Coronavirus Denmark

Denmark finds 214 people with mink-related virus

New strain has mutations that could pose risk to future Covid-19 vaccines, say experts

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said seven municipalities in northern Denmark will face movement curbs across county lines

PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

PUBLISHED NOV 7, 2020 

COPENHAGEN • Denmark's State Serum Institute, which deals with infectious diseases, has found mink-related versions of the coronavirus in 214 people since June, according to a report on its website.

One strain of the mutated coronavirus, which has prompted Denmark to cull its entire herd of minks, has however been found only in 12 people and on five mink farms so far.

Denmark had announced strict new lockdown rules on Thursday in the north of the country after the authorities discovered a mutated coronavirus strain in minks bred in the region, prompting a nationwide cull that will devastate the large pelt industry.


The government said on Wednesday that it would cull all minks - up to 17 million - to prevent human contagion with a mutated coronavirus, which the authorities said could be more resistant to future vaccines.

Seven municipalities in northern Denmark, home to most of the country's mink farms, will face restrictions on movement across county lines, while restaurants and bars will be closed, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said.

Schools will be closed and all public transport will be shut until Dec 3, she said, encouraging residents in the region to stay within their municipality and get tested.

For Denmark's mink pelt industry, which racked up exports of around US$800 million (S$1 billion) last year and employs 4,000 people, the cull could amount to a death knell. The industry association for Danish breeders called the move a "black day for Denmark".

"Of course, we must not be the cause of a new pandemic. We do not know the professional basis for this assessment and risk... but the government's decision is a disaster for the industry and Denmark," association chairman Tage Pedersen said.

In its report, the institute said laboratory tests showed the new strain had mutations on its so-called spike protein, a part of the virus that invades and infects healthy cells.

That poses a risk to future Covid-19 vaccines, which are based on disabling the spike protein, the institute said.

Dr Ian Jones, a virology professor from Britain's University of Reading, said the virus would be expected to mutate in a new species.

"It must adapt to be able to use mink receptors to enter cells and so will modify the spike protein to enable this to happen efficiently," he explained.

"The danger is that the mutated virus could then spread back into man and evade any vaccine response which would have been designed to the original, non-mutated version of the spike protein, and not the mink-adapted version."

Dr James Wood, a professor of veterinary medicine from Cambridge University, cautioned that the true implication of the changes in the spike protein had not yet been fully assessed by scientists.

"It is too early to say that the change will cause either vaccines or immunity to fail," he said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday it is now looking at biosecurity around mink farms across the world to prevent further "spillover events".

Dr Maria van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead for Covid-19, told a briefing in Geneva yesterday that transmission of the virus between animals and humans was "a concern", but added: "Mutations (in viruses) are normal. These type of changes in the virus are something we have been tracking since the beginning."

"We are working with regional offices... where there are mink farms, and looking at biosecurity and to prevent spillover events," Dr van Kerkhove said.

She said Denmark's decision to cull its minks was aimed at preventing the establishment of "a new animal reservoir for this virus".

Britain said it is removing Denmark from the government's travel corridor list. People arriving in Britain from Denmark now need to self-isolate.

"Passengers arriving into the UK from Denmark from 4am on Friday 6 November 2020 will need to self-isolate for 14 days by law before following domestic restrictions now in force," British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement.

Britain also removed Sweden and Germany from its travel corridor on Thursday.

REUTERS

About Europe's mink industry


COPENHAGEN • Denmark is Europe's largest exporter of mink pelts.

Here are some key facts about the industry in Denmark and elsewhere in Europe:

• The Netherlands, another major European Union exporter, accelerated a plan to phase out mink farming after two humans were infected with Covid-19 during the first coronavirus wave in May. More than 100 Dutch producers - with around 800,000 mother animals - have been ordered to close three years early by March next year, at a cost of €180 million (S$288 million) to the Dutch government. The coronavirus has been found at 69 Dutch mink farms. Dutch health experts are still working to determine to what extent the farms are a source of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

• France, which exported roughly €120 million worth of fur last year, has decided to outlaw mink farming from 2025.

• The authorities in Denmark said five cases of the new virus strain had been recorded on mink farms and 12 cases in humans, who are believed to have caught the illness from animals.

• Spain culled 93,000 animals at a farm in the Aragon region in July after an outbreak there.

• The European Union is one of the world's main sources of fur clothing, led by Denmark, Finland, Italy, Poland, Greece and the Netherlands. Exports are worth hundreds of millions of euros annually, according to the UN Comtrade database.

• Animal rights group Humane Society International - United Kingdom said China, Denmark and Poland are the largest mink producers globally, with 60 million minks killed annually for their fur.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC

Denmark to cull millions of minks over mutated coronavirus

Mink linked to human Covid-19 case prompts Dutch to screen farms

Spain to cull nearly 100,000 mink with coronavirus

Some key facts about the mink industry in Europe

REUTERS

Nasal Spray Prevents COVID Infection in Ferrets, Study Finds

Donald G. McNeil Jr.,
The New York Times•November 6, 2020

ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA - MARCH 30, 2018: A ferret in a vivarium of the Dom Farmatsii [Pharmacy House] scientific research and manufacturing association. 

