The United States on Tuesday pledged a&nbsp;$1 billion deal to Brazil to sway it away from China's Huawei to develop its 5G network.

Earlier, Sweden had announced that it is banning the Chinese telecommunication company from manufacturing any equipment in the country.&nbsp;It was the latest US ally to do so, amid a pressure campaign from the Trump administration to ostracize China from the world telecoms market.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/after-united-kingdom-sweden-bans-huawei-from-upcoming-5g-networks-336623">After United Kingdom, Sweden bans Huawei from upcoming 5G networks</a>

According to&nbsp;US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien,&nbsp;who presided over the signing during a visit to Brazil,&nbsp;the deal includes loans, guarantees, and insurance to fund Brazilian imports of US goods and services,&nbsp;"especially in the telecommunications area and the important 5G modern telecommunications network."&nbsp;

Speaking after the deal was signed, President Jair Bolsonaro reiterated his support for the re-election of his US counterpart Donald Trump, the latest shout-out from the far-right leader sometimes called the "Tropical Trump."

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-convinced-many-countries-not-to-use-huawei-its-a-big-security-risk-trump-313340">US convinced many countries not to use Huawei, it's a big security risk: Trump</a>

"God willing, I hope to attend the inauguration of the&nbsp;soon-to-be re-elected president of the United States," Bolsonaro said.

The United States and Brazil have cozied up under Trump and Bolsonaro, whose shared penchant for hardline policies, vitriolic rhetoric, and social media have drawn comparisons.

But the 5G issue has become a potential source of strain as Brazil plans a tender next year to upgrade the mobile network in Latin America's biggest economy.

China is Brazil's top trading partner, and Huawei has emerged as the leading supplier of fast and cheap next-generation telecoms infrastructure.

The Trump administration warns that the firm is a security threat, accusing it of passing data and intelligence to the Chinese government.

The Chinese embassy in Brasilia lashed out angrily at comments to that effect by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and O'Brien during his visit.

"They spread lies about China in bad faith, fabricating a so-called 'Chinese threat' and attacking China's 5G technology," a spokesman said in an interview posted on the embassy's website.

Previously, Britain banned mobile providers in July from using Huawei equipment in their new 5G networks and ordered them to remove existing equipment made by the company.

France has also placed heavy restrictions on the use of Huawei equipment.

The United States on Tuesday pledged a $1 billion deal to Brazil to sway it away from China's Huawei to develop its 5G network. Earlier, Sweden had announced that it is banning the Chinese telecommunication company from manufacturing any equipment in the country.

The United States on Tuesday pledged a $1 billion deal to Brazil to sway it away from China's Huawei to develop its 5G network. Earlier, Sweden had announced that it is banning the Chinese telecommunication company from manufacturing any equipment in the country. It was the latest US ally to do so, amid a pressure campaign from the Trump administration to ostracize China from the world telecoms market. Also read: After United Kingdom, Sweden bans Huawei from upcoming 5G networks According to US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, who presided over the signing during a visit to Brazil, the deal includes loans, guarantees, and insurance to fund Brazilian imports of US goods and services, "especially in the telecommunications area and the important 5G modern telecommunications network." Speaking after the deal was signed, President Jair Bolsonaro reiterated his support for the re-election of his US counterpart Donald Trump, the latest shout-out from the far-right leader sometimes called the "Tropical Trump." Also read: US convinced many countries not to use Huawei, it's a big security risk: Trump "God willing, I hope to attend the inauguration of the soon-to-be re-elected president of the United States," Bolsonaro said. The United States and Brazil have cozied up under Trump and Bolsonaro, whose shared penchant for hardline policies, vitriolic rhetoric, and social media have drawn comparisons. But the 5G issue has become a potential source of strain as Brazil plans a tender next year to upgrade the mobile network in Latin America's biggest economy. China is Brazil's top trading partner, and Huawei has emerged as the leading supplier of fast and cheap next-generation telecoms infrastructure. The Trump administration warns that the firm is a security threat, accusing it of passing data and intelligence to the Chinese government. The Chinese embassy in Brasilia lashed out angrily at comments to that effect by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and O'Brien during his visit. "They spread lies about China in bad faith, fabricating a so-called 'Chinese threat' and attacking China's 5G technology," a spokesman said in an interview posted on the embassy's website. Previously, Britain banned mobile providers in July from using Huawei equipment in their new 5G networks and ordered them to remove existing equipment made by the company. France has also placed heavy restrictions on the use of Huawei equipment.

US offers $1 billion deal to Brazil to sway it away from China's Huawei 5G network

West Texas is not quite like the moon. But it can serve as a handy stand-in.

Last week, Blue Origin, the rocket company started by Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, launched,&nbsp;and landed, its small New Shepard rocket and capsule for the 13th time as part of tests to verify safety before any passengers climb aboard.

One day, this will be New Shepard’s main business: flying well-to-do people above the 62-mile altitude generally considered the beginning of outer space where they will experience a few minutes of weightlessness as the capsule arcs.

Blue Origin is not a new company, Bezos founded it in 2000,&nbsp;but for most of its existence, it operated in secret without generating much revenue. Three years ago, Bezos said he was selling $1 billion a year in Amazon stock to finance Blue Origin’s research and development. And he has declared broad ambitions for its business, such as competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and others in the orbital launch business, building a moon lander for NASA astronauts and eventually making it possible for millions of people to live and work in space.

But the cargo of last Tuesday’s launch from a test site near Van Horn, Texas, shows that the company is finding a more modest business in the short term: turning the reusable New Shepard rocket and capsule into an effective, and profitable, platform for testing new technologies and performing scientific experiments.

“It was fantastic,” said Erika Wagner, Blue Origin’s payload sales director, who was in West Texas. “We were watching across the valley and watching the rocket climb up.”

Tucked under the collar at the top of the booster on the launch were prototypes of sensors that could help NASA astronauts safely reach the lunar surface in a few years. It is part of NASA’s Tipping Point program, which seeks to push innovative technologies.

“Although not identical to a lunar lander, it is representative in that full-flight profile of approaching at a high rate of speed, and then throttling up an engine and doing a propulsive landing,” said Stefan Bieniawski, who leads the Blue Origin side of the partnership with NASA. “In fact, I think we’re actually at slightly higher speeds than you would be approaching the moon. So it gives a little bit of a stress test for some of these sensors.”

Unlike NASA’s Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972, which visited different parts of the moon, the space agency’s current Artemis program aims to make repeated visits near the lunar South Pole, where eternally shadowed craters contain large amounts of water ice. That will require the ability to land close to the same spot again and again.

To that end, NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has spent years developing a system that bounces light off the surface to measure altitude and velocity of a descending spacecraft. This technology, lidar — short for light detection and ranging — is similar to radar, but it should be able to provide more precise readings.

A second NASA system aboard the flight was a test of what is known as terrain relative navigation. Because there are no Global Positioning System satellites orbiting the moon, a spacecraft has to rely on its own smarts to determine its exact location. With this navigation system, a computer compares images taken by a camera with those stored onboard to determine its location.

The navigation system was turned on close to where the New Shepard booster reached its highest point.

“The terrain navigation does not sit there and say, ‘Hey, I see a crater,’ ” Bieniawski said. “It’s really looking for contrasts in the scene. And in that way, it really doesn’t care whether it’s on the moon or whether it’s here on Earth.”

NASA paid Blue Origin $1.5 million to mount its systems on two flights of New Shepard. The second flight will add another lidar instrument that will create a three-dimensional map of the landscape below in order to identify and avoid obstacles.

“Our goal is to ready a plug-and-play precision landing system that NASA and industry can use based on a mission’s specific need,” Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator, said in a statement. “This integrated New Shepard test will put us on that path, giving us unmatched intel about how the sensors, algorithms and computer work together.”

While there were no people in the New Shepard capsule for the flight, it was not empty. It carried NASA-financed science experiments as well as experimental cargo from private companies. New Shepard flights have already carried more than 100 payloads to the edge of space.

“We make money on every flight,” said Bob Smith, the chief executive of Blue Origin.

Wagner of Blue Origin said the scientists came to West Texas and were excited to watch the launch and start digging into the results the same day. “They’re just bouncing up and down on their toes,” she said.

The experiments on last week’s flight included the second iteration of a project from Daniel Durda, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. He called it BORE II, where BORE is a simple acronym for Box of Rocks Experiment.

“It’s literally a box of rocks,” Durda said.

He is trying to develop a system that can scoop up samples of dirt from an asteroid. BORE II contains crushed-up material that is similar in composition to certain carbon-rich asteroids.

