Uniquely Nelson

France has recorded its highest ever daily increase in Covid-19 cases while new cases hit a two-month high in the US, as the pandemic tests governments in many parts of the world. Gym fans in Paris march towards the French Health Ministry to protest at the closure of their facilities due to the pandemic. Photo: AFP More than 58,000 infections were reported in the United States as hospitalisations in the Midwest hit record levels for a fifth day in a row, according to a Reuters analysis. Ten of the 50 states reported record one-day rises in cases, including the Midwestern states of Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri and Ohio. Wisconsin and Illinois recorded over 3000 new cases for a second day in a row - a two-day trend not seen even during the height of the previous outbreak in the spring, according to Reuters data. A member of the National Guard tests a motorist in Wisconsin, which has one of the highest Covid-19 rates in the US. Photo: AFP The Western states of Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming also reported their biggest one-day jumps in cases, as did Oklahoma and West Virginia. Nineteen states have seen record increases in new cases so far in October. While deaths nationally continue to trend downward, the United States is losing on average 700 lives a day. Three states reported a record one-day increase in fatalities: Arkansas, Missouri and Montana. Health experts caution that deaths are a lagging indicator and usually rise weeks after cases climb. The US death toll now stands at 213, 037. The number of people who succumb to Covid-19 is expected to accelerate as the US enters winter. More than 26,000 cases in one day in France The number of new coronavirus infections in France jumped by over 26,000 in one day for the first time since the start of the epidemic, health ministry data showed. The ministry reported 26,896 new infections, taking the cumulative total to 718,873 since the start of the year. The number of deaths increased by 54 to 32,684. Ireland has reported 1012 new cases, the highest number in a day since the start of the pandemic and almost double the average for the past week. The surge, after a week in which regions of neighbouring Northern Ireland reported some of the highest infection rates in Europe, is likely to increase pressure on the government to impose additional restrictions. A woman leaves a train in Dublin, Ireland. The country's cases are on the rise again. Photo: AFP Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan said in a statement that he was "very worried about the numbers we are seeing and how quickly they are deteriorating". The government last Monday banned indoor restaurant dining nationwide and limited the number of visitors to people's homes. But it rejected a recommendation from public health officials to impose a much stricter lockdown. The United Kingdom recorded 15,166 new cases, a rise on the 13,864 cases reported the day before, government data showed. A further 81 people died after testing positive for the virus within 28 days, the latest daily figures showed. Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez appealed for unity after the far-right Vox party said it would take legal action against a partial lockdown imposed on Madrid to contain one of Europe's worst outbreaks. Poland announced new measures to curb the pandemic after reporting record infections for a fifth straight day, but it stopped short of introducing mandatory distance learning for schools. Russia, Portugal and the Netherlands reported record daily case increases. Africa needs billions The economic damage as well as the health costs caused by coronavirus has left Africa needing £920 billion ($NZ1798b) over the next three years, the International Monetary Fund has said. IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said the world "must do more to support Africa to [recover]... from this crisis". Africa has had fewer Covid infections and deaths than most other continents. But the World Bank says 43 million more Africans are at risk of extreme poverty as a result of the pandemic. A girl collects a food parcel from a food bank in Johannesburg. Photo: AFP The economic impact is reversing the trend in recent years of strong growth in Africa, as jobs have been lost and family incomes have been reduced by 12 percent, Georgieva told a virtual IMF meeting. To help soften the blow, many African governments have introduced mitigation policies which have cost 2.5 percent of GDP, she added. Meanwhile, mask wearing has become mandatory in public in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and violators will be fined, President Hassan Rouhani announced as the country battles a third wave of coronavirus infections. - Reuters

