WASHINGTON — Marine One, its engines roaring, was waiting on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday afternoon when President Donald Trump walked out of the Oval Office offering a brief wave but skipping his usual verbal combat with reporters.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/the-no-mask-president-how-trump-spent-the-week-just-before-contracting-the-virus-332058">In Pics:&nbsp;The No Mask President: How Trump spent the week just before contracting the virus</a>

As the copter lifted off and banked toward the Washington Monument, his aides were scrambling. Hope Hicks, his closest confidante in the West Wing, was supposed to have been on board, but she had just tested positive for the coronavirus after falling ill the evening before while traveling with the president to Minnesota. Two other senior aides who had been in close contact with Hicks were quickly pulled from the president’s trip to New Jersey, where he planned to schmooze with at least 200 campaign donors.

During Trump’s 14-minute flight to Joint Base Andrews, the home of Air Force One, the White House had a choice to make, officials said: Cancel the president’s trip or shrug off the threat and move forward as planned — even though Trump had been in frequent contact with Hicks during the previous two days, when doctors say she would have been most contagious.

The decision to go ahead with the trip was emblematic of Trump’s approach to the raging pandemic since the beginning. Rather than embrace caution and model behavior urged by the nation’s leading health experts, Trump and his mostly mask-free entourage headed north to New Jersey without any public disclosure that he and his aides had been exposed to the coronavirus.

The choice to do so, White House officials, advisers and other people who have crossed paths with the president in recent days said, was just one in a series of decisions by the White House that compounded the risks for Trump, his aides and the many people who came into contact with them over an especially busy week in Washington and on the campaign trail.

It is not clear exactly when Trump was infected or by whom, and the White House remained secretive about the circumstances Friday, declining to provide any account of who made the decision for the president to go to New Jersey or of how Hicks’ illness was handled Wednesday and Thursday.

But by day’s end, there was little doubt that the virus had been circulating in proximity to Trump for the past week, even as he disparaged mask wearing and campaigned in person in front of crowds that were not socially distanced.

The chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, received a positive test Wednesday afternoon after accompanying the president to events late last week.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who went mask-free to the Rose Garden event Saturday where Trump introduced Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee, said Friday that he had tested positive. So did three other guests at the event: Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Kellyanne Conway, a former White House counselor, and the president of the University of Notre Dame, the Rev. John Jenkins.

When Hicks felt ill during the trip to Minneapolis on Wednesday evening — a day after she accompanied Trump to Cleveland for the first presidential debate, where he spent 90 minutes in an often-angry confrontation with former Vice President Joe Biden — she flew back to Washington with the president aboard Air Force One.

At least three members of the White House press corps also tested positive Friday.

To keep himself and his staff safe, Trump had relied heavily on regular use of a rapid test that was never intended for that type of screening and can miss as many as one in three or four cases.

On Thursday afternoon, Trump, presumably already infected himself, mingled with supporters for several hours at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, first for a round-table discussion indoors and then a fundraiser outside that included about 200 people. One attendee said the president seemed lethargic and not his usual self, though others described him as apparently healthy and engaged as he answered questions outdoors, well-separated from his guests.

In the early hours of Friday morning, reality would finally catch up to Trump. After months of wishing that the virus would “disappear, like a miracle” and insisting that the country was “rounding the corner” in its fight against the pandemic, the president announced that he and Melania Trump, the first lady, had tested positive for the virus that had infected more than 7 million Americans on his watch, killing more than 200,000.

Now the White House itself is a hot spot of sorts, the center of a contact tracing effort that extends to the upper reaches of American politics and government.

“Learning more about when President Trump and others with whom he had contact last tested negative and first tested positive will help understand this outbreak and limit the risk of further spread,” said Thomas Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “This is a reminder that COVID-19 is an ongoing threat to our country and can happen to anyone.”

Hidden peril at a big moment

Last Friday, McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chairwoman, mingled with Trump at a glitzy fundraiser at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, along with the committee’s leadership team. The president seemed to be in good cheer and good health.

He had reason to be happy.

The next afternoon, he gathered Republican lawmakers and members of conservative interest groups in the Rose Garden to announce Barrett as his pick to succeed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, giving him the chance to cement the court’s conservative majority for a generation.

McDaniel was not there, having traveled to her home in Michigan. It would be a few days before she began to feel ill and then tested positive for the virus. But the newly renovated Rose Garden was packed with Trump’s supporters, including at least eight Republican senators, few of them wearing masks. Barrett, who is said to have already had the coronavirus and has since recovered, had earlier met with the president in the Oval Office without wearing a mask. She stood next to Trump as he made the announcement, her seven children and husband in the audience.

The president also mingled with his guests indoors, including a reception in the Diplomatic Room, where few people, if any, were wearing masks.

Not present that day was Hicks.

Later that evening, after a quick flight to Middletown, Pennsylvania, for a campaign rally, Trump lashed out at Biden as rain steadily fell on the president and the enthusiastic crowd. Flanked by huge television screens that read, in all capital letters, “Fill the seat,” he crowed about Barrett and boasted about beating Biden in the coming debate.

A White House reporter on the flight would later test positive for the virus.

‘Biggest mask i’ve ever seen’

Back at the White House on Sunday, Trump and Hicks huddled with a handful of other aides and advisers, none of whom wore masks, for debate preparation in the Map Room.

The group sat around a long table, with a vacant seat between Stephen Miller, the president’s speechwriter and top domestic policy adviser, and Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, who led the preparations. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer and the former mayor of New York, joined one of the sessions, which lasted several hours, and sat in the vacant seat.

Trump faced Christie, and there was a television screen over the president’s left shoulder on which they played video clips for him to watch.

On Monday, the group moved the session into the Oval Office. Hicks sat on the couch. And Tuesday, they gathered again for a few hours in the Map Room, prepping the president for the debate that evening.

Before the debate, White House officials who had been in close touch with Trump and Hicks headed to Capitol Hill to introduce Barrett to senators. Vice President Mike Pence, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, posed for photos in the Mansfield Room with Barrett and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader.

The lawmakers and White House officials posed without masks.

Wearing a dark suit and striped tie, Trump, accompanied by Melania Trump, left for the debate Tuesday afternoon to cheers of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” from supporters gathered on the South Lawn. About two hours later, Air Force One landed in Cleveland. Hicks traveled with the president, as did Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a close ally of the president.

At the debate, Trump’s family entered the hall wearing masks but quickly took them off even as Biden’s family and friends kept them on. During his relentless attacks on Biden, the president mocked him for wearing a mask.

“He could be speaking 200 feet away,” Trump said, “and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”

Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, who accompanied him to the debate and was with him during debate-prep sessions over the previous three days, tested positive for the virus Friday.

A tired President, a sick aide

On Wednesday, as McDaniel received her positive test results, Trump met in the Oval Office with Meadows, his chief of staff, and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, to discuss the stalled negotiations with Democrats on a compromise stimulus bill.

“I had just come from the Oval Office and reviewed with Mark Meadows and the president, so all three of us were very clear in what we wanted to do,” Mnuchin told reporters later that afternoon as he met with Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California for about 90 minutes on Capitol Hill.

On Wednesday evening, the entire Republican congressional delegation from Minnesota — Reps. Pete Stauber, Jim Hagedorn and Tom Emmer, chairman of House Republicans’ campaign arm — flew with Trump to another campaign rally. In a photo they later posted on Twitter, none were wearing masks on the plane.

Trump did a fundraiser in Minneapolis attended by Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota and big donors like Todd Ricketts, a part owner of the Chicago Cubs and a fundraising chairman for the campaign. Some of those who attended are now worried about whether they might have been exposed to the virus.

The president then went on to a rally in Duluth. He spoke at the airport there, attacking Biden’s debate performance and delivering an unusually acerbic attack against Somalian refugees and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a refugee from Somalia herself.

But he finished the event in just 45 minutes, significantly shorter than his usual, rambling rally speeches. And on the flight back to Washington, Trump fell asleep at one point, according to a person briefed on the matter.

Even before Trump nodded off, Hicks was beginning to experience symptoms of the virus. Having told colleagues that she felt ill around the start of the rally that evening, Hicks was isolated in another part of the plane, away from the president and other members of the White House staff.

For reasons that remain unclear, the White House appears not to have tested Hicks for the virus Wednesday night on the plane or when she landed in Washington.

The trip goes on

On Thursday morning, Lee, the senator, started feeling ill, with symptoms consistent with longtime allergies, according to his office. Around the same time, Hicks was tested, though the White House declined to say whether she came to the West Wing to do so.

Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, held an especially testy exchange with reporters in the briefing room, clashing over whether Trump had adequately condemned white supremacists. She made no mention that Hicks or Trump felt ill.

Soon, however, Hicks received the bad news: She was positive.

The revelation prompted the rush to pull two other White House staff members, including McEnany, off the Air Force One manifest for the trip to New Jersey. On Friday, Meadows declined to provide any details of the decision to make the trip.

McEnany said the trip was “deemed safe” by White House, noting only that Trump was outside and socially distanced himself during the event in New Jersey.

