Two cities in Ethiopia’s Amhara state were hit by a rocket attack late Friday, the Ethiopian government said Saturday.”A rocket was fired towards Bahir Dar & Gondar cities. As a result, the airport areas have sustained damages,” the statement said.The Ethiopian army has been battling local forces in the neighboring northern Tigray region for more than a week.Hundreds have been killed since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent the national defense force into Tigray on Nov. 4, after accusing local forces there of attacking a military base.More than 14,500 Ethiopians have fled to Sudan and the U.N. refugee agency says more people are on their way.On Friday, The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, expressed alarm at the rapidly deteriorating situation in Tigray.Her spokesperson, Rupert Colville, said Bachelet was particularly disturbed by an Amnesty International report of alleged mass killings in Mai-Kadra in southwest Tigray.Amnesty said photographs and videos of the scene indicate hundreds of people were stabbed or hacked to death. It says the victims appeared to have been day laborers, who were not involved in military operations.Colville said the high commissioner was fearful of the consequences if Tigray and Ethiopia fail to heed her warning. If fighting continues, he said, Bachelet feared the conflict could easily spill across borders, potentially destabilizing parts of East Africa.
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Month: November 2020
Masks Protect the Wearer, Not Just Others, CDC Says
There are more reasons than ever to wear a mask, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Masks provide some coronavirus protection to the wearer, not just to others, the CDC says in an A “Face masks required” sign is displayed at a shopping center in Schaumburg, Ill., Nov. 13, 2020.Evolving adviceAdvice has changed over time as scientists have learned more over the course of the pandemic.Health officials initially had discouraged people from wearing masks. There was not much evidence at the time that they would help.Also, when the first cases in the United States appeared in late January, people began hoarding surgical masks and N95 respirators. It created shortages of critical protective gear for front-line health care workers.”Seriously people — STOP BUYING MASKS!” U.S. Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams wrote on Twitter in February. “They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if health care providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!”Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching Pedestrians wearing face masks walk in Ankara on Nov. 13, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus. Turkey made wearing masks in public areas mandatory in September.The time is nowThe People wearing face masks walk on a street, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Shanghai, China, Nov. 13, 2020.Behind the curveBut some say the CDC has been too slow to respond to new information. The agency was criticized for how long it took to recognize that the virus could spread through airborne transmission.And it has not been promoting the full potential of masks to slow the pandemic, said Harvard University epidemiologist Michael Mina.”We know masks work,” he said, the only question has been how well.Mina compares them to wearing seat belts.”When you get in a car accident, does it mean everyone who gets in a car accident will survive because they’re wearing a seat belt or have an airbag? Absolutely not,” he said. “But we know it cuts risk.””The CDC has just been behind on this,” he added.
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SpaceX Crew Flight Delayed; Musk Gets Mixed COVID-19 Results
SpaceX delayed its second astronaut flight by a day because of high wind and weather conditions that could jeopardize the recovery and recycling of the rocket booster, pushing the launch to Sunday.Friday’s postponement news came after SpaceX chief Elon Musk disclosed he had gotten mixed test results for COVID-19 and was awaiting the outcome of a more definitive test.NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said anyone testing positive for COVID-19 must quarantine under NASA policy and remain isolated. Officials said contact tracing by SpaceX found no link between Musk and any personnel in close touch with the four astronauts, who remain cleared for flight.”I can assure everyone that we’re looking good for the (crew) launch and all of the critical personnel involved,” said SpaceX’s Benji Reed, senior director for human spaceflight.It wasn’t immediately known if Musk would be allowed at the Kennedy Space Center launch site even if later tests came up negative.Norm Knight, a deputy manager at NASA, said the guidelines are rigid for restricting access to astronauts before flight in order to keep them safe and healthy.”No one’s above this access. It doesn’t matter if you’re Elon Musk or Jim Bridenstine,” Knight said at a news conference Friday night. “If you have not met those protocols, or if any of those protocols have been compromised, then we’re not going to let you near the crew.”FILE – In this Sept. 3, 2020, photo, Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives to visit the construction site of the future US electric car giant Tesla in Gruenheide near Berlin.Musk said via Twitter that he tested positive for coronavirus, then negative twice, then positive again. He said he wasn’t feeling too well the past few days – sniffles, cough, low fever – but currently had no symptoms.”So ‘Elon Musk Tests Negative for Covid’ is an equally correct title,” he tweeted.Musk said his first tests were rapid tests, and he was awaiting the results of lab tests. The 15-minute rapid tests are less sensitive than the lab tests, which take hours longer to process.Four astronauts – three Americans and one Japanese – are scheduled to rocket to the International Space Station on Sunday night.One of the test pilots on SpaceX’s first astronaut flight, Doug Hurley, said he’s certain Musk will be involved with the launch – regardless of where he is.”Knowing Elon the way I do, they will figure out a way for him to be very much connected,” Hurley told The Associated Press from Houston.The upcoming crew flight comes just three months after the end of the test flight with Hurley and Bob Behnken, both NASA astronauts. The four astronauts are going up for a full space station stay of five to six months. They will be replaced in the spring with another crew launched by SpaceX.The latest launch was bumped a day in order to give SpaceX’s booster-landing platform enough time to get into position in the Atlantic, given the rough seas in the wake of Tropical Storm Eta. NASA and SpaceX are especially eager to retrieve this first-stage booster; it will be used for the next crew launch.NASA turned over space station ferry trips to SpaceX and Boeing, which has yet to launch anyone, following the retirement of the shuttle fleet in 2011. The space agency is looking to save big by no longer having to buy seats on Russian Soyuz capsules for U.S. astronauts. The last ticket, used by a NASA astronaut launched from Kazakhstan in October, cost $90 million.One launch pad over, meanwhile, an Atlas V rocket thundered into the sunset Friday with a classified spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. The launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station had been delayed repeatedly by pad and weather issues.
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Pompeo Heads Abroad After Refusing to Recognize Biden Win
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo heads to France, Turkey and five other countries days after Democrat Joe Biden was named the projected the winner of the presidential race. Pompeo’s refusal to recognize Biden’s victory has raised eyebrows, as VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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French Forces Kill al-Qaida-Linked Commander in Mali
French ground forces and military helicopters killed a jihadi commander linked with al-Qaida in Mali along with four others, the French military said Friday. The operation Tuesday targeted Bah ag Moussa, military chief for the RVIM Islamic extremist group, who had been on a U.N. sanctions list and was believed responsible for multiple attacks on Malian and international forces in the country, French military spokesman Colonel Frederic Barbry told reporters Friday. Surveillance drones helped French forces in Mali identify Moussa’s truck in the Menaka region of eastern Mali, which was then targeted by the helicopters and 15 French commandos sent to the scene, Barbry said. All five people in the truck were killed after they ignored warning shots and fired on the French forces, he said. FILE – An anti-aircraft gun is mounted on the back of a pickup truck as militants from a Tuareg political and armed movement in the Azawad Region in Mali gather in the desert outside Menaka, March 14, 2020.He described it as an act of “legitimate defense” and said the bodies were handled “in conformity with international humanitarian law.” He wouldn’t comment on whether allied forces including the U.S. contributed intelligence to the operation. A statement from the French defense minister said Moussa oversaw the training of jihadi recruits. It was the latest of multiple French actions in Mali in recent weeks that killed suspected extremists. Moussa was a Tuareg rebel fighter close to jihadi commander Iyad Ag Ghaly when extremists and rebel forces took control of northern Mali in 2012. That prompted a French-led military operation in 2013 to keep Mali from falling apart. Moussa became a prominent jihadi leader in central Mali in recent years, and he was a liaison with extremist groups in his native northern Mali, according to Malian military officials. The Malian army accused him of orchestrating attacks against Malian forces in Diabaly, Nampala and Dioura that killed dozens of troops. France has thousands of troops in a force called Barkhane in West Africa to help fight extremist groups. After Islamic extremist rebels were forced from power in northern Mali in 2013, they regrouped in the desert and now launch frequent attacks on the Malian army and its allies. The French military announced its latest operation on the fifth anniversary of Islamic extremist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris, targeting the Bataclan concert hall, cafes and the national stadium.
