to reverse what he called the “dangerous failure” of Trump’s Iran policy, which repudiated the 2015 nuclear agreement and replaced it with tightening sanctions that have caused deep economic damage in Iran and left the United States largely isolated on this issue. Biden has offered to rejoin the agreement, which constricts Iran’s nuclear capabilities if Iran adheres to its provisions and commits to further negotiations. He also has pledged to immediately nullify Trump’s travel ban affecting Iran and several other Muslim-majority countries.

Whether Iran’s hierarchy will accept Biden’s approach is unclear. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has said the United States is untrustworthy regardless who is in the White House. At the same time, “Iran is desperate for a deal,” said Cliff Kupchan, chair of the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy.

Still, Kupchan said, Biden will face enormous difficulties in any negotiations with Iran aimed at strengthening restrictions on its nuclear activities — weaknesses Trump had cited to justify renouncing the nuclear agreement.

“The substance will be tough; we’ve seen this movie, and it’s not easy,” Kupchan said. “I think Biden’s challenge is that it will not end up blowing up in his face.”

Biden’s Iran policy could alienate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who leveraged Trump’s confrontational approach to help strengthen Israel’s relations with Gulf Arab countries, punctuated by normalization of diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. How Biden manages relations with Saudi Arabia, which considers Iran an enemy, will also be a challenge.

“There’s a very hard square to circle here,” Kupchan said.

Trump’s extremely favorable treatment of Israel in the protracted conflict with the Palestinians also could prove nettlesome as Biden navigates a different path in the Middle East. He has criticized Israeli settlement construction in occupied lands the Palestinians want for a future state. And he is likely to restore contacts with the Palestinian leadership.

“Benjamin Netanyahu can expect an uncomfortable period of adjustment,” an Israeli columnist, Yossi Verter, wrote Friday in the Haaretz newspaper.

At the same time, Biden also has a history of cordial relations with Netanyahu. Biden has said he would not reverse Trump’s transfer of the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv — a relocation that deeply angered the Palestinians.

Repairing Relations With Europe and Navigating Brexit

While Trump often disparaged the European Union and strongly encouraged Britain’s exit from the bloc, Biden has expressed the opposite position. Like former President Barack Obama, he supported close U.S. relations with bloc leaders and opposed Brexit.

Biden’s ascendance could prove especially awkward for Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, who had embraced Trump and had been counting on achieving a trade deal with the United States before his country’s divorce from the bloc takes full effect. Biden may be in no hurry to complete such an agreement.

While many Europeans will be happy to see Trump go, the damage they say he has done to America’s reliability will not be easily erased.

“We had differences, but there was never a basic mistrust about having common views of the world,” Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norway, told The New York Times last month. Over the past four years, she said, European leaders had learned they could “no longer take for granted that they can trust the U.S., even on basic things.”

Confronting North Korea’s Nuclear Threat

Trump has described his friendship and three meetings with Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, as a success that averted war with the nuclear-armed hermetic country. But critics say Trump’s approach not only failed to persuade Kim to relinquish his arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles, it bought Kim time to strengthen them. Last month the North unveiled what appeared to be its largest-ever intercontinental ballistic missile.

“On Trump’s watch, the North’s nuclear weapons program has grown apace, its missile capabilities have expanded, and Pyongyang can now target the United States with an ICBM,” said Evans J.R. Revere, a former State Department official and expert on North Korea. “That is the legacy that Trump will soon pass on to Biden, and it will be an enormous burden.”

Biden, who has been described by North Korea’s official news agency as a rabid dog that “must be beaten to death with a stick,” has criticized Trump’s approach as appeasement of a dictator. Biden has said he would press for denuclearization and “stand with South Korea” but has not specified how he would deal with North Korean belligerence.

A Likely Tougher Approach to Russia and Putin

Biden has long asserted that he would take a much harder line with Russia than Trump, who questioned NATO’s usefulness, doubted intelligence warnings on Russia’s interference in U.S. elections, admired President Vladimir Putin and said that improving U.S. relations with the Kremlin would benefit all. Biden, who as vice president pushed for sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 — the biggest illegal land seizure in Europe since World War II — might seek to extend those sanctions and take other punitive steps.

