Current News: September 2020

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Voters react to first 2020 presidential debate

The latest CBS News Battleground Tracker polls show how Americans are responding to the first presidential debate. CBS News Elections and Surveys Director Anthony Salvanto joined CBSN's Elaine Quijano on "Red and Blue" to discuss the results.

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The Trump Campaign Is Quietly Purging Brad Parscale From Their Website

President Donald Trump’s campaign still won’t clarify the status of its erstwhile campaign manager Brad Parscale, who was taken into custody by police outside of his Florida home over the weekend. But the campaign is quietly purging its website of Parscale’s presence.Since Tuesday, the campaign has removed a video of Parscale from the homepage of its “Army for Trump” election monitoring operation. It also deleted a page on the main campaign website featuring a video of Parscale and Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and senior campaign adviser. The video of their discussion, billed as a Q&A on the state of the campaign, has also been removed from YouTube. Those deletions were first flagged on Twitter by the writer Jeryl Bier.One Trump campaign page discussing the event with Lara Trump remained online as of Wednesday morning. After The Daily Beast flagged it in a comment request sent to the campaign, that page was removed as well.The campaign did not respond to that comment request, which sought to clarify Parscale’s role with the Trump reelect and determine whether he remains an employee or consultant. He was Trump’s campaign manager until July, when he was replaced by former White House political director Bill Stepien. Parscale remained in a senior role for the campaign.The apparent effort to scrub Parscale from campaign web properties comes in the wake of a police incident outside his home on Sunday. According to the police report, Parscale’s wife called authorities to report that he was threatening to commit suicide, had loaded a firearm in front of her, and had physically assaulted her during a prior domestic dispute.Body camera footage showed police tackling and handcuffing Parscale as they detained him under a Florida law that allows authorities to involuntarily commit someone who is believed to be a danger to himself or others.The Trump campaign initially released a statement saying, “Our thoughts are with Brad and his family as we wait for all the facts to emerge.” It followed up with another statement that used the incident to criticize the president’s political opponents. “The disgusting, personal attacks from Democrats and disgruntled RINOs have gone too far, and they should be ashamed of themselves for what they’ve done to this man and his family,” Tim Murtaugh, the campaign’s communications director, said.The incident marked a dramatic downfall for a man widely credited with an instrumental role in Trump’s 2016 election victory. Parscale, a digital vendor from Texas, was plucked out of obscurity and installed as the campaign’s digital director. His profile was even high enough that the Trump campaign purchased about $340,000 in Facebook and Instagram ads that ran on Parscale’s own pages on those sites.But Parscale’s central role on the 2020 campaign in particular has also drawn criticism and scrutiny, particularly over tens of millions of dollars in funds spent through entities owned, run, or otherwise tied to Parscale. In June, the Trump campaign reportedly initiated an internal audit to determine whether he had mispent significant amounts of campaign money.That scrutiny has also targeted Parscale’s personal life and his increasingly lavish spending on homes, boats, and sports cars. Parscale and the campaign have consistently denied that he misspent campaign money or used it for personal gain.In the wake of his detention over the weekend, the Daily Mail reported that Parscale was “under investigation” for pocketing as much as $50 million from the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee. But the story did not specify who exactly was doing the investigating, and the campaign and the RNC both denied the report.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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Father and son chase and shoot at two teens riding ATVs, Mississippi police say

Police are looking into possible hate crime charges

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U.S. renews pressure on Europe to ditch Huawei in new networks

Telecoms company Huawei Technologies is part of China's surveillance state, complicit in human rights abuses, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday, as Washington renewed pressure on Europe to ban the company from fifth-generation (5G) networks. Keith Krach, the undersecretary of state for economic affairs, stepped up warnings as Germany and Italy consider their next-generation mobile networks, in his first tour of European capitals since the COVID-19 pandemic hindered travel in March. Huawei [HWT.UL] is "an arm of the CCP surveillance state and a tool for human rights abuse," Krach told a German Marshall Fund think-tank event, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.

