Today, President Biden will address a global Summit for Democracy that his administration is hosting this week. Biden is expected to call for up to $690 million in new funding for his initiative for democratic renewal, which aims to support democracy and fight corruption worldwide. The guest list has raised some questions: The United States did not invite Turkey or Hungary, a reflection of how it views both nations’ democratic decline in recent years. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to participate despite intense controversy over his effort to assert greater control over Israel’s judiciary.
Politics
From School Boards to the Senate, All Politics Is Virus Politics in 2020 – The New York Times


The coronavirus pandemic upended Pamela Walsh’s life. It shut down her office, leaving her working at home from a folding table. It forced her to turn her dining room into a Zoom classroom for her 7-year-old son. And the virus propelled a still more unlikely change: It led Ms. Walsh to run for public office.
“It wasn’t even on my radar screen,” said Ms. Walsh, 47, a political adviser in Concord, N.H., who has long worked for Democrats but never before considered seeking elective office herself. Months of supervising elementary school lessons from home, with little idea of when her son would return to school, convinced Ms. Walsh that she should vie for a seat on her local school board.
“I decided I needed a voice like mine on the board,” Ms. Walsh said in a phone interview, which she muted periodically as her son called out for her and at one point thumped a bat on a chair. “Everyone is struggling right now a bit and needs to be represented by how these policies impact real families.”
By some measure, all politics is virus politics in 2020, and the federal government’s handling of Covid-19 has become an explosive issue in the presidential race, which has been further complicated by President Trump’s own hospitalization for the virus.
Yet around the nation, there are local and state races in which the pandemic has also taken an outsize role. In some cases, the virus has been the reason for running; in others, handling of the pandemic has become the defining issue, eclipsing ordinary matters of taxes and services.
The virus — and the government’s response to it — has inspired parents, hair salon owners and others to run for the first time, turned sleepy races into competitive matches and injected a level of unpredictability and rancor into normally tranquil down-ballot contests.
“This is an issue that no one expected to be one of the pillars of this election, but it has clearly become one,” said Robert Griffin, research director for the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group, which is partnering with academics at the University of California, Los Angeles, to poll about 6,000 Americans each week leading up to the election.
Mr. Trump’s own bout with Covid-19 only intensified some of the debates over the issue in lower races. “If you, Mr. President, have the best health system in the world and bodyguards and the whole thing, and you still get it, what does that say for us at the local level who are trying to figure out what to do with our children?” asked José Luis Bedolla, 50, who said he was motivated to run for the school board in Berkeley, Calif., because of the pandemic.
Candidates’ own cases of the virus have created all sorts of uncertainty for political races, yanking campaigns off the trail and into quarantine during crucial weeks and confounding political strategists, who have little precedent to lean on as they try to figure out how voters will respond.
In North Carolina, a race that could help decide control of the United States Senate was thrust further into limbo this month when Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican, tested positive for the coronavirus after attending a White House ceremony. At the same time, his opponent, Cal Cunningham, is contending with a texting scandal.
In Missouri, where average new daily cases have risen sixfold since mid-June, the governor’s race is being defined in no small part by the pandemic. Gov. Mike Parson, the incumbent Republican who is leading in the polls, had resisted requiring people to wear masks and at times campaigned without one. Then last month, he came down with the virus himself.
As Mr. Parson was sidelined, his Democratic opponent, Nicole Galloway, wished him well while also soliciting donations in an effort to remind voters of their dueling positions on the virus. An online ad showed her wearing a blue mask, side-by-side with a barefaced Mr. Parson.
“Governor Parson has failed this test, and it’s apparent,” Ms. Galloway said in an interview. An accountant by training and the current state auditor, she has made public health a key issue in Zoom appearances, uses elbow-bumps on the campaign trail, and has said she will issue a mask requirement if elected.
Elsewhere, conservatives have made their opposition to mandates on masks and business closings the center of blossoming campaigns.