While tensions with Russia would likely rise, arms control is one area where Biden and Putin share a desire for progress. Biden is set to be sworn in just a few weeks before the scheduled expiration of the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. He has said he wants to negotiate an extension of the treaty without preconditions.

A Return to the Paris Agreement and International Commitments

Biden has said one of his first acts as president will be to rejoin the Paris Climate accord to limit global warming, which the United States officially left under Trump on Wednesday. Biden also has said he would restore U.S. membership in the World Health Organization, which Trump repudiated in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, describing the WHO as a lackey of China.

More broadly, Biden is expected to reverse many of the isolationist and anti-immigrant steps taken during the Trump administration, which are widely seen by Trump’s critics as shameful stains on America's standing in the world. Biden has said he would disband Trump’s immigration restrictions, stop construction of his border wall with Mexico, expand resources for immigrants and provide a path to citizenship for people living in the United States illegally.

Nonetheless, many of Trump’s policies had considerable support in the United States, and it remains to be seen how quickly or effectively Biden can change them. The convulsions that roiled American democracy and the divisive election have also sown doubts about Biden’s ability to deliver on his pledges.

“There is relief at a return to some kind of normalcy, but at the same time, history cannot be erased,” said Jean-Marie Guehenno, a French diplomat who is a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Program and a former undersecretary general for peacekeeping operations at the United Nations. “The kind of soft power that the United States has enjoyed in the past has largely evaporated.”

U.S. relations with China are the worst since the countries normalized ties four decades ago. America’s allies in Europe are alienated. The most important nuclear anti-proliferation treaty is about to expire with Russia.

