Hundreds witness bright fireball blazing across the US Northeast Sunday night
Scott Sutherland 

Bright meteors flash through our skies on a fairly regular basis. However, only a few are as widely seen as the one that blazed over Connecticut and New York State on Sunday night.

Dashboard cam captures bright fireball lighting up the night
Click to expand

At roughly 7:20 p.m. ET, on November 8, 2020, a tiny space rock plunged into Earth's atmosphere. As it passed high above the heads of witnesses, the meteoroid compressed the air in its path to the point of incandescence. In the process, it lit up the night sky between Waterbury, Connecticut and Poughkeepsie, New York, as a bright meteor fireball.

© Provided by The Weather Network

The fireball report map from the American Meteor Society for event #6425-2020. While the witness report locations are shown on the larger map, the inset shows the meteoroid's estimated path. Credit: AMS

As of Monday afternoon, 318 reports had been made to the American Meteor Society's website. Witnesses from as far away as Lincoln, ON, the Montreal area, and Charleston, WV spotted the fireball. Given the clear skies and the region's population, it may have been seen by hundreds more, if not thousands.

According to AMS lead developer Vincent Perlerin, while they are still investigating, reports filed so far have revealed that the meteor appears to have followed a fairly shallow angle as it was passing through the upper atmosphere.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkThe meteoroid trajectory, taken from eyewitness reports. Credit: AMS

WHERE DID IT COME FROM?

Tracing the origin of a fireball meteor isn't easy, but we can look to one potential source for this event.

Based on its east-to-west path and the meteor's timing, the meteoroid that caused it may have been a piece of a comet named 2P/Encke. Comet Encke passes around the Sun once every 3 years and 4 months. It is considered the likely source for the Fall season's twin Taurid meteor showers.

© Provided by The Weather Network

The location of the Taurid meteor shower radiants, just above the horizon, at 7:20 p.m. ET, November 8, 2020. 

Credit: Stellarium/Scott Sutherland

Neither Taurid shower is considered to be very strong. Each only produces about 5 meteors per hour, on average, even during their peak. Still, both are known for producing bright fireballs, and the peak of the Northern Taurids is coming up on the night of November 11.

Did you see this fireball, or any other one recently? Report what you witnessed to the American Meteor Society.

Thumbnail image screencaptured from video posted by Joe Dawson, who caught the fireball on dashcam as he was driving along the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey

IN DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACY

Hong Kong journalist appears in court amid fears over press freedom

By Jessie Pang 

© Reuters/LAM YIK

 Choy Yuk-Ling arrives at a court in Hong Kong

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong journalist appeared in court on Tuesday on a charge of making a false statement to obtain data for a documentary on the police's handling of a mob attack, in a case that has stoked concern over press freedom in the Chinese-ruled city.

© Reuters/LAM YIK

 Choy Yuk-Ling stands in front of supporters holding placards outside the court in Hong Kong

Bao Choy, 37, a freelance producer with local broadcaster RTHK, was arrested last week in connection with data on vehicle registrations she used for the investigative documentary.

The piece examined the police force's response to the attack in Yuen Long district in July 2019 when more than 100 men in white T-shirts wielding sticks and poles attacked pro-democracy protesters, journalists and bystanders at a train station.

RTHK obtained data on the ownership of some cars that were seen in video footage on the night of the attack in a bid to trace those behind the assault and highlight the police's alleged slow response. According to a chargesheet, Bao made false statements when seeking access to the data

.

© Reuters/LAM YIK 

Choy Yuk-Ling arrives at a court in Hong Kong

The police were severely criticised at the time for what pro-democracy activists and human rights groups described as a slack response, with some accusing the authorities of colluding with triad gangsters.

Police have rejected the claims and said their slow response was due in part to protests elsewhere in the city that drained resources that night.

"I understand this incident is no longer a personal matter but a matter related to public interest and press freedom in Hong Kong," Bao said outside the court. "I truly believe I will not walk alone."

Supporters hugged Bao as she left the court. Her case was adjourned to Jan. 14.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has rejected criticism the arrest represents a crackdown on press freedom in the former British colony.

Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a one country, two systems agreement that promised it wide-ranging freedoms unavailable on the Communist Party-ruled mainland.

