President Donald Trump’s campaign launched a new legal effort this week aimed at stopping the certification of election results in Pennsylvania, as the president continued to refuse to concede to President-elect Joe Biden. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the latest.
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Month: November 2020
US Treasury Seeks ‘Resolution’ With ByteDance on Security Concerns
The U.S. Treasury Department said on Wednesday it wants a resolution of national security risks it has raised over ByteDance’s 2017 acquisition on Musical.ly, which it then merged into the TikTok video-sharing app. The statement came a day after China-based ByteDance filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington challenging a Trump administration order set to take effect on Thursday requiring it to divest TikTok. “The Treasury Department remains focused on reaching a resolution of the national security risks arising from ByteDance’s acquisition of Musical.ly,” Treasury spokeswoman Monica Crowley said. “We have been clear with ByteDance regarding the steps necessary to achieve that resolution.” TikTok did not immediately comment. President Donald Trump in an August 14 order directed ByteDance to divest the app within 90 days, which falls on Thursday. The Trump administration contends TikTok poses national security concerns as the personal data of U.S. users could be obtained by China’s government. TikTok, which has over 100 million U.S. users, denies the allegations. ByteDance, which has been in talks for a deal with Walmart Inc. and Oracle Corp. to shift TikTok’s U.S. assets into a new entity, said Tuesday it was requesting a 30-day extension so that it can finalize terms. “Facing continual new requests and no clarity on whether our proposed solutions would be accepted, we requested the 30-day extension that is expressly permitted in the August 14 order,” TikTok said in a statement. TikTok announced a preliminary deal in September for Walmart and Oracle to take stakes in a new company to oversee U.S. operations called TikTok Global. Trump has said the deal had his “blessing.”
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Trudeau Says Canada Will Not Bow to China’s ‘Coercive Diplomacy’
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday that his country would not cave to pressure from China over the case of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in Canada on a U.S. warrant almost two years ago. The case has caused a diplomatic chill between Canada and China, which soon after Meng’s arrest detained two Canadian citizens, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, on espionage charges. “We don’t believe in coercive diplomacy and … we actually deeply believe that if you start giving into that kind of pressure, you’ll leave yourself worse off for the long term,” Trudeau said Wednesday in an interview during an online conference hosted by the Financial Times. “China continues to think that they can just put enough pressure on us, and we will … give in. But that’s exactly the opposite of our position,” he said. Meng has denied charges brought against her in the United States and is fighting extradition from house arrest in Vancouver.
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Republicans Gain Half of Total US Senate Seats
U.S. Republican Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska won reelection Wednesday, assuring Republicans of at least 50 seats in the 100-member Senate for the next two years, while leaving control of the chamber uncertain until two runoff elections are held in Georgia in early January.After slow vote-counting in the northwestern-most state of the U.S. after the November 3 election, news media concluded that Sullivan had an insurmountable lead over Al Gross, an orthopedic surgeon who ran as an independent candidate with Democratic support. The contest was called with Sullivan, a conservative, ahead by 20 percentage points.FILE – Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, testifies during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 7, 2020.With Republicans assured of at least half the Senate seats, attention now turns to the two January 5 runoff elections in the southern state of Georgia.Two conservative Republican lawmakers — Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler — now hold the two seats, but both failed in separate contests last week to win a majority, forcing them into the runoffs.Perdue faces Democrat Jon Ossoff, an investigative journalist who narrowly lost a 2017 race for a seat in the House of Representatives before trying to oust Perdue from the Senate seat he has held since 2015.FILE – Republican candidate for Senate Sen. David Perdue speaks at Peachtree Dekalb Airport in Atlanta, Nov. 2, 2020.FILE – Democratic candidate for Senate Jon Ossoff points after a news conference in Atlanta, Georgia, Nov. 10, 2020.
Loeffler, who was appointed to her Senate seat in early 2020, is facing Raphael Warnock, a progressive Democrat who is senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.Warnock led a multi-candidate field in last week’s voting, with Loeffler second, but he finished well short of the majority he needed to avoid a runoff. In their initial contest last week, Perdue narrowly led Ossoff, but a third candidate won enough votes to keep both Perdue and Ossoff from hitting 50%.Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Sen. Kelly Loeffler gestures at a campaign rally in Marietta, Georgia, Nov. 11, 2020.FILE – Raphael Warnock, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, speaks during a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, Nov. 3, 2020.As it stands, Democrats will hold at least 48 seats in the Senate over the next two years, a net gain of one seat after losing one and gaining two in last week’s voting.If Republicans retain either of the Georgia seats or both, they will hold a majority in the Senate for the next two years. But if Ossoff and Warnock were both to win, there would be a 50-50 split between Republicans and Democrats.In the case of a tie vote in the Senate, the decisive vote is cast by the vice president, in this case Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Democrats would thus be able to secure a majority on all the chamber’s committees that consider legislation and approve the president’s appointments to key government positions and judgeships on federal courts.Such a legislative majority, if Democrats voted as a bloc, would give President-elect Joe Biden a chance to win approval for his legislative agenda on a host of issues.But if Republicans retain control of the Senate, coupled with continued Democratic control of the House of Representatives that is already assured, the prospective Biden administration and fractious lawmakers likely would be forced into extensive negotiations over such contentious issues as taxes, immigration, health care and more.
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Giuliana Chenal-Minuzzo, First Female Olympic Oath Taker, Dies at 88
Giuliana Chenal-Minuzzo, the first female athlete to deliver the Olympic oath, in 1956, and the first woman to win a Winter Games medal for Italy four years earlier, has died at the age of 88. The Italian was hailed by her country’s alpine skiing federation as “one of the greatest post-war champions.” Chenal-Minuzzo won downhill bronze in the 1952 Oslo Olympics, going on to claim a second bronze at the 1960 Squaw Valley Games, that time in the giant slalom. FILE – Italian Alpine skier Giuliana Chenal-Minuzzo reads the Olympic oath, on behalf of all the athletes taking part, at the opening ceremony of the seventh Winter Olympic Games, at Cortina, Italy, Jan.26, 1956.At the intervening 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Games, she broke ground by delivering the Olympic oath. First pronounced by Belgian athlete Victor Boin (water polo, swimming and fencing) at the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games, the Olympic oath of modern times was similar to that taken by the Olympic athletes of ancient times – but at the modern Olympic Games, the athletes swear on the Olympic flag, not on the entrails of a sacrificed animal. The modern Olympic oath, originally written by International Olympic Committee (IOC) president and founder Pierre de Coubertin, has been modified over time to reflect the changing nature of the sporting competition. The oath taker is from the host nation and takes the oath on behalf of all athletes participating at those Olympic Games. Oaths for officials and coaches were added in 1972 and 2010 respectively.
