Boris and beaches just don't mix

On the day Boris Johnson warned that he could no longer allow further easing of the virus lockdown because of the steadily rising number of cases throughout the country, thousands of people flock to the beaches and fill every available space with their swimsuit bodies, picnics and parasols. I fear whatever Boris and co say, a large section of the population is going to ignore it and if the sun is shining like it is today they will head for the seaside. It's the most natural thing to do normally and it seems to be the most natural thing to do in these abnormal times. Does anyone care any longer about catching the virus? This is a truly dangerous question to ask because if the scientists and doctors are right, it is still all too easy to catch the virus and be very ill indeed. From my own experience, the majority of shoppers are now masked which is encouraging. But the pictures of Brighton and Bournemouth beaches today are frightening. It's wall-to-wall bodies. How many of those will leave the beaches with Covid-19 in their bodies? The young are being blamed for flouting the guidelines. But it's not just the young. Boris is crying in the wilderness. People have stopped listening. Inevitably the experts are now asking whether the government moved too early to lift lockdown and encourage people to go on their summer holidays. Now this country and others in Europe and the US are in a mess. Lockdown, no lockdown, lockdown again, masks, no masks, definitely masks, eat out, don't eat out, work at home, work in the office, no, work at home. It's all too confusing.

Donald Trump is thinking about delaying the election!

Well at last he has said what he denied as nonsense only a few months ago. Donald Trump has tweeted the idea that perhaps the November 3 presidential election might have to be postponed. Not because of the pandemic as such but because of the need under the circumstances for people to vote by mail instead of queuing up at the ballot box. Trump has got it in his head that if people vote by mail it will open up a huge potential for fraud which would benefit the Democratic nominee. And also that mail voting benefits the Democrats anyway for some reason he doesn't explain. All the experts say there is no evidence that voting by mail is vulnerable to fraud. Constitutionally Trump is way off beam. He doesn't have the constitutional right to delay the election, the timing of which is set in stone by Congress edict going back to 1845. So it HAS to be November 3, because November 3 is the first Tuesday after the first Monday of the month of November. That's what the law stipulates. When Joe Biden first raised the idea that Trump might try to delay the election, he was pounced on by the president and by the White House who said there was no question of any delay and accused the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee of being a silly old fool basically. Now with fewer than 100 days to go, Trump's tweet floating the idea of a delay has electrified the presidential election campaign. Could he do it, despite the wording of the Congress edict? Could he say, this is a unique time in the history of the United States - the pandemic not the reelection of Trump - and that justified delaying the voting day until everything is settled and people can go and vote the way they have always done. He could do just that but will Congress give way? Could the Republicans in the Senate come up with some clever legal argument which will keep Trump in office until next year to see how the pandemic shapes up over the next few months. Biden will of course say, "I told you so". I don't think Trump can do it and I don't think the Republican-controled Senate has the power to do it either. But over the next 90 odd days this idea floated by Trump is going to get bigger and bigger. It just might happen.

Trump and Putin chat on the phone quite a lot

Here's an interesting piece of information: Since February Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have spoken on the phone at least eight times. That's more than once a month. A transcript of each call would be historically fascinating. One thing they didn't talk about was the allegation that the Russian military intelligence service, the GRU, had paid bounties last year to the Taliban to kill US servicemen in Afghanistan. Trump didn't raise it and, of course, Putin didn't mention it either. But then both Trump and the Kremlin had called the allegation fake news when it first appeared in the New York Times in June. Trump claimed he had never even been told about it by his CIA briefer because she didn't think it had credibility. But it did appear in written form in his presidential brief, supplied by the same CIA officer in February. Trump couldn't recall it and ever since then he has rubbished the intelligence on the GRU/Taliban accusation. So not a word about it when he and Putin had nice chats on the phone. At least eight times since that "intelligence" appeared in Trump's briefing document. So what did they talk about? And was it terribly friendly? Did Trump call him Vladimir or Vlad and did Putin call Trump Donald? I think we need to know. I bet they didn't compare notes on how their respective hypersonic weapons programmes were going? But did they perhaps commiserate over the pandemic or discuss any future Trump Tower-type building projects for Moscow in the future, or talk about their golf handicaps? Does Putin play golf? I don't think so. But he does ride horses with his shirt off and loves a good tumble on the judo floor and is a dab fisherman, none of which Trump does. Were all the eight conversations very different or were they just keeping themselves abreast of Washington/Kremlin views on the Middle East, China, North Korea and, possibly, Venezuela and Libya. I wonder what they each get out of the phone chats? I can't imagine Putin gives anything away and probably gets more from Trump. But does Trump grab the opportunity to berate Putin for all the skulduggery Moscow has been involved in over the last decade or so? I guess not. Otherwise Putin would never have agreed to EIGHT phone conversations with the president of the United States.

Trump hasn't spoken to his national security adviser for some time!

It sounds like Donald Trump didn't know his national security adviser Robert O'Brien had tested positive for Covid-19 because he casually admitted he hadn't spoken to him for a few days. Now I'm sure it's possible for a president to live in the White House without spending every minute of the day in the company of his national security adviser. But it struck me as quite comical for Trump to say what he said. No one-to-one chat, no phone chat, no exchange of texts on such subjects as China China China, or Putin getting ready to put hypersonic missiles on board Russian warships, or Iran playing with its cardboard cut-out Nimitz-like aircraft carrier in the Gulf or Israel slamming munitions into Lebanon etc etc. No not a word. Many officials in the White House didn't know about O'Brien's Covid-19 positive test either until it was formally announced. Of course the only people who do spend ALL their time with the president are his Secret Service detail and the man with the nuclear "football" who carries in his briefcase the secret codes for the president to use if he wished to go to nuclear war. But you would have thought that O'Brien would be in touch with the president pretty much every day. Some reports suggested he was having a family occasion and had been off for a few days. But surely wherever the national security adviser is, at home or in the office, he is available 24 hours of the day for the president to ring to get advice. But on this occasion Trump must have found he could do without O'Brien's advice. I could understand it when walrus-moustache John Bolton was national security adviser because there must have been occasions when the president felt the last person he wanted to talk to was that man with the stupid moustache who always thought he knew better. Better than the president, that is. But O'Brien is a lawyer by profession and he has been pretty quiet since he took over from Bolton. Anyway, O'Brien is now self-isolating and unable to chair, unless by Zoom, the National Security Council. It doesn't look as if Trump will worry too much. I loved the way he said he must get round to ringing O'Brien to find out how he is.

