Gazans left stranded abroad by Israeli-Palestinian standoff

For the last four months, Ahmed al-Kurdi, his wife and three children have been stranded in Jordan, where they traveled from their home in the Gaza Strip for life-saving medical treatment for his 2-year-old daughter. At a time when the coronavirus pandemic has led to border closures and travel restrictions, they find themselves stuck, not because of quarantine measures, but because of a dispute between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinians had hoped to pressure Israel by forcing it to assume more of the burden of its half-century occupation of the territory.

source https://news.yahoo.com/gazans-left-stranded-abroad-israeli-061112138.html

Israel approves law to curb protests during virus lockdown

Israel's parliament on Wednesday passed a law that would allow the government to curtail public protests during the country's nationwide coronavirus lockdown, a measure that drew fierce opposition a day earlier. The law allows the government to declare a special week-long state of emergency if the coronavirus spreads out of control. If such a state is declared, the government would be able to limit participation in assemblies, including protests, to 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from a person's home, effectively putting a halt to large weekly demonstrations outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence.

source https://news.yahoo.com/israel-approves-law-curb-protests-060913710.html

Politics latest news: Tory lockdown rebels gear up for almighty fight without Covid compromise today

PM's confusion over coronavirus rules quickens Tory revolt Coronavirus latest news: £569m spent on ventilators but most sit in warehouses Hospitality trade bodies demand 10pm curfew be reviewed every three weeks Priti Patel 'asked Home Office to explore sending asylum seekers to island in the south Atlantic' PM announces 'radical shakeup' of adult education as Covid-19 forces career changes Subscribe to The Telegraph Conservative rebels are gearing up for an almighty fight for "parliamentary democracy and the rule of law", today with Steve Baker issuing a stark warning to Boris Johnson this morning. Backbenchers held an "extremely sombre" meeting yesterday with "a fierce resolve which I have rarely seen," the former Brexit minister told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Despite constructive meetings with ministers, he said no compromise had yet been reached that would satisfy the broad coalition of MPs that stretches from right-wing libertarians to Corbynites. It is thought around 80 MPs back Sir Graham Brady's amendment, although there is still no guarantee it will be selected by Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker. Either way, Mr Baker said disgruntled backbenchers would not be silenced without a concession from Government. "I don't want to be in the business of forcing the Government but what I would say is this is a fork in the road," he explained. "Either later today we will face a reasonable offer which we can accept, back down - and gladly - or we will end up that these members of parliament are not going to go away and we will keep battling on, as I say, with a fierce resolve to preserve the institutions of which we are proud of and which we wish to defend in the public interest." Yesterday, fellow Tory rebel Sir Desmond Swayne warned that without a compromise "many people will vote against a renewal of an act". Read the latest updates below

source https://news.yahoo.com/boris-johnson-lockdown-covid-press-232229082.html

Debate Takeaways: An acrid tone from the opening minute

After more than a year of circling each other, Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden met on the debate stage Tuesday night in Ohio. Trump’s supporters may have been cheered by his frontal assault.

source https://news.yahoo.com/debate-takeaways-acrid-tone-opening-053119710.html

Chaotic first debate: Taunts overpower Trump, Biden visions

The first debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden deteriorated into bitter taunts and near chaos Tuesday night as Trump repeatedly interrupted his opponent with angry — and personal — jabs that sometimes overshadowed the sharply different visions each man has for a nation facing historic crises. In the most tumultuous presidential debate in recent memory, Trump refused to condemn white supremacists who have supported him, telling one such group known as Proud Boys to “stand back, stand by.” There were also heated clashes over the president's handling of the pandemic, the integrity of the election results, deeply personal attacks about Biden's family and how the Supreme Court will shape the future of the nation’s health care.

source https://news.yahoo.com/chaotic-first-debate-taunts-overpower-052953509.html

Analysis: Trump leans on tone that turns off voters he needs

President Donald Trump needed to make the first general election debate about his rival, Democrat Joe Biden. Instead, as he so often does, Trump made it about himself. The president set the tone from the start for one of the ugliest general election debates in recent memory, badgering Biden and repeatedly interrupting him.

source https://news.yahoo.com/analysis-trump-leans-tone-turns-051143428.html

Global Industrial Scanners Industry

source https://news.yahoo.com/global-industrial-scanners-industry-045900773.html

Trump to far-right extremists: 'Stand back and stand by'

President Donald Trump on Tuesday didn’t clearly condemn white supremacist groups and their role in violence in some American cities this summer, branding it solely a “left-wing” problem and telling one far-right extremist group to “stand back and stand by.” “Almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing," said Trump, whose exchange with Democrat Joe Biden left the extremist group Proud Boys celebrating what some of its members saw as tacit approval. Wallace specifically mentioned Kenosha, Wisconsin, where a white teenager was charged with killing two protesters during demonstrations over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man.

source https://news.yahoo.com/trump-far-extremists-stand-back-043258468.html

David Attenborough leads call for world to invest $500 bln a year to protect nature

source https://news.yahoo.com/david-attenborough-leads-call-world-040100525.html

Global Inert Gas Generator Systems (IGGS) Industry

source https://news.yahoo.com/global-inert-gas-generator-systems-033900817.html

Global Ingestible Sensors Industry

source https://news.yahoo.com/global-ingestible-sensors-industry-025900343.html

AP FACT CHECK: Claims from Trump and Biden's first debate

President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden sparred Tuesday in their first of three debates, hoping to sway undecided voters planning to cast ballots by mail and in person in the final weeks leading up to the Nov. 3 election. BIDEN: Trump will be the “first (president) in American history” to lose jobs during his presidency. THE FACTS: No, if Trump loses re-election, he would not be the first president in U.S. history to have lost jobs.

source https://news.yahoo.com/ap-fact-check-claims-trump-020558218.html

Global Insect Growth Regulators Industry

source https://news.yahoo.com/global-insect-growth-regulators-industry-015900776.html

Debate Takeaways: Stark differences between Trump, Biden

After more than a year of circling each other, Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden met on the debate stage Tuesday night in Ohio. Trump has been itching to attack Biden for months, and he wasted no time going on offense. “There’s nothing smart about you,” Trump said of Biden.

source https://news.yahoo.com/debate-takeaways-stark-differences-between-015542627.html

Global Insoluble Dietary Fibers Industry

source https://news.yahoo.com/global-insoluble-dietary-fibers-industry-013900522.html

Pompeo due in Asia for talks on China, N.Korea

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will head next week to Japan, South Korea and Mongolia, the State Department said Tuesday, on a trip expected to focus heavily on China and North Korea.

source https://news.yahoo.com/pompeo-due-asia-talks-china-004243645.html

Intel Chief Releases Russian-Sourced Clinton Claims

The director of National Intelligence on Tuesday declassified information from a Russian intelligence report that claimed Hillary Clinton during the 2016 race approved a plan to "stir up a scandal" tying Donald Trump to Putin and the hacking of the Democratic National Committee. In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham, director John Ratcliffe acknowledged the U.S. intelligence community “does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.” A spokesman for Clinton told Politico the claim was "baseless" and the publication cited sources saying that Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee had earlier rejected the claim as not factual.

source https://www.newsy.com/stories/u-s-intel-chief-releases-russian-sourced-clinton-claims/

U.S. Intel Chief Releases Russian-Sourced Clinton Claims

The director of National Intelligence on Tuesday declassified information from a Russian intelligence report that claimed Hillary Clinton during the 2016 race approved a plan to "stir up a scandal" tying Donald Trump to Putin and the hacking of the Democratic National Committee. In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham, director John Ratcliffe acknowledged the U.S. intelligence community “does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.” A spokesman for Clinton told Politico the claim was "baseless" and the publication cited sources saying that Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee had earlier rejected the claim as not factual.

source http://www.newsy.com/stories/u-s-intel-chief-releases-russian-sourced-clinton-claims/

