Category: Foreign

PRESIDENT Donald Trump, facing a bruising re-election campaign and possible further investigations in Congress, on Thursday called the Democrats who pursued his impeachment “dishonest and corrupt” and accused some of his political foes of invoking religious faith to justify wrongful acts.

Trump’s comments at the annual National Prayer Breakfast event in Washington were his first public remarks since the Republican-controlled Senate acquitted him one day earlier in his historic impeachment trial on charges brought by the Democratic-led House of Representatives.

“As everybody knows, my family, our great country and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people,” Trump said after receiving a long ovation.

“They have done everything possible to destroy us – and by so doing, very badly hurt our nation. They know what they are doing is wrong but they put themselves far ahead of our great country,” Trump said.

On largely party-line votes, the Senate acquitted Trump on Wednesday of charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, keeping him in office.

Trump is running for re-election on Nov. 3. The poresident, who has strong support from evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics, also faulted some of his opponents for invoking their religious faith during the impeachment battle. Trump did not mention anyone by name.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic who launched the impeachment inquiry in September, said in December that she does not hate Trump and that she prays for him. Republican Senator Mitt Romney, a Mormon, cited his religious faith when he voted to convict Trump on a charge of abuse of power on Wednesday. Romney was the only Republican to vote for conviction. No Democrat voted to acquit.

“I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong. Nor do I like people who say ‘I pray for you,’ when they know that that’s not so,” Trump said.

Trump smiled as he arrived at the event and held up copies of newspapers with headlines announcing his acquittal. He avoided greeting Pelosi, who sat steps away on the other side of the dais.

Senate Republicans voted to acquit Trump of abuse of power for pressing Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden, a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, and of obstructing a congressional investigation of the matter.

The acquittal was Trump’s biggest victory yet over his Democratic foes in Congress, who complained bitterly about Senate Republicans’ refusal to call witnesses or seek new evidence at the trial.

Romney is facing a backlash from Republicans angered by his decision to vote against Donald Trump in his impeachment trial.

The failed 2012 presidential candidate made history on Wednesday as the first U.S. senator to vote to remove a president from their own party.

Influential figures in conservative media called on Romney to step down from the Republican Party, with one claiming that she would move to Utah to run to unseat him in 2024.

But few of Romney’s colleagues in the Senate have been as critical.

A CHINESE doctor who tried to issue the first warnings about the deadly coronavirus outbreak has died of the infection, Chinese media said on Thursday.

Li Wenliang was working as an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital when he sent out a warning to fellow medics on December 30.

Police then visited him to tell him to stop, as authorities tried to keep the news under wraps.

The virus has now killed more than 560 people and infected 28,000 in China.

The coronavirus causes severe acute respiratory infection and symptoms usually start with a fever, followed by a dry cough. Most people infected are likely to fully recover – just as they would from a flu.

The ophthalmologist posted his story on the Weibo site from a hospital bed a month after sending out his initial warning.

Read ALSO: Coronavirus: Confusion over Chinese doctor’s ‘death’

Dr. Li, 34, had noticed seven cases of a virus that he thought looked like Sars – the virus that led to a global epidemic in 2003.

On December, 30, he sent a message to fellow doctors in a chat group warning them to wear protective clothing to avoid infection.

Four days later, he was summoned to the Public Security Bureau where he was told to sign a letter. In the letter he was accused of “making false comments” that had “severely disturbed the social order”.

He was one of eight people who police said were being investigated for “spreading rumours”.

Local authorities later apologised to Dr. Li.

CHINESE President Xi Jinping on Thursday declared a “people’s war” against the fast-spreading coronavirus, whose impact has been felt around the world from slowing factory floors to quarantined cruise liners.

The death toll in mainland China jumped by 73 to 563, with more than 28,000 infections also confirmed inside the world’s second largest economy.

Such was the anxiety that some Chinese were asking HIV patients for medicines.

But Xi, again seeking to prevent global panic, said China’s strong mobilisation capacity and rich experience in public health would enable it to beat the coronavirus.

“The whole country has responded with all its strength to respond with the most thorough and strict prevention and control measures, starting a people’s war for epidemic prevention and control,” Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying in a telephone call with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman.

In a striking image of the epidemic’s reach, about 3,700 people moored off Japan on the Diamond Princess faced testing and quarantine for at least two weeks on the ship, which has 20 cases.

Gay Courter, a 75-year-old American novelist on board, appealed for the U.S. government to take Americans off.

“It’s better for us to travel while healthy and also, if we get sick, to be treated in American hospitals,” he told Reuters.

Read Also: Coronavirus: Confusion over Chinese doctor’s ‘death’

In Hong Kong, another cruise ship with 3,600 passengers and crew was quarantined for a second day pending testing after three cases on board. Taiwan, which has 13 cases, banned international cruise ships from docking.

In China, sometimes dubbed the world’s workshop, cities have been shut off, flights cancelled and factories closed, shutting supply lines crucial to international businesses.

Companies including Hyundai Motor (005380.KS), Tesla (TSLA.O), Ford (F.N), PSA Peugeot Citroen (PEUP.PA), Nissan (7201.T), Airbus (AIR.PA), Adidas (ADSGn.DE) and Foxconn (2317.TW) are taking hits.

Financial analysts have cut China’s growth outlook, with ratings agency Moody’s flagging risks for auto sales and output.