Amid a row with US over the AUKUS deal, the EU is trying to improve ties with China. EU and China are at present discussing the indo-pacific strategy.

European Union tries to improve ties with China

Tensions between United States and North Korea are simmering again. There are multiple reasons for it, majorly North Korea's aggressive military test in the recent weeks which has alarmed the world.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un calls US dialogue offer a 'petty trick'

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has rejected the US proposal for a dialogue, calling it an attempt to mask hostility. Watch this report for more details.

North Korean leader calls US dialogue offer a pretty trick

North Korea's Kim Jong Un rejects US dialogue proposal

The United States and European Union agreed on Wednesday to deepen transatlantic cooperation to strengthen semiconductor supply chains, curb China's non-market trade practices and take a more unified approach to regulating big, global technology firms. Watch this report for more details.

US, EU talks to address chip shortage

Hundreds of sought-after nurses are leaving some U.S. hospitals that have established vaccine requirements for all employees, involving some protests and legal opposition. But most workers, especially at large hospital chains, appear to be complying with the policies.

New York hospitals and nursing homes are grappling with the state’s Monday deadline for workers to have received at least one coronavirus vaccine dose, with thousands of workers remaining unvaccinated and at risk of being fired. Several other states and cities have also imposed mandates for health care workers, with deadlines approaching.

All are also facing a looming federal vaccine mandate for hospital and nursing home staff that President Joe Biden ordered, although its exact scope and timing has yet to be announced.

The departures, especially of nurses, have compounded major staffing shortages over the course of the pandemic. The situation has become acutely difficult these past few months, particularly in regions where the delta variant has overwhelmed hospitals and caused new spikes in COVID cases among nursing home staffs and residents. In one instance, a hospital in upstate New York said it briefly had to stop delivering babies after six of its employees left rather than get vaccinated.

At Novant Health, a large hospital group based in North Carolina, 375 workers were suspended after not meeting the system’s vaccination deadline this month. Another 200 agreed to comply, increasing the vaccination rate to over 99% of its more than 35,000 employees, according to Novant.

Yet the loss of some employees “is going to be the cost of doing business in a pandemic,” said Dr. Saad B. Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, who has studied vaccine mandates. “I’m not seeing any widespread disruptive effect."

Dr. David H. Priest, an infectious-disease specialist and senior executive at Novant, said he believed that the hospital would persuade most of its workers by addressing their concerns. The hospital has “been working on this for weeks on end,” he said, by holding webinars and sending emails to help educate employees about the benefits of being immunized.

How the nation’s hospitals are handling the holdouts varies widely, and many facilities are waiting for federal guidelines. Others have set deadlines later this year.

Many hospitals are not establishing sharp cutoffs for when they might eventually fire someone.

UNC Health, another North Carolina group, said that it was confirming the status of about 900 employees. About 70 employees have left as a result of the system’s mandate, and the group has granted about 1,250 exemptions for medical or religious reasons. About 97% of its workforce have complied. Those who still need to be vaccinated or qualify for an exemption have until Nov. 2, providing what UNC described as “a last chance to remain employed.”

At Trinity Health, one of the first major hospital chains to announce a vaccine mandate, the percentage of its vaccinated staff has increased from 75% to 94%, said the group, which operates in 22 states.

SSM Health, a Catholic hospital group based in St. Louis, also adopted a mandate but said that few of its workers had left because of its requirement.

Hospitals and nursing homes have raised concerns about their ability to find workers if they impose strict requirements. The situation may be worse in rural areas, where limited numbers of workers are available. But healthy vaccinated workers may also ease staffing shortages.

At Houston Methodist, where 150 employees left from a workforce of about 26,000 people, the hospital said that there had been little lasting effect on its ability to hire people. And when Texas was hit with rising numbers of COVID cases over the summer, the hospital found that fewer of its workers were out sick.

“The mandate has not only protected our employees, but kept more of them at work during the pandemic,” a hospital spokeswoman said in an email.

ChristianaCare, a hospital group based in Wilmington, Delaware, said Monday that it had fired 150 employees for not complying with its vaccine mandate. But the group emphasized that over the past month it had hired more than 200 employees, many of whom are more comfortable working where they knew their colleagues were vaccinated.

Hundreds of sought-after nurses are leaving some U.S. hospitals that have established vaccine requirements for all employees, involving some protests and legal opposition.

Hundreds of sought-after nurses are leaving some U.S. hospitals that have established vaccine requirements for all employees, involving some protests and legal opposition. But most workers, especially at large hospital chains, appear to be complying with the policies. New York hospitals and nursing homes are grappling with the state’s Monday deadline for workers to have received at least one coronavirus vaccine dose, with thousands of workers remaining unvaccinated and at risk of being fired. Several other states and cities have also imposed mandates for health care workers, with deadlines approaching. All are also facing a looming federal vaccine mandate for hospital and nursing home staff that President Joe Biden ordered, although its exact scope and timing has yet to be announced. The departures, especially of nurses, have compounded major staffing shortages over the course of the pandemic. The situation has become acutely difficult these past few months, particularly in regions where the delta variant has overwhelmed hospitals and caused new spikes in COVID cases among nursing home staffs and residents. In one instance, a hospital in upstate New York said it briefly had to stop delivering babies after six of its employees left rather than get vaccinated. At Novant Health, a large hospital group based in North Carolina, 375 workers were suspended after not meeting the system’s vaccination deadline this month. Another 200 agreed to comply, increasing the vaccination rate to over 99% of its more than 35,000 employees, according to Novant. Yet the loss of some employees “is going to be the cost of doing business in a pandemic,” said Dr. Saad B. Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, who has studied vaccine mandates. “I’m not seeing any widespread disruptive effect." Dr. David H. Priest, an infectious-disease specialist and senior executive at Novant, said he believed that the hospital would persuade most of its workers by addressing their concerns. The hospital has “been working on this for weeks on end,” he said, by holding webinars and sending emails to help educate employees about the benefits of being immunized. How the nation’s hospitals are handling the holdouts varies widely, and many facilities are waiting for federal guidelines. Others have set deadlines later this year. Many hospitals are not establishing sharp cutoffs for when they might eventually fire someone. UNC Health, another North Carolina group, said that it was confirming the status of about 900 employees. About 70 employees have left as a result of the system’s mandate, and the group has granted about 1,250 exemptions for medical or religious reasons. About 97% of its workforce have complied. Those who still need to be vaccinated or qualify for an exemption have until Nov. 2, providing what UNC described as “a last chance to remain employed.” At Trinity Health, one of the first major hospital chains to announce a vaccine mandate, the percentage of its vaccinated staff has increased from 75% to 94%, said the group, which operates in 22 states. SSM Health, a Catholic hospital group based in St. Louis, also adopted a mandate but said that few of its workers had left because of its requirement. Hospitals and nursing homes have raised concerns about their ability to find workers if they impose strict requirements. The situation may be worse in rural areas, where limited numbers of workers are available. But healthy vaccinated workers may also ease staffing shortages. At Houston Methodist, where 150 employees left from a workforce of about 26,000 people, the hospital said that there had been little lasting effect on its ability to hire people. And when Texas was hit with rising numbers of COVID cases over the summer, the hospital found that fewer of its workers were out sick. “The mandate has not only protected our employees, but kept more of them at work during the pandemic,” a hospital spokeswoman said in an email. ChristianaCare, a hospital group based in Wilmington, Delaware, said Monday that it had fired 150 employees for not complying with its vaccine mandate. But the group emphasized that over the past month it had hired more than 200 employees, many of whom are more comfortable working where they knew their colleagues were vaccinated.

Many workers at US hospital chains with mandates are getting shots

President Biden has postponed plans to travel to Chicago on Wednesday so he can continue negotiating with lawmakers to get his multi-trillion spending plans across the finish line, a White House official said. Watch this report for more details.

United States president Joe Biden postpones Chicago trip

The Pentagon acknowledged Tuesday that the stunning collapse of the Afghan army amid a rapid Taliban advance contributed to the Biden administration’s chaotic exodus from the war-weary country. Watch this report for more details.

Austin: We took 10 innocent lives in drone strike

Death's come knocking a last time for the splendid ivory-billed woodpecker and 22 more birds, fish and other species: The US government on Wednesday declared them extinct.

It's a rare move for wildlife officials to give up hope on a plant or animal, but government scientists say they've exhausted to find these 23. And they warn climate change, on top of other pressures, could make such disappearances more common as a warming planet adds to the dangers facing imperiled plants and wildlife.

