| AP FACT CHECK: Trump tweets distort truth on National Guard Posted: 31 Aug 2020 03:03 PM PDT  It's become a pattern when unrest flares in a city: President Donald Trump suggests he has National Guard troops ready to send to the scene and takes credit for dispatching them and restoring calm while he accuses Democrats of being squishy on law and order. Trump omits the fact that he is largely a bystander in National Guard deployments. While presidents can tap rarely used powers to use federal officers for local law enforcement, there is no National Guard with national reach for Trump to send around the country.
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| Detroit turns island park into COVID-19 memorial garden Posted: 31 Aug 2020 02:15 PM PDT  A Detroit island park was transformed Monday into a drive-thru COVID-19 victims memorial as policy makers across the U.S. moved forward with plans to reopen schools and public spaces. Hearses led processions around Belle Isle Park in the Detroit River, where more than 900 large photos of local coronavirus victims provided by relatives were turned into posters and staked into the ground. As the death toll continued to rise around the world, officials announced plans to bring children back to school in Rhode Island, allow diners back inside New Jersey restaurants and let fans watch football inside an Iowa college stadium.
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| Syria says Israeli strike kills 2 soldiers, wounds 7 Posted: 31 Aug 2020 01:25 PM PDT |
| Liberty announces investigation into Falwell's tenure Posted: 31 Aug 2020 01:08 PM PDT  Liberty University is opening an independent investigation into Jerry Falwell Jr.'s tenure as president, a wide-ranging inquiry that will include financial, real estate and legal matters, the evangelical school's board announced Monday. In a statement, the board said it had retained an outside firm to investigate "all facets" of the school's operations under Falwell, and that it was "committed to learning the consequences that have flowed from a lack of spiritual stewardship by our former president." Calls for such an investigation had been mounting since Falwell's departure last week from the post he had held since 2007.
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| Hamas says deal reached to calm violence with Israel Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:42 PM PDT  Gaza's Hamas rulers said Monday they have reached an agreement through international mediators to end the latest round of cross-border violence with Israel. Under the deal, Hamas is to halt the launches of explosives-laden balloons and rocket fire into Israel, while Israel said it will ease a blockade that has been tightened in recent weeks. The Israeli restrictions have worsened living conditions in Gaza at a time when it is coping with a new coronavirus outbreak.
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| Macron starts Lebanon trip by meeting iconic Lebanese diva Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:34 PM PDT  Macron instead chose to see Lebanon's No. 1 diva Fairouz, a national symbol and one of the rare figures in Lebanon beloved and respected across the country. The meeting with Fairouz is a personal gesture from Macron, whose deep engagement with Lebanon has been denounced by his critics as a neocolonialist foray into a former French protectorate. Macron's defenders, however, including Beirut residents enraged at their own leaders, have praised him for visiting gutted neighborhoods in the wake of the Aug. 4 explosion that tore through their capital. Following his arrival at Beirut airport Monday night, Macron went straight to visit Fairouz at her home in Rabieh, north of Beirut, away from the media upon her request.
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| 2 shootings, 2 days: In Kenosha, a microcosm of US strife Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:26 PM PDT  A Black man, accosted by police on a domestic dispute call, is left with bullet wounds in his back that will likely keep him from ever walking again. The chain of events that began Aug. 23 with Jacob Blake's shooting has become a disputed X-ray of a divided society -- a black-and-white picture where some see racial injustice that proves the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement, while others see rioting that spurred a teenager to try to defend a community against chaos. Charles Stevenson pulled up to a quiet, green block 150 miles (245 km) from his Green Bay home.
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| Global Mooring Systems Industry Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:22 PM PDT |
| House to subpoena postmaster general over mail delays Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:19 PM PDT  The House Oversight Committee intends to subpoena Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for documents about disruptions in mail delivery operations that are now central to questions over the ability to handle an onslaught of mail-in ballots expected for the November election. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., the committee chair, sent a memo Monday saying DeJoy blew past last week's deadline to fully respond to the committee's request for more information. "It is clear that a subpoena has become necessary to further the Committee's investigation and help inform potential legislative actions," she said.
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| Simon Case: a perfect combination of Whitehall experience and political clout Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:08 PM PDT  Simon Case, the former royal adviser tipped as the next head of the civil service, has quickly established himself as one of the Prime Minister's most trusted lieutenants. The Barbour jacket-wearing father-of-two is expected to be announced as the Government's next Cabinet Secretary on Tuesday, in an appointment that will prove critical to Boris Johnson's flailing administration. As well as helping to oversee the civil service reform instigated by Dominic Cummings, the quick-thinking doctor of philosophy will be expected to liberally oil the Whitehall machinery to ensure it is both Brexit and Covid-proofed for the future. His rapid promotion, just three months after he was seconded from Kensington Palace in May to become Number 10's new permanent secretary, echoes a stratospheric rise up the ranks that has seen Case dubbed "the Rolls Royce of Sir Humphreys" at the tender age of 41. As the Duke of Cambridge's right-hand man, Case modernised William and Kate's operation, turning the Cambridge's into the Royal Family's resident troopers following Harry and Meghan's departure. Although William was sad to lose him, Case's experience of an organisation as dysfunctional as the royal household stood him in perfect stead as he switched his focus to improving Downing Street's somewhat haphazard Covid-19 response. With a previous history serving under David Cameron, Theresa May, at GCHQ and on Brexit, Cambridge-educated Case's appointment was widely regarded as an attempt to make Number 10 less 'Cummings' contingent', and inject someone "experience at the centre" into the heart of the team.
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| Judge blocks asylum screening by border protection agents Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:00 PM PDT  A federal judge on Monday blocked U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees from conducting the initial screening for people seeking asylum, dealing a setback to one of the Trump administration's efforts to rein in asylum. The Trump administration argued that designated CBP employees are trained comparably to asylum officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, another agency within the Homeland Security Department. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon in Washington disagreed.