Waiting for Biden to make up his mind about his running mate

If there was an easy and obvious frontrunner I guess Joe Biden would have already announced his vice presidential choice. But the US papers are still full of guesses and speculation. No one name has risen to the top. Every day the name is different. To a certain extent it's Biden's fault. For all the right reasons he said a long time ago that his vice presidential running mate would definitely be a woman. Everyone at the time thought this was a positive move. In fact it was positive discrimination if you like. But now he has to choose one from about a dozen likely women. He is looking for someone he can really really get on with and become a bosom pal with (sorry!), someone he can totally trust and someone who won't be plotting from Day One to take over from him if he gets ill or too old. If he hadn't stipulated that it would be a woman would his choice now be easier? Well, probably, there would be several potential candidates, such as Pete Buttigieg or maybe even Beto O'Rourke or Julian Castro. But a woman it has to be. I'm personally very much in favour and have always supported Kamala Harris for the job. But Biden has to feel he can work in a warm and friendy atmosphere with his choice and apparently although Kamala Harris and many of the female candidates on the Biden shortlist are excellent, he can't make up his mind who fits the bill. He and Barack Obama got on like buddies. That, for him, was the perfect combination. Can he revive that sort of relationship with Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren or Susan Rice or Tammy Duckworth? Does he wish he could choose Pete Buttigieg? If he doesn't get the chemistry thing he's after then Biden will have to go for the woman with the right political and cultural baggage. Right now, that has to be my favourite, Kamala Harris. But who knows? Look what John McCain did when he was Republican nominee for president. He just couldn't make up his mind and did the most stupid thing of all, choosing Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. Out of some desperate urge to be different. It was one of the reasons for his defeat. Biden is far ahead in the polls but if he picks the wrong running-mate, Trump and the voters, will jump on him because his running mate could be the 47th president of the United States.

UK slams lockdown gates on all British holidaymakers in Spain

"This is your captain speaking. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday in Spain. But just to let you know, the Government has suddenly announced that ALL of you will have go into lockdown in your homes for two weeks as soon as you return. Happy holidays!" Tens of thousands of Brits are either already on the Spanish beaches or en route to their holiday hotels and the Boris government in the shape of the uninspiring Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has declared an instant self-isolation edict for the lot of them. No time to cancel holidays. No time to change the paid-for holiday. No time to try and come back before the midnight deadline. No proposals for employed Brits in Spain to be guaranteed pay when they return while they sit around for two weeks with their bosses fuming. I would say the Raab announcement was a totally unthinking, over-the-top, to-hell-with-you-people enjoying your hols piece of political shambolic decision-making. OK so there have been some lockdowns in Catalonia but this has been going on for some time. Like they have in Leicester and elsewhere in the north of the UK. But suddenly out of the blue the government decides to impose an instant quarantine for Brits in Spain. Why wasn't it decided weeks ago or why wasn't it at least considered weeks ago when thousands and thousands of families were planning their summer holidays? Boris or one of his ministers had actually said, yes go on your summer hols. Enjoy yourselves. Measured decisions are required in a pandemic, not panic decisions. For once the Labour opposition is right. It's a shambles.

The great powers rivalry is now unstoppable

It was only in 2018 that the United States changed its national defence strategy and announced to the world that China and Russia were now seen as the crucial threats to the security interests of the US, pushing Islamic terrorism, counter-insurgency and asymetric warfare down the list of priorities. After nearly two decades of war in Afghanistan and seemingly never-ending fighting in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Yemen etc, the great powers rivalry was back in business a la Cold War. Since then the rivalry has become a daily race for the US to keep one step ahead of both Beijing and Moscow, technologically. The revelation by the US Space Command commander this week that Russia has carried out an anti-satellite weapons test in space has shown that under Putin the Russians seem to have found enough money to fund some exotic Star Wars weaponry to put at risk America's global network of military communications, reconnaissance and spy satellites. They began this sort of research back in the 1980s after Ronald Reagan announced his Strategic Defence Initiative - his appeal to American scientists to come up with a space-based shield to protect the US from a massed Russian nuclear attack. When SDI fell by the way side, Moscow breathed a sigh of relief and stopped their own programmes which they could never afford anyway. Now, even though the Russian economy is hardly thriving, Putin has revived the 1980s programmes, and anti-satellite weapon systems, both ground-based and space-based, seem to be the favoured way forward. It's obvious why. Russia has no chance of matching America's firepower - land, air or sea - so the next best thing is to target the one thing that all the wonderful US firepower relies on. That is military satellites that provide navigation and data links to pretty well everything in the US warfighting armoury. China is doing the same. China and Russia are also developing and deploying hypersonic missiles that are too fast and too manoeuvrable for the US to react to in time. The Pentagon, as a result, has gone into mass-poducing hypersonic missiles and researching the best way to defend against Russia's and China's hypersonic weapons. And so it goes on. Bigger and better and faster. It's the new Cold War and a new arms race in space. Does this world never learn?

Russian and American troops face off in eastern Syria

While the world is focused inward on the coronavirus pandemic, little is reported of what is going on in Syria. So it's worth saying that the US troops still operating in eastern Syria, supposedly dealing with the remnants of Isis, are coming into daily contact with Russian troops. Contact, not conflict. They have developed a wary form of communication to make sure nothing either side does leads to confrontation. It's a bizarre ritual. They are all in the same region of Syria watching each other going about their business but keeping respectfully apart. I find that somehow encouraging. Of course the last thing the world needs right now is a bloody battle between US and Russian troops anywhere, let alone Syria. And both Moscow and Washington are fully cognisant of that, and so instructions have been put out that under no circumstances are there to be clashes in eastern Syria. And, mostly, it has worked. There have been some awkward, potentially inflammatory moments but they have been pretty rare. It was the same when US and Russian fighter pilots were operating a deconfliction regime in the air over Syria during the US bombing campaign against Isis. There were one or two nasty near-miss occasions but on the whole the system worked well. There are around 500 US troops still in Syria and at some point Trump, especially if he is reelected, will have another go at withdrawing them. Isis is a defeated force in Syria. Those militants left behind have no stronghold, they don't own territory and survive in small pockets blending in with the local population. But the presence of US troops and the knowledge that air power can be called in hopefully provides a sufficient deterrent to begin any meaningful assaults. So while the US soldiers bide their time and guard their bit of territory they keep a sharp eye on the Ruskies as they come and go not far away.

The compulsory masked era begins

Tomorrow is M Day. Mask Day. Any company making face masks is going to be making a fortune because as from tomorrow all us Brits - well strictly speaking it's English because in our divided-up devolved Great Britain we in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are covered by different coronavirus rules - are obliged by law to wear masks in all shops, big and small. It's about time in my view but for some reason best known to the government and experts, it's now more important to cover up the mouth and nose post-July 24 than it was pre-July 24. That seems to me to make very little sense. But anyone caught not wearing a mask in the local supermarket or corner shop from tomorrow faces the risk of a £100 fine. It's the same in Washington DC, except the fine is $1,000. Despite the government edict I still expect there will be some shoppers who will refuse to wear a mask. That's the way human nature is. Trump refused for long enough because he felt it wasn't macho or something. Now he espouses wearing a mask as if he always thought it was a good idea. Boris Johnson wears his mask when he is out and about and I'm sure all ministers have been told to wear masks all the time when out in public. It's going to be the weirdest of times. If the experts are right and the wearing of masks is the most sensible thing to do to prevent any further spreading of the virus, then we have to put up with it as the new normal, as they say. I hate the new normal and long for normal normal.

