| PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Oct. 16 Posted: 15 Oct 2020 05:50 PM PDT |
| UN aid chief: Funding shortage cuts aid to 4 million Yemenis Posted: 15 Oct 2020 04:48 PM PDT |
| UNPD highlights Honduras social program Posted: 15 Oct 2020 04:45 PM PDT  The Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Richard Barathe, highlighted that Bono Único, a social program of Honduras Government to provide assistance to people affected in their income by the covid-19 pandemic, is a pioneering initiative that brings a great deal of support in the social expenditure to benefit the most vulnerable sectors of the country and it is an example to be replicated internationally.
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| Africa's week in pictures: 9-15 October 2020 Posted: 15 Oct 2020 04:38 PM PDT  A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent and beyond.
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| EU leaders tell London to budge on post-Brexit deal, drawing UK anger Posted: 15 Oct 2020 03:47 PM PDT  European leaders on Thursday demanded Britain urgently give ground on fair trade rules to unblock stalled post-Brexit negotiations, angering London and putting the fate of the talks in jeopardy.
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| Evergrande: No, Xi Isn’t Into Property Tycoons Posted: 15 Oct 2020 03:00 PM PDT |
| Iranian CEO sentenced for conspiracy to violate US sanctions Posted: 15 Oct 2020 02:48 PM PDT |
| AP FACT CHECK: Rhetoric from Trump, Biden in the non-debate Posted: 15 Oct 2020 02:45 PM PDT  President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden faced inquisitive voters on separate stages in different cities Thursday night in a substitute for the debate that was meant to be. The Biden campaign at the time also announced it would stop running negative ads, with the candidate tweeting that "this cannot be a partisan moment" after the news that Trump was going to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment of his coronavirus infection.
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| Black man's family views graphic video of in-custody death Posted: 15 Oct 2020 02:31 PM PDT  Family members viewed long-secret body-camera video this week of a Black man who died in Louisiana State Police custody, their attorney calling it damning footage that shows troopers choking and beating the man, repeatedly jolting him with stun guns and dragging him face-down across the pavement. Ronald Greene's mother and sister wailed "like they were at a funeral" Wednesday after meeting with Gov. John Bel Edwards and watching a half-hour of the footage of the May 2019 encounter that is now the subject of a federal civil rights investigation, their attorney told The Associated Press. "This family has been lied to the entire time about what happened," said civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, who also viewed the footage.
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| Scramble to get people counted as 2020 census winds down Posted: 15 Oct 2020 12:47 PM PDT  Census advocates across the nation made last-ditch efforts Thursday to get as many households to answer the 2020 census, which has been challenged by a pandemic, natural disasters, court fights and the Trump administration's push to have it end a month earlier than planned. The tally was mandated to halt at 11:59 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time on Thursday — 5:59 a.m. Friday for people living on the East Coast — but questions lingered about deadlines and who gets counted when congressional seats are allotted. Advocates are particularly worried that minorities, and people in rural and tribal areas, are going to be missed due to the rushed ending of the count, resulting in less federal funding for those communities and perhaps fewer congressional seats and electoral votes for states that have large minority populations.
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| Nicola Sturgeon 'shamelessly' wooing EU leaders to her cause with column in German newspaper Posted: 15 Oct 2020 12:16 PM PDT  Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of trying to "shamelessly flog Scottish independence" to the EU after wooing the bloc in a German newspaper article. Writing in Die Welt, a national daily broadsheet, the First Minister argued there was no contradiction between her "stated desire for solidarity" with the European Union and her dream of leaving the UK. She said the UK Government is "determined to turn its back on cooperation, consensus and solidarity" but the EU was a "partnership of equals where decisions require consent and often unanimity from members." Ms Sturgeon also launched an outspoken attack on the UK Government's Brexit negotiating stance, accusing it of a "utterly reckless" determination to leave without a deal. She said its approach runs "entirely counter to the Scottish Government's vision for our country" and her government had concluded that "the best future for our country is as an independent nation within the EU." Her article appeared the day after an opinion poll showed support for independence at a record 58 per cent, prompting the SNP to claim that separation was Scots' "settled will." But, although she emphasised she did not want a border in Ireland, Ms Sturgeon did not address warnings that a separate Scotland in the EU with the UK outside the bloc would require a border with England. The article also did not mention Scotland's yawning public spending deficit even before the pandemic struck. It stood at 8.6 per cent of GDP last year - nearly three times the 3 per cent required for EU membership.