Global In-Vitro Fertilization Industry

source https://news.yahoo.com/global-vitro-fertilization-industry-001900527.html

Global Organic Soy Proteins Industry

source https://news.yahoo.com/global-organic-soy-proteins-industry-233900704.html

UN council urges speedy halt to Nagorno-Karabakh fighting

source https://news.yahoo.com/un-council-urges-speedy-halt-232844054.html

Ratcliffe shares Russian allegation that Clinton 'stirred up' Trump-Russia scandal, admits it could be 'fabricated'

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe just shared the opposite of intelligence with the Senate Judiciary Committee.In a Tuesday letter, Ratcliffe let Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) know he'd declassified some Russian intelligence alleging Hillary Clinton may have launched President Trump's Russia scandal. Not that Ratcliffe, a Trump appointee who has defended the president on Russia before, had any idea if the allegation was true or not.In July 2016, U.S. intelligence picked up Russian intelligence alleging the Democratic presidential nominee "had approved a plan to stir up a scandal against" Trump by "tying him to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and the Russian's hacking of the Democratic National Committee." Former CIA Director John Brennan apparently briefed then-President Barack Obama on the intelligence. But Ratcliffe noted the intelligence community "does not know the accuracy of this allegation," or if it contains "exaggeration or fabrication" -- probably a reason it wasn't shared earlier.> Ratcliffe just declassified to Graham a claim that Russian intel alleged that Clinton "approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against [Trump] by tying him to Putin and the Russians' hacking of the DNC."> > ...but says "the IC does not know the accuracy of this allegation." pic.twitter.com/tpqGmhXUMY> > -- Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) September 29, 2020Meanwhile, Ratcliffe has declined to release the U.S. intelligence community's annual global threat assessment -- something Trump's former anti-ISIS envoy Brett McGurk said is more important than "sketchy Russia intel chatter." > Put another way: the DNI thinks the American people should be aware of sketchy Russian intel chatter while keeping from the American people the considered USG intelligence assessment on current threats to our country--including from Russia.> > -- Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) September 29, 2020More stories from theweek.com 'Sully' Sullenberger savages Trump's 'lethal lies and incompetence' in new Lincoln Project ad Disney will lay off 28,000 theme park employees after months of coronavirus furloughs Trump reportedly made tens of millions in the Great Recession by partnering with multilevel marketing companies

source https://news.yahoo.com/ratcliffe-shares-russian-allegation-clinton-231700519.html

Who thought political ads featuring Deepfake Putin and Kim trashing the US was a good idea?

A not-for-profit called RepresentUS, working with creative media agency Mischief @ No Fixed Address, recently used the popular Deepfake AI system to create a pair of political ads featuring actors digitally manipulated to look like Vladmir Putin and Kim Jong Un mocking the current state of US politics. Who is the target audience for this faux-deception?

source https://thenextweb.com/neural/2020/09/29/who-thought-political-ads-featuring-deepfake-putin-and-kim-trashing-the-us-was-a-good-idea/

WRAPUP 1-Global coronavirus deaths pass 'agonizing milestone' of 1 million

source https://news.yahoo.com/wrapup-1-global-coronavirus-deaths-035818566.html

Global Online Ad Spending Industry

source https://news.yahoo.com/global-online-ad-spending-industry-035500643.html

INSIGHT-Puzzled scientists seek reasons behind Africa's low fatality rates from pandemic

source https://news.yahoo.com/insight-puzzled-scientists-seek-reasons-021556263.html

COVID-19: Social distancing is more effective than travel bans, study finds

Travel bans will delay the peak of infection with days, while social distancing has a much stronger impact, amounting in up to 4 weeks delay, scientists report.

source https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928125020.htm

COVID-19: Saliva tests could detect silent carriers

Testing self-collected saliva samples could offer an easy and effective mass testing approach for detecting asymptomatic COVID-19.

source https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928103424.htm

A viral march across the planet, tracked by a map in motion

On a Thursday night in early January, the disease that would become known as COVID-19 claimed its first victim, a 61-year-old man who succumbed to the newly identified coronavirus in the city of Wuhan, in the People’s Republic of China. The United States has shot ahead of the rest of the world and sits on the cusp of 100,000 dead — 99,166.

source https://news.yahoo.com/viral-march-across-planet-tracked-012517963.html

Veterinarians refuse CDC request to deport bulldog puppies

source https://news.yahoo.com/veterinarians-refuse-cdc-request-deport-012008571.html

US official: 2020 census to end Oct. 5 despite court order

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross says the 2020 census will end Oct. 5, despite a federal judge's ruling last week allowing the head count of every U.S. resident to continue through the end of October, according to a tweet posted by the Census Bureau on Monday. The tweet said the ability for people to self-respond to the census questionnaire and the door-knocking phase when census takers go to homes that haven't yet responded are targeted to end Oct. 5. The announcement came as a virtual hearing was being held in San Jose, California, as a follow-up to U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh's preliminary injunction.

source https://news.yahoo.com/us-official-2020-census-end-215931123.html

The Arctic is burning in a whole new way

'Zombie fires' and burning of fire-resistant vegetation are new features driving Arctic fires -- with strong consequences for the global climate -- warn international fire scientists.

source https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928155746.htm

Disastrous duo: Heatwaves and droughts

Simultaneous heatwaves and droughts are becoming increasingly common in western parts of the Unites States, according to a new study. Periods of dry and hot weather, which can make wildfires more likely, are becoming larger, more intense, and more frequent because of climate change.

source https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928152922.htm

Climate change threatens breeding birds

Surviving on a warming planet can be a matter of timing -- but simply shifting lifecycle stages to match the tempo of climate change has hidden dangers for some animals, according to new research. The study has uncovered drastic consequences for birds that are breeding earlier in lockstep with earlier starts of spring: chicks hatching earlier face increased risk of poor weather conditions, food shortages and mortality.

source https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928152909.htm

How the brain balances emotion and reason

Navigating through life requires balancing emotion and reason, a feat accomplished by the brain region 'area 32' of the anterior cingulate cortex. The area maintains emotional equilibrium by relaying information between cognitive and emotional brain regions, according to new research.

source https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928133155.htm

Early introduction of gluten may prevent celiac disease in children, study finds

Introducing high doses of gluten from four months of age into infants' diets could prevent them from developing celiac disease, a study has found, though researchers say further studies are needed before being applied in practice.

source https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928125028.htm

COVID-19 may deplete testosterone, helping to explain male patients' poorer prognosis

A study of patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 suggests that the disease might deteriorate men's testosterone levels. The study found that as men's testosterone level at baseline decreases, the probability for them to be in the intensive care unit (ICU) significantly increases.