Nearly 20 donors who gave as much as $250,000 each to attend an indoor round table with the president before his speech to the bigger group at his golf club in Bedminster were required to take rapid coronavirus tests before entering.

For the larger event, guests gathered under a slightly overcast sky, sitting at large tables with four to eight people each on the pavilion patio. Rik Mehta, the Republican candidate challenging Sen. Cory Booker, said that many people wore masks and that organizers took their temperature twice.

“I was more than 40 feet easy from the president and people are asking me if I’m going to quarantine; people are asking me if I’m going to get tested,” he said later. “Why would I do that? It was an outdoor event, not a covered event. Why would I get tested?”

Charlie Kolean, 25, flew from Dallas to attend the fundraiser and was tested before entering the VIP section. Kolean said he posed for a photo with the president, both unmasked, while standing 6 feet away. He praised the safety protocol but said he was nevertheless self-quarantining in Dallas while he waited for the results of another rapid coronavirus test.

“I want to have no second thought in my mind whatsoever that I don’t have it,” Kolean said.

The White House did not announce that Hicks had tested positive before the news leaked out Thursday evening. Hours later, Trump turned to Twitter to announce: “Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!”

The four Republican lawmakers who had flown with Trump on Tuesday and Wednesday all rushed to get tested even as the House physician advised them that they could continue their work in the chamber as usual — wearing masks and distanced — because they were not deemed to have been in “close contact” with the president.

They all later tested negative.

On Friday evening, Trump posted a video of himself on Twitter, saying “I think I’m doing very well.”

By then he had flown off again on Marine One, this time to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where aides said he planned to stay for several days — a grim reminder of the pervasive place the virus occupies in American life. He arrived wearing a mask.

Timeline:

Saturday, September 26: President Donald Trump introduced Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court pick. Four attendees, Sen. Mike Lee, Sen. Thom Tillis, former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and the Rev. John Jenkins, tested positive days later. Trump also held a rally in Middletown, Pennsylvania.

Sunday, September 27: After visiting his golf course in Sterling, Virginia, Trump held a news conference at the White House and a reception for Gold Star families attended by his wife, Melania, and Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen.

Monday, September 28: Trump met on the South Lawn with workers from the Lordstown Motors plant in Ohio, then held an event in the Rose Garden to announce a new virus testing strategy. “I say it all the time, we are rounding the corner.”

Tuesday, September 29: Debating Joe Biden in Cleveland, Trump mocked Biden for frequently wearing a mask. When Biden said experts advocated using them, Trump responded, “They’ve also said the opposite.”

Wednesday, September 30: Hope Hicks began feeling ill after traveling with Trump to a rally in Duluth, Minnesota, and a fundraiser in Shorewood, Minnesota. She was isolated aboard Air Force One on the trip back to Washington.

Thursday, October 1: Trump held a fundraiser in Bedminster, New Jersey, saying, “the end of the pandemic is in sight.” At 10:44 p.m., at the White House, he confirmed on Twitter that Hicks, a close personal adviser, had tested positive.

Friday, October 2: At about 1 am., Trump announced on Twitter that he and his wife, Melania, had tested positive. Late in the day, he was taken to Walter Reed Hospital for several days. His campaign canceled all in-person events.

WASHINGTON — Marine One, its engines roaring, was waiting on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday afternoon when President Donald Trump walked out of the Oval Office offering a brief wave but skipping his usual verbal combat with reporters.