During the weightless portion of the flight, a tetrahedron-shaped collection device, which Durda called a starfish, will unfold. Magnets mounted on the outer triangles — the arms of the starfish — should attract and hold onto some of the crushed rocks. The device will then fold up again, trapping the material.

“It’s kind of a biomimicry thing if you think about it,” Durda said. “The way starfish feed is they kind of extrude their stomach out and they pull them back in and collect what they’re doing. That’s kind of what we’re doing here.”

By testing the design on a suborbital flight, Durda can find out how much material can be collected and whether the apparatus operates without jamming.

“It’s the very first step in understanding how you might incorporate a sampler mechanism like this into a spacecraft rendezvous mission where you dump maybe dozens, many dozens of these little things across the surface of an asteroid,” he said.

With the new suborbital vehicles that fly repeatedly, the price of getting to space is much lower for NASA as well as for academic and private scientists.

The most popular option, Smith said, is what Blue Origin calls a single storage locker. “That starts around $100,000 for about 25 pounds and something the size of, let’s say, a microwave,” he said. “But we also have many payloads that we use with students that go as low as $8,000.”

The suborbital research is also a sign that Blue Origin is making a turn to becoming a profitable business as it prepares to sell tickets to space tourists. It has yet to announce a date or price for those flights.

“It’s been a lot of growth in facilities personnel actually trying to understand how do we run this much more like a business as opposed to a research organization,” Smith said. “We’ve also gone from virtually zero revenue to now making hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue annually.”

The company has competition for the market of sending experiments to space. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, which also plans to send space tourists on suborbital jaunts, has been flying experiments during its test flights. One from University of Florida scientists, for example, tested imaging technologies that capture the reaction of plants — what genes are turned on and off — to the stresses of spaceflight. (The same scientists had another iteration of the experiment aboard last week’s Blue Origin flight.)

Virgin Galactic’s space plane, known as SpaceShipTwo, is flown by two pilots, so it has carried people to space, but it will not fly paying passengers until next year.

“The whole view of using these vehicles for research purposes has moved into the mainstream, and NASA has now been funding a lot of that kind of work,” said S. Alan Stern, associate vice president of the space science and engineering division at Southwest Research Institute who has been selected by NASA to accompany his research on a future Virgin Galactic flight.

By operating the experiment himself, Stern said he would gain direct experience with how these materials behave on an asteroid.

“I think it’s very important for us to understand the conditions on their surfaces at a ‘gut instinct’ level the same way a field geologist walking a Western desert landscape here on Earth does,” Durda said.

“We’ve attained that level of familiarity in just about every other aspect of field and laboratory science,” he said. “It’s long past time for space scientists to be able to work with that same enabling benefit.”

West Texas is not quite like the moon. But it can serve as a handy stand-in. Last week, Blue Origin, the rocket company started by Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, launched, and landed, its small New Shepard rocket and capsule for the 13th time as part of tests to verify safety before any passengers climb aboard.

West Texas is not quite like the moon. But it can serve as a handy stand-in. Last week, Blue Origin, the rocket company started by Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, launched, and landed, its small New Shepard rocket and capsule for the 13th time as part of tests to verify safety before any passengers climb aboard. One day, this will be New Shepard’s main business: flying well-to-do people above the 62-mile altitude generally considered the beginning of outer space where they will experience a few minutes of weightlessness as the capsule arcs. Blue Origin is not a new company, Bezos founded it in 2000, but for most of its existence, it operated in secret without generating much revenue. Three years ago, Bezos said he was selling $1 billion a year in Amazon stock to finance Blue Origin’s research and development. And he has declared broad ambitions for its business, such as competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and others in the orbital launch business, building a moon lander for NASA astronauts and eventually making it possible for millions of people to live and work in space. But the cargo of last Tuesday’s launch from a test site near Van Horn, Texas, shows that the company is finding a more modest business in the short term: turning the reusable New Shepard rocket and capsule into an effective, and profitable, platform for testing new technologies and performing scientific experiments. “It was fantastic,” said Erika Wagner, Blue Origin’s payload sales director, who was in West Texas. “We were watching across the valley and watching the rocket climb up.” Tucked under the collar at the top of the booster on the launch were prototypes of sensors that could help NASA astronauts safely reach the lunar surface in a few years. It is part of NASA’s Tipping Point program, which seeks to push innovative technologies. “Although not identical to a lunar lander, it is representative in that full-flight profile of approaching at a high rate of speed, and then throttling up an engine and doing a propulsive landing,” said Stefan Bieniawski, who leads the Blue Origin side of the partnership with NASA. “In fact, I think we’re actually at slightly higher speeds than you would be approaching the moon. So it gives a little bit of a stress test for some of these sensors.” Unlike NASA’s Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972, which visited different parts of the moon, the space agency’s current Artemis program aims to make repeated visits near the lunar South Pole, where eternally shadowed craters contain large amounts of water ice. That will require the ability to land close to the same spot again and again. To that end, NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has spent years developing a system that bounces light off the surface to measure altitude and velocity of a descending spacecraft. This technology, lidar — short for light detection and ranging — is similar to radar, but it should be able to provide more precise readings. A second NASA system aboard the flight was a test of what is known as terrain relative navigation. Because there are no Global Positioning System satellites orbiting the moon, a spacecraft has to rely on its own smarts to determine its exact location. With this navigation system, a computer compares images taken by a camera with those stored onboard to determine its location. The navigation system was turned on close to where the New Shepard booster reached its highest point. “The terrain navigation does not sit there and say, ‘Hey, I see a crater,’ ” Bieniawski said. “It’s really looking for contrasts in the scene. And in that way, it really doesn’t care whether it’s on the moon or whether it’s here on Earth.” NASA paid Blue Origin $1.5 million to mount its systems on two flights of New Shepard. The second flight will add another lidar instrument that will create a three-dimensional map of the landscape below in order to identify and avoid obstacles. “Our goal is to ready a plug-and-play precision landing system that NASA and industry can use based on a mission’s specific need,” Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator, said in a statement. “This integrated New Shepard test will put us on that path, giving us unmatched intel about how the sensors, algorithms and computer work together.” While there were no people in the New Shepard capsule for the flight, it was not empty. It carried NASA-financed science experiments as well as experimental cargo from private companies. New Shepard flights have already carried more than 100 payloads to the edge of space. “We make money on every flight,” said Bob Smith, the chief executive of Blue Origin. Wagner of Blue Origin said the scientists came to West Texas and were excited to watch the launch and start digging into the results the same day. “They’re just bouncing up and down on their toes,” she said. The experiments on last week’s flight included the second iteration of a project from Daniel Durda, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. He called it BORE II, where BORE is a simple acronym for Box of Rocks Experiment. “It’s literally a box of rocks,” Durda said. He is trying to develop a system that can scoop up samples of dirt from an asteroid. BORE II contains crushed-up material that is similar in composition to certain carbon-rich asteroids. During the weightless portion of the flight, a tetrahedron-shaped collection device, which Durda called a starfish, will unfold. Magnets mounted on the outer triangles — the arms of the starfish — should attract and hold onto some of the crushed rocks. The device will then fold up again, trapping the material. “It’s kind of a biomimicry thing if you think about it,” Durda said. “The way starfish feed is they kind of extrude their stomach out and they pull them back in and collect what they’re doing. That’s kind of what we’re doing here.” By testing the design on a suborbital flight, Durda can find out how much material can be collected and whether the apparatus operates without jamming. “It’s the very first step in understanding how you might incorporate a sampler mechanism like this into a spacecraft rendezvous mission where you dump maybe dozens, many dozens of these little things across the surface of an asteroid,” he said. With the new suborbital vehicles that fly repeatedly, the price of getting to space is much lower for NASA as well as for academic and private scientists. The most popular option, Smith said, is what Blue Origin calls a single storage locker. “That starts around $100,000 for about 25 pounds and something the size of, let’s say, a microwave,” he said. “But we also have many payloads that we use with students that go as low as $8,000.” The suborbital research is also a sign that Blue Origin is making a turn to becoming a profitable business as it prepares to sell tickets to space tourists. It has yet to announce a date or price for those flights. “It’s been a lot of growth in facilities personnel actually trying to understand how do we run this much more like a business as opposed to a research organization,” Smith said. “We’ve also gone from virtually zero revenue to now making hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue annually.” The company has competition for the market of sending experiments to space. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, which also plans to send space tourists on suborbital jaunts, has been flying experiments during its test flights. One from University of Florida scientists, for example, tested imaging technologies that capture the reaction of plants — what genes are turned on and off — to the stresses of spaceflight. (The same scientists had another iteration of the experiment aboard last week’s Blue Origin flight.) Virgin Galactic’s space plane, known as SpaceShipTwo, is flown by two pilots, so it has carried people to space, but it will not fly paying passengers until next year. “The whole view of using these vehicles for research purposes has moved into the mainstream, and NASA has now been funding a lot of that kind of work,” said S. Alan Stern, associate vice president of the space science and engineering division at Southwest Research Institute who has been selected by NASA to accompany his research on a future Virgin Galactic flight. By operating the experiment himself, Stern said he would gain direct experience with how these materials behave on an asteroid. “I think it’s very important for us to understand the conditions on their surfaces at a ‘gut instinct’ level the same way a field geologist walking a Western desert landscape here on Earth does,” Durda said. “We’ve attained that level of familiarity in just about every other aspect of field and laboratory science,” he said. “It’s long past time for space scientists to be able to work with that same enabling benefit.”