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| EU targets Putin ally accused of US poll interference Posted: 15 Oct 2020 11:40 AM PDT |
| Forecasters: Drought more likely than blizzards this winter Posted: 15 Oct 2020 11:32 AM PDT  Don't expect much of a winter wallop this year, except for the pain of worsening drought, U.S. government forecasters said Thursday. Two-thirds of the United States should get a warmer than normal winter, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted. Only Washington, northern Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas and northwestern Minnesota, will get a colder than normal winter, forecasters said.
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| Georgia's McBath seeks 2nd win in once-famed GOP district Posted: 15 Oct 2020 11:31 AM PDT  Karen Handel is looking for Republicans to mobilize in Georgia's 6th District, once an incubator of high-profile Republicans. The rematch in the district, covering parts of Cobb, Fulton and DeKalb counties, is being fought on a nationalized stage, with arguments about health care, abortion, support for police and gun control. It's a seat held by Newt Gingrich when he was House speaker, Johnny Isakson before he became a U.S. senator, and Tom Price before he became U.S. Health and Human Services secretary.
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| Rethinking the holidays: Traditions, change are on the table Posted: 15 Oct 2020 11:27 AM PDT  Nina Bryant will cook a feast for Thanksgiving this year, as always. This time, because of the pandemic, she'll do it all several days before Thanksgiving, then ship portions from her home in Florida to her family around the country. Since she can't welcome the friends she'd normally invite, she'll pack ample portions in gift bags with handwritten notes, then place the bags on her stoop for contactless pickup on Thanksgiving Day.
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| 'Crystal clear' Brexit deal with EU needed: ECB chief Posted: 15 Oct 2020 11:04 AM PDT  European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said Thursday that the high stakes for the post-Brexit economy make it likely Britain and the European Union eventually will reach a deal on the breakup.
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| European Union sanctions six Putin allies over poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny Posted: 15 Oct 2020 10:53 AM PDT  The European Union has taken action against several members of Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle in response to the poisoning of well-known Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. The EU and Britain on Thursday announced strict sanctions against some of the highest-ranked officials in Russia — including Aleksandr Bortnikov, the leader of Russia's domestic spy agency; Sergie Kiriyenko, first deputy chief of staff in the presidential administration; and Andrei Yarin, head of the presidential administration's domestic policy doctorate.
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| The Latest: Trump won't say to whom he may owe money Posted: 15 Oct 2020 10:48 AM PDT  President Donald Trump is acknowledging he may owe $400 million as part of his business dealings, but he's not saying to whom he owes money. Trump on Thursday night was pressed on a New York Times report citing tax returns showing he has business debts exceeding $400 million. The president suggested repeatedly Thursday night that he would be willing to release details about his debts, but it's unclear when that might happen.
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| Sticking points as post-Brexit talks heat up Posted: 15 Oct 2020 10:47 AM PDT  Discussions between Britain and Europe on the post-Brexit trade relationship are reaching a critical juncture with just over two months to go before the end of the transition period.
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| Harris highlights stakes of election in Barrett hearings Posted: 15 Oct 2020 10:18 AM PDT  Unable to block President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Sen. Kamala Harris used three days of confirmation hearings this week to remind voters of the stakes of the Nov. 3 election and how Democratic nominee Joe Biden would govern differently if he were in the White House. The Senate Judiciary Committee's consideration of Judge Amy Coney Barrett held extra weight for Harris, a California senator who is both a committee member and Biden's running mate. Known for her tough questioning of Trump's nominees, Harris took a lower key approach and avoided sparring matches with Republicans.
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| Israeli parliament formally approves UAE normalization deal Posted: 15 Oct 2020 10:12 AM PDT  Israel's parliament on Thursday voted overwhelmingly in favor of formally ratifying the country's historic agreement normalizing diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates. Israel and the UAE announced the U.S.-brokered agreement in August, and signed a deal in a White House ceremony last month. The UAE has become just the third Arab country to establish official ties with Israel, after Egypt and Jordan, and the first to do so in a quarter century.