WASHINGTON — Marine One, its engines roaring, was waiting on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday afternoon when President Donald Trump walked out of the Oval Office offering a brief wave but skipping his usual verbal combat with reporters. In Pics: The No Mask President: How Trump spent the week just before contracting the virus As the copter lifted off and banked toward the Washington Monument, his aides were scrambling. Hope Hicks, his closest confidante in the West Wing, was supposed to have been on board, but she had just tested positive for the coronavirus after falling ill the evening before while traveling with the president to Minnesota. Two other senior aides who had been in close contact with Hicks were quickly pulled from the president’s trip to New Jersey, where he planned to schmooze with at least 200 campaign donors. During Trump’s 14-minute flight to Joint Base Andrews, the home of Air Force One, the White House had a choice to make, officials said: Cancel the president’s trip or shrug off the threat and move forward as planned — even though Trump had been in frequent contact with Hicks during the previous two days, when doctors say she would have been most contagious. The decision to go ahead with the trip was emblematic of Trump’s approach to the raging pandemic since the beginning. Rather than embrace caution and model behavior urged by the nation’s leading health experts, Trump and his mostly mask-free entourage headed north to New Jersey without any public disclosure that he and his aides had been exposed to the coronavirus. The choice to do so, White House officials, advisers and other people who have crossed paths with the president in recent days said, was just one in a series of decisions by the White House that compounded the risks for Trump, his aides and the many people who came into contact with them over an especially busy week in Washington and on the campaign trail. It is not clear exactly when Trump was infected or by whom, and the White House remained secretive about the circumstances Friday, declining to provide any account of who made the decision for the president to go to New Jersey or of how Hicks’ illness was handled Wednesday and Thursday. But by day’s end, there was little doubt that the virus had been circulating in proximity to Trump for the past week, even as he disparaged mask wearing and campaigned in person in front of crowds that were not socially distanced. The chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, received a positive test Wednesday afternoon after accompanying the president to events late last week. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who went mask-free to the Rose Garden event Saturday where Trump introduced Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee, said Friday that he had tested positive. So did three other guests at the event: Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Kellyanne Conway, a former White House counselor, and the president of the University of Notre Dame, the Rev. John Jenkins. When Hicks felt ill during the trip to Minneapolis on Wednesday evening — a day after she accompanied Trump to Cleveland for the first presidential debate, where he spent 90 minutes in an often-angry confrontation with former Vice President Joe Biden — she flew back to Washington with the president aboard Air Force One. At least three members of the White House press corps also tested positive Friday. To keep himself and his staff safe, Trump had relied heavily on regular use of a rapid test that was never intended for that type of screening and can miss as many as one in three or four cases. On Thursday afternoon, Trump, presumably already infected himself, mingled with supporters for several hours at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, first for a round-table discussion indoors and then a fundraiser outside that included about 200 people. One attendee said the president seemed lethargic and not his usual self, though others described him as apparently healthy and engaged as he answered questions outdoors, well-separated from his guests. In the early hours of Friday morning, reality would finally catch up to Trump. After months of wishing that the virus would “disappear, like a miracle” and insisting that the country was “rounding the corner” in its fight against the pandemic, the president announced that he and Melania Trump, the first lady, had tested positive for the virus that had infected more than 7 million Americans on his watch, killing more than 200,000. Now the White House itself is a hot spot of sorts, the center of a contact tracing effort that extends to the upper reaches of American politics and government. “Learning more about when President Trump and others with whom he had contact last tested negative and first tested positive will help understand this outbreak and limit the risk of further spread,” said Thomas Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “This is a reminder that COVID-19 is an ongoing threat to our country and can happen to anyone.” Hidden peril at a big moment Last Friday, McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chairwoman, mingled with Trump at a glitzy fundraiser at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, along with the committee’s leadership team. The president seemed to be in good cheer and good health. He had reason to be happy. The next afternoon, he gathered Republican lawmakers and members of conservative interest groups in the Rose Garden to announce Barrett as his pick to succeed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, giving him the chance to cement the court’s conservative majority for a generation. McDaniel was not there, having traveled to her home in Michigan. It would be a few days before she began to feel ill and then tested positive for the virus. But the newly renovated Rose Garden was packed with Trump’s supporters, including at least eight Republican senators, few of them wearing masks. Barrett, who is said to have already had the coronavirus and has since recovered, had earlier met with the president in the Oval Office without wearing a mask. She stood next to Trump as he made the announcement, her seven children and husband in the audience. The president also mingled with his guests indoors, including a reception in the Diplomatic Room, where few people, if any, were wearing masks. Not present that day was Hicks. Later that evening, after a quick flight to Middletown, Pennsylvania, for a campaign rally, Trump lashed out at Biden as rain steadily fell on the president and the enthusiastic crowd. Flanked by huge television screens that read, in all capital letters, “Fill the seat,” he crowed about Barrett and boasted about beating Biden in the coming debate. A White House reporter on the flight would later test positive for the virus. ‘Biggest mask i’ve ever seen’ Back at the White House on Sunday, Trump and Hicks huddled with a handful of other aides and advisers, none of whom wore masks, for debate preparation in the Map Room. The group sat around a long table, with a vacant seat between Stephen Miller, the president’s speechwriter and top domestic policy adviser, and Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, who led the preparations. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer and the former mayor of New York, joined one of the sessions, which lasted several hours, and sat in the vacant seat. Trump faced Christie, and there was a television screen over the president’s left shoulder on which they played video clips for him to watch. On Monday, the group moved the session into the Oval Office. Hicks sat on the couch. And Tuesday, they gathered again for a few hours in the Map Room, prepping the president for the debate that evening. Before the debate, White House officials who had been in close touch with Trump and Hicks headed to Capitol Hill to introduce Barrett to senators. Vice President Mike Pence, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, posed for photos in the Mansfield Room with Barrett and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader. The lawmakers and White House officials posed without masks. Wearing a dark suit and striped tie, Trump, accompanied by Melania Trump, left for the debate Tuesday afternoon to cheers of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” from supporters gathered on the South Lawn. About two hours later, Air Force One landed in Cleveland. Hicks traveled with the president, as did Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a close ally of the president. At the debate, Trump’s family entered the hall wearing masks but quickly took them off even as Biden’s family and friends kept them on. During his relentless attacks on Biden, the president mocked him for wearing a mask. “He could be speaking 200 feet away,” Trump said, “and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.” Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, who accompanied him to the debate and was with him during debate-prep sessions over the previous three days, tested positive for the virus Friday. A tired President, a sick aide On Wednesday, as McDaniel received her positive test results, Trump met in the Oval Office with Meadows, his chief of staff, and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, to discuss the stalled negotiations with Democrats on a compromise stimulus bill. “I had just come from the Oval Office and reviewed with Mark Meadows and the president, so all three of us were very clear in what we wanted to do,” Mnuchin told reporters later that afternoon as he met with Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California for about 90 minutes on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday evening, the entire Republican congressional delegation from Minnesota — Reps. Pete Stauber, Jim Hagedorn and Tom Emmer, chairman of House Republicans’ campaign arm — flew with Trump to another campaign rally. In a photo they later posted on Twitter, none were wearing masks on the plane. Trump did a fundraiser in Minneapolis attended by Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota and big donors like Todd Ricketts, a part owner of the Chicago Cubs and a fundraising chairman for the campaign. Some of those who attended are now worried about whether they might have been exposed to the virus. The president then went on to a rally in Duluth. He spoke at the airport there, attacking Biden’s debate performance and delivering an unusually acerbic attack against Somalian refugees and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a refugee from Somalia herself. But he finished the event in just 45 minutes, significantly shorter than his usual, rambling rally speeches. And on the flight back to Washington, Trump fell asleep at one point, according to a person briefed on the matter. Even before Trump nodded off, Hicks was beginning to experience symptoms of the virus. Having told colleagues that she felt ill around the start of the rally that evening, Hicks was isolated in another part of the plane, away from the president and other members of the White House staff. For reasons that remain unclear, the White House appears not to have tested Hicks for the virus Wednesday night on the plane or when she landed in Washington. The trip goes on On Thursday morning, Lee, the senator, started feeling ill, with symptoms consistent with longtime allergies, according to his office. Around the same time, Hicks was tested, though the White House declined to say whether she came to the West Wing to do so. Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, held an especially testy exchange with reporters in the briefing room, clashing over whether Trump had adequately condemned white supremacists. She made no mention that Hicks or Trump felt ill. Soon, however, Hicks received the bad news: She was positive. The revelation prompted the rush to pull two other White House staff members, including McEnany, off the Air Force One manifest for the trip to New Jersey. On Friday, Meadows declined to provide any details of the decision to make the trip. McEnany said the trip was “deemed safe” by White House, noting only that Trump was outside and socially distanced himself during the event in New Jersey. Nearly 20 donors who gave as much as $250,000 each to attend an indoor round table with the president before his speech to the bigger group at his golf club in Bedminster were required to take rapid coronavirus tests before entering. For the larger event, guests gathered under a slightly overcast sky, sitting at large tables with four to eight people each on the pavilion patio. Rik Mehta, the Republican candidate challenging Sen. Cory Booker, said that many people wore masks and that organizers took their temperature twice. “I was more than 40 feet easy from the president and people are asking me if I’m going to quarantine; people are asking me if I’m going to get tested,” he said later. “Why would I do that? It was an outdoor event, not a covered event. Why would I get tested?” Charlie Kolean, 25, flew from Dallas to attend the fundraiser and was tested before entering the VIP section. Kolean said he posed for a photo with the president, both unmasked, while standing 6 feet away. He praised the safety protocol but said he was nevertheless self-quarantining in Dallas while he waited for the results of another rapid coronavirus test. “I want to have no second thought in my mind whatsoever that I don’t have it,” Kolean said. The White House did not announce that Hicks had tested positive before the news leaked out Thursday evening. Hours later, Trump turned to Twitter to announce: “Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!” The four Republican lawmakers who had flown with Trump on Tuesday and Wednesday all rushed to get tested even as the House physician advised them that they could continue their work in the chamber as usual — wearing masks and distanced — because they were not deemed to have been in “close contact” with the president. They all later tested negative. On Friday evening, Trump posted a video of himself on Twitter, saying “I think I’m doing very well.” By then he had flown off again on Marine One, this time to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where aides said he planned to stay for several days — a grim reminder of the pervasive place the virus occupies in American life. He arrived wearing a mask. Timeline: Saturday, September 26: President Donald Trump introduced Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court pick. Four attendees, Sen. Mike Lee, Sen. Thom Tillis, former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and the Rev. John Jenkins, tested positive days later. Trump also held a rally in Middletown, Pennsylvania. Sunday, September 27: After visiting his golf course in Sterling, Virginia, Trump held a news conference at the White House and a reception for Gold Star families attended by his wife, Melania, and Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen. Monday, September 28: Trump met on the South Lawn with workers from the Lordstown Motors plant in Ohio, then held an event in the Rose Garden to announce a new virus testing strategy. “I say it all the time, we are rounding the corner.” Tuesday, September 29: Debating Joe Biden in Cleveland, Trump mocked Biden for frequently wearing a mask. When Biden said experts advocated using them, Trump responded, “They’ve also said the opposite.” Wednesday, September 30: Hope Hicks began feeling ill after traveling with Trump to a rally in Duluth, Minnesota, and a fundraiser in Shorewood, Minnesota. She was isolated aboard Air Force One on the trip back to Washington. Thursday, October 1: Trump held a fundraiser in Bedminster, New Jersey, saying, “the end of the pandemic is in sight.” At 10:44 p.m., at the White House, he confirmed on Twitter that Hicks, a close personal adviser, had tested positive. Friday, October 2: At about 1 am., Trump announced on Twitter that he and his wife, Melania, had tested positive. Late in the day, he was taken to Walter Reed Hospital for several days. His campaign canceled all in-person events.

Over several days and events, the virus swirled around Trump

The No Mask President: How Trump spent the week just before contracting the virus

A mass roll-out of a COVID-19 vaccine in Britain could be finished in as little as three months, the Times reported, citing government scientists.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/russian-state-journalists-among-first-to-receive-sputnik-v-vaccine-332024">Also Read:&nbsp;Russian state journalists among first to receive Sputnik V vaccine</a>

Scientists working on the Oxford vaccine hope regulators approve it before the beginning of 2021, the newspaper said.

A full COVID-19 immunization programme, which would exclude children, could be quicker than experts predicted, the Times said, adding that health officials estimate that every adult could receive a dose of the vaccine within six months.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Thursday it has started reviewing data on AstraZeneca and Oxford University's potential COVID-19 vaccine, in real time, the first of such moves aimed at speeding up any approval process in the region for a vaccine.

The news of the European review also raises chances of the British vaccine, which is seen as leading the race for a successful vaccine against COVID-19, becoming the first to be approved in Europe for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus which has killed more than a million people globally.

The Times report added that plans under consideration by government include allowing a much wider group of healthcare staff to administer the vaccine, setting up of drive-through vaccination centres and recruiting help of armed forces.

A mass roll-out of a COVID-19 vaccine in Britain could be finished in as little as three months, the Times reported, citing government scientists. Also Read: Russian state journalists among first to receive Sputnik V vaccine Scientists working on the Oxford vaccine hope regulators approve it before the beginning of 2021, the newspaper said.

A mass roll-out of a COVID-19 vaccine in Britain could be finished in as little as three months, the Times reported, citing government scientists. Also Read: Russian state journalists among first to receive Sputnik V vaccine Scientists working on the Oxford vaccine hope regulators approve it before the beginning of 2021, the newspaper said. A full COVID-19 immunization programme, which would exclude children, could be quicker than experts predicted, the Times said, adding that health officials estimate that every adult could receive a dose of the vaccine within six months. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Thursday it has started reviewing data on AstraZeneca and Oxford University's potential COVID-19 vaccine, in real time, the first of such moves aimed at speeding up any approval process in the region for a vaccine. The news of the European review also raises chances of the British vaccine, which is seen as leading the race for a successful vaccine against COVID-19, becoming the first to be approved in Europe for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus which has killed more than a million people globally. The Times report added that plans under consideration by government include allowing a much wider group of healthcare staff to administer the vaccine, setting up of drive-through vaccination centres and recruiting help of armed forces.

Coronavirus vaccine rollout expected in less than 3 months in UK: Report

Armenian officials said that Azerbaijan forces engaged in heavy fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region after Azerbaijan launched a new offensive on Saturday.

Watch:

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="http://13.235.153.162/videos/the-armenia-azerbaijan-conflict-why-is-turkey-involved-332227/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Armenian defence ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said: "Heavy fighting is ongoing on other flanks," while the Azerbaijan defence ministry said it had "captured new footholds in Karabakh".

