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Q: Several countries are using technology to track citizens, storing DNA to fight the virus. Are we entering a new era of digital surveillance, and what does this mean for privacy?

A: There are now companies developing technology which make it possible for the employer ... to look at what's on your computer screen and to check your keystrokes and if you get up and walk away for a minute, they'll send you a warning.

That's being installed right now.... It's not the future.

The so-called Internet of Things is coming along. It's convenient. It means if you're driving home you can turn on the stove -- but it also means that that information is going to Google and Facebook, to the government, the American government, the French government, it's an enormous amount of potential control ,surveillance and invasion. But this has happened. It's not the future.

If we allow the huge tech companies, the state, to control our life that's what will happen. They'll turn it into something like China, where you have social credit systems and in some cities you get a certain amount of credits, there's face recognition technology all over the place and everything you do gets monitored.

If you cross the street in the wrong place, you can ... lose some credits, and so on.

It's not inevitable, just like global warming, that it's going to happen -- unless people stop it.

Q: Could it be justified to halt the virus' spread?

A. It might be -- during the period of threat. There's controls needed during wartime, you have rationing. But it doesn't have to be permanent.... 'Yes, we'll let you have this authority now, but it can be revoked at any time.'"

Q: How do you view the political landscape emerging from this crisis in the US and elsewhere?

A: As soon as Trump came in, his first move was to dismantle the entire pandemic prevention machinery. At the start, defunding the Center for Disease Control, which would deal with this. And canceling programs that were working with Chinese scientists to identify potential viruses. So the US was singularly unprepared.

It's a privatized society, very wealthy, with enormous advantages -- far more than any other country -- but it's in the stranglehold of private control.

It doesn't have a universal health care system.... It's the ultimate neoliberal system, actually.

Europe in many ways is worse, because the austerity programs just amplify the danger, because of the severe attack on democracy in Europe, the shifting decisions to Brussels.... So Europe has its own problems, but at least it has the residue of some kind of social democratic structure, which provides some support, which is what I think is lacking in the US.

As severe as this pandemic is, it's not the worst problem. There will be recovery from the pandemic at severe cost ... but there isn't going to be any recovery from the melting of the polar ice caps and the rising of sea levels and the other deleterious effects of global warming.

Question: How do you read the current situation in the United States, where coronavirus has killed more residents than any other nation in the world?

Answer: There's no coherent leadership. It's chaotic. The presidency, the White House, is in the hands of a sociopathic megalomaniac who's interested in nothing but his own power, electoral prospects -- doesn't care what happens to the country, the world.

The president himself has said that it's none of his business. He's said that the federal government can't do anything.

Nothing really matters except his personal power and gain. Of course he has to maintain the support of his primary constituency, which is great wealth and corporate power.

There's 90,000 deaths and there will be a lot more.... There's no coordinated plan.

Laura BONILLA
AFP News
25 May 2020


The United States is on a chaotic path with no federal plan against the coronavirus pandemic as it reduces public health funding and ignores the advances of climate change, according to activist scholar Noam Chomsky, considered the founder of modern linguistics.

What follows are extracts, edited for clarity, from an AFP interview with the 91-year-old leftist intellectual, who has authored more than 100 books and is currently a professor at the University of Arizona.

For two months he's been confined in Tucson with his Brazilian wife Valeria, his dog and a parrot who can say "sovereignty" in Portuguese.

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Coming to India, PTI reported experts were of the view that research in the country on a Covid-19 vaccine was still at a nascent stage and any concrete breakthrough was not likely within a year. Presently, while Zydus Cadila is working on two vaccines, Serum Institute, Biological E, Bharat Biotech, Indian Immunologicals, and Mynvax are developing one vaccine each.

Coronavirus (Covid-19) Vaccine Latest Update: After Moderna, China's Cansino Biologics claims vaccine breakthrough; Oxford to start advanced human trials; Indian Covid-19 vaccine unlikely within a year
By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi | Updated: May 25, 2020 1:09:06 pm


Days after US biotechnology company Moderna Inc reported successful results from its experimental vaccine for Covid-19, a second breakthrough has been made in China, with Cansino Biologics Inc saying the vaccine appeared to be safe and might protect people from the novel coronavirus.

With Covid-19 infecting more than 5.5 million and killing 338,249 people across the world, a vaccine is considered to be the best long-term solution for allowing countries to reopen their economies by coming out of months-long lockdown.

For Covid-19, there are over 100 vaccines being developed across the world now, some from scratch, some from existing molecules developed for other diseases.

"Yemen cannot face two fronts at the same time: a war and a pandemic," U.N. Special Envoy Martin Griffiths said last month.

There has been a patchy ceasefire in place between the Saudi-led coalition and Houthis during Ramadan, but coronavirus cases continue to rise in a country whose health infrastructure has almost collapsed.