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Bytedance Gets 15-day Extension on US Order to Divest TikTok
The Trump administration granted ByteDance a 15-day extension of a divestiture order that had directed the Chinese company to sell its TikTok short video-sharing app by Thursday.TikTok first disclosed the extension earlier in a court filing, saying it now has until Nov. 27 to reach an agreement. Under pressure from the U.S. government, ByteDance has been in talks for a deal with Walmart Inc and Oracle Corp to shift TikTok’s U.S. assets into a new entity.The Treasury Department said on Friday the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) granted the 15-day extension to “provide the parties and the committee additional time to resolve this case in a manner that complies with the order.”ByteDance filed a petition Tuesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia challenging the Trump administration divestiture order.ByteDance said Tuesday that CFIUS seeks “to compel the wholesale divestment of TikTok, a multibillion-dollar business built on technology developed by” ByteDance and based on the government’s review of the Chinese company’s 2017 acquisition of Musical.ly.President Donald Trump in an Aug. 14 order had directed ByteDance to divest the app within 90 days.The Trump administration contends TikTok poses national security concerns, saying the personal data of U.S. users could be obtained by China’s government. TikTok, which has more than 100 million U.S. users, denies the allegations.Trump has said the Walmart-Oracle deal had his “blessing.”One big issue that has persisted is over the ownership structure of the new company, TikTok Global, which would own TikTok’s U.S. assets.In Tuesday’s court filing, ByteDance said it submitted a fourth proposal last Friday that contemplated addressing U.S. concerns “by creating a new entity, wholly owned by Oracle, Walmart and existing U.S. investors in ByteDance, that would be responsible for handling TikTok’s U.S. user data and content moderation.”Separate restrictions on TikTok from the U.S. Commerce Department have been blocked by federal courts, including transaction curbs scheduled to take effect on Thursday that TikTok warned could effectively ban the app’s use in the United States.A Commerce Department ban on Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google offering TikTok for download for new U.S. users that had been set to take effect on Sept. 27 has also been blocked.
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Parler: A New Social Media Hangout for Conservatives
When Twitter started blocking President Donald Trump’s postings claiming widespread voter fraud, some cheered. Others started looking for the social media exits.
They found a new option at Parler.
Fed up with what they see as an anti-conservative bias by managers of the major social media platforms, Trump supporters are telling their followers on Twitter and Facebook to “Follow me on Parler.”
From the French word “to speak” or “to talk” but pronounced “PAR-lor,” the social media app is a lot like Twitter, with users posting messages and following topics searchable as hashtags.
Launched in 2018 in Nevada, Parler welcomed newcomers to “a non-biased, free speech social media focused on protecting user’s rights.”
Over the past year, conservative celebrities have flocked to Parler, a trend that has accelerated since the 2020 U.S. election. As Twitter and Facebook tried to tamp down misinformation about the election, more than 4 million accounts were launched on the app within days, the company says.
Among Parler users are Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, and Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Posts on Parler are called “parlays.” One on Thursday, under the hashtag #StoptheSteal, said “Shocker Pro Marxist Pope Francis congratulates Crooked Joe!”
“To parlay is to have a discussion bridging the differences,” said Amy Peikoff, Parler’s chief policy officer. “Coming to an understanding between two different viewpoints, and this is the sort of discussion that we want to foster on Parler.”
Previous alternatives to Facebook and Twitter have popped up in the U.S. claiming to be true bastions of free speech. Gab, which became a haven for neo-Nazis, was booted from the app stores of Apple and Google because it didn’t take down hate speech.
But the popularity of Parler – and other right-wing sites such as MeWe and Rumble, a video site – comes amid growing pressure on social media firms to do more to monitor their sites, particularly addressing misinformation about voting and the election results.
Twitter, Facebook and to a lesser extent Google, the owner of YouTube, have put labels on tweets, posts and videos that claim election fraud. In some cases, they stopped the content from being shared and spreading.
Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 11 MB480p | 15 MB540p | 19 MB720p | 32 MB1080p | 66 MBOriginal | 255 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioMuch of the conversation on Parler echoes Trump’s unsupported claim that the November 3 election was stolen by Democrats through massive voter fraud. #StoptheSteal is a top hashtag for those who claim without proof that former Vice President Joe Biden, the projected winner of the 2020 presidential race, stole the election.
Last week, Facebook took down a Stop the Steal group that had gained more than 300,000 users in 24 hours. Facebook said it stopped the group because it was trying to incite violence.
“The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group,” a Facebook spokesman told The New York Times.