Jeff Bezos’ company is carrying scientific cargo to space. It’s not Amazon

President Emmanuel&nbsp;Macron&nbsp;said on Tuesday that a pro-Hamas group active in France would be dissolved for being "directly implicated" in the murder of a history teacher.

The decision to shut down the "Cheikh Yassine Collective", which supports the Palestinian cause and is named after the Hamas founder, will be taken at a Wednesday's cabinet meeting&nbsp;with a unit for the fight against Islamism in a northeastern suburb of Paris.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/paris-teacher-attack-beheaded-samuel-paty-will-get-frances-highest-honour-336629">Paris teacher attack: Beheaded Samuel Paty will get France's highest honour</a>

Macron also said that "actions will be stepped up" against Islamist extremism, four days after the beheading of a history teacher that sparked police raids on people and institutions with alleged links to Islamist militants.

"This is not about making more statements,"&nbsp;Macron&nbsp;said during a visit to a Paris suburb. "Our fellow citizens expect actions. These actions will be stepped up."

Also see:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/paris-attack-locals-gather-to-pray-for-the-decapitated-parisian-teacher-336062">Paris attack: Locals gather to pray for the decapitated Parisian teacher</a>

History and geography teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded on Friday (October 16) outside a middle school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine by an 18-year-old man of Chechen origin.

Prosecutors said the attacker, shot dead by police soon after the attack, wanted to punish the teacher for showing his pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a civics class on freedom of expression earlier this month.

The murder shocked France, carrying echoes of the 2015 attack on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Public figures called the killing an assault on the republic and on French values, and Paty is to posthumously receive France's highest award, the "Legion d'Honneur."

President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that a pro-Hamas group active in France would be dissolved for being "directly implicated" in the murder of a history teacher.

President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that a pro-Hamas group active in France would be dissolved for being "directly implicated" in the murder of a history teacher. The decision to shut down the "Cheikh Yassine Collective", which supports the Palestinian cause and is named after the Hamas founder, will be taken at a Wednesday's cabinet meeting with a unit for the fight against Islamism in a northeastern suburb of Paris. Also read| Paris teacher attack: Beheaded Samuel Paty will get France's highest honour Macron also said that "actions will be stepped up" against Islamist extremism, four days after the beheading of a history teacher that sparked police raids on people and institutions with alleged links to Islamist militants. "This is not about making more statements," Macron said during a visit to a Paris suburb. "Our fellow citizens expect actions. These actions will be stepped up." Also see: Paris attack: Locals gather to pray for the decapitated Parisian teacher History and geography teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded on Friday (October 16) outside a middle school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine by an 18-year-old man of Chechen origin. Prosecutors said the attacker, shot dead by police soon after the attack, wanted to punish the teacher for showing his pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a civics class on freedom of expression earlier this month. The murder shocked France, carrying echoes of the 2015 attack on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Public figures called the killing an assault on the republic and on French values, and Paty is to posthumously receive France's highest award, the "Legion d'Honneur."

France to dissolve pro-Hamas Muslim group; Macron vows action against Islamist extremism

Five people have died after getting flu shots in South Korea in the past week, authorities said, raising concerns over the vaccine's safety just as the seasonal inoculation programme is expanded to head off potential COVID-19 complications.

Authorities said there was no reason to believe the deaths were linked to the vaccine but an investigation, including post mortems, was underway.

"It makes it hard for us to put out a categorical statement," Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip told a briefing on Wednesday about the deaths, which include a 17-year-old boy and a man in his 70s.

Coming just weeks after the rollout of the national vaccine programme was suspended over safety worries, the deaths have dominated headlines in South Korea.

Officials last month announced plans to procure 20 per cent&nbsp;more flu vaccines for the winter than the previous year to inoculate 30 million people in a bid to prevent the health system being overloaded by patients with flu and COVID-19 exposure.

However, the start of a free jab programme for around 19 million eligible people was suspended for three weeks after it was discovered that some 5 million doses, which need to be refrigerated, had been exposed to room temperature while being transported to a medical facility.

Boosting public trust in vaccines has become a major global challenge this year, as some countries rush to approve experimental COVID-19 vaccines before full safety and efficacy studies have been completed.

South Korea's flu vaccines are supplied by different drugmakers, including LG Chem Ltd and Boryung Biopharma Co. Ltd., a unit of Boryung Pharm Co. Ltd.. A Boryung official told Reuters the company was aware of the reported deaths, but had no immediate comment. LG Chem said the company would follow government advice.

A 17-year-old boy who died on Friday was the first death noted by officials to follow receipt of the vaccine. The boy died two days after receiving the flu shot in Incheon, near the capital Seoul.

A man in his 70s, who had Parkinson's disease and arrhythmia, was the most recent case. He died in Daegu on Wednesday, a day after receiving the flu vaccine. Daegu officials said the man had received vaccines since 2015 with no prior adverse reactions.

Officials said 8.3 million people have been inoculated with the free flu vaccine since it resumed on Oct. 13, with around 350 cases of adverse reactions reported. The highest number of deaths linked to the seasonal flu vaccination was six in 2005, according to Yonhap news agency.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, trust in vaccines was a growing challenge for public health bodies. The World Health Organization named vaccine hesitancy as one of the top 10 global health threats for last year.

In South Korea, a poll earlier this month found that 62% of 2,548 respondents in Gyeonggi province, near Seoul, would not get vaccinated against COVID-19, even if a vaccine is approved, until all safety questions are fully answered.

Five people have died after getting flu shots in South Korea in the past week, authorities said, raising concerns over the vaccine's safety just as the seasonal inoculation programme is expanded to head off potential COVID-19 complications.

Five people have died after getting flu shots in South Korea in the past week, authorities said, raising concerns over the vaccine's safety just as the seasonal inoculation programme is expanded to head off potential COVID-19 complications. Authorities said there was no reason to believe the deaths were linked to the vaccine but an investigation, including post mortems, was underway. "It makes it hard for us to put out a categorical statement," Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip told a briefing on Wednesday about the deaths, which include a 17-year-old boy and a man in his 70s. Coming just weeks after the rollout of the national vaccine programme was suspended over safety worries, the deaths have dominated headlines in South Korea. Officials last month announced plans to procure 20 per cent more flu vaccines for the winter than the previous year to inoculate 30 million people in a bid to prevent the health system being overloaded by patients with flu and COVID-19 exposure. However, the start of a free jab programme for around 19 million eligible people was suspended for three weeks after it was discovered that some 5 million doses, which need to be refrigerated, had been exposed to room temperature while being transported to a medical facility. Boosting public trust in vaccines has become a major global challenge this year, as some countries rush to approve experimental COVID-19 vaccines before full safety and efficacy studies have been completed. South Korea's flu vaccines are supplied by different drugmakers, including LG Chem Ltd and Boryung Biopharma Co. Ltd., a unit of Boryung Pharm Co. Ltd.. A Boryung official told Reuters the company was aware of the reported deaths, but had no immediate comment. LG Chem said the company would follow government advice. A 17-year-old boy who died on Friday was the first death noted by officials to follow receipt of the vaccine. The boy died two days after receiving the flu shot in Incheon, near the capital Seoul. A man in his 70s, who had Parkinson's disease and arrhythmia, was the most recent case. He died in Daegu on Wednesday, a day after receiving the flu vaccine. Daegu officials said the man had received vaccines since 2015 with no prior adverse reactions. Officials said 8.3 million people have been inoculated with the free flu vaccine since it resumed on Oct. 13, with around 350 cases of adverse reactions reported. The highest number of deaths linked to the seasonal flu vaccination was six in 2005, according to Yonhap news agency. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, trust in vaccines was a growing challenge for public health bodies. The World Health Organization named vaccine hesitancy as one of the top 10 global health threats for last year. In South Korea, a poll earlier this month found that 62% of 2,548 respondents in Gyeonggi province, near Seoul, would not get vaccinated against COVID-19, even if a vaccine is approved, until all safety questions are fully answered.