source https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928125024.htm

Fox News Lobotomizes Its ‘Brain Room,’ Cuts Fact-Based Journalism

The recent mass layoffs at Fox News—an estimated body count of around 70, amounting to a little less than 3 percent of the cable channel’s workforce—signal what current and former employees describe as the purposeful devaluing of fact-based journalism in favor of right-wing opinion, race-baiting, and conspiracy-mongering at the top-rated, Donald Trump-friendly cable outlet.Fox News’ PR department used anodyne corporate-speak to characterize the job losses, namely “restructuring various divisions in order to position all of our businesses for ongoing success.” But the layoffs, outside of the hair and makeup department, cut most deeply into the channel’s straight-news operations at Fox News Digital and elsewhere, according to insiders, while protecting the ratings-heavy, revenue-generating domains of Fox & Friends in the morning, and of Trump cheerleaders Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham in primetime.The outlet’s so-called “Brain Room,” which the late Fox News founder Roger Ailes established as the 24-year-old channel’s fact-checking and research unit, has been especially hard-hit, losing around one-fourth of its 30-person staff along with two supervisors—a virtual frontal lobotomy, according to sources familiar with the cutbacks.In October 1996, when the late Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes launched the channel for Rupert Murdoch, Ailes’s idea was to create a right-leaning outlet that challenged the perceived liberal bias of the mainstream media—CNN was a juicy target—but also presented a robust straight-news operation to counter the opinion shows. “Fair and balanced,” was Ailes’s mantra—and, while Ailes was the supreme leader, he managed news and opinion programming separately under different executives. In recent years, however, especially after Ailes was forced out in July 2016 amid sexual harassment and discrimination allegations, that distinction has steadily eroded.Along with the painful layoffs, fired employees—worried about getting new jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic—are being forced to sign severance agreements that include draconian non-disclosure requirements that one current staffer described as shocking, in order to receive their severance packages.The non-disclosure section of the severance agreement requires laid-off employees to “assign to the Company any and all rights to publicity concerning any matter relating to the issues that resulted in your separation from the Company and/or this Agreement. You agree that you will not publish, contribute to or otherwise facilitate the creation of any story, book or other account relating to the Company or any Released Party. In the event you ever receive any compensation for any publicity, story, book or other disclosure relating in whole or part to those issues, all such compensation shall be immediately given over to the Company.”Manhattan attorney Michael Willemin, a partner at Wigdor, LLP, which has sued Fox News on behalf of alleged victims of workplace discrimination and sexual abuse, told The Daily Beast: “While it is not terribly uncommon for companies to require individuals to sign releases or NDAs in connection with a severance payment, that does not mean that the practice is morally defensible. These are individuals who have just been terminated in the midst of a global pandemic and one of the worst job markets in history. Many of these individuals need these severance payments simply to make ends meet.”Prominent labor lawyer Martin Hyman, who represented Gretchen Carlson and other Fox News women in lawsuits against the channel (including former Fox News Digital reporter Diana Falzone, a co-author of this story), told The Daily Beast: “The confidentiality clause is onerous, but I can’t say it’s unusual. It’s a largely boilerplate gag order designed to intimidate and compel women to remain silent about what they have experienced behind closed doors in major companies. It protects and enables predators. And it’s totally inconsistent with any claims by company executives and spokespersons that they are committed to cleaning up their act and protecting female employees from abuse, humiliation or worse.”Multiple sources said Dianne Brandi, Fox News’ former executive vice president of legal and business affairs, who took a leave of absence in October 2017 amid news reports detailing her intimate involvement in company payments to the female victims of Fox News founder Ailes and star anchor Bill O’Reilly, has quietly returned to the channel as an influential consultant to Lily Fu Claffee, who became Fox News’ general counsel in 2018.A current Fox News employee—who, like others who spoke to The Daily Beast, asked not to be further identified for fear of retaliation—placed blame on Porter Berry, a former longtime Hannity producer who is Fox News Digital’s editor-in-chief, and Berry’s second-in-command Stefanie Wheeler Choi, a former communications director for hard-right Tennessee politician Marsha Blackburn, for much of the carnage that has concentrated on straight-news reporters and photojournalists. Berry and Choi had a large hand in recommending who would be laid off, this current Fox News staffer said.Meanwhile, Brain Room staffers were let go, this person said, “because they help fuel journalism and fact-based reporting and Porter and Stefanie are not interested in facts. They are obsessed with pitching ‘on-brand’ stories that include Blue Lives Matter, anything antifa-related, anyone who has suffered during BLM protests that can put the protestors in a negative light, anything that threatens Christianity, and anyone who is a Trump supporter who has somehow been wronged.”The Daily Beast sent Fox News a detailed list of questions raised in this story and the company declined to provide an on-the-record comment.A second Fox News employee said it’s widely known among staffers at the channel that top executives have “long been unsupportive of real, unbiased reporting. They do not see themselves as a real news operation in the sense that people are doing original work, trying to break stories and get to the bottom of things, wherever the chips fall. They are first and foremost a collector of other outlets’ reports and rewriting, and writing stories about what guests say on their most highly rated shows.”Fox News Internal Document Bashes Pro-Trump Fox Regulars for Spreading ‘Disinformation’Fox News, the profitable cash cow of Murdoch’s Fox Corp. empire, reported $12.3 billion in revenue for the year ending June 30 and is widely perceived as allowing Rupert Murdoch to prop up his massively money-losing newspaper holdings in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia.According to multiple Fox News insiders, the most recent cuts were ordered by Joe Dorrego, a former Fox Corp. executive who is both Fox News’s new chief financial officer and chief operating officer. In what is bound to be a bitter irony for laid-off Fox News employees, Dorrego claimed in a staff meeting this past Thursday, according to an insider, that the channel has so far experienced record revenue and profits in 2020.Meanwhile, multiple sources said the channel’s nominal CEO, Suzanne Scott—promoted by Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch as the first woman to hold the job, two years after they forced Ailes out amid anchor Gretchen Carlson’s July 2016 sexual discrimination and harassment lawsuit, along with other sexual abuse allegations—is little more than a figurehead. (In Scott’s defense, the company recently issued a press release in which she announced that Fox News Media had received the “honor” of being designated a “a 2020 Great Place to Work-Certified™ Company,” based on the opinions, according to the release, of “nearly eight out of 10 employees.”)Likewise, Fox News President Jay Wallace also has suffered a reduction in power since his 2018 promotion, sources said, because, among other reasons, Fox News has increasingly become an operation in which Carlson, Hannity, and Ingraham—the star anchors— run their own fiefdoms, unaccountable to anyone except the Murdochs.It’s a situation the obsessively hands-on Ailes, who died of a brain hemorrhage in May 2017 after a fall in his Palm Beach mansion, would never have permitted.“For all the complications surrounding Roger, he truly did want the channel to project a legitimate news side as well as a robust opinion lineup,” said a well-placed Fox News veteran. “As time passed and the strong hand of Ailes has faded, the opinion team appears to have won the internal battle.”Indeed, the virtual lobotomy of the Brain Room, a current employee said, came about largely because “the Brain Room, in their research, came up with facts that were not used in Fox reports or were in contradiction to what Fox aired. I have to imagine that kind of tension has always existed there, between the fact-checkers and what is often reported.”A third Fox News employee said the Brain Room layoffs send the message “that Fox doesn’t care for a unit who truly holds truth to power. The Brain Room is an essential part of the company. They help employees with some of the most important elements of our jobs and are always there for last minute, difficult requests. They hold a lot of knowledge. Fox has acted like state media for a long time. This is just one small element to it.”Another network staffer expressed a similar sentiment: “As an employee, I have had concerns about how close Fox has become with the White House and the administration. I don’t think I’m the only person there who has these concerns. With these layoffs in multiple news departments coming just a few weeks before the election, it looks like Fox is more like an extension of this administration, instead of a news network.”During the Trump presidency, the Brain Room has been frequently at odds with Fox News’ on-air content. As The Daily Beast reported this past February, senior Fox News political affairs specialist Bryan S. Murphy produced a 162-page document entitled “Ukraine, Disinformation, & the Trump Administration” that warned colleagues against the falsehoods being dispensed by Fox News contributor John Solomon—a favorite Hannity guest—and other Fox News purveyors of Ukraine-focused disinformation such as Rudy Giuliani, Victoria Toensing, and her husband Joe diGenova.Murphy, however, was not among those laid off.Among other straight-news victims of the cuts were the former head of the Fox News assignment desk, John Stack, a 21-year veteran, and Martin Hinton, the executive producer of the Fox News investigative unit, who happens to be the son of longtime Murdoch confidant Les Hinton, Rupert’s top newspaper division exec who was forced to resign in 2011 during the British phone-hacking scandal.The Fox News severance agreement, parts of which were obtained by The Daily Beast, is breathtakingly comprehensive, releasing the cable channel from “any and all claims (e.g., for discrimination, harassment, or retaliation) related to actual or perceived race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, family status, caregiver status, sex (including pregnancy status, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related medical conditions), gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, sexual and reproductive health choices, hair texture or hairstyles, military or veteran status, political affiliation, arrest or conviction record, union membership, unemployment status, credit history, status as a victim of domestic violence, stalking, or sexual offenses, or any other legally protected characteristic, or for having engaged in any protected activity under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Equal Pay Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family Medical Leave Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Equal Pay Act, the New York State Human Rights Law, the New York State Fair Pay Act, the New York City Human Rights Law, the New York City Administrative Code, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act and any applicable state mini-WARN Act, or any other law, regulation or ordinance that may have arisen before the effective date of this Agreement, including but not limited to those arising from your employment and separation from the Company.”Fox News Staff Erupts Over Network Racism: Bosses ‘Created a White Supremacist Cell’A current staffer told The Daily Beast: “The items that the employees will not be able to sue for sound like a tip o’ the hat of who has called Fox out in the past. For example it lists ‘hair or hair texture’ as a reason that you cannot sue the company. I believe a Black makeup artist sued Fox in the past on this.”The staffer added that laid-off employees who take severance are prohibited from suing for “reproductive-related reasons,” and then pretty much any other reason listed in the New York human rights law.“Then,” the staffer continued, “if you sign this form you are required to speak to a lawyer or be a witness without a subpoena. So let’s say an employee is suing the company for being discriminatory against gay people and one of those employees who signed this agreement heard firsthand that employee who was suing being discriminated against by a boss at Fox. The employee who signed this NDA would be able to speak to Fox’s lawyers without a subpoena, meaning Fox’s lawyers would not have to alert the person’s lawyers who is suing for discrimination about the questioning. Then, let’s say the person who signed the NDA was questioned and corroborated the discrimination. Fox’s lawyers could bury the evidence."A longtime Fox News staffer who was let go earlier this month said terminated employees feel forced to sign the agreement “to get their severance, and for me, I have to take care of my family. I just want my money and leave... We all served a purpose but it seems they don’t want to do any original content anymore, just TV straight to the web. Like state TV in North Korea.”Two decades after Ailes launched Fox News in 1996, he coined the slogan “We Report, You Decide.” A dozen years later, several current and former employees suggested, the cable channel’s new mantra might as well be “We’ve Decided, You Agree.”\--Diana Falzone was an on-camera reporter for Fox News from 2012 to 2018. In May 2017, she filed a gender discrimination and disability lawsuit against the network and settled, and left the company in March 2018.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