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| Donald Trump's Latest Thoughts On COVID-19 Vaccines, Social Media, China And More Posted: 15 Oct 2020 10:05 AM PDT  U.S. President Donald Trump appeared on Fox Business with Stuart Varney for an hour Thursday morning to share his thoughts on several topics.Congress continues to be at a stalemate over a potential stimulus offer. Trump said he would raise the stimulus offer above $1.8 trillion.Trump said he directed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to offer above the $1.8 trillion amount, but no deal has been reached.Any amount above $1.8 trillion would go "directly to the people" according to Trump.Trump On COVID-19: President Trump told viewers he's tested a lot, though not every day, for COVID-19.Trump was treated with an antibody treatment from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: REGN) when he was hospitalized with the coronavirus: "Regeneron is a great company. They really helped me."Trump doubled down on prior comments about Regeneron's treatment and once again said, "We're gonna be providing Regeneron at no cost" to Americans.Companies that are working on COVID-19 vaccines have been hesitant to back the timeline from Trump of getting a vaccine approved before the election. Trump claimed during the interview that Americans will have a vaccine before Christmas.Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA) CEO Stephane Bancel has said the company can't apply for emergency use authorization until Nov. 25.Several COVID-19 treatments in trials have faced setbacks with pauses to Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) and a halt for AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN).See Also: Facebook, Twitter Spark Political Row Over Limiting New York Post Story On Joe BidenTrump on Social Media: A report from the New York Post over Hunter Biden was blocked on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) and Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) this week. The block sparked outrage and led to allegations of the social media companies having political bias."We are looking at a lot of things," Trump said when asked about regulating the social media giants.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey are due to appear before the Senate Commerce Committee to testify on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act on Oct. 28\. Trump has called for the repeal of Section 230.Trump referred to Facebook and Twitter as the "third arm of the Democratic National Committee."Trump on Joe Biden, Tax Cuts: Trump argued that former Vice President Joe Biden will hurt the economy by getting rid of tax cuts that Trump put in place. He then told viewers he may consider bringing the tax rate down from 21% to 20%.Trump on China: Tension between the United States and China continue to escalate. When asked about the relations between the countries, Trump appeared disinterested in reaching out to China: "I have not spoken to [Xi Jinping] in a while because I don't want to speak to him."Trump would not confirm if Jinping had reached out.See more from Benzinga * Options Trades For This Crazy Market: Get Benzinga Options to Follow High-Conviction Trade Ideas * IPO Outlook: Solar Power Company Array Technologies, Chinese Retailer Miniso Lead Possible 9 IPO Week * Ligand: The Small Cap Powering Gilead's Remdesivir(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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| Syria Kurds free hundreds of IS militants as part of amnesty Posted: 15 Oct 2020 10:05 AM PDT |
| EU's Barnier: ready for Brexit talks "until last possible day" Posted: 15 Oct 2020 09:56 AM PDT |
| End Sars: Nigerian army warning amid anti-police brutality protests Posted: 15 Oct 2020 09:25 AM PDT  The statement follows a week of protests against police brutality which have shaken the country.
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| Israel eases some lockdown measures as virus cases decline Posted: 15 Oct 2020 09:02 AM PDT  Israel decided on Thursday to relax some of the restrictions imposed during a monthlong nationwide lockdown that was meant to drive down a raging coronavirus outbreak. Israel imposed a second nationwide lockdown on Sept. 18 as the country was seeing surging case numbers, shutting down schools, restaurants and hotels, among other businesses, and at the time it had one of the world's worst outbreaks, measured for its population of 9 million people.
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| Libya detains notorious people smuggler Abd al-Rahman al-Milad Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:50 AM PDT  Abd al-Rahman al-Milad was sanctioned by the UN in 2018 for violence against migrants in Libya.
