BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN WILL MAKE US A SOCIALIST COUNTRY: TOP REPUBLCIAN LEADERS
Making a passionate plea to re-elect Republican Donald Trump at the 2020
Republican National Convention, Top Indian-American politician, Nikki Haley
said that the United States President has a "record of strength and
success", while his Democratic rival Joe Biden has a "record of weakness and
failure."
Haley, who was the former US Ambassador to the United Nations, on the first
day of the Republican National Convention warned Americans that a
Biden-(Kamala) Harris administration would lead the country on the path of
socialism, which has failed everywhere in the world.
Joe Biden is good for Iran and ISIS. great for Communist China... and he's a
godsend to everyone who wants America to apologise, abstain, and abandon our
values. Donald Trump takes a different approach. He's tough on China, and he
took on ISIS and won. And he tells the world what it needs to hear," Haley
said.
"A Biden-Harris administration would be much, much worse. Last time, Joe's
boss was Obama. this time, it would be Pelosi, Sanders, and the Squad. Their
vision for America is socialism. And we know that socialism has failed
everywhere.
Haley, the two-term Governor of South Carolina, is the only Indian-American
leader to be featured in the list of RNC speakers released by the Trump
campaign on Sunday.
This is probably for the first time that Haley criticised Harris after she
was picked by Biden early this month as the vice presidential candidate.
Trump's son Donald Trump Jr alleged that Biden's radical leftwing policies
would stop US economic recovery cold. "He's already talking about shutting
the country down -again. It's madness," he said. "Joe Biden and the radical
left are also now coming for our freedom of speech and want to bully us into
submission. If they get their way, it will no longer be the Silent Majority,
it will be the Silenced Majority," Trump Jr said.
The Biden-Harris duo was also criticised by Senator Tim Scott.
"Joe Biden's radical Democrats are trying to permanently transform what it
means to be an American. Make no mistake: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want a
cultural revolution. A fundamentally different America," Senator Scott said.
AFGHANISTAN ASKS PAKISTAN TO CARRY OUT UN SANCTIONS ON TALIBAN
Afghanistan asked Pakistan on Tuesday to fully implement UN Security Council
sanctions on terrorist groups and individuals even as foreign minister Shah
Mahmood Qureshi held talks with a Taliban delegation that included several
sanctioned leaders.
On August 18, Pakistan's Foreign Office issued a statutory regulatory order
to enforce UN sanctions, which include a freeze on assets, a travel ban and
denying access to weapons, against scores of operatives of the Taliban and
Haqqani Network.
Less than a week later, a Taliban delegation led by Mullah Abdul Ghani
Baradar, the deputy political chief of the group, arrived in Islamabad on
Monday at the Pakistan government's invitation for talks on the Afghan peace
process.
A statement issued by Afghanistan's foreign ministry said the notification
issued by Pakistan on implementing the UN Security Council sanctions had
been "carefully considered and thoroughly reviewed..Afghanistan "urges the
government of...Pakistan to abide by its obligations and its international
responsibilities to implement the above-mentioned resolutions and to be
committed to their full implementation."
IRAN WON'T ACCEPT ANY DEMANDS BEYOND 2015 NUCLEAR DEAL
Iran won't accept any additional demands beyond its commitments under the
2015 nuclear deal, the country's top nuclear official declared Tuesday as
the chief of the UN nuclear watchdog was visiting Iran, the official IRNA
news agency reported.
Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in
Iran on Monday to press for access to sites where authorities are thought to
have stored or used undeclared nuclear material.
The visit comes as the U.S. is pushing to snapback UN sanctions on Iran for
allegedly violating the nuclear deal with world powers, which the Trump
administration unilaterally withdrew from two years ago.
The IAEA repeatedly found Iran in compliance with the agreement until last
year, when Tehran started openly exceeding some of the deal's limits on
nuclear enrichment in response to heavy U.S. sanctions.
Ali Akbar Salehi spoke during a joint press conference in Tehran with
Grossi.
Definitely Iran will not accept demands beyond (its) nuclear commitments. We
do act based on our own national interests, Mr. Salehi said. The report by
IRNA did not elaborate.
In a tweet, Mr. Grossi acknowledged his meeting with Mr. Salehi on Tuesday.
We are working on reaching an agreement on (IAEA)'s safeguards verification
activities in Iran, Mr. Grossi wrote, without elaborating.
ANTIBODY THAT MAY PROTECT AGAINST VIRUS IDENTIFIED
Scientists have identified a human antibody that they say may potentially
prevent or limit SARS-CoV-2 infection that causes Covid-19 disease.
The researchers from the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS)
in the US discovered and characterised a cross-reactive human monoclonal
antibody (MAB) to SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins which blocks ACE2 receptor
binding on the mucosal tissue of the respiratory tract.
The origins of this rapid and important discovery go back 16 years, when the
researchers at UMMS developed an IgG monoclonal antibody that was effective
against a similar virus, SARS, according to the study published in the
journal Nature Communications.