(Photo by Peter Kovalev\TASS via Getty Images)

A masked pedestrian walks by triage tents set up outside the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center in New York during the early months of the pandemic, April 8, 2020. (James Estrin/The New York Times)

A nasal spray that blocks the absorption of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has completely protected ferrets it was tested on, according to a small study released Thursday by an international team of scientists. The study, which was limited to animals and has not yet been peer-reviewed, was assessed by several health experts at the request of The New York Times.

If the spray, which the scientists described as nontoxic and stable, is proved to work in humans, it could provide a new way of fighting the pandemic. A daily spritz up the nose would act like a vaccine.

“Having something new that works against the coronavirus is exciting,” said Dr. Arturo Casadevall, the chairman of immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who was not involved in the study. “I could imagine this being part of the arsenal.”

The work has been underway for months by scientists from Columbia University Medical Center in New York, Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Columbia University Medical Center.

The team would require additional funding to pursue clinical trials in humans. Dr. Anne Moscona, a pediatrician and microbiologist at Columbia and co-author of the study, said they had applied for a patent on the product, and she hoped Columbia University would approach the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed or large pharmaceutical companies that are seeking new ways to combat the coronavirus.

The spray attacks the virus directly. It contains a lipopeptide, a cholesterol particle linked to a chain of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. This particular lipopeptide exactly matches a stretch of amino acids in the spike protein of the virus, which the pathogen uses to attach to a human airway or lung cell.

Before a virus can inject its RNA into a cell, the spike must effectively unzip, exposing two chains of amino acids, in order to fuse to the cell wall. As the spike zips back up to complete the process, the lipopeptide in the spray inserts itself, latching on to one of the spike’s amino acid chains and preventing the virus from attaching.

“It is like you are zipping a zipper but you put another zipper inside, so the two sides cannot meet,” said Matteo Porotto, a microbiologist at Columbia University and one of the paper’s authors.

The work was described in a paper posted to the preprint server bioRxiv Thursday morning, and has been submitted to the journal Science for peer review.

Dr. Peter J. Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said the therapy looked “really promising.”

“What I’d like to know now is how easy it is to scale production,” he said.

In the study, the spray was given to six ferrets, which were then divided into pairs and placed in three cages. Into each cage also went two ferrets that had been given a placebo spray and one ferret that had been deliberately infected with SARS-CoV-2 a day or two earlier.

Ferrets are used by scientists studying flu, severe acute respiratory syndrome and other respiratory diseases because they can catch viruses through the nose much as humans do, although they also infect each other by contact with feces or by scratching and biting.

After 24 hours together, none of the sprayed ferrets caught the disease; all the placebo-group ferrets did.

“Virus replication was completely blocked,” the authors wrote.

The protective spray attaches to cells in the nose and lungs and lasts about 24 hours, Moscona said. “If it works this well in humans, you could sleep in a bed with someone infected or be with your infected kids and still be safe,” she said.

The amino acids come from a stretch of the spike protein in coronaviruses that rarely mutates. The scientists tested it against four different variants of the virus, including both the well-known “Wuhan” and “Italian” strains, and also against the coronaviruses that cause SARS and Middle East respiratory syndrome.

In cell cultures, it protected completely against all strains of the pandemic virus, fairly well against SARS and partially against MERS.

The lipoprotein can be inexpensively produced as a freeze-dried white powder that does not need refrigeration, Moscona said. A doctor or pharmacist could mix the powder with sugar and water to produce a nasal spray.

Other labs have designed antibodies and “mini-proteins” that also block the SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering cells, but these are chemically more complex and may need to be stored in cold temperatures.

Moscona and Porotto have been collaborating on similar “fusion inhibitor” peptides for 15 years, they said in a conference call. They have developed some against measles, Nipah, parainfluenza and other viruses.

But those products aroused little commercial interest, Porotto said, because an effective measles vaccine already exists and because the deadly Nipah virus only turns up occasionally in faraway places like Bangladesh and Malaysia.

Monoclonal antibodies to the new coronavirus have been shown to prevent infection as well as treat it, but they are expensive to make, require refrigeration and must be injected. Australian scientists have tested a nasal spray against COVID-19 in ferrets, but it works by enhancing the immune system, not by targeting the virus directly.

Because lipopeptides can be shipped as a dry powder, they could be used even in rural areas in poor countries that lack refrigeration, Moscona said.

Moscona, a pediatrician who usually works on parainfluenza and other viruses that infect children, said she was most interested in getting the product to poor countries that may never have access to the monoclonal antibodies and mRNA vaccines that Americans may soon have. But she has little experience in that arena, she said.

“I’ve always been a basic scientist,” she said. “I’ve never done drug development or taken anything to the FDA or anything like that.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2020 The New York Times Company

This HAD to be made! Americans Assemble 

-2:12

3.1K

https://www.facebook.com/167198216817054/posts/1562281943975334/?vh=e

The all star Democratic Avengers lineup features Joe Biden as Captain America, Barack Obama as the Black Panther, President Trump as ubervillian Thanos, Stacey Abrams as Okoye, Kamala Harris as Falcon, Bernie Sanders as Doctor Strange, Cory Booker as Drax, Elizabeth Warren as Mantis, Beto O’Rourke as Star Lord, Pete Buttigieg as Spider-Man, AOC as Captain Marvel, Ilhan Omar as Shuri, Nancy Pelosi as Wasp, Michelle Obama as Gamora, Ayanna Pressley as Rescue, and we think Hillary Clinton as Valkyrie.