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| Big Oil Is in Trouble. Its Plan: Flood Africa With Plastic. Posted: 31 Aug 2020 11:53 AM PDT  Confronting a climate crisis that threatens the fossil fuel industry, oil companies are racing to make more plastic. But they face two problems: Many markets are already awash with plastic, and few countries are willing to be dumping grounds for the world's plastic waste.The industry thinks it has found a solution to both problems in Africa.According to documents reviewed by The New York Times, an industry group representing the world's largest chemical-makers and fossil fuel companies is lobbying to influence U.S. trade negotiations with Kenya, one of Africa's biggest economies, to reverse its strict limits on plastics -- including a tough plastic-bag ban. It is also pressing for Kenya to continue importing foreign plastic garbage, a practice it has pledged to limit.Plastics-makers are looking well beyond Kenya's borders. "We anticipate that Kenya could serve in the future as a hub for supplying U.S.-made chemicals and plastics to other markets in Africa through this trade agreement," Ed Brzytwa, director of international trade for the American Chemistry Council, wrote in an April 28 letter to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.The United States and Kenya are in the midst of trade negotiations, and the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, has made clear he is eager to strike a deal. But the behind-the-scenes lobbying by the petroleum companies has spread concern among environmental groups in Kenya and beyond that have been working to reduce both plastic use and waste.Kenya, like many countries, has wrestled with the proliferation of plastic. It passed a stringent law against plastic bags in 2017, and last year it was one of many nations around the world that signed on to a global agreement to stop importing plastic waste -- a pact strongly opposed by the chemical industry.The chemistry council's plastics proposals would "inevitably mean more plastic and chemicals in the environment," said Griffins Ochieng, executive director for the Centre for Environmental Justice and Development, a nonprofit group based in Nairobi that works on the problem of plastic waste in Kenya. "It's shocking."The plastics proposal reflects an oil industry contemplating its inevitable decline as the world fights climate change. Profits are plunging amid the coronavirus pandemic, and the industry is fearful that climate change will force the world to retreat from burning fossil fuels. Producers are scrambling to find new uses for an oversupply of oil and gas. Wind and solar power are becoming increasingly affordable, and governments are weighing new policies to fight climate change by reducing the burning of fossil fuels.Pivoting to plastics, the industry has spent more than $200 billion on chemical and manufacturing plants in the United States over the last decade. But the United States already consumes as much as 16 times more plastic than many poor nations, and a backlash against single-use plastics has made it tougher to sell more at home.In 2019, U.S. exporters shipped more than 1 billion pounds of plastic waste to 96 countries including Kenya, ostensibly to be recycled, according to trade statistics. But much of the waste, often containing the hardest-to-recycle plastics, instead ends up in rivers and oceans.And after China closed its ports to most plastic trash in 2018, exporters have been looking for new dumping grounds. Exports to Africa more than quadrupled in 2019 from a year earlier.Ryan Baldwin, a spokesman for the American Chemistry Council, said the group's proposals tackle the global importance of dealing with waste. The letter says that there is "a global need to support infrastructure development to collect, sort, recycle and process used plastics, particularly in developing countries such as Kenya." The Chemistry Council includes the petrochemical operations of Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Shell, as well as major chemical companies including Dow.The talks are in early stages, and it is not yet clear if trade negotiators have adopted the industry's proposals. But industries typically have a strong voice in shaping trade policy, and business lobbyists have won similar concessions before.In talks with Mexico and Canada in 2018, for instance, chemicals- and pesticides-makers lobbied for, and won, terms making it tougher for those countries to regulate the industries. At the same talks, trade negotiators, urged on by U.S. food companies, also tried to restrict Mexico and Canada from warning people about the dangers of junk food on labeling but dropped the plan after a public outcry.The Kenya proposal "really sets off alarm bells," said Sharon Treat, a senior lawyer at the nonpartisan Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy who has worked for more than a decade advising trade talks in both the Trump and Obama administrations. Corporate lobbyists "frequently offer up very specific proposals, which the government then takes up," she said.The plastics industry's proposals could also make it tougher to regulate plastics in the United States, since a trade deal would apply to both sides.The Office of the United States Trade Representative did not respond to interview requests or to detailed lists of written questions, nor did officials at Kenya's Trade Ministry.Last year, Kenya was one of many countries around the world that signed on to a global agreement to stop importing plastic waste -- a pact strongly opposed by the chemical industry. Emails reviewed by The Times showed industry representatives, many of them former trade officials, working with U.S. negotiators last year to try to stall those rules.The records, obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests by Unearthed, a London-based affiliate of the environmental group Greenpeace, paint a picture of close ties between the trade representatives, administration officials and industry representatives.On March 29, 2019, for example, an executive at a recycling trade group wrote to several trade negotiators and other federal officials in order to show them a recent statement by environmental activists. "Hey ladies," she wrote, "This gives us some good fodder to build a strategy."In an interview, the email's author, Adina Renee Adler, a former senior U.S. trade official, said her trade group opposed bans on plastic waste exports because they would prevent viable plastic scrap material from being recycled. "My role is to provide them with information based on our expertise," she said of her communications with the federal officials.From Appalachia to NairobiRoyal Dutch Shell's 386-acre plastics plant outside Pittsburgh is billed as the anchor for a new petrochemical hub in Appalachia, a region reeling from the collapse of the coal industry. Plants like these have revolutionized the plastics industry by turning fracked natural gas into the manufacturing material for millions of plastic bottles, bags, clamshell containers, drinking straws and a parade of other products, tapping into a seemingly endless supply of cheap shale gas from America's booming oil and gas fields. Among local communities, the plants have raised air pollution concerns.In Appalachia, Texas and nationwide, almost 350 new chemical plants are in the