Five South Koreans die after getting flu shots, sparking vaccine fears

Pope&nbsp;Francis wore a mask for the first time at a public function on Tuesday for the first time in public after 11 Swiss guards came down with COVID-19, prompting fears for his health.

The&nbsp;pope&nbsp;wore a white mask during the service at the Rome Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. Previously he wore masks only in a car taking him to his weekly audiences in the Vatican.

He had come under some criticism, particularly on social media, for not wearing a mask at his general audiences and sometimes coming in relatively close contact with visitors.

Francis, 83, attended the service with other Christian leaders in the basilica, including the Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians.

Simultaneously in other locations in Rome, Jews were praying in the city's synagogue and Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu, and Muslim leaders also prayed for peace.

The event took place as the number of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus has risen steadily in Italy in the past few weeks. Italy recorded 10,874 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, up from 9,338 on Monday.

Previously, the Vatican witnessed a&nbsp;small spike in cases after four members of the Swiss Guards, the elite and colourfully dressed corps that protects the&nbsp;pope, have also tested positive for COVID-19.

The annual event was started by the late&nbsp;Pope&nbsp;John Paul and Rome's Catholic Community of Sant' Egido in 1986. It was scaled down this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The&nbsp;pope&nbsp;took off his mask while he read his address, as did other leaders when they spoke, but put it back on when he finished speaking.

The event continued in the adjacent Campidoglio square designed by Michelangelo, where both Christian and non-Christian religious leaders read addresses, some with messages to politicians.

"Peace is the priority of all politics," Francis said. "God will ask an accounting of those who failed to seek peace, or who fomented tensions and conflicts. He will call them to account for all the days, months and years of war endured by the world’s peoples."

Francis said the pandemic had shown that "no one is saved alone".

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans, was to have attended the event but could not because of COVID-19 restrictions.

Pope Francis wore a mask for the first time at a public function on Tuesday for the first time in public after 11 Swiss guards came down with COVID-19, prompting fears for his health.

Pope Francis wore a mask for the first time at a public function on Tuesday for the first time in public after 11 Swiss guards came down with COVID-19, prompting fears for his health. The pope wore a white mask during the service at the Rome Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. Previously he wore masks only in a car taking him to his weekly audiences in the Vatican. He had come under some criticism, particularly on social media, for not wearing a mask at his general audiences and sometimes coming in relatively close contact with visitors. Francis, 83, attended the service with other Christian leaders in the basilica, including the Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians. Simultaneously in other locations in Rome, Jews were praying in the city's synagogue and Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu, and Muslim leaders also prayed for peace. The event took place as the number of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus has risen steadily in Italy in the past few weeks. Italy recorded 10,874 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, up from 9,338 on Monday. Previously, the Vatican witnessed a small spike in cases after four members of the Swiss Guards, the elite and colourfully dressed corps that protects the pope, have also tested positive for COVID-19. The annual event was started by the late Pope John Paul and Rome's Catholic Community of Sant' Egido in 1986. It was scaled down this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The pope took off his mask while he read his address, as did other leaders when they spoke, but put it back on when he finished speaking. The event continued in the adjacent Campidoglio square designed by Michelangelo, where both Christian and non-Christian religious leaders read addresses, some with messages to politicians. "Peace is the priority of all politics," Francis said. "God will ask an accounting of those who failed to seek peace, or who fomented tensions and conflicts. He will call them to account for all the days, months and years of war endured by the world’s peoples." Francis said the pandemic had shown that "no one is saved alone". Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans, was to have attended the event but could not because of COVID-19 restrictions.

Pope wears mask for first time at public event prompting fears for his health

Scientists at Imperial College London plan to deliberately infect volunteers with the coronavirus early next year, launching the world’s first effort to study how vaccinated people respond to being intentionally exposed to the virus and opening up a new, uncertain path to identifying an effective vaccine.

The hotly contested strategy, known as a human challenge trial, could potentially shave crucial time in the race to winnow a number of vaccine candidates. Rather than conducting the sort of trials now underway around the world, in which scientists wait for vaccinated people to encounter the virus in their homes and communities, researchers would purposely infect them in a hospital isolation unit.

Scientists have used this method for decades to test vaccines for typhoid, cholera, and other diseases, even asking volunteers in the case of malaria to expose their arms to boxes full of mosquitoes to be bitten and infected. But whereas the infected could be cured of those diseases, COVID-19 has few widely used treatments and no known cure, putting the scientists in charge of Britain’s study in largely uncharted ethical territory.

Starting with tiny doses, the scientists will first administer the virus to small groups of volunteers who have not been vaccinated at all, in order to determine the lowest dose of the virus that will reliably infect them. That process, scheduled to begin in January at a hospital in north London, will be followed by tests in which volunteers are given a vaccine and then intentionally exposed to this carefully calibrated dose of the virus.

The study will be led by scientists with Imperial College London and hVivo, a company specializing in human challenge trials. It still requires approval from Britain’s drug regulation agency, but the government said on Tuesday that it would allot 34 million pounds ($44 million) in public funding.

The first round of volunteers, up to 90 healthy adults ages 18 to 30, will have the virus dripped into their noses without having been vaccinated. If not enough participants become infected, the scientists will try to expose these early-stage volunteers to a higher dose, repeating the process until they have identified the necessary exposure level of the virus.

Only once the scientists decide on a dose, which they intend to do by late spring, will they begin the process of comparing vaccine candidates by immunizing the next group of volunteers and then exposing them to the virus.

Some vaccine candidates now undergoing trials may already have received approval by then, but researchers hope a challenge trial will add direct evidence of efficacy and help them compare the performance of different vaccines.

“Deliberately infecting volunteers with a known human pathogen is never undertaken lightly,” said professor Peter Openshaw, an immunologist and co-investigator on the study. “However, such studies are enormously informative about a disease, even one so well studied as COVID-19.”

Many important questions about the study remain unanswered. The British government’s vaccine task force, which will select the first vaccine candidates to include in the human challenge trial, has not yet announced its plans.

The idea of human challenge trials has already been met with a lukewarm reception by several leading vaccine makers, including Johnson &amp;amp; Johnson and Moderna, leaving analysts uncertain as to which companies’ vaccines will end up being included.

And it is not yet clear how regulators in Europe or the United States will evaluate results from human challenge trials, or whether such studies will accelerate the vaccine approval process.

For proponents of the strategy, saving lives by potentially speeding the development of a vaccine and advancing the understanding of the virus is a moral imperative. Those scientists and bioethicists say that the risk of the coronavirus seriously sickening or killing young, healthy volunteers — the sort of people who would be infected — is low enough as to be outweighed by the possibility of saving tens of thousands of lives.

“I’m surprised they haven’t been used earlier,” professor Julian Savulescu, the director of the Oxford Uehiro Center for Practical Ethics, said of human challenge trials on coronavirus vaccines. “Every day that you delay developing a vaccine and effective treatment, another 5,000 people die. It’d be useful for screening out less effective vaccines and for understanding the immune response.”

Skeptics have urged scientists to wait or to forgo the approach entirely. There have been unexpected and unexplained cases of severe illness in young patients, and the long-term consequences of infection are unknown, with the pandemic having started only months ago. It is also difficult to extrapolate widely from a human challenge trial. It is unclear, for example, whether studies in healthy young adults could reliably predict the efficacy of a vaccine in older adults or people with preexisting conditions.

Scientists have also warned about the challenges of mimicking real-world transmission in a laboratory. That could make it difficult for the researchers to know whether a vaccine that may protect volunteers from deliberate exposure in a hospital would do the same for people encountering the virus at work or at home.

“Is it breathed out, sneezed out, do you sniff it all in one fell chunk of the virus coming at you?” said John Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College. “No one really knows. It’s so hard to model. Squirting a bolus of virus into the nose is an imperfect model of natural transmission.”

The debate has split an advisory panel to the World Health Organization, which published guidelines about the safest way to conduct challenge trials in June. In the United States, the National Institutes of Health said that it was not planning to support such trials and that randomized clinical trials were sufficient.

But Britain took a different view.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, facing a barrage of criticism for his handling of a pandemic that has left Britain with the highest death toll in Europe, has tried to cast the country as being at the forefront of scientific progress on the coronavirus. Researchers at the University of Oxford have developed one of the leading vaccine candidates, as well as one of the most promising treatments, the steroid called dexamethasone.

