CORONAVIRUS: FRANCE TO IMPOSE NIGHT-TIME CURFEW TO BATTLE SECOND WAVE

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a night-time curfew in Paris

and eight other cities to try to curb the rapid spread of coronavirus.

The measure - from 21:00 to 06:00 - will come into effect from Saturday and

last for at least four weeks, Mr Macron said in a televised interview.

A public health emergency has also been declared.

Meanwhile Germany announced that bars and restaurants in higher-risk areas

must close early.

Chancellor Angela Merkel announced tightened restrictions on Wednesday as

the country recorded more than 5,000 new infections for the first time since

April.

In areas where infections exceed 50 per 100,000 inhabitants, bars and

restaurants must close their doors by 23:00. Private gatherings will be

limited to 10 people from two households.

Across Europe, governments are introducing new restrictions to battle a

second wave of infections.

A partial lockdown has come into force in the Netherlands and cafes and

restaurants are closing.

TRUMP, BIDEN CAMPS PORTRAYING EACH OTHER AS MENTALLY & PHYSICALLY UNFIT

The US presidential election has turned ugly, personal, and ferocious, its

prime contenders embarking on a course of denigrating each other over their

mental acuity, physical fitness, and moral rectitude in pursuit of crucial

voting blocks, particularly seniors and women.

President Trump, whose dragging of US political discourse into the gutter

has agitated even Republican stalwarts, continued with his tactics of

falsified videos, doctored photos, and lies - some of which have been

flagged by social media platforms - by posting a photoshopped image of Joe

Biden in a wheelchair with senior citizens in what appeared to be an elder

care facility. In the caption "Biden for President", the P had been erased

to make him a resident.

Separately, Trump associates Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon provided a New

York tabloid with emails and photos purporting to show a dissolute Hunter

Biden conniving with Ukrainian officials, in an effort to derail the

Democratic surge - similar to what was accomplished in 2016 with Hillary

Clinton's emails.

Democrats pushed back, ridiculing the tabloid story as a "nothing burger"

and asking Trump about his tax returns, his debts, and his failure to

contain a pandemic that has claimed 2,16,000 lives. Democrat surrogates and

'Never Trumpers' have also kept up a relentless surge of videos highlighting

everything from what they say is Trump's endless lies to his mental and

physical incapacity to the corrupt ways of his inner circle.

POMPEO CALLS INCLUSION OF RUSSIA, CHINA ON UNHRC A 'WIN FOR TYRANTS'

The election of countries like China, Russia and Cuba on the Human Rights

Council is a win for tyrants and embarrassment for the United Nations, US

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, China as well as Russia and Cuba won seats on the Human Rights

Council, which is a win for tyrants and embarrassment for the United

Nations, Pompeo told reporters at a news conference here.

"It's an example, an indication of why we were right to leave that body.

When institutions are irredeemable as was demonstrated yesterday, the United

States under President (Donald) Trump simply will not participate," he said.

Prior to making this decision, and after its exit, the United States urged

the UN member states to take an immediate action to reform the Council

before it became irreparable, Pompeo had said in a statement a day earlier.

"Unfortunately, those calls went unheeded, and today the UN General Assembly

once again elected countries with abhorrent human rights records, including

China, Russia and Cuba. Venezuela was elected in 2019," he said.

These elections only further validate the US decision to withdraw and use

other venues and opportunities to protect and promote universal human

rights, he alleged.

Pompeo said that the US' commitment to human rights consists of far more

than just words.

"Through the State Department's action, we have punished human rights

abusers in Xinjiang, Myanmar, Iran and elsewhere. Our commitments are

spelled out clearly in the UN's declaration, and in our record of action.

The United States is a force for good in the world and will always be," he

said.

PAK TALKS OFFER CLAIM FINDS NO TAKERS

The government did not officially react to an aide to Pakistan Prime

Minister Imran Khan claiming that India has sent a message to Islamabad

expressing its "desire for a conversation".

In an interview to an Indian news channel, Moeed W. Yusuf, Special Assistant

on national security and strategic policy planning to Khan, said that

Pakistan, however, wants three-way talks involving Kashmiris as well.

Three-way talks are anathema to New Delhi which has earlier made it clear

that there is no dispute on Kashmir. All that remains to be discussed is the

handing over of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir to India.

Yusuf's statement comes a month after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had

said unelected advisers and special assistants to the PM cannot exercise

executive or administrative powers in the functioning of the government.

Only elected representatives chosen by people have the privilege to run the

affairs of ministries, it had added while disposing of a petition

challenging the appointment of another adviser to Pak PM.

The court had also added that any executive function performed by any

unelected member of the PM's team would deem to have been taken illegally

but said it was the PM's prerogative to choose a person for giving him

advice.