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| Even When We Have a COVID-19 Vaccine, The Rollout Will Take Years Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:20 AM PDT  How long will it take to protect the entire world from the coronavirus? Only now is it becoming clear that, in the best-case scenario, it will take at least 18 months, beginning early in 2021, for vaccines to reach every part of the world where they are urgently needed.One measure of the magnitude of the task is that to deliver a single dose of vaccine to the world population of 7.8 billion people would take the equivalent of 8,000 flights by the world's largest cargo airplane, the Boeing 747.The whole program depends on whether there will be enough airplanes to deliver the vaccine doses—and whether the will and means exist to build a global network able to meet the exacting standards required to keep vials of vaccine at critical temperatures, from when they leave the manufacturer to when they finally reach the places where they will be administered, no matter how far and remote.The Big COVID Vaccine Challenge Is Keeping Them Super-ColdThis infrastructure involves special handling via dedicated warehouses, moving through airports where customs and border controls, a frequent choke point, must allow fast tracking, and similarly secure and dedicated ground transportation.Make no mistake, this is truly a moonshot moment. A new global airlift for life-saving meds has to be built at a speed that has never before been accomplished. And, once more, the planning has exposed significant disparities in the resources of advanced nations and those of the underdeveloped world.In North America, Europe, Russia, China and Southeast Asia, the means exist to rapidly ramp up supply chains and safely deliver vaccines to large populations during 2021.In Africa, Central and South America and the Indian subcontinent, critical infrastructure will have to be created from scratch. (India has no air cargo infrastructure equal to the needs of its 1.35 billion population.)And experts warn that even in the developed world, there are serious challenges to overcome.At the heart of these challenges is the cold chain. This is an already well-established system that ensures that vaccines and other temperature-critical medications are maintained at precise temperatures for the entire time they spend in transit, no matter if the journey takes many days and passes through great variations in climate and handling through airports and ground delivery.The cold chain was initially created because vaccines to treat smallpox, measles and ebola needed to move through it in order to safely and swiftly get where they were needed—indeed, the world eradication of smallpox would not have been possible without it.This was one of the greatest leaps ever in global infrastructure in the cause of preventing needless deaths, but it is dwarfed by what confronts a world desperate to gain control of the coronavirus pandemic. The cold chain will have to be hugely expanded.COVAX, an alliance of vaccine producers and international health agencies created to handle the pandemic, aims to produce two billion doses by the end of 2021. This assumes that all nine of the present vaccines being developed and tested in the COVAX program will prove safe and effective. (Six of them are part of the U.S. government's $6 billion Operation Warp Speed, and two of them are being developed in China.)Expecting instant success of all of the vaccines is already a roll of the dice. As The Daily Beast has reported, the vaccines have been developed at an unprecedented speed, their long-term effects are still unknown, and testing is far from complete.And the problem for the cold chain is that there are basically two groups of vaccines in the pipeline. One group has to be kept in very deep freeze, at a temperature of minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit, the other at between 35 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit.This means that vaccines requiring the deep freeze will likely be confined to parts of the world where such demanding standards of the cold chain can be assured, while the others get directed to places where the handling and distribution systems will be less sophisticated and, in many cases, don't even exist yet.Glyn Hughes, global head of cargo at the International Air Transport Association, IATA, which represents all the world's airlines, is closely involved in planning the massive airlift. He told The Daily Beast:"There is no time to be lost. In many of the countries in Africa, Central America and South America you cannot rely on the same infrastructure for a temperature-controlled environment as you can in the developed world. For them, to create what is needed will probably require a combination of commercial and military resources."Another gap in the coverage would be the inability to establish secure cold chain infrastructure in "black hole" nations like Venezuela, Yemen, Syria and Iraq, where either war or endemic corruption make it near impossible to carry out safe delivery and distribution.And there is another specter to watch out for. In countries like Nicaragua, where Daniel Ortega has been the strongman since 2007, or the Philippines, where Rodrigo Duterte rules with an equally iron grip, there is little doubt that the ruling juntas would get priority and perhaps even withhold the vaccines from their opponents, which would amount to biological warfare.There is also disagreement among the planners about how to phase deliveries of the vaccines, particularly if shortages occur because some vaccines fail to make it through testing.Some argue that achieving world coverage would happen faster if, at first, only enough vaccines to cover 20 percent of the population of each country were delivered.Others believe that it is more efficient to give full coverage to each country rather than to return later to serve the 80 percent missed in the first wave.Even at the optimistic rate of administering a million doses a day it would take 83 days (almost three months) to cover the German population, a country with a highly developed medical infrastructure.All of this highlights the very real risk of confusing priorities with privilege. Who would be included if only one fifth of the people could be vaccinated? Inevitably such a system would favor elites, like politicians, the wealthy, the military and law enforcement. Would frontline medical staff be included? Would those most at risk because of either their health or their age have to wait?Experts at international relief agencies like Gavi—created in 2000 to ensure that children