Trump has had to finally admit the pandemic in the US is getting worse

Donald Trump has been a lone voice ever since the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States. He said it would go away and that he, the president, would make sure it didn't turn into anything too horrible. Then it WAS horrible in the US and America became the worst-affected nation in the world. But instead of accepting that, Trump changed his focus to getting the country back to normal, opening up again, going back to work, renewing the economy and largely dismissing the impact of virus spikes all over the country. Throughout this period his popularity ratings have dropped significantly. And then suddenly he had his light bulb moment: his statements and claims on coronavirus and his poll ratings were linked. In other words, he had to admit to himself that the Trump way of handling the pandemic wasn't working and the people were increasingly blaming him. The White Huose and his reelection campaign team have been panicking for weeks as they saw the way the polls were going. In an election year, polls are everything. They are watched over, analysed, interpreted every which way, and the conclusion was: it's looking very bad for the president. If things didn't change, Trump was going to be slaughtered by Joe Biden in November. So, casting aside his dismissive tone of the last four months, Trump decided to admit to the country that things will get worse before they get better. Well, actually, things have already got worse. There's no "will" about it. It's staring you in the face, Mr President. Then he showed how he had got used to wearing a mask as he revived his daily virus briefings at the White House. It was a true deja vu moment. The daily briefings had stopped because Trump was confident the crisis was all over. It must have taken a lot of persuasion from Mark Meadows, White House chief of staff, and others to get him back on the rostrum facing reporters once again asking questions he generally doesn't like to answer. Now he and the White House will have to see whether Trump's sudden conversion to the realities of the pandemic will pay dividends in the next opinion polls. It might be too late. Many voters may have already made up their mind that they can't trust Trump to be in charge of the pandemic. Or anything else.

President Trump can't rely on Fox News anymore!

Donald Trump appears on Fox News with his favourite interviewers whenever he wants and he takes full advantage. He does appear on other channels of course and occasionally gives an interview to a newspaper. But Fox is his favoured platform for broadcasting his views, his claims and his denunciations. But I wonder if he will feel so comfortable with Fox after his weekend interview with Chris Wallace. Interviewer Wallace gave him a hard time, wouldn't let him get away with clearly dodgy claims and statements and exposed his lack of knowledge or perhaps his refusal to acknowledge what was going wrong with the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. Trump's style has always been broad brush. Ask him a specific question and he will sweep it away with a general dismissive answer. But in the interview on Sunday it didn't work at all well for the president. He still insisted that the pandemic is as good as beaten and that the high death rate in the United States is only because of the level of testing and tracking compared with other countries. The facts are that more than 140,000 American citizens have died from coronavirus. That's more than anywhere else on the planet. But Trump doesn't see that as in any way a reason for criticism or blame. Wallace took him up on that but Trump wouldn't accept responsibility for the appalling death rate. As for his chances of being reelected in November, Trump described the polls that show Joe Biden is enjoying a double digits lead over him as fake. And then, alarmingly, he said he would wait and see what he would do if Biden mysteriously managed to beat him in November. So we're back to that fun and games: a defeated president refusing to leave the White House. He can't seriously mean it, but Trump appeared to be suggesting that in the interests of the country's future happiness and prosperity he couldn't let someone like Biden, whom he described as too incompetent to be president, to succeed him in the White House. He said Biden didn't even know if he was alive. Haha, very amusing. But the idea that Biden would be prevented from taking the keys of the White House wasn't funny at all. The Chris Wallace interview didn't do Trump any favours. The president must be seething. Who can he turn to now to guarantee him a safe and easy platform for promulgating his views? Just over 100 days to go before the election and for the moment Trump is unwittingly handing the job of the most powerful leader in the world to his "sleepy" rival.

In this pandemic world thank God for Test Match cricket

Unbelievable though it might seem there could be a lot of people who are not currently watching the amazing cricket match live on TV between England and West Indies. No spectators thanks to the wretched virus and social distancing requirements but millions around the world are glued to their screens to catch sight of some of the greatest cricket going on at Old Trafford stadium in Manchester. England have to win or else they will lose the three-match series. West Indies won the first match. A whole day out of the five-day second match was lost with rain and now on the last day England are trying to bowl out West Indies, having scored enough runs to make it near-impossible for the West Indian batsmen to go passed the England total. Some stupendous batting by one of the finest all round players in the world, Ben Stokes, has made it possible for England to win. Four West Indian wickets have already fallen. Six to go and half a day left to do it. Sport can raise the spirits to such an extent that all the worries and fears of the pandemic can be gloriously forgotten. If this match ends in a draw it will be a cruel blow for England, after two batsmen, Ben Stokes and Dom Sibley, scored centuries in the first innings and Stuart Broad grabbed three fabulous wickets after returning to the England side following the decision to rest him in the first Test Match. Now it's a tense and dramatic finish to the second Test Match with the West Indies team desperately trying to keep their wickets safe from the determined England bowlers. Both sides have played in a great spirit of sporting endeavour. No spectators to rouse them on but a totally gripping match to watch on TV. I think England will win but West Indies are fighting hard for a draw.

Who do world leaders want: Trump or Biden?

The Russians may try to intervene in the US election again to get Trump back in, but for the rest of the world community, the national leaderfs must now be asking themselves, who do they want in the White House in the next four years: four more years of Trump or start planning for a Biden administration? I would say it's pretty clear Vladimir Putin would not want Biden as US president because he thinks, rightly or wrongly, that he and Trump are more of a kind. President Xi Zinping might possibly prefer to keep with Trump because, at least in the early stages of his administration, Trump seemed eager to foster good personal relations with the Beijing leader. Things have gone sour more recently, very sour since the coronavirus pandemic which started in Wuhan. But Biden has accused Trump of not being tough enough on China. So, yes, President Xi is probably hoping/expecting Trump to win the election in November. Biden is more of an unknown quantity, and that's less helpful when planning Chinese strategy over the next few years. As for Europe, I would guess the majority of leaders have had enough of Trump and would welcome a new man who is at least pro-European and friendly and more predictable. There are probably exceptions. Boris Johnson has a good relationship with Trump and with the priority soon to be focusing on getting a post-Brexit trade deal with the US, he must be thinking he has a better chance of winning something beneficial for the UK with Trump at the helm. Also Boris and Biden as soulmates? I don't think so. Macron and Merkel will want Biden without question. The reelected Polish president is a Trump man, and probably Hungary, too. Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy etc might be happier with Biden but they will be playing a very careful game to avoid looking like they support either. Around the world, Kim Jong-un will want Trump, despite the current frostiness, Iran will go for Biden, hoping for a reawakening of the Obama nuclear deal, Australia, probably Trump, India, Pakistan, the whole of Asia, also probably Trump. So a divided world as well as a divided United States of America. That's Trump for you.