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McConnell shields Judge Amy Coney Barrett from questions about election outcome as she meets with senators

The Senate majority leader refused to answer if Ms Barrett should recuse herself from election-focused cases

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China Accelerates Its Crackdown on Foreign Journalists

These days, foreign journalists are facing unprecedented challenges in China.A March report from the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) finds that in 2019, “82% of [foreign] reporters [in China] experienced interference or harassment or violence while reporting. . . . 43% said digital/physical surveillance affected reporting. And 70% reported interviews cancelled due to actions taken by Chinese authorities.” The FCCC also finds that Chinese authorities continue to restrict foreign journalists’ access to certain parts of China, including Xinjiang, where millions of Uighur Muslims languish in internment camps. The most striking finding of the report, however, is that not even a single foreign journalist said working conditions in China had improved from 2018 to 2019.It seems that this state of affairs has only gotten worse in 2020. Just this week, the Washington Post’s Anna Fifield published a story about the difficulties she’d faced as a foreign reporter in China. “Reporting in China increasingly feels like reporting in North Korea,” she tweeted. Beijing has expelled around 17 foreign journalists this year, including 15 Americans, and is threatening to expel more. Chinese authorities also continue to punish some foreign journalists by refusing to renew their visas.In August, Cheng Lei, an Australian citizen of Chinese descent who worked for the state-owned China Global Television Network (CGTN), was detained by Chinese authorities. No charges were filed, and Cheng simply “disappeared.” China's foreign ministry waited until early September to announce that she was suspected of “criminal activity endangering China's national security.” Her family and friends still do not know her whereabouts, and it is unclear if she has any legal representation.The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s announcement of Cheng’s detention came after the Australian government was forced to mount a frantic mission to extricate the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) Bill Birtles and the Australian Financial Review’s (AFR) Mike Smith from the country. Both had been questioned by Chinese authorities regarding their dealings with Cheng, and both sought help from the Australian consulate. They were allowed to leave China only after a five-day diplomatic standoff. Birtles’s former boss, the ex-ABC China bureau chief Matthew Carney, recently disclosed the threats and interrogations that he and his family, including his 14-year-old daughter, had to endure from Chinese authorities back in 2018, which eventually led them to leave the country, too.Early this month, a Los Angeles Times reporter was detained by Chinese police in Inner Mongolia while investigating the central government’s push to teach Mongolian children key curriculums in Mandarin rather than Mongolian. Many parents and students have been protesting that effort, which they view as Beijing’s latest attempt to erase their cultural identity. The Times reporter said plainclothes men “took her to a police station, where she was interrogated and separated from her belongings, despite identifying herself as an accredited journalist. She was not allowed to call the U.S. Embassy; one officer grabbed her throat with both hands and pushed her into a cell.”Beijing’s treatment of foreign journalists is appalling. But surprisingly, this wasn’t always the case. In fact, for decades, the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) welcomed foreign journalists when it found them to be of use in helping achieve its strategic policy goals.The most famous example of this phenomenon was American journalist Edgar Snow. In the 1930s, Snow visited the CCP’s stronghold in the Chinese countryside and interviewed its leaders, including Mao Zedong. Back then, the People’s Liberation Army was no more than a ragtag bunch of poorly fed, ill-equipped guerrilla fighters. Mao was dismissed by the ruling Nationalist Party as a “bandit,” and he was virtually unknown to the West. Mao recognized the help that Snow could provide in solving that problem. He granted Snow access that was unavailable to any Chinese journalist and charmed the American. Snow, who was somewhat naive and ideologically left-leaning, fell for Mao’s charisma. Mao asked that the texts of Snow’s interviews be translated from English back to Chinese so he could “correct any inaccuracies” prior to the publication, and Snow granted him his wish.The final output was Snow's 1937 book, Red Star Over China, which presented Mao as a great leader who was candid, thoughtful, and funny. It described the goal of the Communist revolution as the creation of a new China that would be egalitarian and democratic. Nowhere did it mention Mao’s brutal purge of a rival faction within the Communist Party, which ended with the arrest of over 100 party members and the execution of more than a dozen. The purge was an early indication of Mao’s ruthlessness in quashing dissent, and there would be many more like it to come.Unfortunately, the inaccurate portrait painted by Snow’s book cast Mao and the Communists in such a positive light that it won them many domestic and international supporters. This, in turn, set a precedent. Recognizing the propaganda value that Snow had provided, Mao invited him back to China several more times over the next three-plus decades. Each time, he manipulated Snow into serving as his mouthpiece for domestic and international audiences.After Mao’s death, a succession of Chinese Communist Party leaders followed the same template, welcoming foreign journalists to China as the regime launched its campaign of economic reform and opened up to the rest of the world. These leaders recognized that they needed the foreign press to tell stories about China, and sure enough, the resulting stories helped attract badly needed foreign investment and tourism to boost the country’s economy.In a country where corruption is rampant and justice is whatever local authorities say it is, many Chinese people have come to believe that the fastest way to get their grievances heard and resolved is through reporting by journalists, especially foreign journalists. As Yuan Yang, the Financial Times’s deputy Beijing bureau chief, has noted, “Sometimes it is not the coverage itself, but the mere appearance of a foreign journalist on the scene, that gets officials to start listening intently to their problems.”Sadly, even that means of getting authorities’ attention is increasingly being closed off by China’s current leader, Xi Jinping, who demands absolute loyalty from all corners of China including the media. Unlike his predecessors, Xi doesn't see foreign media as a friend or a useful tool, but rather as a threat to the narratives advanced by his propaganda and an obstacle to his goal of building a new, China-centric world order. Especially after the coronavirus outbreak, Xi has needed an obedient media to tell a story of Chinese success under his leadership, which has only increased his incentive to keep a tight leash on critical reporting.Xi seems to believe that China is now wealthy, powerful, and resourceful enough that it no longer needs the prestige that foreign media outlets once lent it; state media can tell the stories he wants told both at home and abroad. Since Xi doesn’t see foreign journalists as useful to his own strategic objectives, Chinese authorities have intensified their attacks on foreign journalists. If any informed observer had any remaining doubts about the true nature of the Chinese regime, this crackdown should have dispelled them.