When SARS-CoV-2 was recognised and began to spread, the researchers realised
that the first MAB might help with this new infection. They launched the
process of resurrecting the old SARS programme, retrieving frozen cells that
had been developed 16 years earlier, thawing them and determining if what
worked for one novel coronavirus would work for another. Although there was
90 per cent similarity between the two coronaviruses, the monoclonal
antibody exhibited no binding to the current coronavirus, the researchers
said.
POMPEO ARRIVES IN BAHRAIN, URGES SEIZING MOMENTUM OF UAE-ISRAEL DEAL
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in the Gulf state of Bahrain on
Tuesday as part of a Middle East tour following an accord between Israel and
the United Arab Emirates to normalise relations.
Israel and the United States have said they are pushing more Arab countries
to follow suit. Israel's intelligence minister has mentioned Bahrain as a
possible candidate.
"Glad to arrive in the Gulf today ... We need Gulf unity now more than ever
to counter Iran and to build lasting peace and prosperity," Mr. Pompeo said
on Twitter.
'SABOTAGE EFFORT TO EXIT GREY LIST': IMRAN KHAN STINGS OPPN FOR DEFEATING
FATF-LINKED BILLS
Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has lately gone on an overdrive to dodge the
global dirty money watchdog's blacklist, on Tuesday suffered a huge setback
when Pakistan's Senate defeated two legislations that were seen to be
critical to efforts to get his country off the hook at the next Financial
Action Task Force review.
Khan announced the defeat of the two legislations on Twitter, delivering his
sharpest takedown of opposition leaders who he tweeted, were trying to save
their "corrupt money" and "sabotage Pak efforts to exit FATF grey list".
"Opposition tries to hide behind facade of democracy to protect their loot &
plunder. To blackmail for NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) by
defanging NAB (National Accountability Bureau, they would even have Pak put
on FATF black list to destroy nation's economy & increase poverty," Imran
Khan said.
Over the last one week, Khan has enacted laws and designated over 100 people
as terrorists to evade the blacklist at the next FATF?review expected in
October.
Khan's government had been able to get the two legislations - Anti-Money
Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT)
Waqf Properties Bill - cleared by Pakistan's lower house after a heated
debate that mostly centered around the role of the National Accountability
Bureau.
But the twin legislations appeared to have hit a roadblock in the Senate.
An upset Khan turned to Twitter, venting against the opposition leaders.
Khan said the opposition leaders were looking for an immunity deal like the
one offered by ex-President Pervez Musharraf back in 2007.
GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER HEADS TO GREECE, TURKEY AS REGIONAL TENSION MOUNTS
Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was heading to Greece and Turkey on
Tuesday in an effort to ease increasing tension between the two neighbours,
which are at loggerheads over prospecting rights in the eastern
Mediterranean.
In response to the vessel Oruc Reis's operations, Greece put its armed
forces on alert and sent warships to shadow the Turkish vessels.
"Turkey and Greece are our NATO allies. There can only be solutions for the
disputed questions surrounding the gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean
on the basis of international law and in sincere dialogue," Mr. Maas said
before his visit to the two countries.
"The tensions are not just weighing on the relationship between the EU and
Turkey. A further escalation can only damage all sides, but above all those
immediately involved on the spot."
Greece says the area in which the Oruc Reis has been operating overlaps its
own continental shelf and has demanded Turkey withdraw the ship. Ankara
responded by extending its notification to shipping, known as a Navtex,
about the research vessel's operations to Aug. 27.
Athens retorted by declaring it will carry out a three-day military exercise
in the area. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that "as of now,
Greece will be the only one responsible for any negative development in the
region," and said the military exercise "endangers the coastal and
navigational safety of all ships in the region."
The escalating tension has raised concerns of potential conflict between the
two regional rivals, which have come to the brink of war three times since
the mid-1970s, including once over prospecting rights in the Aegean Sea.
MORE THAN HALF A MILLION PEOPLE ORDERED TO FLEE U.S. COAST AHEAD OF
HURRICANE LAURA
In the largest U.S. evacuation of the pandemic, more than half a million
people were ordered to flee the Gulf Coast on Tuesday as Laura strengthened
into a hurricane that forecasters said could slam Texas and Louisiana with
ferocious winds, heavy flooding and the power to push seawater miles inland.
More than 385,000 residents were told to flee the Texas cities of Beaumont,
Galveston and Port Arthur, and another 200,000 were ordered to leave
low-lying Calcasieu Parish in southwestern Louisiana, where forecasters said
as much as 13 feet of storm surge topped by waves could submerge whole
communities.
The National Hurricane Center projected that Laura would draw energy from
warm Gulf waters and become a Category 3 hurricane before making landfall
late Wednesday or early Thursday, with winds of around 185 kmph. The
strengthening may slow or stop just before landfall, forecasters said.
"The waters are warm enough everywhere there to support a major hurricane,
Category 3 or even higher. The waters are very warm where the storm is now
and will be for the entire path up until the Gulf Coast," National Hurricane
Center Deputy Director Ed Rappaport said.
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