US President Donald Trump has made his first public appearance since returning to the White House from a three-day stay in hospital for Covid-19, even as his aides remained silent on whether he is still contagious. Photo: AFP The maskless president seemed to be back on the campaign trail for the first time since his hospital stay, though the event was officially a "peaceful protest". The president, who says he is no longer taking medicines against Covid-19, told the crowd he was "feeling great". Trump also said a vaccine would be ready "very, very soon". American science and medicine would "eradicate the China virus", the president said. Speaking without hesitation, Trump appeared to be back to his usual rallying form, boasting about his record and hurling unsubstantiated allegations against his opponents as a packed crowd of supporters chanted, "We love you." Trump, who has campaigned on a law-and-order theme during recent months of sometimes violent protests for racial justice, told the gathering that the Republican Party had the support of America's police forces. "We have law enforcement watching," he said. "We're on the side of right." Supporters, many not wearing masks, listen to the president's speech. Photo: AFP It is just over a week since Trump announced he had tested positive for coronavirus. He said yesterday he was awaiting a fresh test result, and the White House has not provided an update on his health since Friday. Trump's doctors have cleared him to hold public events, 24 days before he faces Democratic rival Joe Biden in the presidential election on 3 November. Today's White House gathering was partly organised by a foundation called "Blexit", which aims to get black and Latino voters to support the Republican party. The president railed against his presidential rival Joe Biden, describing the Democrats' programme as "beyond socialism - Communist, that's about right". Trump repeated his previous assertion that he had done more for the black community than any president since Abraham Lincoln. Trump has been criticised for using the White House for political events, such as when he accepted his party's renomination for president from the South Lawn back in August. The president says he is planning to attend a "big rally" in Florida - a battleground state in next month's presidential election - on Monday. Polling suggests Biden has a single-digit lead over Trump while an ABC News/Ipsos poll found that just 35 percent of Americans approved of how Trump has handled the coronavirus crisis. However US presidential elections are in practice determined in key states where both candidates stand a chance of winning, rather than by the total number of votes won, as Hillary Clinton found to her cost in 2016. Protesters made their feelings clear outside the perimeter of the White House. Photo: AFP What is the latest on the president's health? Trump told Fox News that he was feeling "really, really strong" and was no longer on medication, having had his "final doses of just about everything". On Friday the president's doctor Sean Conley said that it would be safe for him to return to public engagements yesterday as that would mark "day 10" since his diagnosis on Thursday 1 October. Following his diagnosis, Trump spent three nights in hospital and was treated with the steroid dexamethasone, the antiviral drug remdesivir and a cocktail of manufactured antibodies made by the company Regeneron. The US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) recommends self-isolation for at least 10 days after coronavirus symptoms first appear, with more severe illness, such as that requiring hospital treatment, potentially needing up to 20 days. What's happening at the White House? With just over three weeks to go until the election on 3 November, Mr Trump is keen to get back on the campaign trail. All attendees at today's event on the South Lawn were required to wear masks, given temperature checks and encouraged to social distance, said the White House. "We're making sure we're taking precautions so that those in attendance are screened before they come in," White House communications director, Alyssa Farah, told CBS News. "The president's at a great distance, he's going to be up on the balcony, and very, very briefly, address the supporters there." Biden who has tested negative for Covid-19 again today expressed disbelief at the president's plans to hold rallies and criticised the Trump administration's lax stance on mask use as reckless. "I wouldn't show up unless you have a mask and can distance," Biden said, speaking while campaigning in Las Vegas. - BBC / Reuters

North Korea has unveiled previously unseen intercontinental ballistic missiles at a rare night-time military parade that showcased the country's long-range weapons for the first time in two years. Kim Jong Un, centre, enjoys the parade from a balcony. Photo: AFP It is the country's first parade in two years and comes just weeks ahead of the US presidential election. Analysts said the missile, which was shown on a transporter vehicle with 11 axles, would be one of the largest road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in the world if it becomes operational. "This missile is a monster," said Melissa Hanham, deputy director of the Open Nuclear Network. A screen grab of the new ICBM. Photo: AFP Also displayed were the Hwasong-15, which is the longest-range missile ever tested by North Korea, and what appeared to be a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). No foreign media or foreigners were allowed to attend, so analysts are relying on edited state-media footage which is being released to assess the parade. Ahead of the parade, which was held to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of its ruling Workers' Party, officials in South Korea and the United States said Kim Jong Un could use the event to unveil a new "strategic weapon" as promised earlier this year. A senior US administration official called the display of the ICBM "disappointing" and called on the government to negotiate to achieve a complete denuclearisation. The parade featured