Some scientists questioned whether the fierce competition to be the first to develop an effective vaccine had unduly influenced plans for a human challenge trial.

“There’s unquestionably vaccine nationalism involved,” Moore said. “It’s a race for money and glory. That’s the reality of it.”

The scientists overseeing the trial said they would use the antiviral medicine remdesivir to treat volunteers as soon as they began detecting viral infection, even before the onset of symptoms. But that drug has been found to have only modest benefit. And some analysts said the treatment, while necessary, would limit researchers’ ability to determine whether the vaccine candidates being evaluated reduced the severity of illness.

The volunteers in London will be paid roughly Britain’s minimum wage, which is about 9 pounds ($11) per hour, for their time in taking part in the trial and their two to three weeks in mandatory quarantine. The researchers said they were wary of offering additional incentives that could cloud the judgment of volunteers.

Thousands of people in Britain have already expressed interest in taking part in challenge trials for the coronavirus through an American group, 1Day Sooner, that advocates for such studies.

But with the virus now surging again across Europe and parts of the United States, some scientists have argued there is no shortage of people enrolled in ordinary vaccine trials being exposed to the virus under natural conditions.

“This is not a rare disease,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory panel. “You can probably find a hot spot to do a vaccine trial.”

Scientists at Imperial College London plan to deliberately infect volunteers with the coronavirus early next year, launching the world’s first effort to study how vaccinated people respond to being intentionally exposed to the virus and opening up a new, uncertain path to identifying an effective vaccine.

Scientists at Imperial College London plan to deliberately infect volunteers with the coronavirus early next year, launching the world’s first effort to study how vaccinated people respond to being intentionally exposed to the virus and opening up a new, uncertain path to identifying an effective vaccine. The hotly contested strategy, known as a human challenge trial, could potentially shave crucial time in the race to winnow a number of vaccine candidates. Rather than conducting the sort of trials now underway around the world, in which scientists wait for vaccinated people to encounter the virus in their homes and communities, researchers would purposely infect them in a hospital isolation unit. Scientists have used this method for decades to test vaccines for typhoid, cholera, and other diseases, even asking volunteers in the case of malaria to expose their arms to boxes full of mosquitoes to be bitten and infected. But whereas the infected could be cured of those diseases, COVID-19 has few widely used treatments and no known cure, putting the scientists in charge of Britain’s study in largely uncharted ethical territory. Starting with tiny doses, the scientists will first administer the virus to small groups of volunteers who have not been vaccinated at all, in order to determine the lowest dose of the virus that will reliably infect them. That process, scheduled to begin in January at a hospital in north London, will be followed by tests in which volunteers are given a vaccine and then intentionally exposed to this carefully calibrated dose of the virus. The study will be led by scientists with Imperial College London and hVivo, a company specializing in human challenge trials. It still requires approval from Britain’s drug regulation agency, but the government said on Tuesday that it would allot 34 million pounds ($44 million) in public funding. The first round of volunteers, up to 90 healthy adults ages 18 to 30, will have the virus dripped into their noses without having been vaccinated. If not enough participants become infected, the scientists will try to expose these early-stage volunteers to a higher dose, repeating the process until they have identified the necessary exposure level of the virus. Only once the scientists decide on a dose, which they intend to do by late spring, will they begin the process of comparing vaccine candidates by immunizing the next group of volunteers and then exposing them to the virus. Some vaccine candidates now undergoing trials may already have received approval by then, but researchers hope a challenge trial will add direct evidence of efficacy and help them compare the performance of different vaccines. “Deliberately infecting volunteers with a known human pathogen is never undertaken lightly,” said professor Peter Openshaw, an immunologist and co-investigator on the study. “However, such studies are enormously informative about a disease, even one so well studied as COVID-19.” Many important questions about the study remain unanswered. The British government’s vaccine task force, which will select the first vaccine candidates to include in the human challenge trial, has not yet announced its plans. The idea of human challenge trials has already been met with a lukewarm reception by several leading vaccine makers, including Johnson &amp; Johnson and Moderna, leaving analysts uncertain as to which companies’ vaccines will end up being included. And it is not yet clear how regulators in Europe or the United States will evaluate results from human challenge trials, or whether such studies will accelerate the vaccine approval process. For proponents of the strategy, saving lives by potentially speeding the development of a vaccine and advancing the understanding of the virus is a moral imperative. Those scientists and bioethicists say that the risk of the coronavirus seriously sickening or killing young, healthy volunteers — the sort of people who would be infected — is low enough as to be outweighed by the possibility of saving tens of thousands of lives. “I’m surprised they haven’t been used earlier,” professor Julian Savulescu, the director of the Oxford Uehiro Center for Practical Ethics, said of human challenge trials on coronavirus vaccines. “Every day that you delay developing a vaccine and effective treatment, another 5,000 people die. It’d be useful for screening out less effective vaccines and for understanding the immune response.” Skeptics have urged scientists to wait or to forgo the approach entirely. There have been unexpected and unexplained cases of severe illness in young patients, and the long-term consequences of infection are unknown, with the pandemic having started only months ago. It is also difficult to extrapolate widely from a human challenge trial. It is unclear, for example, whether studies in healthy young adults could reliably predict the efficacy of a vaccine in older adults or people with preexisting conditions. Scientists have also warned about the challenges of mimicking real-world transmission in a laboratory. That could make it difficult for the researchers to know whether a vaccine that may protect volunteers from deliberate exposure in a hospital would do the same for people encountering the virus at work or at home. “Is it breathed out, sneezed out, do you sniff it all in one fell chunk of the virus coming at you?” said John Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College. “No one really knows. It’s so hard to model. Squirting a bolus of virus into the nose is an imperfect model of natural transmission.” The debate has split an advisory panel to the World Health Organization, which published guidelines about the safest way to conduct challenge trials in June. In the United States, the National Institutes of Health said that it was not planning to support such trials and that randomized clinical trials were sufficient. But Britain took a different view. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, facing a barrage of criticism for his handling of a pandemic that has left Britain with the highest death toll in Europe, has tried to cast the country as being at the forefront of scientific progress on the coronavirus. Researchers at the University of Oxford have developed one of the leading vaccine candidates, as well as one of the most promising treatments, the steroid called dexamethasone. Some scientists questioned whether the fierce competition to be the first to develop an effective vaccine had unduly influenced plans for a human challenge trial. “There’s unquestionably vaccine nationalism involved,” Moore said. “It’s a race for money and glory. That’s the reality of it.” The scientists overseeing the trial said they would use the antiviral medicine remdesivir to treat volunteers as soon as they began detecting viral infection, even before the onset of symptoms. But that drug has been found to have only modest benefit. And some analysts said the treatment, while necessary, would limit researchers’ ability to determine whether the vaccine candidates being evaluated reduced the severity of illness. The volunteers in London will be paid roughly Britain’s minimum wage, which is about 9 pounds ($11) per hour, for their time in taking part in the trial and their two to three weeks in mandatory quarantine. The researchers said they were wary of offering additional incentives that could cloud the judgment of volunteers. Thousands of people in Britain have already expressed interest in taking part in challenge trials for the coronavirus through an American group, 1Day Sooner, that advocates for such studies. But with the virus now surging again across Europe and parts of the United States, some scientists have argued there is no shortage of people enrolled in ordinary vaccine trials being exposed to the virus under natural conditions. “This is not a rare disease,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory panel. “You can probably find a hot spot to do a vaccine trial.”

To test virus vaccines, UK study will intentionally infect volunteers

President Donald Trump on Tuesday called on Attorney General William Barr to take action before Election Day against his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, over his son’s foreign work, an extraordinary attempt to pressure the government’s chief law enforcement to help him politically.

The president made the remark during an interview with “Fox &amp;amp; Friends,” after days of caustic criticism of Biden, the moderators of the presidential debates, the news media and, increasingly, Barr. He recently said the attorney general would go down in history “as a very sad, sad situation” if he did not indict Democrats like Biden and former President Barack Obama.

“We’ve got to get the attorney general to act,” Trump said Tuesday when asked whether he wants to see investigations into unverified information about Biden and his son Hunter that the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, claims he recently obtained. Giuliani, who has made a range of outlandish and false assertions in an effort to damage the president’s rivals and critics, has refused to provide news outlets with the information he claims to have.

Trump called on Barr to appoint a special prosecutor or similar official, saying: “He’s got to act. And he’s got to act fast.”

