Tag Archives: WorldNews

Workers Join Belarus Protests, as Leader’s Base Turns Against Him

Demonstrators at a huge state-run factory in the capital gave an ultimatum: Unless a fair election is held, they will strike, in a new test of President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko’s rule.

Demonstrators at a huge state-run factory in the capital gave an ultimatum: Unless a fair election is held, they will strike, in a new test of President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko’s rule.

Trump Makes It Official: He’s Sabotaging the Post Office to Rig the Election

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The outbreak of the coronavirus in the United States has devastated the Postal Service. But as the threat of bankruptcy looms over one of the country’s most critical institutions—a crisis that has already sparked widespread delays and deep concerns that mail-in voting will be jeopardized in November—President Trump is exacerbating the issue in an effort to increase his odds of reelection. If earlier in the pandemic that strategy seemed a bit abstract, this week, we’ve seen him repeatedly admit to it.

“They don’t have the money to do the universal mail-in voting. So, therefore, they can’t do it, I guess,” Trump said at his daily coronavirus briefing on Wednesday, where he, once again, embraced the false narrative that mail-in voting leads to voter fraud.

Now here he is this morning on Fox Business. “Universal mail-in ballots. They want $25 billion dollars for the post office,” he said, referring to Democrats, who have increasingly expressed alarm that the new head of the Postal Service, a major Trump donor, seems to be carrying out the president’s plans to sabotage the agency.

“They need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take these millions and millions of ballots. But if they don’t get those two items,” Trump added, also referencing Democrats’ proposal for $3.6 billion for mail-in voting, “that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting, because they’re not equipped to have it.”

These are extraordinary admissions. During a pandemic that he and his administration have badly mismanaged, the president is refusing to restart congressional negotiations for coronavirus relief if the legislation includes emergency funding for a service that, in addition to helping society function normally, would make voting safer and more accessible at the exact moment when requests for absentee ballots are soaring. And as my colleague Pema Levy explained, when it comes to absentee ballots, the importance of timing can’t be overstated:

The number of mail-in ballots used this year will be magnitudes higher than in 2016, which puts millions of ballots at risk of not being counted. In 34 states, ballots received after Election Day—which falls on November 3, 2020—are not counted. In others, ballots need to be postmarked by Election Day, but a crippled Postal Service often fails to apply the postmark, which could result in more ballots being rejected. 

“You’d never have a Republican elected in this country again,” Trump said back in March while discussing voting reforms aimed at expanding access to the ballot. Here at least we get to the core rationale that’s likely governing Republican silence on the issue. They, like this president, worry that if more people are able to vote, Republicans will be less likely to win. And they’ll let Trump manipulate the post office with impunity—even if it means blocking financial relief during the worst economic climate since the Great Depression—because they believe it’ll rig their elections, too.

Lebanon parliament approves Beirut state of emergency, grants military power

Shame on non-leaders – peace does not come from beating and shooting people who want peace and an end to public corruption!

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Convening for the first time since Beirut’s devastating explosion, Lebanese MPs have approved a two-week state of emergency. The law would give extensive power to the military to suppress resurging protests.

China says frozen chicken wings from Brazil test positive for coronavirus

Consumers in the Chinese city of Shenzhen have been urged to exercise caution when buying imported frozen food after a surface sample of chicken wings from Brazil tested positive for coronavirus, according to a statement from the local government.

The positive sample appears to have been taken from the surface of the meat, while previously reported positive cases from other Chinese cities have been from the surface of packaging on imported frozen seafood.

The chicken came from an Aurora Alimentos plant in the southern state of Santa Catarina, according to a registration number given in the statement.

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BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) – Consumers in the Chinese city of Shenzhen have been urged to exercise caution when buying imported frozen food after a surface sample of chicken wings from Brazil tested positive for coronavirus, according to a statement from the local government.

The positive sample appears to have been taken from the surface of the meat, while previously reported positive cases from other Chinese cities have been from the surface of packaging on imported frozen seafood.

