White House News (白宮消息) | Nov. 20, 2020

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Johnson, Seen as a Trump Ally, Signals Alignment With Biden

Nov. 19 - The prime minister wants to show that Britain remains a vital ally. On climate change and military spending, he is promising major steps that will be welcomed by the president-elect.

Nov. 19, LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson rolled out ambitious, back-to-back initiatives on military spending and climate change this week, which have little in common except that both are likely to please a very important new person in Mr. Johnson’s life: President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.

The prime minister, whom President Trump has embraced as a like-minded populist, is eager to show he can work with the incoming president as well as he did with the outgoing one. Building more warships and phasing out new gas- and diesel-powered cars within a decade demonstrates to Mr. Biden that Britain can be a useful and relevant partner, even if it no longer belongs to the European Union.

That is important, analysts said, because Brexit will deprive Britain of what had historically been one of its greatest assets to the United States: serving as an Anglophone bridge to the leaders of continental Europe.     continue to read

东海南海挑事 全球加速撤军 美作何盘算？20201118 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
Nov 19, 2020

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the Trump administration plans to impose several new sanctions on Iran in the coming weeks, while President Donald Trump expressed a desire to strike the country's uranium enrichment plant earlier this month.

Top Government Adviser in Iran Warns Military Action by Trump Would Lead to 'Full-Fledged War'

"Definitely, the United States, the region, and the world cannot stand such a comprehensive crisis."

Nov. 19 - A day after the Trump administration slapped Iran's government with new sanctions and amid reporting that President Donald Trump has considered military strikes against the country since losing the 2020 election earlier this month, a top adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned that the U.S. would risk "full-fledged war" in the Middle East should it attack Iran.
 
Hossein Dehghan, who is a possible presidential candidate in Iran's upcoming June 2021 election, told the Associated Press that the country does not seek a violent conflict with the U.S. but that the government would not welcome "a situation in which [the other party] buys time to weaken our nation."

"We don't welcome a crisis. We don't welcome war. We are not after starting a war," Dehghan told the outlet. "But we are not after negotiations for the sake of negotiations either."      continue to read

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White House News (白宮消息) | Nov. 19, 2020

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Tehran Vows Crushing Response to Any American Attack

Nov. 19 - Any attack on Iran by the United States would face a “crushing” response, Iran’s government spokesman said on Tuesday, following reports US President Donald Trump asked for options for a strike on Iran’s main nuclear site last week but decided against doing so.

“Any action against the Iranian nation would certainly face a crushing response,” Ali Rabiei said, in remarks streamed on an official government website.

Citing a US official, Reuters reported on Monday that Trump, with two months left in office, conferred with top advisers about the possibility of attacking the Natanz uranium enrichment plant, but was dissuaded by them from that option.

One of the advisers named in the report, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is on Wednesday due to visit Israel that has long hinted at possible military action against its arch-enemy Iran.

“If I were the Iranians, I would not feel at ease” after the report, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said, adding that he was not aware of the Oval Office deliberations last Thursday.

“It is very important that the Iranians know that if, indeed, they suddenly dash toward high levels of enrichment, in the direction of nuclear weaponry, they are liable to encounter the military might of the United States - and also, perhaps, of other countries,” Steinitz told Israel’s Army Radio.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful needs, which has been verified by the numerous reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Accusing Israel of waging “psychological warfare” against Iran, Rabiei said, “I personally don’t foresee that it’s probable that they [the United States] would want to cause insecurity in the world and the region.”     source

被曝欲对伊动武 特朗普政府要上演“最后疯狂”？20201117 |
《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
Nov 18, 2020

Iranian protesters gather around a burning car during a demonstration against an increase in gasoline prices in the capital Tehran, on Nov. 16, 2019. One person was killed and others injured in protests across Iran, hours after a surprise decision to increase gasoline prices. A crackdown on the protests, which extended into 2020, is estimated to have pushed the overall death toll to over 300 people.

US unveils new round of Iran sanctions, Pompeo pledges more to come

Targets in the latest round of sanctions include an Iranian charitable organization and Iran's intelligence minister.

Nov 18 - The United States on Wednesday imposed one more round of sanctions on Iran, including a foundation linked to the country's supreme leader, and vowed more punitive measures are on the way.    

The State Department designated Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials Heidar Abbaszadeh and Reza Papi for their alleged involvement in the violent suppression of anti-government protesters in November 2019.  

In the deadliest unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, widespread anti-regime demonstrations erupted across Iran last year over the government’s abrupt decision to significantly raise prices on gasoline. According to Amnesty International, at least 304 people died in the protests, including 23 children.