The ivory-billed woodpecker was perhaps the best known species the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared extinct. The woodpecker went out stubbornly and with fanfare, making unconfirmed appearances in recent decades that ignited a frenzy of ultimately fruitless searches in the swamps of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/can-vitamin-a-help-in-treating-covid-resulted-loss-of-smell-experts-answer-416845">Can Vitamin A help in treating Covid-resulted loss of smell? Experts answer</a>

"Others such as the flat pigtoe, a freshwater mussel in the southeastern US, were identified in the wild only a few times and never seen again, meaning by the time they got a name they were fading from existence. When I see one of those really rare ones, it's always in the back of my mind that I might be the last one to see this animal again,"&nbsp;said Anthony (Andy) Ford, a US Fish and Wildlife Service biologist in Tennessee who specialises in freshwater mussels.

The factors behind the disappearances vary ? too much development, water pollution, logging, competition from invasive species, birds killed for feathers and animals captured by private collectors. In each case, humans were the ultimate cause.

Another thing they share: All 23 were thought to have at least a slim chance of survival when added to the endangered species list beginning in the 1960s. Only 11 species previously have been removed due to extinction in the almost half-century since the Endangered Species Act was signed into law.

The announcement kicks off a three-month comment period before the species status changes become final.

Around the globe, some 902 species have been documented as extinct. The actual number is thought to be much higher because some are never formally identified, and many scientists warn the earth is in an "extinction crisis" with flora and fauna now disappearing at 1,000 times the historical rate.

It's possible one or more of the 23 species named Wednesday could reappear, several scientists said.

A leading figure in the hunt for the ivory-billed woodpecker said it was premature to call off the effort, after millions of dollars spent on searches and habitat preservation efforts.

Little is gained and much is lost&nbsp;with an extinction declaration, said Cornell University bird biologist John Fitzpatrick, lead author of a 2005 study that claimed the woodpecker had been rediscovered in eastern Arkansas.

A bird this iconic, and this representative of the major old-growth forests of the southeast, keeping it on the list of endangered species keeps attention on it, keeps states thinking about managing habitat on the off chance it still exists,&nbsp;he said.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, a Switzerland-based group that tracks extinctions globally, is not putting the ivory-billed woodpecker into its extinction column because it's possible the birds still exist in Cuba, said the group's Craig Hilton-Taylor.

Hilton-Taylor said there can be unintended but damaging consequences if extinction is declared prematurely. Suddenly the (conservation) money is no longer there, and then suddenly you do drive it to extinction because you stop investing in it," he said.

But wildlife officials said in an analysis released Wednesday that that there have been no definitive sightings of the woodpecker since 1944 and there is no objective evidence&nbsp;of its continued existence.

They said the 23 extinction declarations were driven by a desire to clear a backlog of recommended status changes for species that had not been acted upon for years. They said it would free up resources for on-the-ground conservation efforts for species that still have a chance for recovery.

What's lost when those efforts fail are creatures often uniquely adapted to their environments.

Freshwater mussel species like the ones the government says have gone extinct reproduce by attracting fish with a lure-like appendage, then sending out a cloud of larvae that attach to gills of fish until they've grown enough to drop off and live on their own.

The odds are slim against any freshwater mussel surviving into adulthood&nbsp;a one in a million chance, according to Ford of the wildlife service ? but those that do can live a century or longer.

Hawaii has the most species on the list ? eight woodland birds and one plant. That's in part because the islands have so many plants and animals that many have extremely small ranges and can blink out quickly.

The most recent to go extinct was the teeny po'ouli, a type of bird known as a honeycreeper discovered in 1973.

By the late 1990s just three remained&nbsp;a male and two females. After failures to mate them in the wild, the male was captured for potential breeding and died in 2004. The two females were never seen again.

The fate of Hawaii's birds helped push Duke University extinction expert Stuart Pimm into his field. Despite the grim nature of the government's proposal to move more species into the extinct column, Pimm said the toll would probably have been much higher without the Endangered Species Act.

It's a shame we didn't get to those species in time, but when we do, we are usually able to save species," he said.

Since 1975, 54 species have left the endangered list after recovering, including the bald eagle, brown pelican and most humpback whales.

Climate change is making species recovery harder, bringing drought, floods, wildfires and temperature swings that compound the threats species already faced.

How they are saved also is changing. No longer is the focus on individual species, let alone individual birds. Officials say the broader goal now is to preserve their habitat, which boosts species of all types that live there.

I hope we're up to the challenge,? said biologist Michelle Bogardus with the wildlife service in Hawaii. We don't have the resources to prevent extinctions unilaterally. We have to think proactively about ecosystem health and how do we maintain it, given all these threats

Death's come knocking a last time for the splendid ivory-billed woodpecker and 22 more birds, fish and other species: The US government on Wednesday declared them extinct.

Death's come knocking a last time for the splendid ivory-billed woodpecker and 22 more birds, fish and other species: The US government on Wednesday declared them extinct. It's a rare move for wildlife officials to give up hope on a plant or animal, but government scientists say they've exhausted to find these 23. And they warn climate change, on top of other pressures, could make such disappearances more common as a warming planet adds to the dangers facing imperiled plants and wildlife. The ivory-billed woodpecker was perhaps the best known species the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared extinct. The woodpecker went out stubbornly and with fanfare, making unconfirmed appearances in recent decades that ignited a frenzy of ultimately fruitless searches in the swamps of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. Also read | Can Vitamin A help in treating Covid-resulted loss of smell? Experts answer "Others such as the flat pigtoe, a freshwater mussel in the southeastern US, were identified in the wild only a few times and never seen again, meaning by the time they got a name they were fading from existence. When I see one of those really rare ones, it's always in the back of my mind that I might be the last one to see this animal again," said Anthony (Andy) Ford, a US Fish and Wildlife Service biologist in Tennessee who specialises in freshwater mussels. The factors behind the disappearances vary ? too much development, water pollution, logging, competition from invasive species, birds killed for feathers and animals captured by private collectors. In each case, humans were the ultimate cause. Another thing they share: All 23 were thought to have at least a slim chance of survival when added to the endangered species list beginning in the 1960s. Only 11 species previously have been removed due to extinction in the almost half-century since the Endangered Species Act was signed into law. The announcement kicks off a three-month comment period before the species status changes become final. Around the globe, some 902 species have been documented as extinct. The actual number is thought to be much higher because some are never formally identified, and many scientists warn the earth is in an "extinction crisis" with flora and fauna now disappearing at 1,000 times the historical rate. It's possible one or more of the 23 species named Wednesday could reappear, several scientists said. A leading figure in the hunt for the ivory-billed woodpecker said it was premature to call off the effort, after millions of dollars spent on searches and habitat preservation efforts. Little is gained and much is lost with an extinction declaration, said Cornell University bird biologist John Fitzpatrick, lead author of a 2005 study that claimed the woodpecker had been rediscovered in eastern Arkansas. A bird this iconic, and this representative of the major old-growth forests of the southeast, keeping it on the list of endangered species keeps attention on it, keeps states thinking about managing habitat on the off chance it still exists, he said. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, a Switzerland-based group that tracks extinctions globally, is not putting the ivory-billed woodpecker into its extinction column because it's possible the birds still exist in Cuba, said the group's Craig Hilton-Taylor. Hilton-Taylor said there can be unintended but damaging consequences if extinction is declared prematurely. Suddenly the (conservation) money is no longer there, and then suddenly you do drive it to extinction because you stop investing in it," he said. But wildlife officials said in an analysis released Wednesday that that there have been no definitive sightings of the woodpecker since 1944 and there is no objective evidence of its continued existence. They said the 23 extinction declarations were driven by a desire to clear a backlog of recommended status changes for species that had not been acted upon for years. They said it would free up resources for on-the-ground conservation efforts for species that still have a chance for recovery. What's lost when those efforts fail are creatures often uniquely adapted to their environments. Freshwater mussel species like the ones the government says have gone extinct reproduce by attracting fish with a lure-like appendage, then sending out a cloud of larvae that attach to gills of fish until they've grown enough to drop off and live on their own. The odds are slim against any freshwater mussel surviving into adulthood a one in a million chance, according to Ford of the wildlife service ? but those that do can live a century or longer. Hawaii has the most species on the list ? eight woodland birds and one plant. That's in part because the islands have so many plants and animals that many have extremely small ranges and can blink out quickly. The most recent to go extinct was the teeny po'ouli, a type of bird known as a honeycreeper discovered in 1973. By the late 1990s just three remained a male and two females. After failures to mate them in the wild, the male was captured for potential breeding and died in 2004. The two females were never seen again. The fate of Hawaii's birds helped push Duke University extinction expert Stuart Pimm into his field. Despite the grim nature of the government's proposal to move more species into the extinct column, Pimm said the toll would probably have been much higher without the Endangered Species Act. It's a shame we didn't get to those species in time, but when we do, we are usually able to save species," he said. Since 1975, 54 species have left the endangered list after recovering, including the bald eagle, brown pelican and most humpback whales. Climate change is making species recovery harder, bringing drought, floods, wildfires and temperature swings that compound the threats species already faced. How they are saved also is changing. No longer is the focus on individual species, let alone individual birds. Officials say the broader goal now is to preserve their habitat, which boosts species of all types that live there. I hope we're up to the challenge,? said biologist Michelle Bogardus with the wildlife service in Hawaii. We don't have the resources to prevent extinctions unilaterally. We have to think proactively about ecosystem health and how do we maintain it, given all these threats

US says ivory-billed woodpecker, 22 other species extinct

Is the U.S. government headed towards a shutdown? With just 2 days left for the fiscal year to end & a funding bill blocked in the senate, a shutdown looks all but imminent. Molly Gambhir has a report.