works, according to an industry tally, together representing oil companies' life-or-death bet on plastics as the future.But now the coronavirus pandemic has caused not only oil and gas prices to plummet, but plastics prices, too. Last month, oil giants including Shell, Exxon Mobil and Chevron reported some of their worst financial results in history, leading some analysts to question whether the new plastics plants would deliver on the profits the companies expected.A Shell spokesman said that while the "short-term outlook for this business is challenging," over the long term, "products derived from petrochemicals will continue to grow and provide attractive returns." An Exxon Mobil spokesman said the company "shares society's concern about plastic waste" and aims to invest more in solutions to end it. Dow referred queries to the American Chemistry Council. Chevron did not respond to requests for comment.Against that backdrop, Kenyatta visited the White House in February, eager to start trade talks. Kenya currently can send most of its exports to the United States duty-free under a regional program, but that expires in 2025.The petrochemicals industry sensed an opening.Exxon Mobil has forecast that global demand for petrochemicals could rise by nearly 45% over the next decade, significantly outpacing global economic growth and energy demand. Most of that would come from emerging markets.The American Chemistry Council's April 28 letter to the trade representative's office laid out the group's vision. Kenya's growing ports, railways and road networks "can support an expansion of chemicals trade not just between the United States and Kenya, but throughout East Africa and the continent," Brzytwa wrote.To foster a plastics hub, he wrote, a trade deal with Kenya should prevent the country from measures that would curb plastic manufacture or use, and ensure Kenya continues to allow trade in plastic waste, demands that experts said were unusual and intrusive.Those terms could "literally encapsulate every kind of bag ban, bottle ban," said Jane Patton, a plastics expert at the Center for International Environmental Law. She called it an industry-led effort "to erode these democratically enacted policies" in foreign countries.Daniel Maina, founder of the Kisiwani Conservation Network in Mombasa, Kenya, said the trade talks were coming at a particularly vulnerable time, as Kenya was starting to feel the economic effects of the pandemic. "If they were to force this sort of trade agreement on us, I fear we will be easy prey," he said.Kenya's Tough LawsThe American Chemistry Council is pushing back against the likes of James Wakibia, who helped inspire Kenya to enact one of the world's toughest plastic bag bans.As a university student walking to class, Wakibia, now 37, used to pass a noxious landfill in Nakuru, Kenya's fourth-largest urban area. The stench and the plastic debris that spilled into the street, he said, prompted him to act.He began campaigning, largely on social media, for the ban, and his plea soon gained traction across a country inundated with plastic. Bags were everywhere -- in the air, clinging to trees, clogging waterways and causing flooding.With strong public backing, a ban on plastic bags took effect in 2017, and it has teeth: Anyone caught breaking the law could face jail time. This year, the government followed up by banning other types of single-use plastic, including bottles and straws, in national parks and other protected areas."We have done something," Wakibia said of the bag ban. "But we should not stop because there is so much pollution going on."Kenya is not the only country taking measures to curb plastics. A recent report by the United Nations counted 127 countries with policies on the books to regulate or limit use.In response, the industry has tried to address the plastics issue. The Alliance to End Plastic Waste -- formed by oil giants like Exxon Mobil and Chevron, as well as chemical companies like Dow -- last year pledged $1.5 billion to fight plastic pollution. That figure, critics point out, is a small fraction of what the industry has invested in plastic infrastructure.Manufacturers "say they will address plastic waste, but we say plastic itself is the problem," Ochieng said. "An exponential growth in plastics production is just not something we can handle."Plastics-Makers Fight BackFor plastics-makers, direct deals with countries like Kenya have become more important after the industry suffered a major setback on another issue of global dimensions: plastic waste exports.In May 2019, nations reached an agreement to regulate plastic as hazardous waste under the Basel Convention, making it far tougher to ship plastic waste to developing countries. The petrochemicals and plastics industries fought the deal, and trade negotiators largely adopted the industry's position, according to internal emails from the Office of the United States Trade Representative and other negotiators present.In the emails, the American Chemistry Council found a sympathetic ear among U.S. trade representatives. In April 2019, the council invited Maureen Hinman, a trade official, along with other agency officials, to discuss the industry's $1.5 billion pollution-fighting proposal.While environmental groups had criticized the industry's proposals as inadequate, Hinman had a different response. "What you are doing with the alliance is an important counternarrative," she said, referring to the industry's Alliance to End Public Waste.The trade office did not respond to requests to speak with Hinman or to written questions about the email.Despite the industry opposition, last year more than 180 countries agreed to the restrictions. Starting next year, the new rules are expected to greatly reduce the ability of rich nations to send unwanted trash to poorer countries. The United States, which has not yet ratified the Basel Convention, will not be able send waste to Basel member nations at all."It was the United States against the world," said Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network, a nonprofit that lobbies against the plastic waste trade. "I think they were in shock."That setback has reenergized industry to seek deals with individual countries to boost the market for plastics and find new destinations for plastic waste, analysts say.In Nairobi, local groups are worried. "My concern is that Kenya will become a dumping ground for plastics," said Dorothy Otieno of the Centre for Environmental Justice and Development. "And not just for Kenya, but all of Africa."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Global Mycoplasma Testing Industry Posted: 31 Aug 2020 11:42 AM PDT |
| Global Mycotoxin Testing Industry Posted: 31 Aug 2020 11:22 AM PDT |
| US vetoes UN resolution over Islamic State fighters' return Posted: 31 Aug 2020 11:20 AM PDT  The United States vetoed a U.N. resolution Monday calling for the prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration of all those engaged in terrorism-related activities, saying it didn't call for the repatriation from Syria and Iraq of foreign fighters for the Islamic State extremist group and their families which is "the crucial first step." U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft said the resolution, "supposedly designed to reinforce international action on counter-terrorism, was worse than no resolution at all."