In Washington State, a small-town police chief has made Gov. Jay Inslee’s handling of the pandemic a top issue in a long-shot bid to become the state’s first Republican governor since the 1980s. The chief, Loren Culp, has criticized Mr. Inslee, a Democrat, as a “job killer” and is drawing a contrast by holding rallies where masks are not required.
In Texas, a salon owner who was jailed this spring for defying shutdown orders quickly became an anti-lockdown hero for the political right. The owner, Shelley Luther, spoke at rallies, gave Senator Ted Cruz a haircut and donned a T-shirt emblazoned with the popular Texas rallying cry “Come and Take It” — except in place of a cannon, there was a blow dryer.
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Now, Ms. Luther, a former high school teacher who has never held public office, is running as a Republican for a seat in the Texas State Senate.
She has put Gov. Greg Abbott’s handling of the pandemic and his virus-related restrictions at the forefront of her campaign. The outrage over her jailing was so intense that Mr. Abbott, a fellow Republican, softened his own shutdown orders and removed confinement as a punishment.
Running in a largely rural Republican district northwest of Dallas, Ms. Luther has called Mr. Abbott “our tyrant governor” at campaign events. One of her ads showed the black-and-white security footage of the moment she was handcuffed as she looks into the camera and says, “I fought back, and they backed down.”
“It’s about time that we the people take this back into our hands and let the government know that they work for us and they should not be telling us what to do like this,” Ms. Luther said last month on the talk show “America, Can We Talk?”
And then there was this wrinkle: Her main opponent, a Republican lawmaker, State Representative Drew Springer, was sidelined for days during the race; he had to quarantine after his wife tested positive for the virus. Ms. Luther won 164 more votes than Mr. Springer during a recent special election, and the two are now in a runoff set for December, to represent Prosper, Texas, a Dallas suburb that is one of the fastest growing areas in the state.
Restrictions to control the spread of the virus — or the lack of such restrictions — have become motivating factors in races of all sizes.
Adrian Perkins, the mayor of Shreveport, La., had no plans — and no money — to run for United States Senate at the start of this year. But he grew increasingly frustrated as the coronavirus swept through his city, sickening thousands and leaving many others unemployed. He tried ordering everyone to wear masks but got sued for that.
So Mr. Perkins, a 34-year-old Army veteran and Harvard Law School graduate, began a last-minute, long-shot bid to go to Washington, where he felt he could have more sway. He announced his candidacy in July, two days before the registration deadline.
“No sane person launches a Senate campaign on purpose with just 110 days,” said Mr. Perkins, a Democrat who is running to unseat Bill Cassidy, the senior Republican senator from Louisiana. (Mr. Cassidy, a medical doctor, tested positive and recovered from the coronavirus this summer.)
Mr. Perkins’s campaign says he has raised $1 million in just a few months, but his odds are long. His opponent, who already had more than $6 million on hand by the time Mr. Perkins entered the race, has a solid lead in a mostly red state.
But the long shot is worth it to Mr. Perkins, who grew up in Shreveport and described the federal government’s missteps in response to the pandemic as the reason for his campaign.
“Without the coronavirus, I wouldn’t be running,” he said, adding, “It’s people’s lives that were on the line.”
Politics
Post Politics Now: Biden to press for democratic renewal in speech to global summit – The Washington Post
In New York, a grand jury examining whether former president Donald Trump should be charged with violations of state law for hush-money payments made to an adult-film actress in 2016 is not expected to meet again on the investigation this week.
Politics
‘The empire strikes back’: Brits laud diversity in UK politics – Al Jazeera English


When Humza Yousaf became Scotland’s new leader this week, the world of British politics entered a new era of diversity.
With Pakistani-origin Yousaf in charge at Holyrood and Rishi Sunak, whose ancestors hail from India, leading at Westminster, it could be said that the United Kingdom is blazing a new trail in post-colonial history.
“The empire strikes back,” tweeted Jelina Berlow-Rahman, a human rights lawyer in Glasgow, after Yousaf’s victory.