Watch it below:

LMAOOO IM NEVER DELETING THIS APP

pic.twitter.com/krCSZXMfJh

— EDM BEN 10 🦍 (@_gh0stn) November 6, 2020

Also Read: Colbert Compares Trump to Thanos in 'Avengers: Endgame' RNC Parody (Video)

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spars with her centrist Democratic colleagues over policy and rhetoric after House Democrats suffer unexpected losses

Eliza Relman,
Business Insider•November 6, 2020

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., walks up the House steps for a vote in the Capitol on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images


Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez publicly pushed back on criticism from centrist House Democrats, who blamed electoral losses on left-wing policy and rhetoric.

Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat who faced a competitive reelection race, argued during a caucus call on Thursday that the party needs to abandon democratic socialism and calls to "defund" the police.

Ocasio-Cortez blamed this year's electoral failures in part on lackluster digital campaigns and said it's a "myth" that swing seat Democrats can't win on progressive policy.

House Democrats were expected to expand their majority this week while powering Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to the White House. Instead, they lost at least half a dozen seats.

Several centrist House members took aim at the party's left-wing, arguing that progressive policies and rhetoric had undermined their appeal particularly in suburban districts, during a contentious call on Thursday, The Washington Post reported.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat who faced a tough reelection race, and others took issue with democratic socialism and calls to defund the police. 

.

"We need to not ever use the word 'socialist' or 'socialism' ever again ... We lost good members because of that," Spanberger said on the call. "If we are classifying Tuesday as a success ... we will get f---ing torn apart in 2022."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez publicly pushed back on those criticisms, which she called "finger pointing," in a series of tweets on Friday.

The Bronx native argued it's a "myth" that Democrats can't win swing seats while running on progressive policies and blamed this year's electoral failures in part on lackluster digital campaigns. Many Democratic campaigns abandoned door-knocking during the pandemic, a move she suggested hurt their voter turnout efforts.

Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that "almost all" the Democrats who struggled or lost their reelections this week had "awful execution on digital. DURING A PANDEMIC."

The freshman lawmaker also took aim at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — the House campaign arm — for blacklisting political vendors that have worked on primary campaigns against sitting Democrats. Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives have taken issue with this DCCC rule in the past, blaming the group for protecting conservative Democrats in safe blue districts.

Ocasio-Cortez, who beat extremely well-funded primary and general election opponents, argued that shying away from progressive activists amounts to ignoring young voters and the Democratic Party's base of Black and Brown voters.

"You can't just tell the Black, Brown, & youth organizers riding in to save us every election to be quiet or not have their reps champion them when they need us," she wrote. "Or wonder why they don't show up for midterms when they're scolded for existing. Esp when they're delivering victories."

RED BAITING FROM SO CALLED PROGRESSIVES 
But even some members of the House Progressive Caucus, of which Ocasio-Cortez is a member, agreed with their centrist colleagues that labels like "socialist" are hurting the party's appeal in many parts of the country.

"I think Republicans did get some traction trying to scare people on this 'socialist narrative,'" Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, told The Post. "These labels do distract us and divide us in unfortunate ways ... What's the point of embracing a phrase like that? All you do is feed into these fears and bogus narratives."

Read the original article on Business Insider

The Squad's Here To Stay: Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley, Omar And Tlaib Win Reelection

Jenna Amatulli
Reporter, HuffPost,
HuffPost•November 3, 2020

The quartet of first-term progressive representatives best known as “the Squad” are sticking around Washington a little while longer: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) have all won reelection to another two years in Congress.

On Tuesday, the Democratic women of color, who are frequent targets of President Donald Trump, resolidified their standing in Congress by winning reelection in New York, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Michigan.

"The Squad" is heading back to Congress for another two years. 

(Photo: Tom Williams via Getty Images)

Endorsed and shaped by the progressive group Justice Democrats, the lawmakers’ victories are enhanced by those of three other Justice Democrat-backed candidates who were also elected on Tuesday.

Those individuals include Jamaal Bowman in New York’s 16th Congressional District, Cori Bush in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, and Marie Newman in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District.

Notably, Bush ― a woman of color like the rest of the Squad ― has already been unofficially welcomed to the crew on social media.

Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats, said in a statement to The Independent that “the Squad is continuing to grow and it will hold the next administration accountable to a bold governing agenda.”

“The Congress Joe Biden could likely be inheriting is far more progressive than the one Barack Obama inherited in 2009 and can help make the Biden administration the most progressive administration in generations,” said Rojas.

People on social media celebrated the Squad’s return to Congress:

Election 2020
Trump campaign lawyers may have violated Privacy Act and USPS rules in Nevada voter fraud lawsuit

Roger Sollenberger,
Salon•November 6, 2020

Donald Trump | Close-up of mail-in-ballots Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images


Two law firms representing the Trump campaign may have violated U.S. Postal Service (USPS) regulations and privacy law in the course of advocating for a voter fraud case in the state of Nevada.