At least 200 people have been killed in the fighting which erupted last week.

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Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged "third parties" to stay out of the conflict. Armenia had announced earlier that it would work with Russia, United States and France for a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh.

"We (already) saw Syrian fighters taken from the battlefields in Syria to Libya," the US secretary of state said adding that it "created more instability, more turbulence, more conflict, more fighting, less peace".

"I think it would do the same thing in the conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh as well. So I hope that reporting proves inaccurate," he added.

"This is a longstanding conflict in this border space, when those tensions rise, internationalising this, third parties bringing ammunition, weapon systems ... you increase the complexity, you increase the risk of loss of lives, you decrease the capacity for peace," Pompeo added.

"We've urged everyone to just stay out of this other than to urge that there be a ceasefire and that dialogue be the methodology by which order is restored, peace is restored. At least we hope that's the case," he said.

"We’ve certainly communicated that to both the Azerbaijanis and Armenian leaders, and to the Turks as well," Pompeo asserted.

Turkey, however, said the three big powers should not have any role in peacemaking.

Armenian officials said that Azerbaijan forces engaged in heavy fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region after Azerbaijan launched a new offensive on Saturday. Watch: Armenian defence ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said: "Heavy fighting is ongoing on other flanks," while the Azerbaijan defence ministry said it had "captured new footholds in Karabakh".

Armenian officials said that Azerbaijan forces engaged in heavy fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region after Azerbaijan launched a new offensive on Saturday. Watch: Armenian defence ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said: "Heavy fighting is ongoing on other flanks," while the Azerbaijan defence ministry said it had "captured new footholds in Karabakh". At least 200 people have been killed in the fighting which erupted last week. Also Read: Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict can threaten oil supply in the region Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged "third parties" to stay out of the conflict. Armenia had announced earlier that it would work with Russia, United States and France for a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh. "We (already) saw Syrian fighters taken from the battlefields in Syria to Libya," the US secretary of state said adding that it "created more instability, more turbulence, more conflict, more fighting, less peace". "I think it would do the same thing in the conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh as well. So I hope that reporting proves inaccurate," he added. "This is a longstanding conflict in this border space, when those tensions rise, internationalising this, third parties bringing ammunition, weapon systems ... you increase the complexity, you increase the risk of loss of lives, you decrease the capacity for peace," Pompeo added. "We've urged everyone to just stay out of this other than to urge that there be a ceasefire and that dialogue be the methodology by which order is restored, peace is restored. At least we hope that's the case," he said. "We’ve certainly communicated that to both the Azerbaijanis and Armenian leaders, and to the Turks as well," Pompeo asserted. Turkey, however, said the three big powers should not have any role in peacemaking.

Armenia, Azerbaijan forces engaged in heavy fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh

As US President Donald <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/twitter-to-remove-content-that-wishes-trumps-death-by-covid-reports-332183">Trump</a>,74, was admitted in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland on Saturday after getting infected with coronavirus, reports said the president was having "trouble breathing".

Watch:

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="http://13.235.153.162/videos/chinas-1st-reaction-as-trump-tests-positive-332148/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

According to American TV news network CNN, Trump is having "trouble breathing". CNN in its report said the president is feeling "very, very fatigued", according to a campaign source.

"I think I'm doing very well, but we're going to make sure that things work out," Trump had said earlier in a &nbsp;video message on Twitter. There are other members in the White House who have also contacted the virus after Trump infected on Friday including former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway and Republican Senators Mike Lee and Thom Tillis.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trump-airlifted-to-military-hospital-for-covid-treatment-releases-video-message-332132">Also Read:&nbsp;Trump airlifted to military hospital for COVID treatment; releases video message</a>

Meanwhile, According to Global Times, Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a message of sympathy to the US President and First Lady Melania Trump on Saturday in which he and his wife Peng Liyuan hoped the presidential couple make an early recovery from COVID-19.

Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had said that Trump "will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days" even as White House physician Sean Conley said that the president was "fatigued but in good spirits".

McEnany said the US President was receiving anti-viral drug remdesivir after consultation with specialists. The president was "not requiring any supplemental oxygen," she added in a statement.

According to the US health agency CDC, as a 74-year-old man, Trump is "at higher risk for severe illness".

As US President Donald Trump,74, was admitted in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland on Saturday after getting infected with coronavirus, reports said the president was having "trouble breathing".

As US President Donald Trump,74, was admitted in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland on Saturday after getting infected with coronavirus, reports said the president was having "trouble breathing". Watch: According to American TV news network CNN, Trump is having "trouble breathing". CNN in its report said the president is feeling "very, very fatigued", according to a campaign source. "I think I'm doing very well, but we're going to make sure that things work out," Trump had said earlier in a video message on Twitter. There are other members in the White House who have also contacted the virus after Trump infected on Friday including former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway and Republican Senators Mike Lee and Thom Tillis. Also Read: Trump airlifted to military hospital for COVID treatment; releases video message Meanwhile, According to Global Times, Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a message of sympathy to the US President and First Lady Melania Trump on Saturday in which he and his wife Peng Liyuan hoped the presidential couple make an early recovery from COVID-19. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had said that Trump "will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days" even as White House physician Sean Conley said that the president was "fatigued but in good spirits". McEnany said the US President was receiving anti-viral drug remdesivir after consultation with specialists. The president was "not requiring any supplemental oxygen," she added in a statement. According to the US health agency CDC, as a 74-year-old man, Trump is "at higher risk for severe illness".

Trump having 'trouble breathing' at hospital: Report

The Trump administration on Friday imposed sanctions on a number of <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/belarus-announces-sanctions-list-in-retaliation-against-eu-331966">Belarus</a> officials including interior minister Yuri Karaev.

“The United States and our international partners stand united in imposing costs on those who have undermined <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/eu-imposes-sanctions-on-belarus-lukashenko-not-on-the-list-331862">Belarusian</a> democracy for years," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

Deputy minister Alexander Barsukov, and several security officials were also targeted by the US government. The sanctions include blocking any property of individuals on US soil and banning US entities from doing business with the country which includes global banks with US branches.

"The Belarusian people's democratic aspirations to choose their own leaders and peacefully exercise their rights have been met with violence and oppression from Belarusian officials," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin added.

The European Union had earlier imposed sanctions on at least 40 individuals. However, Lukashenko's government said it had drawn up a list of people banned from entering Belarus in retaliation against EU's move.

The sanctions come after large scale protests following the August 9 elections which the Opposition said was a fraud. The US government also targeted the deputy chairperson and secretary of the central election commission who were accused of irregularities during the elections allowing President Lukashenko to retain power.

The Trump administration on Friday imposed sanctions on a number of Belarus officials including interior minister Yuri Karaev. “The United States and our international partners stand united in imposing costs on those who have undermined Belarusian democracy for years," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

The Trump administration on Friday imposed sanctions on a number of Belarus officials including interior minister Yuri Karaev. “The United States and our international partners stand united in imposing costs on those who have undermined Belarusian democracy for years," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. Deputy minister Alexander Barsukov, and several security officials were also targeted by the US government. The sanctions include blocking any property of individuals on US soil and banning US entities from doing business with the country which includes global banks with US branches. "The Belarusian people's democratic aspirations to choose their own leaders and peacefully exercise their rights have been met with violence and oppression from Belarusian officials," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin added. The European Union had earlier imposed sanctions on at least 40 individuals. However, Lukashenko's government said it had drawn up a list of people banned from entering Belarus in retaliation against EU's move. The sanctions come after large scale protests following the August 9 elections which the Opposition said was a fraud. The US government also targeted the deputy chairperson and secretary of the central election commission who were accused of irregularities during the elections allowing President Lukashenko to retain power.

After EU, Trump administration imposes sanctions on Belarus officials

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Friday tested negative for coronavirus just hours after US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania tested positive.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trump-tests-positive-us-vice-president-mike-pence-tests-negative-for-coronavirus-332022">Also Read:&nbsp;Trump tests positive: US Vice President Mike Pence tests negative for coronavirus</a>

Biden, 77, now plans to travel to Grand Rapids which Trump won in 2016. Biden was quick to declare "wear a mask" after Trump contracted the virus.

Watch:

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/coronavirus-pandemic-trump-largest-driver-of-misinformation-says-study-331932/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

"I'm happy to report that Jill and I have tested negative for COVID-19," Biden said, adding, "I hope this serves as a reminder: wear a mask, keep social distance, and wash your hands."

Biden's doctor Kevin O'Connor in a statement said: "Vice President Joe Biden and Dr Jill Biden underwent PCR testing for Covid-19 today and Covid-19 was not detected."

"Jill and I send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery," Biden tweeted.