Gravitas: Is U.S. headed towards a shutdown?

Recent developments—such as the pandemic’s impact, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, its nuclear submarine deal with Australia and the release of Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou—once again raise the question of whether the US remains the world’s sole superpower with its hegemony unchallenged. As is the won't in matters concerning the United States, analysts are divided on the subject, as they have been since the global financial crisis of 2008. &nbsp;

Soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1990, prominent voices in the West hailed the end of the Cold War as a ‘unipolar moment’ on the premise that the centre of world power is the unchallenged superpower, i.e. the United States. Few disagreed with the triumphalist declaration, at least until the international financial downturn, which saw the West’s developed economies in a funk. Developing economies like India and China bucked the trend and moved ahead, while the US and the West were struggling to recover from the collapse. The emerging economies did far better than the world’s economic powerhouse.&nbsp;

Not long after its failure to provide financial leadership to the world’s beleaguered economies at a time of great difficulty, in the second decade of the millennium, the US began looking to cut its losses elsewhere. Notable among these is Afghanistan, where the US had been stuck since 2001 with its troops as well as that of its allies for over a decade. Convinced of the futility of persisting with its military occupation of a country that had in the past seen off other imperialist invaders, the US began exploring ways to retreat without loss of face. Accordingly, it began talks with leading elements of the Taliban. Beginning with covert and shadowy engagements, the process involved Taliban leaders being released and some of them re-settled in Qatar for negotiations. Eventually, in the latter part of President Donald Trump’s term, Washington realised and accepted that it had no choice but to pull out of Afghanistan. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Long before the last act of this great game gone awry, the COVID-19 epidemic showed up the US to be as bad as any ‘third world’ country when it came to dealing with an international public health emergency. It lacked the health infrastructure, the conviction, the courage, the medical and human resources, the power of policy and the force of authority to act in the interests of the public good. When it did act, the US was confused, predatory in the acquisition of the equipment and supplies required, wilfully negligent of the needs of other nations and utterly bereft of any mark of leadership. Only because of its military power, evident in hundreds of bases worldwide, could the US commandeer whatever it needed to cope with the pandemic.&nbsp;

Even as the pandemic raged and time was running out for its troops in Afghanistan, the Capitol riots or “insurrection” that preceded the US presidency’s ugly and violent transition bared the rot in the underbelly of the much-vaunted democracy that was once declared to be the world’s only “indispensable country”. The shocking spectacle of the assault on the pillars of this once great but now declining democracy exploded the post-War myth that has long been fostered through pulp fiction, Hollywood films and institutional propaganda of the US being the planet’s greatest power, one that could save the earth even from an alien invasion.&nbsp;

Far from shining bright as a mighty star in the firmament, on the ground, in the war against Afghanistan, for all its immense resources, massive technological superiority and military might, the US, along with its allies, had to bite the dust in one of the world’s poorest countries. In the 20 years since September 11, 2001, the US spent more than $2 trillion on a war that further bled Afghanistan and impoverished its 40 million people. At the end of it, in August 2021, the US forces virtually fled the scene under cover of darkness after executing a scorched-earth policy.&nbsp;

The US had failed in its mission to eliminate the Taliban, crush terrorism and create conditions for peace, stability and reconciliation. The US let down the people of Afghanistan, its neighbours and the region as a whole including India—which had contributed immensely to that country’s all-round development. Structures and processes, besides institutions and people, bear testimony to India’s massive developmental effort in Afghanistan estimated at more than US$ 3 billion in the last 20 years.&nbsp;

US forces fleeing the ‘Heart of Asia’ revived memories of American troops abandoning Saigon in the 1970s with not a thought for those who believed US militarist supremacy to be invincible at all times in all places. Even before Washington could recover from the blow this ignominious exit had dealt to US prestige and influence, came the nuclear submarine deal with Australia—which torpedoed an existing agreement between Australia and France. The US-UK pact for nuclear submarines to Australia at the expense of France has not gone down well with America’s allies; and, a disillusioned European Union is now set to chart its own course in global affairs. &nbsp;

This has consequences for NATO especially as EU foreign, defence and security policies would no longer be dovetailed to US interests across the globe. The EU, and not just France, no longer trusts Washington or its leadership in world affairs including in dealing with China and Russia. The US, and its defence industry, must be in a very bad way if it needs to snatch away deals from its own close military allies—at least that seems to be the perception gaining ground in many capitals. Such a perception reinforces the view that the US is growing weaker and not stronger on the world stage.&nbsp;

Close on the heels of these successive blows to American power and prestige and the “betrayal” of France by leaders of the “democracy bloc”, comes news of China prevailing against the US, and Canada in getting Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer Meng freed from “persecution”. &nbsp;

At one level, this shows China gaining as a power pole, rising to challenge the US as the centre of world power; hastening to end the latter’s unipolar moment; reviving the balance-of-power politics; and, with that, pushing the world back to a state of multipolarity.&nbsp;

At another level, when Meng, a “dictatorship’s daughter”, fares better than Julian Assange, a “democracy bloc’s crusader for freedom” in a world where the US-led democracies are the pre-eminent power, there is much rethinking to be done especially by countries like India. It says a lot about the democracy bloc that Assange, and not Meng, is the (greater) victim of “hostage diplomacy”. &nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.)

Recent developments—such as the pandemic’s impact, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, its nuclear submarine deal with Australia and the release of Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou—once again raise the question of whether the US remains the world’s sole superpower with its hegemony unchallenged.

