POMPEO CALLS FOR GLOBAL PUSH BACK AGAINST XI; CHINA SAYS WILL FIGHT BACK

AGAINST 'MALICIOUS SLANDER'

The time has come for the world to push back against the challenge posed by

the Chinese Communist Party, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said as he

contended that the US "slept on this threat for too long." Pompeo also said

the Chinese government was aware of human-to-human transmission of the

coronavirus before they shared this information with the world.

"Countries not only in Southeast Asia but in Asia more broadly, in Europe,

have come to understand the threat that the Chinese Communist Party

presents. The United States slept on this for too long," Pompeo told Bill

Hemmer of Fox News in an interview on Thursday.

"I think they all did too, and I think they're coming to a joint conclusion

that it's time for the world to make sure that we get this right.

"For democracies and freedom-loving people around the world, it is an

imperative that we push back against the challenge that the Chinese

Communist Party presents to us all," Pompeo said.

He said that for 40 years, successive US administrations just looked the

other way and allowed China to trample on America.

U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr added fuel to the fire on Thursday when he

accused Beijing of mounting an "economic blitzkrieg" to replace Washington

as the world's pre-eminent power and spread its political ideology around

the world.

China foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on Friday denied the US

charges and said it will fight back against the "malicious slander". "These

people, for self-interest and political gain, do not hesitate to hijack

domestic public opinion... to the point where they have lost their minds and

gone mad."

Ms. Hua added that China had no intention of challenging or replacing the

U.S. and said she hoped that Washington could "return to rationality" in its

China policy. "A sparrow cannot understand the ambition of a swan," she

said. "This is a serious misjudgment and misunderstanding of China's

strategic intent."

CORONAVIRUS: TRUMP REFUSES TO ORDER AMERICANS TO WEAR MASKS

US President Donald Trump has vowed not to order Americans to wear masks to

contain the spread of coronavirus.

His comments came after the country's top infectious disease expert, Dr

Anthony Fauci, urged state and local leaders to be "as forceful as possible"

in getting people to wear masks.

Wearing face coverings, Dr Fauci added, is "really important" and "we should

be using them, everyone".

The wearing of face coverings has become highly politicised in the US.

President Trump, who had previously resisted wearing a face covering

himself, wore a mask in public for the first time last Saturday.

But speaking to Fox News on Friday, Mr Trump said he didn't agree with a

national mask mandate, saying people should have a "certain freedom".

HONG KONG DEMANDS TAIWAN OFFICIALS SIGN 'ONE CHINA' DOCUMENT

Taiwanese officials in Hong Kong have been told their visas will not be

renewed unless they sign a document supporting Beijing's claim to Taiwan

under its "one China" policy, said a person with direct knowledge of the

matter. The move comes after Taipei criticised a new security law imposed on

Hong Kong by Beijing, and opened an office in Taipei this month to help

people who may want to leave the Asian financial centre.

Several Taiwanese officials at its de facto Hong Kong consulate, who were

due to renew their visas, have been asked by the city's government to sign

the document, said a senior Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter.

The official said the move was unprecedented and presented an "unnecessary

political obstacle" for Taipei-Hong Kong ties.

"They won't issue the visa if we don't sign the document," the official

said. "We will try our best to defend our stance." The Hong Kong Immigration

Department said it would not comment on individual cases, but added that it

acts in accordance with the relevant laws and policies when handling each

application.

Taiwan's China policymaking Mainland Affairs Council urged Hong Kong to

return to "existing consensus" to maintain normal exchanges between Taiwan

and Hong Kong. "Hong Kong should follow mutual agreements to ensure the

office is free from political interference, and should not establish

unnecessary obstacles beyond those agreements," it said.

TALIBAN MAKES BIG CHANGES AHEAD OF TALKS WITH KABUL

The Taliban has put the son of the movement's feared founder in charge of

their military wing and added several powerful figures to their negotiating

team, Taliban officials said. The shake-up, one of the most significant in

years, comes ahead of expected talks with Kabul aimed at ending decades of

war in Afghanistan.

As head of a newly united military wing, 30-year-old Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob

brings his father's fiercely uncompromising reputation to the battlefield.

Equally significant is the addition of four members of the insurgent group's

leadership council to the 20-member negotiating team, Taliban officials

said.

The shuffle, overseen by Taliban leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhunzada, is

meant to tighten his control over the movement's military and political

arms, the officials said on condition of anonymity. Analysts say the

shake-up could be good news for negotiations with the Afghan leadership, and

a sign of how seriously the Taliban are taking this step in a deal

Washington signed with the insurgents in February.

