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Central America
November 6, 2020 The rain-heavy remnants of Hurricane Eta flooded homes from Panama to Guatemala yesterday as the death toll across Central America rose to at least 57, and aid organizations warned the flooding and mudslides were creating a slow-moving humanitarian disaster across the region. The storm that hit Nicaragua as a mighty Category 4 hurricane in November 3 had become more of a vast tropical rainstorm, but it was advancing so slowly and dumping so much rain that much of Central America remained on high alert. Landslides in Guatemala. Some 2 million Hondurans could be directly impacted by the storm. It's impact on crops would only increase the pressure on a desperate population to migrate. In Panama, at least eight people were reported missing after flooding and landslide. Forecasters said the now-tropical depression was expected to regather and head toward Cuba and possibly the Gulf of Mexico by early next week. (Source: USNews)
United States
10/11/2020 America's top Republicans join Trump in delaying transition. Trump has "terminated" his defence Secretary and is refusing to concede the election. Meanwhile, US Attorney General Barr says he'll probe allegations of voter fraud. Trump is also manning Twitter as usual, claiming to be close to winning Wisconsin and Georgia and is blocking government officials from cooperating with Biden's team. Top Republicans have largely refused to put widespread pressure on Trump to accept his election loss. Senate Majority Leader McConnell: "President Trump is 100 per cent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options." Meanwhile Biden has begun assembling a task force of experts to face the surging coronavirus pandemic when he assumes the presidency in January. "This election is over,' he said. (Source: euronews)
10 November 2020 ' There will be a smooth transition to our second Trump administration,' Pompeo says. The Electoral College is due to formally confirm victory on 14 December. "We're going to count all the votes. When the process is complete, there'll be electors selected. There's a process. The constitution lays it out pretty clearly." (Source: SkyNews)
November 7, 2020 Trump’s statement: “We all know why Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed. The simple fact is this election is far from over. Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor. In Pennsylvania, for example, our legal observers were not permitted meaningful access to watch the counting process. Legal votes decide who is president, not the news media. Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated. The American People are entitled to an honest election: that means counting all legal ballots, and not counting any illegal ballots. This is the only way to ensure the public has full confidence in our election. It remains shocking that the Biden campaign refuses to agree with this basic principle and wants ballots counted even if they are fraudulent, manufactured, or cast by ineligible or deceased voters. Only a party engaged in wrongdoing would unlawfully keep observers out of the count room – and then fight in court to block their access. So what is Biden hiding? I will not rest until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands.” (Source: AlJazeera)
Nov 7 2020 1:52 PM EST Biden is now the president-elect of the United States after his projected win in Pennsylvania. He has won 273 electoral votes, surpassing the 270-vote threshold needed to win.President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris are expected to address the nation at 8 p.m. ET from Wilmington, Delaware. Trump was golfing at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia when Biden was announced president-elect. Minutes after Biden was announced the President-elect, Trump issued a statement that refused the results of the election and said the race is “far from over.” “The President needs Your help” - President Trump’s reelection campaign is asking for donations. “Pres. Trump: This is madness. The Democrats are trying to steal this Election.” “We have to stop them. 1000%-impact active for 1 hours. Donate now.” U.K. Prime Minister Johnson tweeted his congratulations, calling Harris’ accomplishment of becoming the first woman and person of color elected to the vice presidency. European Commission President von der Leyen said she “warmly” congratulated Biden in a statement on Twitter and said “The European Commission stands ready to intensify cooperation with the new Administration and the new Congress to address pressing challenges we face.” NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg congratulated Biden. “US leadership is as important as ever in an unpredictable world, and I look forward to working very closely with President-elect Biden, Vice President-elect Harris and the new administration to further strengthen the bond between North America and Europe,” he said. Biden leads President Trump by more than 34,000 votes in Pennsylvania with thousands of outstanding ballots to count. The Democrat will win the state’s 20 electoral votes after Trump carried it four years ago by a margin of about 44,000 votes. "1 HOUR AGO Five states remain uncalled after Biden’s Pennsylvania win delivers him the presidency: Alaska (3 electoral votes): too early to call, Trump ahead by 51,382 votes with 56% in. Arizona (11 electoral votes): too close to call, Biden ahead by 20,573 votes with 97% in. Georgia (16 electoral votes): too close to call, Biden ahead by 7,248 votes with 99% in. Nevada (6 electoral votes): too close to call, Biden ahead by 25,068 votes with 94% in. North Carolina (15 electoral votes): too close to call, Trump ahead by 76,515 votes with 98% in". People took to the streets in New York’s Times Square to celebrate after Biden was declared the president-elect of the United States after his projected win in Pennsylvania. 