Recent developments—such as the pandemic’s impact, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, its nuclear submarine deal with Australia and the release of Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou—once again raise the question of whether the US remains the world’s sole superpower with its hegemony unchallenged. As is the won't in matters concerning the United States, analysts are divided on the subject, as they have been since the global financial crisis of 2008. Soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1990, prominent voices in the West hailed the end of the Cold War as a ‘unipolar moment’ on the premise that the centre of world power is the unchallenged superpower, i.e. the United States. Few disagreed with the triumphalist declaration, at least until the international financial downturn, which saw the West’s developed economies in a funk. Developing economies like India and China bucked the trend and moved ahead, while the US and the West were struggling to recover from the collapse. The emerging economies did far better than the world’s economic powerhouse. Not long after its failure to provide financial leadership to the world’s beleaguered economies at a time of great difficulty, in the second decade of the millennium, the US began looking to cut its losses elsewhere. Notable among these is Afghanistan, where the US had been stuck since 2001 with its troops as well as that of its allies for over a decade. Convinced of the futility of persisting with its military occupation of a country that had in the past seen off other imperialist invaders, the US began exploring ways to retreat without loss of face. Accordingly, it began talks with leading elements of the Taliban. Beginning with covert and shadowy engagements, the process involved Taliban leaders being released and some of them re-settled in Qatar for negotiations. Eventually, in the latter part of President Donald Trump’s term, Washington realised and accepted that it had no choice but to pull out of Afghanistan. Long before the last act of this great game gone awry, the COVID-19 epidemic showed up the US to be as bad as any ‘third world’ country when it came to dealing with an international public health emergency. It lacked the health infrastructure, the conviction, the courage, the medical and human resources, the power of policy and the force of authority to act in the interests of the public good. When it did act, the US was confused, predatory in the acquisition of the equipment and supplies required, wilfully negligent of the needs of other nations and utterly bereft of any mark of leadership. Only because of its military power, evident in hundreds of bases worldwide, could the US commandeer whatever it needed to cope with the pandemic. Even as the pandemic raged and time was running out for its troops in Afghanistan, the Capitol riots or “insurrection” that preceded the US presidency’s ugly and violent transition bared the rot in the underbelly of the much-vaunted democracy that was once declared to be the world’s only “indispensable country”. The shocking spectacle of the assault on the pillars of this once great but now declining democracy exploded the post-War myth that has long been fostered through pulp fiction, Hollywood films and institutional propaganda of the US being the planet’s greatest power, one that could save the earth even from an alien invasion. Far from shining bright as a mighty star in the firmament, on the ground, in the war against Afghanistan, for all its immense resources, massive technological superiority and military might, the US, along with its allies, had to bite the dust in one of the world’s poorest countries. In the 20 years since September 11, 2001, the US spent more than $2 trillion on a war that further bled Afghanistan and impoverished its 40 million people. At the end of it, in August 2021, the US forces virtually fled the scene under cover of darkness after executing a scorched-earth policy. The US had failed in its mission to eliminate the Taliban, crush terrorism and create conditions for peace, stability and reconciliation. The US let down the people of Afghanistan, its neighbours and the region as a whole including India—which had contributed immensely to that country’s all-round development. Structures and processes, besides institutions and people, bear testimony to India’s massive developmental effort in Afghanistan estimated at more than US$ 3 billion in the last 20 years. US forces fleeing the ‘Heart of Asia’ revived memories of American troops abandoning Saigon in the 1970s with not a thought for those who believed US militarist supremacy to be invincible at all times in all places. Even before Washington could recover from the blow this ignominious exit had dealt to US prestige and influence, came the nuclear submarine deal with Australia—which torpedoed an existing agreement between Australia and France. The US-UK pact for nuclear submarines to Australia at the expense of France has not gone down well with America’s allies; and, a disillusioned European Union is now set to chart its own course in global affairs. This has consequences for NATO especially as EU foreign, defence and security policies would no longer be dovetailed to US interests across the globe. The EU, and not just France, no longer trusts Washington or its leadership in world affairs including in dealing with China and Russia. The US, and its defence industry, must be in a very bad way if it needs to snatch away deals from its own close military allies—at least that seems to be the perception gaining ground in many capitals. Such a perception reinforces the view that the US is growing weaker and not stronger on the world stage. Close on the heels of these successive blows to American power and prestige and the “betrayal” of France by leaders of the “democracy bloc”, comes news of China prevailing against the US, and Canada in getting Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer Meng freed from “persecution”. At one level, this shows China gaining as a power pole, rising to challenge the US as the centre of world power; hastening to end the latter’s unipolar moment; reviving the balance-of-power politics; and, with that, pushing the world back to a state of multipolarity. At another level, when Meng, a “dictatorship’s daughter”, fares better than Julian Assange, a “democracy bloc’s crusader for freedom” in a world where the US-led democracies are the pre-eminent power, there is much rethinking to be done especially by countries like India. It says a lot about the democracy bloc that Assange, and not Meng, is the (greater) victim of “hostage diplomacy”. (Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.)

Opinion | On the Margin: Is US past its unipolar moment?

America's top military leaders were grilled by US senators on the disastrous Afghan pull-out. The Pentagon leadership said the Taliban was and is a terror group, and admitted the possibility of a reconstituted Al-Qaeda. Molly Gambhir gets you the key takeaways.

Gravitas: Pentagon leaders say Taliban was & is a terror group

After the United States cleared booster shot from Pfizer, over 400,000 Americans received the boosters over the weekend. Nearly, a million will be getting their extra doze in the coming week.

COVID-19 News | US approves extra doze of Pfizer & Biontech; over 400,000 Americans get booster shot

Pentagon’s most senior leadership testified before Congress about the US military’s chaotic withdrawal from the war-torn country last month. WION's Susan Tehrani brings you more on this.

Pentagon’s most senior leadership testifies before Congress

China has allowed two American siblings who were barred from leaving the country for more than three years to return to the United States, after a Justice Department deal that cleared the way for a senior executive of Huawei Technologies to go back to China, their lawyer said Monday.

The release of Victor Liu, a student at Georgetown University, and Cynthia Liu, a consultant at McKinsey &amp;amp; Co., was the latest in a series of moves that appeared intended to de-escalate tensions between the United States and China after the Huawei deal. The two had never been accused of wrongdoing but were subject to an “exit ban” preventing them from leaving China.

Their release over the weekend coincided with an agreement Friday to release the executive, Meng Wanzhou, who spent nearly three years out on bail at her two luxurious homes in Vancouver, British Columbia, as the United States sought her extradition in a fraud case related to Huawei’s sale of telecommunications equipment to Iran.

Meng arrived in China on Saturday.

Within hours, China released two Canadians whom it had held since shortly after Meng was detained, and who had appeared to be jailed as hostages to Meng’s case. The exchange led national security experts to worry that China had created the impression it would use hostages to gain the upper hand in diplomatic and national security matters.

The release of the two Americans on Saturday, the day after Meng’s deal was announced, will most likely strengthen that impression.

The Justice Department said in a statement Monday that it did not cut a deal with Meng in response to the detention of Canadian and U.S. citizens. “The Justice Department reached the decision to offer a deferred prosecution agreement with Ms. Meng independently, based on the facts and the law, and an assessment of litigation risk,” Anthony Coley, a Justice Department spokesman, said in a statement.

The White House pushed back Monday on the idea that China had used hostages to strengthen its negotiating position. Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said that the deal with Meng was an action by “an independent Department of Justice,” and that her legal situation was not resolved to get prisoners released.

“I think it’s important to note, and to be very clear about this, there is no link,” Psaki said, referring to the release of the Canadians and the settlement with Meng. She said the White House had made no secret that it wanted the Canadians released.

The siblings went to China in June 2018 to visit their ailing grandfather. On the trip, their mother, also an American citizen, was detained by the police and the siblings were barred from leaving the country. Their father, Liu Changming, a former executive at a Chinese bank, was wanted by the Chinese police for his role in a fraud case. The exit ban, and the jailing of their mother, was seen as a way to coerce their father to return to China and turn himself in.

While the Biden administration said there was no deal tying the resolution of Meng’s case to the release of the siblings, their prolonged detention in China appeared to be related to Meng’s arrest in December 2018, said Evan Medeiros, a professor at Georgetown University who was senior Asia director at the National Security Council under President Barack Obama.

In late 2018, President Donald Trump had raised the issue of Victor and Cynthia Liu’s release at a summit in Argentina with President Xi Jinping of China, and Xi had agreed to let them leave, said Medeiros, who was involved in efforts to release the siblings. But on the day the summit ended, Meng was taken into custody in Canada, and the agreement was off.

“There appears to have been a de facto linkage for China,” Medeiros said in a telephone interview.

U.S. officials have repeatedly warned that exit bans of U.S. citizens were a major concern. In its advisory for U.S. citizens thinking of going to China, the State Department singles them out as a risk. Often people find out that they are blocked only when they try to leave, states the advisory, “and there is no reliable mechanism or legal process to find out how long the ban might continue or to contest it in a court of law.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed senior Chinese officials about exit bans during talks in Anchorage, Alaska, in March, and raised cases of Americans trapped in exit bans during a phone call with China’s top foreign policy official, Yang Jiechi, in June.

When the deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, visited China for talks in July, she “raised the cases of American and Canadian citizens” detained in China or held under exit bans, and told Chinese officials that “people are not bargaining chips,” the State Department said at the time.

Last month, Sherman held a meeting in Washington with China’s recently arrived ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, and “reviewed issues” from her earlier talks in China, the State Department said.

The siblings’ lawyer, Marc Ginsberg, credited their release in part to a Sept. 9 phone call between President Joe Biden and Xi. “I’m sure the president’s call with President Xi helped to break a logjam,” said Ginsberg, a former U.S. ambassador to Morocco who has been working pro bono for Victor and Cynthia Liu.

In a telephone interview, he said Victor and Cynthia Liu would have no comment for the news media.

For its part, the Chinese government also denied a trade-off Monday between Meng and the two Canadians, and did not mention any releases from exit bans.

The Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, were allowed to return to Canada after receiving medical bail, Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, told a regular news briefing in Beijing. She said Meng was the real victim, not them.

“The Meng Wanzhou incident is completely different in essence from the two Canadians’ cases,” she said. “As for the timing, I want to point out that the groundless detention of Meng Wanzhou is a serious mistake made by the U.S. and Canada, which they should have corrected long ago.”

The siblings’ case had been brought up with China by other U.S. officials, and Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, both Democrats of Massachusetts, had also pushed for their release, as had Georgetown University, Ginsberg said.

In a joint statement hailing their release, Markey and Warren confirmed that senior State Department officials — including Blinken and Sherman — had pressed their case.

“We are so pleased to welcome Cynthia and Victor Liu back home after three difficult years being held in China as pawns for the Chinese government,” the lawmakers said. “Cynthia and Victor had their young lives completely upended.”

Unlike the Canadians, who were held for nearly three years in a Chinese prison in apparent retaliation for Meng being unable to leave Canada, Victor and Cynthia Liu were not accused of crimes and were not in custody. They lived in a rented apartment in Shanghai, and Victor Liu continued his studies at Georgetown remotely, Ginsberg said.