“This is major corruption, and this has to be known about before the election. And, by the way, we’re doing very well. We’re going to win the election.”

A spokesman for Biden declined to comment.

Critics have accused Barr on a number of occasions of intervening on issues to help Trump politically. But for the president to publicly call on him to take action against a political opponent was remarkable, especially two weeks before a presidential election. On Monday, Trump repeatedly called Biden “a criminal.”

“He is sounding desperate,” said Charles Fried, a Harvard Law professor who was solicitor general in the Reagan administration. “He’s been urging the attorney general in several ways to investigate his political opponents and to somehow validate his preposterous charges of criminality.”

“And even as loyal a henchman as Barr seems to have been able to draw the line somewhere — and it’s driving Trump crazy,” Fried added.

Trump’s comments come less than a year after he was impeached over another effort to compel an investigation of Biden and his son by the government of Ukraine in return for U.S. military aid. Asked after his February acquittal by the Republican Senate what lessons he had learned, Trump responded that Democrats were “crooked” and “vicious” and that he should not have been impeached.

The president’s comment about Barr came during an interview in which he criticized the Bidens, the news media and infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, his answers replete with a number of falsehoods.

After spending Monday attacking Fauci, who remains popular in public opinion polls, Trump claimed Tuesday that he was “not at odds” with him, before renewing the attacks.

The president falsely described Fauci as a Democrat and claimed he was a “good friend” of the family of Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York.

“He’s been there for a long time, I leave him there, and he’s been wrong,” Trump said of Fauci.

He then accused reporters of favoring Fauci “because they think he’s against me,” and maintained that the doctor was not always a “team player.”

Later in the day, before leaving for a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump abruptly ended an interview with “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl at the White House and then posted a short behind-the-scenes video of her at the taping, noting that she had not been wearing a mask.

Trump ended the interview after becoming irritated with Stahl’s lines of questioning, according to two people familiar with the circumstances of the taping.

The rally in Erie was another attempt to consolidate support in a state that was critical to the president’s success in 2016 but where he has struggled in polls against Biden.

Trump hammered his Democratic opponent’s energy policies, repeating a false claim that Biden supports a total ban on fracking, a major industry in the state.

In what Trump said was a first for one of his campaign rallies, he played on large video screens a montage of several clips in which Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, talked about phasing out fossil fuels to combat climate change.

“If Biden is elected, he will wipe out your energy industry,” the president said.

Trump also offered a litany of false claims about Biden’s position on the coronavirus, saying that his opponent would “delay therapies, postpone the vaccine, prolong the pandemic.” He insisted that the United State was “rounding the turn on the pandemic,” even though the virus is surging around the country, including in Pennsylvania, where new cases over the past week have run 42% higher than the average two weeks earlier, according to a New York Times database — a level the state has not seen since April.

Trump had one other warning for voters there: that Biden, whom he calls “Sleepy Joe,” would fail to entertain them as he has. “If you want depression, doom and despair, vote for Sleepy Joe,” he said. “And boredom.”

Seeming to acknowledge his electoral deficit, the president pined for the days before the coronavirus when his electoral prospects looked at least somewhat brighter. Before “the plague” arrived, he said, “I wasn’t going to Erie. I mean, I have to be honest, there’s no way I was coming. I didn’t have to.” He added, “We had this thing won.”

Trump had been expected to be joined by first lady Melania Trump for her first public appearance since she contracted the coronavirus. But an aide to Melania Trump said Tuesday morning that she had a lingering cough and would not accompany her husband.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday called on Attorney General William Barr to take action before Election Day against his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, over his son’s foreign work, an extraordinary attempt to pressure the government’s chief law enforcement to help him politically.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday called on Attorney General William Barr to take action before Election Day against his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, over his son’s foreign work, an extraordinary attempt to pressure the government’s chief law enforcement to help him politically. The president made the remark during an interview with “Fox &amp; Friends,” after days of caustic criticism of Biden, the moderators of the presidential debates, the news media and, increasingly, Barr. He recently said the attorney general would go down in history “as a very sad, sad situation” if he did not indict Democrats like Biden and former President Barack Obama. “We’ve got to get the attorney general to act,” Trump said Tuesday when asked whether he wants to see investigations into unverified information about Biden and his son Hunter that the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, claims he recently obtained. Giuliani, who has made a range of outlandish and false assertions in an effort to damage the president’s rivals and critics, has refused to provide news outlets with the information he claims to have. Trump called on Barr to appoint a special prosecutor or similar official, saying: “He’s got to act. And he’s got to act fast.” “This is major corruption, and this has to be known about before the election. And, by the way, we’re doing very well. We’re going to win the election.” A spokesman for Biden declined to comment. Critics have accused Barr on a number of occasions of intervening on issues to help Trump politically. But for the president to publicly call on him to take action against a political opponent was remarkable, especially two weeks before a presidential election. On Monday, Trump repeatedly called Biden “a criminal.” “He is sounding desperate,” said Charles Fried, a Harvard Law professor who was solicitor general in the Reagan administration. “He’s been urging the attorney general in several ways to investigate his political opponents and to somehow validate his preposterous charges of criminality.” “And even as loyal a henchman as Barr seems to have been able to draw the line somewhere — and it’s driving Trump crazy,” Fried added. Trump’s comments come less than a year after he was impeached over another effort to compel an investigation of Biden and his son by the government of Ukraine in return for U.S. military aid. Asked after his February acquittal by the Republican Senate what lessons he had learned, Trump responded that Democrats were “crooked” and “vicious” and that he should not have been impeached. The president’s comment about Barr came during an interview in which he criticized the Bidens, the news media and infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, his answers replete with a number of falsehoods. After spending Monday attacking Fauci, who remains popular in public opinion polls, Trump claimed Tuesday that he was “not at odds” with him, before renewing the attacks. The president falsely described Fauci as a Democrat and claimed he was a “good friend” of the family of Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York. “He’s been there for a long time, I leave him there, and he’s been wrong,” Trump said of Fauci. He then accused reporters of favoring Fauci “because they think he’s against me,” and maintained that the doctor was not always a “team player.” Later in the day, before leaving for a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump abruptly ended an interview with “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl at the White House and then posted a short behind-the-scenes video of her at the taping, noting that she had not been wearing a mask. Trump ended the interview after becoming irritated with Stahl’s lines of questioning, according to two people familiar with the circumstances of the taping. The rally in Erie was another attempt to consolidate support in a state that was critical to the president’s success in 2016 but where he has struggled in polls against Biden. Trump hammered his Democratic opponent’s energy policies, repeating a false claim that Biden supports a total ban on fracking, a major industry in the state. In what Trump said was a first for one of his campaign rallies, he played on large video screens a montage of several clips in which Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, talked about phasing out fossil fuels to combat climate change. “If Biden is elected, he will wipe out your energy industry,” the president said. Trump also offered a litany of false claims about Biden’s position on the coronavirus, saying that his opponent would “delay therapies, postpone the vaccine, prolong the pandemic.” He insisted that the United State was “rounding the turn on the pandemic,” even though the virus is surging around the country, including in Pennsylvania, where new cases over the past week have run 42% higher than the average two weeks earlier, according to a New York Times database — a level the state has not seen since April. Trump had one other warning for voters there: that Biden, whom he calls “Sleepy Joe,” would fail to entertain them as he has. “If you want depression, doom and despair, vote for Sleepy Joe,” he said. “And boredom.” Seeming to acknowledge his electoral deficit, the president pined for the days before the coronavirus when his electoral prospects looked at least somewhat brighter. Before “the plague” arrived, he said, “I wasn’t going to Erie. I mean, I have to be honest, there’s no way I was coming. I didn’t have to.” He added, “We had this thing won.” Trump had been expected to be joined by first lady Melania Trump for her first public appearance since she contracted the coronavirus. But an aide to Melania Trump said Tuesday morning that she had a lingering cough and would not accompany her husband.

Trump calls on Barr to ‘act’ against Biden before election

Japan on Wednesday&nbsp;opposed&nbsp;any actions that escalate tension in the East and South China Seas.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga&nbsp;took a thinly veiled dig at China’s activities in the disputed South China Sea, where it has built and militarised manmade islands and is pressing its claim to virtually all of the sea’s key fisheries and waterways.

Also see:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/satellite-images-show-chinese-submarine-parked-near-south-china-sea-322224">Satellite images show Chinese submarine parked near the South China Sea</a>

A number of Southeast Asian nations dispute China’s claims to the waters.