North Korea's ballistic missiles for the first time since Kim began meeting with international leaders, including US President Donald Trump, in 2018. Photo: AFP "We will continue to build our national defence power and self-defensive war deterrence," Kim said, but vowed that the country's military power would not be used preemptively. He made no direct mention of the United States or the now-stalled denuclearisation talks. Kim blamed international sanctions, typhoons, and the coronavirus for preventing him from delivering on promises of economic progress. "I am ashamed that I have never been able to repay you properly for your enormous trust," he said. "My efforts and devotion were not sufficient to bring our people out of difficult livelihoods." The video showed Kim make an appearance as a clock struck midnight. Dressed in a grey suit and tie, he waved to the crowd and accepted flowers from children while surrounded by military officials in Pyongyang's recently renovated Kim Il Sung Square. Kim spoke for nearly half an hour, often visibly sweating despite the cool morning air, shedding tears when thanking the troops, and smiling and laughing as he watched the missiles. The parade was highly choreographed, with thousands of troops marching in formation, displays of new conventional military equipment including tanks, and fighter jets launching flares and fireworks. Photo: AFP Experts said that the new, larger ICBM is likely designed to carry multiple independent reentry vehicles (MIRVs), allowing it to attack more targets and making interception more difficult. The new ICBM is likely intended to dispel doubts about North Korea's ability to strike the continental United States, and an implicit threat that they are preparing to test the larger missile, said Markus Garlauskas, a former US intelligence officer for North Korea. "If the Hwasong-15 could carry a 'super-large' nuclear warhead to anywhere in the US, then the natural question is what can this larger missile carry?," he said. Photo: AFP Coronavirus measures Kim became visibly emotional as he thanked the troops for their sacrifice in responding to natural disasters and preventing a corovonavirus outbreak. He said he was grateful that not a single North Korean had tested positive for the disease, an assertion that South Korea and the United States have previously questioned. While attendees at other celebratory events were shown wearing masks, no one at the parade appeared to be wearing them. Kim said he hoped that North and South Korea would join hands again when the global coronavirus crisis is over. South Korean officials said this week that Kim could use the event as a "low intensity" show of power ahead of the U.S. presidential election on 3 November, as denuclearisation talks with Washington have stalled. In a congratulatory message to Kim for the anniversary, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he intended to "defend, consolidate and develop" ties with North Korea, its state media said yesterday. - Reuters

Investigative journalist Dr Norman Swan says the Covid-19 pandemic in Australia saw "superspreading social networks" that led to the situation getting out of control. Dr Norman Swan. Photo: Janie Barrett Swan was one of the country's first medically trained journalists - training in medicine at the University of Aberdeen, in Scotland, where he was born and raised. He is also the father of Jonathan Swan - a journalist who works as a political reporter in Washington DC, and recently gained fame for grilling President Donald Trump in an interview. He's the host of the ABC's Health Report, and Coronacast, a podcast dedicated to informing Australians on the latest in the Covid-19 pandemic. He joined Kim Hill to discuss the latest developments in how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting Australia and when we might see a vaccine rolled out. In July, Victoria's Covid-19 cases rose dramatically and remained stubbornly high. By early August, a stage four lockdown was imposed across Melbourne, while the rest of Victoria moved to stage three. Rather than an individual "superspreader" being the cause of the outbreak, Swan said it was more of a case of "superspreading social networks" that led to the situation getting out of control. "You had people going out into the north-west corridor of Melbourne and into large family groups," he said. "Friendly, cohesive families where people were working all over Melbourne, living in relatively overcrowded circumstances, they're working in abattoirs and so on, and they go out and spread it." He said the outbreak in Victoria and another recent outbreak in Sydney showed the virus had the potential to "go underground". An outbreak of Covid-19 in Victoria led to a six week lockdown in Melbourne. Photo: AFP "In Washington state at the beginning of it, it went underground for about six weeks, spreading in probably asymptomatic populations," he said. "When testing rates go down you lose control of the virus." The outbreak in Sydney was discovered when virus particles were found during testing of the sewage system. Using the positive samples, officials were able to trace the virus to communities in south-west Sydney, where it was discovered that cases of the Covid-19 had been missed. Swan said that contact tracing was much better and more transparent in New South Wales than it was in Victoria and this had meant they were able to get the outbreak under control. "It