Their mother, Sandra Han, remains in jail, Ginsberg said.

Victor and Cynthia Liu arrived in the United States on Saturday and are staying in the New York area. They grew up in Massachusetts.

“We have awaited this moment with great anticipation,” John J. DeGioia, the president of Georgetown University, said in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming Victor back to campus.”

China has allowed two American siblings who were barred from leaving the country for more than three years to return to the United States, after a Justice Department deal that cleared the way for a senior executive of Huawei Technologies to go back to China, their lawyer said Monday.

China has allowed two American siblings who were barred from leaving the country for more than three years to return to the United States, after a Justice Department deal that cleared the way for a senior executive of Huawei Technologies to go back to China, their lawyer said Monday. The release of Victor Liu, a student at Georgetown University, and Cynthia Liu, a consultant at McKinsey &amp; Co., was the latest in a series of moves that appeared intended to de-escalate tensions between the United States and China after the Huawei deal. The two had never been accused of wrongdoing but were subject to an “exit ban” preventing them from leaving China. Their release over the weekend coincided with an agreement Friday to release the executive, Meng Wanzhou, who spent nearly three years out on bail at her two luxurious homes in Vancouver, British Columbia, as the United States sought her extradition in a fraud case related to Huawei’s sale of telecommunications equipment to Iran. Meng arrived in China on Saturday. Within hours, China released two Canadians whom it had held since shortly after Meng was detained, and who had appeared to be jailed as hostages to Meng’s case. The exchange led national security experts to worry that China had created the impression it would use hostages to gain the upper hand in diplomatic and national security matters. The release of the two Americans on Saturday, the day after Meng’s deal was announced, will most likely strengthen that impression. The Justice Department said in a statement Monday that it did not cut a deal with Meng in response to the detention of Canadian and U.S. citizens. “The Justice Department reached the decision to offer a deferred prosecution agreement with Ms. Meng independently, based on the facts and the law, and an assessment of litigation risk,” Anthony Coley, a Justice Department spokesman, said in a statement. The White House pushed back Monday on the idea that China had used hostages to strengthen its negotiating position. Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said that the deal with Meng was an action by “an independent Department of Justice,” and that her legal situation was not resolved to get prisoners released. “I think it’s important to note, and to be very clear about this, there is no link,” Psaki said, referring to the release of the Canadians and the settlement with Meng. She said the White House had made no secret that it wanted the Canadians released. The siblings went to China in June 2018 to visit their ailing grandfather. On the trip, their mother, also an American citizen, was detained by the police and the siblings were barred from leaving the country. Their father, Liu Changming, a former executive at a Chinese bank, was wanted by the Chinese police for his role in a fraud case. The exit ban, and the jailing of their mother, was seen as a way to coerce their father to return to China and turn himself in. While the Biden administration said there was no deal tying the resolution of Meng’s case to the release of the siblings, their prolonged detention in China appeared to be related to Meng’s arrest in December 2018, said Evan Medeiros, a professor at Georgetown University who was senior Asia director at the National Security Council under President Barack Obama. In late 2018, President Donald Trump had raised the issue of Victor and Cynthia Liu’s release at a summit in Argentina with President Xi Jinping of China, and Xi had agreed to let them leave, said Medeiros, who was involved in efforts to release the siblings. But on the day the summit ended, Meng was taken into custody in Canada, and the agreement was off. “There appears to have been a de facto linkage for China,” Medeiros said in a telephone interview. U.S. officials have repeatedly warned that exit bans of U.S. citizens were a major concern. In its advisory for U.S. citizens thinking of going to China, the State Department singles them out as a risk. Often people find out that they are blocked only when they try to leave, states the advisory, “and there is no reliable mechanism or legal process to find out how long the ban might continue or to contest it in a court of law.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed senior Chinese officials about exit bans during talks in Anchorage, Alaska, in March, and raised cases of Americans trapped in exit bans during a phone call with China’s top foreign policy official, Yang Jiechi, in June. When the deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, visited China for talks in July, she “raised the cases of American and Canadian citizens” detained in China or held under exit bans, and told Chinese officials that “people are not bargaining chips,” the State Department said at the time. Last month, Sherman held a meeting in Washington with China’s recently arrived ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, and “reviewed issues” from her earlier talks in China, the State Department said. The siblings’ lawyer, Marc Ginsberg, credited their release in part to a Sept. 9 phone call between President Joe Biden and Xi. “I’m sure the president’s call with President Xi helped to break a logjam,” said Ginsberg, a former U.S. ambassador to Morocco who has been working pro bono for Victor and Cynthia Liu. In a telephone interview, he said Victor and Cynthia Liu would have no comment for the news media. For its part, the Chinese government also denied a trade-off Monday between Meng and the two Canadians, and did not mention any releases from exit bans. The Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, were allowed to return to Canada after receiving medical bail, Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, told a regular news briefing in Beijing. She said Meng was the real victim, not them. “The Meng Wanzhou incident is completely different in essence from the two Canadians’ cases,” she said. “As for the timing, I want to point out that the groundless detention of Meng Wanzhou is a serious mistake made by the U.S. and Canada, which they should have corrected long ago.” The siblings’ case had been brought up with China by other U.S. officials, and Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, both Democrats of Massachusetts, had also pushed for their release, as had Georgetown University, Ginsberg said. In a joint statement hailing their release, Markey and Warren confirmed that senior State Department officials — including Blinken and Sherman — had pressed their case. “We are so pleased to welcome Cynthia and Victor Liu back home after three difficult years being held in China as pawns for the Chinese government,” the lawmakers said. “Cynthia and Victor had their young lives completely upended.” Unlike the Canadians, who were held for nearly three years in a Chinese prison in apparent retaliation for Meng being unable to leave Canada, Victor and Cynthia Liu were not accused of crimes and were not in custody. They lived in a rented apartment in Shanghai, and Victor Liu continued his studies at Georgetown remotely, Ginsberg said. Their mother, Sandra Han, remains in jail, Ginsberg said. Victor and Cynthia Liu arrived in the United States on Saturday and are staying in the New York area. They grew up in Massachusetts. “We have awaited this moment with great anticipation,” John J. DeGioia, the president of Georgetown University, said in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming Victor back to campus.”

American siblings barred from leaving China for 3 years return to US

It was a hot morning in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the day that Peter Naughton woke up on the floor.

Sore, disoriented, he’d already grasped what his mother was now telling him: He’d had another seizure. But he also grasped a larger truth: He needed to pull it together and somehow go to work.

A cashier and self-checkout host at the nearby Walmart, Naughton dreaded depleting his limited paid time off in the midst of a pandemic. His mother, for her part, insisted that her epileptic son, then 44, stay home and rest. The hours after a seizure were difficult enough. Toss in the stress of COVID-19 and a customer base that largely — and often angrily — rejected mask use, and a day at work seemed anything but recuperative.

In the end, Naughton’s growing headache and general fogginess were intense enough that he conceded to his mother’s wishes. He dialled once, twice, three times. No answer. Given the penalty for missing work without giving notice — and the fear of risking his job during uncertain times — he saw what he had to do. Reeling, he made the trip to the store and clocked in.

That was the summer of 2020, and in the bewildering year since, the stakes and strain around low-wage frontline jobs like Naughton’s seem only to have multiplied.

As shuttered offices cautiously debate the merits and logistics of reopening, a parallel sphere of workers — retail employees, day labourers, emergency personnel, medical staff, and so on — seemingly inhabit another country entirely. In their case nothing ever shuttered. Often their jobs just got really, really hard.

“Every day is frightening,” Naughton said recently, now nearly two years into his employment at Walmart.

Naughton said this in the dark, his power still out days after Hurricane Ida had barreled through Louisiana. It was 93 degrees. Later he would take another cold shower, also in the dark, in hopes of cooling off before bed.

Naughton lives on a quiet, grassy street of low brick homes with his ageing parents, not far from where he attended high school some two decades prior. He had an apartment of his own for a while last year, but his $11.55 hourly wage wasn’t enough to pay the rent, even working full time. So he moved back in with his mother and father, and now lives in fear of bringing the highly contagious delta variant home to them. (Naughton is fully vaccinated. But at 78, his father has health issues that prevent him from getting the shots, Naughton said — health issues that make severe illness likelier should he contract the disease.)

Elsewhere in the country, the conversation has begun to move on, away from early Covid alarm and into something more guardedly speculative. What will post-pandemic life look like? How have our priorities shifted? But for vast swaths of the nation, largely untouched by doses from Pfizer and Moderna, it remains late 2020 in many ways.