Its electoral hopes dwindling, the Trump campaign shifted strategies on Thursday to attempting to litigate its way to a victory. The campaign filed three lawsuits, two of which were tossed within hours, and announced a fourth in Nevada which would allege "thousands" of cases of criminal voter fraud, including allegedly deceased people.

When that suit was filed, however, neither the Trump campaign nor the Republican Party were attached. Instead, it was brought in a Nevada federal court by a state resident, a "credentialed member" of the media (who also described himself to right-wing One America News as a senior advisor to the Nevada Republican Party) and the congressional campaigns for Nevada Republicans Dan Rodimer and Jim Marchant.

While the lawsuit mentions "over 3,000 instances of ineligible individuals casting ballots," that is not included among the actual legal charges. Instead, those counts stuck to allegations regarding signature verification and observer access to ballot tabulations.

However, that evening, Trump campaign chief spokesperson Tim Murtaugh posted a criminal referral which campaign lawyers had sent Attorney General William Barr alleging "fraudulent voting by non-residents of Nevada."

The letter, written by Las Vegas corporate law, estate planning and real estate attorney Shana Weir in conjunction with a Washington-area firm, called Barr's attention to "criminal voter fraud" in Nevada.

On its merits, the suit appears thin. Nevada residents do not need to provide an official U.S. Postal Service address in order to register to vote.

Clark County Voter Registrar Joseph Gloria told USA Today that while the county would look into the allegations, there was no evidence of abnormalities.

"Their [complaint] is based on something that happens regularly," he said. "You don't have to live here to be eligible to vote here."

Nonetheless, the Department of Justice is reviewing the referral, an agency official told USA Today.

At the same time, Weir's letter to Barr raised the question of how the campaign had accessed the official Postal Service change-of-address database, known as NCOALink, which may be a violation of federal law.

"Specifically, we have identified 3,062 individuals who appear to have improperly cast mail ballots in the election," Weir wrote, echoing the federal suit. "We verified this by cross-referencing the names and addresses of voters with the National Change of Address database."

The NCOALink database is designed to reduce undeliverable mail, but the Postal Service makes good money selling access to licensed vendors, such as direct mail advertisers, who can then rent the list to customers. Anyone who accesses the data is required by law to sign a Processing Acknowledgement Form (PAF) promising the U.S. government that they will use the data exclusively for mailing purposes.

The Postal Service explains that as the custodian of this personal information, the agency must account for all disclosures: "Data for any company/person who is handling a mailing list between the LICENSEE and LIST OWNER must be provided to the USPS to comply with this law. Failure to capture all data can result in the Termination of your license."

Unauthorized users may run afoul of the Privacy Act of 1974, specifically 5 U.S. Code § 552a, according to the the Postal Service:

"No agency shall disclose any record which is contained in a system of records by any means of communication to any person, or to another agency, except pursuant to a written request by, or with the prior written consent of, the individual to whom the record pertains."

The PAF agreements include these promises:

I also understand that the sole purpose of the NCOALink service is to provide a mailing list correction service for lists that will be used for preparation of mailings. Furthermore, I understand that NCOALink may not be used to create or maintain new movers' lists.

It is not immediately clear how Weir or her co-signer, Jesse Binnall, came into the NCOA data. It is also not apparent from the content of their criminal referral to Barr that the "sole purpose" of accessing this data was to prepare for mailings.

While it is possible the campaign's attorneys could argue that they were preparing to notify these voters by mail, the language of the letter suggests the lawyers' sole purpose was simply to compare information: "We verified this by cross-referencing the names and addresses of voters with the National Change of Address database."

A 10-year postal industry veteran, who citing concern for his current government position spoke to Salon on condition of anonymity, said election officials rely on NCOALink to identify voters who may have moved or changed locations so they can mail registration information.

A third-party firm, however, cannot simply run a cross-check on the database, the person said. That would violate the agreement, and it could cost the licensee their license — which can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars — as well as incur criminal penalties for violating the Privacy Act. Data marketing firms and mail houses take this seriously, the individual said, because a single breach has the potential to bring down their business.

A number of other unexplained elements surround the letter to Barr. For instance, it is unclear why the campaign did not sign on to the Nevada suit, as it said it would. It is also unclear why the letter, which is not a legal document, focused on the specific allegation of registration fraud, when that charge was left out of the lawsuit.

It is also unclear what action, if any, the campaign expects of Barr, and why it felt compelled to take a state-level issue to the federal government.

In a similar letter to the Clark County District Attorney, Weir only specifies a cross-check of "publicly available change of address records" — not the NCOA.

"Indeed, we have initially identified 3,062 voters who moved from Nevada before the election but still cast ballots in this election," the letter reads. "We have verified this by cross-referencing the list of general election voters with publicly available change of address records. For instance, demographic experts agree that the National Change of Address database only captures about one-third of relocations. Consequently, this number will likely grow by 6,000 voters, at a minimum."