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| Arrests made at Hong Kong protest a year after police clash Posted: 31 Aug 2020 11:13 AM PDT  Police in Hong Kong used pepper spray and made several arrests as dozens of protesters gathered Monday at a subway station to mark the anniversary of a violent clash last year that stirred accusations of police brutality during anti-government rallies. Protesters have accused police of indiscriminately attacking passengers on Aug. 31, 2019, while trying to arrest demonstrators at the station, where reporters and medics were refused entry after the clash.
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| Americans divided over armed civilians who flock to protests Posted: 31 Aug 2020 10:51 AM PDT  The scenes have become commonplace in 2020: People gathered at state Capitols with semiautomatic long guns strapped across their chests. Men roaming the streets with rifles during protests over racial inequality, punctuated by two people being killed in Wisconsin and another in Oregon over the weekend. The coronavirus pandemic, protests against racism and police killings, a rancorous election and some people's perception that cities are being overrun by violent mobs have brought about a markedly more aggressive stance by some gun owners and widened the divide over firearms in the U.S.
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| Here Is the Bloody Face of Putin’s New Crackdown Posted: 31 Aug 2020 10:17 AM PDT  MOSCOW—Yegor Zhukov is the face of a new generation of Putin opponents using social media as well as student rallies to stand up to the regime. On Sunday night, he was beaten up outside his home in Moscow hours after posting a YouTube video criticizing Putin. In a statement to the police, he said: "I have not suffered any property damage, but my face is broken."An image of the 22-year-old's bruised face, with bleeding lips and a swollen eye, has already gone viral online—an instant new symbol of Putin's latest crackdown.The country's leading opposition figure, Aleksey Navalny, was already comatose in a hospital bed in Berlin, fighting to regain consciousness after what German doctors describe as exposure to a poisonous substance whose effects are consistent with a nerve agent. This has been a summer of doom for Putin's opponents. The Russian president prevailed in a constitutional referendum in July, which is likely to keep him in power until 2036. Since then, Russians have watched bloody police crackdowns on protesters in Belarus, including alleged cases of torture and rape, ordered by Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian dictator now being aided and abetted by Putin. Last week, the country was horrified to wake up to the news of Navalny's poisoning in Siberia. The attack on Zhukov—who is really just a kid—only added to a widespread sense of repression. On Sunday, Zhukov posted a video on his YouTube channel, which has 227,000 subscribers, about a crackdown against Putin's critics at his university, the Higher School of Economics. The school used to be a bastion of free speech in a country where that is increasingly rare.Zhukov, who was arrested last year during anti-government protests and threatened with eight years in prison, was due to begin his studies on the Masters program this fall. The video was posted in response to university administrators who abruptly told him that he would not be enrolled this year, even though he had already been accepted and had paid to start the course.Almost 200,000 people online watched Zhukov say: "Clearly, no professional person, who is serious about political science, would describe Vladimir Putin's regime as effective." Within hours, the student opposition leader was badly beaten outside his house in Moscow by unknown assailants. In the two decades of the Putin era, Russia has seen crackdowns on the media, human rights defenders, and opposition parties. Universities are the latest target. Professors and students believe potential students are blacklisted from enrolling at the Higher School of Economics by the FSB, Russia's successor to the KGB. "Authorities must be aware of Russia's history: students have always united in political movements," former Higher School of Economics professor and founder of Transparency International, Yelena Pamfilova, told The Daily Beast. "There is a giant crisis and not only in Russia: people in trouble, like Zhukov, want to call police for help but there is no trust for police and that is very dangerous." Intellectuals have long used the Higher School of Economics as a safe space where progressive political and economic ideas could be formulated and shared. "Recently, all professors with skeptical attitudes toward the government have lost their contracts," Zhukov said. "Our opposition student media was deprived of its status as a student organization."Last summer, Zhukov, who is morer libertarian than liberal, joined protests triggered by numerous violations at Moscow City Council elections. He was arrested and charged with public appeals for extremism. He could have been sentenced to eight years in prison, but he became a cause célèbre with thousands of students, professors, and ordinary Russians protesting that the charges should be dropped. The case against him was eventually dismissed but the university took action to avoid a repeat of the controversy, and in January all students and university staff were banned from making any political declarations in public or engaging in political activity. Zhukov believes the university was forced to make these announcements by the authorities. "The government got scared of our unity, that we were together with the university's management. It is hard for me to believe that people who for years built 'the most liberal university of the country,' all of a sudden turned into the guardians of the government," he said. It is unclear who or what scared the university management into the sudden policy change, but some of its best professors stopped working, including Yulia Galyamina, a linguist and opposition leader. Police broke her jaw, cracked her teeth, and gave her a severe concussion when she took part in a protest. Yelena Lukyanova, another professor who left the university, said kicking out Zhukov had forced the crackdown into the public eye. "At least they told the man everything openly, while all we heard was some indirect hints," she wrote on social media. Lukyakova and three other former professors have started "the Free University," an independent educational project free of political pressure and censorship. "There will be no 'disloyal' students at the Higher School of Economics, we spoke about these horrible changes six months ago, and here is the nail in the coffin of my alma mater," wrote former student Roman Kiselyov-Augustus on Facebook. "They can ban you from studying for your political activity."Zhukov returned home on Monday still badly bruised, but doctors said there would be no lasting damage from the attack. From the hospital, he had repeated the favorite slogan of former Putin nemesis Boris Nemtsov: "Russia will be free." The Russian opposition leader was assassinated beneath the walls of the Kremlin in February 2015, when Zhukov was 18 years old. In neighboring Belarus, crowds are also demanding freedom after discredited elections. More than 100,000 protesters marched across the bridge in Minsk to the presidential residence, demanding Lukashenko's resignation on Sunday. The Kremlin had stayed quiet for the first couple of weeks of the protests, while hundreds of Belarusians were detained, many beaten and tortured. Putin has since signaled growing support for the Lukashenko regime. To demonstrate Moscow's backing, Putin called Lukashenko on Sunday with birthday greetings, while a crowd of protesters was outside chanting, "Happy birthday, Lukashenko, you are a rat!"Putin has also promised to send men from Moscow to help Lukashenko "halt extremist activity in the republic if an urgent need arises," a spokesman said.Veteran human rights defender and chairwoman of the Civic Assistance Committee, Svetlana Gannushkina, said the two autocrats from the former Soviet Union had been emboldened by President Donald Trump's calls to violently put down protests in the U.S. "Looking at Trump, they think it is OK to solve problems with the opposition outside of the rule of law," she said. "In Russia the first target for the Kremlin's reprisal is always the intelligentsia. Until recently, Zhukov's university, the Higher School of Economics, was the source of progressive liberal ideas. Clearly it was an unpleasant place for the authoritarian government." Read more at The Daily Beast.Get 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.