The Trump administration on Wednesday linked the new sanctions to the massacre in the city of Bandar Mahshahr, which killed at least 148 people a year ago. According to the State Department, both protesters and bystanders were “targeted by snipers on rooftops, tracked down and surrounded by armored vehicles, and sprayed with machine-gun fire.”

In addition, Iran’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi was blacklisted for his “central role in the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses against Iranian citizens.” Sanctions were also imposed on the Islamic Revolution Mostazafan Foundation, or Foundation of the Oppressed, and 61 entities and individuals affiliated with the Iranian charity.

“While [the foundation] is ostensibly a charitable organization charged with providing benefits to the poor and oppressed, its holdings are expropriated from the Iranian people and are used by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to enrich his office, reward his political allies, and persecute the regime’s enemies,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.

In a statement sent to reporters titled “The Importance of Sanctions on Iran,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign of sanctions had been "extraordinarily effective" at countering Iran's malign behavior.

“Throughout the coming weeks and months, we will impose new sanctions on Iran, including using our nuclear, counterterrorism, and human rights authorities, each reflecting the wide range of malign behavior that continues to emanate from the Iranian regime,” Pompeo said.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has rolled out a slew of sanctions on Iran, in what analysts say is an attempt to undermine President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to salvage the landmark 2015 nuclear deal.

Biden has said that if Iran returns to strict compliance, he would rejoin the 2015 landmark nuclear agreement as a starting point for negotiations. Trump withdrew the United States from the pact in 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions on Tehran.

The current administration has recently targeted Iran’s banking industry and oil sector with sanctions and has blacklisted foreign companies accused of procuring goods for an Iranian military firm. In addition, the State Department is reportedly considering designating the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen as a foreign terrorist organization.     source

【完整版】RCEP殺傳產、匯率戰挫工具機　
企業出逃台灣恐成「東亞鐵鏽」？2020.11.17《新聞龍捲風－10點特攻》
Nov 18, 2020

White House News (白宮消息) | Nov. 18, 2020

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Joe Biden wants to rejoin Iran nuclear deal, but it won’t be easy
Despite Trump's pressure campaign putting Iran in an economic straitjacket, Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei has kept the door open for a US reentry

Nov. 18 - President-elect Joe Biden has promised to move quickly to rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran so long as Iran also comes back into compliance. But that vow is easier said than done.

While Biden’s pledge pleased the deal’s other signatories, who were angry that President Donald Trump withdrew from it two years ago, returning to the way things were maybe impossible, complicated by both Iranian and US politics. Trump, even as a lame duck, is moving quickly to increase US sanctions against Iran and sell advanced weapons to its regional enemies, policies that would be difficult for a new president to reverse.     continue to read

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden waves as he leaves the Queen Theater after receiving a briefing on national security with advisors in Wilmington, Delaware, November 17, 2020.

Analysis | Biden's First Presidential Miracle: Palestinian Resumption of Coordination With Israel
Biden’s advent will probably be felt in the coming months as the Palestinians cease their self-righteous entrenchment and their refusal of any ties with Israel or the United States


Nov. 17 - U.S. President-elect Joe Biden harvested Tuesday the first fruits in the Middle East of his election victory: The leadership of the Palestinian Authority took advantage of the transition in Washington scheduled for January 20 to justify the renewal of security and civilian coordination with Israel in the West Bank. The Israeli security establishment heaved a sigh of relief over the decision to renew the ties, the lack of which in recent months it had called “a bone in the throat.”

The deterioration in relations between Israel and the PA was the result of Donald Trump’s clear preference for the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu throughout the president’s almost four years in office. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gradually cut back ties with the United States and Israel in response to American and Israeli actions.     continue to read

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大选之争引骚乱 美已打响“政治内战”？
20201116 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
Nov 17, 2020

White House News (白宮消息) | Nov. 17, 2020

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THE TRUMP APPOINTEE BLOCKING BIDEN’S TRANSITION IS REPORTEDLY TRYING TO LINE UP A NEW JOB FOR 2021
Emily Murphy won’t release crucial resources to Biden’s transition but she is apparently “inquiring about employment opportunities” for herself next year when Trump is ultimately out of office.

Nov. 17 - While Donald Trump is obviously solely responsible for the psychotic and mortifying postelection tantrum he’s been throwing for the past two weeks, a shit fit akin to watching a fellow supermarket shopper ram his cart into a display of Diet Coke and smash a dozen glass jars of pickles on the ground because he was told the store is closing in five minutes and he can’t stay any longer, his enablers aren’t far behind him when it comes to doling about blame for this global embarrassment. Obviously that includes senators like Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham and other spine-lacking Republicans but also an appointee whose name few people outside government knew as of last week: Emily Murphy.

