DONALD TRUMP WARNS THERE WILL BE 'BEDLAM' DURING VOTE COUNT

The ugliest election campaign in modern US history is drawing to a close

with intimation of violence and intimidation of Democrats opposition and its

voters, implicitly endorsed by President Donald Trump, coming to the fore 48

hours before the final round of balloting begins on Tuesday.

Still significantly behind in polls, Trump on Saturday approvingly tweeted a

video of a convoy of trucks and cars bearing flags and banners supporting

him as they surrounded a Biden campaign bus on the road in Texas in an

effort to browbeat Democrats. "I LOVE TEXAS!" Trump wrote alongside a video

accompanied by music whose lyrics included the rap song "Welcome to the Red

Kingdom."

The Biden campaign said the convoy attempted to run its bus off the highway

and forced them to cancel engagements in a state where polls show the two

sides in a deadheat, with a win or loss for either side being decisive in

the Presidential race.

The intimidation came even as Trump said there would be bedlam and "very bad

things" could happen in the country if results were not declared on election

night, even through there is no legal or constitutional requirement to do

so, and the "projection" of results has purely been a media exercise for

nearly a century. Contrary to Trump's assertion, formal results are always

declared and certified by state officials (not the media) after all ballots

have been counted, often several days after Election Day.

"I think it's highly likely you're not going to have a result.We're going to

be waiting, November 3 is going to come and go, and we're not going to know.

And you're going to have bedlam in our country," Trump predicted in a

campaign rally in Pennsylvania, whose 20 electoral votes is key to both

sides as they push towards the 270 needed to win the White House.

The US President's statements and tactics suggest he and his party believe

the only way they can win is delegitimizing mail-in ballots that are counted

after November 3, a process courts have largely approved. More than 90

million voters, approximately two-thirds of the expected turnout, have

already voted in the election, and roughly 2/3rds of the 90 million are in

the form of mail-in ballots, which tend to favor Democrats because its

voters are more mindful of the pandemic.

CHINA UNVEILS PLAN TO MAKE PLA ON PAR WITH US MILITARY BY 2027

According to the Communique of the fifth plenary session of the 19th CPC

Central Committee released on Thursday, the country's national defence

capabilities and economic strength should be strengthened at the same time

and reach the centennial goal of building a modern military by 2027.

The meeting headed by Xi has set a new goal to turn the PLA into a modern

military force by 2027, by which time, China aims to build an army on par

with that of the US, the Hong Kong based South China Morning Post reported.

With the centennial goal of building a modern military by 2027, China aims

to develop the military with the capability to defend national sovereignty,

safeguard against security threats posed by the hegemonism in western

pacific region and protect overseas development interests as China's

overseas economic presence grows, Li Jie, a Beijing-based naval expert, told

the Global Times.

"The centennial goal is in line with national strength," Song Zhongping, a

Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the tabloid.

Hong Kong military analyst Song Zhongping told the Post that the new

centennial goal can be interpreted as "putting the PLA as a leading modern

force in the world, one that can be on par with the US army".

Sunfei Wu, deputy head of Hong Kong think tank Tianda Institute said this is

the first time the Chinese leaders have included the military in such

development goals. He said the goal was primarily targeted at Taiwan.

"Basically, the target is to build PLA's capability to match the US army by

2027, so It can effectively deter interference by the US Army around the

Taiwan Strait," he said.

WITH PAK SENATE CHAIRMAN IN FRAY, IPU BEGINS VOTING FOR NEW CHIEF

As many as 144 countries began voting online to elect the next President of

Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in which India is determined to keep out the

Pakistani candidate Muhammad Sanjrani.

The Indications are that India will network to provide a helping hand to the

candidate from Portugal who is familiar with the corridors of the

Geneva-based IPU.

Besides Sanjrani, the other candidates are Duarte Pacheco (Portugal), Akmal

Saidov (Uzbekistan) and Salma Ataullahjan (Canada).

COVID: WHITE HOUSE ACCUSES TOP SCIENTIST FAUCI OF 'PLAYING POLITICS'

The White House has accused leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci

of playing politics days before the election in an interview about the

coronavirus pandemic.

Dr Fauci told the Washington Post the US was in for a "whole lot of hurt".

He also offered an assessment of how both President Donald Trump and his

Democratic rival, Joe Biden, are approaching the pandemic.

The US has recorded more deaths and cases than any other country.

According to data collated by Johns Hopkins University, deaths in the US

have now passed 230,000, while more than nine million cases have been

registered.

In his interview with the Post published on Saturday night, Dr Fauci warned

that "all the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall

and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors."