“A lot of people here still don’t believe the virus is real — even when the hospitals are full, even when they have family dying,” Naughton said. “With the vaccines, one co-worker told me getting it would go against her faith. Another told me it contains baby fetuses and mercury. Someone else said it was created by Bill Gates to insert microchips to track you. I said, ‘Why would he want to track&nbsp;you?’”

The conversations Naughton describes may be epidemiologically out of step, but he and thousands of others seem trapped in an America-right-now vortex, a swirl of politics, belief, resentment and fear. At fast-food restaurants, grocery stores, warehouses, nursing homes and anywhere else frontline workers show up each day, a deep schism has taken hold. Workers nervous about the virus find themselves at the mercy of those who aren’t.

“If I ask people to wear a mask or socially distance at work, they get mad and tell the manager. Then I have to get coached. If you get coached too many times, you lose your job,” Naughton said, referring to the company’s system for managing worker infractions. (Charles Crowson, a Walmart spokesman, did not dispute that an accumulation of coachings could lead to termination.)

Draped over this dynamic are often the stark realities of poverty, and the stresses of navigating a low-paying job in a high-pressure situation. And so an already strained situation strains further. Bitterness over masking requests, job insecurity, a run on bottled water, vaccine politics — tensions routinely boil over in his store and beyond, Naughton said.

“It wasn’t always like this. It used to be more friendly here. It’s become hostile. People are really on edge. They fight with you in the store, or with each other,” he said. “The other day a woman wanted to fight over the price of potatoes. You can even see it in how people drive, like they have a death wish.”

These days Naughton passes a fair amount of time alone. He burns off stress at the gym, goes on hikes, reads books on politics. (By flashlight, in the days after Hurricane Ida.) The delta resurgence also dealt a blow to his social life — at one point, concerned about the alarming spread in Louisiana, he cancelled plans to see live comedy with a co-worker. She went on without him; “she wasn’t worried about it,” he said.

Over the last few months, Naughton has pinned his hopes on a transfer — there’s another nearby Walmart he believes to be less stressful. After extensive lobbying, he said the move was finally approved. Coincidentally, it’s to the same store where his father routinely shops, Covid&nbsp;risks and all.

“He’s stubborn. He goes there for pastries, for Coke. He spends hours there. We tell him not to, it’s not safe,” Naughton said.

With nearly 1.6 million workers, Walmart is the largest private employer in the country. It employs 35,954 people in Louisiana alone, working for one of the 137 Supercenters, discount stores, neighbourhood markets or Sam’s Clubs across the state. Covid appears to have been good for the bottom line: During fiscal 2020, the company generated $559 billion in revenue, up $35 billion from the previous year. But labour activists say too little of that money has gone toward workforce protections, which in turn has prolonged the pandemic.

According to United for Respect, a nonprofit labour advocacy group for Walmart and Amazon workers — Naughton is an outspoken member — safety measures remain deeply insufficient.

“Thousands of Walmart associates across the country like Peter have been forced to endure poverty wages and abysmal benefits while working through a deadly pandemic, managing panic-buying sprees and culture wars over mask mandates,” said Bianca Agustin, the accountability director for United for Respect.

In a survey the group conducted of Walmart associates — the term the company uses for all non-temporary employees — in May 2020, nearly half said they had come into work sick or would do so, fearing retaliation otherwise. This past April the group released a report with the public health nonprofit Human Impact Partners, finding that Walmart could have prevented at least 7,618 Covid&nbsp;cases and saved 133 lives with a more robust paid sick time policy. (Researchers have estimated that some 125,000 Walmart workers nationwide likely contracted Covid between February 2020 and February 2021.)

United for Respect is pushing for five measures in response: hazard pay of $5 per hour; access to adequate paid and unpaid leave; immediate notification of positive cases within a given store; the inclusion of workers in the creation of safety protocols; and protection from retaliation. In the meantime, it has created a Covid reporting tool for workers at Amazon and Walmart. So far almost 1,900 cases have been claimed at 360 stores and facilities.

“Walmart lets in people without masks all the time, and social distancing isn’t enforced,” Naughton said. “Our lives are constantly in danger. They have ‘health ambassadors,’ but all they do is sit at the door offering customers masks. I’ve had to fill in for them. A lot of people just ignore you, or else get angry.”

In response, Crowson, the Walmart spokesman, replied that the company “has worked hard to protect the health and safety of associates and customers. This includes administering no-cost vaccinations, enhanced cleaning practices, daily health screenings and temperature checks for our associates, special bonuses and an emergency leave policy.”

For his part, Naughton continues fearing work while also fearing the idea of missing any. That’s partly the work ethic he inherited from his father, who never once called in sick to the chemical plant where he spent his career. But it’s also basic survival in perilous economic times. Putting aside any medical implications for him or his loved ones, he worries that contracting Covid could cost him his job. At 45, reliant on Medicaid for health coverage and having no retirement plan to speak of, he continues to don his yellow “Proud Walmart Associate” vest each morning.

Over the years Naughton has worked at fast-food restaurants, grocery stores and an amusement park. The idea of finding a more COVID-safe work-from-home gig appeals to him, but his hours at Walmart leave little time for job hunting. Regardless, he says the positions he comes across are “the kind you can’t get without experience, but you can’t get experience without a job.”

Asked about the distant universe of office careers and mask-wars-free remote work, Naughton, he replied that it all feels “unfair.”

“They say we’re essential,” he said, “but they treat us like we’re disposable.”

It was a hot morning in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the day that Peter Naughton woke up on the floor. Sore, disoriented, he’d already grasped what his mother was now telling him: He’d had another seizure.