“In the Indo-Pacific that connects maritime transport between Japan and ASEAN, we can achieve the peace and prosperity only by fully implementing rule of law that allows anyone freedom and openness,” Suga told a news conference in Jakarta. ASEAN is the 11-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

“But in the South China Sea, opposite actions are being taken and we are closely watching with grave concern,” Suga said. “Japan opposes to any action that would increase tensions in the South China Sea.”

Also see:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/south-china-sea-row-why-us-has-deployed-warship-uss-nimitz-in-naval-exercise-with-india-314673">South China Sea row: Why US has deployed warship USS Nimitz in Naval exercise with India</a>

Suga reiterated that all parties involved in the South China Sea disputes must make peaceful efforts toward resolution, not by force or threat.

Suga pledged to strengthen bilateral defense ties with Southeast Asian nations and promised further assistance to step up their maritime policing, including training and equipment transfer from the Japanese Coast Guard.

The trip follows this month's meeting in Tokyo of the “Quad”, an informal grouping of India, Australia, Japan and the United States that Washington sees as a bulwark against China’s growing regional influence.

China has denounced the grouping of the four democracies as a "mini-NATO" aimed at containing its development.

"Our response in the South China Sea is not aimed at any one country," Suga said, when asked if Japan wanted to create an Asian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Suga must balance Japan’s deep economic ties with China against security concerns, including Beijing’s growing push to assert claims over disputed East China Sea isles.

Some in his ruling party want to see a harder line, after ties warmed under his predecessor, Shinzo Abe.

"Japan is determined to defend its territory, territorial waters and air space," Suga said, adding that Japan also opposed actions that raised tension in the East China Sea.

Several members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have territorial disputes with China in the vital South China Sea, but are wary of alienating the group's major economic partner and getting entangled in an intense confrontation between Washington and Beijing.

But some welcome Japan's greater engagement in the region.

Suga agreed with President Joko Widodo on Tuesday to speed talks on the export of Japanese defence gear and technology to Indonesia and have their defence and foreign ministers meet soon.

A day earlier, the Japanese leader and Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc also agreed in principle on a military equipment and technology export pact.

Japan on Wednesday opposed any actions that escalate tension in the East and South China Seas. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga took a thinly veiled dig at China’s activities in the disputed South China Sea, where it has built and militarised manmade islands and is pressing its claim to virtually all of the sea’s key fisheries and waterways.

Japan on Wednesday opposed any actions that escalate tension in the East and South China Seas. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga took a thinly veiled dig at China’s activities in the disputed South China Sea, where it has built and militarised manmade islands and is pressing its claim to virtually all of the sea’s key fisheries and waterways. Also see: Satellite images show Chinese submarine parked near the South China Sea A number of Southeast Asian nations dispute China’s claims to the waters. “In the Indo-Pacific that connects maritime transport between Japan and ASEAN, we can achieve the peace and prosperity only by fully implementing rule of law that allows anyone freedom and openness,” Suga told a news conference in Jakarta. ASEAN is the 11-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations. “But in the South China Sea, opposite actions are being taken and we are closely watching with grave concern,” Suga said. “Japan opposes to any action that would increase tensions in the South China Sea.” Also see: South China Sea row: Why US has deployed warship USS Nimitz in Naval exercise with India Suga reiterated that all parties involved in the South China Sea disputes must make peaceful efforts toward resolution, not by force or threat. Suga pledged to strengthen bilateral defense ties with Southeast Asian nations and promised further assistance to step up their maritime policing, including training and equipment transfer from the Japanese Coast Guard. The trip follows this month's meeting in Tokyo of the “Quad”, an informal grouping of India, Australia, Japan and the United States that Washington sees as a bulwark against China’s growing regional influence. China has denounced the grouping of the four democracies as a "mini-NATO" aimed at containing its development. "Our response in the South China Sea is not aimed at any one country," Suga said, when asked if Japan wanted to create an Asian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Suga must balance Japan’s deep economic ties with China against security concerns, including Beijing’s growing push to assert claims over disputed East China Sea isles. Some in his ruling party want to see a harder line, after ties warmed under his predecessor, Shinzo Abe. "Japan is determined to defend its territory, territorial waters and air space," Suga said, adding that Japan also opposed actions that raised tension in the East China Sea. Several members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have territorial disputes with China in the vital South China Sea, but are wary of alienating the group's major economic partner and getting entangled in an intense confrontation between Washington and Beijing. But some welcome Japan's greater engagement in the region. Suga agreed with President Joko Widodo on Tuesday to speed talks on the export of Japanese defence gear and technology to Indonesia and have their defence and foreign ministers meet soon. A day earlier, the Japanese leader and Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc also agreed in principle on a military equipment and technology export pact.

South China Sea: Japan's Prime Miniter Yoshihide Suga opposes actions that escalate tensions

These jobs are under threat as robots and artificial intelligence takeover amid pandemic

Taiwan on Tuesday said that it will not be intimidated by China's "hooligan" officials&nbsp;and will continue to celebrate its national day around the world.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-chinese-diplomats-attack-taiwanese-officials-336533/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/white-house-moves-forward-on-three-arms-sales-to-taiwan-china-says-will-make-necessary-response-334859">Taiwan&nbsp;</a>deputy foreign minister Henry Tseng told Parliament that it condemned "irrational acts" by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/Chinese">Chinese</a>&nbsp;diplomats amid heightened tensions between the two countries.

It comes after&nbsp;Taiwan had accused Chinese diplomats of attempting&nbsp;to charge into a diplomatic event to take pictures and collect information on who was attending the country's&nbsp;National Day celebrations.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/taiwan-diplomat-hospitalised-after-scuffle-with-chinese-diplomats-in-fiji-336351">Taiwan diplomat hospitalised after scuffle with Chinese diplomats in Fiji</a>

Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said the world needed to see what China was capable of, saying what they did was a "barbaric act".

"China's officials posted overseas are acting like hooligans; beating people is not acceptable. We sternly condemn this," he told reporters.

The issue was hard to deal with because the Chinese diplomats there has diplomatic immunity, Su added.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
We strongly condemn the violence against our diplomat in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Fiji?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Fiji</a>🇫🇯 by <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/China?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#China</a>'s uncivilized "wolf warriors." As a sovereign state, we'll continue celebrating <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TaiwanNationalDay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TaiwanNationalDay</a> everywhere, every year. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Taiwan?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Taiwan</a>🇹🇼 is a force for good in the world &amp; we won't be intimidated. JW
— 外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) 🇹🇼 (@MOFA_Taiwan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MOFA_Taiwan/status/1318148247190302720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

Taiwan's charges were&nbsp;hotly disputed by China, who said&nbsp;that its diplomats were trying to find out whether any Fijian politicians were present at the event.

The Pacific is a major source of competition between the two, where Taiwan has official diplomatic relations with four countries, though not Fiji.

Speaking in Taipei, Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said&nbsp;Taiwan is a "peace-loving country" and&nbsp;China can spread as many lies as it likes.

Relations between the two countries were on the edge earlier this month as Taiwan celebrated its National Day amid repeated incursion of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/national-day-row-chinese-y-8-asw-aircraft-enters-taiwan-air-space-334300">Chinese jets</a>&nbsp;into Taiwan's airspace. &nbsp;China considers Taiwan as a reneged province in which it intends to unite with the mainland.

Taiwan on Tuesday said that it will not be intimidated by China's "hooligan" officials and will continue to celebrate its national day around the world. Taiwan deputy foreign minister Henry Tseng told Parliament that it condemned "irrational acts" by the Chinese diplomats amid heightened tensions between the two countries.

Taiwan on Tuesday said that it will not be intimidated by China's "hooligan" officials and will continue to celebrate its national day around the world. Taiwan deputy foreign minister Henry Tseng told Parliament that it condemned "irrational acts" by the Chinese diplomats amid heightened tensions between the two countries. It comes after Taiwan had accused Chinese diplomats of attempting to charge into a diplomatic event to take pictures and collect information on who was attending the country's National Day celebrations. Also read: Taiwan diplomat hospitalised after scuffle with Chinese diplomats in Fiji Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said the world needed to see what China was capable of, saying what they did was a "barbaric act". "China's officials posted overseas are acting like hooligans; beating people is not acceptable. We sternly condemn this," he told reporters. The issue was hard to deal with because the Chinese diplomats there has diplomatic immunity, Su added. We strongly condemn the violence against our diplomat in #Fiji🇫🇯 by #China's uncivilized "wolf warriors." As a sovereign state, we'll continue celebrating #TaiwanNationalDay everywhere, every year. #Taiwan🇹🇼 is a force for good in the world & we won't be intimidated. JW — 外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) 🇹🇼 (@MOFA_Taiwan) October 19, 2020 × Taiwan's charges were hotly disputed by China, who said that its diplomats were trying to find out whether any Fijian politicians were present at the event. The Pacific is a major source of competition between the two, where Taiwan has official diplomatic relations with four countries, though not Fiji. Speaking in Taipei, Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said Taiwan is a "peace-loving country" and China can spread as many lies as it likes. Relations between the two countries were on the edge earlier this month as Taiwan celebrated its National Day amid repeated incursion of Chinese jets into Taiwan's airspace. China considers Taiwan as a reneged province in which it intends to unite with the mainland.