The humanitarian charity Save the Children reported a surge in COVID-19 cases in Aden this week with 385 deaths, in an area where many medics have deserted hospitals and those still working face a dangerous lack of protective personal equipment.

Elsewhere, the United Arab Emirates confirmed it would expand its nightly curfew, which started May 20. Although some public transport and private hotel beaches have reopened, shopping malls remain only partially open.

Kuwait has also imposed stringent penalties for not wearing a mask in public, with up to three months in prison and a $16,000 fine, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health said. The country has also canceled Eid celebrations, introducing a full curfew until May 30, to stem the spread of the disease.

Meanwhile, war-torn Yemen reported its first COVID-19 case in April. The United Nations has since warned that the disease is spreading undetected in a country where almost 80 percent of the population already relies on aid.

Millions of Muslims are preparing to celebrate the end of Ramadan with the Eid al-Fitr holiday this weekend, normally marked by public prayers in the mosque, family visits and grand communal meals.

But as cases continue to rise, Saudi Arabia has announced the whole country will remain locked down with strict curfews in place and gatherings limited to five people, according to the Ministry of Interior.

In nearby Qatar, cases have also shot up.

The gas-rich country has recorded 16 deaths and has over 30,000 active cases, officials said. All shops have been ordered to stay closed until the end of the month, except for pharmacies and grocery stores.

Residents must also wear masks when outdoors or risk fines of up to $55,000 or imprisonment of up to three years.

The chair of the Qatari National Strategy Group to fight COVID-19 blamed the rise on a "lack of commitment of many members of society to preventive measures," during a news conference on Wednesday.

The rise has been attributed to illegal family visits, including meeting to break fast together, street vendors remaining open and people gathering in shops, the ministry said in a statement, with cities such as Mecca and Riyadh particularly affected.

Ministry spokesman Muhammad Al-Abdulaali said in a statement that around 60 percent of those infected were non-Saudi residents and that the country was carrying out more than 15,000 tests per day to combat the disease.

"The spread of the virus is under control, and the rise in the number of the Kingdom COVID-19 cases is attributed to the increase in the lab tests, which facilitate early detection of cases," he said.

But he noted that "social gatherings continue to contribute to the increase in infection cases."

NBC News   
Adela Suliman and Charlene Gubash
May 21, 2020


A huge spike in coronavirus cases in the Middle East, where many have been observing the Islamic month of Ramadan, has led countries to extend and reinforce lockdown measures during this weekend's Eid holiday.

The largest number of cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, has been in Saudi Arabia, which normally sees millions of Muslims descend on the holy cities of Mecca and Medina during Ramadan. In response to the outbreak, the kingdom closed off the religious sites, with stark images of empty mosques and sacred sites circulating online.

But despite such measures, the number of cases has only grown in Saudi Arabia, passing 50,000 on Saturday and ballooning to 62,545 as of Wednesday — with 339 deaths — according to the Ministry of Health.

The poll found:

•   Germans were largely split when asked whether they favored maintaining close relations with China or the US.

•   37% of Germans said it was more important to maintain close relations with the US, compared to 36% who said the same of China.

•   That was a big drop from a poll last year, when 50% of Germans said maintaining US relations was the priority, compared with just 24% who said China.

•   In a separate question, just 10% of Germans saw the US as the country's most important global partner, down from 19% last year. Six percent said the same of China, down 1 percentage point from the year before.

The poll found:

•   Germans were largely split when asked whether they favored maintaining close relations with China or the US.

•   37% of Germans said it was more important to maintain close relations with the US, compared to 36% who said the same of China.

•   That was a big drop from a poll last year, when 50% of Germans said maintaining US relations was the priority, compared with just 24% who said China.

•   In a separate question, just 10% of Germans saw the US as the country's most important global partner, down from 19% last year. Six percent said the same of China, down 1 percentage point from the year before.

President Donald Trump is presiding over the deterioration of the US's position on the world stage as European countries increasingly look toward China as a future global leader.

This shift is apparent in a series of recent opinion polls that found European sentiment toward the US to be in decline since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

New polling published in Germany this week found that an overwhelming majority of Germans said they had a worse opinion of the US because of the pandemic.

The survey found that 76% of Germans said their view of the US had deteriorated because of the pandemic, compared with 36% who said the same of China.

Europe is abandoning Trump on the world stage as it turns away from the US toward China
Adam Bienkov
https://www.businessinsider.com/europe-abandoning-donald-trump-coronavirus-world-stage-turns-towards-china-2020-5
3 hours ago


President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic has triggered global criticism.

•   Recent polling suggests Europeans are turning away from the US under President Donald Trump's leadership.

•   Public opinion toward America has declined in major European countries since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

•   Seventy-six percent of Germans in a new poll said their view of America had deteriorated because of the crisis.

•   Roughly equal numbers of Germans in the poll favored maintaining close relationships with China and the US in a head-to-head matchup.