U.S. relations with China are the worst since the countries normalized ties four decades ago. America’s allies in Europe are alienated. The most important nuclear anti-proliferation treaty is about to expire with Russia. Iran is amassing enriched nuclear fuel again, and North Korea is brandishing its atomic arsenal. Not to mention global warming, refugee crises and looming famines in some of the poorest places on earth, all amplified by the pandemic. President-elect Joe Biden is inheriting a landscape of challenges and ill will toward the United States in countries hostile to President Donald Trump’s “America First” mantra, his unpredictability, embrace of autocratic leaders and resistance to international cooperation. Biden also could face difficulties in dealing with governments that had hoped for Trump’s reelection — particularly Israel and Saudi Arabia, which share the president’s deep antipathy toward Iran. But Biden’s past as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as vice president in the Obama administration has given him a familiarity with international affairs that could work to his advantage, foreign policy experts who know him say. “President Trump has lowered the bar so much that it wouldn’t take much for Biden to change the perception dramatically,” said Robert Malley, chief executive of the International Crisis Group and a former adviser in the Obama White House. “Saying a few of the things Trump hasn’t said — to rewind the tape on multilateralism, climate change, human rights — will sound very loud and significant.” Here are the most pressing foreign policy areas the Biden administration will face: The Challenge of U.S.-China Relations Nothing is more urgent, in the eyes of many experts, than reversing the downward trajectory of relations with China, the economic superpower and geopolitical rival that Trump has engaged in what many are calling a new Cold War. Disputes over trade, the South China Sea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and technology have metastasized during Trump’s term, his critics say, worsened by the president’s racist declarations that China infected the world with the coronavirus and should be held accountable. “China is kind of the radioactive core of America’s foreign policy issues,” said Orville Schell, director of the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations. Biden has not necessarily helped himself with his own negative depiction of China and its authoritarian leader, President Xi Jinping, during the 2020 campaign. The two were once seen as having developed a friendly relationship during the Obama years. But Biden, perhaps acting partly to counter Trump’s accusations that he would be lenient toward China, has recently called Xi a “thug.” The Middle East: Shifts on Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iran? Biden has vowed to reverse what he called the “dangerous failure” of Trump’s Iran policy, which repudiated the 2015 nuclear agreement and replaced it with tightening sanctions that have caused deep economic damage in Iran and left the United States largely isolated on this issue. Biden has offered to rejoin the agreement, which constricts Iran’s nuclear capabilities if Iran adheres to its provisions and commits to further negotiations. He also has pledged to immediately nullify Trump’s travel ban affecting Iran and several other Muslim-majority countries. Whether Iran’s hierarchy will accept Biden’s approach is unclear. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has said the United States is untrustworthy regardless who is in the White House. At the same time, “Iran is desperate for a deal,” said Cliff Kupchan, chair of the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy. Still, Kupchan said, Biden will face enormous difficulties in any negotiations with Iran aimed at strengthening restrictions on its nuclear activities — weaknesses Trump had cited to justify renouncing the nuclear agreement. “The substance will be tough; we’ve seen this movie, and it’s not easy,” Kupchan said. “I think Biden’s challenge is that it will not end up blowing up in his face.” Biden’s Iran policy could alienate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who leveraged Trump’s confrontational approach to help strengthen Israel’s relations with Gulf Arab countries, punctuated by normalization of diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. How Biden manages relations with Saudi Arabia, which considers Iran an enemy, will also be a challenge. “There’s a very hard square to circle here,” Kupchan said. Trump’s extremely favorable treatment of Israel in the protracted conflict with the Palestinians also could prove nettlesome as Biden navigates a different path in the Middle East. He has criticized Israeli settlement construction in occupied lands the Palestinians want for a future state. And he is likely to restore contacts with the Palestinian leadership. “Benjamin Netanyahu can expect an uncomfortable period of adjustment,” an Israeli columnist, Yossi Verter, wrote Friday in the Haaretz newspaper. At the same time, Biden also has a history of cordial relations with Netanyahu. Biden has said he would not reverse Trump’s transfer of the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv — a relocation that deeply angered the Palestinians. Repairing Relations With Europe and Navigating Brexit While Trump often disparaged the European Union and strongly encouraged Britain’s exit from the bloc, Biden has expressed the opposite position. Like former President Barack Obama, he supported close U.S. relations with bloc leaders and opposed Brexit. Biden’s ascendance could prove especially awkward for Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, who had embraced Trump and had been counting on achieving a trade deal with the United States before his country’s divorce from the bloc takes full effect. Biden may be in no hurry to complete such an agreement. While many Europeans will be happy to see Trump go, the damage they say he has done to America’s reliability will not be easily erased. “We had differences, but there was never a basic mistrust about having common views of the world,” Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norway, told The New York Times last month. Over the past four years, she said, European leaders had learned they could “no longer take for granted that they can trust the U.S., even on basic things.” Confronting North Korea’s Nuclear Threat Trump has described his friendship and three meetings with Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, as a success that averted war with the nuclear-armed hermetic country. But critics say Trump’s approach not only failed to persuade Kim to relinquish his arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles, it bought Kim time to strengthen them. Last month the North unveiled what appeared to be its largest-ever intercontinental ballistic missile. “On Trump’s watch, the North’s nuclear weapons program has grown apace, its missile capabilities have expanded, and Pyongyang can now target the United States with an ICBM,” said Evans J.R. Revere, a former State Department official and expert on North Korea. “That is the legacy that Trump will soon pass on to Biden, and it will be an enormous burden.” Biden, who has been described by North Korea’s official news agency as a rabid dog that “must be beaten to death with a stick,” has criticized Trump’s approach as appeasement of a dictator. Biden has said he would press for denuclearization and “stand with South Korea” but has not specified how he would deal with North Korean belligerence. A Likely Tougher Approach to Russia and Putin Biden has long asserted that he would take a much harder line with Russia than Trump, who questioned NATO’s usefulness, doubted intelligence warnings on Russia’s interference in U.S. elections, admired President Vladimir Putin and said that improving U.S. relations with the Kremlin would benefit all. Biden, who as vice president pushed for sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 — the biggest illegal land seizure in Europe since World War II — might seek to extend those sanctions and take other punitive steps. While tensions with Russia would likely rise, arms control is one area where Biden and Putin share a desire for progress. Biden is set to be sworn in just a few weeks before the scheduled expiration of the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. He has said he wants to negotiate an extension of the treaty without preconditions. A Return to the Paris Agreement and International Commitments Biden has said one of his first acts as president will be to rejoin the Paris Climate accord to limit global warming, which the United States officially left under Trump on Wednesday. Biden also has said he would restore U.S. membership in the World Health Organization, which Trump repudiated in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, describing the WHO as a lackey of China. More broadly, Biden is expected to reverse many of the isolationist and anti-immigrant steps taken during the Trump administration, which are widely seen by Trump’s critics as shameful stains on America's standing in the world. Biden has said he would disband Trump’s immigration restrictions, stop construction of his border wall with Mexico, expand resources for immigrants and provide a path to citizenship for people living in the United States illegally. Nonetheless, many of Trump’s policies had considerable support in the United States, and it remains to be seen how quickly or effectively Biden can change them. The convulsions that roiled American democracy and the divisive election have also sown doubts about Biden’s ability to deliver on his pledges. “There is relief at a return to some kind of normalcy, but at the same time, history cannot be erased,” said Jean-Marie Guehenno, a French diplomat who is a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Program and a former undersecretary general for peacekeeping operations at the United Nations. “The kind of soft power that the United States has enjoyed in the past has largely evaporated.”