get the vaccines they need and credited with having saved the lives of 20 million children—worry that there will be an unseemly stampede in the rich world to get the vaccines while the poor world, with its weak infrastructure, gets left behind.In addition to these challenges, there may not be enough space on airplanes to carry the vaccines.There is a world shortage of air cargo capacity. This is due partly to the grounding of thousands of passenger airplanes that would normally carry cargo (alongside passengers' luggage) in their belly holds, and partly to the pandemic causing millions of people to shop online—and this, in turn, has swollen the competition for air cargo space on the planes that remain in the skies.And yet the irony is that thousands of widebody jets that could be adapted for this new mission are parked at airports and airfields all over the world for lack of passengers.Getting them back into the air won't be easy, and someone has to pony up the money to do it because most international airlines are broke. As Hughes points out, "It's better to have airplanes flying than grounded, where maintaining them in the required condition is costly."But airplanes brought back specifically for the airlift would have to fly with empty cabins.Early in the pandemic, when there was an urgent need to fly PPE and hospital equipment where it was needed, cabins were used—supplies were strapped to seats and even stuffed into overhead bins.But passenger cabin climates can't be adapted to the needs of the cold chain. Vaccines will have to go into special temperature-controlled containers in the belly holds—and, even then, it will take time to provide enough of those containers.New Coronavirus Vaccine Delay Shows There's No 'Magic Bullet'Alexandre de Juniac, CEO of IATA, has called the vaccine airlift "the mission of the century."However, when the readers of the industry publication Air Cargo News were polled on their expectations of the airlift, only 11 percent of them felt that the industry was ready to go.One glaring problem is the absence of a single coordinating international body able to attack all the impediments—technical, regulatory, diplomatic and cultural—that lie in the path of such an ambitious program.It might seem that the International Civil Aviation Organization, the ICAO, a United Nations body, would be such a body because it is the only one that directly links commercial aviation to the governments of 193 nations—that includes every nation that has an airline.However, the ICAO has frequently proved unable to use diplomacy effectively with such a variety of political regimes to wrangle and has become notoriously bureaucratic and sclerotic. When asked by The Daily Beast about its role, a spokesman took most of an email to explain what they can't do rather than what they can and wrapped up by saying, "The planning and allocating of air cargo capacity will therefore continue to be a management decision in the airlines concerned."The IATA is much more proactive but they, too, have limited leverage with the airlines. They can't make the airlines spend money they don't have, and the total cost of the airlift is expected to be north of $18 billion.They are, for example, hoping that new air corridors between continents, nations and cities would get passengers back in the air and, at the same time, generate a lot more space for vaccines in the belly cargo.The air corridors are designed to make passengers feel safe during the pandemic. That requires all the airports to be compliant with new health and safety standards—something that, so far, the U.S. government has conspicuously failed to support. Moreover, this plan will become harder to achieve as infection rates spike again, as they are in Europe.The expanded cold chain will need a wide reach to include all the places where the nine candidate vaccines are being developed: the U.S., U.K.,France, Austria, China, Hong Kong and Australia.For sure, an enormous load will fall on the world's handful of freight-only carriers. Fedex, UPS and DHL are all upping their game and will underpin the resources of Project Warp Speed in America.Isabel Rollison, a spokesperson for Fedex, told The Daily Beast: "We have added more than 10 secure cold chain facilities across our global network. At present we have more than 90 cold chain facilities across the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe."To complement our existing cold chain capabilities in support of the vaccine distribution we are exploring a combination of solutions, including stationary freezers, temperature-controlled ocean containers and refrigerated trailers."And China, the origin of the pandemic, is creating a Fedex clone. Its airlines found it hard to handle the surge of demand for PPE, ventilators and drugs in the early stages of the crisis, trying to meet both its own national needs and strenuous demands for help from abroad.Now the State Council, the Communist Party's powerful central planning force, has demanded the consolidation of the country's air cargo carriers. The largest of those has a fleet of only 58 freighters. Fedex alone has a fleet of 378 widebodies. The Chinese airlines are being told to follow the Fedex model and integrate their infrastructure with ground services.Hughes believes that once the immediate urgency has passed the dependency on airlifts will be eased by adding—as Fedex is obviously already planning—ocean shipping with cold-chain-compliant containers for longer-term readiness.Ultimately, for the airlines, if they bring off this mammoth airlift, we could see another case of never letting a good crisis go to waste (the most spectacular example being Amazon.). The expanded cold chain infrastructure will be permanent. The coronavirus vaccine will likely become part of an annual regimen like flu shots. Other health emergencies will need the same rapid response. Air cargo is becoming a goldmine. Just look at the Fedex stock price. It has more than doubled over the last six months.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. 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| Months into pandemic, Iran sees worst wave of virus deaths Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:15 AM PDT  Iran's capital has run out of intensive care beds as the country confronts a new surge of infections that is filling hospitals and cemeteries alike. The single-day death toll hit a record high three times this week. Eight months after the pandemic first stormed Iran, pummeling its already weakened economy and sickening officials at the highest levels of its government, authorities have not been able to prevent its spread.