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Sonic boom heard in Paris and suburbs caused by fighter jet breaking sound barrier

A loud blast heard throughout Paris on Wednesday briefly caused panic as edgy residents feared a bombing five days after a terrorist attack outside the former offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. The noise was caused by a sonic boom as a military jet broke the speed of sound, police said. Pierre Duclos, who was in a café around the corner from the site of the attack on Friday when the explosion-like noise was heard, said: “Everyone looked at each other and a few people got up and went outside. For a while, we thought another terrorist attack was coming and we were all shocked. Some people asked the café owner to close and lock the door. I was here on Friday and frankly I was really worried again today.

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Hathras gang rape: India victim cremated 'without family's consent'

The woman's death after she was gang raped allegedly by upper-caste men has caused huge anger in India.

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Can Mike Espy Make History, Again?

By BY CHARLES M. BLOW from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2Sg87du

Facebook will forbid ads that undermine the legitimacy of the coming election.

By BY MIKE ISAAC from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/30nEpYn

Trump Calls on Extremists to ‘Stand By’

By BY NICHOLAS KRISTOF from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2HMjxnd

Brad Parscale steps away from the Trump campaign entirely after episode involving law enforcement.

By BY MATT STEVENS AND MAGGIE HABERMAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2EQzU0Y

N.B.A. Finals Live Updates: Game 1 Lakers vs. Heat

By BY SOPAN DEB AND MARC STEIN from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/3l2NWMe

Anyone Else Want to See Trump ‘Shut Up’?