5 HOURS AGO Twitter censors Trump tweets, warns his election claims ‘might be misleading’. "7 HOURS AGO Here’s where Biden and Trump stand in those states as they each seek 270 electoral votes to win, according to NBC News projections: Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes): Biden leads by 28,833 votes with 96% of the expected vote in. Georgia (16 electoral votes): Biden leads by 7,248 votes with 99% of the expected vote in. Arizona (11 electoral votes): Biden leads by 29,861 votes with 97% of the expected vote in. Nevada (6 electoral votes): Biden leads by 22,657 votes with 93% of the expected vote in. North Carolina (15 electoral votes): Trump leads by 76,515 votes with 98% of the expected vote in. Alaska (3 electoral votes): Trump leads by 51,382 votes with 56% of the expected vote in". (Source: CNBC)
2020. 11. 07. 22:04 Újraszámolták a voksokat Michigan egyik megyéjében, ahol a számítógép szoftverjének meghibásodása miatt Biden győzelmét mutatták ki - ott a Trump-ra leadott voksok közül hatezret Biden javára írtak. A szavazatokat kézzel átszámolták. Az újraszámolás Trump győzelmét hozta, aki így több mint kétezerrel több vokssal gyarapodott - jelentette be a Republikánus Párt Országos Bizottságának (RNC, a párt vezető szerve) elnöke, Romney McDaniel még tegnap este, a párt michigani elnökével, Cox-szal tartott közös sajtótájékoztatóján. Michiganben Biden 147 897 szavazattal 'nyert'. Michigan 83 megyéjéből 47-ben szintén ugyanezt a szoftvert használták. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI)
November 6, 2020 Trump campaign officials accused Democrats of trying to steal the election. Trump campaign manager Stepien, in a call with reporters today morning, said that “every night the president goes to bed with a lead” and every night new votes “are mysteriously found in a sack.” Trump’s campaign has also announced that it will ask for a recount in Wisconsin. The president’s lawyers have asked to intervene in a pending Republican appeal to the Supreme Court over the three-day extension for the receipt and counting of mailed ballots ordered by Pennsylvania’s top court. Judges in Georgia and Michigan quickly dismissed Trump campaign lawsuits today, undercutting a campaign legal strategy to attack the integrity of the voting process in states where the result could mean President Trump’s defeat. The rulings came as Trump and his campaign promised even more legal action based on unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud. Biden campaign lawyer Bauer today was accusing the Trump campaign of “continually alleging irregularities, failures of the system and fraud without any basis.” Bauer spoke just hours before Trump tweeted, “All of the recent Biden claimed States will be legally challenged by us for Voter Fraud and State Election Fraud. Plenty of proof - just check out the Media. We will win! America First!” A Michigan judge noted that the state’s ballot count is over as she tossed the campaign’s lawsuit. In Georgia, a state judge dismissed a case over concerns about 53 absentee ballots in Chatham County after elections officials in the Savannah-area county testified that all of those ballots had been received on time. Campaign officials said earlier they were considering similar challenges in a dozen other counties around the state. In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, the Trump campaign won an appellate ruling to get party and campaign observers closer to election workers who are processing mail-in ballots in Philadelphia. The lawsuits in multiple states highlight that the Trump campaign could be confronting a political map in which it might have to persuade courts in two or more states to set aside enough votes to overturn the results. (Source: AP)
2020. november 06. A demokrata vezetésű államokból számos gyanús kép és adat került elő. Közel kétmillió “szellemszavazó” jelentkezett a voksolásra a választás kimenetele szempontjából fontos államokban, vagyis a helyi hatóságok több szavazót regisztráltak, mint ahányan hivatalosan ott élnek. Egymás után töltik fel a kukában landolt, vagy az út szélén hagyott levélkupacokról a képeket. Bíróságoknak kell a már leadott voksok újraszámlálását elrendelni, vagy a végső eredményt kimondaniuk. Egy másik megoldás lehet a választás megismétlése a vitatott államokban vagy megyékben. Bizonyítékok gyűjtése és bírósági beadványok fogalmazása zajlik. Az eredményre még várni kell. Amerikában előbb a (jobbra húzó) vidéki szavazatokat dolgozzák fel, és csak utána a (balra húzó, jellemzően levélben leadott) nagyvárosiakat. A vita most pont a levélben és a választás napja előtt személyesen leadott nagyvárosi szavazatok körül zajlik. Wisconsinban és Michiganban Trump előnyét a levélszavazatok fordították meg, holott az eddigi tapasztaltok alapján azok 2:1 arányban oszlanak meg. Ilyen arány mellett Trump megnyerte volna ezeket az államokat. Ebben a két államban viszont a 'varázsszavazat' levélszavazatok szinte mind Bident erősítették, ami szembemegy az eddigi tapasztalatokkal. Mivel Amerikában a szavazók nagy része a két párt regisztrált szavazója, már előre lehet látni, hogy melyik párt hány regisztrált, elkötelezett szavazója voksolt előre. Pennsylvaniában látszott egyedül a 2:1 arány a demokraták javára, míg a többi államban a kiélezett verseny miatt a két jelölt támogatottsága között csak 4-6% különbség látszott az előzetes voksolásnál. Michiganben a levélszavazatok 99 százaléka Bident erősítette, ami a fenti képlet alapján több, mint kérdéses. (Forrás: mozgasterblog)