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| A Zoom Thanksgiving? Summer could give way to a bleaker fall Posted: 31 Aug 2020 10:11 AM PDT  As the Summer of COVID draws to a close, many experts fear an even bleaker fall and suggest that American families should start planning for Thanksgiving by Zoom. Because of the many uncertainties, public health scientists say it's easier to forecast the weather on Thanksgiving Day than to predict how the U.S. coronavirus crisis will play out this autumn. Here's one way it could go: As more schools open for in-person instruction and more college students return to campuses, small clusters of cases could widen into outbreaks in late September.
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| Global Oilseed Processing Industry Posted: 31 Aug 2020 10:02 AM PDT |
| Dominic Raab resisting plans to cut foreign aid budget to help pay Covid costs Posted: 31 Aug 2020 09:34 AM PDT  Dominic Raab is preparing to go head-to-head with Treasury officials who plan to cut the UK's foreign aid budget to pay for the cost of Covid-19, the Telegraph has learned. Mr Raab, the Foreign Secretary, officially takes over the UK's international development brief on Wednesday, following the Government's merger of the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development. He is expected to push back against leaked plans to abandon the UK's legal commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of gross national income on international aid, thought to be under consideration by Treasury officials. Mr Raab will reaffirm the Government's commitment to the 0.7 per cent figure, which is also a Conservative manifesto pledge, sources said. "Whoever is suggesting this doesn't know the mind of Foreign Secretary," a senior Whitehall source added. The suggestion that aid could be axed is thought to have come from Treasury civil servants, rather than from Rishi Sunak, a Government source suggested. Foreign Office officials are confident the Chancellor will not support the plans on Budget day in November. Boris Johnson is thought to be against any changes to the aid spend, but the proposed cut is one of a number of measures floated in recent days that suggest the Treasury is planning a major fundraising Budget in November. A rise in corporation tax and a raid on pensions have also been suggested as ways to reduce the large budget deficit left after the Government's emergency coronavirus measures. The annual aid spending target is set out in law, and could only be undone by a vote in Parliament. The 0.7 per cent figure is recommended by the United Nations, and the UK's legal commitment makes it one of the largest donors worldwide. Last year, the Britain spent more than £15bn on aid, including a £972m contribution to the EU development budget. The proposed abandonment of the aid pledge was criticised on Monday by Tory backbenchers, who suggested that it could weaken the UK's international standing. Tobias Elwood, a former defence minister, said: "It's shortsighted in failing to appreciate how well targeted aid can strengthen relationships and open up new markets - thus helping the Treasury. "Cutting aid also fuels instability which impacts on the UK. Let's think strategically." A report in the Sun newspaper suggested Treasury officials may have earmarked the money for Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence projects. But Sarah Champion, chair of Parliament's International Development Committee, said any money saved may be used by the Government as sweeteners in post-Brexit trade negotiations. "What concerns me most is a seeming lack of understanding of what aid is and how it benefits the UK," she told The Telegraph. Abandoning the 0.7 per cent pledge would lead to a "free for all", with "aid being used to prop up trade deals", she said. A Foreign Office source said: "We are committed to 0.7 per cent. It is Government policy and a manifesto commitment. There will be no change to that."
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| El Al flight LY971 to Abu Dhabi was no typical air journey Posted: 31 Aug 2020 09:28 AM PDT  From the Israeli captain's emotional greeting in Arabic upon takeoff in Tel Aviv, to the warm Emirati reception on the ground in scorching Abu Dhabi, it was obvious this was no typical flight. Monday's El Al flight LY971 marked the first-ever direct flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates, placing a significant stamp on this month's historic U.S.-brokered deal to normalize relations between the two nations. U.S. and Israeli flags adorned the tarmac at Ben-Gurion Airport as Israeli music played, and the word "peace" was emblazoned in English, Hebrew and Arabic above the cockpit window of the Boeing 737.
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| Appeals court keeps Flynn case alive, won't order dismissal Posted: 31 Aug 2020 09:19 AM PDT  A federal appeals court in Washington on Monday declined to order the dismissal of the Michael Flynn prosecution, permitting a judge to scrutinize the Justice Department's request to dismiss its case against the President Donald Trump's former national security adviser. The decision keeps the matter at least temporarily alive and rejects efforts by both Flynn's lawyers and the Justice Department to force the prosecution to be dropped without any further inquiry from the judge, who has months declined to dismiss it. Federal prosecutors moved in May to dismiss the prosecution even though Flynn had pleaded guilty and admitted lying to the FBI during the Russia investigation about his Russian contacts during the presidential transition period.