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| NetJets Announces Official Worldwide Sustainability Program Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:15 AM PDT |
| EU agrees to extend Brexit trade talks, steps up no-deal preparations Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:06 AM PDT |
| RPT-EU agrees to extend Brexit trade talks, steps up no-deal preparations Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:05 AM PDT |
| CIVC 2020 Held at Western (Chongqing) Science City from Oct. 22 to 24 Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:00 AM PDT  On January 3, 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping presided the sixth meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, in which he promoted the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle. He clarified the requirements for advancing scientific and technological innovation in the Chengdu-Chongqing area and stressed "the collaborative construction of a Western Science City with the 'One City with Multiple Parks' model" for the purpose "to turn the Chengdu-Chongqing area into a center for scientific and technological innovation of national influence". Chongqing is putting efforts into the innovation of financial products and services, actively developing fintech, and accelerating the construction of an inland international financial hub. Chongqing International Venture Conference (CIVC) 2020 is held exactly to serve the purposes of gathering more innovation resources from home and abroad and stimulating the vitality of innovation and entrepreneurship.
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| Trump has not spoken with Chinese President Xi in a while, does not want to Posted: 15 Oct 2020 07:37 AM PDT |
| UK and EU impose sanctions on Putin inner circle over Navalny poisoning Posted: 15 Oct 2020 07:31 AM PDT  The UK is to enforce European Union sanctions against members of Vladimir Putin's inner circle over the poisoning of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the Foreign Office said. The announcement came hours after the EU imposed asset freezes and travel bans on six senior Russian officials, including Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the FSB intelligence service, and two deputy defence ministers. Its also imposed sanctions on a chemical research institute in Moscow involved in the development of the nerve agent Novichok, which is believed to have been used in the attempted assassination of Mr Navalny. "Together with our international partners, we are sanctioning those responsible for the criminal poisoning of Alexey Navalny," Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, said. "Any use of chemical weapons by the Russian state violates international law. We are determined to hold those responsible to account."
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| AJC Appalled by October 18 End of Iranian Arms Embargo Posted: 15 Oct 2020 07:21 AM PDT  AJC Appalled by October 18 End of Iranian Arms EmbargoPR NewswireNEW YORK, Oct. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- American Jewish Committee, criticizing the UN Security Council's failure to extend the international arms embargo on Iran, proclaimed Sunday, October 18, as "a profoundly sad and dangerous day for global security.
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| Man shelters 300 dogs from Hurricane Delta in Mexico home Posted: 15 Oct 2020 07:03 AM PDT  As the dangerous Hurricane Delta closed in on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Ricardo Pimentel opened his home — to about 300 dogs. On a recent day, Clarita, a friendly, long-horned cow who loves to be petted by visitors, roamed inside a corral where a sign read: "Leave footprints of kindness for others to follow."
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| AP-NORC poll: Americans critical of Trump handling of virus Posted: 15 Oct 2020 07:00 AM PDT  Less than three weeks from Election Day, majorities of Americans are highly critical of President Donald Trump's handling of both the coronavirus pandemic and his own illness, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The survey also shows that few Americans have high levels of trust in the information the White House has released about Trump's health. Initial accounts of the president's condition were murky and contradictory, and the White House is still refusing to say when the president last tested negative for COVID-19 before his infection became public.