Rahman, the daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants, sees the moment as one of triumph which fuelled pride in her own parents, who worked hard to give their children a better start in life.
“It’s harder for people from an ethnically diverse country to prove themselves and integrate, especially when they’re from a visible minority,” she told Al Jazeera.
Raised in London, human rights lawyer Berlow-Rahman moved to Scotland to study.
But unlike Yousaf, who backs Scottish independence, she doesn’t want the UK to break up, so would be unlikely to support his Scottish National Party.
She also isn’t a fan of Sunak’s right-wing Conservative government, which is pushing through controversial legislation aimed at cracking down on asylum seekers arriving across the English Channel.
She wonders if Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman, whose Indian-origin parents came from Kenya and Mauritius, feel that, as minorities, they have to prove themselves to their party.
“It’s their way of doing it,” she said. “Sometimes the language and manner could be toned down.”
From across the political divide, Foysol Choudhury, the Bangladesh-born Labour member of the Scottish Parliament, said that Yousaf’s rise to power is a proud moment for the South Asian community.
“I know how difficult it is to be a minority and to go into politics,” he said. “It’s something to be celebrated. I’m really proud of him.”
To make a difference, Yousaf should stand up for his own ideas, he said.
But even though those ideas will inevitably differ from his own, he will always be up for a chai with his old friend.
Often, they are joined by Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader born to Pakistani Muslims.
“A lot of the time, after the debates, we’ll walk out together and talk about other things,” he said.
“It shows we’re all human.”
For Qasim Hanif, Glasgow-based convener of Scots Asians for Independence, the prospect of a Scots-Pakistani and a British Indian negotiating the partition of the UK is too compelling to ignore.
“In 1947, the British Empire would not have foreseen this,” he said. “Some of those colonialists would be turning in their graves.”
Yousaf says he wants to convince a “sustained majority” before firing the starting gun on “indyref2” – the second referendum being proposed by the Scottish government on secession.
The last vote, in 2014, saw most Scots vote to remain.
The 2016 European Union membership referendum, however, swayed opinion.
While the majority in England voted to quit the bloc, most Scots had wanted to remain in the EU – a schism which saw the Scottish independence movement regain momentum.
Hanif believes Yousaf was right to ditch his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon’s plans to turn the next UK general election into a de facto referendum.
“He knows how to play politics. If he calls a de facto referendum, he will already be on the back foot,” he said. “The UK establishment will tie you up in legal battles for years and years.”
But he hopes Yousaf will go straight into battle, lodging his legal challenge to the UK government’s Section 35 veto on Scotland’s controversial gender reforms, which will make it easier for people to change their recognised gender.
“They need to respect the will of the Scottish Parliament,” he said.
As an opening gambit, it’s a high-risk move.
Some, not least within Yousaf’s own party, question the wisdom of doubling down on a dossier that bedevilled Sturgeon’s last weeks in office.
Yousaf has been derided as a continuity leader of a party that has grown complacent after 16 years in power.
But his trenchant defence of the party’s progressive values has reaffirmed the SNP’s manifesto, bringing the growing chasm between Scotland and England into sharper focus.
As a French citizen who arrived in Scotland post-Brexit, Assa Samaké-Roman is acutely aware of the diverging paths of the two nations on immigration.
“What the Tories are doing in government is dog whistles to the far right,” said the journalist. “In Scotland, they’re not having that.
“This is the point of Scottish independence. The SNP is campaigning to escape the cruel social and immigration policies that Scotland didn’t even vote for,” she said.
In her view, Sunak’s Tories at Westminster represent a “toxic brand of Britishness”.
By contrast, Scotland espouses civic nationalism.
“That means even if I’m only here a few years, I’m as legitimate a Scot as anyone else,” said Samaké-Roman.
Scotland’s first Muslim leader
As the first Muslim to lead a Western democratic nation, Yousaf’s victory has resonated beyond the UK.
“As a French citizen, I’m thinking: ‘wow, this is where Scotland is’,” she said. “I can’t even imagine having a Muslim president in France because there’s so much Islamophobia.”