TRUMP, BIDEN TO HOLD SEPARATE TOWN HALL MEETINGS ON THURSDAY

US President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden, who are

chasing each other with rallies and events in key battleground states in the

final weeks of campaigning, will hold duelling town hall events on Thursday

when they were scheduled to meet for their second debate, which got

cancelled.

The two events will be aired live at the same time, though from different

locations. Both are being held in key battleground states: Trump will be in

Miami, Florida for his town hall hosted by NBC News, according to a

Wednesday announcement by the network, and Biden will be in Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania with ABC News.

Trump and Biden were scheduled to meet on Thursday for their second

presidential debate, which was to be an in-person town hall but had been

turned virtual after the president tested positive for Covid-19. It was

cancelled eventually, after Trump pulled out saying he did not want to

debate Biden on a computer.

The two nominees will take questions from members of the audience at their

separate town halls, as they would have, but won't have the chance,

naturally, to attack each other in person.

"Suburban women, will you please like me?" Trump appealed to a key

constituency at a rally Tuesday in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a state that is

being called a "tipping point" in the 2020 race for the White House.

"I saved your damn neighbourhood, okay?" he added referring to an Obama-era

anti-segregation rule he rescinded.

Biden, the Democratic nominee, was in Pembroke, Florida, where he sought to

peel away older white American supporters of Trump. "You deserve respect and

peace of mind, but you're not getting it because to Donald Trump, you're

expendable. You're forgettable. You're 'virtually nobody'."

"That's how he sees seniors. That's how he sees you."

On Tuesday, he made his case to the most vulnerable. Older white voters have

been a key support block for Trump.

ONE AMERICAN, TWO RUSSIANS BLAST OFF TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a U.S. astronaut and two Russian

cosmonauts blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on

Wednesday and successfully reached orbit, live footage broadcast by Russia's

space agency Roscosmos showed.

The crew members travelling to the International Space Station (ISS) are

Kate Rubins, a NASA microbiologist who in 2016 became the first person to

sequence DNA in space, and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey

Kud-Sverchkov.

The mission is the last scheduled Russian flight carrying a U.S. crew

member.

Since the space shuttle program ended in 2011, NASA has relied on Russia to

ferry its astronauts to the space station, an orbiting laboratory 250 miles

above Earth that has housed international crews of astronauts continuously

for nearly 20 years.

The U.S. space agency in 2014 contracted Elon Musk's SpaceX and Boeing Co to

build competing space capsules in an effort to reclaim NASA's launch

independence.

The $8 billion program enabled SpaceX's first manned trip to the space

station in May, marking the first from home soil in nearly a decade.

NASA has purchased additional crew seats from Russia as its public-private

crew program faced delays, with Rubins' mission being the most recent.

The U.S. is scheduled to begin operational missions on SpaceX's Crew Dragon

capsule.

THAI PROTESTS: LARGE GATHERINGS BANNED UNDER EMERGENCY DECREE

The Thai government has announced an emergency decree to combat protests in

Bangkok, which includes banning large gatherings.

A televised announcement read out by police said "many groups of people have

invited, incited and carried out unlawful public gatherings in Bangkok".

It said urgent measures were needed to "maintain peace and order".

Protesters have called for curbs on the king's powers and for the

resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.

The announcement on state television said protesters had "instigated chaos

and public unrest".

It cited protesters confronting a royal motorcade on Wednesday as a reason

for the decree. The protesters, who were pushed back by ranks of police,

raised the three-finger salute that has become a symbol of the protest

movement as the queen was driven through Bangkok.

The emergency measures came into effect at 04:00 local time on Thursday

(21:00 GMT on Wednesday).

It also allows authorities to stop people from entering "any area they

designate", Reuters news agency reports.

RUSSIA GRANTS REGULATORY APPROVAL TO SECOND COVID-19 VACCINE

Russia has granted regulatory approval to a second Covid-19 vaccine, a

delighted President Vladimir Putin announced at a government meeting on

Wednesday.

Putin congratulated scientists for approving the new jab, which was

developed by Siberia's Vector Institute and completed early-stage human

trials last month.

"We need to increase production of the first and second vaccine," he said in

comments broadcast on state TV.

"We are continuing to cooperate with our foreign partners and will promote

our vaccine abroad."

Russia in August became the first country to grant regulatory approval for a

Covid-19 vaccine, doing so before large-scale trials were complete, to the

concern of some in the global scientific community.

About 400 high-risk patients have received that jab, according to the health

ministry. The vaccine, called "Sputnik V" in homage to the world's first

satellite launched by the Soviet Union, is not yet in general circulation.