Biden to face long list of foreign challenges, with China no. 1

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed replaced his army chief on Sunday and elevated deputy army chief to his position. The move came as the country fought its own Tigray region. The five-day conflict has seen number of wounded soldiers continuously increase. Abiy's office did not specify any reason for the latest move and only said that Deputy Army Chief Berhanu Jula will take over as army chief from his predecessor General Adem Mohammed. No announcement has been as of now as to in what capacity General Mohammed will serve the army.

The announcement came as a medical official told AFP that nearly 100 government soldiers had been treated for gunshot wounds at a hospital in the northern Amhara region, the latest indication that fighting has been intense.&nbsp;

Abiy and military leaders have touted Ethiopian soldiers' successes against forces loyal to the Tigray ruling party, but a communications blackout in the region has made their accounts difficult to verify.

On roads in the northern part of Ethiopia's Amhara region, ambulances can frequently be seen ferrying wounded combatants to hospitals. 
In the town of Sanja, 98 government soldiers have been treated for "gunfire" injuries, a doctor told AFP.

"We have had 98 cases. All of them are soldiers from the national army," said the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said there were no fatalities at the hospital, but noted more serious cases have been transported to larger hospitals in the city of Gondar and elsewhere.

Reports of dead and wounded soldiers have mounted in recent days in Amhara, where a humanitarian aid worker said three died and 35 were treated on Saturday. On Friday 105 were reported injured and five killed in the region.

There are growing fears that Ethiopia will soon witness a civil war between the government forces and Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party of the Tigray region.

Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed, the winner of last year's Nobel peace prize, sent federal troops and aircraft into Tigray in a major escalation of a long-running feud.

Sunday's reshuffle also saw new appointments for deputy army chief, foreign minister and federal police commissioner, while the president of Amhara was transferred to head Ethiopia's intelligence service.

No reason was given for those changes either.&nbsp;

(With AFP inputs)

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed replaced his army chief on Sunday and elevated deputy army chief to his position. The move came as the country fought its own Tigray region.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed replaced his army chief on Sunday and elevated deputy army chief to his position. The move came as the country fought its own Tigray region. The five-day conflict has seen number of wounded soldiers continuously increase. Abiy's office did not specify any reason for the latest move and only said that Deputy Army Chief Berhanu Jula will take over as army chief from his predecessor General Adem Mohammed. No announcement has been as of now as to in what capacity General Mohammed will serve the army. The announcement came as a medical official told AFP that nearly 100 government soldiers had been treated for gunshot wounds at a hospital in the northern Amhara region, the latest indication that fighting has been intense. Abiy and military leaders have touted Ethiopian soldiers' successes against forces loyal to the Tigray ruling party, but a communications blackout in the region has made their accounts difficult to verify. On roads in the northern part of Ethiopia's Amhara region, ambulances can frequently be seen ferrying wounded combatants to hospitals. In the town of Sanja, 98 government soldiers have been treated for "gunfire" injuries, a doctor told AFP. "We have had 98 cases. All of them are soldiers from the national army," said the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said there were no fatalities at the hospital, but noted more serious cases have been transported to larger hospitals in the city of Gondar and elsewhere. Reports of dead and wounded soldiers have mounted in recent days in Amhara, where a humanitarian aid worker said three died and 35 were treated on Saturday. On Friday 105 were reported injured and five killed in the region. There are growing fears that Ethiopia will soon witness a civil war between the government forces and Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party of the Tigray region. Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed, the winner of last year's Nobel peace prize, sent federal troops and aircraft into Tigray in a major escalation of a long-running feud. Sunday's reshuffle also saw new appointments for deputy army chief, foreign minister and federal police commissioner, while the president of Amhara was transferred to head Ethiopia's intelligence service. No reason was given for those changes either. (With AFP inputs)