By BY GAIL COLLINS from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3l1zR1B

Far-Right Group That Trades in Political Violence Gets a Boost

By BY NEIL MACFARQUHAR, ALAN FEUER, MIKE BAKER AND SHEERA FRENKEL from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/30nxtKP

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Senate passes temporary spending bill, staves off threat of shutdown until after election

09/30/20 3:46 PM

Coronavirus: How Italy has fought back from virus disaster

Italy was the first country in Europe to be overwhelmed by the virus but is so far keeping it in check.

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Nigeria turns 60: Can Africa's most populous nation remain united?

Nigeria's greatest challenge on its 60th anniversary remains its diversity, writes Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani.

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Rwanda's clothing spat with the US helps China

As the African nation continues to ban the import of used US clothes, China takes advantage.

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Wikipedia article of the day for October 1, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for October 1, 2020 is Rwandan Civil War.
The Rwandan Civil War was a conflict between the Hutu-led Rwandan Armed Forces and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), founded by Tutsi refugees. The war began on 1 October 1990 with an RPF invasion but the army, assisted by French troops, had largely defeated the RPF by the end of the month. Paul Kagame (pictured, left) took command of the rebels and in a few months began a multi-year guerrilla war. In 1992, after a series of protests, Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana (pictured, right) began peace negotiations with the RPF and domestic opposition parties. Despite disruption by the extremist group Hutu Power and a fresh RPF offensive, the Arusha Accords were signed in August 1993. United Nations peacekeepers were installed, but Hutu Power was steadily gaining influence. After the assassination of Habyarimana in April 1994, between half a million and a million Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed in the Rwandan genocide. The RPF quickly resumed the war, capturing the capital and taking control of the country by July.

Coronavirus: How Italy has fought back from virus disaster

Italy was the first country in Europe to be overwhelmed by the virus but is so far keeping it in check.

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Nigeria turns 60: Can Africa's most populous nation remain united?

Nigeria's greatest challenge on its 60th anniversary remains its diversity, writes Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani.

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Rwanda's clothing spat with the US helps China

As the African nation continues to ban the import of used US clothes, China takes advantage.

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Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Opinion: Trump's reality distortion machine is in overdrive for his debate with Biden

The Trump team, like the president himself, is working aggressively to make voters disbelieve what they see and hear from Joe Biden at the first debate.

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McConnell shields Judge Amy Coney Barrett from questions about election outcome as she meets with senators

The Senate majority leader refused to answer if Ms Barrett should recuse herself from election-focused cases

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Teacher says he can no longer teach kindergarten after parent complained about tattoos

Local educational authorities said students under six "could be frightened" by the appearance of a teacher with tattoos.

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Air Force Completes 8-Year B-1 Bomber Battle Station Upgrade

The service announced that it finished the Integrated Battle Station, or IBS, modification earlier this month.

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Seven airlines receive last of stimulus loans from the CARES Act.

By BY NIRAJ CHOKSHI from NYT Business https://ift.tt/2ScPFlL

Project Veritas Video Was a ‘Coordinated Disinformation Campaign,’ Researchers Say

By BY MAGGIE ASTOR from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/33gwQES

‘Super Healthy’ College Student Dies of Rare Covid-19 Complications

By BY SHAWN HUBLER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/33jnR5T

Watch Live: First 2020 Presidential Debate

By BY THE NEW YORK TIMES from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/33fPIng

Court Sets Up Showdown Over Outside Health Review of Guantánamo Prisoners

By BY CAROL ROSENBERG from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/33fgnR3

Trump Paid $750 in Federal Income Taxes in 2017. Here’s the Math.

By BY RUSS BUETTNER, MIKE MCINTIRE, SUSANNE CRAIG AND KEITH COLLINS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3kXZqAH

Live Tonight: Watch the Debate With Fact Checks

By BY LISA LERER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3cKve9a

Quebec brings back restrictions as cases rise again

By BY DAN BILEFSKY AND IAN AUSTEN from NYT World https://ift.tt/3jt1osJ

Draymond Green Doesn’t Mind Missing the N.B.A. Finals. This Year.