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Pink Diamond Fetches $26.6M at Sotheby’s Geneva Sale
An extremely rare, purple-pink diamond mined in Russia, which Sotheby’s described as “a true wonder of nature,” sold for $26.6 million on Wednesday, the auction house said.Sotheby’s had estimated that the flawless oval gem, “The Spirit of the Rose,” could fetch from $23 million to $38 million at the Geneva sale.The hammer price was 21 million Swiss francs. With commission, the final price was 24.4 million Swiss francs, or US $26.6 million. It was bought by a telephone bidder who chose to remain anonymous, Sotheby’s said.Jewelry expert Benoit Repellin, who led the sale, said it set a record for a diamond graded fancy vivid purple-pink sold at auction. The stone weighed 14.83 carats and was the largest pink diamond with that color grading to go on the block.The diamond was named after a ballet performed by the Ballets Russes and its legendary dancer Vaslav Nijinsky in 1911.Mined by Russian diamond producer Alrosa in July 2017, it was cut from the largest pink crystal ever found in the country, Sotheby’s said.The diamond was shown in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taipei.Colored stones have been greatly valued as an asset class by the super-rich in recent years, with top-quality pink diamonds especially prized.The Argyle mine in western Australia, which produced the world’s largest supply of pink diamonds, halted production last week because of depletion.”The lucky buyer could well profit from prices soaring for pink diamonds in the coming years thanks to increased rarity,” Tobias Kormind, managing director of 77 Diamonds, Europe’s largest online diamond jeweler, said in a statement.Naturally colored diamonds occur because they possess a particular lattice structure that refracts light to produce colored, rather than white, stones.
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Facebook Extends Ban on US Political Ads for Another Month
As election misinformation raged online, Facebook Inc. said on Wednesday its post-election ban on political ads would likely last another month, raising concerns from campaigns and groups eager to reach voters for key Georgia Senate races in January.
The ban, one of Facebook’s measures to combat misinformation and other abuses on its site, was supposed to last about a week but could be extended. Alphabet Inc.’s Google also appeared to be sticking with its post-election political ad ban.
“While multiple sources have projected a presidential winner, we still believe it’s important to help prevent confusion or abuse on our platform,” Facebook told advertisers in an email seen by Reuters. It said to expect the pause to last another month though there “may be an opportunity to resume these ads sooner.”
Facebook later confirmed the extension in a blog post.
Baseless claims about the election reverberated around social media this week as President Donald Trump challenged the validity of the outcome, even as state officials reported no significant irregularities, and legal experts cautioned he had little chance to overturn Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
In one Facebook group created on Sunday, which rapidly grew to nearly 400,000 members by Wednesday, members calling for a nationwide recount swapped unfounded accusations about alleged election fraud and shifting state vote counts every few seconds.
“The reality is right now that we are not through the danger zone,” said Vanita Gupta, chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Google declined to answer questions about the length of its ad pause, although one advertiser said the company had floated the possibility of extending it through or after December. A Google spokeswoman previously said the company would lift its ban based on factors such as the time needed for votes to be counted and whether there was civil unrest.
The extensions mean that the top two digital advertising behemoths, which together control more than half the market, are not accepting election ads ahead of the two U.S. Senate runoff races in Georgia that could decide control of that chamber.
Democratic and Republican digital strategists who spoke to Reuters railed against those decisions, saying the ad bans were overly broad and failed to combat a much bigger problem on the platforms: the organic spread of viral lies in unpaid posts.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, along with the Senate campaigns of Georgia Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, called for an exemption for the Georgia Senate run-offs so they could make voters aware of upcoming deadlines.
Ossoff faces incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue, and Warnock faces incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler.
“It is driving us absolutely bonkers,” said Mark Jablonowski, managing partner of DSPolitical, a digital firm that works with Democratic causes.
“They’re essentially holding the rest of the political process hostage,” said Eric Wilson, a Republican digital strategist, who said he thought the companies’ concerns about ads on the election outcome did not require a blanket ban. “This is something that deserves a scalpel and they’re using a rusty ax,” he added.
The companies declined to say when they would lift other “break-glass” election measures introduced for unpaid posts, like Facebook’s limits on the distribution of live videos and demotions of content that its systems predict may be misinformation.
Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said those emergency measures would not be permanent, but that rollback was “not imminent.”
Google’s YouTube, which is labeling all election-related videos with information about the outcome, said it would stick with that approach “as long as it’s necessary.”
The video-sharing company bans “demonstrably false” claims about the election process, but has used the tool sparingly, saying hyperbolic statements about a political party “stealing” the election does not violate the policy.
However, Twitter Inc. has stopped using its most restrictive election-related warning labels, which hid and limited engagement on violating tweets. Instead, the company is now using lighter-touch labels that “provide additional context,” spokeswoman Katie Rosborough said.
Twitter placed a label reading “this claim about election fraud is disputed” on two of Trump’s tweets Tuesday morning, but each was retweeted more than 80,000 times by that evening.
Democratic strategists, including members of the Biden campaign who tweeted criticism of Facebook, said social media companies’ measures were not effectively curbing the spread of viral lies.
Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center, said the ad pauses were needed but not sufficient for tackling false information.
“Clearly President Trump does not think the election is over, so I don’t think the platforms should treat it as if it is,” she said.
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Greek PM: Greece, Egypt to Welcome ‘More Decisive’ US Involvement Under Biden
Greece and Egypt, which angered Turkey by reaching an agreement on natural resources in the eastern Mediterranean, will welcome more decisive U.S. involvement in the region under President-elect Joe Biden, the Greek prime minister said Wednesday.”Both Greece and Egypt will receive positively a more decisive role of the United States in the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at a news conference with visiting Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.Cairo and Athens sealed an accord for the partial demarcation of maritime boundaries in August, giving them rights over natural resources in the Mediterranean.Mitsotakis said the accord showed that countries that respect international law and neighborly relations can achieve results to the benefit of their people. He said both Greece and Egypt were willing to expand the accord.Turkey’s positionTurkey, which is at odds with Greece over overlapping claims to energy resources in the Mediterranean, says the pact infringes on its own continental shelf.The agreement also overlaps maritime zones Turkey agreed to with Libya last year, which were declared illegal by Athens.Tensions between the two NATO allies flared following the accord, after Turkey sent its Oruc Reis seismic survey vessel into disputed Mediterranean waters.Ankara pulled out the vessel in September to allow for diplomacy with Greece but then sent it back to the area.On Wednesday, Greece said Turkey’s new naval advisory, engaging an area for seismic activities from Wednesday through November 23, was provocative and urged Ankara to revoke it immediately.”We agreed to continue our solidarity, alongside all friendly countries, in order to confront anyone who threatens regional stability and security, and in a way that prevents any party from imposing its hostile positions,” el-Sissi said.