Ethiopia PM replaces army chief amid conflict with Tigray region

Six White House aides and a Trump campaign adviser — including Mark Meadows, President Donald Trump’s chief of staff — have contracted the coronavirus, officials said, raising fears of another outbreak sweeping through the ranks of the nation’s top officials as cases surge to record levels in the country.

Meadows, who routinely shrugged off the need to wear masks and embraced Trump’s strategy of playing down the threat from the coronavirus over the summer, informed a small group of White House advisers that he had tested positive for the virus Wednesday, a senior administration official said Friday.

Five other White House officials also tested positive for the virus in the days before and after Election Day, people familiar with the diagnoses told The New York Times. Bloomberg News also reported on additional cases around the president, who contracted the virus last month and spent three days in the hospital receiving experimental treatments.

Nick Trainer, who worked on the president’s campaign, has also tested positive for the coronavirus, a person briefed on his diagnosis said.

The new wave of infections rattled and angered members of the White House staff even as they struggled to come to grips with Trump’s likely loss in the presidential race. News of the infections emerged despite warnings to keep quiet about the new cases, according to two White House officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to publicly discuss internal conversations.

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A few weeks ago, Meadows sought to keep an outbreak in Vice President Mike Pence’s office from becoming public.

Public health experts said the infections of Meadows and the others at the White House underscored the importance of taking numerous steps to prevent the spread of the virus. Meadows and Trump have said repeatedly that they did not need to wear masks or maintain social distancing because they were frequently tested.

“It’s emblematic of the national failure to control COVID,” said Tom Frieden, who served as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under President Barack Obama. “It shows the fallacy of relying on testing alone. Testing doesn’t replace other safety measures. It’s just one tool among many.”

The new cases at the White House came as the pandemic rampaged across the United States, which has averaged more than 100,000 new cases per day over the past week and hit another record Friday, with more than 132,700 cases in a single day.

As of Saturday morning, more than 9,830,800 people in the United States had been infected with the coronavirus, and more than 236,500 had died.

Meadows is the latest in a string of people connected to the White House to contract the virus in the past seven weeks, including Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, a half-dozen aides to the president and five aides to Pence, including his chief of staff, Marc Short. Several journalists who work at the White House were also infected. On Saturday, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. and a close ally of Trump’s, disclosed that he had tested positive for virus antibodies Tuesday but said he did not know when he had contracted the virus.

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At least one gathering at the White House — a celebration of Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Sept. 26 — is suspected of being a “superspreader” event after more than a dozen aides, reporters and guests who were in attendance or came into contact with people who were there tested positive for the virus.

That event took place in the Rose Garden and inside the White House.

Frieden said it was possible the new cases, including Meadows’, may actually be part of the same outbreak from late September rather than a separate cluster of cases. That would suggest that the White House has not gotten control of the virus as it spreads through the West Wing.

“It may be the same cluster that has continued for well over a month,” Frieden said. “You’re not going to control it if you don’t try to control it.”

Trump has spent most of the year playing down the threat of the virus, and several White House officials, including Meadows, have encouraged him to treat the pandemic as a localized threat in Democratic-leaning states.

It is unclear how aggressive the White House intends to be in trying to track the contacts that Meadows and the other infected aides have had over the past several days. People who test positive are often infectious in the days leading up to the test, especially if they have symptoms of the disease.

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&nbsp;

Meadows, a former member of Congress, is a gregarious presence at the White House whose position requires him to interact with people throughout the West Wing and frequently takes him to the residential part of the White House to meet with the president.

On Tuesday night, Meadows was at Trump’s election party at the White House, which included several hundred people gathered in the East Room for several hours, many of them not wearing masks as they mingled while watching the election returns.

The president’s chief of staff was also in contact with a coterie of aides earlier in the day at the Trump campaign headquarters in Virginia, crammed into a tight space, where he was not wearing a mask as the president greeted campaign workers.