The Democratic National Committee on Friday filed a defense motion calling the Republican allegations of fraud "too late, rife with procedural deficiencies and meritless." The motion pointed to mirror complaints about voter lists from a suit thrown out of Clark County District Court in September.

Then there are questions about the lawyers themselves.

"Real lawyers wouldn't file this junk, so the campaign had to find new ones who would," campaign finance expert Brett Kappel told Salon, pointing out that the Trump campaign already retained Las Vegas representation.

"The payments will probably show up on the post-general election report, although it's also possible that they were hired by the Nevada Republican Party," he added.

The firm on the letterhead, Weir Law Group, appears to be a one-woman shop in Las Vegas operated by Shana Weir. She opened the firm nine months ago, according to her LinkedIn page. The Weir Law Group's Twitter account is currently set to "private," and the website in its bio has not been set up.

Weir is listed as an official delegate for the Nevada Republican Party. Her delegate bio claims that she "began to advise the Nevada Trump campaign on legal issues throughout the primary; and then into the general election." She further claims that she oversaw and "legally advised" poll watchers, as well as filed a suit on behalf of the campaign to halt vote counts on Election Day. (That suit was dismissed.)

However, despite those months of advisory work, FEC searches conducted by Salon found no immediately available record of any Trump campaign payments to Weir nor to Binnall, a partner at HarveyBinnall, the Washington-area firm specializing in political law.


Binnall's experience includes his 2016 defense of Dimitri Kesar, the deputy campaign manager for Sen. Ron Paul, R-Ky., who landed in prison after pleading guilty to hiding campaign payments through a third-party vendor — an arrangement which also poses serious legal questions for the Trump campaign.

Weir, Binnall and a Trump campaign spokesperson did not reply to Salon's requests for comment. A Postal Service spokesperson declined to comment.

Lindsey Graham, who begged for cash on Fox News, tells Sean Hannity he will give Trump $500,000

Roger Sollenberger,
Salon•November 6, 2020




Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who earlier this week won re-election to a fourth term, told Fox News host and Trump "pillow-talk" pal Sean Hannity on Thursday that "nothing is off the table" when it comes to challenging the results of a democratically-held presidential election. To boot, Graham pledged half a million dollars to the President Donald Trump's "defense legal fund."

"I'm here tonight to stand with President Trump," Graham told Hannity. "He stood with me. He's the reason we're going to have a Senate majority . . . He helped Senate Republicans. We're going to pick up House seats because of the campaign that President Trump won."


Graham ignored one basic fact: Trump has not won the election. (He currently trails in must-win states as outstanding ballots continue to be tabulated. He also is more than 4 million ballots down in the popular vote.)

"I'm going to donate $500,000 tonight to President Trump's defense legal fund," Graham then revealed.
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"I've been on your show," he told Hannity. "You've raised a ton of money for me. Your audience was incredibly helpful to Lindsey Graham dot com. Give to Donald J. Trump dot com so we will have the resources to fight. The allegations of wrongdoing are earth-shattering. It makes the Carter warrant, Page application, Carter warrant, uh — Carter Page warrant application look on the up and up."

Over the final weeks of his Senate campaign, Graham, at times out-raised two-to-one by Democratic rival Jaime Harrison, took to begging for campaign donations on Fox News shows, including Hannity's primetime program. He also appeared to violate Senate ethics rules and federal law when he solicited contributions in the Senate building after a round of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

"I don't know how much it affected fundraising today, but if you want to help me close the gap," he told reporters outside the hearing room. "Lindsey Graham dot com — a little bit goes a long way."

Graham, fresh off a victory in the most hotly contested and high-profile election of his political career, announced his Hannity appearance after the president's eldest adult son, Donald Trump Jr., called out the Palmetto State Republican for not defending his father on Twitter.

"No one is surprised," Don Jr. wrote.

The president has repeatedly lied that he has already won the election, claiming that victory was stolen from him because officials continued to count lawfully count votes after he baselessly declared himself the winner early Wednesday morning.

"If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us," Trump told reporters during a Thursday press conference at the White House.

There is no evidence of illegal voting, and judges have summarily dismissed some of the Trump campaign's lawsuits within hours of filing.

Trump's baseless claims were met with unusually fierce criticism from fellow Republicans, some of whom warned that his rhetoric was not only "insane" but also "dangerous."

"We want every vote counted, yes every legal vote (of course). But, if you have legit concerns about fraud present EVIDENCE and take it to court," Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., tweeted on Thursday. "STOP Spreading debunked misinformation . . . This is getting insane."

During the Hannity interview, Graham, who said that the Trump campaign had plans to brief Republican lawmakers on Saturday, called on his party colleagues to step up.

When Hannity asked whether Graham, in his capacity as a lawyer, thought that Pennsylvania state Republican lawmakers should appoint their own electors regardless of the final vote, Graham said "everything should be on the table." He also claimed, without evidence, that Philadelphia elections operations were "crooked as a snake" and that there were "a lot of dead people voting" in Nevada.

"Philadelphia elections are crooked as a snake," he said. "Why are they shutting people out? Because they don't want people to see what they're doing. But you're talking about a lot of dead people voting. You're talking about — in Nevada — people voting who are not legal residents."