The US is at a turning point and it's worrying

A lot of Americans are now genuinely worried about the way their country is heading. The divisions that were highlighted when Donald Trump became president have become exacerbated. The Never Trumpers, Republicans who were against Trump from the beginning and are warning of the dangers of him winning another four years, include a lot of highly experienced former officials from the George W Bush era. I don't know how many are signed up to the Never Trump campaign but it seems to me they haven't really made such a huge impact on the political scene in Washington and elsewhere in the country to make a difference. In other words I don't think they are so powerful they will manage to persuade the whole Republican party to drop Trump. But their fear of another four years of Trump is reflected in many parts of the country. It makes you wonder why the senior hierarchy of the Republican party are not as anxious about that prospect as are these senior former officials who have served in different administrations and know how the US is viewed around the world. It is perhaps a cliche to say that the US is now at a turning point. Historians and commentators have been writing off America for years and have largely been proved wrong or too negative. But now with the prosepct of a second-term Trump I really do think the country is facing an important point in its progress towards this very different future we are all facing. Is Trump the right man to be in the White House from now until 2024. Indeed, is Joe Biden the right man to lead the US? The Never Trumpers don't want Trump obviously and believe he could seriously damage the country in the eyes of the world if allowed to rule for a second term. But would they be happy with Biden? I doubt it. There is no real leader ready and available to make the whole world unanimously say, "Ah thank God, now things will get better." That is seriously worrying.

Will everyone wear masks in shops? Maybe not!

Judging by what's happening today, just a week before the wearing of masks become compulsory in shops in the UK, it seems there is still a macho refusal by a large section of the population who will refuse to cowtow to such an edict. And one of the reasons why this is the case is that no one right now is responsible for enforcing it. Security officers at supermarkets never seem to step forward to ask customers not wearing masks if they could be so kind as to wear one, and no one inside shops says, "Hey you, put a mask on". The supermarket I went to this morning was full of people without masks, just wandering around in the way they have done since forever as if there is no such thing as a pandemic in the country and across the planet, killing people. From July 24 the wearing of masks in shops, as well as on public transport, will be compulsory. But guess what, the police have been put in charge of enforcing it and fining people £100 if they fail to wear one. The police? They can't plant constables outside every shop in the land for heaven's sake. And why should they when the obvious solution is for shop owners themselves to have the responsibility and just refuse entry to anyone who is not wearing a mask. It's so simple. Large notices should be outside every shop saying enter ONLY with a mask on. Shops have for months had signs saying "Please only one customer at a time". No problem. Most people see the sense in that. But with masks it's going to be more difficult because there seems to be a basic mentality which is opposed to masks. So if a customer refuses to put a mask on before entering a shop and starts getting agry and pushy, then the shop owner can call the police. But the idea that police officers are going to spend all their time standing around to catch people not wearing masks is ridiculous. A lot of people will realise the stupidity of this government decision - to put the police in charge (thinking to themselves, "Well I had a burglary at my house last week and they didn't bother to turn up") - and will carry on as normal. The only thing that might happen is that right-minded citizens who obey edicts and who see a lot of people walking round the supermarkets without masks might start to get increasingly angry. Then there could be trouble. Boris is already talking with foreboding about a second virus wave in the autumn and has set aside £3 billion to cope with the rush of patients. But even that probably won't change the mentality about wearing masks. Masks have been compulsory on public transport for some weeks. Has that worked? No. Every time I have been on a train or bus there have been a handful of people sitting there on their phones or eating food and no sign of a mask. The poor police are going to be very very busy from July 24.

Can Russia not be bothered to develop its own Covid-19 vaccine?

What on earth is Russia doing? Why are Russian hackers, state-sponsored or otherwise, hacking into Britain's medical efforts to develop a Covid-19 vaccine? Are they just doing what they did in the Cold War when they stole blueprints for the West's military and industrial secrets to save themselves the time and money doing their own research? But trying to steal a vaccine? That's the lowest of the low. In fact it's despicable. Surely there are brilliant research scientists in Russia too who could play a part in finding a vaccine for the planet? If they are why aren't they getting on with it? There are real hopes that a vaccine will be found before the end of the year and perhaps start to be distributed early next year. But it can't be very comfortable to know that behind their shoulders, as it were, Russian hackers are grabbing what they can. With virus spikes erupting all over the world, and warnings of an even more dangerous second wave waiting in the wings for the autumn, a vaccine that really works is the one thing that will change not just the spread of the virus but the whole health mentality of the world population. We need a vaccine as soon as possible. But if the Russians damage that endeavour in any way, then it should be a matter for the United Nations Security Council. Of course Russia and China will vote against any resolution that points an accusing finger at Moscow. But it would be worth it to let Russia know that what they are doing is indefensible. But would Putin's Kremlin care? Probably not.

The great comeback for Mike Flynn?

Retired Lieutenant-General Mike Flynn could make a comeback on the scale of Lazarus leaping up from his deathbed. Donald Trump has said that he would be very happy to have Flynn back working for him and his administration because he's a good guy. Trump loves it when he can say that someone is a good guy. Flynn's fortunes have certainly taken a turn for the better. It doesn't seem that long ago when he was facing at least a year in jail for committing the heinous federal offence of lying to the FBI. The first man to be selectd as Trump's national security adviser had gone from the dizzy heights of White House top league to the bottom of the ladder with no way of avoiding swapping his smart Washington suit for drab prison garb. But here he is today, nearly over the last legal hurdle and ready to take his place back in the Trump administration. Incredible. He may not want to of course but Trump thinks he's a great guy who has been sorely wronged and if he decides to appoint him to some nice fancy job I'm sure the retired general will do his duty. Flynn was one of the Big Names in the Robert Mueller investigation into whether the Trump campaign team had colluded with Moscow to undermine Hillary Clinton's campaign and help boost Trump's chance of becoming president. He met with the Russian ambassador to Washington and spoke about the likelihood of sanctions against Russia being lifted if Trump won the 2016 election. He initially admitted fibbing to the FBI about that conversation. He also neglected to tell Mike Pence, the vice president, that he had mentioned sanctions-lifting when he chatted to the Russian ambassador. Flynn said he would plead guilty to the lying charge but then got a much fancier lawyer who told him to plead not guilty. Since then everything has changed and with Trump backing Flynn all the way, he now looks set to be totally freed from all guilt, once yet another investigation has been completed. The Appeals Court ordered the judge in the Flynn case to drop the prosecution but the said judge has himself appealed against that decision. A bit odd but he is in his rights. But as far as Trump is concerned Flynn is now in the clear because he said in an interview that he would welcome Flynn back into the fold. Flynn has always had friends in high places.