"I'd say it appears to be a positive development because the Taliban are

creating a delegation that seems more senior and more broad-based than

they've used to date, or than might be strictly necessary for the opening

stages of talks," said Andrew Wilder, vice president of the Asia Program at

the Washington-based U.S. Institute of Peace.

COURT BACKS TRUMP EXPANSION OF CHEAP HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS

A divided federal appeals court on Friday upheld the Trump administration's

expansion of cheaper short-term health insurance plans, derided by critics

as "junk insurance,'' as an alternative to the Affordable Care Act's

costlier comprehensive insurance.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in a 2-1

decision that the administration had the legal authority to increase the

duration of the health plans from three to 12 months, with the option of

renewing them for 36 months. The plans do not have to cover people with

preexisting conditions or provide basic benefits like prescription drugs.

President Donald Trump, who wants to get rid of the entire health care law

but failed to repeal it in Congress, has praised the plans as "much less

expensive health care at a much lower price.''

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the decision would allow the administration

to "keep railroading vulnerable families into shoddy junk health insurance

plans."

Judge Thomas Griffith wrote for the court that the administration lifted the

three-month cap put in place by the Obama administration because "premiums

for ACA-compliant plans continued to soar while enrollment dropped off."

The goal was to increase "the availability of more affordable insurance,''

Griffith wrote.

IRAN VOWS TO DEAL 'DECISIVELY' WITH MOUNTING PROTESTS

Iran promised on Friday to deal "decisively" with further protests over

economic hardship, a day after security forces fired tear gas to disperse

demonstrators in the southwestern city of Behbahan.

Iran's clerical rulers have tried to prevent a revival of last November's

anti-government protests, when over 1,000 people are believed to have been

killed in the deadliest street violence since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Tehran says 225 people were killed, including members of the security

forces.

On Tuesday, the judiciary said the death sentences of three men involved in

that unrest had been upheld, sparking a surge of online protests. In a

statement on Friday, the police urged people to "vigilantly refrain from any

gathering that could provide a pretext for the counter-revolutionary

movement", accusing "enemies" of whipping up discontent. "The police force

has an inherent and legal duty to deal decisively with these desperate

moves," the statement added.

Videos posted on social media from inside Iran on Thursday showed protesters

chanting, "Fear not, fear not, we are in this together!". Some chanted

slogans against top officials.

Videos posted on Twitter showed a heavy presence of security forces in

several cities. Reuters was unable to verify the videos, or reports of

arrests.

"People are angry. The economy is so bad that we cannot survive," an Iranian

man said by phone from Tehran on Thursday.

There were calls on social media for demonstrations across the country on

Friday to protest against the three death sentences.

EU LEADERS FAR FROM DEAL ON BUDGET AND VIRUS RECOVERY FUND

European Union leaders headed into Saturday, the scheduled final day of

their summit, about as far apart from reaching a deal on an unprecedented

1.85 trillion euro ($2.1 trillion) EU budget and coronavirus recovery fund

as the seating distance imposed upon them for health reasons.

The prescient words of German Chancellor Angela Merkel that "the differences

are still very, very big" were borne out during marathon talks since early

Friday, and not even a partial breakthrough was on the horizon as

negotiators headed into the weekend.

After two full sessions, summit host and European Council President Charles

Michel worked with individual nations to narrow down their sizable

differences over who should give and get the money and under what

conditions.

On a terrace at the top of the summit center overlooking the Belgian capital

late Friday, Michel had talks with Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron,

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban -

many of the opposing forces that could turn the summit into a failure by

Saturday night. After a long dinner, the talks broke up just before

midnight.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said that on several key issues, "I don't

have the impression that we are getting close to an agreement."

Macron underscored the importance of the challenge. "It is our project

Europe that is at stake."

SECURITY AGENCIES CAN'T HAVE UNFETTERED ACCESS TO ONLINE DATA: GERMAN COURT

Germany's highest court on Friday said security services had too much

unfettered access to people's online data and ordered legislation to be

revised to set higher hurdles.

German intelligence services and police agencies currently have the right to

ask telecom and Internet companies for user info ranging from names and

birth dates to passwords and IP addresses, to help their investigations.

But the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe agreed with complaints brought by

privacy activists that the access to data was excessive and an

unconstitutional violation of citizens' right to telecoms privacy. In their

ruling, judges said the current powers to retrieve data were

"disproportionate".

Judges said they agreed that intelligence bodies sometimes needed to pull

personal data from smartphones or other devices to maintain public security.

But they said this should only be done in cases of "a specific danger" or

"an initial suspicion of criminal conduct" in the context of an

investigation, and not to facilitate investigators' work "in general".

German legislators have until the end of 2021 to amend the

telecommunications law to include "thresholds for the use of these powers".