During the pandemic, Meadows has pushed for a focus on efforts to revive the economy and only sporadically wore a mask as he traveled with the president or attended some crowded events in the Oval Office.

Like Trump, Meadows often mocked reporters who wore masks around him, saying the face coverings muffled their voices. A video clip of Meadows refusing to give a statement to reporters at the Capitol because they asked him to wear his mask was widely shared across social media.

He has also been among the West Wing officials who have favored minimizing the public appearances of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, who has issued far more dire warnings about the threat of the virus than Trump has wanted to have publicly declared.

In the waning days of the presidential campaign, Meadows made unwanted headlines when he acknowledged during a television interview that the government would not be able “control” the pandemic. Critics and Trump’s political rivals seized on the comment as evidence that the administration had given up on fighting the virus.

“We are not going to control the pandemic,” Meadows told Jake Tapper, the host of “State of the Union” on CNN. “We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas.”

Meadows was one of few people fully briefed on Trump’s own bout of COVID-19, which the president announced Oct. 2. He was involved in coaxing a reluctant Trump to go voluntarily to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at a time when the president was resisting such a move but his oxygen levels had dropped and he had a high fever.

But Meadows also had a starring role in an episode that enraged Trump the day after the president was flown to the hospital. After Trump’s doctor, Sean Conley, did not answer questions honestly about the president’s symptoms, Meadows approached a small group of reporters in the White House pool and gave a more candid assessment that the president was not quite out of the woods.

He gave it on the assumption he would not be identified, but a C-SPAN camera captured Meadows talking to the reporters. Trump was livid when he learned that Meadows had said something revealing about his medical condition.

A few weeks later, when Short and four other aides to Pence fell ill, The Times reported that Meadows had sought to keep the information secret.

People close to Meadows insisted he had merely wanted contact-tracing to take place before any information became public. But he all but confirmed in an interview with Tapper, who asked about The Times’ reporting, that he did not believe the White House should discuss the health of anyone other than the president or the vice president.

Meadows did not respond to a request for comment Friday night. A White House spokesman also declined to comment, citing a need to maintain privacy of personnel health matters.

Six White House aides and a Trump campaign adviser — including Mark Meadows, President Donald Trump’s chief of staff — have contracted the coronavirus, officials said, raising fears of another outbreak sweeping through the ranks of the nation’s top officials as cases surge to record levels in the country.