So farewell Huawei. Boris has finally done it.

It has taken months of haranguing by everyone in the White House for Boris Johnson to finally give in and announce one of his most spectacular U-turns. Instead of allowing the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei to grab 35 per cent of our 5G digital requirements, the prime minister has decided after all that that's not a good idea and has reversed his decision. Now Huawei is to be stripped out of everything by 2027 and the previous plan to let them 5G us has been scrapped. It's going to cost a fortune to do that and will mean a delay of a year or so before we can catch up with the leading high-tech countries. Boris's famous pledge to bring superfast broadband to every crevice in the UK, including the remotest Welsh farm, ain't going to happen. AND, the Chinese Communist government will be so angry at the disrespect shown by the Brits that Beijing will no doubt take its revenge in one form or another. Trade between the two countries will suffer and former Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's dream of a new golden era of trade relations between the UK and China has been splattered. I guess Boris had little alternative. When Trump banned US companies from providing any of the components for Huawei's 5G systems, that effectively scuppered the Chinese company's ambition to spread its 5G around the world. GCHQ, the UK government's signals intelligence centre, had previously said that the government could work round the Huawei components to prevent China from gaining access to secret technology, presumably on the basis that the American bits in Huawei would provide sufficient protection. But with an all-Chinese 5G and no US involvement that assurance could no longer be given. Boris was cul-de-sacced. Trump wins. He had sent every type of expert to London to bash Boris's ears about the dangers of nasty Chinese spies gaining access to the UK's secrets and thus American secrets through the Five Eyes intelligence club of the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Boris, and Theresa May before him, felt sure that the Five Eyes family would not be affected by China's 5G and that the clever GCHQ could keep all the really secret stuff away from Chinese prying eyes. Huawei of course has always said it is just a business company and has nothing to do with the Beijing government. Everyone, especially the board of Huawei which includes British toffs in the UK, knows that to be untrue. Every aspect of Chinese business, and in particular those companies that trade internationally and especially especially those in the communications technology world, is subject to the whims and wishes of the Communist Party and its intelligence apparatus. If Huawei is ordered to use its 5G networks to spy on the West that is what the company has to do. It's the law. So Boris's decision today to do a U-turn is right. But why on earth did we say yes initially and infuriate our American partners in the process? And why was GCHQ so confident that we could have Chinese 5G flooding our communications networks and not risk being spied on? China is increasingly our adversary. It was ALWAYS going to be too risky to have Huawei's 5G. But now we will have to put up with falling behind in the superfast technology world and go for an American/British option which isn't nearly as good or as cheap as China's 5G. What the hell is wrong with the western versions? Why are they second-best and so slow? In the end, China will have the last laugh because the Communist Party will be super super high tech before everyone else. But Trump has played his key card by banning US companies from partnering with Huawei, so Beijing will also have some catching up to do, producing Chinese components to replace the American ones. It's a 5G war.

The worst job in the world? Chief of staff to Donald Trump

Mark Meadows, the fourth lucky person to be chosen as White House chief of staff is having a hard time apparently. Well there's a surprise. It surely must go down as one of the worst jobs on the planet. Although you are supposed to be the White House chief of staff, coordinating everything that passes in and out of the Oval Office and masterminding piorities for the administration, in reality you end up being Trump's chief of staff. And to be any good at that you need to get everything right. But since Mark Meadows took over from Mick Mulvany as the top dog in March, things have definitely not gone right for him or for Trump. In fact a period of total disaster. First of all there's the pandemic screwing everything up, then there was that unbelievably disastrous PR exercise when Trump got a bunch of armed henchmen to clear a path for him through the Black Lives Matter protestors outside the White House so he could walk with his chums to grandstand outside St.John's Episcopal church the other side of the White House park to point out the vandalism to the church while holding a Bible in one hand. What else? Oh yes, Trump's plummeting popularity, with Joe Biden scooping up the votes in polls by not doing very much, Trump's decision, against the advice of William Barr, the Attorney General, to commute the prison sentence of Roger Stone, charged under the Russia collusion investigation, the reemergence of virus spikes all over the place, total confusion over wearing masks in public, the list goes on. Poor Meadows who claims he is a good friend of Trump's, can't be blamed for everything but the fact is all this happened under his watch and there are people in Washington who are now saying this chap Meadows is just not up to the job. The truth is no one is up to this job. It's impossible, whoever is president, but especially with Trump in charge because he rules by instinct and chief of staff Meadows, however good he is at reading the runes, can never know from day to day what new problem he is going to have solve or resolve. You plan for one thing and get something else. All Meadows's predecessors - Mulvaney, General John Kelly and Reince Priebus - all left with a huge look of relief on their faces. Mulvaney apparently broke down in tears at least twice while he was acting chief of staff. He is now Trump's special envoy for Northern Ireland. Not an easy job at the best of times but the stress levels nust have dropped by a factor of 100. How long Meadows will last is anyone's guess. But after three and a half months in the White House job I bet he is already looking ahead to when he can get a life once again. Mind you, flying around in Air Force One with allegedly the most powerful man in the western world must boost the old ego a bit. Stick with it, Mr Meadows.

We enter the coronavirus masked face era

It has taken all this time for governments to realise - and for the World Health Organisation - that wearing masks does actually make a difference in the fight to stop the spread of coronavirus. In previous months it has been dismissed as scientifically unproven. Donald Trump was so anti-masks he never wore one in public. Until now. For the first time the president was seen with a dark blue mask over his face while visiting the Walter Reed military hospital in Washington. Mind you, not wearing a mask in this hospital which has saved so many lives of near-mortally wounded combat veterans, would have been an outrage. But Trump masked tells us a helluva lot. This coming week Boris Johnson is expected to announce that everyone must wear masks in shops. Why has it taken so long? It seems to me to be an obvious precaution. The scientific advice that masks did nothing to prevent the passing or receiving of the virus always seemed contrary. But as virus surges are popping up all over the place the mask edict in the UK, and surely soon in the US and elsewhere where there are upticks in the pandemic, is going to change the landscape. Now we will all look like frightened souls hiding our faces from view. It's sad but inevitable and wise. Trump hopefully will continue to wear a mask wherever he appears in public but I fear he will remain sceptical and he won't like the newspapers and television channels constantly showing him covered up. The trouble is that the one man who is supposed to be in a position to advise the presidentb that for the sake of his health and the health of others he really should always get out his mask is totally out of favour. Dr Anthony Fauci, America's expert in infectious diseases, has been too outspoken about the continuing dangers of Covid-19, in Trump's mind, and the two haven't spoken for a month. For the rest of us, however, we are now entering the masked era.

