Tuesday, October 6, 2020
#COVID19 : US military leaders quarantine after official tests positive
Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters there had been "no change to the operational readiness or mission capability of the US Armed Forces."
"Senior military leaders are able to remain fully mission capable and perform their duties from an alternative work location," he said.
The Pentagon is conducting contact tracing related to last week's meetings.
Cases rising at the White House
Meanwhile, since President Trump tested positive last week, a number of senior Republicans and others close to him have been confirmed as having the virus as well.
This includes First Lady Melania Trump, aide Hope Hicks, and a number of Republican senators. Several junior White House staff members have also tested positive.
Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany was the latest person close to the president to test positive, announcing her diagnosis on Monday.
US media said two other aides to Ms McEnany had had positive results. The press secretary was seen speaking to journalists without wearing a mask on Sunday but said no members of the press had been listed as close contacts by the White House medical unit.
Many of the people in Mr Trump's inner circle who have tested positive attended a gathering at the White House Rose Garden on 26 September that is being scrutinised as a possible "super-spreader event".
The latest coronavirus case to emerge from that event, at which the president unveiled his nominee for the US Supreme Court, is a Christian minister from California.
Pastor Greg Laurie, who is said to have mild symptoms, was also with US Vice-President Mike Pence earlier in that day at a prayer march in central Washington DC.
Plexiglass will be used to separate Vice-President Mike Pence and Democratic challenger Kamala Harris and limit the risk of Covid transmission when they go head-to-head in a debate in Salt Lake city, Utah, on Wednesday. Both candidates have recently tested negative.
President Trump, meanwhile, returned to the White House yesterday after being hospitalised with the virus.
While at Walter Reed Medical Center, he was treated with dexamethasone - a steroid medication usually given to severe and critical Covid patients - and supplemental oxygen.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54441986
Covid-19 recoveries cross 300,000 mark in Pakistan
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/10/06/covid-19-recoveries-cross-300000-mark-in-pakistan/#comment-1241246997748759026
#Pakistan’s Drug Habit Is Endangering the Region
By Habiba Ashna Marhoon
In the past, Pakistan’s clandestine services have used profits from drug trafficking to fund proxy groups in South Asia.
The Golden Crescent of South Asia – a region comprising Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan – is a principal site for the production and distribution of opium and heroin. Over the past few decades, war, terrorism and a shifting political landscape have facilitated an active heroin trade throughout the region.
There are three well-defined heroin trafficking routes that originate in the Golden Crescent region. The Balkan route operates through Iran and Turkey and traffics the bulk of Afghan heroin to Europe. The northern route supplies heroin to the Russian Federation and Central Asia. Due to increased law enforcement along these two routes, alternate routes have emerged, collectively called the southern route, which traffics heroin to Iran and Pakistan, and from these countries, via sea and air, to other parts of the world.
Pakistan’s geographic location next to Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer of opium, places the country in a veritable front-row position in terms of drug trafficking. Its establishment has left no stone unturned in exploiting this geographic location to its own advantage. The money generated from the drug trade has been used to fund proxy terror groups. The role of narcotics in funding terror activities by Pakistan was revealed by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main accused in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. During his interrogation in 2010, he revealed the role played by Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in linking drug lords and terrorists and facilitating the transportation of weapons, along with drugs, to India.
While poppy cultivation has largely been eliminated in Pakistan, the crop is still grown in large parts of southern provinces of Afghanistan like Kandahar and Helmand, where the Taliban has a strong influence. Analysts say opium poppies and heroin are among the main sources of income for the Taliban, which controls 80 percent of the drug production area in Afghanistan. The problem for them is how to transport these drugs to other countries. Here, Pakistan acts as a facilitator. The drug consignments, in connivance with Pakistan’s authorities, are smuggled through the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. From there, these consignments head for Pakistan’s air and seaports and, hence, to further destinations in China, Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.
As United Nations World Drug Report 2012 reported, “Pakistan provides a vital transit route for smuggling of drugs worth $30 billion from neighboring Afghanistan.” Though not a major reason, Pakistan backs restoration of Taliban rule in Afghanistan because if the group returns to power, all these drug cartels could be resuscitated and its major benefactor Pakistan will have even more funds with which to sponsor its proxy terror groups.