Parler users have also crossed that line at times: An Arkansas police chief used the site to urge violence against Democrats he claimed were preventing Trump’s reelection. When the posts appeared in news stories, his public account was removed and he was forced to resign.
While the Parler algorithm does not promote posts to keep users engaged, the company says it is serious about its commitment to free speech and does not block extremist content.
“The fact that we don’t block out the content from various extremists does not mean that our goal is to further all of those views,” said Parler’s Peikoff. “What we are planning to do is give the widest freedom possible so that people can have a full discussion.”
For years, the leading social media companies have been criticized for their finely tuned algorithms designed to boost users’ time spent on the sites. That has led to some users receiving a stream of increasingly extremist content on their feeds, according to Michael Karanicolas, the Wikimedia fellow at the Yale School of Law.
The rise of Parler, he said, “potentially suggests that if platforms do try and steer people away from these echo chambers and steer people away from what they want, the people will just migrate elsewhere.”
There is one potential customer that Parler has not yet managed to attract: Trump, himself.
While @TeamTrump, Trump’s reelection campaign, is on the site with 2 million followers, the president isn’t on Parler, yet.
With nearly 89 million followers on Twitter, Trump is still tweeting, even as Twitter has been putting warning labels on more of his tweets.
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Fostering, Adapting and Tracking
VOA Connect Episode 148 – How to care for turtles, outdoor fitness and a different way to trace COVID-19.
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Sea Turtle Hospital
We visit a sea turtle hospital in the Florida Keys, where the turtles are nurtured and the public can understand how to keep our oceans safe. Reporter/Camera/Produce: Jeff Swicord
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Parler: Social Media Hangout for Conservatives
With Twitter and Facebook blocking and labeling more social media posts, some American conservatives are flocking to alternatives like Parler, which says it won’t censor speech. Matt Dibble reports.
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Report: Over 130 Secret Service Officers Test Positive for Coronavirus
More than 130 U.S. Secret Service officers have tested positive for the coronavirus or have been in close contact with infected colleagues, according to The Washington Post newspaper.The report, published Friday, was attributed to three people “familiar with agency staffing.”The Secret Service officers, who, among other duties, are tasked with protecting President Donald Trump when he travels and at the White House, were ordered recently to isolate, the report said.FILE – U.S. Secret Service agents gather for coronavirus tests prior to President Donald Trump’s departure for the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, May 27, 2020.The sources, who the Post says spoke anonymously in order to speak more freely, said the infections are believed to be related to campaign rallies Trump held before the Nov. 3 presidential election. The report also cites the sources as saying that about 10% of the agency’s primary security team has been “sidelined.”Trump, members of his immediate family, and an increasing number of White House and campaign officials have tested positive recently for the coronavirus in the wake of campaign events, where many administration officials and other attendees did not wear masks.The White House and the Secret Service did not immediately comment on the report, but White House spokesman Judd Deere told the Post the administration takes “every case seriously” and directed the Post to the Secret Service for answers to questions about the outbreak. An agency spokesperson declined to comment to the Post.The reported outbreak among the officers occurred as the coronavirus crisis in the U.S. continues to worsen. More than 153,000 new infections in the U.S. were reported Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University, the first time new single-day totals exceeded 150,000.Nearly 10.6 million people in the U.S. have contracted the coronavirus, while the country’s death toll approaches 243,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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1960s Era Rocket May Have Returned to Earth Orbit
Scientists at the U.S. space agency NASA say the remnants of a 1960s unmanned lunar mission may have returned to orbit the Earth 54 years later.
Scientists first discovered the object in September, using a special survey telescope on the Hawaiian island of Maui. They originally believed it to be a small asteroid, and named it 2020 SO. When they discovered the object’s path would bring it close to Earth, it came to the attention of the Center for Near Earth Objects (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
But the scientists there quickly noticed the object’s orbit was different than a normal asteroid. While the typical asteroid has an elongated orbit and is tilted relative to Earth, the orbit of this object was on nearly the exact orbital plane as Earth.
CNEOS Director Paul Chodas says further study and measurements of the object made it clear it was likely man-made, based on its size and density, and likely a piece of a rocket. Chodas suspected it was a remnant of a lunar mission, and to prove it, he ran 2020 SO’s orbit backwards, tracing its closest path to Earth to September 1966.