The Mueller Russia collusion investigation just won't go away

The name Mueller keeps on coming up. In fact it will never go away. Robert Mueller, former long-time FBI director and then appointed special counsel to examine the allegations that the Trump campaign team colluded with Moscow to win the 2016 election, delivered his findings in March 2019. No evidence of collusion and no judgment either way on whether Trump had obstructed justice. Trump gets acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate in the impeachment trial. But here we are, more than a year later and the Mueller name keeps on cropping up. First it was over Mike Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser, charged with lying to the FBI over what he said or didn't say to the Russian ambassador during the election campaign. Flynn is a free man today. He initially pleaded guilty, then changed his mind and his case has yet to be resolved. But no one expects him to serve a day in prison. Now Roger Stone, key associate of Trump, facing more than three years in jail for lying to the FBI re Russia/collusion and other charges remains convicted but the president has commuted his sentence. Two of the big names in the Mueller investigation to come out as villains walking free. Trump justified his commutation of Stone's sentence by saying he had been unfairly treated and that the whole case was based on a hoax. I expect Mueller by now is wishing he hadn't been asked by the US Justice Department to take over the Russia collusion investigation from the FBI. For ever after his name will be linked to this episode in America's history. If Trump is reelected in November it will be the final nail in the Mueller/Russia/collusion/impeachment coffin.

So did Russian intelligence give bounties to the Taliban?

The accusation that the Russian GRU military intelligence service offered bounties to the Taliban in 2019 to kill American and coalition troops in Afghanistan has still not been proven. In fact most of the top US military have not made up their minds, based on the intelligence they have seen. Mark Esper, the US defence secretary, and General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appearing yesterday before the House Armed Services Committee, even said he couldn't recall the word "bounty" in any intelligence he had seen about the Russians in Afghanistan. But then he admitted he did remember seeing the word "payments". So we're splitting hairs here. Payments or bounty, there was intelligence on some Russian skuldugerry and both Esper and Milley read it. The fact that Trump didn't actually read it, or says he didn't, doesn't undermine the accuracy of the initial report in The New York Times that a GRU unit operating in Afghanistan was suspected of paying the Taliban to kill American soldiers. What Milley and General Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, have said is that there is no definitive evidence that if bounties WERE paid that they led directly to US combat deaths. Trump still thinks the whole story is a hoax. Nothing unusual about that. The most interesting thing about the whole subject is the decision made by the senior CIA briefer who made no spoken reference to the Russian bounty intelligence to Trump but did include it in the Presidential Briefing document. I haven't mentioned the briefer's name so far but now it has become widely known because she has given an address about what her job entails. So the CIA briefer at the heart of the Russian bounty story is Beth Sanner. Speaking to the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, a non-partisan professional forum based in Arlington, Virginia, she said she had learnt to adapt the contents of her briefings to suit the character and interests of the particular president. Does that mean she didn't mention the Russian connection in her oral remarks to Trump in February because she didn't think the intelligence was sufficiently confirmed or because she knew Trump didn't like to hear anything bad about Putin and co? We'll never know!

The sad story of Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Vindman

So farewell Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Vindman, a man wronged now being forced to start a new life. As a reminder, Colonel Vindman was the guy who was the Ukraine expert on the White House National Security Council who gave evidence in the impeachment hearings against Donald Trump. He was asked questions by the House impeachment hearings committees about his memory of what the president said on the phone to the new president of Ukraine in that controversial conversation on July 25 2019 in which Trump spoke about his desire to have some dirt on Joe Biden and his son Hunter who was a director of a Ukrainian gas company, and hinting that the promised multi-million military aid to Ukraine would be suspended until the info arrived. Vindman, a straight-up-and-down sort of military guy, dressed in his full smartest uniform with medals attached, answered truthfully what he recalled. It didn't look good for his commander-in-chief. Trump didn't take kindly to his Ukraine expert dishing out the truth in such a formal way and made it clear his job in the National Security Council was finished, kaput! He was duly exited from the White House and sent back to the Pentagon where he has been ever since fulfilling a role with the army. But then he came up for promotion, to full colonel, But Trumpite officials indicated that the president would frown on any move to promote the bloke who had skewered him in the impeachment hearings. Vindman was stuck. No promotion, no future in the army he loved and so now he has announced he will retire and seek another life, presumably well away from anything political. His lawyer delivered a devastating statement on his client's behalf saying Vindman had been bullied and intimidated by the president. Poor Vindman, an honourable man but in the dangerous whirlpool of White House politics he was too honourable for his own good and now he is out of a job. I don't know but it doesn't sound like the head of the US Army or the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff or Mark Esper, the US defence secretary, fought for him. The only person who did fight for him and his promotion was Senator Tammy Duckworth whom I wrote about in my blog yesterday. She said she would block all military promotions until Vindman had been put back on the list of promotion prospects. It was never going to be enough to save Vindman's career and he must have realised that. So he announced his retirement. Senator Duckworth has said she will continue to block promotions anyway. But Vindman will now vanish into obscurity, just what Trump wanted.

Senator Tammy Duckworth, Fox News presenter and George Washington statues

Personally I am against pulling down statues in the United States that have any link to either the wrong side of the Civil War or the history of slavery. We are all grown-ups, we can surely understand and put into historical context the reasons for putting up these statues in the first place without today needing to tear them down because they don't fit in with our 21st century way of thinking. Better to have no statues at all than vandalise ones that are deemed to be politically, morally or socially unacceptable. On that basis all statues of George Washington, the first United States president, should be thrown onto the scrapheap because he had black slaves working for him. Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois has dared to suggest that it might be a good idea to at least discuss the merits and otherwise of keeping George Washington statues because of his association with slavery. She has every right to make her views clear, and it's not like she has tried to pull a George Washington statue down or throw red paint at it. But she has become the focus of a vicious attack by Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson on her integrity and patriotism and very existence. It's not pleasant watching. For anyone who doesn't know about Senator Duckworth, there are a few necessary pieces of information which are crucial if you want to understand why the Carlson attack is so gross and unacceptable and juvenile. She is a former Black Hawk helicopter pilot for the US Army and served in the Iraq War. Her helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents in November 2004 and as a result she was grievously injured, losing both her legs. She fought and nearly died for her country, and instead of spending the rest of her life angry and depressed and bitter, she became a senator to carry on her fight for the country she loves. She is an extraordinary woman. She is also now, as a result of her courage and tenacity and determination and patriotism, being considered as a possible vice presidential running mate for Joe Biden for the November election. Maybe the fact that she has a Thai mother (and a white American veteran father) has something to do with the Carlson tirade. But for him to dismiss her patriotism is beyond forgiveness. She recovered and received her two prosthetic legs when she was treated at the Walter Reed military hospital in Washington. I have been to this hospital. It's full of the most amazing people. Men and women who have suffered the most appalling injuries in war and yet retain an extraordinary sense of purpose and determination to carry on with their lives, some of them even demanding to get back to the frontline. This is true courage. So for the rest of her life Tammy Duckworth deserves the greatest respect and thanks for her sacrifice, not the sort of abuse she has received at the hands of this TV presenter. Who knows, if she is chosen as Biden's running mate and he wins and serves just one term, she could even end up being president of the United States. Ha!