one sense it was bad news the other day when they had 12 cases, now there's the sense that it was good news that very quickly after finding it in the sewage, they're finding new cases and the testing rate goes up 5000 a day to 12 or 15,000 a day," he said. Sewage testing was one way to manage the pandemic going forward, Swan said, as well as mass testing of communities using new rapid testing technology. "It's essentially mass screening, where your shopping malls, pharmacies, general practictioners surgeries, you have these rapid tests where you don't need pathology, it's a bit like a pregnancy test. "The other way is that you monitor the sewage for viral fragments. You've got to do it really carefully because you can make mistakes, you can wrongly pick up viral fragments that you think are SARS but they're not." He said the success of sewage testing also depended on how accurate the sewage drainage system was, as to whether the infection could be traced to a particular area, which could be then mass tested. Swan believed that New Zealanders and Australians would be starting to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in a year's time, but that it would likely be an annual immunisation. "As to mutation, no one knows how long the immunity lasts, you hear about reinfection cases and they're real, but it's not massive numbers of them," he said. "My best guess is about a year, so we're going to talk about annual immunisations forevermore." While the SARS-COV2 virus did not mutate deliberately, Swan said it had changed its behaviour in response to us. "We've socially distanced globally to some extent and mutations of the virus have preferentially survived to get around our social distancing," he said. "So this D614G mutation that they talk about is almost a more contagious form of the virus, it's not more virulent and it's survived preferentially." This mutation was found in the spike protein, which is the part of the virus that connects to the body - which Swan said was a worry for vaccine development. "Vaccines are all using the Wuhan virus from earlier this year, so are these vaccines going to be up to the task of the new mutations, which are in exactly the same spot that you want to attack with the vaccine?" However, he said an Australian study on ferrets infected with the mutated virus found in the country, as well as earlier samples from Wuhan, found that the immune response looked like it was "deep enough and broad enough at the moment to cope with the mutations". If a vaccine was developed, Swan said he thought that we might be able to "start relaxing" by Christmas next year.  But this was complicated by "vaccine nationalism", where countries were buying up large stocks of vaccines. "It's important for governments to join COVAX, which is an international project organised by Gari, a vaccine initiative where countries buy in, they donate to Covax, in return for which they are guaranteed supplies from successful vaccines, but also some of the money is spent getting vaccines to low income countries. "That's why it's going to be this time next year, where if we get one out early 2021, it's just going to be a while before you get enough vaccine around to immunise the general community."

Top US virus expert Dr Anthony Fauci, a member of the Covid task force, said it was clear there was a "superspreader event" at the White House. People at the White House should have been wearing masks, Dr Anthony Fauci says. Photo: AFP When asked on CBS News radio about the White House outbreak, Dr Fauci said "the data speak for themselves". The comments come as President Donald Trump says he has recovered and is keen to get back on the campaign trail with less than a month to the election. Critics say the White House has avoided questions on Trump's health. Trump was scheduled to do an on-camera interview with Fox News on Friday night (US time), his first since being diagnosed. Fittingly given he is a former reality television star, Fox said in a press release that Dr Marc Siegel "will conduct a medical evaluation and interview during the programme". Dr Anthony Fauci and President Donald Trump give a briefing on Covid-19 at the White House in April. Photo: AFP His Democratic rival Joe Biden has continued to campaign during Trump's illness, with events scheduled in Las Vegas, Nevada. The former vice president, who has sharply criticised Trump's handling of the pandemic, is leading in national polls but the advantage is more narrow in some of the swing states that may determine the election outcome. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Americans are steadily losing confidence in how Trump has managed the health crisis - with his net approval on the issue hitting a new low. CBS News Radio White House correspondent Steven Portnoy asked what Dr Fauci, a veteran health official, thought of the White House's reluctance to insist on mask-wearing and social distancing as virus precautions, and instead rely on regular testing. "The data speak for themselves - we had a superspreader event in the White House, and it was in a situation where people were crowded together and were not wearing masks." The event at the White House that Dr Anthony Fauci is criticising for its lack of precautions around Covid-19. Photo: AFP Dr Fauci also noted experts have been recommending mask-wearing for the last six months. An event at the White House, celebrating the president's nomination of Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court judge on Saturday 26 September, is thought to be the root of the localised outbreak, as many attendees have since tested positive. Large gatherings are still banned in the nation's capital due to Covid-19, but federal property like the White House is exempt. Trump is expected to speak from the White House balcony today and also attend a campaign rally in Florida on Monday. There has been confusion over when Trump will return to the campaign trail. A spokesperson said he wanted to hold an event this weekend, but later another official said that couldn't be organised at such short notice. However, it has now been confirmed he will deliver comments at the White House from a balcony on a "law and order" theme. During his visit to Florida he will speak at an event at the Orlando Sanford International Airport. Trump tested positive for Covid-19 last Thursday (Friday NZ time), according to his doctors, but it remains unclear when his last negative test was. As many as 34 White House aides and other contacts have tested positive for Covid-19 in recent days, according to an internal memo viewed by ABC News. Although the names of many people who have interacted with the president and tested positive are now known, it remains unclear just how many were exposed at the White House. New Covid safety measures - including more stringent mask wearing - are now in place there. - BBC/ Reuters

The head of the World Food Programme is using his new platform to tell billionaires to share their wealth that has increased during Covid-19 to help the world's hungry. David Beasley says the Nobel Peace Prize is a clarion call "to the billionaires who are making billions off Covid". Photo: AFP The United Nations' World Food Programme, which has coordinated medical logistics during the coronavirus pandemic, won the Nobel Peace Prize last night in what its boss said was a call to action that no one should go hungry with the wealth in the world today. The Rome-based organisation says it helps some 97 million people in about 88 countries each year and that one in nine people worldwide still does not have enough to eat. WFP executive director David Beasley said the prize was a clarion call "to our donors around the world" and "to the billionaires who are making billions off Covid". Beasley has expressed his elation at winning the Nobel Peace Prize - saying members of his team are working in the most difficult places in the world and really deserve the prize. "It's a call to action to not let anyone die from starvation, it's a call to action that we've got to save and help our friends, our brothers, our sisters around the world," he said. "All the wealth in the world today no one should go to bed hungry, much less starve to death." Only this week, a report by UBS and PwC found billionaire wealth had reached a record high during the pandemic, helped by a rally in stock prices. "The need for international solidarity and multilateral cooperation is more conspicuous than ever," Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, told a news conference. The head of the awards committee called the WFP a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict, and said the Covid-19 pandemic, which the WFP says could double hunger worldwide, had made it even more relevant. At one point at the height of the pandemic, as airlines were cutting back flights, the WFP was running the largest operational airline in the world, a WFP spokesman said. WFP runs a logistics service that has dispatched medical cargoes to over 120 countries throughout the pandemic to help governments and health partners fighting Covid-19. It has also provided passenger services to ferry humanitarian and health workers where commercial flights were unavailable. "Until the day we have a medical vaccine, food is the best vaccine against chaos," the Nobel committee said in its citation. Response during lockdowns Beasley, travelling in Niger, posted a video statement on social media praising the "WFP family". "They are out there in the most difficult, complex places in the world, where there's war, conflict, climate extremes; it doesn't matter. They are out there and they deserve this award ...," he said. In Geneva, WFP spokesperson Tomson Phiri told reporters: "When everything went into shutdown mode, the World Food Programme was there. When everyone was leaving and we were going into lockdowns, the World Food Programme had to provide the logistical support that the world deserved, that the world needed." A child holds a sibling while carrying a food parcel collected from a charity in Johannesburg. There are fears the pandemic could double hunger rates worldwide. Photo: AFP Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said the Norwegian Nobel Committee had wanted to send a message of both hope and "support for international cooperation". "Hunger, like climate change, the pandemic and other issues, is a world problem that can only be properly addressed through cooperation," he said. "Unfortunately, in too many quarters, especially among the great powers, there is a declining appetite for cooperation." He noted that, after declining for several decades, world hunger had been on the rise again since 2016. This year, there were 318 contenders - 211 individuals and 107 organisations. Among them were Greta Thunberg, Jacinda Ardern, WHO, the European Court of Human Rights, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, the "people of Hong Kong" and jailed Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul. The Norwegian Nobel Committee plans to go ahead with an award ceremony, albeit in a reduced format due to the pandemic, in Oslo on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will. The Nobel Peace Prize is worth 10 million Swedish crowns, or around $NZ1.7 million. - Reuters