That matched the launch date for NASA’s Surveyor 2 lunar lander, an unmanned probe designed to land on the surface of the Moon and survey possible landing sites ahead of the Apollo missions, which would put men on the lunar surface for the first time in 1969.
The probe was launched on an Atlas-Centaur rocket and separated from its Centaur upper stage booster shortly after liftoff. The spacecraft malfunctioned a day later when one of its boosters failed to ignite, and the probe crashed into the Moon. The spent Centaur upper-stage rocket, meanwhile, sailed past the Moon and disappeared into an unknown orbit around the Sun.
Now, it appears to be back, if only for a relatively brief visit. NASA scientists believe Earth’s gravity pulled 2020 SO into an outer orbit on November 8, circling about 1.5 million kilometers above our planet. They expect it will remain there for about four months before escaping into a new orbit around the Sun in March.
NASA says 2020 SO will make two large loops around Earth with its closest approach December 1. That is when astronomers will get a closer look and study its composition using spectroscopy to confirm if it is indeed an artifact from the early Space Age.
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Parler: A New Social Media Hangout for Conservatives to Vent, Plan
When Twitter started blocking President Donald Trump’s postings claiming widespread voter fraud, some cheered. Others started looking for the social media exits.
They found a new option at Parler.
Fed up with what they see as an anti-conservative bias by managers of the major social media platforms, Trump supporters are telling their followers on Twitter and Facebook to “Follow me on Parler.”
From the French word “to speak” or “to talk” but pronounced “PAR-lor,” the social media app is a lot like Twitter, with users posting messages and following topics searchable as hashtags.
Launched in 2018 in Nevada, Parler welcomed newcomers to “a non-biased, free speech social media focused on protecting user’s rights.”
Over the past year, conservative celebrities have flocked to Parler, a trend that has accelerated since the 2020 U.S. election. As Twitter and Facebook tried to tamp down misinformation about the election, more than 4 million accounts were launched on the app within days, the company says.
Among Parler users are Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, and Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Posts on Parler are called “parlays.” One on Thursday, under the hashtag #StoptheSteal, said “Shocker Pro Marxist Pope Francis congratulates Crooked Joe!”
“To parlay is to have a discussion bridging the differences,” said Amy Peikoff, Parler’s chief policy officer. “Coming to an understanding between two different viewpoints, and this is the sort of discussion that we want to foster on Parler.”
Previous alternatives to Facebook and Twitter have popped up in the U.S. claiming to be true bastions of free speech. Gab, which became a haven for neo-Nazis, was booted from the app stores of Apple and Google because it didn’t take down hate speech.
But the popularity of Parler – and other right-wing sites such as MeWe and Rumble, a video site – comes amid growing pressure on social media firms to do more to monitor their sites, particularly addressing misinformation about voting and the election results.
Twitter, Facebook and to a lesser extent Google, the owner of YouTube, have put labels on tweets, posts and videos that claim election fraud. In some cases, they stopped the content from being shared and spreading.
Much of the conversation on Parler echoes Trump’s unsupported claim that the November 3 election was stolen by Democrats through massive voter fraud. #StoptheSteal is a top hashtag for those who claim without proof that former Vice President Joe Biden, the projected winner of the 2020 presidential race, stole the election.
Last week, Facebook took down a Stop the Steal group that had gained more than 300,000 users in 24 hours. Facebook said it stopped the group because it was trying to incite violence.
“The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group,” a Facebook spokesman told The New York Times.
Parler users have also crossed that line at times: An Arkansas police chief used the site to urge violence against Democrats he claimed were preventing Trump’s reelection. When the posts appeared in news stories, his public account was removed and he was forced to resign.
While the Parler algorithm does not promote posts to keep users engaged, the company says it is serious about its commitment to free speech and does not block extremist content.
“The fact that we don’t block out the content from various extremists does not mean that our goal is to further all of those views,” said Parler’s Peikoff. “What we are planning to do is give the widest freedom possible so that people can have a full discussion.”
For years, the leading social media companies have been criticized for their finely tuned algorithms designed to boost users’ time spent on the sites. That has led to some users receiving a stream of increasingly extremist content on their feeds, according to Michael Karanicolas, the Wikimedia fellow at the Yale School of Law.