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Thousands Flee to Sudan After Clashes in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region
The U.N. refugee agency said Wednesday it is working with Sudan’s government to assist more than 7,000 Ethiopian refugees, who have crossed the border, fleeing clashes between forces of the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray regional government. Refugees are being temporarily sheltered in transit centers located near the Sudanese border entry points of Ludgi and Hamdayet, according to a UNHCR statement. UNHCR and local authorities are jointly screening and registering people as well as providing water and meals to Ethiopian men, women and children, said the agency. The UNHCR said it is stepping up emergency relief preparedness in the region, working with governments and partners to put in place measures to respond to more refugees “as the situation evolves.” Amhara militia men, who fight alongside federal and regional forces against the northern region of Tigray, receive training in the outskirts of the village of Addis Zemen, north of Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, Nov. 10, 2020.”We are urging governments in the neighboring countries to keep their borders open for people forced from their homes,” said UNHCR Regional Bureau Director Clementine Nkweta-Salami. The U.N. agency is also asking Ethiopian authorities to take steps that will allow aid to safely reach “refugees and internally displaced within Tigray,” said Nkweta-Salami. With thousands of refugees arriving at the Sudanese border within the last 24 hours, “and with the conflict appearing to escalate,” the UNHCR said it expects those numbers “to rise sharply.” The situation will require the agency, governments and their partners to ramp up resources “to address the needs of those seeking asylum,” said the UNHCR. The Sudanese transitional government expressed concern over the escalating violence between Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) earlier this week and called on all parties to resolve the conflict peacefully. Calls for restraintFollowing a security meeting Monday chaired by the head of Sudan’s Sovereign Council, Abdul Fatah Al Burhan, Sudanese Defense Minister Ibrahim Yasin urged Ethiopia’s government and the Tigray regional forces to refrain from violence. “We urge all the rivals to use wisdom and restraint and resort to a peaceful solution. The Sudanese government is also very concerned about the impact of the ongoing fighting in Ethiopia,” Yasin told reporters. “We also called on the regional and international community to carry out their moral duties to support peace and stability in the region and strengthen peace opportunities in the neighboring Ethiopia,” he said. Last Thursday, local authorities in Sudan’s Kassala state closed its border at the Wed Al Hileo border crossing with neighboring Ethiopia. Kassala state acting governor Feteh Arrahamn Al Amin said a local committee was formed to monitor the situation along the border and receive civilians who flee violence in the Tigray region. Risk of humanitarian crisisThe escalation in violence in the Tigray region could affect Sudan’s Kassala and Gadarif states and create insecurity along the border, leading to a humanitarian crisis, according to Abdul Muniem Abu Idris, a long-time political analyst and Sudanese journalist. FILE – Ethiopians read newspapers and magazines reporting on the current military confrontation in the country, one of which shows a photograph of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, on a street in the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Nov. 7, 2020.”There is already a tribal conflict in those two Sudanese states and the border between the two countries has been witnessing a series of smuggling of firearms and the area has been active in dealing with human trafficking, so any insecurity in neighboring Tigray could increase the level of these illegal practices,” Abu Idris told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus. As chairman of the regional bloc IGAD, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok is morally obliged to bring the two Ethiopian rivals to the negotiating table, said Abu Idris. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres also expressed concern about the escalating violence in Ethiopia. At U.N. headquarters Monday in New York, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the secretary general, said Guterres spoke with Hamdok and the head of the African Union and expressed the U.N.’s readiness to support the IGAD and the AU “in any initiative to address the situation.” Dujarric warned the area could witness a humanitarian crisis because there are nearly nine million people at high risk living near the area of conflict.
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Reshaping Hong Kong Continues With Pro-Democracy Lawmaker Crisis: Analysis
From a distance, it might seem Hong Kong’s turmoil and chaos have lessened as the National Security Law and the global pandemic put a lid on mass pro-democracy protests that rocked the city last year. In reality, since coming into effect, the security law has been a catalyst for sweeping internal changes within the semi-autonomous city.
In the most recent case, four legislators, Alvin Yeung, Kwok Ka-ki, Dennis Kwok and Kenneth Leung, were removed Wednesday and lost their seats within Hong Kong’s top legislature. In August, they were part of a group of 12 pro-democracy election hopefuls who were all disqualified from running in the Legislative Council elections, initially due to take place in September.
All candidates were disqualified because of their failure to uphold Hong Kong’s Basic Law, according to the government.
Because the pandemic forced postponement of the elections for a year, however, the four lawmakers in question had been able to keep their seats—until now.
But Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam had long searched for a way to remove them. Lam openly sought guidance from China’s Standing Committee of National People’s Congress (NPCSC) for a resolution.Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam holds a news conference after four pro-democratic legislators were disqualified when Beijing passed a new dissent resolution, in Hong Kong, Nov. 11, 2020.The NPCSC then passed the new resolution saying that lawmakers should be disqualified if they to fail to acknowledge China’s sovereignty, or if they are in support of Hong Kong independence, ask for foreign influence within the city, or do anything deemed to be a national security threat.
Hong Kong’s government now has the power to directly remove legislators without having to go through the courts. And that’s what happened Wednesday as the four lawmakers were then immediately removed.
The decision prompted the remaining 15 pro-democracy lawmakers to resign in solidarity, out of 19 in total. Once made official, as expected Thursday, there will be no pro-democracy opposition to challenge majority pro-Beijing members within the Legislative Council (LegCo).
The developments underscore Beijing’s ability and determination to dictate how Hong Kong is governed since the National Security Law came into effect back in June.
Now, for any incoming lawmakers who wish to be seated at LegCo, they first must uphold Hong Kong’s Basic Law and swear allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR. Lam herself even admitted this is so it “fulfills the political institution dominantly comprised of patriots.”The Legislative Council chamber is seen after four pro-democratic lawmakers were disqualified when Beijing passed a new dissent resolution, in Hong Kong, Nov. 11, 2020.Since the protests last year, observers note a growing separation of identity within Hong Kong. More residents identify themselves as “Hongkongers” rather than Chinese. The trend comes despite Beijing pushing for more patriotic measures to be implemented in Hong Kong, including in education, and encouraging residents to be more aware of their national identity.
In the absence of an opposition presence within LegCo, the legislative agenda of pro-Beijing legislators remains to be seen on local Hong Kong issues such as redevelopment and voting rights.