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| U.S. citizens released by Iran-backed militia in Yemen Posted: 15 Oct 2020 04:03 AM PDT  Two United States citizens and the remains of a third have been released by Iran-backed militants in Yemen, U.S. officials have said. American citizens Sandra Loli and Mikael Gidada were released from Houthi custody Wednesday, National Security Advisor Robert C. O'Brien said in a statement. "We send our condolences to the family of Bilal Fateen whose remains will be repatriated as well," he added, in an apparent reference to the dead U.S. citizen.
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| Biden campaign flips COVID-19 threat into new Trump contrast Posted: 15 Oct 2020 06:50 AM PDT  Confronted with its first known coronavirus scare, Joe Biden's presidential campaign turned the threat into another contrast with President Donald Trump in the closing weeks of a general election battle dominated by how the Republican incumbent has handled the pandemic and his own COVID-19 diagnosis. According to Biden's campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, the campaign learned late Wednesday that two people associated with the operation had tested positive for the coronavirus. Before the end of the day, the campaign announced a third positive case linked to Biden's campaign plane and up-to-date negative COVID-19 tests for Biden and Harris, along with medical experts' explanations of why they believed Biden was never exposed and wouldn't have to cancel upcoming travel.
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| Israel OKs more than 3,000 West Bank settlement homes Posted: 15 Oct 2020 06:48 AM PDT  Israel on Thursday pressed forward on plans for more than 3,000 West Bank settlement homes, making 2020 one of the most prolific years for settlement building, according to a settlement watchdog group. Thursday's approvals, along with more than 2,000 new homes approved a day earlier, are part of a building boom that has gained steam during the presidency of Donald Trump. It also comes months after Israel promised to put on hold plans to annex parts of the West Bank in exchange for a U.S.-brokered normalization deal with the United Arab Emirates.
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| Libya says human trafficker sanctioned by UN arrested Posted: 15 Oct 2020 06:44 AM PDT |
| Pandemic driving children back to work, jeopardizing gains Posted: 15 Oct 2020 06:13 AM PDT  The coronavirus pandemic is threatening the future of a generation of the world's children, depriving them of schooling and sending them to work. Across the developing world, two decades of gains against child labor are eroding. With classrooms shuttered and parents losing their jobs, children are trading their ABC's for the D of drudgery: Reading, writing and times tables are giving way to sweat, blisters and fading hopes for a better life.
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| Victory Square Technologies Portfolio Company Establishes Distribution Network in Hong Kong, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, & Singapore for Safetest Covid-19 Testing Kits Posted: 15 Oct 2020 05:55 AM PDT |
| EU, UK must intensify efforts to bridge gaps - Lithuania Posted: 15 Oct 2020 05:20 AM PDT |
| US official holds Beirut meetings after Israel-Lebanon talks Posted: 15 Oct 2020 05:00 AM PDT  Lebanon's parliament speaker met Thursday with a visiting U.S. official, a day after Beirut began indirect negotiations with Israel over their disputed maritime border. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker, the top American diplomat for the Middle East, did not speak to reporters after his meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. Berri has been the main Lebanese official dealing with U.S. mediators regarding the dispute with Israel over the past decade.
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| Election 2020 Today: Town hall duel; mail changes reversed Posted: 15 Oct 2020 04:22 AM PDT  ON THE TRAIL: President Donald Trump will be in North Carolina and Florida; Democratic challenger Joe Biden will be in Pennsylvania. DUELING TOWN HALLS: Trump and Biden will compete for TV audiences in dueling town halls instead of meeting face-to-face for their second debate as originally planned. The two will take questions in different cities on different networks: Trump on NBC from Miami, Biden on ABC from Philadelphia. Trump backed out of plans for the presidential faceoff originally scheduled for the evening after debate organizers shifted the format to a virtual event following Trump's coronavirus diagnosis.
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| Yemen's warring sides kick off largest prisoner swap to date Posted: 15 Oct 2020 04:00 AM PDT  Yemen's warring sides on Thursday kicked off a long-awaited, U.N.-brokered prisoner exchange, an unprecedented release of detainees amid a conflict that has spawned the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The exchange came a day after Yemen's Iran-backed rebels freed two Americans and released the remains of a third who had died in captivity. It wasn't immediately clear if the swap, which has been planned for over a year, was related to the freeing of the Americans on Wednesday.
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