Will not be intimidated by China's 'hooligan' diplomats: Taiwan

The number of new coronavirus infections reported daily in India dropped below 50,000 nearly after three months, taking India's COVID-19 caseload to&nbsp;75,97,063, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.

A total of 46,790 fresh infections were reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 1,15,197 with 587 fatalities being registered in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The number of new fatalities reported daily across the country was recorded below 600 for the second consecutive day.

The active cases of coronavirus infection remained below 8 lakh for the fourth consecutive day.

There are 7,48,538, active cases of coronavirus infection in the country&nbsp;which comprises 9.85 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

A total of 67,33,328 people have recuperated from the disease so far pushing the?national recovery rate to 88.63 per cent while the case fatality rate due to COVID-19 stands at 1.52 per cent.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, and 40 lakh on September 5. It went past&nbsp;50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28, and crossed 70 lakh on October 11.

According to the ICMR,? a cumulative total of 9,61,16,771 samples have been tested up to October 19 with 10,32,795 samples being tested on Monday.

The number of new coronavirus infections reported daily in India dropped below 50,000 nearly after three months, taking India's COVID-19 caseload to 75,97,063, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.

The number of new coronavirus infections reported daily in India dropped below 50,000 nearly after three months, taking India's COVID-19 caseload to 75,97,063, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday. A total of 46,790 fresh infections were reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 1,15,197 with 587 fatalities being registered in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed. The number of new fatalities reported daily across the country was recorded below 600 for the second consecutive day. The active cases of coronavirus infection remained below 8 lakh for the fourth consecutive day. There are 7,48,538, active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 9.85 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated. A total of 67,33,328 people have recuperated from the disease so far pushing the?national recovery rate to 88.63 per cent while the case fatality rate due to COVID-19 stands at 1.52 per cent. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, and 40 lakh on September 5. It went past 50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28, and crossed 70 lakh on October 11. According to the ICMR,? a cumulative total of 9,61,16,771 samples have been tested up to October 19 with 10,32,795 samples being tested on Monday.

India posts lowest daily new coronavirus cases in nearly three months

Pollution levels dipped slightly in the national capital on Tuesday morning due to favourable wind speed, though the air quality was still in the "poor" category.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality monitor, SAFAR, said the air quality index (AQI) was likely to slip to the "very poor" category by Wednesday due to a change in the wind direction and a reduction in the wind speed.

The city recorded an air quality index (AQI) of 227 at 9 am on Tuesday. The 24-hour average AQI was 244 on Monday. It was 254 on Sunday and 287 on Saturday.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered 'good', 51 and 100 'satisfactory', 101 and 200 'moderate', 201 and 300 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor', and 401 and 500 'severe'.

Calm winds and low temperatures allow the accumulation of pollutants, while high wind speed helps in their dispersion.

Expecting further deterioration in the air quality in the coming days, the Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) on Monday asked Uttar Pradesh and Haryana governments to be ready to close thermal power plants that do not meet the standards laid down in 2015.

In separate letters, EPCA chief Bhure Lal asked the two-state governments to review the preparedness for closing thermal power plants and to inform the pollution watchdog about it, as well as the steps that will be taken to ensure compliance with the necessary shut down during the peak winter period.

SAFAR said a change in surface wind direction is expected by early Wednesday which is "likely to bring calm surface wind conditions, leading to low ventilation and deterioration of AQI". "Very poor AQI is predicted for Wednesday and Thursday," it said.

The stubble fire count around Haryana, Punjab, and neighbouring regions stood at 1,090 on Monday. The share of farm fires in Delhi's PM2.5 pollution stood at 10 per cent.

"Though transport-level wind direction is favourable, an increase in the wind speed and local surface winds led to a decrease in stubble (burning) contribution in Delhi's PM2.5," SAFAR said.

The share of stubble burning in Delhi's PM2.5 pollution stood at 17 per cent on Sunday. It was 19 per cent on Saturday, 18 per cent on Friday, around one per cent on Wednesday and around three per cent on Tuesday, Monday and Sunday.

On Monday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal requested Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar to hold monthly meetings with the CMs of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and UP to curb air pollution, saying there is a lack of political will to address the problem of stubble burning.

In a virtual press briefing, he said the affected states have been unable to find a solution to stop stubble burning and prevent air pollution. "I believe pollution due to stubble burning can be controlled in a short span of time. But a lack of political will is visible in doing that."

Environment Minister Gopal Rai said the Delhi government will deploy 2,500 environment marshals across the city to generate awareness about its recently launched anti-pollution campaign, "Red Light On, Gaadi Off".

He also said a meeting of environment ministers of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh with the Centre must be held every 15 days to discuss matters pertaining to pollution and stubble burning.

Such meetings will help in improving coordination between the states, he said.

Pollution levels dipped slightly in the national capital on Tuesday morning due to favourable wind speed, though the air quality was still in the "poor" category.

Pollution levels dipped slightly in the national capital on Tuesday morning due to favourable wind speed, though the air quality was still in the "poor" category. The Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality monitor, SAFAR, said the air quality index (AQI) was likely to slip to the "very poor" category by Wednesday due to a change in the wind direction and a reduction in the wind speed. The city recorded an air quality index (AQI) of 227 at 9 am on Tuesday. The 24-hour average AQI was 244 on Monday. It was 254 on Sunday and 287 on Saturday. An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered 'good', 51 and 100 'satisfactory', 101 and 200 'moderate', 201 and 300 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor', and 401 and 500 'severe'. Calm winds and low temperatures allow the accumulation of pollutants, while high wind speed helps in their dispersion. Expecting further deterioration in the air quality in the coming days, the Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) on Monday asked Uttar Pradesh and Haryana governments to be ready to close thermal power plants that do not meet the standards laid down in 2015. In separate letters, EPCA chief Bhure Lal asked the two-state governments to review the preparedness for closing thermal power plants and to inform the pollution watchdog about it, as well as the steps that will be taken to ensure compliance with the necessary shut down during the peak winter period. SAFAR said a change in surface wind direction is expected by early Wednesday which is "likely to bring calm surface wind conditions, leading to low ventilation and deterioration of AQI". "Very poor AQI is predicted for Wednesday and Thursday," it said. The stubble fire count around Haryana, Punjab, and neighbouring regions stood at 1,090 on Monday. The share of farm fires in Delhi's PM2.5 pollution stood at 10 per cent. "Though transport-level wind direction is favourable, an increase in the wind speed and local surface winds led to a decrease in stubble (burning) contribution in Delhi's PM2.5," SAFAR said. The share of stubble burning in Delhi's PM2.5 pollution stood at 17 per cent on Sunday. It was 19 per cent on Saturday, 18 per cent on Friday, around one per cent on Wednesday and around three per cent on Tuesday, Monday and Sunday. On Monday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal requested Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar to hold monthly meetings with the CMs of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and UP to curb air pollution, saying there is a lack of political will to address the problem of stubble burning. In a virtual press briefing, he said the affected states have been unable to find a solution to stop stubble burning and prevent air pollution. "I believe pollution due to stubble burning can be controlled in a short span of time. But a lack of political will is visible in doing that." Environment Minister Gopal Rai said the Delhi government will deploy 2,500 environment marshals across the city to generate awareness about its recently launched anti-pollution campaign, "Red Light On, Gaadi Off". He also said a meeting of environment ministers of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh with the Centre must be held every 15 days to discuss matters pertaining to pollution and stubble burning. Such meetings will help in improving coordination between the states, he said.

Delhi's air quality improves marginally as wind speed picks up

Author

Zee News Rajasthan

Editor

Vyomica Berry

Home

Live Tv

Latest

World

India

Business

Entertainment

Sports

Opinions

Videos

Photos

Gravitas

Lifestyle

Science

Tech

Rajasthan News in Hindi: In-depth coverage of Rajasthan Crime, Political News, Education, Rajasthan Weather Update and Latest Rajasthan News on Zee News Rajasthan.