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| 74 migrants on broken down yacht rescued off western Greece Posted: 31 Aug 2020 09:07 AM PDT |
| UAE: UN court doesn't have jurisdiction in Qatar dispute Posted: 31 Aug 2020 08:12 AM PDT |
| They had 'dreams and plans': Detroit honors COVID-19 victims Posted: 31 Aug 2020 08:07 AM PDT  The city turned an island park into an extraordinary memorial garden Monday as cars packed with grieving families slowly traveled past hundreds of photos of Detroit residents who died from COVID-19. Mayor Mike Duggan declared a Detroit Memorial Day to honor the 1,500-plus city victims of the pandemic. Hearses escorted by police led solemn processions around Belle Isle Park in the Detroit River after bells rang across the region at 8:45 a.m.
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| Global Packaged Substation Industry Posted: 31 Aug 2020 08:02 AM PDT |
| Global Packaging Tape Printing Industry Posted: 31 Aug 2020 07:42 AM PDT |
| Teen siblings send cards thanking health care worker heroes Posted: 31 Aug 2020 07:00 AM PDT  Every day on every news channel, teenage siblings Prabhleen and Mantej Lamba watched the sacrifices of medical workers around the world who risk their physical and mental health on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. Then they've sent them to workers at four hospitals — each along with a $10 VISA gift card. The handwritten cards are often decorated with hearts, flowers, stars.
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| World Bank: Lebanon blast caused damage up to $4.6 billion Posted: 31 Aug 2020 06:32 AM PDT  The massive explosion in Beirut earlier this month that killed and injured thousands of people has caused up to $4.6 billion in physical damage, the World Bank said in a report released Monday. The Aug. 4 blast was caused by the explosion of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut since 2014. The blast was the most destructive single incident in Lebanon's history with thousands of buildings, including residential homes, hospitals, schools and museums suffering considerable damage.
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| KULR Technology Group to Participate in United Nations Working Group on Lithium Battery Classification Posted: 31 Aug 2020 06:25 AM PDT |
| NYPD to adopt guidelines for disciplining officer misconduct Posted: 31 Aug 2020 06:18 AM PDT  When the New York Police Department fired an officer last year for putting Eric Garner in a deadly chokehold, the officer's union argued that there was little, if any, precedent within the department's internal disciplinary system for such a penalty. Now, the nation's largest police department is spelling out potential ramifications for officer misconduct, unveiling on Monday a draft of a discipline matrix that will guide punishment decisions similarly to how sentencing guidelines are used in criminal cases. "We wanted to make it very, very clear that if you do certain things there are certain consequences," said Assistant Chief Matthew Pontillo, who helped develop the disciplinary policies with the help from department officials and outside agencies.
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| New focus for campaign: Will Biden or Trump keep you safer? Posted: 31 Aug 2020 06:01 AM PDT  The battle over who can keep Americans safe after recent deadly protests emerged Monday as the sharpest dividing line for the presidential campaign's final weeks as Joe Biden condemned the violence and President Donald Trump defended a supporter accused of fatally shooting two men. While the president blamed Biden, his Democratic foe, for siding with "anarchists," Biden, in his most direct attacks yet, accused Trump of causing the divisions that have ignited the violence.
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| Ailing Kenosha on edge as Trump visit looms amid tensions Posted: 31 Aug 2020 05:45 AM PDT  Some residents in Kenosha fear a planned visit by President Donald Trump after unrest over the police shooting of Jacob Blake may stir more emotions and cause more violence and destruction in the southeastern Wisconsin city after several days of peace. The city's mayor, and the state's governor, also said they believed Trump's visit comes at a bad time. Trump's visit comes as demonstrators are calling for the officer who shot Blake to be fired and face attempted murder charges, and more than a week after authorities say a 17-year-old from northern Illinois shot and killed two protesters.
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| Shift on Election Briefings Could Create an Information Gap for Voters Posted: 31 Aug 2020 05:00 AM PDT  The decision by the nation's top intelligence official to halt classified, in-person briefings to Congress about foreign interference in a presidential election that is just nine weeks away exposes the fundamental tension about who needs to know this information: just the president, or the voters whose election infrastructure, and minds, are the target of the hacking?The intelligence agencies are built to funnel a stream of secret findings to the president, his staff and the military to inform their actions.President Donald Trump has made it abundantly clear that he does not believe the overwhelming evidence, detailed in thousands of pages of investigative reports by the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee and indictments of Russian intelligence officers by his own Justice Department, that Moscow interfered in the 2016 election, and is at it again.One of the bitter lessons of the last election is that intelligence about hacking into voter registration systems and the spreading of disinformation must be handled in a very different way. Those defending against misinformation include state and city election officials; Facebook, Twitter and Google; and voters themselves, who need to know who is generating or amplifying the messages they see running across their screens.And if they do not understand the threat assessments, they will enter the most critical phase of the election -- those vulnerable weeks when everything counts and adversaries have a brief window to take their best shot -- without understanding the battle space.So it is no surprise that as soon as word leaked about the decision by the director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, to give Congress only written updates about the latest intelligence, former Vice President Joe Biden led the parade of accusations that Trump is paving the way for a second round of election interference."Nothing is more important than the security and integrity of our elections," Biden, the Democratic nominee, said in a statement on Saturday. "And we know that President Trump is unwilling to take action to protect them. That leaves Congress as the best defender of our democracy.""There can be only one conclusion: President Trump is hoping Vladimir Putin will once more boost his candidacy and cover his horrific failures to lead our country through the multiple crises we are facing," Biden added. "And he does not want the American people to know the steps Vladimir Putin is taking to help Trump get reelected or why Putin is eager to intervene, because Donald Trump's foreign policy has been a gift to the Kremlin."Whether or not Biden's accusation of malicious intent is correct, the White House is once again seeking to marginalize Congress and the committees that are charged with overseeing, and funding, the $80 billion intelligence enterprise.Intelligence officials sorting through the complexities of the 2020 intelligence note that the real danger arises from the swirl of conflicting signals about how the Russians, the Chinese and the Iranians are writing new playbooks for 2020.Interpreting their intentions -- and their feints -- would be hard enough in normal times.Ratcliffe, a Trump partisan who is new to his job, is discovering that he does not have a monopoly on the intelligence. Every week dozens of cybersecurity firms issue reports that sift through evidence of malware and disinformation.So Trump and Ratcliffe will not be stopping the flow of data about what foreign actors are up to, or whether they are succeeding. They will just be pulling the U.S. intelligence services back from publicly assessing what is important and what is background noise -- at the most critical moment in a highly contested, highly divisive race that the president himself declared a month ago will be "the most rigged election" in history.