Trump Has Reportedly Been Asking About Pardons for Himself, His Family, and More

Trace William Cowen
Complex•November 13, 2020


Donald J. Trump, who has now successfully carried his penchant for failure as a former steak salesman into his role as POTUS, has allegedly been making inquiries about the ins and outs of pardons for several years now.

According to a new report from CNN including commentary from a number of sources described as "current and former" administration officials, Trump's had matters of pardon on the brain since at least 2017. Since then, former aides explained, Trump has "been asking" whether he would be able to pardon himself.

Another ex-White House official, meanwhile, said Trump has also asked about pardons for family members, as well as preemptive pardons aimed at federal crimes one could be charged with in the future. As pardons are only applicable for crimes of a federal nature, the action would not prevent Trump or anyone else from potential results stemming from Trump Organization investigations that are currently in progress under the direction of the New York attorney general.

And while some have assessed an attempted self-pardon as a surefire thing, others have argued such a move is highly unlikely, if for no other reason than doing so would quite clearly imply some sort of guilt. Also notable, as pointed out by the Washington Post earlier this week, is that trying to pardon himself isn't constitutionally supported.


Back in 2018, Trump publicly theorized about pardoning himself, at once claiming he has "the absolute right" to do so while also questioning why he would need to if he had truly "done nothing wrong."

In the days since Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, Trump has been adamant in putting forth a false narrative built atop baseless claims of voter fraud. In an interview with Byron York of the Washington Examiner, published Friday, Trump appeared to still be very much in reckless denial mode.

Indeed, as the pandemic rages on, Trump is more concerned with activities like calling up Fox News frequenter Geraldo Rivera:

Geraldo Rivera

@GeraldoRivera

Just had heartfelt phone call w friend @realDonaldTrump who said he's a "realist" who'll do the"right thing" But he wants to see "what states do in terms of certifiction (etc)" He sounded committed to fighting for every vote & if he loses, talking more about all he's accomplished

8:47 AM · Nov 13, 2020

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Dye Another Day? Trump’s Hair Dominates Talk in First Public Speech Since Election Loss

J. Clara Chan The Wrap November 13, 2020


President Donald Trump on Friday made his first public speech since losing the presidential election to Joe Biden, and viewers on social media were quick to notice that the president’s hair looked much more…natural.

Giving an update on the government’s Operation Warp Speed to combat the coronavirus pandemic from the White House’s Rose Garden, Trump appeared at the podium with his typical combover, but instead of the typical yellow-blond hue he sports, his hair looked noticeably white.

“Is it my TV or is Trump’s hair not looking it’s [sic] usual dog-piss yellow today?” former Republican strategist Ana Navarro-Cárdenas tweeted.

Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, tweeted, “The person who dyes Donald Trump’s hair yellow must have found another job.”

Also Read: Kellyanne Conway Electoral Vote Tweet From 2016 Comes Back to Haunt Her

During his remarks on Friday, Trump did not repeat his false claims that he won the election but did allude to the possibility that another administration would be managing the pandemic, including any further shutdowns.

“I will not go — this administration will not be going to a lockdown,” he said. “Hopefully, whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration it will be, I guess time will tell.”

He concluded his remarks without taking any questions from the assembled press corps.

Take a look at some of the responses below to Trump’s gray-white hair.

Is it my TV or is Trump’s hair not looking it’s usual dog-piss yellow today? pic.twitter.com/9zBDHBR6RM
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) November 13, 2020


evidently losing the election has made Trump’s hair go white pic.twitter.com/YzhQW1UsPP
— Natasha Noman | نتاشانعمان 🏳️‍🌈 (@NatashaNoman) November 13, 2020


Trump’s hair looking like Henry Bowers’s after he saw the Deadlights.
— Kris Tapley (@kristapley) November 13, 2020


Trump's hair is now white. His face is still orange.
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) November 13, 2020


I will say something nice about the president: he should never have been putting all of that Joker hair dye in his hair. Gray looks more normal. https://t.co/x2sO0pGH28
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 13, 2020


Trump's hair is now white. His face is still orange.
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) November 13, 2020


Oddly, Trump is suddenly no longer blonde. His hair appears to have turned gray since Election Day pic.twitter.com/Nkn8KLXPhZ
— Frida Ghitis (@FridaGhitis) November 13, 2020

oh dear. judging by his hair color, trump is at the Listening To Phoebe Bridgers stage of his depression. if he starts tweeting lil peep lyrics we are in trouble pic.twitter.com/AMK4pRt5iH
— Dan Ozzi (@danozzi) November 13, 2020


BREAKING: Trump’s hair decides it’s time to leave the White House (and his head, for good). #Election2020results. pic.twitter.com/GDi8f5WIw7
— Tim Walker (@ThatTimWalker) November 7, 2020



Read original story Dye Another Day? Trump’s Hair Dominates Talk in First Public Speech Since Election Loss At TheWrap

Singapore: Helping the migrant workers who pay to get jobs


Lucy Martin - BBC News, Singapore
Fri, November 13, 2020

Migrant worker in Singapore

Would you pay money or even go into debt to get a job?

For many migrant workers in Singapore, it's common practice to pay a fee or incur a debt for the chance to secure work in the city-state.