It was a hot morning in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the day that Peter Naughton woke up on the floor. Sore, disoriented, he’d already grasped what his mother was now telling him: He’d had another seizure. But he also grasped a larger truth: He needed to pull it together and somehow go to work. A cashier and self-checkout host at the nearby Walmart, Naughton dreaded depleting his limited paid time off in the midst of a pandemic. His mother, for her part, insisted that her epileptic son, then 44, stay home and rest. The hours after a seizure were difficult enough. Toss in the stress of COVID-19 and a customer base that largely — and often angrily — rejected mask use, and a day at work seemed anything but recuperative. In the end, Naughton’s growing headache and general fogginess were intense enough that he conceded to his mother’s wishes. He dialled once, twice, three times. No answer. Given the penalty for missing work without giving notice — and the fear of risking his job during uncertain times — he saw what he had to do. Reeling, he made the trip to the store and clocked in. That was the summer of 2020, and in the bewildering year since, the stakes and strain around low-wage frontline jobs like Naughton’s seem only to have multiplied. As shuttered offices cautiously debate the merits and logistics of reopening, a parallel sphere of workers — retail employees, day labourers, emergency personnel, medical staff, and so on — seemingly inhabit another country entirely. In their case nothing ever shuttered. Often their jobs just got really, really hard. “Every day is frightening,” Naughton said recently, now nearly two years into his employment at Walmart. Naughton said this in the dark, his power still out days after Hurricane Ida had barreled through Louisiana. It was 93 degrees. Later he would take another cold shower, also in the dark, in hopes of cooling off before bed. Naughton lives on a quiet, grassy street of low brick homes with his ageing parents, not far from where he attended high school some two decades prior. He had an apartment of his own for a while last year, but his $11.55 hourly wage wasn’t enough to pay the rent, even working full time. So he moved back in with his mother and father, and now lives in fear of bringing the highly contagious delta variant home to them. (Naughton is fully vaccinated. But at 78, his father has health issues that prevent him from getting the shots, Naughton said — health issues that make severe illness likelier should he contract the disease.) Elsewhere in the country, the conversation has begun to move on, away from early Covid alarm and into something more guardedly speculative. What will post-pandemic life look like? How have our priorities shifted? But for vast swaths of the nation, largely untouched by doses from Pfizer and Moderna, it remains late 2020 in many ways. “A lot of people here still don’t believe the virus is real — even when the hospitals are full, even when they have family dying,” Naughton said. “With the vaccines, one co-worker told me getting it would go against her faith. Another told me it contains baby fetuses and mercury. Someone else said it was created by Bill Gates to insert microchips to track you. I said, ‘Why would he want to track you?’” The conversations Naughton describes may be epidemiologically out of step, but he and thousands of others seem trapped in an America-right-now vortex, a swirl of politics, belief, resentment and fear. At fast-food restaurants, grocery stores, warehouses, nursing homes and anywhere else frontline workers show up each day, a deep schism has taken hold. Workers nervous about the virus find themselves at the mercy of those who aren’t. “If I ask people to wear a mask or socially distance at work, they get mad and tell the manager. Then I have to get coached. If you get coached too many times, you lose your job,” Naughton said, referring to the company’s system for managing worker infractions. (Charles Crowson, a Walmart spokesman, did not dispute that an accumulation of coachings could lead to termination.) Draped over this dynamic are often the stark realities of poverty, and the stresses of navigating a low-paying job in a high-pressure situation. And so an already strained situation strains further. Bitterness over masking requests, job insecurity, a run on bottled water, vaccine politics — tensions routinely boil over in his store and beyond, Naughton said. “It wasn’t always like this. It used to be more friendly here. It’s become hostile. People are really on edge. They fight with you in the store, or with each other,” he said. “The other day a woman wanted to fight over the price of potatoes. You can even see it in how people drive, like they have a death wish.” These days Naughton passes a fair amount of time alone. He burns off stress at the gym, goes on hikes, reads books on politics. (By flashlight, in the days after Hurricane Ida.) The delta resurgence also dealt a blow to his social life — at one point, concerned about the alarming spread in Louisiana, he cancelled plans to see live comedy with a co-worker. She went on without him; “she wasn’t worried about it,” he said. Over the last few months, Naughton has pinned his hopes on a transfer — there’s another nearby Walmart he believes to be less stressful. After extensive lobbying, he said the move was finally approved. Coincidentally, it’s to the same store where his father routinely shops, Covid risks and all. “He’s stubborn. He goes there for pastries, for Coke. He spends hours there. We tell him not to, it’s not safe,” Naughton said. With nearly 1.6 million workers, Walmart is the largest private employer in the country. It employs 35,954 people in Louisiana alone, working for one of the 137 Supercenters, discount stores, neighbourhood markets or Sam’s Clubs across the state. Covid appears to have been good for the bottom line: During fiscal 2020, the company generated $559 billion in revenue, up $35 billion from the previous year. But labour activists say too little of that money has gone toward workforce protections, which in turn has prolonged the pandemic. According to United for Respect, a nonprofit labour advocacy group for Walmart and Amazon workers — Naughton is an outspoken member — safety measures remain deeply insufficient. “Thousands of Walmart associates across the country like Peter have been forced to endure poverty wages and abysmal benefits while working through a deadly pandemic, managing panic-buying sprees and culture wars over mask mandates,” said Bianca Agustin, the accountability director for United for Respect. In a survey the group conducted of Walmart associates — the term the company uses for all non-temporary employees — in May 2020, nearly half said they had come into work sick or would do so, fearing retaliation otherwise. This past April the group released a report with the public health nonprofit Human Impact Partners, finding that Walmart could have prevented at least 7,618 Covid cases and saved 133 lives with a more robust paid sick time policy. (Researchers have estimated that some 125,000 Walmart workers nationwide likely contracted Covid between February 2020 and February 2021.) United for Respect is pushing for five measures in response: hazard pay of $5 per hour; access to adequate paid and unpaid leave; immediate notification of positive cases within a given store; the inclusion of workers in the creation of safety protocols; and protection from retaliation. In the meantime, it has created a Covid reporting tool for workers at Amazon and Walmart. So far almost 1,900 cases have been claimed at 360 stores and facilities. “Walmart lets in people without masks all the time, and social distancing isn’t enforced,” Naughton said. “Our lives are constantly in danger. They have ‘health ambassadors,’ but all they do is sit at the door offering customers masks. I’ve had to fill in for them. A lot of people just ignore you, or else get angry.” In response, Crowson, the Walmart spokesman, replied that the company “has worked hard to protect the health and safety of associates and customers. This includes administering no-cost vaccinations, enhanced cleaning practices, daily health screenings and temperature checks for our associates, special bonuses and an emergency leave policy.” For his part, Naughton continues fearing work while also fearing the idea of missing any. That’s partly the work ethic he inherited from his father, who never once called in sick to the chemical plant where he spent his career. But it’s also basic survival in perilous economic times. Putting aside any medical implications for him or his loved ones, he worries that contracting Covid could cost him his job. At 45, reliant on Medicaid for health coverage and having no retirement plan to speak of, he continues to don his yellow “Proud Walmart Associate” vest each morning. Over the years Naughton has worked at fast-food restaurants, grocery stores and an amusement park. The idea of finding a more COVID-safe work-from-home gig appeals to him, but his hours at Walmart leave little time for job hunting. Regardless, he says the positions he comes across are “the kind you can’t get without experience, but you can’t get experience without a job.” Asked about the distant universe of office careers and mask-wars-free remote work, Naughton, he replied that it all feels “unfair.” “They say we’re essential,” he said, “but they treat us like we’re disposable.”

‘Every day is frightening’: Working for the top US employer amid Covid

The White House on Monday said a near-simultaneous release of a top Huawei (HWT.UL) executive and two Canadians detained shortly after her arrest was not a prisoner swap, but that their cases came up in a call between the Chinese and American presidents weeks before. Watch this report for more details.

White House rebuts idea that Huawei's Meng was freed in prisoner swap

US Senators grill Pentagon leaders on Afghan pullout

Pakistan is home to at least 12 groups designated as 'foreign terrorist organisations' by the US, including five of them being India-centric like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), according to the latest Congressional report on terrorism.

US officials have identified Pakistan as a base of operations or target for numerous armed and non-state militant groups, some of which have existed since the 1980s, the independent Congressional Research Service (CRS) said in the report.

The report, 'Terrorist and Other Militant Groups in Pakistan', released by the bipartisan research wing of US Congress on the eve of the historic Quad summit hosted by US President Joe Biden at the White House last week, said that these groups operating in Pakistan can be broadly categorised into five types -- globally-oriented, Afghanistan-oriented, India- and Kashmir-oriented, domestically oriented, and Sectarian (anti-Shia).

The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) was formed in the late 1980s in Pakistan and designated as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) in 2001.

“LET was responsible for major 2008 attacks in Mumbai, as well as numerous other high-profile attacks,” the CRS said.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/narendra-modi-vs-imran-khan-looking-at-how-unga-speeches-of-indian-and-pak-prime-ministers-differ-415965">Narendra Modi vs Imran Khan: Looking at how UNGA speeches of Indian and Pak prime ministers differ</a>

Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) was founded in 2000 by Kashmiri militant leader Masood Azhar and was designated as an FTO in 2001. Along with LET, it was responsible for the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, among other attacks, it said.

JEM also has openly declared war on the United States, it noted.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/how-young-indian-women-diplomats-ripped-pakistan-at-unga-416078">How young Indian women diplomats ripped Pakistan at UNGA</a>

Harakat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI) was formed in 1980 in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet army and was designated as an FTO in 2010. After 1989, it redirected its efforts towards India, although it did supply fighters to the Afghan Taliban.

“With an unknown strength, HUJI today operates in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, and seeks annexation of Kashmir into Pakistan,” the report said, adding that HUM was designated as an FTO in 1997 and operates mainly from Pak-Occupied Kashmir and from some Pakistani cities.

Finally, Hizb-ul Mujahideen (HM) was formed in 1989—reportedly as the militant wing of Pakistan's largest Islamist political party—and designated as an FTO in 2017. It is one of the largest and oldest militant groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir.

Among other terrorist groups operating from Pakistan are Al Qaeda, CRS said, adding that it has operated primarily from the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas and in the megacity of Karachi, as well as in Afghanistan. It has since 2011 been led by Ayman al-Zawahiri and reportedly maintains supportive ties with many of the groups inside the country.

CRS said according to the US State Department's Country Reports on Terrorism 2019, Pakistan has “continued to serve as a safe haven for certain regionally focused terrorist groups,” and has “allowed groups targeting Afghanistan...as well as groups targeting India...to operate from its territory”.

Pakistan’s neighbours, including Afghanistan and India, and the US have long accused Islamabad of providing safe haven and support to militants.

Pakistan is home to at least 12 groups designated as 'foreign terrorist organisations' by the US, including five of them being India-centric like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), according to the latest Congressional report on terrorism.