(Trump was referring to the surge in mail-in ballots, which he claimed, without evidence, that Russia and China could gain access to. Intelligence agencies last week contradicted those claims.)Until a few days ago, there seemed to be a movement inside the intelligence agencies to say a bit more about election threats -- but not much more. Under pressure from congressional Democrats, who demanded more public disclosures about Russian activity, intelligence officials this month issued a new public warning about Moscow's interference. But they also cautioned that China and Iran were coming in on Biden's behalf, even though their activities so far have been marginal at best.Meanwhile, the director of the National Security Agency, who also serves as commander of Cyber Command, the vast military operation designed to push back in the daily cyberconflict among nations, published a vaguely worded essay in Foreign Affairs magazine reminding American rivals that the United States was pursuing a new strategy of "persistent engagement" deep inside adversary computer networks -- but he was not specific about the threats."This is a new concept for the intelligence community," Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who led a lengthy congressional study into enhancing the nation's cyberdefenses, said in an interview on Saturday. "Their fallback position is always secret. And their second fallback position is that we only give this to the national security apparatus. Maybe we will give it to Congress. We will never give it to the American people unless someone demands it.""But I argue the American people are the decision-makers and they are entitled to the information and it has to be given to them in a form that is useful and thoroughly examined," he added, noting that "a cold written statement" does not meet that standard because those statements can be watered down to fit Trump's agenda.In fact, the challenge is that U.S. intelligence analysts do not write for the public. They employ code words understandable to those who read their reports, but which need translation for a public that is struggling to comprehend spear-phishing and ransomware and cannot agree on what constitutes disinformation. The result is that even the best-intentioned warnings often fail at their purpose.That is one reason Democrats are pressing to interrogate the analysts and force them to state their conclusions in plain terms. Ratcliffe insists that is too risky.In an appearance on Fox News on Sunday, Ratcliffe said he had decided to end in-person briefings on election security because, a few weeks ago, "within minutes of one of those briefings ending, a number of members of Congress went to a number of different publications and leaked classified information, again, for political purposes to create a narrative that simply isn't true: that somehow Russia is a greater national security threat than China."Ratcliffe insisted there was "a pandemic of information being leaked out of the intelligence community, and I'm going to take the measures to make sure that that stops."King disputes that any sources and methods were compromised, and several federal officials agreed.What Ratcliffe ignored was the risk ahead. If the complaint about the intelligence agencies under President Barack Obama in 2016 was that they had their radar off and never saw the Russians coming until it was too late, the concern in 2020 may be a deliberate failure to communicate.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Sudan, rebel alliance reach deal in ongoing peace efforts Posted: 31 Aug 2020 04:35 AM PDT |
| The Sudani power market is expected to register a CAGR of over 2% during the forecast period, 2020-2025 Posted: 31 Aug 2020 03:57 AM PDT |
| 2020 Watch: Can Trump ignore reality as Election Day nears? Posted: 31 Aug 2020 03:36 AM PDT  Both sides are pleased with their convention performances which offered dramatically different versions of reality to the American electorate. President Donald Trump is essentially asking voters to judge him based on pre-pandemic America. Joe Biden is asking voters to judge the incumbent on conditions as they actually exist, with the pandemic's death toll mounting, the economy struggling and racial tensions again exploding.
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| Taliban tell French and Australians to keep out of militant prisoner release Posted: 31 Aug 2020 03:33 AM PDT  The Taliban have rejected Western objections to a prisoner swap of militant fighters who killed international troops, saying Afghanistan's international backers should not interfere. Plans to free convicted Taliban fighters who killed French and Australian nationals, as part of a trust-building swap to usher in peace talks, have caused anger in Paris and Canberra. Their objections are reported to have slowed the release of the prisoners by both sides, delaying the start of official talks between the insurgent movement and the Afghan government. The Taliban's lead negotiator told the Telegraph the French and Australian government should not interfere and accused the Afghan government of using the objections to break the detainee deal. "France and Australia have no right to interfere in Afghanistan's internal issues," Sher Mohammed Abas Stanekzai, the Taliban's lead negotiator, told the Telegraph. "These soldiers are our lions. "These might have killed a few soldiers but the French and Australians killed hundreds of our Afghans. This is just an excuse. We are very serious about prisoners and we call on the USA to release the prisoners as soon as possible". February's troop withdrawal deal with Washington outlined the turning loose of 5,000 Taliban fighters in exchange for 1,000 government prisoners. The swap has recently stalled over the last 320 militants, including some sentenced for notorious suicide bombings and atrocities against Afghan civilians, and a handful accused of killing foreign troops and civilians. The Taliban has said talks with Kabul to find a political settlement to the conflict will not go ahead until the release is complete. Those on the list for release are reported to include the killers of Bettina Goislard, a French United Nations worker murdered in 2003, as well as militants involved in the killing of several French soldiers. The French government has said it "strongly opposes the release of individuals sentenced for crimes against French nationals". Another prisoner due for release is a rogue Afghan soldier called Hekmatullah who shot dead three Australian soldiers, L/Cpl Stjepan Milosevic, Spr James Martin and Pte Robert Poate in 2012. Scott Morrison, Australia's prime minister, has said Hekmatullah should never be released. Three Afghans accused linked to insider attacks on US troops are also reported to be among those up for release, though Washington in its eagerness to push a talks process has not publicly objected. The UK's Foreign Office has refused to say if any are accused of killing British nationals. Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president, earlier this month held a grand council to seek a mandate for the release of the final 400 prisoners. He has said while they still pose a threat, their freedom is the cost of peace. Yet after the approval, the releases halted again amid international objections and an Afghan government demand that 20 army commandos are freed. Ms Goislard's family have said news of her killers' release came "like a slap across the face". Her younger sister, Julie, said the Goislard family asked the Afghan government to spare the lives of Zia Ahmad and Abdul Nabi, after they were sentenced to death in 2004. "We did that because Bettina was against the death penalty. But we never envisaged that they could be set free. It's the wheeling and dealing between the Americans and the Taliban that shocks us the most. The memory of the victims is being trampled on for the sake of an agreement. We feel horribly alone since we got this news. I just don't understand." The top peace negotiator for the Afghan government, Abdullah Abdullah, on Thursday said talks between the warring sides would begin in early September, though made no mention of releasing the final prisoners. Mohammad Hanif Atmar, acting foreign minister, also said major hurdles including the release of prisoners from both sides were not far from resolution. "It seems that most of the hurdles have been either removed or we are in the process of building consensus on a solution. I am cautiously optimistic that this will not be a further hurdle on the way," he said during an online seminar hosted by Washington-based United States Institute of Peace.