Can the Chinese Communist Party be held back or is all too late?

Governments come and go, dictators and bad leaders get ousted. But the Chinese Communist Party just carries on for ever and has been engaged in the most comprehensive imperialist programme not seen since the Romans (or possibly the British when we had an Empire in Queen Victoria's time). Ever since the pandemic which everyone in the world, except the Chinese Communist Party, says started in the Chinese city of Wuhan sometime towards the end of last year, we have all become more wary of China. And for good reason. There is plenty of evidence that China deliberately avoided taking measures to stop Chinese nationals from jumping onto planes and spreading the virus around the world. Northern Italy was one of the worst hit initially because large numbers of Chinese live and work in that part of the country. Beijing also made things worse by putting out a massive amount of false information claiming that the virus was everyone else's fault. Even claiming that American athletes from the US Army brought it in when they attended the Wuhan Games last autumn. Now here we are, several months later and pretty well every aspect of China's influence in the world is coming under the microscope. Here are just a few issues: Staying with or chucking out Huawei's 5G, reviewing Chinese investment in the UK's nuclear power programme, buying anything which has Made in China stamped on it, reeaximining anything which has Chinese components that might be a risk to national security. I hasten to add this cannot and must not in anyway hint at racism, it's not a question of being against the Chinese. It's about trust. Can western government trust the Chinese Communist Party to be a loyal and valued partner? Judging by the hasty change of mind going in the Boris Johnson government about allowing Huawei to take over 35 per cent of the country's 5G digital network which was agreed in Jauary, the answer is no. Boris wants to renege on that agreement as fast as possible becasue the signals intelligenfe people at GCHQ have had a rethink and worry that our national security would be at risk. Before, GCHQ said it was possible to contain the risk somehow, but ooops suddenly not anymore. But the Chinese ambassador to London has very calmly issued a WARNING that if the UK government were to consider doing any such thing there could be consequences to the whole bilateral relationship between Britain and China. Wow, and there it is. China has the UK and half the world over a barrel. There is so much Chinese investment in the UK across a huge spectrum that the ambassador's warning has real meaning. In other words, it's a real threat. And then of course there's the pledge from Boris to allow three million Hong Kongers with British nationality rights to come and live in Britain because of the harsh new security law imposed on the former British colony by Beijing (the Communist Party). In the ambassador's view (Beijing's view) that smacks of interference in another country's internal affairs, so stay away or else! Yes the Communist Party of China is riding high. And I reckon there is not a lot we in the West can do about it. Certainly not in little old Britain.

When will we learn the personal economic cost of the pandemic?

We are all living in a confusing cloud cukoo land at the moment, just waiting for someone in government to tell us that after all the huge sums of money borrowed to keep the nation going and saving millions of jobs, the other side of the coin must be faced: paying for it all with higher taxes or whatever. No government likes being forced into raising taxes because that won't go down well with voters. But how else will the massive debts be paid off? Voters are not idiots. They must surely realise that there will be pain at some point. Boris Johnson has promised that none of those who suffered financially from the long period of austerity imposed on them by the Conservatives - ie everyone - will suffer again. But surely the millions whose jobs were saved by furlough grants can't expect to go back to work as normal and live the same life as before? All governments run on debt but not on the scale made necessary by the pandemic lockdown. As our superstar chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has said, that is unsustainable. So when will the higher taxes come into effect and will they be higher for everyone or just the wealthy? Well this is a Conservative government so there won't be a wealth tax. And anyway wealth taxes can prove shortsighted because these are the big-time employers as well as the rich upper class. Much will rest on the shoulders of the chancellor and so far he has done such a good job that it gives us reason to hope that he will come up with the right formula. I have more faith in him right now than the rest of the cabinet from Boris downwards. Michael Gove, the cabinet office minister, is, according to some commentators, the man who is really in charge behind the scenes. But where is the evidence that he has a masterplan for this country? I think I would rather trust the snappily-dressed chancellor Sunak to do that for us.

How safe is it really to go on holiday now?

Nearly 60 countries can now be visited by people living in England without having to go into a two-week quarantine when they return. So whoopee we're off for our hols, says everyone, where shall we go: France, Greece, Spain, Portugal (NO not Portugal), Italy (YES Italy)? Of course it would be wonderful for the airline industry, the tourist industry across Europe and for economies everywhere. But can it really be safe to go from home lockdown to holidaymaking across the European continent withut any form of medical checks? As we know, because we have been told a thousand times, you can have the coronavirus infection without actually having any of the usual symptoms. So it is possible that thousands of English tourists will fly off to European beaches WITH the virus but feeling terrific and happy and then pass it on to a whole range of people: on the beach, in the Mediterranean water, in the bar in the evening, in restaurants, in the hotel etc etc. Social distancing will be impossible with people in holiday mood. I say Engish becaUse the Scots and Welsh and Irish in Northern Ireland are still a few weeks behind in terms of lifting travel restrictions. Two of the big names excluded from the quarantine-free holiday destinations are Portugal and the United States. So unless you are happy to go back down to full lockdown in your home for two weeks when you return, the US and Portugal remain off limits. That's a huge blow for both countries who rely on the good old Brits to come over and spend money. Personally I feel 2020 is the year I cross off as a year wasted, a non-year, a stay-at-home year, a year of saying a holiday would be nice but it's just too risky. Better to have no holidays this year and lots next year, pandemic-willing. But I am sure the lifting of travel restrictions will be seized on by millions who will even now be booking discounted holidays and planning two weeks in the sun. Good luck to them but don't expect to see me under a parasol a metre away. The gathering of hundreds of drinkers in central London yesterday, none of them with social distancing in mind, was enough for me to know that the same sort of scene wll be pictured along the Costa Brava and elsewhere in European resorts throughout July and August. No thank you.

Is this Trump's last July Fourth as president?