Pakistan’s role in drug proliferation is validated by a number of arrests of its nationals in other countries on charges of drug trafficking. Shahbaz Khan, a Pakistani national, was the leader of a drug trafficking organization (the “DTO”) based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which produced and distributed massive quantities of narcotics around the world. He was arrested by Liberian authorities in December 2016 and later deported to the United States, where in 2019 he was sentenced to 15 years for conspiring and attempting to import heroin into the U.S. In May 2017, officials for the U.K.’s Border Force impounded a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight from Islamabad at London’s Heathrow airport. Later, the National Crime Agency said that a quantity of heroin had been found hidden in different panels of the plane. In March 2018, two members of the cabin crew of a PIA flight, traveling on an Islamabad-Paris flight (PK-749), were caught smuggling narcotics on board the flight.
Of late, speculations abound that PIA has come under the scanner of Qatar authorities who have recently discovered narcotics smuggling modules by Pakistani nationals who arrive in Doha, taking advantage of the country’s Visa on Arrival (VoA) facility. Some suggest that Qatari officials have photographic and video evidence of arrested drug smugglers from Pakistan. If these speculations turn out to be true, then it is quite possible Qatar could suspend the VoA facility for Pakistan’s nationals if it does not take action to prevent the smuggling of narcotics into Qatar.
The issue of narcotics smuggling has the potential to derail Pakistan’s bilateral relations and besmirch its international reputation. Indeed, the question arises as to why Pakistan would jeopardize its relations with other countries in order to benefit from narcotics. The answer is that the money derived from drug smuggling serves Pakistan’s larger agenda of sponsoring proxy terror groups. With the plenary session of the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) scheduled for later this month, Pakistan’s role in funding terror organizations through drugs/narcotics smuggling is sure to come up for discussion, as the FATF determines the country’s listing. If Pakistan does not want to be blacklisted, it must take action to stop drug proliferation. Blacklisting by FATF could spell ruin for Pakistan’s already dwindling economy.
#Pakistan - Sindh islands illegally annexed by Imran Khan govt: #PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto
President Dr Arif Alivi on September 1 promulgated the ordinance for establishing Pakistan Islands Development Authority (PIDA) for "development and management of islands in internal and territorial waters of Pakistan".A presidential ordinance by the Imran Khan government to take control of two islands in Sindh province has been slammed by the Opposition parties in Pakistan, with PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto calling it an “illegal annexation”. President Dr Arif Alivi on September 1 promulgated the ordinance for establishing Pakistan Islands Development Authority (PIDA) for “development and management of islands in internal and territorial waters of Pakistan”. Its ultimate objective was stated to be development of cities on the islands of Bundal and Buddo along the Karachi coast. While the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government managed to keep it out of limelight, Bhutto on Monday posted the development on Twitter, vowing that his party would oppose the federal government’s move in the National Assembly, Senate and the provincial assembly.
“The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will oppose the illegal annexation of Sindh’s Islands through Presidential ordinance by the PTI government,” he said in a tweet on Monday. “The PPP rejects this unconstitutional ordinance establishing island development authority. This is no less than a land grab and occupation of islands that belong to the people of #Sindh under article 172/2 of the Constitution,” said PPP central information secretary Dr Nafisa Shah on Twitter. Former chairman of Senate and PPP leader Raza Rabbani termed the ordinance a crude attempt to bring under control of the federal government the coastal areas of the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan,” the Dawn newspaper reported. Under the ordinance, PIDA would be exempted from paying income tax for one full decade. It is also empowered to retain, lease, sell, exchange, rent of otherwise dispose of any land vested in it, the report said.Sindh based political parties, civil society organisations as well as the PPP led Sindh government on Saturday expressed their dismay and anger over a presidential ordinance. Several nationalist parties, writers, intellectuals and poets also announced to launch a massive movement against the decision by organising rallies and demonstrations in various cities and towns if the decision was not taken back, The Express Tribune reported. Human rights activist I A Rehman said these islands were property of the people. “You cannot take them without their consultation. Any takeover of the islands will be against the country,” Rehman said. “Due to this recent decision, 800,000 fishermen who live there for centuries would be displaced. The federal government’s decision is not only against the Constitution of Pakistan but it is also against international conventions and agreements, which provide social, economic and cultural sovereignty to the indigenous people,” said Pakistan Fisher-folk Forum (PFF) Chairman Mohammad Ali Shah. Noting that this was not the first time the islands (over 12,000 acres of land) were being snatched, Shah said such an attempt was also made in 2007 when a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed to hand over two islands to Dubai based investors. Former PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto had announced a movement against the decision to take over the islands during General Pervez Musharraf’s regime in 2007. After protests by the PPP, the national parties and the civil society organisations, the government had to take back the decision. https://indianexpress.com/article/pakistan/sindh-islands-illegally-annexed-by-imran-khan-govt-ppp-chairman-bilawal-6705690/