The rise of Parler, he said, “potentially suggests that if platforms do try and steer people away from these echo chambers and steer people away from what they want, the people will just migrate elsewhere.”
There is one potential customer that Parler has not yet managed to attract: Trump, himself.
While @TeamTrump, Trump’s reelection campaign, is on the site with 2 million followers, the president isn’t on Parler, yet.
With nearly 89 million followers on Twitter, Trump is still tweeting, even as Twitter has been putting warning labels on more of his tweets.
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Zuckerberg Says Bannon Has Not Violated Enough Policies for Suspension
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told an all-staff meeting Thursday that former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon had not violated enough of the company’s policies to justify his suspension, according to a recording heard by Reuters.
“We have specific rules around how many times you need to violate certain policies before we will deactivate your account completely,” Zuckerberg said. “While the offenses here, I think, came close to crossing that line, they clearly did not cross the line.”
Bannon suggested in a video last week that FBI Director Christopher Wray and government infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci should be beheaded, saying they had been disloyal to U.S. President Donald Trump, who last week lost his re-election bid.
Facebook removed the video but left up Bannon’s page. The company had not previously answered questions about those actions and did not immediately respond to a Reuters request about Zuckerberg’s comments.
Twitter banned Bannon last week over the same content.
Zuckerberg spoke on the issue at a weekly forum with Facebook employees where he is sometimes asked to defend content and policy decisions, like the question on Thursday from a staff member asking why Bannon had not been banned.
Arrested in August, Bannon has pleaded not guilty to charges of defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors to the $25 million “We Build the Wall” campaign. Bannon has dismissed the charges as politically motivated.
As Trump’s chief White House strategist, Bannon helped articulate Trump’s “America First” policy. Trump fired him in August 2017, ending Bannon’s turbulent tenure.
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US Sets Another Single-Day Record in COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations
The United States set another single-day record for the number of COVID-19 infections and hospitalization Thursday.COVID Tracking Project figures show that more than 150,000 new cases were reported across the U.S., surpassing the more than 144,000 new cases recorded the day before.The figures also indicate that more than 67,000 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, an increase of more than 1,700 from the previous day. Another 1,104 people died.The new figures add to the United States’ world-leading casualty figures of more than 10.5 million total COVID-19 cases since the pandemic reached its shores earlier this year, including more than 242,400 deaths, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.The nation’s most populous state, California, is nearing the 1 million mark of COVID-19 cases, following Texas, which is closing in on that threshold.Worldwide, Italy is the 10th country to surpass the 1 million mark of infections. India and Brazil follow the U.S., with more than 8.7 million and 5.7 million cases respectively. France is nearing 2 million infection cases, followed by Russia with 1.87 million. Over the 1 million mark are Spain, Britain, Argentina, and Colombia.In Brazil, the country with highest coronavirus tally in Latin America, the late-stage trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine have resumed after the country’s health regulator called a halt due to an “adverse, serious event” involving a participant in the study.The vaccine, dubbed CoronaVac, is being developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac. The vaccine had been denounced by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a frequent critic of China.In Japan, organizers for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics said Thursday that participating athletes will not have to enter a mandatory 14-day quarantine period when they arrive for the games next year. Games chief executive Toshiro Muto told reporters a decision on allowing foreign spectators to observe the events would be finalized next year, but said it is a possibility the two-week quarantine could be waived for them as well.The Tokyo Summer Games were initially scheduled to be held in July and August, but organizers in March decided to postpone them for a year due to the pandemic.
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Cruise Ship Forced to Dock After 5 Passengers Test Positive for Coronavirus in Caribbean
The first cruise ship to resume sailing in the Caribbean since the coronavirus outbreak expanded in March, is idled again after five passengers tested positive for the coronavirus.SeaDream, a Norway-based luxury cruise liner, issued a statement Thursday that all crew members had tested negative for the coronavirus and that the ship’s medical staff was in the process of re-testing passengers.SeaDream says it began strict safety protocols following a Norwegian cruise this summer, although passengers were not immediately required to wear masks when boarding the SeaDream.The 53 passengers and 66 crew members are reportedly self-quarantining aboard the ship docked at the Port of Bridgetown in Barbados.The cruise ship industry has been hard hit by the pandemic, with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issuing an order banning sailing in March, citing cruise ship travel would worsen the global spread of COVID-19.