source https://news.yahoo.com/fox-news-lobotomizes-brain-room-004640820.html

Worldwide death toll from coronavirus eclipses 1 million

The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed 1 million on Tuesday, nine months into a crisis that has devastated the global economy, tested world leaders’ resolve, pitted science against politics and forced multitudes to change the way they live, learn and work. The bleak milestone, recorded by Johns Hopkins University, is greater than the population of Jerusalem or Austin, Texas.

source https://news.yahoo.com/worldwide-death-toll-coronavirus-eclipses-003943981.html

Heating in vaping device as cause for lung injury, study shows

Early results of an experimental vaping study have shown significant lung injury from e-cigarette devices with nickel-chromium alloy heating elements.

source https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928163756.htm

Pandemic sets off future wave of worsening mental health issues

Long after a COVID-19 vaccination is developed and years after the coronavirus death toll is tallied, the impact on mental health will linger, continuing to inflict damage if not addressed, according to new research.

source https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928163752.htm

Ancient Adélie penguin colony revealed by snowmelt at Cape Irizar, Ross Sea, Antarctica

Researchers encountered a puzzle at Cape Irizar, a rocky cape located just south of the Drygalski Ice Tongue on the Scott Coast, Ross Sea. He found both ancient and what appeared to be fresh remains of Adelie penguins, mostly of chicks, which frequently die and accumulate at these colonies. However, the 'fresh' remains were puzzling, he says, because there are no records of an active penguin colony at this site.

source https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928155748.htm

Strong activation of anti-bacterial T cells linked to severe COVID-19

A type of anti-bacterial T cells, so-called MAIT cells, are strongly activated in people with moderate to severe COVID-19 disease, according to a new study.

source https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928152855.htm

Study links rising stress, depression in U.S. to pandemic-related losses, media consumption

Experiencing multiple stressors triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic -- such as unemployment -- and COVID-19-related media consumption are directly linked to rising acute stress and depressive symptoms across the United States, according to a new study.

source https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928125055.htm

Landslides: long-term effects on tundra vegetation

Landslides have long-term effects on tundra vegetation, a new study shows. Conducting the study in North West Siberia, the researchers found that tundra vegetation regenerated rapidly after a major landslide event in 1989.

source https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928125042.htm

Congo's sapeurs pass their style on to a new generation

A new book highlights the "sapeurs" in the twin Congolese capitals of Brazzaville and Kinshasa.

source https://news.yahoo.com/congos-sapeurs-pass-style-generation-234131048.html

AP PHOTOS: Migrants face more misery in Bosnian crackdown

VELIKA KLADUSA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Remote woods, abandoned run-down buildings and roadsides in northwestern Bosnia are steadily filling with makeshift camps where migrants and refugees from the Mideast, Asia and North Africa are bracing for more misery as autumn’s chill and rains set in. A sense of desperation hangs over the hundreds of men and boys who have been forced to build tents from sticks and black plastic tarps in the forests after local authorities in Bosnia's Krajina region decided last month to start pushing them away from town centers, even kicking them out of U.N-run reception centers there. Krajina shares a highly porous 1,000 kilometer (620 mile) border with European Union member Croatia, making it a major draw for migrants crossing Bosnia.