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| Israeli plane makes history with flight to UAE Posted: 31 Aug 2020 03:05 AM PDT  An Israeli airliner made a historic first flight from Tel Aviv to the United Arab Emirates on Monday in order to emphasise the new diplomatic ties between the two countries. The El Al Boeing 737 – with the word "peace" printed in Arabic, English and Hebrew above the cockpit – flew from Tel Aviv to the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, with a joint delegation of American and Israeli diplomats aboard, including Jared Kushner , President Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor. The Israeli passenger jet also made history by flying over Saudi Arabia, one of many countries that continues a historic boycott of Israel that followed the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. "This is the first time this has ever happened," Mr Kushner said, shortly after landing in Abu Dhabi on Monday afternoon. "I would like to thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for making that possible." "While this is a historic flight, we hope that it will start an even more historic journey in the Middle East and beyond," he added. "This is a very hopeful time." Last month, the UAE said it would become only the third Middle Eastern country to normalise relations with Israel, in a deal motivated by a common hostility to Iran. The move has been condemned as a "betrayal" by the Palestinian leadership, however. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the flight as "peace for peace" and sent a message to the plane while it was flying through Saudi airspace. Israel's National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat, was also aboard the flight with his American counterpart, Robert O'Brien. Mr Kushner said that this week's visit could bring "previously unthinkable" economic, security ties and tourism in the region and claimed that "the stage is set" for other Arab countries to follow suit by normalising relations with Israel.
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| 10 things you need to know today: August 31, 2020 Posted: 31 Aug 2020 03:04 AM PDT |
| Saudi-led coalition says it foiled rebel attacks by air, sea Posted: 31 Aug 2020 02:16 AM PDT |
| Global Polycarbonate Sheets Industry Posted: 31 Aug 2020 02:02 AM PDT |
| Take It From Eastern Europe: Now Is Not the Time to Go Soft on Russia Posted: 31 Aug 2020 01:30 AM PDT |
| First direct Israel-UAE flight lands in Abu Dhabi amid deal Posted: 31 Aug 2020 01:22 AM PDT  A Star of David-adorned El Al plane flew from Israel to the United Arab Emirates on Monday, carrying a high-ranking American and Israeli delegation to Abu Dhabi in the first-ever direct commercial passenger flight between the two countries. The Israeli flag carrier's flight marked the implementation of the historic U.S.-brokered deal to normalize relations between the two nations and solidifies the long-clandestine ties between them that have evolved over years of shared enmity toward Iran. With the U.S. as matchmaker, Israel and the Emirates agreed earlier this month to work toward normalization, which would make it the third Arab nation to have full relations with Israel, after Egypt and Jordan.
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| Global Portable Analytical Instruments Industry Posted: 31 Aug 2020 01:22 AM PDT |
| Diplomat tapped to be PM vows reforms in crisis-hit Lebanon Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:22 AM PDT  Lebanon's prime minister-designate on Monday called for a new government to be formed "in record time," pledging to speed up the investigation into the massive Beirut explosion and implement reforms after winning the backing of major parties in the crisis-hit country. Mustapha Adib, Lebanon's ambassador to Germany, spoke to reporters shortly after he was appointed by the president to form a new government, after he secured 90 votes among the legislators in the 128-member parliament. The breakthrough came hours ahead of French President Emmanuel Macron's arrival for a two day-visit, during which he is expected to press Lebanese officials to formulate a new political pact to lift the country out of its multiple crises.
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| Turning 100: Lebanon, a nation branded by upheaval, crises Posted: 30 Aug 2020 11:45 PM PDT  It was a century ago on Sept. 1, 1920, that a French general, Henri Gouraud, stood on the porch of a Beirut palace surrounded by local politicians and religious leaders and declared the State of Greater Lebanon — the precursor of the modern state of Lebanon. The current French president, Emmanuel Macron, is visiting Lebanon to mark the occasion, 100 years later. Lebanon has been hit by a series of catastrophes, including a financial crash.
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| Belarus opposition leader to address UN Security Council - spokesman Posted: 30 Aug 2020 11:41 PM PDT |
| Israeli and U.S. officials fly to UAE to cement 'normalisation' deal Posted: 30 Aug 2020 11:00 PM PDT |
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