Happy Independence Day to my American friends and contacts. How hapoy is Donald Trump I wonder. Does he fret every evening as he sits in front of the TV that every day from now until the first week in November are his last days as the all-powerful president of the United States? It must be a terrible possibilty for him as he watches the polls consistently putting Joe Biden a long way ahead of him. I know I have suggested before that unless the economy jumps back into full-grown bullishness and the pandemic disappears and becomes a forgotten nightmare, Biden, for all his faults and rather sheepish look will win in November and become the 46th president. There are only four months left before election day. Did I say "only"? In politics, four months is a long long time. And politics in Washington over four months can change dramatically. Despite a few ventures out into the public Biden is still largely a home basement presidential challenger. That's not necessarily a bad thing as a lot of voters are still in lockdown mood, scared to go back to normal too quickly whatever Trump says. But at some point Biden is going to have to do the rounds in every state which he needs to win to have a chance of the White House job, and that's where the danger lies. Biden has a history of making gaffes. A wrong reply here or an unfortunate phrase there and he will be crucified as the graffe-prone septuagarian who can't be trusted to get the words out of his mouth in the right order. Politics can be so cruel. If he introduces his sister as his wife once again, as he did in March, or falls over as he climbs up the stairs to make a speech, or forgets to remove his black mask as he tries to eat a cheeseburger, the reaction from some of the media and certainly from the White House will be remorseless. Anything like that could happen in the next four months. Or Biden in the upcoming TV debates with Trump could flop badly or say something he will regret or forget to say what he wanted to say. The next four months are absolutely crucial for Biden if the polls are to be proven accurate. But if he does make a gaffe or two and the ecocomy starts to improve noticeably and the second virus wave fails to materialise or is prevented by the arrival of a virus-beating vaccine, then the poll numbers could change. Some poll experts are forecasting a landslide victory for Biden. But even though that is probably off the mark, such a scenario depends on Biden doing everything right in the next four months. Somehow, based on his past record, that seems a little unlikely.

Boris wants us all to be sensible

It's a pretty tall order judging by the irresponsible eruption of non-social-distancing incidents across the UK, but Boris Johnson, in his latest chat with the nation, has appealed to everybody not to treat tomorrow's opening of pubs and restaurants as an opoortunity to go wild and and gather in huge boozy crowds. When politicians appeal to people's common sense and better nature it tends, I fear, to fall on deaf ears. There is definitely, among certain sections of the community, mostly the younger generation, a sense of virus-fatigue and they will probably celebrate tomorrow's openings as the first real sign that the pandemic is over. It isn't of course. Common sense got lost a week or so back when there was brilliant hot sunshine and thousands drove off to the seaside and crammed the beaches with their semi-naked bodies. Will the spikes in infections around the country make any difference to tomorrow's latest lifting of restrictions? Probably not in London because the statistics on infections and Covid-19 deaths in the capital show an impressive reduction. How sad and tragic it would be if this all changed after a weekend of pub drinking. Those images of packed sunbathers at Bournemouth serve as a grim reminder of the crazy lemming-like urges in a lot of people's minds. Never mind the risks, let's take the kids to the seaside. So poor old Boris's appeal may well be drowned out as people rush to the pubs and, if it's sunny, fill the beaches once again. It's the same in so many countries. Despite the alarming spikes in infections across the US, Americans are largely ignoring the pleas to wear masks in public. Washington by all accounts is now the same as it was before the pandemic began. Trump says he thinks a mask would look good on him but he still won't wear one in public because he thinks it will make him look weak. He likes the contrast between him unmasked and Joe Biden, always black-masked. It's a man thing, never mind setting an example to the country. I fear the next few weeks are going to be a litmus test for the world: cautious sensible return to a new normal or a to-hell-with-the-virus attitude that will lead to a second wave.

Does Trump read or listen to the intelligence he gets every day?

Every president of the United States sat in his Oval Office chair every morning and received the early visit from a senior CIA briefer who handed him his presidential daily brief and was then available to discuss matters that took the president's notice. Some presidents, if pushed for time, just took the PDB as it's called and promised to read it later. Others just wanted an oral briefing highlighting all the best bits. Some presidents were really fascinated by all the detail and wanted to know everything - like President Jimmy Carter - and others showed less interest. Donald Trump is definitely in the latter category. By all accounts he normally doesn't want to plough his way through all the written paragraphs and expects an oral summing-up. The trouble with this way of dealing with intelligence titbits is that the briefer has to decide what to raise and what to just leave unsaid while still having everything included in the written brief. I find it extraordinary that the CIA briefer in the Russin GRU bounty/Taliban intelligence saga has not only been singled out as the person responsible for not telling Trump about it but has been identified in the US newspapers. That could never happen here in the UK. Newspapers are forbidden to name any member of the security and intelligence services except for the heads of the individual agencies. The CIA briefer who decided that the intelligence relating to the GRU bounty item was a woman with 30 years of experience in the agency. I'm not going to name her even though her name is all over the papers across the Atlantic. I'm sure she is terrific at her job. You don't get to be a presidential briefer unless you have developed a reputation for being an excellent intelligence officer. It's a prestige and highly pressured job. So, if the reports are accurate, she included the GRU/Taliban intelligence in the written brief as far back as February but he didn't see it, and she didn't raise it orally because she thought the intelligence was sketchy or at least not copper-bottom confirmed. Every reaction to this story from the White House and other top people in Washington has been riddled with semantics. Was Trump briefed on the intelligence? No, they say. Well, ok, he wasn't briefed orally as he likes, but it was in a paragraph in a PDB some months ago. Does he read the intelligence brief? Well of course he does, says the White House press secretary, but he wasn't briefed on the bounty item. You see, it's all clever semantics. The person I feel most sorry for is the CIA briefer who has been outed and whose remaining career will now be spotlighted around the world amongst America's enemies and adversaries.

Should Trump be punishing Moscow - again?

It looks as if Donald Trump is doing his absolute best to downplay the intelligence that the Russian GRU military intelligence service offered bounties to the Taliban last year to kill American and other coalition troops in Afghanistan. The reason? Because if it turns out to be true he will be under huge pressure to punish Moscow and give his friend Vladimir Putin a really hard time. The evidence that the GRU has been at work in Afghanistan handing over piles of dollars to the Taliban is getting stronger by the day. The New York Times says bank intercepts were carried out by the US - presumably by the super clever US Treasury Department unit that tracks illegal and terrorist-linked funding around the world - and lo behold they revealed a lot of cash in the known Taliban bank accounts transferred by a certain Russian military intelligence service. Voila! Also US special forces operating in Afghanistan had picked up all kinds of intelligence about this bounty deal, including from interrogation of captured Taliban fighters who spilled the beans. Trump says all the intelligence was considered non-credible. In other words he is doing Putin a huge favour because he seems to be backing the line pushed out by the Kremlin which is that this bounty stuff is bull***t. But the Democrats are going to press hard on this and, inevitably at some point in the future, some US official will anonymously let the New York Times know that perhaps the intel was after all pretty good but not so damning that the Trump administration felt it necessary to order more sanctions against Russia. Putin presumably is already feeling pretty confident that the man in the White House won't be seeking revenge over the bounty accusation. Knowing as we all do now about the activities of the GRU and the unbelievably blatant way two of their agents calmly went to Salisbury and smeared nerve agent on the Skripals' front door handle, the intelligence gleaned on the bounty deal with the Taliban would seem to me to be utterly credible.