There are more than 350,000 foreigners working in Singapore in the construction and marine sectors.


Most are from Bangladesh and India, and many toil under a burden of huge debt which they incur from agents who help to arrange the job.

But the founders of a new digital jobs platform in Singapore hope to shift that burden onto employers.

Excessive agent fees

By law, employment agents in Singapore can't collect more than two months' salary from an employee.

But Singapore has no control over the fees paid to agents based in other countries.

HealthServe is a local charity that provides migrant workers with medical treatment, food and support with workplace disputes.

Building site in Singapore

The charity's head of communications, Suwen Low, has encountered cases where foreign workers are charged anywhere from $1,100 (£833) up to $11,000 (£8,333).

The fee could cover legitimate costs such as training in their home country or travel arrangements.

But with multiple agents often involved in the process - some of whom might be relatives or friends - the fees quickly add up before the worker sets foot in Singapore.

With some monthly salaries as low as $500, debts can take years to pay back.

It's the opposite for highly paid migrants in sectors such as banking or technology, who often receive generous housing allowances and other perks to entice them.

"You and I didn't have to pay for our jobs, so why is it that [these workers], who are some of the worst-off in terms of wages and working conditions, have to bear the cost?" said Ms Low.
'We want to be trailblazers'

Singapore-based start-up Sama hopes to relieve the burden on migrant workers with its new job-matching platform, which launched in April.

Sama is a registered agency in Singapore, and much like its competition, it charges a maximum fee of two months' salary.

Co-founders Nemanja Grujicic and Kirtan Patel say they're different from other local agencies because they are convincing companies to pay the fee, rather than the worker.

"We believe that workers are more productive when they are working not to avoid debt but to earn more and build a life," said co-founder Kirtan Patel.

Fellow co-founder Nemanja Grujicic said the company is also applying for a licence to operate in Bangladesh and India to reduce workers' reliance on foreign agents.

"If you lose control of any part of the recruiting chain there is a massive probability someone is going to charge the worker several thousand dollars," Mr Grujicic said.

Job hunters contact the company via WhatsApp and then upload documents such as training certificates, identification and work history.

They are then given a link to the online platform and matched to jobs in Singapore, based on their skills.

The platform, which currently has 1,500 people registered, also allows workers to have their salary put into a digital wallet so they can transfer money home instantly.
'They helped me'

Ali Zahid from Bangladesh was among the first to find employment through Sama as a driver for a construction company.

The 28-year-old has been working in Singapore for five years and needed a new job after his previous one finished.

"They helped me to get a good job and it was not hard," he said.

He earns around $700 each month and sends much of that back to his family in Bangladesh.

He is hoping to save the rest to start a business when he eventually returns home.
Companies pay

Chua Chee Pin is the director of his family's sawmill and woodwork business, Tat Hin Timber.

He employed one person through Sama and paid the platform's fee.

"If I look after my workers' basic needs, I hope they will look after my business by being responsible and motivated."

Mr Chua hopes to recruit more workers from the platform and would like to see more companies taking a similar approach.

Singapore's Ministry of Manpower said in a statement that "most employers in Singapore are responsible and enlightened" and that a 2018 survey found migrant workers were well treated and happy.

It also said that while it cannot regulate foreign agents, it "continues to engage their embassies and relevant counterparts when we are made aware of malpractices in their home countries".

Covid-19 Singapore: A 'pandemic of inequality' exposed


Migrant workers: 'You don't want us any more in the UK'

'Our time is far from over': Without Donald Trump, what happens to global populism?

Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY 13 November 2020

He was their anti-science standard-bearer. He made it seem like blaming immigrants and minorities had no consequences. He emboldened falsehoods of a grand conspiracy targeting nationalists and championed the use of police and the judiciary to root it out.

For the past four years, populist and authoritarian leaders from Brazil to the Philippines have looked to President Donald Trump for inspiration and validation for their right-wing agendas. What happens now that their most prominent and outspoken backer has suffered defeat in the U.S. election to President-elect Joe Biden?

"It is a setback for the populist movement, but only a temporary one," Nigel Farage, former leader of Britain's anti-European Union Brexit Party, and a close Trump ally, insisted in a text message to USA TODAY. "Trumpism has reshaped American politics in a way that will not change, and the other global movements will continue."

Donald Trump welcomes pro-Brexit leader Nigel Farage at a campaign rally in Jackson, Miss., in August 2016. Farage is one of Trump's strongest U.K. supporters.

'Welcome back, America': World congratulates Joe Biden; allies look ahead

'Our time is far from over'

In Germany, Ronald Gläser, a local lawmaker for the city of Berlin's anti-immigration opposition party, Alternative für Deutschland, said "our time is far from over" and predicted that "financial exploitation," a "waive of migrant crime" and "high energy costs and taxes" would keep his party, and Trump, more relevant than ever.

"The love of freedom, independence and sovereignty is strong among normal people," Gläser said. "As is disgust for political correctness, socialism and the like."

These countries quietly slid into authoritarianism: Should the US be concerned?

Still, analysts say, Biden's win is likely to at least complicate ties between Washington and foreign capitals where the Trump administration's mix of strategic and idealogical positions on the economy, social tensions, climate change and politics found favor.