But Yousaf will not be in for an easy ride.
Like the rest of the UK, Scotland has emerged bruised from a double whammy of COVID and Brexit.
He will be entering office in fire-fighting mode, tackling the continuing fallout over a ferries procurement fiasco – now five years late and 240 million pounds ($300m) over budget – record hospital waiting lists and cost-of-living pressures.
He also inherits a party in crisis.
During the leadership contest, it was revealed the SNP’s top brass had misled the press over a 30,000 drop in membership figures, a scandal that led to the resignation of chief executive Peter Murrell, Sturgeon’s husband.
And police are currently investigating the loss of 600,000 pounds ($740,000) in funds from party coffers.
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As hard as it is to conceive of him as such, as the longest-serving head of government in the G7 Justin Trudeau is now one of the world’s elder statesmen. He has achieved this exalted status despite innumerable scandals rocking his government, on issues ranging from corruption to “blackface” to bullying to sexual misconduct, many of which would have felled a lesser politician.
But his lucky streak may finally be ending. For the past month, Ottawa has been riveted by a series of explosive allegations about Chinese interference in Canadian politics, from illegal campaign donations to disinformation campaigns, allegations leaked to the media by members of Canada’s usually docile intelligence service reportedly angry with the government ignoring their reports.
Since then, the allegations have expanded to include accusations of improper relationships between Liberal politicians and the Chinese government. Only last week, Han Dong, a Liberal MP, resigned his party’s whip to sit as an independent to contest allegations that he advised a Chinese diplomat to delay the release of the “Two Michaels”, the Canadians arrested by China in retaliation for the arrest of Meng Wanzhou of Huawei, for political reasons. Mr Dong denies the allegations, and has stated that he is planning to “begin legal action to its fullest extent” against their publisher.
But what is most damaging for Mr Trudeau and his Liberal government is not so much the acts of foreign interference themselves, bad enough though they are, as the accusation that he wilfully turned a blind eye to what was happening. And little wonder: a Chinese consul was allegedly caught on tape as saying that “The Liberal Party of Canada is becoming the only party that the PRC can support”, as opposed to the opposition Conservatives, who have taken a much more hawkish line on China.
Mr Trudeau’s reaction so far has been to refuse to hold an inquiry into Chinese interference and to accuse his opponents of trying to discredit Canada’s democracy, not to mention anti-Chinese racism. Liberal MPs have filibustered parliamentary committees to stop further investigation and in an attempt to prevent Katie Telford, Mr Trudeau’s powerful chief of staff, from being summoned to testify to Parliament about what her boss knew about the allegations of Chinese interference, and when.
His appointment of David Johnston, a well-respected former governor general, as “special rapporteur” on foreign interference in Canada did little to calm the waters. A card-carrying member of Canada’s cosy establishment, Mr Johnston is a family friend of the Trudeaus, not to mention a former neighbour and a member of the Trudeau Foundation.
Mr Trudeau’s public praise of China’s “basic dictatorship” and his familial antecedents aside (his prime ministerial father was an early Western enthusiast for Mao’s China), his government’s record on China since he became prime minister does not inspire confidence.
He had to fire John McCallum, his own appointee as ambassador to China and former Cabinet colleague, after the latter publicly contradicted his own government’s position and sided with China on the Meng extradition case.
But now, there are signs that all of this is too much, even for Mr Trudeau’s allies. Last Thursday, the House of Commons passed a motion calling for a full public inquiry into Chinese political interference in Canada, with every party except the Liberals voting in favour.
Though the motion is not binding, what is notable is that the New Democratic Party, who are in a confidence-and-supply agreement with the Liberals, voted for it, enabling it to pass. The NDP has said it will not bring down the government over this issue; but the Liberals may well think that a snap election is their only way out of the mess of their own making.
Few seriously think that Mr Trudeau is a Chinese agent, an accusation in the more feverish corners of the Internet. But the best that can be said of his conduct over China is that he has been one of the West’s useful idiots.