November 6, 2020 From the OAS 20-page preliminary report: As of Election Day, November 3, electoral authorities had received over 65 million mail ballots, with over 27 million votes outstanding – figures that more than double the 33,378,450 postal votes received in the 2016 election. Regulations in most states require the United States Postal Service (USPS) deliver ballots to electoral bodies. Some stakeholders expressed concern that the volume of mail generated by postal voting could not be adequately managed by the USPS in a timely manner and could lead to ballot tampering and other forms of voter fraud. As a result, the pre-electoral period saw increased litigation on aspects of postal voting mechanisms. The 2020 elections also saw a significant increase in in-person Early Voting across the country and by Election Day, approximately 36 million voters had already cast their ballots in-person. Taken together, postal and early voting accounted for over 100 million ballots cast prior to Election Day. In the days after the elections the Mission continued to engage with and monitor the electoral process and the progress of the count. While the OAS Mission has not directly observed any serious irregularities that call into question the results so far, it supports the right of all contesting parties in an election, to seek redress before the competent legal authorities when they believe they have been wronged. Most states do not require a specific postmark date for received envelopes. For the 2020 elections, five states required a postmark of November 2 at the latest, and 16 States, established a deadline of November 3. Generally, the deadline to receive mail ballots varied from November 2 to 23. The dates set by the local legislatures and electoral bodies have been challenged in state and federal jurisdiction, including the Supreme Court of Justice. While the rulings of the Court have been consistent, generally allowing local authorities to change electoral rules and preventing federal courts from modifying local rules close to Election Day, the Mission noted that the effects of such rulings have produced contradicting norms in various states, 19 with the potential for confusion among the electorate on the rules that apply. The Mission also noted that states that send application forms or admit absentee voting vary significantly on the deadline to apply for postal voting. There are 11 different dates that range from 20 October to 2 November. The median is October 27, which, while maximizing elector’s rights, puts a heavy burden on EMB´s and on the postal service in order to send ballots, allow citizens to fill them out and send them back in time. Voting machines and Election Management Systems (EMS) used by most states are certified by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) using the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines Version 1.0 from 2005. These voluntary guidelines are significantly outdated and do not include a penetration testing process, which checks a computer system for exploitable security vulnerabilities. The EAC is currently working on VVSG 2.0. Further, the EAC certification does not require EMS vendors to provide patches and updates for commercial, off-the-shelf software (COTS) used in voting machines and Election Management Systems. As a result, many election management systems are using outdated and out of support software. For example, Maryland and the District of Columbia currently use EVS voting systems that run part of their systems on Windows 7 and Windows 2008 – both of which are out of support from Microsoft and will no longer benefit from software updates or security fixes. The Mission observed that social media companies flagged and/or deleted messages from certain candidates and their followers, based on their respective internal policies, such as Twitter's ‘Civic Integrity Policy’. While social media companies have become a key source of information and communication, which is no doubt favorable to the expansion of freedom of speech, the Mission considers that lack of regulation has led social media companies to constitute themselves as regulators of the content that is published. This is far from ideal and legislation based on international human rights law should be discussed and passed. Media outlets overwhelmingly publicly endorsed the democratic candidate. As the proces continues, every valid vote cast in these elections must be counted, once it was received within the framework of the existing rules and regulations in the respective states. (Source: vsj / OAS)
November 4, 2020 Republicans put up a hell of a fight, and not just, or even mainly, in the battle for the White House. Democrats have almost certainly failed to win a Senate majority, and so far they have lost some ground in the House as well (while still on track to maintain control of the lower chamber of Congress). That means that Biden is on track to be a weak, ineffectual president governing at the mercy of McConnell's Machiavellian machinations. So much for the Democratic fantasy - the one that seemingly never dies - of unobstructed rule. Democrats didn't just want to win and govern in the name of a deeply divided nation's fractured sense of the common good. No, they wanted to lead a moral revolution, to transform the country - not only enacting a long list of new policies, but making a series of institutional changes that would entrench their power far into the future. Pack the Supreme Court. Add left-leaning states. Break up others to give the left huge margins in the Senate. Get rid of the Electoral College. Abolish the police. Rewrite the nation's history, with white supremacy and racism placed 'at the very center.' Ensure 'equity' not just in opportunity but in outcomes. Hell, maybe they'd even establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to teach everyone who voted for or supported the 45th president just how evil they really are. These were prominent Democrats - progressive politicians, activists, and