What appears to be off the table, for now, are any by-elections—used to fill a political office that has become vacant. Lam herself reportedly ruled this out as happening during the interim council. With the pandemic continuing, it’s very likely there won’t be a fully seated LegCo until later in 2021.
As protests petered out after the arrests of thousands who are under investigation, lawmakers already were fighting an uphill battle. And with no legal opposition currently within LegCo, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement is widely seen has having entered an extremely vulnerable stage.
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US State of Georgia Orders Trump-Biden Vote Recount
The top elections official in the southern U.S. state of Georgia on Wednesday ordered a hand audit of the close vote there between President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden. With almost all the votes counted in Georgia, Trump’s Democratic challenger for a four-year term in the White House is leading by 14,112 votes out of the nearly 5 million votes cast in the state. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, has said he wanted Trump to win the election, but pushed back against Republican claims that the Georgia vote count was plagued by irregularities. Georgia has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference in Atlanta, Nov. 11, 2020.As he announced the close inspection of the Georgia vote, Raffensperger surrounded himself by local election officials and voiced support and admiration for their work. “Their job is hard. They executed their responsibilities, and they did their job,” Raffensperger said. He said he will invite both Democratic and Republican observers to watch the recount because “the stakes are high.” Ballots will be re-scanned on computers in the state, in addition to a human review of printed text on ballots, a process officials hope to complete by November 20. “This will help build confidence,” Raffensperger said. “It will be an audit, a recount and a recanvass, all at once.” According to unofficial vote counts throughout the United States, Biden has already won the popular vote in enough states to amass more than the 270-vote majority needed in the 538-member Electoral College to claim victory. The Electoral College is determinative in deciding U.S. presidential elections, not the national popular vote, although the most populous states hold the most sway in the Electoral College. U.S. national news media have not declared the winner in Georgia, where 16 electoral votes are at stake, nor in the western state of Arizona, where Biden is leading by 12,813 votes and 11 electoral votes are at stake.
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No Guarantee of Safety for Media Covering Disputed Belarus Election
Three months after disputed elections in Belarus, protesters and journalists continue to be arrested, beaten and harassed. On Sunday, police detained over 1,000 people at protests in cities across the Eastern European nation.The arrests were the highest number since protests calling for President Alexander Lukashenko to step down began in August.FILE – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko takes his oath of office during his inauguration ceremony at the Palace of the Independence in Minsk, Belarus, Sept. 23, 2020.Weekly rallies have been held since the presidential elections on Aug. 9 in which long-term leader Lukashenko retained power in a vote seen by international observers as not fair or transparent and in which key opposition were detained or forced to flee.”Since the end of August, the situation has worsened again, and journalists have been disappearing again,” Andrei Bastunets, chair of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), told VOA.In that period, the association has documented at least 60 cases of journalists being arrested, including 16 who are still in custody, and several who say they were beaten. In addition, the government has revoked accreditation to international journalists, and fined or filed legal action against local and foreign media, and access to internet has been blocked.Charges against the media include unlawful disobedience or taking part in an “unsanctioned event.”The international community has called on Belarus to hold new elections and a report by the international Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which in September invoked the “Moscow Mechanism” allowing it to send in experts, said it found evidence of “massive and systematic” rights abuses.The Belarus Foreign Ministry has dismissed international criticism and the OSCE decision to invoke the Moscow Mechanism. An official was cited in news reports as having told the OSCE in Vienna, “Authorities are simply forced to take tough steps, that are often ambiguously perceived, to maintain the social, economic and political stability in the country and ensure national security.”Journalists, including from the Associated Press and BBC, have said they were detained and beaten while covering the protests. Belarus Blocks Scores of News Sites Amid Protest, International OutcryMinsk-based journalists’ trade association calls virtual news blackout ‘indirect censorship,’ constitutional violation”In the first days of the protests, the police didn’t really look at whether you were a journalist or not. Our colleagues were treated very harshly, and many of them were taken to a temporary detention center, where they went through the same torture as civil activists and protesters,” Bastunets said.At first, he added, news outlets were still able to call the Interior Ministry press service or city officials to request that detained colleagues be freed. Bastunets says he believes that may have been thanks to statements by then Interior Minister Yuri Karayev, who said journalists should not be detained because, like police, they are performing their duties.”Afterwards, Karaev was removed from his post, though not for these words,” said Bastunets, citing several cases where journalists, clearly identified as press, had gathered to cover protests, only to be detained.“They stood aside from the protesters,” Bastunets said. “But police buses rolled in, the journalists were crammed into them. They were taken, supposedly, to check documents, but from police stations they were sent to detention centers. And lately it started to happen at every rally.”More Than 500 Protesters Detained in Belarus Demonstrators demand resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko, call for new electionsThe Belarusian response to protests has been shocking, Aleksandr Klaskovsky, head of analytical projects at the independent news agency BelaPAN, said.“Terrible things were happening, I mean the brutality of the security forces, which beat people caught in the streets,” Klaskovsky told VOA. “We learned many shocking details later.”Klaskovsky said that immediately after the Aug. 9 vote, internet access was shut off for three days. Access is also cut during protests and authorities have threatened to block or suspend several popular news websites including Tut.by, which is often described as one of Belarus’s leading news sites.As authorities worked to prevent access, Belarusians found ways to bypass the blocks.“Many Belarusians have mastered different ways of bypassing blocks,” Bastunets from the journalist association said, adding that Telegram channels, “have become the main source of information and communication.”Irina Khalip, Belarus correspondent for Novaya Gazeta, the independent Russian outlet known for its investigative reporting, agreed. “Without question, Telegram channels and independent sites” are the main source of information, she said.“Even social networks have largely taken on the function of mass information,” Khalip said, adding that through these platforms Belarusians can clarify what happened or get information on who has been arrested or released.Credentials RevokedInternational journalists have also been restricted, after the Foreign Ministry in August revoked accreditations under what it described as a “change in rules.”“The new accreditations are carefully parceled out, and, as far as I can tell, ahead of anyone else they go to the Russian media reporters. They are now more loyal, obviously, given the political situation and the fact that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin supported Alexander Lukashenko,” said Klaskovsky.”The authorities push journalists into an illegal space, and now it is better to go to the action just in a column of demonstrators than to go out with a badge and a vest stenciled ‘Press’,” Klaskovsky said, adding that it lessened the risk of jail.Khalip of Novaya Gazeta said accreditation has never been a guarantee of safety.“I never understood the point of hunting for accreditation in the sincere conviction that this piece of paper will help you in some way,” she said. “In fact, these papers have not saved anyone from arrests, beatings, or fines.” Belarus Media Arrests Are Sign of Election Crackdown, Experts SayBelarus arrests at least 20 journalists, along with opposition leader and protesters, ahead of presidential vote next month Even state-run media has publicly objected to the crackdown. In August, around 300 Belarusian state TV channel employees went on strike over what they called an official ban on reporting harsh crackdowns on protesters.They were replaced by employees sent to Belarus by the Russian-funded channel RT.No guarantee of safetyKlaskovsky, from BelaPan, likened the challenges for media in the past three months to being “on the front line.”“We can say that the authorities have started a war against the part of society that demands changes, against the non-government press,” Klaskovsky said. “For them, journalists are enemies, because the purpose of the authorities is to suppress the civil resistance, and since journalists honestly do their job, cover everything that is happening, all the facets of the current deep political crisis in Belarus, [the media] get in the middle of it.”Khalip agreed, saying said that in today’s Belarus, journalists are forced to work “in a situation of war” where nothing guarantees safety.”I always knew that among the journalists I knew there were many brave, fearless and heroic people,” Khalip said. “And now they are demonstrating all this every day, when they get into the heat of action, go to the marches, lock hands shoulder-to-shoulder with the protesters. It’s beautiful, and this is how it should be.”Klaskovsky also praised the media’s refusal to be silenced.“Journalists have brought the truth about the first terrible days after the elections to their readers and to the world community. And so, I believe, have fulfilled their historical task,” said Klaskovsky. “Today there is no question as to whether independent journalism exists in Belarus.”This story originated in VOA’s Russia service.