On Veterans Day: How Biden's plan for the Pentagon differs from Trump

"Some leaders are not going to be able to be as bold as they were before with their rhetoric, that's for sure. They will need to show a bit more humility," said Emilia Palonen, an expert on political populism at the University of Helsinki in Finland.

Palonen added that when the Biden White House starts "tweeting more constructively," as she expects it to, it will have a positive "discursive effect globally."

But overall, Palonen and other experts said, the influence of Trump's departure on populism's global trajectory may be limited, not least because while Trump has done much to amplify its global ascendency over the past half a decade or more, right-wing populist tendencies in India, Turkey, France and elsewhere largely predate him.

"Never forget that all politics is local," said Michael Ignatieff, a U.S.-educated, Canadian-born former politician, historian and president of Hungary's Central European University, whose Budapest campus Prime Minister Viktor Orban shut down because of its links to George Soros, the college's billionaire financier and liberal donor. Soros is a bogeyman for unfounded conspiracy theories and attacks by European and U.S. right-wing groups.

"If there's deep disaffection and disaffiliation (with mainstream politics) in France or somewhere else that just keeps on going whether or not Trump is in office," Ignatieff said. "Geert Wilders was on the scene long before Trump, and he'll be here long after," he added, referring to the politician from the Netherlands who is sometimes credited with being the modern-day father of European xenophobic populism.

Geert Wilders interview: Would-be Dutch PM: Islam threatens our way of life

"America has to cure itself of the idea that when it sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold, or that when it smiles the whole world rolls over," he said. "That's not how it works, if it ever did. I don't think Biden's election changed the world in a way that a progressive Democrat would like to believe, or that a Republican conservative would fear."

'It's an embarrassment': Biden responds to Trump's refusal to concede election

President Donald Trump sits in the drivers seat of a truck as he welcomes truckers and CEOs to the White House in Washington, DC, on March 23, 2017.

Still, as Trump has refused to concede the election, accusing – without evidence – Democrats of fraud and launching various long-shot legal battles, Trump-friendly leaders in Brazil (President Jair Bolsonaro) and Mexico (President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a left-leaning populist) have either remained fast and held off congratulating Biden or offered less-than-glowing endorsements.

In Hungary, Orban, who has packed the courts with loyalists and sharply eroded academic and press freedoms, wished Biden "good health and continued success in performing your exceedingly responsible duties." But Orban has also acknowledged that a Trump victory was his "Plan A" and accused U.S. Democrats of "moral imperialism."

Bolsonaro has prevaricated, saying at an event on Friday that "I am not the most important person in Brazil, just as Trump is not the most important person in the world. ... The most important person is God. Humility must be present among us."

In this March 7, 2020, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, center, stands with President Donald Trump, second from left, Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Brazil's Communications Director Fabio Wajngarten, behind Trump partially covered, during a dinner at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Like Trump, Brazil's leader has downplayed the dangers of the coronavirus pandemic, routinely insults minorities and women and often undermines scientific experts in his own government. He has said, for example, that if people really wanted to stop Amazon deforestation, they should eat and defecate less, not fret over climate change.

Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro: He followed Trump’s coronavirus blueprint. Cases are surging

In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte's office released a statement saying he looked forward to working closely with Biden and the new administration "anchored on mutual respect, mutual benefit, and shared commitment to democracy, freedom and the rule of law." But independent Philippine news website Rappler, which has persevered in spite of lawsuits and intimidation to report on Duterte's numerous illegal killings as part of his campaign against drugs, quoted Ateneo de Manila University political science professor Melay Abao as saying that "Duterte has lost an ally. The Biden camp is not likely to compromise on the human rights issue so for sure, it will frown upon the extra-judicial killings and the drug war."

President Donald Trump greets Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte at an ASEAN Summit dinner in Manila in November 2017.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia, two countries where Trump formed strong links with authoritarian leaders based largely on arms sales, offered muted congratulations to Biden a full 24 hours after news media projected him to be the 46th U.S. president.

China congratulated Biden and said it respected "the choice of the American people" – but not before nearly a full week had passed since the election's outcome.

Meanwhile, traditional American adversary Russia released a statement saying it prefers to wait until all the "legal processes" play out before honoring Biden's victory.

There has been radio silence from Pyongyang, with whom Trump held two much-ballyhooed and glitzy yet ultimately fruitless summits with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un aimed at denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.

At home, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has caused confusion by continuing to call for other nations from Belarus to Tanzania to respect "free and fair elections" while brushing aside the results of the U.S. vote that showed Trump lost his bid for a second term. "There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” Pompeo told reporters, with a chuckle, in Washington, on Tuesday. It wasn't clear if he was joking.

Matthijs Rooduijn, a political scientist specialized in populism and radicalism at the University of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, said "the breeding ground for populism remains very fertile. Conspiracy theories are widespread, polarization about coronavirus-related government measures is on the rise, and so are socioeconomic inequalities."

Putin: No congratulations for Biden before 'legal procedures' are completed

'Beginning of the end'?

