Our Top Weekend Reads

The Wuhan coronavirus continues to spread outside of China, highlighting the potential adverse effects of the Belt and Road Initiative.

But researchers are working toward building a tentative clinical profile of the virus in order to keep it from spreading further.

Rather than being concerned about the germs and their spread, however, Beijing seems mostly motivated by a desire to manage the public’s reaction to the disease, a fact that leaves much to be concerned about.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump released his much-awaited Middle East peace plan, detailing a settlement that heavily favors Israel.

And now that the United Kingdom has officially departed from the European Union, the calls for Scottish independence will intensify.

Here are Foreign Policy’s top weekend reads.

A vendor wearing a face mask offers meat at a near-empty market on the eve of the Lunar New Year in Wuhan, China, on Jan. 24.Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

1. Don’t Blame Bat Soup for the Wuhan Virus

A conspiracy theory made rounds on the internet claiming that the coronavirus started as a result of supposedly “dirty” Chinese eating habits, but the true cause of the outbreak probably has more to do with unsafe food regulations, Foreign Policy’s James Palmer writes.

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he arrives at the White House in Washington on Jan. 22. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

2. Why Trump Will Get Off

Trump’s lawyers are effectively arguing that the president’s propensity for blending his personal interest with the national interest is not impeachable because Trump’s reelection itself is in the public interest, Foreign Policy’s Michael Hirsh writes.

U.S. President Donald Trump (right) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participate in a joint statement in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Jan. 28.Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images

3. Trump’s Peace Plan Aims to Make Israeli Occupation Permanent

Beyond a thin veneer of acceptability, Trump’s Middle East peace plan is designed to do away with a genuine two-state solution while normalizing permanent Israeli occupation and annexation within a de facto one-state reality, Khaled Elgindy writes.

Protesters take part in a pro-independence march in Glasgow, Scotland, on Jan. 11. David Cheskin/Getty Images

4. A New Scottish Independence Vote Seems All but Inevitable

Spurred by widespread Scottish opposition to leaving the European Union and a fresh electoral mandate from the Scottish public, the Scottish National Party plans to intensify its campaign for independence in the coming months, Jamie Maxwell reports.

People carry a giant Belarusian historical white-red-white flag during a rally against a Belarusian-Russian integration project in Minsk on Dec. 7, 2019. Sergei Gapon/AFP/Getty Images

5. The Birth of Belarusian Nationalism

Belarus is often held up as the most pro-Russian of the post-Soviet states, but as unification talks with Russia intensify, Belarusians are beginning to discover their own national identity, Tomasz Grzywaczewski writes.