source https://news.yahoo.com/ap-photos-migrants-face-more-095905172.html

Trump's Taxes Show He's a National Security Threat

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- In a tour de force of hard won reporting, the New York Times has put numerical clothing on what we’ve known about President Donald Trump for decades — that, at best, he’s a haphazard businessman, human billboard and serial bankruptcy artist who gorges on debt he may have a hard time repaying.The Times, in a news story published Sunday evening that disclosed years of the president’s tax returns, also put a lot of clothing on things we didn’t know. Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, the year he was elected president, and the same amount the following year, when he entered the White House. In many years recently he hasn’t paid anything at all. He has played so fast and loose with the taxman that he’s entangled in an audit. He paid his daughter Ivanka lush consulting fees that he deducted as a business expense even though she helped him manage the Trump Organization. And he’s taken questionable tax write-offs on everything from getting his hair coifed to managing his personal residences.Step away from the tragicomic tawdriness and grift that the tax returns define, however, and focus on what they reveal about Trump as the most powerful man in the world and occupant of the Oval Office.Due to his indebtedness, his reliance on income from overseas and his refusal to authentically distance himself from his hodgepodge of business, Trump represents a profound national security threat – a threat that will only escalate if he’s re-elected. The tax returns also show the extent to which Trump has repeatedly betrayed the interests of many of the average Americans who elected him and remain his most loyal supporters.I have some history with Trump and his taxes. Trump sued me for libel in 2006 for a biography I wrote, “TrumpNation,” claiming the book misrepresented his track record as a businessman and lowballed the size of his fortune. He lost the suit in 2011. During the litigation, Trump resisted releasing his tax returns and other financial records. My lawyers got the returns, and while I can’t disclose specifics of what I saw, I imagine that Trump has always refused to release them because they would reveal how robust his businesses and finances actually are and shine a light on some of his foreign sources of income. The Times has now solved that problem for us.According to the Times, Trump has about $421 million in debts which he has personally guaranteed and which are coming due over the next several years. This is consistent with earlier reporting about how much debt he carries, a chunk of which could be gleaned from the personal financial disclosures he is required to file with the federal government. But Trump’s overall indebtedness is greater than the Times tally, I believe.Russ Choma reported in Mother Jones last summer that Trump’s debts were nearly $500 million and would come due in relatively short order, pressuring the president’s finances. But Trump’s debts are even bigger than that, and he’s worked hard to keep them hidden for decades. Dan Alexander, a senior editor at Forbes, has been covering Trump’s business interests since 2016 and has a new book out about the president’s financial conflicts of interest, “White House Inc.” Alexander, in a helpful tally he shared Sunday evening, estimates Trump’s total indebtedness to be about $1.1 billion. Now that’s more like it.Trump has been bloviating about being worth $10 billion ever since he entered the 2016 presidential race, a figure that simply isn’t true. He’s worth a fraction of that amount, and the larger his indebtedness becomes, the more strain it puts on his assets. The Covid-19 pandemic has taken a particularly brutal toll on the sectors in which the Trump Organization operates — real estate, travel and leisure. If Trump is unable to meet his debt payments, he’s either going to have to sell assets or get bailed out by a friend with funds. Trump has never liked to sell anything, even when it’s hemorrhaging money. So if he’s tempted to save himself by getting a handout, that makes him a mark.If Trump was still just a reality TV oddity, that wouldn’t be earthshaking. But he’s president, and the trade-offs someone like him would be willing to make to save his face and his wallet taint every public policy decision he makes – including issues around national security. If Vladimir Putin, for example, can backchannel a loan or a handout to the president, how hard is Trump going to be on Russia? Not that we should worry about Trump’s relationship with Putin. I’m just raising it theoretically.Trump’s own history of avoiding tax payments – and often paying nothing -- is the other issue that should alarm the president’s supporters. Trump and the Republican Party engineered a massive tax cut in 2017 that largely benefitted the most affluent Americans and the largest corporations in the U.S. Now we learn that the president who pushed a tax cut that didn’t deliver the economic stimulus he claimed it would, but feathered the nests of the most privileged, has rarely paid taxes in recent years.Trump paid $750 in taxes the year he was elected! That’s way less than the $130,000 in hush money he paid Stormy Daniels. In 2012, Trump criticized Barack Obama for “only” paying $161,950 in taxes. That’s a lot more that $750 too! And it’s a lot more than the $0 in taxes Trump frequently paid.Trump even paid far less than his really wealthy buddies. As Times reporter David Leonhardt noted, “Over the past two decades, Mr. Trump has paid about $400 million less in combined federal income taxes than a very wealthy person who paid the average for that group each year.” It’s even more troubling when you compare Trump’s tax payments to an American household earning about $75,000 in 2016. Those folks paid about $14,000 in federal income taxes — which is also a lot more than $750.Anyone buying Trump’s tripe about looking out for the little guy while he occupies the White House, or who takes their lives in their hands attending one of his Covid-19-defying campaign rallies, should bear in mind one of the many things the Times’s reporting substantiates: The president of the United States is in it only for himself, and he’s laughing all the way to the bank. And he’s laughing at you, too.(Corrects figure in seventh paragraph to $500 million.)This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Timothy L. O'Brien is a senior columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

source https://news.yahoo.com/trumps-taxes-show-hes-national-093724888.html

Armenia, Azerbaijan keep up deadly fight for disputed region

Armenia and Azerbaijani forces kept fighting Monday over the disputed separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh after hostilities broke out the day before, with both sides blaming each other for resuming the deadly attacks. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry claimed that Armenian forces started shelling the town of Tartar on Monday morning, while Armenian officials said the fighting continued throughout the night and Baku resumed “offensive actions" in the morning. Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry told the Interfax news agency Monday that over 550 Armenian troops have been killed, a claim that Armenian officials denied.

source https://news.yahoo.com/armenia-azerbaijan-keep-deadly-fight-092918924.html

Russia's Navalny visited by German chancellor in hospital

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Monday confirmed reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited him in a Berlin hospital where he was being treated for what German authorities determined was nerve agent poisoning. “There was a meeting, but one shouldn’t call it secret,” Navalny said in a tweet, referring to media reports alleging that Merkel made a secret visit to the Charite hospital where he remained for 32 days.

source https://news.yahoo.com/russias-navalny-visited-german-chancellor-092303307.html

Route to Glasgow COP26: COVID-19 should not be allowed to derail progress made in driving greater climate resilience

source https://news.yahoo.com/route-glasgow-cop26-covid-19-092300525.html

Merkel privately visited Russian opposition leader Navalny in hospital after Novichok poisoning

Alexei Navalny met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a Berlin hospital where he was recovering from a poisoning that kept him in a coma for weeks, he has revealed. Mr Navalny was discharged from the Charite hospital in Berlin on Wednesday after spending weeks on a ventilator in a medically induced coma. The German media outlet Der Spiegel on Monday quoted unnamed sources saying that Chancellor Merkel went to see Mr Navalny in hospital in a sign of solidarity. The 44-year old Russian politician confirmed the reports later in the day, insisting that there was nothing “secret” about the meeting. “It was more of a private meeting and conversation with the family,” he tweeted. “I’m very grateful to Chancellor Merkel for seeing me in hospital.” He did not say when the meeting took place or offer any details. The top Kremlin critic fell suddenly ill on the plane from Siberia to Moscow at the end of August. Several European laboratories independently confirmed that he was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok which was used in the 2018 attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal.

source https://news.yahoo.com/merkel-privately-visited-russian-opposition-084907942.html

China's Xi Jinping says 'happiness' on rise in Uighur heartland in face of global backlash

Xi Jinping, the leader of China’s Communist Party, said policies in the country’s Xinjiang region were “completely correct” despite growing international backlash over the government’s alleged human rights abuses against the Uighur Muslim minority in the province. "It is necessary to educate residents of Xinjiang on their understanding of the Chinese nation and to guide “all ethnic groups on establishing a correct perspective on the country, history and nationality,” Mr Xi said, according to remarks reported in Chinese state media. “We must also continue the direction of Sinicising Islam to achieve the healthy development of religion,” he said at a two-day Communist Party conference on Xinjiang this weekend. These are Mr Xi’s most public comments to date in support of China’s policies to bring Xinjiang’s primarily Muslim ethnic minority population – mostly Uighurs but also Kazakhs, Kyrgyzs and Hui – under control. The Chinese government has long struggled to quiet the tensions that have stewed in the region for decades, at times leading to deadly attacks authorities attributed to Uighur separatists. But Beijing’s mass “re-education” campaign faces increasing global criticism over alleged human rights abuses. The United Nations estimates that one million people in Xinjiang have been thrown into mass internment camps.

source https://news.yahoo.com/chinas-xi-jinping-says-happiness-083952555.html

New US citizen refugees excited for first presidential vote

They came fleeing war and persecution in countries like Myanmar, Eritrea and Iraq, handpicked by the United States for resettlement under longstanding humanitarian traditions. Now, tens of thousands of refugees welcomed into the U.S. during the Obama administration are American citizens, voting the first time in what could be the most consequential presidential contest of their lifetimes. With some states already sending out early ballots, the first-time voters from Arizona to Florida are excited but mindful of their responsibility in helping to choose the country's next leader.