By BY MARC STEIN from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/3cOR63p

Trump’s top intelligence official releases unverified and previously rejected Russia information.

By BY JULIAN E. BARNES, ADAM GOLDMAN AND NICHOLAS FANDOS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Gp6k3a

Bad Call Sends Kristina Mladenovic Spiraling Again

By BY BEN ROTHENBERG from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/2Gie6Mb

The Facebook Pages With the Largest Share of Debate Conversation

By BY DAVEY ALBA from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/3n663Tg

Barrett told senators that Trump offered her the nomination much sooner than was previously known.

By BY NICHOLAS FANDOS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3kQQRrs

Joyce Echaquan: Outcry in Canada over treatment of dying indigenous woman

A nurse is sacked after Joyce Echaquan filmed herself in hospital apparently being insulted by staff.

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Wikipedia article of the day for September 30, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for September 30, 2020 is Herbert Maryon.
Herbert Maryon (1874–1965) was an English sculptor, conservator, goldsmith, archaeologist and authority on ancient metalwork. Maryon was the first director of the Arts and Crafts–inspired Keswick School of Industrial Art, then taught at the universities of Reading and Durham until 1939. During this time he designed the University of Reading War Memorial, excavated one of the oldest gold artefacts in Britain, and authored the standard Metalwork and Enamelling. Maryon left retirement to join the British Museum, and is best known for his conservation work on the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, including restorations of the shield, the drinking horns, and the iconic Sutton Hoo helmet. In other work he restored a Roman helmet, coined the term pattern welding, and wrote a paper influencing a painting by Salvador Dalí. Maryon was appointed to the Order of the British Empire in 1956; asked by Queen Elizabeth II what he did, Maryon responded: "Well, Ma'am, I am a sort of back room boy at the British Museum."

What Polls Say About the 2020 Race as Biden and Trump Square Off

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Biden and Trump’s First Debate: What to Watch For

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How to Watch the First Presidential Debate

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Compact Nuclear Fusion Reactor Is ‘Very Likely to Work,’ Studies Suggest

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Monday, September 28, 2020

Governor seeks review of police protest response in Oregon

Criticism of the law enforcement response to a protest in Portland late Saturday into early Sunday prompted Oregon Gov. Kate Brown to ask authorities to review “any alleged incidents” involving their officers. “Journalists and law enforcement officers have difficult jobs to do during these demonstrations, but I do still believe that we can protect free speech and keep the peace,” Brown tweeted.

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The Senate could vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court just days before the presidential election

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham laid out a timeline for the confirmation process, saying he hopes to begin hearings on October 12.

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Veteran facing border wall scam charges with Steve Bannon: ‘Not a penny’ was taken

When ‘Build the Wall’ amputee veteran Brian Kolfage was arrested, officers forbade use of prosthetic legs, now he plans to sue

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Commentary: We need to talk about those Breonna Taylor T-shirts

Recent events have sparked a surge in Black Lives Matter merchandise. It can be difficult to conclude where proceeds from these products actually go.

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‘Everything he says is false’: CDC chief condemns Trump’s coronavirus adviser in leaked phone call

CDC director was rebuked by president earlier this year over virus vaccine

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Pakistan's top court accepts appeal by Daniel Pearl's family

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday accepted an appeal by the family of slain American journalist Daniel Pearl seeking to keep a British-born Pakistani man on death row over the beheading of the Wall Street Journal reporter. The court delayed until next week hearing the appeal over the lower-court acquittal of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who had been on death row since his conviction in 2002 over Pearl's killing. The Supreme Court ordered Sheikh to remain in custody but Faisal Siddiqi, the lawyer for Pearl's family, told The Associated Press on Monday the court will decide next week whether Sheikh will remain imprisoned during the course of the appeal, which could be years.

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