The chicken came from an Aurora Alimentos plant in the southern state of Santa Catarina, according to a registration number given in the statement.

Virus tests of people who have possibly come into contact with the product, and tests of related products, all came back negative, the statement said.

Consumers should be cautious when buying imported frozen foods and aquatic products, the government added.

Three packaging samples of imported frozen seafood tested positive for Covid-19 in Yantai, a northern city of China’s Shandong province, the city government said on its official Weibo account on Tuesday (Aug 11) .

State television on Wednesday reported that the outside of an Ecuador frozen shrimp package tested positive for the virus in a restaurant in Wuhu, a city in China’s Anhui province.

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New Zealand scrambles to trace cluster, reporting 13 new coronavirus cases

Dr Bloomfield raised the possibility on Wednesday that the virus had arrived in New Zealand via freight, given one of the infected family members works in a cool store that takes imported frozen goods from overseas.

On Thursday, he said that was considered “a low possibility”, but did not detail other potential sources.

Ms Ardern said it was a positive sign that all the new 13 cases were linked back to the infected family, either via work or broader family connections. All were being transferred into quarantine facilities.

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WELLINGTON (REUTERS) – New Zealand officials were scrambling to trace the source of an outbreak of the coronavirus, reporting 13 new cases on Thursday (Aug 13), as long queues of people formed to escape a renewed lockdown in the country’s biggest city and be tested.

The discovery of four infected family members in Auckland two days ago shocked a country that had not recorded a case of Covid-19 for more than three months, raising some criticism of the government’s handling of the crisis.

New Zealand announced on Thursday that there were 13 new cases in the community,  and one overseas arrival who was in quarantine, bringing the total number of active cases to 36.

“We can see the seriousness of the situation we are in,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a televised media conference. “It’s being dealt with in an urgent but calm and methodical way.”

Ms Ardern reimposed tight movement restrictions in Auckland and social distancing measures across the rest of the country on Wednesday, echoing her early response to the pandemic, which was praised for its apparent effectiveness. 

Ms Ardern noted that experience showed “things will get worse before they get better”, and more cases were likely to be reported in coming days. 

“Once again we are reminded of how tricky this virus is and how easily it can spread,” she said. “Going hard and early is still the best course of action.”

However, doubts over the origin of the latest cases have raised some questions about that strategy.

Officials reported on Thursday that three more people at a refrigerator storage facility, where one of the family members worked, had tested positive.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said health officials were getting “closer every hour” to finding the patient zero of the outbreak.

“We are working flat out to do the contact-tracing we need to do and trace back to find out what the source of this infection is,” Dr Bloomfield told Newstalk ZB radio.

Dr Bloomfield raised the possibility on Wednesday that the virus had arrived in New Zealand via freight, given one of the infected family members works in a cool store that takes imported frozen goods from overseas.

On Thursday, he said that was considered “a low possibility”, but did not detail other potential sources.

Ms Ardern said it was a positive sign that all the new 13 cases were linked back to the infected family, either via work or broader family connections. All were being transferred into quarantine facilities.

Some prominent local health experts suggested it was more likely the virus had been quietly spreading in Auckland for weeks, infecting potentially dozens of people.

Residents of Auckland, home to around 1.7 million people, were given just hours to prepare for the return to level 3 restrictions on Wednesday, requiring people to stay at home unless for essential trips.

People in the city reported waiting hours to be tested for the virus, according to local media, and there was a rush to supermarkets to stock up on essentials.

The rest of the country was placed back into slightly looser level 2 restrictions. The restrictions will initially remain in place until Friday, when Ms Ardern will announce the next steps.

With an election scheduled just weeks away, Ms Ardern was facing criticism from the major opposition party for the decision to resume lockdown measures.

The NZ National Party also wants the September election to be pushed back to November. Ms Ardern has said she will make a decision on the poll before Monday.

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