Still, Donald Tusk, the former president of the European Council, the body that sets the European Union's overall political direction and priorities, has noted with hopeful optimism – Rooduijn said Tusk's words were "premature" – that "Trump's defeat can be the beginning of the end of the triumph of far-right populism" that since 2015 has dominated countries such as his native Poland, where the government has tightened its grip on state institutions including the judiciary and and imposed new taxes and fines in support of socially conservative issues.

"Thank you, Joe," Tusk tweeted Saturday, when the election was called for Biden.

Ron Klain: Biden's chief of staff is first White House official picked for administration

And in Britain, Timothy Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London, said with Trump on the way out, and Biden coming in, "a signal has been sent to those around" Prime Minister Boris Johnson who have spent the last few years "urging a culture war and populist politics" that has seen Johnson regularly bend the truth if not outright lie about the impact of Britain's EU departure – Brexit – and on other topics.

The meaning of the signal?

"It's not the way to go," said Bale.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Without Donald Trump, what happens to

'FRAUD' FACT CHECKS:
No evidence that 14,000 dead people voted in Michigan
Ballots in video of "Trump ballots" being burned is fake, city officials say
Nine military ballots were incorrectly discarded, but it wasn't an instance of fraud —and they weren't in a ditch
Arizona election department: Sharpies can be used on ballots

Afghan woman shot, blinded, for getting a job

19 YEARS AFTER AMERICA & NATO DECLARED WAR ON THE TALIBAN

By Abdul Qadir Sediqi


KABUL (Reuters) - The last thing 33-year-old Khatera saw were the three men on a motorcycle who attacked her just after she left her job at a police station in Afghanistan’s central Ghazni province, shooting at her and stabbing her with a knife in the eyes.

Khatera, 33, an Afghan police woman who was blinded after a gunmen attack in Ghazni province, speaks during an interview in Kabul, Afghanistan October 12, 2020. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail

Waking up in hospital, everything was dark.

“I asked the doctors, why I can’t see anything? They told me that my eyes are still bandaged because of the wounds. But at that moment, I knew my eyes had been taken from me,” she said.

She and local authorities blame the attack on Taliban militants - who deny involvement – and say the assailants acted on a tip-off from her father who vehemently opposed her working outside the home.

For Khatera, the attack caused not just the loss of her sight but the loss of a dream she had battled to achieve - to have an independent career. She joined the Ghazni police as an officer in its crime branch a few months ago.

“I wish I had served in police at least a year. If this had happened to me after that, it would have been less painful. It happened too soon ... I only got to work and live my dream for three months,” she told Reuters

The attack on Khatera, who only uses one name, is indicative of a growing trend, human rights activists say, of an intense and often violent backlash against women taking jobs, especially in public roles. In Khatera’s case, being a police officer could have also angered the Taliban.

The rights activists believe a mix of Afghanistan’s conservative social norms and an emboldened Taliban gaining influence while the United States withdraws its troops from the country is driving the escalation.

The Taliban are currently negotiating in Doha, Qatar, with the Afghan government to broker a peace deal in which many expect them to formally return to power, but progress is slow and there has been an uptick in fighting and attacks on officials and prominent women around the country.

In recent months, the Taliban have said they will respect women’s rights under Sharia law but many educated women say they have doubts. The insurgent group has opposed a reform to add mother’s names to identity cards, one of the first concrete stances they have revealed on women’s rights as they engage in the peace process.

“Though the situation for Afghan women in public roles has always been perilous, the recent spike in violence across the country has made matters even worse,” said Samira Hamidi, Amnesty International’s Afghanistan campaigner. “The great strides made on women’s rights in Afghanistan over more than a decade must not become a casualty of any peace deal with the Taliban.”

CHILDHOOD DREAM DASHED

Khatera’s dream as a child was to work outside the home and after years of trying to convince her father, to no avail, she was able to find support from her husband.

But her father, she said, did not give up on his opposition.

“Many times, as I went to duty, I saw my father following me ... he started contacting the Taliban in the nearby area and asked them to prevent me from going to my job,” she said.

She said that he provided the Taliban with a copy of her ID card to prove she worked for police and that he had called her throughout the day she was attacked, asking for her location


Ghazni’s police spokesman confirmed they believed the Taliban were behind the attack and that Khatera’s father had been taken into custody. Reuters was unable to reach him directly for comment.

A Taliban spokesman said the group was aware of the case, but that it was a family matter and they were not involved.

Khatera and her family, including five children, are now hiding out in Kabul, where she is recovering and mourning the career she lost.

She struggles to sleep, jumps when she hears a motorbike and has had to cut off contact with her extended family, including her mother, who blame her for her father’s arrest. She hopes desperately that a doctor overseas might somehow be able to partially restore her sight.

“If it is possible, I get back my eyesight, I will resume my job and serve in the police again,” she said, adding in part she needed an income to avoid destitution. “But the main reason is my passion to do a job outside the home.”

Reporting by Abdul Qadir Sediqi; Additional reporting by Orooj Hakimi and Charlotte Greenfield; Writing by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan

China's coronavirus vaccine trial in Brazil not affected by two-day suspension over 'suicide'

A box of China's Sinovac, a potential vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), is held during a news conference at Instituto Butantan in Sao Paulo, Brazil, November 9, 2020. REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli

SAO PAULO: A late-stage clinical trial being carried out in Brazil of a coronavirus vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd was not affected by two-day suspension due to the death of a participant later ruled as suicide, the head of the Sao Paulo institute running the study said Thursday.