source https://news.yahoo.com/us-citizen-refugees-excited-first-090006063.html

How Team Trump Keeps Twisting the Real Election Threat

On Sept. 23, as the presidential election began its terminal season, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) asked acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf if Russia had an active propaganda campaign against former Vice President Joe Biden. Wolf responded by talking about two other countries.“I think on everything that I’ve seen, that there are three nation states that we have to be very concerned about. One is Russia, one is China and one is Iran,” Wolf began. Yes, Russia indeed “looks to denigrate” Biden, he acknowledged, and yes, they all respond to the election differently. But “all three nation states” comprise 2020’s foreign election threat.It was an odd conflation. While China and Iran have certainly pushed their share of political disinformation, only Russia’s propaganda is known to be directly and deeply targeted to the U.S. election in November.In his testimony, Wolf pointed to a piece of paper—one that, subtextually, U.S. senators are bound to respect. Two months before, William Evanina, the nation’s top counterintelligence official, issued a public assessment treating all three nations as election threats. But his depiction of those threats varied. China was trying to influence “the policy environment” in America, and “will continue to weigh the risks and benefits of aggressive action.” Iran wants to “undermine U.S. democratic institutions” by circulating “anti-U.S. content” online. Rudimentary maneuvers, in other words, in the realm of information warfare.U.S. Intel Repeatedly Warned About Rudy’s ‘Russian Agent’ PalRussia, by contrast, was engaged in an array of efforts—hiring American freelance writers to unknowingly pen and spread Kremlin propaganda, signal-boosting the most unhinged conspiracy theories online. And it had an agent. What’s more, Russia was using a Ukrainian parliamentarian, Andreii Derkach, to generate and circulate misinformation against Biden. Evanina didn’t say it, but Derkach gave those documents to Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani.Evanina’s equivalences drew criticism from Democrats with access to intelligence. “[T]oday’s statement still treats three actors of differing intent and capability as equal threats to our democratic elections,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the intelligence committee chair, both of whom had criticized an earlier Evanina election-threat portrait. Politico subsequently reported that CIA Director Gina Haspel prevented Russia assessments from reaching the White House and accused CIA Russia analysts of lying about intelligence.A closer look at the purported intrusion campaigns, from cybersecurity analysts and others, shows a sharp divergence. Microsoft found no indication that Chinese attempts to access accounts belonging to Biden advisers and a Trump administration were successful; but it also found the Chinese targeting academics and think-tankers, consistent with its observed intelligence-collection patterns. Nor did it find any success from Iranian hackers. But Microsoft warned that Russian hackers operate a more sophisticated credential-siphoning enterprise and pledged to continue “proactively hunting” them. Given these divergences, crafting a framework of Russia-China-Iran is reminiscent of how depictions of threats from “weapons of mass destruction” paper over the vast differences between nuclear weapons, biological weapons, and chemical weapons. And if there’s a nation with nukes in this analogy, so far China and Iran haven’t shown them off.Portraying a “troika” of China, Russia, and Iran election threats suits the intelligence analysts, said the former official, who assign different weight to each of those threats in terms of scale, urgency and objective. But the formulation of them as a troika allows Trump and his allies to “cherry-pick” which threats to emphasize.“If China is mentioned in a statement like that, the administration can lift that part up while ignoring the Russia part, for example, which may be of much greater consequence. That puts Evanina and the intelligence professionals in a difficult position. You can’t engage in a war of words with your customer set, that doesn’t generally turn out well,” said the former official, who expressed respect for Evanina’s integrity.There may be further classified intelligence to back up the administration’s claim that China poses a greater threat than Russia or Iran. And it’s worth remembering WikiLeaks didn’t release its trove of emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman until October of 2016; perhaps Beijing or Tehran has an October surprise this time around.But the dispute over the correct characterization of foreign threats to the election obscures the reality that the biggest threat to the election isn’t foreign at all. It’s domestic, according to former intelligence officials and cybersecurity experts, and it seeks to keep Trump in power. He and his allies describe mail-in balloting, increasingly a choice of voters in a pandemic, as a tool for Democrats to steal the election. They’ve gamed out voter-suppression scenarios for Black voters and other presumed Democratic constituencies. Trump supporters are describing the perpetuation of Trump’s presidency as the last stand of a free republic and threaten violence if it doesn’t go their way. Whatever foreign threat imperils the election is relatively minor. But calibrating whose foreign interference is worse is much easier for politicians to confront.“My sense is that the volume and velocity of material aimed at misleading people with respect to politics in the U.S. right now, generated by Americans themselves, probably vastly exceeds the volume and velocity that emanates from foreign actors,” said a former senior intelligence official.* * *Over the last several weeks, President Trump and his closest aides, particularly National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, have ramped up a public messaging campaign focused on how China poses a greater threat to the electoral process than any other foreign power, including Russia. “We know the Chinese have taken the most active role,” O’Brien told reporters in September, adding that Beijing had “had the most massive program to influence the United States politically.”National security officials have for years worked to underscore and fight back against the threats China poses to U.S. interests, particularly its attempts to steal American intellectual property, hack into American networks, and control its own people through American proxies. Dozens and dozens of arrests have been made, including, most recently, that of a New York City cop recruited by Beijing to spy on local Tibetan groups.NYPD Officer Spied on Tibetan New Yorkers for Chinese Government: FedsLess has been said about how Beijing may be attempting to interfere in the 2020 election. Last week, the Justice Department announced the indictment of two Chinese hackers working for the Ministry of State Security; Facebook did recently remove accounts associated with a Chinese-linked disinformation network that worked to promote the People’s Republic to overseas audiences, including the American one. But the activity alleged in the indictment has nothing to do with elections, however. And Facebook told reporters at the time of the announcement that there was little engagement around the network’s posts that focused on the United States. And O’Brien himself didn’t have much to add in the way of specifics in his talk with reporters earlier this month. “I am not going to go into all the intelligence,” he said.Asked how the administration is calculating the risk China poses to the 2020 campaign, spokespersons for the National Security Council would not answer questions on the record. O’Brien recently published a Wall Street Journal op-ed on the topic, in which he pointed to that Microsoft hacking assessment—the one that showed Russia to be the more sophisticated actor. Yet O’Brien declared that, “This behavior, coupled with China’s ever-present influence operations targeting all aspects of U.S. civil society and the economy, represents a serious threat to the integrity of our elections.”In his public statements, Evanina, the U.S. counterintelligence chief, “has noted that Beijing is engaged in influence efforts, but has not gone so far as to assert that China is attempting election interference,” said Zach Cooper, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an expert on China. “Some senior Trump administration officials, however, have appeared to suggest that both are occurring.”U.S. officials who attempt to veer from this line have faced the consequences. When FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress this week, he did not speak to any specific threats posed by China but instead detailed how Russia was attempting to use disinformation to “denigrate Biden.”It didn’t take long for Trump to push back. “But Chris, you don’t see any activity from China, even though it is a FAR greater threat than Russia, Russia, Russia. They will both, plus others, be able to interfere in our 2020 Election with our totally vulnerable Unsolicited (Counterfeit?) Ballot Scam,” Trump tweeted.The next day, Trump was asked whether he intended to fire Wray. “I did not like his answers yesterday and I’m not sure he liked them either. I’m sure that he probably would agree with me.”Michael Carpenter, a defense official in the Obama administration and a managing director of the Penn Biden Center, sees a dangerous trend developing. “It is not just that the commander-in-chief doesn’t trust the intelligence that he’s getting or doesn’t act on it. He and close associates of his are trying to both insert partisan cronies into the intelligence community to do their bidding. It’s designed to undermine Biden’s candidacy,” he said.* * *When Evanina published his August statement on election security, politicians and officials argued about the significance of both China and Russian information operations, Iran kept its own propaganda machine revved up.It comes as perhaps no surprise that Tehran is continuing to wage disinformation campaigns aimed at dividing the country and attacking Trump, whose administration has over the last four years launched a massive assault on Iran’s economy with punishing sanctions. Iranian networks have long sought to use social media to attack the Trump administration so much so that the State Department created a team to fight back and target those speaking out against the administration’s Iran policy.In his election security notice, Evanina noted that in the lead-up to the election, Iran “will focus on on-line influence, such as spreading disinformation on social media and recirculating anti-U.S. content.” “Tehran’s motivation to conduct such activities is, in part, driven by a perception that President Trump’s reelection would result in a continuation of U.S. pressure on Iran in an effort to foment regime change,” the statement said.Microsoft’s analysis revealed how Phosphorus, an Iranian group known for targeting a wide variety of organizations working on geopolitics, economics and human rights, has “continued to attack the personal accounts of people associated with the Donald J. Trump for President campaign.”In February, Facebook took down half a dozen troll accounts associated with an Iranian effort to target conservatives in the U.S. The trolls spent time in Christian groups like “Only Jesus Can Save” and “Jesus Christ Family,” and posted flyers that appeared to attack former National Security Adviser John Bolton, labeling him a “slave of gold.” The cybersecurity firm FireEye also found accounts that targeted well-known conservatives opposed to Trump and sent them messages inquiring about their thoughts on the 2020 election.Pro-Iran Troll Posed as WHO Official to Push Racist Coronavirus HoaxBut what cybersecurity firms, social media companies, and U.S. intelligence have observed about Russian propaganda is an order of magnitude more advanced and targeted to the 2020 election.Intelligence and national security officials have for months warned of Russian attempts to meddle in the 2020 presidential election. In her December 2019 remarks in front of House impeachment investigators, Fiona Hill, Trump’s former top Russia adviser, sounded the alarm.