Six White House aides and a Trump campaign adviser — including Mark Meadows, President Donald Trump’s chief of staff — have contracted the coronavirus, officials said, raising fears of another outbreak sweeping through the ranks of the nation’s top officials as cases surge to record levels in the country. Meadows, who routinely shrugged off the need to wear masks and embraced Trump’s strategy of playing down the threat from the coronavirus over the summer, informed a small group of White House advisers that he had tested positive for the virus Wednesday, a senior administration official said Friday. Five other White House officials also tested positive for the virus in the days before and after Election Day, people familiar with the diagnoses told The New York Times. Bloomberg News also reported on additional cases around the president, who contracted the virus last month and spent three days in the hospital receiving experimental treatments. Nick Trainer, who worked on the president’s campaign, has also tested positive for the coronavirus, a person briefed on his diagnosis said. The new wave of infections rattled and angered members of the White House staff even as they struggled to come to grips with Trump’s likely loss in the presidential race. News of the infections emerged despite warnings to keep quiet about the new cases, according to two White House officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to publicly discuss internal conversations. Also Read | Melania to leave Donald Trump? Former aides predict divorce A few weeks ago, Meadows sought to keep an outbreak in Vice President Mike Pence’s office from becoming public. Public health experts said the infections of Meadows and the others at the White House underscored the importance of taking numerous steps to prevent the spread of the virus. Meadows and Trump have said repeatedly that they did not need to wear masks or maintain social distancing because they were frequently tested. “It’s emblematic of the national failure to control COVID,” said Tom Frieden, who served as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under President Barack Obama. “It shows the fallacy of relying on testing alone. Testing doesn’t replace other safety measures. It’s just one tool among many.” The new cases at the White House came as the pandemic rampaged across the United States, which has averaged more than 100,000 new cases per day over the past week and hit another record Friday, with more than 132,700 cases in a single day. As of Saturday morning, more than 9,830,800 people in the United States had been infected with the coronavirus, and more than 236,500 had died. Meadows is the latest in a string of people connected to the White House to contract the virus in the past seven weeks, including Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, a half-dozen aides to the president and five aides to Pence, including his chief of staff, Marc Short. Several journalists who work at the White House were also infected. On Saturday, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. and a close ally of Trump’s, disclosed that he had tested positive for virus antibodies Tuesday but said he did not know when he had contracted the virus. Also Read | Biden vows to unite America in first address as US president-elect At least one gathering at the White House — a celebration of Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Sept. 26 — is suspected of being a “superspreader” event after more than a dozen aides, reporters and guests who were in attendance or came into contact with people who were there tested positive for the virus. That event took place in the Rose Garden and inside the White House. Frieden said it was possible the new cases, including Meadows’, may actually be part of the same outbreak from late September rather than a separate cluster of cases. That would suggest that the White House has not gotten control of the virus as it spreads through the West Wing. “It may be the same cluster that has continued for well over a month,” Frieden said. “You’re not going to control it if you don’t try to control it.” Trump has spent most of the year playing down the threat of the virus, and several White House officials, including Meadows, have encouraged him to treat the pandemic as a localized threat in Democratic-leaning states. It is unclear how aggressive the White House intends to be in trying to track the contacts that Meadows and the other infected aides have had over the past several days. People who test positive are often infectious in the days leading up to the test, especially if they have symptoms of the disease. × Meadows, a former member of Congress, is a gregarious presence at the White House whose position requires him to interact with people throughout the West Wing and frequently takes him to the residential part of the White House to meet with the president. On Tuesday night, Meadows was at Trump’s election party at the White House, which included several hundred people gathered in the East Room for several hours, many of them not wearing masks as they mingled while watching the election returns. The president’s chief of staff was also in contact with a coterie of aides earlier in the day at the Trump campaign headquarters in Virginia, crammed into a tight space, where he was not wearing a mask as the president greeted campaign workers. During the pandemic, Meadows has pushed for a focus on efforts to revive the economy and only sporadically wore a mask as he traveled with the president or attended some crowded events in the Oval Office. Like Trump, Meadows often mocked reporters who wore masks around him, saying the face coverings muffled their voices. A video clip of Meadows refusing to give a statement to reporters at the Capitol because they asked him to wear his mask was widely shared across social media. He has also been among the West Wing officials who have favored minimizing the public appearances of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, who has issued far more dire warnings about the threat of the virus than Trump has wanted to have publicly declared. In the waning days of the presidential campaign, Meadows made unwanted headlines when he acknowledged during a television interview that the government would not be able “control” the pandemic. Critics and Trump’s political rivals seized on the comment as evidence that the administration had given up on fighting the virus. “We are not going to control the pandemic,” Meadows told Jake Tapper, the host of “State of the Union” on CNN. “We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas.” Meadows was one of few people fully briefed on Trump’s own bout of COVID-19, which the president announced Oct. 2. He was involved in coaxing a reluctant Trump to go voluntarily to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at a time when the president was resisting such a move but his oxygen levels had dropped and he had a high fever. But Meadows also had a starring role in an episode that enraged Trump the day after the president was flown to the hospital. After Trump’s doctor, Sean Conley, did not answer questions honestly about the president’s symptoms, Meadows approached a small group of reporters in the White House pool and gave a more candid assessment that the president was not quite out of the woods. He gave it on the assumption he would not be identified, but a C-SPAN camera captured Meadows talking to the reporters. Trump was livid when he learned that Meadows had said something revealing about his medical condition. A few weeks later, when Short and four other aides to Pence fell ill, The Times reported that Meadows had sought to keep the information secret. People close to Meadows insisted he had merely wanted contact-tracing to take place before any information became public. But he all but confirmed in an interview with Tapper, who asked about The Times’ reporting, that he did not believe the White House should discuss the health of anyone other than the president or the vice president. Meadows did not respond to a request for comment Friday night. A White House spokesman also declined to comment, citing a need to maintain privacy of personnel health matters.

Six in White House, including Trump’s chief of staff, have the coronavirus

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