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Ethiopia’s Instability Threatens to Engulf Region
In a country plagued by years of ethnic violence, analysts fear the latest fighting between government troops and regional paramilitary forces in Ethiopia could be the breaking point.
“We are not on the brink of civil war, Ethiopia is in the midst of a civil war,” said Kjetil Tronvoll, professor of peace and conflict studies at Bjørknes University in Oslo, Norway.
The violence occurred in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region after fighters loyal to the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a political party, attacked a federal government position last week in what the government called an attempt to loot weapons and equipment. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed responded by ordering airstrikes and sending in troops to put down the uprising.
Early reports say hundreds have died in the fighting. There has been an internet shutdown since the beginning of the unrest, a factor that analysts say is leading to a lack of information to assess humanitarian needs.
Tensions have been building since Sept. 9 when Tigray, the northernmost of Ethiopia’s nine regional states, defiantly held a regional election after Abiy postponed the polls, citing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Analysts are questioning whether Abiy, who called the Tigray election illegal, can keep the country together.
“The conflict between the federal authorities and TPLF might be the straw which breaks the camel’s back,” Tronvoll told VOA. “You have the potential of a serious, serious weakening of central authorities in Ethiopia. It is an extremely dire situation and I think it is very hard to see that things will return back to normality as it was before the conflict. The divisions are running too deep for that.”Ethiopians read about the military confrontation in the country, on a street in the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Nov. 7, 2020.The conflict also threatens to expand beyond Ethiopia’s border. The head of Sudan’s refugee agency reported this week that more than 2,500 refugees had crossed the border with hundreds more arriving daily.
There are also unconfirmed reports that Eritrea is positioning troops near the border. Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a devastating war between 1998 and 2000 and Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki continues to carry resentments against the TPLF which held power in the country under late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
Long a bedrock of stability, analysts fear a destabilized Ethiopia could spell doom for the region.
“Ethiopia is the anchor state of the Horn of Africa,” said Murithi Mutiga, International Crisis Group’s Horn of Africa Project Director. “It is obviously the most populous state by far. And as one diplomat pithily put it: ‘If there was a major internal crisis within Ethiopia, it would not implode inwards. It would explode outwards.’”
Adding to its importance, Ethiopia is one of the largest troop-contributing countries to peacekeeping missions in Africa, with soldiers stationed in Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia.
It is also an economic engine that regularly recorded GDP growth above 10% prior to the global economic slowdown caused by COVID-19.
“Ethiopia is absolutely critical to the stability of one of the most unstable regions in the whole of Africa,” Mutiga said. “Home to one of the largest contingent of peacekeepers across the world. Ethiopia’s stability is absolutely critical.”
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Trump Loyalists Get Top Pentagon Jobs After Esper Firing
A day after President Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper, three staunch loyalists to the president were named to top defense jobs. Among them was a former Fox News commentator who failed to get through Senate confirmation because of offensive remarks he made, including about Islam.
The abrupt changes sent reverberations through the Pentagon as nervous civilian and military personnel waited for the next shoe to drop. And they fueled worries of a wider effort to drum out anyone considered not loyal enough to Trump.
The unease was palpable inside the building throughout the day over concerns about what the Trump administration may do in the months before President-elect Joe Biden takes office and whether there will be a greater effort to politicize the historically apolitical military. While radical policy shifts seem unlikely before the Jan. 20 inauguration, the changes could further damage prospects for a smooth transition already hampered by Trump’s refusal to concede his election loss.
James Anderson, who had been acting undersecretary for policy, resigned Tuesday morning and he was quickly replaced by Anthony Tata, a retired Army one-star general. A short time later, Joseph Kernan, a retired Navy vice admiral, stepped down as undersecretary for intelligence, hastening what had been an already planned post-election departure. Kernan was replaced by Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who becomes acting undersecretary for intelligence.
The departures came on Christopher Miller’s second day on the job as defense chief. Miller also brought in his own chief of staff, Kash Patel, to replace Jen Stewart, who had worked in that job for Esper. Patel and Cohen-Watnick are both considered staunchly loyal to Trump and previously worked at the National Security Council.
Patel was among the small group of aides who traveled with Trump extensively during the final stretch of the campaign. He also is a former prosecutor in the national security division of the Department of Justice and former staff member on the House Intelligence Committee. In that post, he was a top aide to Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., leading the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Patel was linked in media accounts to efforts to discredit the investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. He moved to the National Security Council in February 2019, and earlier this year, he traveled to Syria for rare high-level talks aimed at securing the release of two Americans who have been missing for years, including journalist Austin Tice.
Cohen-Watnick was a protégé of Trump’s initial national security adviser, Michael Flynn, but was replaced in the summer of 2017 by Flynn’s successor, H.R. McMaster, as part of a string of shakeups at the White House and National Security Council.
While the personnel changes added to the tumult in the wake of Esper’s departure, it’s not clear how much impact they could have on the massive Pentagon bureaucracy. The department is anchored by the tenet of civilian control of the military, and much of the day-to-day activities are conducted by career policy experts and military leaders in the U.S. and around the globe who adhere to a strict chain of command.FILE – Pentagon is seen from an airplane over Washington, DC.Also, many of Trump’s policies and defense priorities have already been put in motion by Esper and his predecessors, guided by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, including the chairman, Army Gen. Mark Milley. All of those military leaders remain in place.