“Right now Russia security services and their proxies are geared up to repeat their interference in the 2020 election,” she said. “The way that the Russians operate is that they will use whatever conduit they can to put out information that is both real and credible but that also masks a great deal of disinformation.”In the months leading up to Hill’s testimony, intelligence officials drafted reports outlining the extent to which Russia was leaning on proxies, such as Andrii Derkach, a Ukrainian parliamentarian, to spread debunked conspiracy theories about nominee Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and their dealings in Ukraine. Members of Congress were warned about such efforts at the end of 2019, as The Daily Beast has reported. At the same time, Derkach worked closely with the president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to propagate falsehoods about the Bidens and Ukrainian intervention in the 2016 election.In an Aug. 7 statement on threats to the 2020 election, Evanina pointed to Derkach as one of the main Russian-linked individuals “using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden.” “Derkach is spreading claims about corruption—including through publicizing leaked phone calls—to undermine former Vice President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party,” the statement said. Earlier this month the Treasury Department blacklisted Derkach for acting as a Russian “agent” and for meddling in the 2020 election.The Derkach push is one of many. In recent months, the FBI has twice provided tips about Russian intelligence-linked troll networks on Facebook. The move led the social media company to remove at least two separate clusters of fake accounts, which posed as a fictitious news site and think tank in order to recruit unsuspecting Western freelancers to write and distribute content.And on Sept. 10, the Justice Department indicted a 27-year-old employee of the Internet Research Agency, Artem Lifshits, for his role in “a wire fraud conspiracy to further Russian foreign influence efforts and to enrich himself and others.” In August, the State Department also published a detailed guide to Russian-linked propaganda outlets and revealed the outlets’ connections to Russian intelligence services like the GRU and SVR.Asked if there were Chinese or Iranian election interference networks that the FBI had tipped the social media companies off to, an FBI spokesperson declined comment.* * *All the emphasis on foreign interference in the presidential election obscures the torrent of disinformation coming not from any overseas troll farm or cut-out, but from the president and his allies, who portray mailed ballots as the tools for a Democratic coup and undermine faith in the voting process.On Sep. 23, Evanina joined Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe in briefing the Senate Intelligence Committee. Evanina did most of the talking. According to a source familiar with the briefing, the senior intelligence officials told lawmakers that the anticipated uncertainty over the election results in the days following the votes would likely be exploited by foreign disinformation. Evanina didn’t sound any pronounced warning against any particular foreign entity. The following day, the senior Democrat on the committee, Sen. Mark Warner (VA), said the intelligence officials had assessed the period immediately before and after the election “could be uniquely volatile.”A spokesperson for the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, which Evanina helms, would not comment on the briefing. But they pointed to a Sept. 21 announcement from the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that “raise[d] awareness of the potential threat posed by attempts to spread disinformation regarding the results of the 2020 elections.” Among its warnings about “foreign actors and cybercriminals” was the prospect of trolls defacing official election websites and manufacturing fake ones that could circulate on social media to announce false results.While the Sept. 23 briefing avoided talk of domestic politics, the source familiar with it noted that foreign propaganda typically mingles with domestically produced and disseminated disinformation. Much of that disinformation is authentically American in origin—and coming specifically from the White House.President Trump has spent weeks discrediting the mail-in voting that is likely to be a major driver of votes in a pandemic. That voting, judging from early public opinion polls, appears to be disproportionately Democratic, prompting The Atlantic’s Barton Gellman to describe it as a “proxy” for Trump “to distinguish friend from foe.” It’s in keeping with a long American history of voter suppression, particularly against Black people, most recently practiced by the Republican Party. The president, as Gellman noted, gleefully told a Black audience that he benefited from low Black turnout in 2016. The Democrats, Trump said in August, are “using COVID to steal our election.” Most ominously, Trump portrayed all of this as so dire a threat that he refused to rule out relinquishing power peacefully, a five-alarm fire for republican continuity.But mail-in voter fraud isn’t an appreciable danger to the election. The FBI’s Wray testified to a Senate panel Thursday that the FBI wasn’t seeing “coordinated national voter fraud” in the election at all, “whether it’s by mail or otherwise.” Manipulating mailed ballots would be a “major challenge,” Wray assessed. He pled for “confidence in our voting system and our election infrastructure.” By contrast, Trump said he wants to “make sure that the election is honest, and I’m not sure that it can be.”Wray was already on thin ice with the White House. But on Friday, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows attempted to discredit him outright. “With all due respect to Director Wray, he has a hard time finding emails in his own FBI, let alone figuring out whether there’s any kind of voter fraud,” Meadows said. Meadows’ remarks came the morning after the Justice Department announced an investigation into nine allegedly discarded military ballots in Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County—something a former U.S. attorney told The Daily Beast smelled like a push by the department to “undermine confidence in the election.”Behind Trump is an army of amplification. “The radical left are laying the groundwork for stealing this election from my father,” Donald Trump Jr. claims in an ad urging supporters to join an “army” for election security. Notwithstanding Trump’s admonishments on the manufactured danger of voting by mail, robocalls from family surrogates Lara Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle urge absentee voting and claim, falsely, that Democrats oppose “voting absentee.” They draw a false distinction between absentee balloting and voting by mail, which they falsely claim is “proven to be filled with fraud, abuse and mistakes.” Years of Republican messaging that both the news media and the social media companies are implacably hostile has convinced many on the right that disinformation warnings around right-wing media are cover to suppress conservative viewpoints.Further out is the untold hundreds of thousands of believers in QAnon. QAnon is a revenge fantasy about a secret Trump war against various adversaries in the political, cultural and security establishments, complete with accusations of child trafficking, secret indictments and looming Guantanamo Bay imprisonments. Trump embraced QAnon followers as “people that love our country” last month, a year after the FBI warned that it and other conspiracy groups will drive “both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts.” QAnon has taken on a life of its own, merging with or incorporating other aspects of disinformation, like considering the coronavirus a hoax and mail-in balloting the tools of a coup. In August, Facebook tried to purge large QAnon groups—many of which Facebook’s algorithm directed users toward, according to The New York Times—but they proved resilient.It took years and sustained criticism before Facebook and the other social-media giants took action against QAnon. They have been even more reluctant to label as misinformation statements discrediting mail-in voting or the coronavirus pushed by Trump and his surrogates. And though Facebook in particular was initially unwilling to concede that it was an election-disinformation vector in 2016, the companies have been notably more willing to purge foreign propaganda.Their method is functionally a compromise with the truth: they’re taking action against inauthentic identity, like Russians pretending to be Americans, rather than adjudicating the truth of a statement published on their platforms. That can’t work against disinformation Americans authentically spread. Trump has both exploited the companies’ reluctance to policing the truth—a reluctance derived from the companies’ interest in continuing to acquire and exploit data from right-wing users—and threatened them with regulatory and Justice Department investigations once they modestly began disinformation warnings.Similarly, the intelligence agencies are barred—by legal mandate and by the realities of political pressure—from assessing domestic disinformation.“Since that domestic space is so off-limits for the intelligence community, there’s just not going to be anything published, declared, or stated by U.S. intel agencies on this. It leaves the American people with no ability to compare scale,” said the former senior intelligence official.The ex-official said that this time, the Russians didn’t need to invent a narrative about how the election would be stolen. “They’re just piling on that stuff from Trump,” he said. “The beauty from their perspective is they don’t have to pilot that campaign. They’re just a force multiplier.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