"You could not possibly be positioned more poorly," he said.

When asked about the approaches of the two presidential candidates, Dr Fauci

said Mr Biden was "taking it seriously from a public health perspective",

while Mr Trump was "looking at it from a different perspective. the economy

and reopening the country".

He said the US needed to make an "abrupt change" in public health practices

and behaviours.

The comments drew a sharp rebuke from the White House, which accused Dr

Fauci of attempting to bolster Mr Biden's bid for the presidency.

Spokesman Judd Deere said the comments were "unacceptable and breaking with

all norms".

"As a member of the [US Coronavirus] Task Force, Dr Fauci has a duty to

express concerns or push for a change in strategy, but he's not done that,

instead choosing to criticise the president in the media and make his

political leanings known by praising the president's opponent," he added in

a statement.

TRUMP RALLIES LED TO 30,000 COVID CASES: STANFORD STUDY

New York: About 18 election rallies of Donald Trump are estimated to have

led to more than 30,000 Covid cases and likely claimed over 700 lives, a new

study by Stanford University researchers said, stressing that the

communities where the US President's rallies took place "paid a high price

in terms of disease and death." The study is titled The Effects of Large

Group Meetings on the Spread of COVID-19: The Case of Trump Rallies.

CHINA BEGINS WORLD'S BIGGEST CENSUS DRIVE TO COUNT ITS POPULATION

China on Sunday started the world's biggest exercise of population count,

conducted once in a decade, to document demographic changes in the most

populous country.

About seven million census takers began door-to-door survey for the seventh

census in the country to account for China's population stated to be 1.37

billion in the last census exercise ten years ago.

Carrying out the census is critical to understand the population size,

structure and distribution, Ning Jizhe, deputy head of the National

Development and Reform Commission, said during a video conference to promote

the national census.

China has been conducting a national population census every 10 years since

the 1990s. The exercise was expected to provide the size of its ageing

population.

GILGIT-BALTISTAN WILL OVERWHELMINGLY VOTE AGAINST IMRAN KHAN, ASSERTS

BILAWAL BHUTTO ZARDARI

Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has insisted

that the people of Gilgit-Baltistan will overwhelmingly vote against the

candidates of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in the November 15

elections.

Zardari stated that the PPP would provide the people of Gilgit-Baltistan

their own province, the right to rule and property and the right to choose

the Prime Minister of Pakistan as the party had included these demands in

its manifesto for the 2018 general elections in Pakistan, reported Dawn.

He further targeted the Imran Khan government, claiming his slogan of change

means the destruction of Pakistan, and alleging that his cabinet had

rejected the demand of a separate province for Gilgit-Baltistan and filed a

petition in the Supreme Court.

"Today people from every section of the society are protesting against Imran

Khan and his policies as his government has brought poverty, hunger, price

hike, and unemployment to Pakistan," Dawn quoted Zardari.

"The PPP always gave subsidies to the poor whereas Imran Khan introduced

amnesty for the rich. Now Imran Khan wants to hand over GB's tourism sector

to his friends but we will not him do so," he added.

The party chairman also asked the people of Gilgit-Baltistan to come out in

numbers on November to decide their future.

Zardari made the statement on Saturday while addressing a corner meeting in

Gahkoch area of Ghizar district.

TEN DEAD, THREE MISSING AS 2020'S STRONGEST TYPHOON SLAMS PHILIPPINES

At least 10 people died and three others were missing after Typhoon Goni,

the world's strongest typhoon this year, barrelled through the south of the

Philippines' main island of Luzon on Sunday, an initial government report

showed.

More than 300 houses were buried under volcanic rocks and mud flows from

Mayon Volcano in severely hit Albay province in the Bicol region, a lawmaker

said.

Storm surges hit some coastal towns, while rivers overflowed and dikes were

destroyed, submerging several villages in Bicol.

The dead and missing were all in Bicol, including nine in Albay, the Office

of Civil Defence said.

Earlier in the day, Albay Governor Al Francis Bichara reported that a

five-year-old had been washed away in flash floods in his province. The

disaster management agency was still validating the reports.

In Guinobatan municipality, Representative Zaldy Co of the Ako Bicol party

list said more than 300 houses were buried under volcanic debris.

Goni weakened further after making landfall for a third time in Quezon

province and a fourth time in Batangas before heading towards the South

China Sea.

The world's strongest storm this year, which had reached a super typhoon

category and brought violent winds and intense rainfall, further weakened

with 125 kph (78 miles per hour) sustained winds and gusts of up to 170 kph,

the weather bureau said.