...Biden told reporters on Monday, stressing the need for his transition team to get access to the government’s plan for distributing a future COVID-19 vaccine. “A vaccine is important. It’s of little use until you are vaccinated. So how do we get the vaccine, how do we get over 300 million Americans vaccinated? What is the game plan? It is a huge, huge, huge undertaking to get it done,” Biden said. “If we have to wait until January 20 to start that planning, it puts us behind over a month, month and a half. And so, it’s important that it be done, that there be coordination now. Now or as rapidly as we can get that done.”)....     source

November 16, 2020
Campaign 2020
President-Elect Biden & Vice President-Elect Harris in Wilmington, DE
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris spoke about their economic recovery plans in Wilmington, Delaware. Their remarks came after a meeting with business and labor leaders. During the news conference, President-elect Biden also warned that if the Trump administration does not coordinate soon with the Biden-Harris team concerning vaccine distribution plans, more people could die. Other topics discussed included global trade, student loan debt forgiveness and working with Republicans to get things done.

Drugmaker Moderna Says Its Covid-19 Vaccine Is 94.5 Percent Effective | NBC Nightly News
Nov 17, 2020

White House News (白宮消息) | Nov. 16, 2020

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US surpasses 11 million COVID-19 cases just 6 days after it recorded 10 million.
US COVID-19 infection numbers grow by one million in just six days

Nov. 16 - The US surpassed 11 million coronavirus cases on Sunday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, as states across the country moved to enact restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.

The latest milestone comes just six days after the US recorded 10 million cases, per Johns Hopkins data.

It is the fastest the US has added one million new cases since the pandemic began.

At least 45 states have reported more new infections this past week compared to the previous week, according to Johns Hopkins University.

"We have this firestorm of coronavirus all across the country," emergency medicine physician Dr Leana Wen said.
"It's not one or two hotspots, the entire country is a hotspot of coronavirus infection."     source

Andrew Cuomo spoke at Riverside Church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on Sunday
We will bring legal action to protect New Yorkers': Gov Cuomo threatens to sue Trump administration if the president blocks distribution of a COVID vaccine to his state

Nov. 15 - Andrew Cuomo on Sunday threatened to sue the Trump administration if they withhold a vaccine for his state, telling a Manhattan congregation that 'enough people have died and enough injustice has been done during COVID.'

The New York governor and Donald Trump are engaged in an escalating war of words over the coronavirus vaccine.

Cuomo has said that, given Trump's mishandling of the pandemic, he appointed an independent panel of experts to certify the vaccine once it becomes available and reassure New Yorkers that it was safe. Several others states, including California, Nevada and Oregon, are doing the same.

Trump, angered by the slight, said that New York won't get any vaccine.     continue to read

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The U.S. Cardinal Crusading Against the Catholic President-Elect
If there is one person who doesn’t want Joe Biden to be president more than Trump, it is American Cardinal Raymond Burke.

Nov. 16 - ...The difference between the pope’s reaction to Trump and Biden could not be more stark with the pope and Trump clashing on a number of occasions. In February 2016, Francis said anyone who wants to build walls is “not Christian” when asked about the southern border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Francis also criticized Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord and expressed concern over when Trump undid President Obama’s move to restore trade and travel with Cuba.

Steven Millies, associate professor of Public Theology and director of The Bernardin Center, Catholic Theological Union, has studied Catholicism in the American political spectrum for 30 years. He points to other up-and-coming Catholics in the Democratic Party including Julián Castro, Ted Lieu, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as beacons of light. He says the Biden presidency provides a moment of “opportunity to promote the diversity of Catholic social teaching rather than seeing it through the preeminent, singular lens of abortion.”...     source

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Would a Same-Sex Couple Really Be Welcome in a Church?

I went undercover to find out the answer.

Nov. 15 - Back in 2007, the Barna group conducted a survey among 16–29 year-olds, asking non-Christians about their perception of Christians. The study explored twenty specific images related to Christianity, including ten favorable and ten unfavorable perceptions. Among young non-Christians, nine out of the top ten perceptions were negative. 87% of those surveyed said Christians were judgmental, 85% said Christians were hypocritical and 78% said Christians were out-of-touch. Above all, Barna discovered that the most common perception of Christians among non-believers was that Christians were anti-gay with 91% of non-Christians saying they believe that Christians showed excessive contempt and unloving attitudes towards homosexuals, and made homosexuality a bigger sin than anything else.

That was 13 years ago though. These days I am assured by many of my church-going friends that Christian churches are much more accepting of members of the LGBTQ community. “Trust me,” they say. “Everyone is welcome at my church.” Apparently, a lot has changed since Barna released the findings of this research. Or has it?      source

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