"We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family," he said.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Friday tested negative for coronavirus just hours after US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania tested positive.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Friday tested negative for coronavirus just hours after US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania tested positive. Also Read: Trump tests positive: US Vice President Mike Pence tests negative for coronavirus Biden, 77, now plans to travel to Grand Rapids which Trump won in 2016. Biden was quick to declare "wear a mask" after Trump contracted the virus. Watch: "I'm happy to report that Jill and I have tested negative for COVID-19," Biden said, adding, "I hope this serves as a reminder: wear a mask, keep social distance, and wash your hands." Biden's doctor Kevin O'Connor in a statement said: "Vice President Joe Biden and Dr Jill Biden underwent PCR testing for Covid-19 today and Covid-19 was not detected." "Jill and I send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery," Biden tweeted. "We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family," he said.

Biden tests negative for coronavirus, set on campaign trail

The Pakistan government on Friday announced that Indian visitors would be allowed in the Kartarpur Gurudwara due to improvement in the COVID-19 situation in the country.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/kartarpur-corridor-reopening-pak-going-against-bilateral-commitments-creating-mirage-of-goodwill-says-india-308981">Also Read:&nbsp;Pak going against bilateral commitments, creating mirage of goodwill, says India</a>

The opening is due to take place with "immediate effect", according to the Pakistan government. Indian visitors will be allowed from "dawn to dusk" as per the bilateral agreement signed last year.

However, the Pakistan government cautioned that SOPs related to COVID-19 must be followed by devotees.

Authorities had shut down the Kartarpur corridor on March 16 as a precautionary measure to contain and control the spread of the virus. India later shut down the Kartarpur corridor with Pakistan for an indefinite period as the virus began spreading.

Indian pilgrims are allowed to undertake round the year travel to the historic Gurudwara, the final resting place of the founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Devji.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

The Pakistan government on Friday announced that Indian visitors would be allowed in the Kartarpur Gurudwara due to improvement in the COVID-19 situation in the country.

The Pakistan government on Friday announced that Indian visitors would be allowed in the Kartarpur Gurudwara due to improvement in the COVID-19 situation in the country. Also Read: Pak going against bilateral commitments, creating mirage of goodwill, says India The opening is due to take place with "immediate effect", according to the Pakistan government. Indian visitors will be allowed from "dawn to dusk" as per the bilateral agreement signed last year. However, the Pakistan government cautioned that SOPs related to COVID-19 must be followed by devotees. Authorities had shut down the Kartarpur corridor on March 16 as a precautionary measure to contain and control the spread of the virus. India later shut down the Kartarpur corridor with Pakistan for an indefinite period as the virus began spreading. Indian pilgrims are allowed to undertake round the year travel to the historic Gurudwara, the final resting place of the founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Devji.

Pakistan reopens Kartarpur shrine, Indians allowed with 'immediate effect'

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<article about="/world/in-us-china-tech-feud-taiwan-feels-heat-from-both-sides-331828" class="node node--type-article node--view-mode-full clearfix" role="article" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px !important; display: block;" typeof="schema:Article">
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BC-R-TAIWAN-CHIP-FEUD-ART-(TRIMS)-NYT

Raymond Zhong

c.2020&nbsp;

The New York Times Company<o:p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px !important;"></o:p>

TAINAN, Taiwan — The United States and China are wrestling to lead the world in artificial intelligence, 5G wireless and other cutting-edge technologies. But the real wizardry that makes those advancements possible is being performed on a yam-shaped island that sits between them, geographically and politically.

On Taiwan’s southern rim, inside an arena-size facility stretched out among lush greenery and coconut palms, colossal machines are manipulating matter at unimaginably tiny scale. A powerful laser vaporizes droplets of molten tin, causing them to emit ultraviolet light. Mirrors focus the light into a beam, which draws features into a silicon wafer with the precision, as one researcher put it, “equivalent to shooting an arrow from Earth to hit an apple placed on the moon.”

The high-performance computer chips that emerge from this process go into the brains of the latest tech products from both sides of the Pacific. Or at least they did until last month, when the Trump administration effectively forced leading chipmakers in Taiwan — and elsewhere — to stop taking orders from China’s proudest tech champion, 5G giant Huawei.

The administration’s stranglehold on Huawei shows that for all of China’s economic progress, the United States still has final say over the technologies without which the modern world could not run. Chipmaking relies on U.S. tools and know-how, which gives officials in Washington the power of life and death over semiconductor buyers and suppliers anywhere on the planet.

Next in the firing line is China’s most advanced chip producer, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation. The U.S. Department of Commerce told U.S. companies last week that they needed permission to export to SMIC, saying its chips could be used by China’s military. If the administration blocks SMIC from using U.S. software and equipment entirely, it will sharply set back Beijing’s hopes for meeting more of its own semiconductor needs.

That leaves Taiwanese chip companies — including the industry’s leading light, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which owns the Tainan plant — in a tough spot.

They are forced to heed the dictates of U.S. tech policy. Yet they can scarcely ignore the fact that so many of their customers and their customers’ customers are in China, where the Communist government is also threatening Taiwan with ever bolder displays of military force. China has for decades claimed the self-governing democracy as part of its territory.

In the high-stakes tech fight, TSMC had been playing Finland: a sometime friend to both feuding giants. But that is not the way the tech world works anymore.

“China has virtually no room for maneuver,” said Pierre Ferragu, the head of technology research at New Street Research. “The U.S. definitely has the upper hand in the struggle.”

Tensions in the Taiwan Strait are rising more broadly this year.

The Trump administration has stepped up official exchanges with Taiwan ever since its president, Tsai Ing-wen, won reelection in January over an opponent who was friendlier to Beijing. In response, Chinese aircraft and warships have menaced the island with growing frequency.

When a State Department representative, Keith Krach, visited Taiwan recently, Tsai feted him at a banquet alongside a bevy of government dignitaries and TSMC’s retired founder, Morris Chang, a nod to the company’s significance to Taiwan’s relations with the United States.

U.S. officials have taken a great interest in TSMC, whose advanced chips are used in fighter jets and other hardware critical to America’s military edge. The company said this year that it would build a new factory in Arizona, responding to U.S. concerns about overreliance on offshore production.

Now, the Trump administration’s campaign against Huawei has forced TSMC to turn against one of its biggest customers. With the two companies unable to work together without licenses, Huawei may find itself unable to make its late-model handsets, an important chunk of its business, once it uses up its chip inventory.

“I don’t think Huawei has much of a future unless they can find some way to get their suppliers to get export licenses,” said Matt Bryson, an analyst with Wedbush Securities.

One of Huawei’s deputy chairmen, Guo Ping, said last week that the company was assessing its options.

“Survival is our main goal,” Guo said in Shanghai. “As Alexandre Dumas once said, all of human wisdom is summed up in two words: wait and hope.”

TSMC executives sound confident that Huawei’s plight will not dent it much. If Huawei cannot order chips from the company, then its rivals will instead.

Mark Liu, TSMC’s chairman, said at an industry conference last week that Taiwan would continue improving its technology so U.S. and Chinese companies had no choice but to keep working with the island.

“We are enjoying the success of the past,” Liu said. But for the future, “we cannot stay where we used to be before.”

TSMC could still get caught in the middle, though, if the U.S. government’s continuing attacks prompt Beijing to strike back.

A full-blown clampdown on sales to SMIC could increase the risk of Chinese retaliation “really significantly,” said Ferragu of New Street Research. Countermeasures that Beijing might once have considered too self-defeating — such as choking off Qualcomm’s or Apple’s sales in China, effectively depriving Chinese citizens of most high-end smartphones — could start to seem more acceptable.

“At this point, it’s really a game of poker,” Ferragu said. Apple and Qualcomm are both TSMC customers.

(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM.)

For Taiwan, these are not just business questions. China’s reliance on TSMC’s chips has long made people on the island see the company as a bulwark against Chinese military aggression. At its shareholder meeting this summer, an investor, Huang Hsueh-fen, approached the microphone hugging a giant bouquet.

“No matter how serious the pandemic becomes, I must still come offer flowers to the company that is our sacred mountain, protector of the nation,” Huang said.

Tech workers in Taiwan have a Mandarin rhyme about the young engineers who put in late nights and sacrifice their health for the company: “100,000 youths, 100,000 livers, shift by shift TSMC is saving Taiwan.”

(END OPTIONAL TRIM.)

So what happens if China stops needing TSMC as much as it does now?

This could happen naturally. TSMC is working at the frontiers of physics to continue doubling the number of transistors it can fit onto a piece of silicon. That principle, known as Moore’s Law, has guided semiconductor development for decades.

Not all tech products today need the most advanced chips, though. Some work best by packaging high-end processors with less sophisticated ones. Simple “internet of things” devices do just fine with simpler chips.

“The way we design chips is changing. It just has to,” said Jay Goldberg, a tech industry consultant and former Qualcomm executive. “Moore’s Law is slowing, and we’re just having to design chips in a way to accommodate that.”

A TSMC spokeswoman, Nina Kao, said demand for the company’s latest production processes was “stronger than ever.”

China could also lessen its dependence on Taiwan by getting better at making chips itself.

Beijing last year created a $30 billion fund for investing in chip projects. In recent months, thousands of Chinese companies have said they are getting into the semiconductor business, according to an analysis by the 21st Century Business Herald, a government-owned newspaper.