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What Is the Fate of Trump’s Border Wall?
Joe Biden, projected to become America’s 46th president in January, has vowed to stop the construction of a border wall along the Mexico border, leaving questions about the future of the centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s bid to curb unauthorized immigration at the southern border.Laredo Sector Chief Patrol Agent Matthew Hudak said contracts are in place to start constructing approximately 113 kilometers of wall in the Laredo sector of Texas, which spans more than 270 kilometers of the border between the United States and Mexico.Hudak said a wall would help fight criminal groups that use the border as a way of making money by smuggling people and contraband.“When we put (up) wall systems … it takes away that profitability for these criminal organizations. That’s money that’s not going back into Mexico to supply the weapons, the ammunition that’s being used to victimize our neighbors across the border,” Hudak said.Fate of the border wallBiden said he would not tear down the wall already built by Trump. But during the joint national convention last August of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, he vowed that “there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration.”The U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it is on target to build 724 kilometers of border wall by the end of 2020.“President Trump is still the president (and) will be until January 20, so until then, we can expect construction on the border wall to continue,” said Jessica Bolter, associate policy analyst of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based policy think tank.U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the majority of contracts have been awarded and construction is under way for the approximately 1,188 kilometers funded to date.However, Bolter said the Biden administration does have options regarding existing contracts.“His administration may be looking at terminating contracts that are currently in progress, possibly even places where construction is currently in the works,” said Bolter. “The government does have a lot of leeway to do this and could generally be done pretty easily, sometimes having to pay a termination fee out to contractors.”Fate of wall controversiesTrump’s authority to use much of the money to build a border wall is being challenged and awaiting a Supreme Court decision. The legal fight may become a moot point under a Biden administration.“I think this is going to be one of those problems that (is) going to find a solution in the political transition,” said Tony Payan, director of the Center for the United States and Mexico at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston.“The Supreme Court’s decision will really not matter,” Payan said.Biden also said, “Withdraw the lawsuits. We’re out. We’re not going to confiscate the land,” speaking about the government lawsuits against landowners who refuse to give up their land for a border wall.Focus on technologyInstead of building more walls, Democrats have long favored using technology as an alternative along the more than 3,000 kilometers that make up the southern border.“I’m going to make sure that we have border protection, but it’s going to be based on making sure that we use high-tech capacity to deal with it,” said Biden.In Laredo, technology such as cameras, radar detection, sensors and drones have helped border patrol agents where very little wall had existed, but Hudak said more tools help agents better succeed at their jobs.“When we can have that technology tell us exactly what we’re dealing with before we get near it, it’s safer for everybody,” Hudak said. “It’s a combination of the physical barrier (and the) patrol road, so our agents will have mobility up and down the entire stretch of border and then also the technology systems that go with that, as well. So, it’s a suite of all of those things coming together. … Then, we add the manpower to it, and we have all three pieces of that triangle working together.”Unintended consequencesOpponents say a border wall harms ecosystems, causing floods and endangering animals and that Biden should do more than stop wall construction.“I think we are underestimating the kind of damage that the wall is going to wreak along the U.S.-Mexico border,” said Payan of Rice University. “And so, even if (Biden) doesn’t intend to destroy any of the wall that has already been built, I think in some places it may have to be brought down. The damage is just too severe on the environment.”Policies beyond the wallBeyond the border wall, many immigrant rights groups hope a Biden administration will undo many of Trump’s executive actions on immigration, which do not need congressional approval. Analysts say one program Biden can easily reinstate is President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allowed work permits for undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. as children.Trump ordered an end to the program in 2017. In June 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the DACA recipients, but the possibility persists that the administration could still end DACA in the future with proper justification.However, undoing other Trump’s policies may prove to be difficult, including the Migrant Protection Protocols, which require most undocumented immigrants to be returned to Mexico until their immigration court hearing date. Bolter said it will take time and resources to maneuver administrative and bureaucratic procedures to undo many of Trump’s programs.“Even the executive actions that President Trump has taken, even though they technically can be undone by the administration itself, the process of going through and undoing every single regulation is going to be extremely arduous,” said Bolter. “It’s not something that can be done immediately if new regulations have to go through notice and comment period.”A Biden administration will have competing priorities, including the pandemic and humanitarian and security at the border.“It’s just unlikely (the Biden administration will) be able to dedicate the same resources to immigration that Trump has,” said Bolter.