Graham praised the system in Arizona, where Trump still trails in the count, and complimented Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, for his honesty.

"I trust Arizona," Graham said. "I don't trust Philadelphia. I don't trust what's going on in Nevada. So everything should be on the table."
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"Let's stand with President Trump. He stood with us," Graham added. "And this reminds me of the Carter Page warrant application, where they're just trying to get an outcome — damn the law, damn the process."

As Hannity lauded Graham's $500,000 pledge, the senator began to plug the president's campaign website: "Donald J Trump dot com. Five bucks from a million people goes a long way."

Southern Alberta & Saskatchewan on winter storm watch this weekend


Fri., November 6, 2020

Winter storm watches have been issued by Environment Canada for a chunk of southern Alberta.

As of 1:30 p.m., Calgary was not included in the list. The following communities and surrounding areas are warned by Environment Canada that the rapid snowfall could make travel difficult.

Communities on winter storm watch


Brooks, Strathmore, Vulcan


Cardston, Fort Macleod, Magrath


Crowsnest Pass, Pincher Creek, Waterton Lakes National Park


Cypress Hills Provincial Park, Foremost


Hanna, Coronation, Oyen


Lethbridge, Taber, Milk River


Medicine Hat, Bow Island, Suffield


Okotoks, High River, Claresholm

Environment Canada said about five centimetres is expected in Brooks, Hanna and Oyen, as well as possibly 10 to 15 centimetres in the foothills.

Kyle Brittain, the local bureau chief for The Weather Network, told the Calgary Eyeopener that Albertans shouldn't be fooled by initial mild temperatures.

Brittain advised travellers to stay home if they can.

"We're actually going to be starting to see some of that light snow developing today across parts of far, southwestern Alberta," he said.

"But it's really going to start to ramp up as we get late into Friday night, early Saturday morning."

Brittain said over the weekend, there may be blizzard-like conditions for areas south of Calgary, particularly Medicine Hat.

Fiona Odlum, CBC News

"We're looking at a few different rounds of heavy snow potentially blowing around, especially the winds are really going to start to increase as we get into Saturday and into Sunday," he said.

As well, a potential "historic" snowstorm across parts of southern Saskatchewan may cause road closures.

"So something to keep in mind if there were travel plans to head east at all this weekend … it may become difficult or impossible," Brittain said.

He said if you need to travel, carry an emergency kit, a charged phone and keep in contact with others.

Total snowfall amounts range from 30 to 40 centimetres, said Environment Canada.

Up to 50 cm of snow in some communities

Brittain says Pincher Creek and Waterton could potentially get up to 50 centimetres of snow between the span of Friday evening and Monday morning.

"So tucked into that southwestern corner of Alberta, we have the added effect of the terrain that the winds flow upslope in southwestern Alberta," he said.

"And as we progress into the weekend, it gets colder so that snow is going to become lighter and fluffier and certainly able to blow around in the strong winds."

Brittain said that's good enough reason to stay off the roads if you can.

Frankie MacDonald, a popular weather forecaster out of Nova Scotia, agrees. He says Albertans need to "be prepared!"

Take a listen to his full warning in the video below.

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener.

Huge snow dump coming to the Sask. this weekend

Thu., November 5, 2020

After a week of high temperatures breaking records thanks to a warm front bringing temps into the low 20s, people in Saskatchewan are now preparing to trade in their sandals for snowshoes.

The recent beautiful weather will play a role in the upcoming weekend winter event. The warm air coupled with arctic air being pushed in and a deepening low pressure system state-side could be a recipe for record-breaking snow in the province.

Starting late on Friday, a low pressure system will begin moving across the the central grainbelt, bringing a mix of snow and freezing rain, and potentially ice pellets. As this system moves from the south west corner quickly north, areas like Saskatoon will experience potentially hazardous roads conditions due to both ice and reduced visibility.

Fiona Odlum, CBC News

Only about one cm of snow and about one mm of rain are expected Friday, but on Saturday Saskatoon will see a deepening upper-level trough, bringing a dramatic change in temperatures and much more intense snow.

Saskatoon, Prince Albert and North Battleford should expect 10 cm of snow Saturday, but areas like Swift Current will see around five cm and Regina should expect about one cm (with one mm of freezing rain mixed in).

The big show

Things should change for the worse on Sunday. Snowfall rates will start to rapidly intensify across southern areas and the wind will increase from the north east, at 35 km/hr gusting to 55. Visibility will decrease quickly.

This scenario is a classic Colorado low, as it will bring intense snow and will move quickly, slicing the province on a northeast angle. This storm also has the potential to become a blizzard and close highways, including the TransCanada.

"Regina is flirting with freezing rain at first, but 30 cm looks possible with the heaviest snow coming Sunday evening and overnight," Terri Lang with Environment and Climate Change Canada said.

"Many places in Sask. will likely get over 30 cm of snow, with snow and blowing snow a big issue well into Monday. Freezing rain is a real threat in the southeast."

Blowing and drifting snow and whiteout conditions are possible and people should only travel after consulting the Saskatchewan Highways Hotline. The storm is anticipated to hit its peak Sunday night.