China is trying to poach more Taiwanese talent for the task. Dozens of former TSMC managers and engineers joined two ambitious Chinese chip projects last year, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Kao of TSMC said recent turnover was less than 5%, which the company considered a healthy level.

(STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS.)

Lin Chih-chieh, a law professor at National Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu, Taiwan, said the island needed stronger laws to keep Taiwanese chipmakers’ trade secrets from being spirited away to China.

Still, Lin said, Taiwan’s chip strengths prevent China from subjugating the island as quickly as it did Hong Kong, where the government has curbed civil liberties.
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BC-R-TAIWAN-CHIP-FEUD-ART-(TRIMS)-NYT Raymond Zhong c.2020 The New York Times Company TAINAN, Taiwan — The United States and China are wrestling to lead the world in artificial intelligence, 5G wireless and other cutting-edge technologies.

BC-R-TAIWAN-CHIP-FEUD-ART-(TRIMS)-NYT Raymond Zhong c.2020 The New York Times Company TAINAN, Taiwan — The United States and China are wrestling to lead the world in artificial intelligence, 5G wireless and other cutting-edge technologies. But the real wizardry that makes those advancements possible is being performed on a yam-shaped island that sits between them, geographically and politically. On Taiwan’s southern rim, inside an arena-size facility stretched out among lush greenery and coconut palms, colossal machines are manipulating matter at unimaginably tiny scale. A powerful laser vaporizes droplets of molten tin, causing them to emit ultraviolet light. Mirrors focus the light into a beam, which draws features into a silicon wafer with the precision, as one researcher put it, “equivalent to shooting an arrow from Earth to hit an apple placed on the moon.” The high-performance computer chips that emerge from this process go into the brains of the latest tech products from both sides of the Pacific. Or at least they did until last month, when the Trump administration effectively forced leading chipmakers in Taiwan — and elsewhere — to stop taking orders from China’s proudest tech champion, 5G giant Huawei. The administration’s stranglehold on Huawei shows that for all of China’s economic progress, the United States still has final say over the technologies without which the modern world could not run. Chipmaking relies on U.S. tools and know-how, which gives officials in Washington the power of life and death over semiconductor buyers and suppliers anywhere on the planet. Next in the firing line is China’s most advanced chip producer, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation. The U.S. Department of Commerce told U.S. companies last week that they needed permission to export to SMIC, saying its chips could be used by China’s military. If the administration blocks SMIC from using U.S. software and equipment entirely, it will sharply set back Beijing’s hopes for meeting more of its own semiconductor needs. That leaves Taiwanese chip companies — including the industry’s leading light, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which owns the Tainan plant — in a tough spot. They are forced to heed the dictates of U.S. tech policy. Yet they can scarcely ignore the fact that so many of their customers and their customers’ customers are in China, where the Communist government is also threatening Taiwan with ever bolder displays of military force. China has for decades claimed the self-governing democracy as part of its territory. In the high-stakes tech fight, TSMC had been playing Finland: a sometime friend to both feuding giants. But that is not the way the tech world works anymore. “China has virtually no room for maneuver,” said Pierre Ferragu, the head of technology research at New Street Research. “The U.S. definitely has the upper hand in the struggle.” Tensions in the Taiwan Strait are rising more broadly this year. The Trump administration has stepped up official exchanges with Taiwan ever since its president, Tsai Ing-wen, won reelection in January over an opponent who was friendlier to Beijing. In response, Chinese aircraft and warships have menaced the island with growing frequency. When a State Department representative, Keith Krach, visited Taiwan recently, Tsai feted him at a banquet alongside a bevy of government dignitaries and TSMC’s retired founder, Morris Chang, a nod to the company’s significance to Taiwan’s relations with the United States. U.S. officials have taken a great interest in TSMC, whose advanced chips are used in fighter jets and other hardware critical to America’s military edge. The company said this year that it would build a new factory in Arizona, responding to U.S. concerns about overreliance on offshore production. Now, the Trump administration’s campaign against Huawei has forced TSMC to turn against one of its biggest customers. With the two companies unable to work together without licenses, Huawei may find itself unable to make its late-model handsets, an important chunk of its business, once it uses up its chip inventory. “I don’t think Huawei has much of a future unless they can find some way to get their suppliers to get export licenses,” said Matt Bryson, an analyst with Wedbush Securities. One of Huawei’s deputy chairmen, Guo Ping, said last week that the company was assessing its options. “Survival is our main goal,” Guo said in Shanghai. “As Alexandre Dumas once said, all of human wisdom is summed up in two words: wait and hope.” TSMC executives sound confident that Huawei’s plight will not dent it much. If Huawei cannot order chips from the company, then its rivals will instead. Mark Liu, TSMC’s chairman, said at an industry conference last week that Taiwan would continue improving its technology so U.S. and Chinese companies had no choice but to keep working with the island. “We are enjoying the success of the past,” Liu said. But for the future, “we cannot stay where we used to be before.” TSMC could still get caught in the middle, though, if the U.S. government’s continuing attacks prompt Beijing to strike back. A full-blown clampdown on sales to SMIC could increase the risk of Chinese retaliation “really significantly,” said Ferragu of New Street Research. Countermeasures that Beijing might once have considered too self-defeating — such as choking off Qualcomm’s or Apple’s sales in China, effectively depriving Chinese citizens of most high-end smartphones — could start to seem more acceptable. “At this point, it’s really a game of poker,” Ferragu said. Apple and Qualcomm are both TSMC customers. (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM.) For Taiwan, these are not just business questions. China’s reliance on TSMC’s chips has long made people on the island see the company as a bulwark against Chinese military aggression. At its shareholder meeting this summer, an investor, Huang Hsueh-fen, approached the microphone hugging a giant bouquet. “No matter how serious the pandemic becomes, I must still come offer flowers to the company that is our sacred mountain, protector of the nation,” Huang said. Tech workers in Taiwan have a Mandarin rhyme about the young engineers who put in late nights and sacrifice their health for the company: “100,000 youths, 100,000 livers, shift by shift TSMC is saving Taiwan.” (END OPTIONAL TRIM.) So what happens if China stops needing TSMC as much as it does now? This could happen naturally. TSMC is working at the frontiers of physics to continue doubling the number of transistors it can fit onto a piece of silicon. That principle, known as Moore’s Law, has guided semiconductor development for decades. Not all tech products today need the most advanced chips, though. Some work best by packaging high-end processors with less sophisticated ones. Simple “internet of things” devices do just fine with simpler chips. “The way we design chips is changing. It just has to,” said Jay Goldberg, a tech industry consultant and former Qualcomm executive. “Moore’s Law is slowing, and we’re just having to design chips in a way to accommodate that.” A TSMC spokeswoman, Nina Kao, said demand for the company’s latest production processes was “stronger than ever.” China could also lessen its dependence on Taiwan by getting better at making chips itself. Beijing last year created a $30 billion fund for investing in chip projects. In recent months, thousands of Chinese companies have said they are getting into the semiconductor business, according to an analysis by the 21st Century Business Herald, a government-owned newspaper. China is trying to poach more Taiwanese talent for the task. Dozens of former TSMC managers and engineers joined two ambitious Chinese chip projects last year, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Kao of TSMC said recent turnover was less than 5%, which the company considered a healthy level. (STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS.) Lin Chih-chieh, a law professor at National Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu, Taiwan, said the island needed stronger laws to keep Taiwanese chipmakers’ trade secrets from being spirited away to China. Still, Lin said, Taiwan’s chip strengths prevent China from subjugating the island as quickly as it did Hong Kong, where the government has curbed civil liberties.

In US-China tech feud, Taiwan feels heat from both sides

TAINAN, Taiwan — The United States and China are wrestling to lead the world in artificial intelligence, 5G wireless and other cutting-edge technologies. But the real wizardry that makes those advancements possible is being performed on a yam-shaped island that sits between them, geographically and politically.

On Taiwan’s southern rim, inside an arena-size facility stretched out among lush greenery and coconut palms, colossal machines are manipulating matter at unimaginably tiny scale. A powerful laser vaporizes droplets of molten tin, causing them to emit ultraviolet light. Mirrors focus the light into a beam, which draws features into a silicon wafer with the precision, as one researcher put it, “equivalent to shooting an arrow from Earth to hit an apple placed on the moon.”

The high-performance computer chips that emerge from this process go into the brains of the latest tech products from both sides of the Pacific. Or at least they did until last month, when the Trump administration effectively forced leading chipmakers in Taiwan — and elsewhere — to stop taking orders from China’s proudest tech champion, 5G giant Huawei.

The administration’s stranglehold on Huawei shows that for all of China’s economic progress, the United States still has final say over the technologies without which the modern world could not run. Chipmaking relies on U.S. tools and know-how, which gives officials in Washington the power of life and death over semiconductor buyers and suppliers anywhere on the planet.

Next in the firing line is China’s most advanced chip producer, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation. The U.S. Department of Commerce told U.S. companies last week that they needed permission to export to SMIC, saying its chips could be used by China’s military. If the administration blocks SMIC from using U.S. software and equipment entirely, it will sharply set back Beijing’s hopes for meeting more of its own semiconductor needs.