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Sniffer Dogs Beat Swabs in Detecting Coronavirus
Sniffer dogs are being used to identify people infected with the coronavirus, and early trials suggest they are incredibly accurate at detecting the disease. As Henry Ridgwell reports, this is raising hopes that our canine companions could soon be used to help fight the pandemic.Producer: Mary Cieslak. Camera: Henry Ridgwell.
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Under Biden, Europe Hopes for Compromise in US Digital Tax Debate
For years, the European Union has been leading the fight to impose a global tax on technology multinationals. After years of resistance by the Trump administration, the Europeans now hope the incoming Biden administration will be willing to compromise – or face a possible digital tax.Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple: four companies dubbed as GAFA in France by those who criticize what they say are the multinationals’ avoidance of European taxes.The projected outcome of the presidential vote in the United States did not change Europeans’ eagerness to tackle the issue with a Biden administration after years of resistance by the Trump administration.Thierry Breton is the E.U.’s Internal Market Commissioner.He explains that Europe is not naive anymore in its expectations regarding its partnership with the United States. Europeans cannot afford to be naïve anymore, he said.The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, hosted the international talks over digital taxation. Members postponed a deadline for an agreement into 2021 after the U.S. pulled out of talks in June due to the coronavirus pandemic.French economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, said Washington is unlikely to drop what he called its confrontational stance on the issue no matter who is in the White House.”Digital giants are now the adversaries of governments,” Le Maire said, vowing that they would soon be taxed “at the same rate as French companies.” It is a position echoed by Commissioner Breton.He said that a discussion has been initiated by the OECD and even though the United States got out of it, he said this a negotiation and they can come back. Europeans set a deadline until June 2021 to complete this negotiation, Breton said. If all the other countries agree but the United States does not return to the negotiating table, Europe will take its responsibilities and we will impose a tax, Breton insists.Some in Europe warn that a Biden administration will still resist imposing a tax on U.S. technology companies. President-elect Biden and his vice president-elect, Kamala Harris, reportedly have as many connections with Silicon Valley as the Obama administration had between 2009 and 2017.Arno Pons is the head of Digital New Deal, a Paris research organization.Pons said Joe Biden was Barack Obama’s vice-president during an administration that was clearly pro-GAFA and probably has the same views now. As for Kamala Harris, originally from California, he sees her as having close ties to the executives of big technology firms. Pons cites as an example the recent nomination in the transition team of former employees from Apple and Facebook.Last month, the OECD warned that tensions over a digital tax could trigger a trade war that could wipe out one percent of global growth every year.
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Measles Cases and Deaths Soaring Worldwide, WHO Says
The World Health Organization reports measles cases and deaths have soared around the globe since 2016. It reports an increase in cases to nearly 270,000 last year, while more than 207,000 people died—a 50 percent increase from 2016 levels.The U.N. agency says the failure to inoculate children on time with two doses of measles vaccines is the main driver for increased cases and deaths. It says vaccination coverage remains well below the 95 percent needed to control the disease and prevent outbreaks and deaths.Added to this mix is the coronavirus pandemic. Although reported cases of measles are lower this year than last, WHO says efforts to control the coronavirus outbreak have resulted in disruptions in vaccination. WHO’s senior technical advisor for measles and rubella, Natasha Crowcroft, tells VOA different strategies are needed to prevent new measles outbreaks in the time of COVID-19, the disease brought on by the coronavirus. “The Number One action we need to take is to prevent outbreaks from happening in countries where we have got the highest risks…and there are several where there is not the ability to be able to put the health system in place to be able to rely on,” she said.Crowcroft says countries where routine immunization for children was happening will recover quickly from delays or suspended coverage during this difficult period. She says weak countries will continue to be at risk of deadly outbreaks unless swift action is taken to close this widening gap.The WHO reports more than 94 million people are at risk of missing vaccines because nationwide campaigns have been put on pause in 26 countries. This led to huge outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar. Eight of the 26 countries now have resumed their campaigns. They include Brazil, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines and Somalia.
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