scholars and prize-winning journalists at leading cultural institutions - talking this way. Biden himself usually did the smart thing and tried to distance himself from the most radical proposals. But in the end it wasn't enough to mollify fears of an ascendant left hell bent on entrenching itself in power and enacting institutional reforms that would enable it to lead a moral, political, and cultural revolution. Arrogant talk of demographic inevitabilities and transformative changes to lock Republicans out of power in the name of "democracy' has the effect of inspiring that opposition to unite against them, rendering political success less assured and more tenuous. There will be no court packing. No added states. Nothing from the toxic progressive-fantasy wishlist will come anywhere close to passing. Instead, we will have grinding, obstructive gridlock. Some will demand that Biden push through progressive priorities by executive order. But every time he does - like every incident of urban rioting and looting, every effort to placate the left-wing 'Squad' in the House, every micro-targeted identity-politics box-checking display of intersectional moral preening and finger-wagging - the country will move closer to witnessing a conservative backlash that results in Republicans taking control of the House and increasing their margin in the Senate in November 2022. (Source: TheWeek)
WHO
November 2, 2020 The hunt for a source has been shrouded in secrecy. Now, as a new Covid-19 wave engulfs Europe and the United States, the organization is in the middle of a geopolitical standoff. China’s authoritarian leaders want to constrain the organization; President Trump, who formally withdrew the United States from the body in July, now seems intent on destroying it; and European leaders are scrambling to reform and empower it. The search for the virus’s origins is a study in the compromises the W.H.O. has made. On the surface, an investigation into the virus’s origin is progressing. Beijing recently approved a list of outside investigators. The health organization has agreed that key parts of the inquiry - about the first patients in China and the market’s role in the outbreak - will be led by Chinese scientists. The documents, which have never been made public, show that W.H.O. experts will review and “augment, rather than duplicate,” studies undertaken by China. There is powerful evidence that the new coronavirus passed naturally from an animal into humans. Scientists have found a virus in bats that is a close relative, and they suspect that it may have infected another animal species before it reached people. But though they agree that many cases were linked to the market in Wuhan, many scientists no longer believe it is where the outbreak began. Chinese officials said in January that the outbreak began at the market. Dr. Gao, at the Chinese C.D.C., blamed illegal wildlife sales. In private conversations, he shared a more specific hypothesis. Lipkin, a Columbia University virologist, recalled how, over dinner in Beijing in early February, Dr. Gao pulled out his phone and showed him pictures of dead rodents found at the market. “Gao was convinced we were going to implicate a cane rat,” Dr. Lipkin said. Yet, even then, Dr. Gao was seeing evidence that undermined his theory. In late January, Dr. Gao co-wrote one of the earliest epidemiological studies about the virus. The study highlights the market’s links to the outbreak. But a close look at the data reveals something significant: Four of the first five coronavirus patients had no clear links to the market. They had apparently been infected elsewhere. In early February, two top experts from the organization went to Beijing to negotiate. That same week, the world’s leading health experts ranked finding the animal host as one of the top tasks. Yet, even before the full team gathered in Beijing on Feb. 16, the World Health Organization had ceded ground. It agreed not to examine China’s early response or begin investigating the animal source, they said. It could not even secure a visit to Wuhan. In January, Dr. Tedros had announced that China had agreed to share biological samples. Nothing ever came of it. Then the thesis about the origin of the outbreak suddenly pivoted. Dr. Gao, the director of China’s C.D.C., told the journal Science in March that the virus may not have originated at the market. Maybe, he said, it “could be a place where the virus was amplified,” meaning it began elsewhere but spread wildly there. Then Dr. Gao told a local TV station that animal samples from the market did not contain the virus. That indicated at least that samples had been taken from animals. Yet the details remained concealed. “To the best of our knowledge, no information has been shared with H.H.S., nor published in peer-reviewed journals,” the U.S. agency said in a statement. On April 7, Mr. Trump accused the World Health Organization of being too close to China. Privately, Dr. Tedros told colleagues and others that he felt stuck between China and the United States. He compared them to two playground bullies. The World Health Organization found new support in May for its stalled effort to investigate the virus’s origins. A resolution, sponsored by more than 140 countries, included a clause directing the agency to search for the animal source. By the summer, even the W.H.O. was frustrated. Two experts who went to China in July to define the terms of the investigation spent two weeks in quarantine. They interviewed experts by phone but did not go to Wuhan. Chinese officials then said that the organization should start investigating in Europe, pointing to reports that the virus had been discovered in sewage systems there last year. (Source: dnyuz / TheTodayNews)
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