That leaves Taiwanese chip companies — including the industry’s leading light, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which owns the Tainan plant — in a tough spot.

They are forced to heed the dictates of U.S. tech policy. Yet they can scarcely ignore the fact that so many of their customers and their customers’ customers are in China, where the Communist government is also threatening Taiwan with ever bolder displays of military force. China has for decades claimed the self-governing democracy as part of its territory.

In the high-stakes tech fight, TSMC had been playing Finland: a sometime friend to both feuding giants. But that is not the way the tech world works anymore.

“China has virtually no room for maneuver,” said Pierre Ferragu, the head of technology research at New Street Research. “The U.S. definitely has the upper hand in the struggle.”

Tensions in the Taiwan Strait are rising more broadly this year.

The Trump administration has stepped up official exchanges with Taiwan ever since its president, Tsai Ing-wen, won reelection in January over an opponent who was friendlier to Beijing. In response, Chinese aircraft and warships have menaced the island with growing frequency.

When a State Department representative, Keith Krach, visited Taiwan recently, Tsai feted him at a banquet alongside a bevy of government dignitaries and TSMC’s retired founder, Morris Chang, a nod to the company’s significance to Taiwan’s relations with the United States.

U.S. officials have taken a great interest in TSMC, whose advanced chips are used in fighter jets and other hardware critical to America’s military edge. The company said this year that it would build a new factory in Arizona, responding to U.S. concerns about overreliance on offshore production.

Now, the Trump administration’s campaign against Huawei has forced TSMC to turn against one of its biggest customers. With the two companies unable to work together without licenses, Huawei may find itself unable to make its late-model handsets, an important chunk of its business, once it uses up its chip inventory.

“I don’t think Huawei has much of a future unless they can find some way to get their suppliers to get export licenses,” said Matt Bryson, an analyst with Wedbush Securities.

One of Huawei’s deputy chairmen, Guo Ping, said last week that the company was assessing its options.

“Survival is our main goal,” Guo said in Shanghai. “As Alexandre Dumas once said, all of human wisdom is summed up in two words: wait and hope.”

TSMC executives sound confident that Huawei’s plight will not dent it much. If Huawei cannot order chips from the company, then its rivals will instead.

Mark Liu, TSMC’s chairman, said at an industry conference last week that Taiwan would continue improving its technology so U.S. and Chinese companies had no choice but to keep working with the island.

“We are enjoying the success of the past,” Liu said. But for the future, “we cannot stay where we used to be before.”

TSMC could still get caught in the middle, though, if the U.S. government’s continuing attacks prompt Beijing to strike back.

A full-blown clampdown on sales to SMIC could increase the risk of Chinese retaliation “really significantly,” said Ferragu of New Street Research. Countermeasures that Beijing might once have considered too self-defeating — such as choking off Qualcomm’s or Apple’s sales in China, effectively depriving Chinese citizens of most high-end smartphones — could start to seem more acceptable.

“At this point, it’s really a game of poker,” Ferragu said. Apple and Qualcomm are both TSMC customers.

For Taiwan, these are not just business questions. China’s reliance on TSMC’s chips has long made people on the island see the company as a bulwark against Chinese military aggression. At its shareholder meeting this summer, an investor, Huang Hsueh-fen, approached the microphone hugging a giant bouquet.

“No matter how serious the pandemic becomes, I must still come offer flowers to the company that is our sacred mountain, protector of the nation,” Huang said.

Tech workers in Taiwan have a Mandarin rhyme about the young engineers who put in late nights and sacrifice their health for the company: “100,000 youths, 100,000 livers, shift by shift TSMC is saving Taiwan.”

So what happens if China stops needing TSMC as much as it does now?

This could happen naturally. TSMC is working at the frontiers of physics to continue doubling the number of transistors it can fit onto a piece of silicon. That principle, known as Moore’s Law, has guided semiconductor development for decades.

Not all tech products today need the most advanced chips, though. Some work best by packaging high-end processors with less sophisticated ones. Simple “internet of things” devices do just fine with simpler chips.

“The way we design chips is changing. It just has to,” said Jay Goldberg, a tech industry consultant and former Qualcomm executive. “Moore’s Law is slowing, and we’re just having to design chips in a way to accommodate that.”

A TSMC spokeswoman, Nina Kao, said demand for the company’s latest production processes was “stronger than ever.”

China could also lessen its dependence on Taiwan by getting better at making chips itself.

Beijing last year created a $30 billion fund for investing in chip projects. In recent months, thousands of Chinese companies have said they are getting into the semiconductor business, according to an analysis by the 21st Century Business Herald, a government-owned newspaper.

China is trying to poach more Taiwanese talent for the task. Dozens of former TSMC managers and engineers joined two ambitious Chinese chip projects last year, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Kao of TSMC said recent turnover was less than 5%, which the company considered a healthy level.

Lin Chih-chieh, a law professor at National Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu, Taiwan, said the island needed stronger laws to keep Taiwanese chipmakers’ trade secrets from being spirited away to China.

Still, Lin said, Taiwan’s chip strengths prevent China from subjugating the island as quickly as it did Hong Kong, where the government has curbed civil liberties.

“At least compared to Hong Kong, we are lucky,” she said. “Hong Kong has no ‘Made in Hong Kong’ products, almost nothing.”

TAINAN, Taiwan — The United States and China are wrestling to lead the world in artificial intelligence, 5G wireless and other cutting-edge technologies. But the real wizardry that makes those advancements possible is being performed on a yam-shaped island that sits between them, geographically and politically.

TAINAN, Taiwan — The United States and China are wrestling to lead the world in artificial intelligence, 5G wireless and other cutting-edge technologies. But the real wizardry that makes those advancements possible is being performed on a yam-shaped island that sits between them, geographically and politically. On Taiwan’s southern rim, inside an arena-size facility stretched out among lush greenery and coconut palms, colossal machines are manipulating matter at unimaginably tiny scale. A powerful laser vaporizes droplets of molten tin, causing them to emit ultraviolet light. Mirrors focus the light into a beam, which draws features into a silicon wafer with the precision, as one researcher put it, “equivalent to shooting an arrow from Earth to hit an apple placed on the moon.” The high-performance computer chips that emerge from this process go into the brains of the latest tech products from both sides of the Pacific. Or at least they did until last month, when the Trump administration effectively forced leading chipmakers in Taiwan — and elsewhere — to stop taking orders from China’s proudest tech champion, 5G giant Huawei. The administration’s stranglehold on Huawei shows that for all of China’s economic progress, the United States still has final say over the technologies without which the modern world could not run. Chipmaking relies on U.S. tools and know-how, which gives officials in Washington the power of life and death over semiconductor buyers and suppliers anywhere on the planet. Next in the firing line is China’s most advanced chip producer, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation. The U.S. Department of Commerce told U.S. companies last week that they needed permission to export to SMIC, saying its chips could be used by China’s military. If the administration blocks SMIC from using U.S. software and equipment entirely, it will sharply set back Beijing’s hopes for meeting more of its own semiconductor needs. That leaves Taiwanese chip companies — including the industry’s leading light, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which owns the Tainan plant — in a tough spot. They are forced to heed the dictates of U.S. tech policy. Yet they can scarcely ignore the fact that so many of their customers and their customers’ customers are in China, where the Communist government is also threatening Taiwan with ever bolder displays of military force. China has for decades claimed the self-governing democracy as part of its territory. In the high-stakes tech fight, TSMC had been playing Finland: a sometime friend to both feuding giants. But that is not the way the tech world works anymore. “China has virtually no room for maneuver,” said Pierre Ferragu, the head of technology research at New Street Research. “The U.S. definitely has the upper hand in the struggle.” Tensions in the Taiwan Strait are rising more broadly this year. The Trump administration has stepped up official exchanges with Taiwan ever since its president, Tsai Ing-wen, won reelection in January over an opponent who was friendlier to Beijing. In response, Chinese aircraft and warships have menaced the island with growing frequency. When a State Department representative, Keith Krach, visited Taiwan recently, Tsai feted him at a banquet alongside a bevy of government dignitaries and TSMC’s retired founder, Morris Chang, a nod to the company’s significance to Taiwan’s relations with the United States. U.S. officials have taken a great interest in TSMC, whose advanced chips are used in fighter jets and other hardware critical to America’s military edge. The company said this year that it would build a new factory in Arizona, responding to U.S. concerns about overreliance on offshore production. Now, the Trump administration’s campaign against Huawei has forced TSMC to turn against one of its biggest customers. With the two companies unable to work together without licenses, Huawei may find itself unable to make its late-model handsets, an important chunk of its business, once it uses up its chip inventory. “I don’t think Huawei has much of a future unless they can find some way to get their suppliers to get export licenses,” said Matt Bryson, an analyst with Wedbush Securities. One of Huawei’s deputy chairmen, Guo Ping, said last week that the company was assessing its options. “Survival is our main goal,” Guo said in Shanghai. “As Alexandre Dumas once said, all of human wisdom is summed up in two words: wait and hope.” TSMC executives sound confident that Huawei’s plight will not dent it much. If Huawei cannot order chips from the company, then its rivals will instead. Mark Liu, TSMC’s chairman, said at an industry conference last week that Taiwan would continue improving its technology so U.S. and Chinese companies had no choice but to keep working with the island. “We are enjoying the success of the past,” Liu said. But for the future, “we cannot stay where we used to be before.” TSMC could still get caught in the middle, though, if the U.S. government’s continuing attacks prompt Beijing to strike back. A full-blown clampdown on sales to SMIC could increase the risk of Chinese retaliation “really significantly,” said Ferragu of New Street Research. Countermeasures that Beijing might once have considered too self-defeating — such as choking off Qualcomm’s or Apple’s sales in China, effectively depriving Chinese citizens of most high-end smartphones — could start to seem more acceptable. “At this point, it’s really a game of poker,” Ferragu said. Apple and Qualcomm are both TSMC customers. For Taiwan, these are not just business questions. China’s reliance on TSMC’s chips has long made people on the island see the company as a bulwark against Chinese military aggression. At its shareholder meeting this summer, an investor, Huang Hsueh-fen, approached the microphone hugging a giant bouquet. “No matter how serious the pandemic becomes, I must still come offer flowers to the company that is our sacred mountain, protector of the nation,” Huang said. Tech workers in Taiwan have a Mandarin rhyme about the young engineers who put in late nights and sacrifice their health for the company: “100,000 youths, 100,000 livers, shift by shift TSMC is saving Taiwan.” So what happens if China stops needing TSMC as much as it does now? This could happen naturally. TSMC is working at the frontiers of physics to continue doubling the number of transistors it can fit onto a piece of silicon. That principle, known as Moore’s Law, has guided semiconductor development for decades. Not all tech products today need the most advanced chips, though. Some work best by packaging high-end processors with less sophisticated ones. Simple “internet of things” devices do just fine with simpler chips. “The way we design chips is changing. It just has to,” said Jay Goldberg, a tech industry consultant and former Qualcomm executive. “Moore’s Law is slowing, and we’re just having to design chips in a way to accommodate that.” A TSMC spokeswoman, Nina Kao, said demand for the company’s latest production processes was “stronger than ever.” China could also lessen its dependence on Taiwan by getting better at making chips itself. Beijing last year created a $30 billion fund for investing in chip projects. In recent months, thousands of Chinese companies have said they are getting into the semiconductor business, according to an analysis by the 21st Century Business Herald, a government-owned newspaper. China is trying to poach more Taiwanese talent for the task. Dozens of former TSMC managers and engineers joined two ambitious Chinese chip projects last year, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Kao of TSMC said recent turnover was less than 5%, which the company considered a healthy level. Lin Chih-chieh, a law professor at National Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu, Taiwan, said the island needed stronger laws to keep Taiwanese chipmakers’ trade secrets from being spirited away to China. Still, Lin said, Taiwan’s chip strengths prevent China from subjugating the island as quickly as it did Hong Kong, where the government has curbed civil liberties. “At least compared to Hong Kong, we are lucky,” she said. “Hong Kong has no ‘Made in Hong Kong’ products, almost nothing.”