The bullseye of the storm is settling over Moose Jaw, where snowfall could be between 40 and 50 cm.

Regina could see 30 to 40 cm from Sunday night into Monday morning. Saskatoon could see approximately 25 centimeters on Sunday, making for a weekend total of as much as 35 centimeters by the time the storm passes.

Daytime highs will be below freezing on Saturday and Sunday, creating an increased risk of highways freezing over and creating unfavourable driving conditions.

Travellers in the southeast corner of the province should be cautious over the weekend, as the storm will transition to mostly freezing rain and ice pellets. This will also me a major concern for commuting.

By Monday the system should start to weaken and move onto Manitoba. Looking at the week ahead, temperatures return to seasonal and overnight lows will be below season at -19 C on Monday into Tuesday.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Exclusive: PwC affiliate quits as Carlsberg India auditor, avoids opinion for 2nd year

Carlsberg faces scrutiny by India's antitrust authority, which has concluded the brewerer colluded with other companies to fix beer prices.

Carlsberg beer cans are seen at a pub in Mumbai


Aditya Kalra,
Reuters•November 7, 2020

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - PwC's India affiliate has resigned as the auditor of Carlsberg India Pvt Ltd, declining for a second year in a row to give an opinion on its financial results, the brewer and two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Denmark's Carlsberg A/S has been locked in a commercial dispute with its joint venture partner in India, Nepal-based Khetan Group, amid an internal probe into the brewer's local practices that sparked a boardroom battle and concerns from its auditor.

"As far as we are informed, the divergent views among the Carlsberg India Board of Directors is the primary reason for the disclaimer of opinion made by the auditor, which will be included in the 2019/20 accounts," said Steve Deng, corporate affairs director for Carlsberg Asia.

He told Reuters by email the auditor decided to resign.

PwC's India affiliate did not offer an opinion on Carlberg India's 2018-19 results, citing disagreement among some board members and compliance concerns, including a review of complaints around the promotion of beer in prohibited areas.

Its decision to do the same for the business year through March and to resign was discussed at a Carlsberg India board meeting this month, the sources told Reuters.

"The auditor's view is that if it cannot give an opinion for two consecutive years, then it has to quit," said one source, asking not to be named as the decision is not public.

PwC declined comment. C.P. Khetan, who manages the India Carlsberg partnership for the JV partner, did not respond to requests for comment.

The latest results, like last year's, have not been approved by the board's three Khetan representatives but have been signed off by the seven nominated by Carlsberg, the sources said.

Khetan's representative directors had asked the Indian government to investigate what they said was Carlsberg's non-compliance with laws on trade discounts, advertisement and sales promotion, according to the brewer's India 2018-19 disclosures.

For last year's results, Price Waterhouse Chartered Accountants LLP, the local affiliate, said it chose not to give an opinion due to "divergent views" among board members, ongoing forensic reviews and the possible impact these could have on legal compliance.

Carlsberg's Deng said official complaints that the JV partner made to India's registrar of companies in August 2019 and February 2020 have been closed.

The dispute comes as Carlsberg faces scrutiny by India's antitrust authority, which has concluded the brewerer colluded with other companies to fix beer prices. A final ruling in that matter is pending.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi; Editing by William Mallard)

#WW3.0

India's top general says face-off with China could spark bigger conflict

INTER IMPERIALIST RIVALRY


FILE PHOTO: Snow-covered mountain range is seen from a passenger airplane in Ladakh region

Devjyot Ghoshal,
Reuters November 6, 2020

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's top military commander said on Friday a tense border standoff with Chinese forces in the western Himalayas could spark a larger conflict, even as senior commanders from both sides met near the frontline for their eighth round of talks.

Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat said the situation was tense at the Line of Actual Control, the de facto border, in eastern Ladakh, where thousands of Indian and Chinese troops are locked in a months-long confrontation.

"We will not accept any shifting of the Line of Actual Control," Rawat said in an online address.

"In the overall security calculus, border confrontations, transgressions and unprovoked tactical military actions spiralling into a larger conflict cannot therefore be discounted," he said.

Brutal hand-to-hand combat in June left 20 Indian and an undisclosed number of Chinese soldiers dead, escalating tensions and triggering large deployments on the remote, desolate border area.

Both sides have since attempted to ease the situation through diplomatic and military channels, but have made little headway, leaving soldiers facing-off in sub-zero temperatures in Ladakh's snow deserts.

Senior Indian and Chinese commanders were meeting on Friday in Ladakh, the eight round of talks between the military leaderships since the crisis began, officials in New Delhi said.

The talks would likely include discussions on a Chinese proposal to pull some troops back from a contested area on the northern bank of Pangong Tso lake, where soldiers were separated by a few hundred metres, according to an Indian official.

Infantry troops, backed by artillery and armoured vehicles, are also facing off on the southern bank of the lake, where China has been pushing India to pull back, the official said.

(Reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal, Editing by William Maclean)

#NONUKES PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY
Navy Awards $9.47 Billion to Start New Class of Nuclear Submarine

Gina Harkins,
Military.com•November 6, 2020


The Navy awarded a massive contract to General Dynamics Electric Boat on Thursday to build its first Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine and start work on its second.