The United Nations food agency, the World Food Programme (WFP), won the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to combat hunger and improve conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas. People line up to receive food aid distributed by the World Food Programme at one of the camps in Mogadishu in 2009. (File photo). Photo: AFP The Rome-based organisation says it helps some 97 million people in about 88 countries each year and that one in nine people worldwide still does not have enough to eat. "The need for international solidarity and multilateral cooperation is more conspicuous than ever," Chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen of the Norwegian Nobel Committee told a news conference. The prize is worth 10 million Swedish crowns (approx $NZ1.7m) and will be presented in Oslo on 10 December. This year, there were 318 contenders - 211 individuals and 107 organisations. Among them were Greta Thunberg, Jacinda Ardern, WHO, the European Court of Human Rights, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, the "people of Hong Kong" and jailed Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul. Ardern was also nominated last year for the work she did to unite the country following the 15 March mosque attacks in Christchurch. In the past, three New Zealanders have won the Nobel Prize for Science. They include Ernest Rutherford chemistry, 1908; Maurice Wilkins, physiology or medicine, 1962; and Alan MacDiarmid, chemistry, 2000. The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize was presented to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who made peace with bitter foe Eritrea. A Norwegian lawmaker has nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2021 for helping broker a deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the second time he has put forward the US president for the honour. How the winner is decided The prize should go to the person "who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses", according to the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, who founded the awards. Thousands of people can propose names: members of governments and parliaments; current heads of state; university professors of history, social sciences, law and philosophy; and former Nobel Peace Prize laureates, among others. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which consists of five individuals appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. They are often retired politicians, but not always. The current committee is led by a lawyer and includes two academics. They are all put forward by Norwegian political parties and their appointments reflect the balance of power in parliament. - Reuters

The US Department of Justice has sued Yale University, accusing the Ivy League school of illegally discriminating against Asian and white applicants in undergraduate admissions. Photo: GETTY via AFP The lawsuit escalates the Trump administration's push against affirmative action in admissions to elite universities, after it publicly supported a lawsuit by Asian-American students accusing Harvard University of discriminating against them. The Justice Department said Asian-American and white applicants were typically only one-eighth to one-fourth as likely to win admission to Yale as similarly qualified Black applicants. In a complaint filed in the federal court in New Haven, Connecticut, where Yale is based, the Justice Department said Yale's practices violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Yale must comply with that law to receive federal funding, which the government said includes more than $630 million annually from the Department of Health and Human Services alone. Applicants must be "judged by their character, talents, and achievements and not the colour of their skin," said Eric Dreiband, an assistant attorney general for civil rights. "To do otherwise is to permit our institutions to foster stereotypes, bitterness, and division." Thursday's lawsuit followed a two-year investigation into Yale's practices. "Yale does not discriminate against applicants of any race or ethnicity," and will not change its admissions policies because of the "baseless" lawsuit, its President Peter Salovey said. "We look forward to defending these policies in court." The school has 6057 undergraduates, and typically accepts just 6 percent of applicants for admission. Harvard is awaiting a decision from the federal appeals court in Boston on its admissions practices. A federal judge upheld them last year after finding the school had no workable "race-neutral alternatives" to build a diverse student body. The US Supreme Court has allowed race to be used in college admissions to promote diversity in the classroom. Opponents of affirmative action hope the court's conservative majority might end the practice in a future case. - Reuters