source https://news.yahoo.com/team-trump-keeps-twisting-real-084152299.html

Sterling at 19-day high vs euro as traders see hope of avoiding cliff-edge Brexit

source https://news.yahoo.com/sterling-19-day-high-vs-084104793.html

China's leaders to endorse lower 2021-2025 growth target at key meeting - sources

source https://news.yahoo.com/chinas-leaders-endorse-lower-2021-082348805.html

Huawei CFO Meng back in Canadian court fighting U.S. extradition

Libyan Investment Authority concludes first phase of transformation programme

Libyan Investment Authority concludes first phase of transformation programme LIA Chairman Dr Ali Mahmoud meets with Oliver Wyman representatives (September 2020)LONDON and TRIPOLI, Libya, Sept. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), Africa’s largest sovereign wealth fund, has announced the conclusion of the first phase of its comprehensive Transformation Programme, a major strategic mechanism for institutional development. The key milestone was marked in the presence of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IFSWF), a global network of close to 40 SWF, and international experts, as well as the directors of its subsidiaries and affiliated investment portfolios. Phase one of the strategic programme focused on the design and adoption of an operational mechanism to boost working efficiency, ensure internal transparency, control and governance, as well as compliance with the Santiago Principles.The first phase saw the LIA adopt an organisational structure that meets all set objectives, and better supports its long-term strategy. It also covered the creation and deployment of a comprehensive package of financial and investment policies and regulations, as well as internal control systems that are in line with the best practices of sovereign wealth funds around the world.As a result, the LIA is now advancing with a clear strategy and well-defined roadmap, with a system in place to measure success and ensure continued progress. Clear authorities, decision making protocols and reporting lines have also been institutionalised.Following the completion of the first phase of the Transformation Programme, the LIA’s compliance rating with the Santiago Principles has climbed to 20 points out of a possible 24 (a substantial increase from just six points in mid-2019).The implementation of this all-encompassing strategic initiative will enable the LIA to manage its international assets with optimal effectiveness in line with the best practices of international sovereign wealth funds, while operating well within the United Nations’ sanctions framework.A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://ift.tt/2S5C7sw CONTACT: Media Contact: Mr. Ismail Ayan Media Relations Manager LIA.i.ayan@lia.ly

source https://news.yahoo.com/libyan-investment-authority-concludes-first-070000759.html

Top Afghan negotiator in Taliban talks arrives in Pakistan

source https://news.yahoo.com/top-afghan-negotiator-taliban-talks-065921541.html

EU-UK trade talks resume under Brexit bill cloud

Negotiators for the EU and Britain are hoping for a breakthrough in trade talks this week, despite feuding over a controversial UK bill that threatens to scupper a post-Brexit deal.

source https://news.yahoo.com/eu-uk-trade-talks-resume-063925275.html

Saudi Arabia: G-20 gathering of world leaders to be virtual

Saudi Arabia, which is presiding over the Group of 20 countries this year, said Monday that the upcoming November gathering of world leaders will be held virtually amid the coronavirus pandemic. The kingdom had originally planned to host world leaders for the G-20 summit in Riyadh before the pandemic, offering Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman the chance to share handshakes and wide smiles with presidents and prime ministers, such as Donald Trump, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, India's Narendra Modi and China's Xi Jinping.

source https://news.yahoo.com/saudi-arabia-g-20-gathering-062734602.html

Boris Johnson's Enemy No. 1 Has Weaknesses, Too

source https://news.yahoo.com/boris-johnsons-enemy-no-1-060020336.html

Trump ex-campaign boss hospitalized amid threat to harm self

President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale has been hospitalized after he threatened to harm himself, according to Florida police and campaign officials. Police officers talked Parscale out of his Fort Lauderdale home after his wife called police to say that he had multiple firearms and was threatening to hurt himself when he was hospitalized Sunday under the state’s Baker Act. “Brad Parscale is a member of our family and we love him,” said Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh.

source https://news.yahoo.com/trump-ex-campaign-boss-hospitalized-054847265.html

Pandemic overwhelms Trump's message in critical N. Carolina

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump is fighting to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, howling with unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud and warning that violent mobs are infiltrating the suburbs. Trump's challenge is acute here in North Carolina, a state that his senior aides describe as a “must-win."

source https://news.yahoo.com/pandemic-overwhelms-trumps-message-critical-054140306.html

India’s confirmed coronavirus tally reaches 6 million cases

India’s confirmed coronavirus tally reached 6 million cases on Monday, keeping the country second to the United States in number of reported cases since the pandemic began. The Health Ministry on Monday reported 82,170 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, driving the overall tally to 60,74,703. New infections are in India are currently being reported faster than anywhere else in the world.

source https://news.yahoo.com/india-confirmed-coronavirus-tally-reaches-041233966.html

Trump ex-campaign boss hospitalized amid threat to harm self

President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale was hospitalized Sunday after he threatened to harm himself, according to Florida police and campaign officials. Police officers talked Parscale out of his Fort Lauderdale home after his wife called police to say that he had multiple firearms and was threatening to hurt himself. Police Sgt. DeAnna Greenlaw said Parscale was hospitalized under the state’s Baker Act, which allows anyone deemed to be a threat to themselves or others to be detained for 72 hours for psychiatric evaluation.

source https://news.yahoo.com/trump-ex-campaign-boss-hospitalized-021434094.html

The South African cleric taking on the church over a rapist priest

Reverend June Major has gone on hunger strike twice to demand that the church take action against her alleged attacker who still practises as a priest

source https://news.yahoo.com/south-african-cleric-taking-church-005812809.html

Historical racial and ethnic health inequities account for disproportionate COVID-19 impact

A new article examines the ways in which COVID-19 disproportionately impacts historically disadvantaged communities of color in the United States, and how baseline inequalities in our health system are amplified by the pandemic. The authors also discuss potential solutions.

source https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200925113606.htm

UN: Yemen's warring sides to swap more than 1,000 prisoners

source https://news.yahoo.com/un-yemens-warring-sides-swap-120651860.html

Islamist militants kill 18 in north-eastern Nigeria

The Islamic State group said it was behind the ambush on a convoy of government officials.

source https://news.yahoo.com/islamist-militants-kill-18-north-111603848.html

Large majority of Swiss reject bid to rein in immigration from EU, says exit poll

Swiss voters have overwhelmingly rejected a right-wing party's attempt to scrap a pact allowing the free movement of people from the European Union, according to a projection of results by broadcaster SRF on Sunday. The Swiss People's Party (SVP) had called a referendum on the EU agreement - a vote that was seen as an important test of attitudes towards foreigners who make up a quarter of the population. The broadcaster said its projection, based on partial results from Sunday's plebiscite, showed the motion was defeated 63%-37%. The SVP - the biggest party in parliament - has pushed to take back control of immigration, echoing some of the arguments pro-Brexit politicians used in the run-up to Britain's exit from the EU. It has painted a gloomy picture of young foreigners supplanting older Swiss, housing getting dearer, schools and transport getting overcrowded and construction running wild. Opponents said the plan would have robbed business of skilled workers and torpedoed accords that enhance non-EU member Switzerland's access to the EU single market.

source https://news.yahoo.com/large-majority-swiss-reject-bid-111033043.html