The trial was paused late Monday after the death of a participant, which was registered in Sao Paulo as a suicide.

The decision by regulatory agency Anvisa to suspend the trial — one of Sinovac’s three large late-stage studies — was criticised by the organisers, who said the move had taken them by surprise and that there had been no need to stop the study as the death had no relation to the vaccine.

On Wednesday, Anvisa said the study could resume.

Dimas Covas, the head of the Butantan biomedical research institute, told reporters that the institute’s trust in Anvisa had not been dampened by the incident, although he added that the relationship between the two needed to be improved.

“We still have a lot of applications underway at Anvisa and this relationship has to be strengthened,” Covas said.

“We cannot communicate with Anvisa through press releases. We hope that there will be absolute transparency on both sides,” he added, referring to the way Butantan had found out about the decision to suspend the trials.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a longtime China critic who has baselessly dismissed the Sinovac vaccine as lacking in credibility, had hailed the suspension as a personal victory.

But Bolsonaro reiterated on Wednesday evening that his government would purchase whatever vaccine is approved by Anvisa and the Health Ministry, which could ultimately include the Sinovac vaccine.

The suspension further inflamed tensions between Bolsonaro and Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria, who has pinned his political ambitions on the Chinese vaccine that he aims to roll out in his state as early as January, with or without federal assistance.

Suicide halts Brazil trial of Chinese vaccine attacked by Bolsonaro

By Eduardo Simões, Roxanne Liu

SAO PAULO/BEIJING (Reuters) - Brazil’s health regulator suspended a clinical trial of China’s Sinovac coronavirus vaccine due to a severe adverse event, delighting President Jair Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly criticized the vaccine’s credibility and said it would not be purchased by his government.

Brazil’s health regulator, Anvisa, suspended the trials late on Monday saying the event occurred on Oct. 29.

The state government of Sao Paulo, where the trial is being run, said the death of a trial volunteer had been registered as a suicide and was being investigated. A police report of the incident was seen by Reuters.

The suspension further inflamed tensions between Bolsonaro and Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria, who has pinned his political ambitions on the Chinese vaccine which he aims to roll out in his state as early as January, with or without federal assistance.

On Tuesday, Anvisa said it would maintain the suspension and did not give any indication of how long it might last, adding it required more information on the incident. It dismissed any suggestion the move was politically motivated, saying the decision was purely technical.

The trial’s organizers criticized Anvisa’s decision, saying they had not been notified in advance and that there was no reason to stop the trial.

Although a trial volunteer had died, it had nothing to do with the vaccine, Jean Gorinchteyn, Health Secretary for the state of Sao Paulo told a news conference on Tuesday.

“We had an external event that led to the regulator being notified,” Gorinchteyn said. “This vaccine is safe.”

Dimas Covas, the head of Sao Paulo’s medical research institute Butantan, which is conducting the Sinovac trial, said the vaccine had shown no serious adverse effects. Speaking at the same news conference, he said he hoped the trial would be resumed later on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Anvisa said the initial information it received from Butantan had not specified that the death was a suicide.

“We had no choice but to suspend the trials given the event,” the head of the agency Antônio Barra Torres said.


RELATED COVERAGE

Brazil Sinovac trial organizers say COVID-19 vaccine is safe

Event that caused Brazil trial for Chinese vaccine to be suspended was suicide: TV Cultura

Brazil’s suspension of the trial, one of Sinovac’s three large late-stage studies, and the resulting fallout underlines the increasingly fraught political atmosphere surrounding the development and distribution of potential vaccines.

The setback to Sinovac’s efforts contrasts with welcome news from Pfizer Inc, which said on Monday its experimental COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective based on initial trial results.

Bolsonaro, a longtime China skeptic, has dismissed the Sinovac vaccine as lacking in credibility. On Tuesday morning, he said on his Facebook page that the suspension was “another victory for Jair Bolsonaro.”

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of The Global Times, published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s Communist Party, said on social media platform Weibo: “I am very worried that politics and the excessive pursuit of economic interests are deeply involved in the information release on vaccines.”

A World Health Organization spokeswoman sought to play down the politics. “I don’t think you need to try to find reasons or explanations other than the fact that people who are looking for a vaccine ... are very cautious,” Fadela Chaib said.

POLITICAL BATTLE LINE

Sinovac said in a statement on its website on Tuesday it was confident in the safety of its vaccine and will continue to communicate with Brazil on the matter. It has previously said it expects interim results of late-stage trials this year.

It is not uncommon for clinical trials to be suspended temporarily after a subject dies or becomes ill so that independent monitors and trial organizers can check whether it is related to the drug being tested.

Sinovac’s vaccine is among the three experimental COVID-19 vaccines China has been using to inoculate hundreds of thousands of people under an emergency use program. A Chinese health official said on Oct. 20 that no serious side effects had been observed in clinical trials.

Bolsonaro has previously said the federal government will not buy the vaccine, although he had appeared to soften his position before his celebratory social media post on Tuesday.