This is Trump’s second attempt to secure the policy job for Tata. Earlier this year, Trump appointed Tata to the post, but the Senate canceled a hearing on the nomination when it became clear that it would be difficult if not impossible to get him confirmed. Tata withdrew his name from consideration for the job, which is the third-highest position in the department. Trump then appointed Tata to serve in the job of deputy undersecretary.
There has been continuing tumult in the Pentagon’s policy shop. John Rood was forced to resign as undersecretary for policy in February after he drew White House ire for warning against the U.S. withholding aid to Ukraine, the issue that led to the president’s impeachment.
Tata will be “performing the duties of” the undersecretary job, rather than holding the “acting” title. Officials who carry the “acting” title have more authority than those who are “performing the duties of” the job.
According to reports, Tata posted tweets in 2018 calling Islam the “most oppressive violent religion I know of,” and he called former President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader” and referred to him as Muslim. The tweets were later taken down.
At the time of the Senate hearing, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash. and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Trump must not prioritize loyalty over competence and install someone in a job if the “appointee cannot gain the support of the Senate, as is clearly the case with Tata.”
Defense officials said Miller, who previously was director of the National Counterterrorism Center, continues meeting with staff and becoming familiar with the Pentagon and its wide range of complex and critical national security issues and mission.
Anderson’s departure was first reported by Politico.
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Disputes Threaten Somali National Elections Time Frame
The International Crisis Group says Somalia is getting behind schedule on conducting parliamentary and presidential elections. The Brussels-based research organization says the process is threatened by disagreements and the lack of a mechanism to handle disputed election results. It’s calling for term extensions to avoid political conflict.The Somali government’s plan to hold elections by February is facing resistance from opposition groups displeased with the choices to represent their clans in the first round of voting.Somalia holds indirect elections in which clans choose members of parliament through special elections. Then the 275 lawmakers and 59 senators elect the president.Omar Mahmood, a Somali analyst for the International Crisis Group, says the disagreement could affect the electoral process.“I think it will be a little difficult with the timeline in place,” said Mahmood. “We’ve already seen some slippage around that the federal electoral commission, the naming of that happened a few weeks unscheduled, the state of the electoral commission are still pending and we also see some disputes over the names that been put in forth here and so the political opposition come out.”Another problem is the composition of proposed committees to handle electoral disputes. The central government and Somalia’s federal member states agreed to appoint the committees together. But a statement issued Tuesday by 12 presidential candidates said the list was full of members from the intelligence service and some civil servants.
In a Facebook post, Somali Deputy Prime Minister Mahdi Gulaid said the statement rejecting the government appointees was surprising, and he sees the presidential candidates as lacking confidence and “hopeless.” Abdi Ali Hassan, a member of the current Somali parliament, blames the electoral model agreed to by leaders as an obstacle to the country’s progress.He says the indirect election is full of corruption, blame games and nepotism, and terror groups may have a say in it. He says I always supported the one-person-one-vote plan, and the reasons I was against the indirect vote I have already explained. Those who wanted the indirect vote carried the day in support of democracy. We agreed to that idea. I won’t support another indirect vote.Mahmood says if the deadline cannot be met, then Somali leaders should agree on an extension of a few months to their terms in office to allow more time to conduct a credible election. “At the end of the day that’s an option that we throw out there, but it must be consensus based, and the only way you can get to a consensus-based decision, there is one that is very limited in terms of duration and two is very focused on some of the technical details and making sure some of that work is done,” said Mahmood. “So I think there is room for the international community or others to explore the idea. Ultimately it comes down to the Somali stakeholders themselves.”The Brussels-based group notes Somali politicians are open to a slight adjustment to the election time frame.
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Tanzania Opposition Leader Flees Country After Election
Tanzania opposition politician and former presidential candidate Tundu Lissu has left the country for Belgium a week after a failed nationwide protest to reject a presidential election that he claims was marred by widespread irregularities. His departure for Europe comes after he took refuge for more than a week at the German ambassador’s residence, citing threats to his life.
Two weeks have passed since Tanzania voted in national and local elections that put incumbent President John Magufuli of the ruling Party of the Revolution (CCM) into power for a second term. FILE – Residents lineup to cast their vote in Dodoma, Tanzania, Oct. 28, 2020.The main challenger, opposition candidate Tundu Lissu, decried the October presidential poll as rigged with voter intimidation and corruption.
On Tuesday he fled to Belgium after claiming that his life was in danger.
“In order for us to continue with the struggle, we have to be safe. I’m leaving to be safe,” Lissu says. He adds that there is no safety continuing to stay in Tanzania. He says he is not escaping but is leaving to open a new battlefield.
Political analyst Azaveli Lwaitama says the government will use Lissu’s departure to delegitimize the political opposition.
He says the government will convince Tanzanians the opposition consists of so-called imperialists, who were going to create chaos and leave the country when things get worse.
Political analyst Ablulkharim Atiki says he sees this as a political game. “How can you threaten a person who has one million votes, even didn’t reach two million,” Atiki asks. He dismisses that as a political tactic. Dar es Salaam resident Ahmadiya Yahya, 26, says the situation leaves many people in a dilemma. “They leave citizens with many questions that maybe they expected demonstrations to happen and then leave the country in an insecure situation,” he says. “As time goes by maybe they will get to know what is behind the scenes.”
Maria Thomas says Lissu’s departure is good for his safety, adding he has escaped death in a failed assassination attempt before. “I think he has avoided a lot because, looking at 2017, he escaped death due to political issues,” she says. She adds that, if he has claimed that his life was in danger, it is good that he left and it’s better that he left because maybe there was something that was expected to come. But the Tanzanian government has dismissed the allegations. “Those allegations by the opposition are not new; they have been doing so every now and then. After they failed in a democratic process they create lies,” says Hassan Abass, a government spokesperson. He adds that is why Tanzanians have ignored their allegations and continue with their duties. Lissu is the third opposition leader to leave the country due to perceived post-election security risks.FILE – This photo taken on Jan. 5, 2011 shows Godbless Lema being arrested by an anti-riot police during a peaceful demonstration by supporters of the main opposition party Chadema.Last week, former opposition lawmaker Godbless Lema fled to Kenya while Lazaro Nyalandu, another former opposition politician, tried to leave the country to neighboring Kenya.