Electric Boat won the $9.47 billion bid to build the first-in-its-class Columbia sub, which Navy leaders have long called a top acquisition priority for the service. The contract also calls for continued advanced construction on the second Columbia-class sub, the Wisconsin, which leaders said will start in full in fiscal 2024 as long as Congress grants the funding.

The subs will replace the aging Ohio-class force. The Navy plans to buy at least a dozen Columbia-class subs, with the first one expected to be delivered to the service in fiscal 2027.


"Today's contract award marks a significant milestone toward delivering at least 12 Columbia class submarines, the first of which will ... be on its first patrol early and [fiscal 2031]," Rear Adm. Scott Pappano, the Columbia's program executive officer, told reporters on Thursday.

James Geurts, assistant Navy secretary for research, development and acquisition, said the contract award is a huge milestone for the program, but challenges remain.

"There's a whole lot of effort to get the first ship out, and get the first ship out right," he said. "That's necessary, but not sufficient. We've got to make sure your enterprise is ready to execute the full scope of the program so that we can meet the nuclear-deterrent requirements of the nation."

Capt. Jon Rucker, the Columbia-class program manager, noted that the Navy hasn't launched full construction of a new ballistic missile submarine since the 1970s. That leaves little room for error when it comes to construction on the Columbia-class subs, given the age of those they're set to replace.

Electric Boat also built the Ohio-class subs. With the Navy's ballistic submarine force carrying more than two-thirds of the country's deployed nuclear weapons, Pappano called the subs the "nation's ultimate insurance policy."

The Columbia-class submarines are slated to remain in the fleet into the 2080s. Rucker said the lead ship will cost $9.2 billion.

The Navy has plans to begin buying one Columbia-class sub per year later this decade, and an October Congressional Research Service report noted that observers are concerned about the industrial base's ability to keep up with that demand at the same time the Defense Department is prioritizing the Virginia-class fast-attack submarine.

When unveiling Battle Force 2045, the Navy's plan for a 500-ship fleet, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said if the Pentagon prioritizes nothing else, it "must begin building three Virginia-class submarines a year as soon as possible."

Kevin Graney, General Dynamics Electric Boat's president, said the Columbia is the most advanced design in his company's history.

"We've ... been working hard to hire and train thousands of new ship builders," Graney said. "That is still ongoing today, and we're going to continue to do that for the foreseeable future."

They've also invested $1.8 billion in facilities to prepare for simultaneous Virginia- and Columbia-class sub construction.

"This is by far the largest investment we've made in the facility in our history," Graney said.

-- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins.


General Dynamics Electric Boat awarded $9.5 billion by U.S. Navy for Columbia-class submarines

PR Newswire•November 5, 2020

EB is prime contractor on design and production of new class of submarines, the nation's top strategic defense priority

GROTON, Conn., Nov. 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- General Dynamics Electric Boat, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE:GD), announced today that the U.S. Navy has awarded it a $9.474 billion contract modification option for construction and test of the lead and second ships of the Columbia class, as well as associated design and engineering support.

An artist depiction of the Columbia-class submarine for the U.S. Navy.

Electric Boat is the prime contractor on the Columbia program, which will replace the aging Ohio class of ballistic missile submarines.

Electric Boat will perform about 78% of the construction of the Columbia class and recently shifted the program to full-scale construction at the company's manufacturing complex in Quonset Point, Rhode Island. Construction of four of the six 'supermodules' will take place at Electric Boat's Quonset Point facility. The supermodules will then be transported by barge to the company's Final Test and Assembly yard in Groton, Connecticut, where the components will be assembled into a complete submarine in a 200,000 square-foot facility now under construction specifically for the Columbia class.

General Dynamics recently reported that the design maturity for Columbia was almost 90% complete, nearly twice the level of design completion of the lead Virginia-class submarine when it started construction.

"Electric Boat has been making preparations for construction of the Columbia class for nearly a decade, including advancing the design of this critical Navy asset, hiring and training thousands of skilled tradespeople, modernizing our facilities and helping to bolster the supply base. As a result, Columbia's design is more advanced than that of any previous submarine program," said Kevin Graney, president of General Dynamics Electric Boat. "We are grateful for the unwavering support of the Navy and Congress in securing funding to avoid disruption of this critical program."

At 560 feet long with a displacement of nearly 21,000 tons, the submarines of the Columbia class will be the largest ever built by the United States. Ships of the Columbia class will have a life-of-ship fuel core that will power the submarine for its entire service life, eliminating the need for a mid-service refueling. Electric Boat will deliver the lead ship to the Navy in 2027.

General Dynamics is a global aerospace and defense company that offers a broad portfolio of products and services in business aviation; combat vehicles, weapons systems and munitions; IT services; C4ISR solutions; and shipbuilding and ship repair. General Dynamics employs more than 100,000 people worldwide and generated $39.4 billion in revenue in 2019. More information about Electric Boat is available at www.gdeb.com. More information about General Dynamics is available at www.gd.com.


General Dynamics (PRNewsFoto/General Dynamics) (PRNewsFoto/General Dynamics)
Cision

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SOURCE General Dynamics Electric Boat