President Macron on Friday detailed plans for "secularism" as "cement of a united France" as he announced his government's willingness to present a bill in December to strengthen a 1905 law that officially separated church and state which ensured the country's neutrality on religion.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/in-france-fierce-debate-over-hijab-begins-again-329606">Also Read:&nbsp;In France, fierce debate over hijab begins again</a>

In a speech to the nation, Macron said, "Islam is a religion that is in crisis all over the world today, we are not just seeing this in our country," while adding that his government aimed at addressing Islamic radicalisation in France and improving "our ability to live together".

"Islam in France must be freed from foreign influence, let us not fall into the trap laid by extremists, who aim to stigmatise all Muslims," the French president said. “We have not unpacked our past. We have grandparents who have passed their scars onto their children,” he insisted.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/france-checks-video-claim-for-paris-knife-attack-330754">Also Read:&nbsp;France checks video claim for Paris knife attack</a>

Macron stressed the importance of education especially aimed at young people to instil secular values stating that the government would require private schools to teach children. &nbsp;

Macron said the law permits people to belong to any faith they choose to practice while saying that the country would seek to "liberate" Islam from foreign influences by looking closely at financing of mosques with closer scrutiny of schools and associations which serve religious communities.

Macron's speech comes just days after a man stuck two people with a meat cleaver on the same street where the staff of Charlie Hebdo were massacred in January 2015 by Islamist gunmen.

President Macron on Friday detailed plans for "secularism" as "cement of a united France" as he announced his government's willingness to present a bill in December to strengthen a 1905 law that officially separated church and state which ensured the country's neutrality on religion.

President Macron on Friday detailed plans for "secularism" as "cement of a united France" as he announced his government's willingness to present a bill in December to strengthen a 1905 law that officially separated church and state which ensured the country's neutrality on religion. Also Read: In France, fierce debate over hijab begins again In a speech to the nation, Macron said, "Islam is a religion that is in crisis all over the world today, we are not just seeing this in our country," while adding that his government aimed at addressing Islamic radicalisation in France and improving "our ability to live together". "Islam in France must be freed from foreign influence, let us not fall into the trap laid by extremists, who aim to stigmatise all Muslims," the French president said. “We have not unpacked our past. We have grandparents who have passed their scars onto their children,” he insisted. Also Read: France checks video claim for Paris knife attack Macron stressed the importance of education especially aimed at young people to instil secular values stating that the government would require private schools to teach children. Macron said the law permits people to belong to any faith they choose to practice while saying that the country would seek to "liberate" Islam from foreign influences by looking closely at financing of mosques with closer scrutiny of schools and associations which serve religious communities. Macron's speech comes just days after a man stuck two people with a meat cleaver on the same street where the staff of Charlie Hebdo were massacred in January 2015 by Islamist gunmen.

'Islam in crisis all over the world': Macron unveils anti-radicalism plan

French health minister Olivier Veran said that authorities may place Paris on maximum virus alert amid the growing COVID-19 pandemic.

Watch:

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/wion-dispatch-uk-govt-imposes-new-covid-restrictions-ban-on-indoor-meeting-in-liverpool-331779/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

"We need a few days to confirm the trends, but if they are confirmed, we'll have no choice but to put it on maximum alert, from Monday," adding,"we are in a phase where the situation is worsening." &nbsp;

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/business-economy/covid-19-effect-46-million-jobs-at-risk-due-to-global-air-travel-collapse-331686">Also Read: COVID-19 effect: 46 million jobs at risk due to global air travel collapse</a>

Veran added that Saint-Etienne, Lyon, Grenoble, Toulouse and Lille could be placed on maximum alert next week.

Bars and gyms have already been shut in the French capital.

"The government is going to study the sanitary proposals and study the rules for restaurants, including in maximum alert zones," Veran added.

Meanwhile, British health experts said that the virus was out of control amid rising&nbsp;case numbers and hospital admissions despite social restrictions.

Patrick Vallance, UK chief scientific adviser said, "Things are definitely heading in the wrong direction."

Amid the rising number of COVID-19 cases, Madrid may become the first European capital to go back into lockdown in the coming days. Madrid has recorded 769,188 coronavirus cases so far surpassing the national rate in Spain.

Authorities in Madrid issued partial lockdown measures to come into effect within 48 hours amid large scale opposition by regional authorities.&nbsp;

Spain is the worst-hit region with the virus with over 31,000 deaths and nearly 760,000 infected cases.

French health minister Olivier Veran said that authorities may place Paris on maximum virus alert amid the growing COVID-19 pandemic. Watch: "We need a few days to confirm the trends, but if they are confirmed, we'll have no choice but to put it on maximum alert, from Monday," adding,"we are in a phase where the situation is worsening.

French health minister Olivier Veran said that authorities may place Paris on maximum virus alert amid the growing COVID-19 pandemic. Watch: "We need a few days to confirm the trends, but if they are confirmed, we'll have no choice but to put it on maximum alert, from Monday," adding,"we are in a phase where the situation is worsening." Also Read: COVID-19 effect: 46 million jobs at risk due to global air travel collapse Veran added that Saint-Etienne, Lyon, Grenoble, Toulouse and Lille could be placed on maximum alert next week. Bars and gyms have already been shut in the French capital. "The government is going to study the sanitary proposals and study the rules for restaurants, including in maximum alert zones," Veran added. Meanwhile, British health experts said that the virus was out of control amid rising case numbers and hospital admissions despite social restrictions. Patrick Vallance, UK chief scientific adviser said, "Things are definitely heading in the wrong direction." Amid the rising number of COVID-19 cases, Madrid may become the first European capital to go back into lockdown in the coming days. Madrid has recorded 769,188 coronavirus cases so far surpassing the national rate in Spain. Authorities in Madrid issued partial lockdown measures to come into effect within 48 hours amid large scale opposition by regional authorities. Spain is the worst-hit region with the virus with over 31,000 deaths and nearly 760,000 infected cases.

Madrid set for partial lockdown as Paris authorities eye 'maximum virus alert'

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