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Japanese Company Busy Making Joe Biden Rubber Masks
While surgical masks have been highly sought after this year, Joe Biden rubber masks are also seeing some demand.
Ogawa Studios, a Japanese manufacturer, began producing masks resembling the U.S. president-elect in the middle of October, ahead of last week’s election.
Workers in Saitama, a city north of Tokyo, mold rubber to form a likeness of Biden’s face, while features including his pearly white teeth and blue eyes are hand-painted.
“Biden’s keywords are dialogue and healing, so we created it with the image of a gentle expression,” said Kouki Takahashi, from the administration department of Ogawa Studios.
So far, around 1,000 masks have been sold.
The same manufacturer was flooded with orders for Trump masks before Trump’s inauguration as president four years ago.
While sales of Trump and Biden masks were about the same last month, Takahashi said they are seeing more sales in November for the president-elect.
The manufacturer said making politicians’ masks is good for business.
“Compared to character products, politicians are in office for a long time, so their total sales tend to grow significantly as their popularity continues to grow,” Takahashi said.
Trump and Biden masks are both sold for 2,400 yen ($23) apiece in Japan.
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Biden Expected to Uphold Staunch US-Taiwan Ties But Not Like Trump
Taiwanese officials and analysts expect U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to sustain most of the heightened political support that President Donald Trump’s administration has offered the Asian island, but with less taunting of Taiwan’s increasingly powerful rival China.Biden, the projected winner of America’s Nov. 3 presidential election, wants a stronger U.S. relationship with Taiwan, while leaders in Taipei hope for the same as a bulwark against military threats from Beijing. But analysts expect fewer arms sales and nearby naval voyages and less anti-China language from a Biden administration.“I think the basic stance will be about the same and the United States won’t back down in this regard,” said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei, comparing Biden to Trump. But when it comes to China, Huang said, “the two sides for now will experience fewer verbal confrontations.”China considers self-ruled Taiwan part of its territory. It objects to Washington’s strong support for the island’s government, a policy that has contributed to a decline in Sino-U.S. relations.Biden is projected to become U.S. president on Jan. 20, 2021 based on what is deemed to be an insurmountable lead in the ongoing vote counting from the Nov. 3 election. The results remain subject to court challenges and recounts, and will not be official until certified by the individual states, which must happen no later than Dec. 8.Biden’s comments on Taiwan shortly before the election suggest a continuation of a decades-old U.S. policy that casts Taiwan as one in a chain of Asian allies that Washington can turn to for help in countering Chinese economic and diplomatic expansion.“We’re a Pacific power, and we’ll stand with friends and allies to advance our shared prosperity, security, and values in the Asia-Pacific region,” the president-elect wrote in a piece for the Chinese-language World Journal newspaper. “That includes deepening our ties with Taiwan.”Biden tweeted in January that “the United States should continue strengthening our ties with Taiwan and other like-minded democracies.”Taiwan waxed optimistic over the weekend.“President Tsai [Ing-wen] and President Biden will definitely increase all means of improving Taiwan-U.S. relations,” Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said in a social media statement Sunday. “We hope for a big leap ahead in Taiwan-U.S. relations.”Trump’s government, enmeshed in a series of consular, trade and technology disputes with China, has stepped up its high-level visits and arms sales to Taiwan.FILE – A U.S.-made F-16V fighter jet is cleaned by an auto washing machine during a military exercise in Chiayi County, southern Taiwan, Jan. 15, 2020.China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists lost and rebased in Taipei. Beijing does not rule out the use of force to unify the two sides. Taiwan and China ended formal negotiations in 2016, when Beijing took issue with Tsai’s refusal to see both sides as part of a single country.Biden, as a former U.S. vice president and one-time member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, will probably uphold existing U.S.-China policy, said Liu Yih-jiun, public affairs professor at Fo Guang University in Taiwan.“Due to the fact that he has [an] extensive first-hand touch, in regards to the China policy, I just don’t see any reason at all he’s going to make a big swing,” Liu said. “Regional politics, particularly regards to the relations between China and the United States should be more stabilized than it used to be in the past four years.”That stabilization could mean a thinning of sales of American-made, advanced weapons to Taiwan, Liu added. Trump’s administration has announced five arms deals so far this year, up from around one per year during prior administrations.U.S. Navy passages through the Taiwan Strait, which serve as warnings to China, jumped in 2018 from occasional to routine. Two Trump cabinet members have visited Taiwan in 2020 as well, breaking more new ground.China wants the United States to pare back ties with Taiwan, which Beijing’s leaders see as a domestic issue. People’s Liberation Army forces have increased flybys near Taiwan this year in what experts see as a bid to unnerve an island just 160 kilometers from the Chinese mainland.Yun Sun, East Asia Program senior associate at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington, predicts that Biden, backed by both parties in the U.S. Congress, will maintain a Taiwan policy that lets the island feel “relatively safe and secure” but with fewer specific acts such as high-level visits.“We probably would not see as overt and as frequent U.S. government actions on Taiwan,” Sun said. “I think U.S will still support Taiwan but not necessarily sending members of the cabinet to Taiwan to show that support.”The level of U.S. military support for Taiwan under Biden will depend on whether China acts first, she said.In Taipei, President Tsai Ing-wen congratulated Biden over the weekend and tweeted that “the values on which we have built our relationship could not be stronger.”Premier Su welcomed advances in U.S.-Taiwan military, political and trade ties during the Tsai government’s four years in office. “I look forward to working together to further our friendship and contributions to international society,” Tsai tweeted.