•   One poll last week found that just 2% of French people trusted Trump to provide world leadership.

•   China is exerting growing political, diplomatic, and financial power across Europe.

But most concerning is the obvious issues these flights of fancy raise about Trump himself and his fitness for public office of any kind, let alone the presidency. Those questions have been apparent throughout his term, as when he claimed that windmills cause cancer (they don't) or that the F-35 stealth fighter is literally invisible (it's not). Donald J. Trump has trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality. He believes he knows more than anyone in the room when in fact he knows less. He can't admit a mistake, even when doing so would be the smartest way out of the holes he invariably digs for himself.

Those traits were harmful enough when the country was riding high on relative peace and prosperity. During a global pandemic and a disastrous economic downturn, they can prove catastrophic. As Trump's presumed election opponent, former vice president Joe Biden, tweeted, "I can't believe I have to say this but don't drink bleach." The warning was specific to Trump's foray into disinfectants, but it serves as an apt metaphor for his entire reign terror and stupidity.

Some of Trump's silliest ideas actually make it into policy. Just as customs agents can't catch every vehicle smuggling drugs through the border, government officials can't prevent every Trumpian musing from being turned into reality. We now have a Space Force, a new branch of the armed services that cost billions to establish and serves no discernible purpose that wasn't already being handled elsewhere. Trump's obsession with the trappings of military pomp eventually got him the Fourth of July gathering he'd long sought, even if the tanks he wanted to parade down the Mall ended up merely parked there instead. He seems intent on recalling a thousand cadets to the U.S. Military Academy so he can deliver a graduation speech, despite the public health risks it will cause.

Beyond Washington, some Trump loyalists have trouble discerning which of his ideas stray from mere quirkiness into the realm of personal danger. When the Donald repeatedly pushed chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as a potential "game-changer" in the treatment of patients with covid-19, despite an absence of scientific evidence, Americans responded by hoarding and consuming the drugs, sometimes at their own peril. Maryland's emergency hotline received over 100 calls about disinfectants after Trump's latest comments. New York City's poison control center reported a spike in cases of exposure to disinfectants, including Lysol.

Other officials burn their own hard-earned credibility by publicly defending Trump's delusions. When Trump initially made his disinfectant recommendation, he paired it with this suggestion: "Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that hasn't been checked but you're going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you're going to test that too. It sounds interesting."

The look of obvious discomfort on the face of Deborah Birx, the administration's coronavirus response coordinator, made her an Internet sensation. A day later, she defended Trump on Fox News by arguing, "when he gets new information, he likes to talk that through, out loud," a head-scratching explanation that also contradicted Trump's remark that he was being sarcastic.

When Trump says he was being 'sarcastic,' it's just part of his gaslighting.

Other officials burn their own hard-earned credibility by publicly defending Trump's delusions. When Trump initially made his disinfectant recommendation, he paired it with this suggestion: "Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that hasn't been checked but you're going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you're going to test that too. It sounds interesting."

The look of obvious discomfort on the face of Deborah Birx, the administration's coronavirus response coordinator, made her an Internet sensation. A day later, she defended Trump on Fox News by arguing, "when he gets new information, he likes to talk that through, out loud," a head-scratching explanation that also contradicted Trump's remark that he was being sarcastic.

When Trump says he was being 'sarcastic,' it's just part of his gaslighting.

It is tempting to laugh off the Donald's most ridiculous ideas as comic relief that will never be implemented because cooler and wiser heads in the government will ultimately prevail. Indeed, Trump's defenders often try to defend his wackiest suggestions by declaring him an innovative thinker, usually just before he hangs them out to dry by denying he said the thing he clearly said or by pretending he was joking, as he did with his comments on disinfectants. "I was asking a question sarcastically," he said Friday.

But these journeys deep into the abyss of the Trump mind have real effects on the workings of government and the behavior of individual Americans. Officials spend time and resources that should be directed toward addressing actual problems instead of studying Trump's worst ideas and convincing him to back down. For example, Anthony S. Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, has been forced to intervene repeatedly with Trump over policies that Fauci says would compromise public health.

Trump has a few ideas about the weather, too. During meetings to discuss hurricane response, Trump has asked why the government doesn't just drop a nuclear bomb on hurricanes before they make landfall. Despite the fact that nuking a hurricane would be banned by treaty, would spread radioactive fallout along the hurricane's path and would do nothing to actually stop the storm, an administration official reportedly told Trump, "Sir, we'll look into that."

Trump's "knowledge" of chemistry and physics are joined by an interest in geography. Last August, he repeatedly pushed advisers to consider whether the United States could purchase Greenland from the government of Denmark. When news of his plan leaked and the Danish prime minister publicly responded that Greenland was not for sale, Trump publicly pouted by abruptly canceling a planned meeting with her.