Firefighters in South Korea are struggling to completely put out a fire at a 33-storey tower block in the southern South Korean city of Ulsan, local media said. File photo Photo: RNZ / Claire Eastham-Farrelly Hundreds were forced to evacuate and more than 80 people were sent to hospital for smoke inhalation. The blaze reportedly started at about 23:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Thursday and was spread by high winds. On Friday morning, it had still not been completely extinguished. The South Korean news agency said strong winds made it difficult to control the fire. The fire broke out between the 8th and 12th floors of the Samhwan Art Nouveau commercial and residential building, which has about 120 households and shopping units. One eyewitness told Yonhap news agency: "Suddenly, the fire came up. The windows were broken and the living room and bedroom lit up." Another told YTN News of "exterior material", possibly insulation, attached to the outside of the building that caused the fire to spread quickly. Authorities have not confirmed what caused the fire. - BBC

US President Donald Trump has completed his course of treatment for Covid-19 and can return to public engagements this weekend, his physician has said. Photo: AFP Dr Sean Conley said the president had responded "extremely well" to medication and had "remained stable". Trump earlier pulled out of next Thursday's TV debate with Democratic rival Joe Biden after organisers said it would have to be a virtual event. The move sparked a row about how and when further debates would take place. In a memo released by the White House on Thursday evening, Dr Conley said Trump was displaying no signs "to suggest progression of illness". "Saturday will be day 10 since [last] Thursday's diagnosis, and based on the trajectory of advanced diagnostics the team has been conducting, I fully anticipate the president's safe return to public engagements at that time," the memo added. Earlier, Conley said that if the president's condition remained the same or improved throughout the weekend and into Monday, "we will all take that final, deep sigh of relief". What about the presidential debates? On Thursday, the commission organising the second presidential debate in Miami on 15 October said it would have to take place remotely because Trump had tested positive for coronavirus. In response, Trump said he was "not going to waste my time on a virtual debate". At the moment, it appears a debate could take place on 22 October, although in what form remains to be seen. The first presidential debate on 29 September had descended into insults and interruptions. The vice-presidential debate, held on Wednesday night between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, was a far more measured affair. The US election will be held on 3 November. Latest opinion polls suggest Biden has a high single digit lead nationally, but the outcome is often decided in battleground states where the races can be much closer. Six million ballots have already been cast in early voting. How did the debate row unfold? It began with the Commission on Presidential Debates announcing candidates would take part in the Miami debate "from separate remote locations... to protect the health and safety of all involved". This infuriated the president who, in a phone-in interview with Fox Business Channel, said he was not prepared to "sit behind a computer, ridiculous". Joe Biden said the president "changed his mind every second" and his campaign team added that Trump "clearly does not want to face questions from the voters". The Trump campaign answered back, with manager Bill Stepien saying the commission's decision to "rush to Joe Biden's defence" was "pathetic," adding that Mr Trump would hold a rally instead on the same date. The Biden team then proposed the town-hall style debate, set for Miami, should go ahead on 22 October instead. This brought a brief moment of agreement, on the date at least. However, the Trump team said there should be a third face-to-face debate - on 29 October, just five days before polling. But the Biden team said that debates could only be scheduled on the three dates already agreed: 29 September, 15 October and 22 October. On 15 October, Biden will now take part in his own primetime event on ABC answering questions from voters. Quite what format any Biden-Trump debate takes now is hard to pin down. What else did Trump say on Fox? Addressing the issue of his health, Trump said: "I'm back because I'm a perfect physical specimen." He said he had stopped taking most "therapeutics" but was still taking steroids and would be tested for Covid again "soon". But although his doctor has said he now has no symptoms, questions still remain about when the president first became infected and whether he could still be contagious. And although the names of many people who have interacted with the president and tested positive are now known, it remains unclear just how many were exposed at the White House. New Covid safety measures are in place there. One of the top Republicans, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, said on Thursday that he had not been to the White House since 6 August because its approach to handling Covid with social distancing and masks was "different from mine and what I suggested we do in the Senate". Trump said on Thursday that "somebody got in and people got infected" but gave no more details. A gathering on 26 September announcing Trump's Supreme Court pick has been seen as a possible "super-spreader" event, with several attendees known to have tested positive. - BBC