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They Speak Pizza and Sign Language: DC Pizzeria Employs Deaf Workers
According to the National Deaf Center, about half of all deaf people in the USA are unemployed. But entrepreneurs like Ryan Maliszewski are trying to change that, as Karina Bafradzhian reports.Videographer: Mike Maisuradze
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US Posts One-Day Record for COVID-19 Hospitalizations
The United States recorded 61,964 COVID-19 hospitalizations on Tuesday, breaking the previous one-day high from mid-April by more than 2,000. The growing number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients across the U.S. is straining the capacity of numerous health facilities, especially in several western U.S. states. Some hospitals have erected tents in parking lots to handle the overflow of coronavirus patients, or have been forced to transfer them to other hospitals in other areas. One of 3 refrigerated trailers, sent by FEMA to help with the rising number of COVID-19 fatalities, are seen parked at the rear of the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner, in El Paso, Texas, Nov. 9, 2020.The U.S. leads the world with more than 10.1 million total COVID-19 cases, including 130,989 new cases reported on Tuesday, according to FILE – A sign encouraging the wearing of masks and keeping social distancing stands at a street corner in downtown Nashville, Tenn., Aug. 5, 2020. The CDC cited several studies confirming that “universal masking” use helped control the spread of the virus, including one involving two hair stylists who wore masks while suffering from COVID-19 symptoms. The study found that the stylists had not transmitted the virus to 67 customers who were later contacted by contract tracers. Middle East surge
Elsewhere in the world, Iran and Lebanon have joined the growing list of nations who have imposed new restrictions to blunt an ever-growing surge of COVID-19 infections that are pushing hospitals in each nation to the breaking point. Iran has ordered all restaurants and non-essential businesses in Tehran and other major cities to close at 6 p.m. local time for one month. In Lebanon, Prime Minister Hassan Diab has announced a one-month lockdown that will begin on Saturday. Iran has more than 700,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 10,339 on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, while Lebanon has 96,907 confirmed cases, including 749 deaths. No longer Corona-free
Meanwhile, the Pacific nation of Vanuatu has announced its first-ever confirmed COVID-19 infection, ending its status as one of the few places in the world that had been coronavirus-free. Health authorities say the case involves a 23-year-old native of Vanuatu who had returned home from the United States last week, via stops in Sydney and Auckland, and was placed into quarantine. The man was asymptomatic when he returned, but tested positive on Tuesday. Visitors sit inside Hong Kong Museum of Art, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues, in Hong Kong, China, Nov. 10, 2020.COVID travel ‘bubble’
Hong Kong and Singapore have announced plans to start an air travel “bubble” later this month that would allow travelers from each city to visit the other without entering quarantine. Beginning November 22, visitors must have a negative virus test at every stage of the journey. The two cities say the flights will be limited to one flight per day into each city, with just 200 passengers per flight, with the goal of increasing to two flights a day beginning December 7. The bubble will be suspended if either city experiences a surge of infections.
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Iconic Australian Telescope Celebrates Indigenous Astronomy
Australia’s most famous radio telescope that played a key role in televising the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969 has been given a new Aboriginal name. Known as “The Dish,” the telescope near Parkes in New South Wales, 380 kilometers west of Sydney, will also be called “Murriyang,” meaning “Skyworld” in the local indigenous language. The Parkes Observatory has three telescopes. All have been given new Aboriginal names in respect of the astronomical knowledge of Australia’s original inhabitants, whose stories of creation, known as the Dreaming, are told by the stars. The largest telescope, which has discovered hundreds of new galaxies and rapidly spinning neutron stars called pulsars, is also to be known as “Murriyang” or “Skyworld.” The others have Aboriginal names meaning “Smart Eye” and “Smart Dish.” Dr. John Reynolds is the director of the Australia Telescope National Facility, which is run by the national science agency, the CSIRO. “I think the bestowing of traditional names is very significant because not only does it recognize the traditional custodians of the land where the telescopes sit, but it highlights the link between the oldest science, astronomy, and the longest continuous civilization in the world that has been practicing astronomy for generations. The new name for the familiar Parkes dish — the big 64-meter [dish] — is Murriyang, which represents the sky world in the Wiradjuri dreaming,” said Reynolds. The names were chosen by Wiradjuri elders, who say it is one of their proudest moments. While it is operated mainly for astronomy research, the Parkes telescope has a long history of being contracted by international space agencies to track and receive data from spacecraft. In 2012, it helped to monitor NASA’s Curiosity rover during its descent onto the surface of Mars. But perhaps its most famous mission was its part in receiving television signals on a momentous day in July 1969 during the Apollo 11 moon landing. The story was made into a popular movie “The Dish” in 2000, which helped to cement the facility’s legendary status in Australian science. The telescope weighs 1,000 tons and only receives signals from space, but never sends them. It was officially opened in October 1961.
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Asian Markets Continue to Post Solid Gains
Asian markets posted another day of solid gains Wednesday due to rising optimism over U.S. drugmaker Pfizer’s potential COVID-19 vaccine. The Nikkei in Tokyo finished 1.7% higher. Sydney’s S&P/ASX index also closed 1.7% higher. Seoul’s KOSPI index and the TSEC index in Taipei both ended up 1.3%, while Shanghai’s Composite index lost 0.5%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is down 0.4% in late afternoon trading, while Mumbai’s Sensex is 0.2% lower. In commodities trading, gold is selling at $1,874.20 per ounce, dropping 0.1%. U.S. crude oil is up 2.3%, selling at $42.35 per barrel, while Brent crude oil is selling at $44.62 per barrel, also 2.3% higher. In futures trading, the Dow and S&P 500 were trending higher, while the Nasdaq is trending lower.
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Trump, Republicans Rebuff Transition Process
President-elect Joe Biden dismissed the Trump administration’s refusal to begin the official transition process, even as key Republican Party leaders sided with President Donald Trump in his uphill legal fight to overturn Biden’s projected presidential election victory. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the latest.
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ByteDance Challenges Trump’s TikTok Divestiture Order
ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of video-sharing app TikTok, filed a petition late Tuesday with a U.S. Appeals Court challenging a Trump administration order set to take effect Thursday requiring it to divest TikTok. President Donald Trump in an Aug. 14 order directed ByteDance to divest the app within 90 days, which falls on Thursday. “Facing continual new requests and no clarity on whether our proposed solutions would be accepted, we requested the 30-day extension that is expressly permitted in the August 14 order,” TikTok said in a statement. “Without an extension in hand, we have no choice but to file a petition in court to defend our rights,” the company said. FILE – Women wearing masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus chat as they pass by the headquarters of ByteDance, owners of TikTok, in Beijing, China, Aug. 7, 2020.The White House and Treasury declined to comment. The Justice Department did not immediately comment. The Trump administration contends TikTok poses national security concerns as the personal data of U.S. users could be obtained by China’s government. TikTok, which has over 100 million U.S. users, denies the allegations. The petition names Trump, Attorney General William Barr, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the inter-agency panel that reviews certain transactions involving foreign investment on national security concerns. It says the CFIUS action and Trump order “seek to compel the wholesale divestment of TikTok, a multibillion-dollar business built on technology developed by” ByteDance “based on the government’s purported national security review of a three-year-old transaction that involved a different business.” That order was based on a government review of ByteDance’s 2017 acquisition of U.S. social media app Musical.ly, which ByteDance merged into TikTok. Separate restrictions on TikTok from the U.S. Commerce Department have been blocked by federal courts, including restrictions on transactions that were scheduled to take effect Thursday that TikTok warned could effectively ban the app’s use in the United States. Talks have been ongoing to finalize a preliminary deal for Walmart Inc and Oracle Corp to take stakes in a new company to oversee U.S. operations. Trump has said the deal had his “blessing.”
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