His stance has set a clear political battle line with the Sao Paulo Governor Doria, who has said his state will both import the vaccine and produce it. Work has even begun on a plant capable of producing 100 million doses a year.

Doria is widely expected to challenge Bolsonaro at the next presidential election in 2022.

Sinovac is also hoping to supply its experimental coronavirus vaccine to more South American countries by outsourcing some manufacturing procedures to Butantan.

Late-stage trials are also being conducted in Indonesia and Turkey. Indonesia’s state-owned Bio Farma said on Tuesday its Sinovac vaccine trials were “going smoothly.”

Four COVID-19 vaccines are being tested in Brazil, including one being developed by Oxford University with AstraZeneca Plc and another from Johnson & Johnson.

Pfizer’s vaccine, developed in partnership with Germany’s BioNTech SE, is undergoing late-stage tests involving 3,100 volunteers in Sao Paulo and Bahia states.

Worldwide, there are at least 10 experimental coronavirus vaccines in late-stage clinical trials, according to the World Health Organization. Four of them are from China.

Reporting by Eduardo Simoes in Sao Paulo, Jake Spring and Anthony Boadle in Brasilia, Roxanne Liu in Beijing; Additional reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva, Pedro Fonseca in Rio de Janeiro, Marcelo Rochabrun and Leonardo Benassatto in Sao Paulo, Stanley Widianto in Jakarta and Miyoung Kim in Singapore; Writing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Edwina Gibbs, Louise Heavens, Steve Orlofsky and Bill Berkrot

About half of the farmworkers in the US don't have legal status. They're risking getting COVID-19 to supply our food.

Michelle Mark and Jacqueline Baylon
Sep 3, 2020

Nearly half of America's 2.4 million farmworkers are in the country without legal permission.
These farmworkers have been deemed essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic, and are often working long hours in harsh conditions to supply the country with food.

These workers weren't eligible for most of the federal assistance given to Americans amid the crisis, and one worker said she fears what could happen if she gets sick.

But she said she's proud of her work, and hopes President Donald Trump will one day make it easier for workers like her to stay in the country legally.

More than 1 million of America's 2.4 million farmworkers are in the country without legal permission.

These farmworkers plow, pick, and harvest the country's fields, often for long hours and low wages, and in grueling conditions. And despite their unauthorized status, these farmworkers have been deemed essential workers during the US coronavirus crisis, which has plunged the economy into uncertainty and raised fears about food shortages.

Now, these workers risk getting COVID-19 to supply food for the country, while arguing the country isn't doing enough to protect them during the pandemic.

Farmworker advocates have expressed concern that a lack of education could leave workers susceptible to a major outbreak. That would not only wreak havoc on America's immigrant community, but it could disrupt food supply chains and cause shortages in grocery stores.

"We're treated as essential workers right now because if we don't do this kind of work, the United States is not going to have food in supermarkets, food to feed the nation," Mily Treviño-Sauceda, cofounder of the farmworkers advocacy group Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, told Business Insider Weekly.

Unauthorized immigrant farmworkers say even though they've been deemed "essential workers," they feel vulnerable. Louis DeBarraicua for Business Insider Today

Carmelita is one of more than 1 million unauthorized immigrants who are working through the pandemic. She told Business Insider Weekly she's been working in the country for 13 years.

"I don't feel 'essential,' as they say, because we don't have the same privileges," Carmelita said in Spanish.

She was referring to government programs and services available to Americans that she cannot access due to her immigration status.

Carmelita did not receive a $1,200 stimulus payments like her American counterparts, and she's also ineligible for health insurance programs like Medicaid, which would cover the costs of her treatment if she grew sick with COVID-19.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated $75 million to provide $500 cash to the state's unauthorized immigrants, but it only covered about 150,000 people.

Irene de Barraicua of Lideres Campesinas, a group that works with women farmworkers in California, told Business Insider Weekly that one of her top concerns is the workers' lack of awareness about the disease, which could be solved by bringing more health care workers out to visit the farms and educate the workers.

"That's definitely a concern that some people are going to work and they might have already more information than others in terms of what COVID-19 is," she said. "And so they worry when they're working next to someone else that hasn't read anything or isn't as informed."

Still, despite everything, Carmelita said she's proud of her work.

"We are the ones who are harvesting the products, fruits, and vegetables so they get to the table of the people who have to stay home," she said.

Farmworker advocates say a lack of education for the immigrants could contribute to a coronavirus outbreak Laura Rishell for Business Insider Weekly

But she longs to one day not have to worry about losing everything she's worked for simply due to her immigration status.

She says she hopes that one day President Donald Trump will give workers like her a "blue card," which Democrats have proposed for agricultural workers. The blue cards would provide the immigrants with a pathway to permanent, legal status in the US.

Carmelita's sons are American citizens, but she said she hopes to one day call herself the same.

"Right now what motivates me to work so hard is to help my children get ahead so that they can have a better life than I have," she said. "I know I can't give them everything, but at least they can get a better education than I did, so they'll be less likely to end up as farmworkers."

Meanwhile, the pandemic continues to draw attention to the nation's food sources. Last week, the Hispanic Heritage Foundation announced that farmworkers are being honored at this year's Hispanic Heritage Awards.