Pakistan is home to at least 12 groups designated as 'foreign terrorist organisations' by the US, including five of them being India-centric like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), according to the latest Congressional report on terrorism. US officials have identified Pakistan as a base of operations or target for numerous armed and non-state militant groups, some of which have existed since the 1980s, the independent Congressional Research Service (CRS) said in the report. The report, 'Terrorist and Other Militant Groups in Pakistan', released by the bipartisan research wing of US Congress on the eve of the historic Quad summit hosted by US President Joe Biden at the White House last week, said that these groups operating in Pakistan can be broadly categorised into five types -- globally-oriented, Afghanistan-oriented, India- and Kashmir-oriented, domestically oriented, and Sectarian (anti-Shia). The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) was formed in the late 1980s in Pakistan and designated as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) in 2001. “LET was responsible for major 2008 attacks in Mumbai, as well as numerous other high-profile attacks,” the CRS said. Also read | Narendra Modi vs Imran Khan: Looking at how UNGA speeches of Indian and Pak prime ministers differ Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) was founded in 2000 by Kashmiri militant leader Masood Azhar and was designated as an FTO in 2001. Along with LET, it was responsible for the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, among other attacks, it said. JEM also has openly declared war on the United States, it noted. Also read | How young Indian women diplomats ripped Pakistan at UNGA Harakat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI) was formed in 1980 in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet army and was designated as an FTO in 2010. After 1989, it redirected its efforts towards India, although it did supply fighters to the Afghan Taliban. “With an unknown strength, HUJI today operates in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, and seeks annexation of Kashmir into Pakistan,” the report said, adding that HUM was designated as an FTO in 1997 and operates mainly from Pak-Occupied Kashmir and from some Pakistani cities. Finally, Hizb-ul Mujahideen (HM) was formed in 1989—reportedly as the militant wing of Pakistan's largest Islamist political party—and designated as an FTO in 2017. It is one of the largest and oldest militant groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir. Among other terrorist groups operating from Pakistan are Al Qaeda, CRS said, adding that it has operated primarily from the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas and in the megacity of Karachi, as well as in Afghanistan. It has since 2011 been led by Ayman al-Zawahiri and reportedly maintains supportive ties with many of the groups inside the country. CRS said according to the US State Department's Country Reports on Terrorism 2019, Pakistan has “continued to serve as a safe haven for certain regionally focused terrorist groups,” and has “allowed groups targeting Afghanistan...as well as groups targeting India...to operate from its territory”. Pakistan’s neighbours, including Afghanistan and India, and the US have long accused Islamabad of providing safe haven and support to militants.

Pakistan home to 12 foreign terrorist outfits: US Congressional report

The Pentagon's top military officials faced the tough questions from Congress about the execution of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, in their first appearance before lawmakers since the US left the country at the end of August.

Pentagon leaders testify before congress on US pullout from Afghanistan

Top Pentagon leaders will answer questions from senators about the US pullout from Afghanistan, which left behind Americans who may number in the hundreds.

Pentagon leaders to testify on US pullout from Afghanistan

The US Treasury is likely to exhaust measures to keep funding the government on October 18, and will run out of cash unless Congress raises the federal borrowing cap, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Tuesday.

After the date, "Treasury would be left with very limited resources that would be depleted quickly. It is uncertain whether we could continue to meet all the nation's commitments after that date, " she said.

Republicans in the US Senate have stubbornly refused to support an increase or suspension of the debt ceiling, despite having pressed for it under their party's former president Donald Trump.

On Monday, they blocked a Democratic effort to approve a 14-month suspension together with a temporary budget.

The House passed a measure last week to keep the government open until December 3 while they continue debate on a major 10-year social spending package, but the evenly-divided Senate has thus far rejected beginning debate on the bill.

Without an increase, the government would be unable to pay the salaries of public workers, send payments to retirees, or service the nation's debt.

Yellen again warned that prompt approval is critical since "waiting until the last minute can cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise borrowing costs for taxpayers and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States for years to come."

"Failure to act promptly could also result in substantial disruptions to financial markets, as heightened uncertainty can exacerbate volatility and erode investor confidence," she said.

Raising the debt limit does not increase spending, but simply allows the Treasury to finance projects already approved by Congress.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has used the debt limit as a political bludgeon to protest President Joe Biden's spending plans, and says Democrats must raise the ceiling without opposition support.

Under Trump, the ceiling was suspended for two years on a bipartisan basis after McConnell at the time argued that failing to do so "would be a disaster."

The cap was reinstated on August 1 with the country's debt at $28.4 trillion.

The US Treasury is likely to exhaust measures to keep funding the government on October 18, and will run out of cash unless Congress raises the federal borrowing cap, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Tuesday.

The US Treasury is likely to exhaust measures to keep funding the government on October 18, and will run out of cash unless Congress raises the federal borrowing cap, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Tuesday. After the date, "Treasury would be left with very limited resources that would be depleted quickly. It is uncertain whether we could continue to meet all the nation's commitments after that date, " she said. Republicans in the US Senate have stubbornly refused to support an increase or suspension of the debt ceiling, despite having pressed for it under their party's former president Donald Trump. On Monday, they blocked a Democratic effort to approve a 14-month suspension together with a temporary budget. The House passed a measure last week to keep the government open until December 3 while they continue debate on a major 10-year social spending package, but the evenly-divided Senate has thus far rejected beginning debate on the bill. Without an increase, the government would be unable to pay the salaries of public workers, send payments to retirees, or service the nation's debt. Yellen again warned that prompt approval is critical since "waiting until the last minute can cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise borrowing costs for taxpayers and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States for years to come." "Failure to act promptly could also result in substantial disruptions to financial markets, as heightened uncertainty can exacerbate volatility and erode investor confidence," she said. Raising the debt limit does not increase spending, but simply allows the Treasury to finance projects already approved by Congress. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has used the debt limit as a political bludgeon to protest President Joe Biden's spending plans, and says Democrats must raise the ceiling without opposition support. Under Trump, the ceiling was suspended for two years on a bipartisan basis after McConnell at the time argued that failing to do so "would be a disaster." The cap was reinstated on August 1 with the country's debt at $28.4 trillion.

US may exhaust funds by October 18 unless debt limit raised: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen 

In a conversation on WABC 770 radio station, former US national security advisor John Bolton said on Sunday that Taliban may obtain nuclear weapons from Pakistan. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Bolton, who served&nbsp;under the then-President Donald Trump,&nbsp;criticised US President Joe Biden's hasty military withdrawal from the war-torn Afghanistan. &nbsp;

Watch:&nbsp;

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Bolton added it was possible that nuclear weapons could be obtained from Pakistan should Islamist insurgents get hold of them. &nbsp;

The abrupt US troops withdrawal allowed the Taliban to rapidly take over and bring the country once again under their control. &nbsp; &nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-air-force-darpa-raytheon-successfully-tested-hypersonic-missile-416577" hreflang="en">US Air Force, DARPA, Raytheon successfully tested hypersonic missile</a>

In recent times, Bolton has been a vocal critic of American foreign policy. He has also been critical of his former boss. &nbsp;&nbsp;

He has been giving views about US policies regarding the Middle East, especially Iran. He has also expressed support for Israel's right to act in its own security interests. &nbsp;

The former NSA has also supported pre-emptive strikes against hostile regimes, such as Iran and North Korea. &nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/cant-go-unvaccinated-president-biden-gets-vaccine-booster-shot-416490" hreflang="en">'Can't go unvaccinated': President Biden gets vaccine booster shot</a>

However, he also complimented Biden for the nuclear submarine deal with Australia. He says the deal is a way to counter China threat. &nbsp;&nbsp;

US is only giving nuclear submarines. "These are what we call hunter-killer submarines," Bolton explained. &nbsp;

“It’s a huge step forward for us in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. It’s a real signal to China that we are determined not to let them just run wild,” added Bolton. &nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

In a conversation on WABC 770 radio station, former US national security advisor John Bolton said on Sunday that Taliban may obtain nuclear weapons from Pakistan.

In a conversation on WABC 770 radio station, former US national security advisor John Bolton said on Sunday that Taliban may obtain nuclear weapons from Pakistan. Bolton, who served under the then-President Donald Trump, criticised US President Joe Biden's hasty military withdrawal from the war-torn Afghanistan. Watch: × Bolton added it was possible that nuclear weapons could be obtained from Pakistan should Islamist insurgents get hold of them. The abrupt US troops withdrawal allowed the Taliban to rapidly take over and bring the country once again under their control. Also Read: US Air Force, DARPA, Raytheon successfully tested hypersonic missile In recent times, Bolton has been a vocal critic of American foreign policy. He has also been critical of his former boss. He has been giving views about US policies regarding the Middle East, especially Iran. He has also expressed support for Israel's right to act in its own security interests. The former NSA has also supported pre-emptive strikes against hostile regimes, such as Iran and North Korea. Also Read: 'Can't go unvaccinated': President Biden gets vaccine booster shot However, he also complimented Biden for the nuclear submarine deal with Australia. He says the deal is a way to counter China threat. US is only giving nuclear submarines. "These are what we call hunter-killer submarines," Bolton explained. “It’s a huge step forward for us in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. It’s a real signal to China that we are determined not to let them just run wild,” added Bolton. (With inputs from agencies)

Taliban may obtain nuclear weapons from Pakistan, says former US national security advisor John Bolton

It has been a jam-packed week at the UN General Assembly. World leaders made their way to the United States for this year's general debate. WION's Sidhant Sibal & Susan Tehrani brings you more on this.

WION-USA Direct: Issues like climate change & Afghan crisis dominated 76th UNGA session

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