THE WEEK morning brief: PM's Thailand visit; snoopgate hots up; Delhi air quality still 'severe'

Sonia to meet Congress general secretaries today to discuss organisational issues

Modi-Future-Investment-Initiative-Saudi-Arabia-PTI Prime Minister Narendra Modi | PTI

A look at the headlines today:

1. WhatsApp, govt at loggerheads over snooping incident 

As the snoopgate incident hots up, with reports suggesting that even government employees across countries were possibly subjected to spying, the Centre said it was disappointed that WhatsApp had not disclosed the alleged spying incident in its conversations with the Indian government that it has had since the attack in May this year. WhatsApp was quick to deny the government's allegations and said that it had informed Indian authorities in May about a privacy breach that affected some users in the country and worked quickly to resolve it. "Since then we've worked to identify targeted users to ask the courts to hold the international spyware firm known as the NSO Group accountable", the spokesperson said in a statement.

India, according to a government source, will continue to insist on WhatsApp bringing in traceability and will also want the Facebook-owned company to respond to the latest incident in full details. WhatsApp has been given time till November 4 to respond, and the government will decide on the future course of action once it receives a reply from the company.

2. Delhi air quality continues to be 'severe'

A day after Delhi declared health emergency, the air quality in the national capital continued to remain severe. Major pollutants PM 2.5 at 500 and PM 10 at 500 remained in 'severe' category in Lodhi Road area, according to Air Quality Index data. As smog enveloped the city in grey, many people moved around with masks and others stayed resolutely indoors in what could well be a dystopian nightmare come true, the EPCA banned all construction activity in the Delhi-NCR region till November 5.

An AQI between 0-50 is considered "good", 51-100 "satisfactory", 101-200 "moderate", 201-300 "poor", 301-400 "very poor", and 401-500 "severe". Above 500 is "severe-plus or emergency" category.

The Delhi government on Friday decided to shut all schools till November 5 after a Supreme Court-mandated panel declared a public health emergency in Delhi-NCR in the wake of spike in pollution level.

3. PM's Thailand visit begins today; to participate in ASEAN, RCEP summits

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a 3-day visit to Thailand today. The prime minister will participate in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), East Asia and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) summits. The biggest talking point, ahead of the ASEAN summit in Nonthaburi, a vibrant city north of Bangkok, however, has been the final leg of negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade deal and whether India join the bandwagon.

If finalised, the RCEP deal will facilitate creation of the biggest free-trade region in the world. India is still engaged with the the RCEP member countries to resolve some of the "critical issues" relating to the deal ahead of the summit talks of the grouping's leaders on Monday which will also be attended by Modi.

4. Economic slowdown: Sonia to meet Congress general secretaries today

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi has called a meeting of the party general secretaries with frontal organisation chief, on Saturday to discuss organisational issues, including planning protests against the current economic slowdown. The meeting is expected to take place at 5 pm at AICC.

After taking over as the interim president of the party, Gandhi is regularly meeting with the party functionaries for policy-making of the party on various issues. This meeting is taking place ahead of the nationwide protest called by the party on the economic slowdown.

5. China, US trade negotiators reach 'consensus on principles'

Top Chinese and US trade negotiators have "reached consensus on principles", China's commerce ministry announced in a statement Saturday.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He spoke by phone with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin on Friday, and "conducted serious and constructive discussions on properly addressing their core concerns and reached consensus on principles," the ministry said.

Additionally, "the two sides discussed the next consultations," the ministry said, without providing further detail.

Uncertainty has swirled over the potential US-China trade deal since the cancellation earlier this week of the APEC summit in Chile, where US President Donald Trump said that he expected a "phase one" trade deal with Beijing to be signed after an 18-month trade impasse between the two economic giants.

6. Israel strikes Gaza in response to rocket fire

Israeli aircraft hit a series of targets in the Gaza Strip early Saturday in response to rocket fire that damaged a house in southern Israel. Dozens of strikes hit the Palestinian enclave in the early hours, targeting bases of the strip's Islamist rulers Hamas and allied groups, a security source in Gaza said. The Israeli army said they were hitting "terror targets." Three people were injured, at least one seriously, the health ministry in the strip said.

The sound of explosions could be heard up and down the impoverished territory, an AFP correspondent said. A Hamas source said they had fired at the Israeli aircraft carrying out the raids and the Israeli army confirmed fresh "incoming fire" from Gaza.

The strikes came in response to at least 10 rockets fired from Gaza late Friday at southern Israel.