"Every single time we take a bite of food, we should think about the importance of our farmworkers in our lives, especially during the COVID-19 crisis as they put themselves and their families at risk to nobly nourish our families. Their service is nothing short of heroic," Antonio Tijerino, president and CEO of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, said in a statement.

"It is with tremendous gratitude, pride, and admiration that we honor farmworkers."

Killing of reporter adds to grim toll of violence against Mexican journalists

David Agren in Mexico City 

Early on Monday morning, Israel Vázquez, a crime reporter in the Mexican city of Salamanca, received a tip that a plastic bag full of human remains had been dumped at the side of a street.

He reached the scene before the police, but as he prepared to broadcast on Facebook live, gunmen opened fire from a passing car, and shot him eight times. He died of his injuries later in the day.

He was the third Mexican journalist to be murdered in less than two weeks – and the eighth this year.

Jesús Alfonso Piñuelas, founder of two media outlets in Sonora state, was shot dead on 2 November. Arturo Alba Medina, a TV host in Ciudad Juárez was shot on 29 October as he drove through the border city. Press reports say he was struck by 10 bullets.

© Photograph: David Guzman Gonzalez/EPA A Mexican journalist holds a placard that reads ‘they are killing us’ during a protest demanding protection after colleagues were threatened by organized crime, in Acapulco last month.

The string of killings has cemented Mexico’s place as one of the world’s deadliest countries for members of the press, and underscored the risks facing journalists who cover sensitive subjects such as crime, politics and the security forces.

Related: Mexico’s human rights chief draws fury for asking if journalists have been killed

“You want to kill a journalist, you can do it without much of a chance that you’ll be caught,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, Mexico representative of the press freedom group the Committee to Protect Journalists.

In at least five cases, the journalists’ murders were directly related to their work, Hootsen said. It remains unclear if Piñuelas and Alba’s deaths were linked to their journalism, but such cases are seldom investigated with any rigor, he said.

“There’s an ongoing crisis of violence and impunity. Since successive Mexican governments haven’t made any serious attempts to combat impunity, the situation has gotten steadily worse.”

In 2019, Mexico suffered the second highest number of killings after war-torn Syria, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Vázquez, 31, had only been a journalist for three years, but he was well-regarded by his colleagues at the digital news outlet El Salmantino. He covered sports as well as crime, and often took the night shift.

Like most Mexican reporters, he knew that his work involved a certain degree of self-censorship in the name of survival, said co-workers.

“He was a person who was very careful with his broadcasts,” said Verónica Espinosa, Guanajuato correspondent for the news weekly Proceso. “He didn’t give sensitive details” in his reports.

Guanajuato, which surrounds Salamanca, has seen soaring violence as rival crime groups jockey for drug trafficking routes, extortion rackets and control of the lucrative market in stolen gasoline.

Journalists in the state routinely take extra security precautions, said Espinosa: working in teams, publishing without bylines and omitting potentially sensitive details from their stories.

But such safety measures are not always enough. Víctor Manuel Jiménez, a reporter at Rotativo Digital Guanajuato – another local news outlet – left home on 1 November to attend a baseball game in the city of Celaya and never returned.

The official response to such crimes has often been half-hearted. When reporters in Salamanca demanded a meeting with the local mayor, Betty Hernández, after Vázquez’s murder, they were stunned when she appeared to blame him for his death.

“The truth is, look, going at six or five in the morning to cover a story in that place, which everyone knows is dangerous,” Hernández said, in video of the meeting.

“But we’re journalists!” one person can be heard responding.

Esponosa said the mayor’s response was “absurd” but typical of the way Mexican officials often imply that victims like Vásquez are culpable in their own deaths. “It criminalizes him and makes him responsible for security conditions that are not the responsibility of a citizen, much less a journalist,” she said.

Related: Mexico police open fire on femicide protest in Cancún

Journalists covering protests have also come under attack in Mexico.

On the same day Vázquez was murdered, four journalists were injured, when police in the city of Cancún opened fire on a crowd protesting against femicides.

Activists called for the march after the murder of a woman named Bianca Alejandrina Lorenza, 20, whose dismembered body was found in a plastic bag at the weekend. When members of the group attempted to storm the local city hall, police opened fire with live ammunition.

Armenians flee homes as Azerbaijan takeover looms

Villagers in the mountainous hamlet of Nor Getashen in disputed territory in Azerbaijan pile sofas, washing machines and suitcases outside their homes as they prepare to flee.

© Alexander NEMENOV The district of Kalbajar is being handed over to Azerbaijan by Armenian separatists as part of a peace deal

The settlement is part of the Kalbajar district that is being handed over to Azerbaijan by Armenian separatists on Sunday as part of a Russian-brokered peace agreement that ended weeks of fierce fighting between the longstanding rivals.

© Alexander NEMENOV Armenians pack their belongings as they leave their house in Kalbajar, which is being handed over to Azerbaijan

Clashes broke out at the end of September between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region that broke away from Baku's control in the 1990s. More than 1,400 people have died.

Residents of Nor Getashen worry they will face retaliatory attacks by Azerbaijan if they remain in their homes in the rugged region after the handover deadline Sunday.

"I cried all night when I heard the news," says 68-year-old Hayastan Yeghiazaryan, wearing a worn tracksuit.

She hastily sifts through belongings in the home heated by a wood burning stove to decide what to leave behind.

Next to her, a jar of pickled red peppers sits on a bed without a mattress and enamel crockery, chipped from old age, is lying among pairs of boots and books in Cyrillic.

In front of a workbench, Yeghiazaryan's 82-year-old husband Zohrab, who is struggling to decide what to take, says he is not even sure where they will go.

- 'We were happy here' -

"With the help of the children, we'll try to rent a small apartment in Yerevan," he says, referring to the capital of Armenia, which has been rocked by political unrest since the country's leadership agreed to the peace accord that cedes swathes of territory in Karabakh to Azerbaijan.

"We might be able to come back, don't you think?" he says with a hopeful look.

Kalbajar's residents were encouraged to settle in this region of Azerbaijan by separatist leaders who had grabbed control of the area.

No one has ordered them to leave their homes, Yeghiazaryan says, "but we quickly understood that there is no choice".

Her two sons came from Yerevan to help her pack up the home and sell off the cattle before Sunday.

"The house is not very luxurious, but we were happy here," Zohrab says sadly.

Media reported that residents of Kalbajar were setting alight their homes, preferring to destroy their dwellings than leave them to Azerbaijan.

But in Nor Getashen most of the abandoned homes were left standing.

"We will not burn down the house. But we will take Mickey, he's a good dog," Zohrab adds.

On the edge of the village, which already resembles a ghost town, a couple in their sixties is busy filling a large truck.

"We are going to leave the cows. We didn't find anyone in time to buy them," says a mother of seven, letting out a sob.

They will leave the house intact, she added, "but those who will come to take it do not deserve it".

hba-acl/jbr/mbx

Trump asked aides if he could pursue a wild plan to replace the Electoral College with loyalists who would ignore the vote, report says

© BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images 

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Wednesday. 

President Donald Trump has asked aides about a plan to remain in office by subverting the Electoral College, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Under the plan, GOP-controlled state legislatures would ignore the popular vote in swing states and appoint Trump loyalists as electors to secure the president a second term.

Business Insider reported earlier Thursday that the plan was gaining currency among some Trump supporters — despite how unlikely it is to work.

Experts say the plan, though technically possible, would face enormous legal and political obstacles.

The Times' sources stressed that though Trump had asked about the plan, he did not seem to entertain it seriously.

President Donald Trump has asked top aides about a wild plan that involves replacing electors in swing states with loyalists to secure himself a second term, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

The Times report came hours after Business Insider reported that the plan was gaining currency among Trump allies.

The plan hinges on Republican state legislatures deciding to ignore the states' results and instead send a new group of electors to the Electoral College who would cast their votes for Trump.

Such a plan, while technically possible, has been widely dismissed by experts as unworkable in practice and an affront to US democracy. Business Insider's report noted some of the problems with making it work.

Citing sources familiar with Trump's activities, The Times reported that the president pressed his advisors about the plan at a meeting on Wednesday.

"It was not a detailed conversation, or really a serious one," and did not reflect any "obsessive desire" of Trump to remain in office, the report described the sources as saying.

Read more: EXCLUSIVE: Documents reveal Trump is building his own 'deep state' by leaving political appointees behind in government for the Biden administration

Trump has made no public statement since Insider projected Joe Biden to win the presidency on Friday and other major news organizations called the race for him on Saturday.

He has spent time playing golf, watching cable news, and tweeting accusations of electoral fraud, many of which Twitter has labeled misleading.

According to reports, top advisors have admitted privately that Trump's lawsuits challenging vote counts in swing states are unlikely to succeed.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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Comments 16


S W1h
So he claims the election was stolen without evidence, now he wants to actually steal it, back? … solid con man move!
LikeReply
1Report



Norris Gillen3h
Mr. Trump...Wow...Guess he is forgetting about the war for independence. So he wants to be King of the USA... So, it would be, H.R.H, King Trump....He really should consider becoming Baby Huey...He is acting more like that...
LikeReply
8Report



Kenny Walsh4h
Does this man .. Realize it was the American People themselves that voted. Please Mr. Trump come down to Reality Please!. Except the results. Nobody is trying to fraud you. You Lost fair and square. Come Back in 4 years and run again. But please give this up. Your really being outrages now. What your doing right now is only going to make things harder on you.
All most people will do now is only throw cracks at you .. And make fun of you.See more
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Tommy lee6h
If this incident is true, this man should be removed by force immediately
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23Report
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Mike Davis6h
Your country really has a split personality - both ends of each spectrum seem unmovable. Maybe entertain a third party? From what we see from afar is democracy is under attack.
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F B7h
These are Dictator tactics any any GOP allies who take this seriously need to be locked up for treason against the state. Desperate ideology. The election needs to be certified period and move on with the transition.
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28Report



stuart renouf7h
love how it was okay for the dems to say they will do this but !!!!!!
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stuart renouf7h
it is amazing that the media is continuing to lie like this
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ski hi558h
Throw that con in jail.
Donny song.

And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friends, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case of which I'm certain
I've lived a life that's full of LIES
I traveled each and every highway
But more, much more than this
I COULDN"T GET IT MY WAY.See more