The protests last year were fuelled by perceptions that Beijing was tightening its grip on those freedoms, which authorities have denied.

(Reporting By Jessie Pang; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

CORRUPTION FIGHTER 

Mexican president orders inquiry into report that aide paid shell firms

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged authorities on Monday to look into a report accusing a top aide of financial impropriety, while calling it part of a media campaign aimed at bringing his administration into disrepute.

© Reuters/HENRY ROMERO FILE PHOTO: Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador delivers his second state of the union address at National Palace in Mexico City

Newspaper El Universal said Lopez Obrador's private secretary Alejandro Esquer had hired shell companies in the 2018 presidential election campaign when Esquer was finance secretary of the ruling National Regeneration Movement party (MORENA).


One of the companies the paper said Esquer had paid for campaign-related services was in September included in a list of firms found by federal tax authorities to lack the means to provide the services advertised in its receipts.

The report was the latest question mark about the probity of people close to Lopez Obrador, who has made fighting corruption the cornerstone of his administration. The president's office did not reply to a request for comment from Esquer.

Responding to questions about the report in a regular news conference, Lopez Obrador said he was unaware of the alleged contracts and that the matter should be "looked into".

Calling the report "part of the campaign to discredit our government", Lopez Obrador said authorities would make their findings public in due course.

Separately, the head of the finance ministry's financial intelligence unit, Santiago Nieto, told news network Milenio his office had not found anything to incriminate a brother of the president over revelations that surfaced a few months ago.

In August, videos were leaked of the brother, Pio Lopez Obrador, receiving cash in 2015 from a man during a regional election campaign. The man later won a post in the government when Lopez Obrador took office in December 2018.

The president described the cash as contributions to his political movement but ordered federal prosecutors to investigate. They have yet to declare their findings.

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

ROYHINGA THE LOSERS

Suu Kyi's party claims to have won majority in Myanmar polls

YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar's ruling National League for Democracy claimed Monday it had won a clear parliamentary majority and would retain power, even though the state election body has named just a few of the winners in Sunday's elections.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Union Election Commission earlier said full results may take a week. By 8 p.m., it had announced the winners of just nine of Parliament's 642 seats, all nine NLD candidates.

An NLD spokesperson, Monywa Aung Shin, said the party had confirmed it won more than 322 seats — a majority — but the final outcome "would be likely more than" the party's goal of 377 seats.

An NLD victory was widely expected since its leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is immensely popular. Some had speculated its totals might be cut because of deteriorating relations with ethnic minority-based parties, with whom her party had co-operated in 2015 elections.

The United States and other observers have expressed concern about how the election was conducted, especially the disenfranchisement of the Rohingya minority.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Myanmar's second competitive national election since military rule ended was an important step.

“Nevertheless, we are concerned by the large number of unelected seats constitutionally reserved for the military; the disfranchisement of groups including Rohingya; cancellation of voting in parts of several states and regions; and the disqualification of candidates based on arbitrary application of citizenship and residency requirements, which prevent the realization of a more democratic and civilian government,” Pompeo said in a statement released by the State Department.

The Fortify Rights group said it was concerned about the election's conduct as well as arrests of activists and a crackdown on free expression and assembly.

Video: Myanmar election: Aung San Suu Kyi supporters celebrate as ruling party expected to win (Global News) 

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/suu-kyis-party-claims-to-have-won-majority-in-myanmar-polls/ar-BB1aPDBs?ocid=msedgdhp

“A core principle of elections under international law is universal and equal suffrage and that is not what took place yesterday,” Ismail Wolff, regional director of Fortify Rights, said in a statement released Monday. “The international community must unequivocally condemn the disenfranchisement of Rohingya and other ethnic nationalities or risk paving the path for future violations.”

Suu Kyi, 75, has retained the mass appeal built up during her decades of democratic activism while Myanmar was under military rule. Her administration’s record has been mixed at best, with little economic growth and no end to armed strife with ethnic minorities seeking greater autonomy.

Outside of Myanmar, her reputation has been damaged by her failure to defend the rights of the Muslim Rohingya minority, who were targeted in a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by Myanmar’s security forces that sent 740,000 fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh.

But the issue was of little concern to most voters in Myanmar, where the Buddhist majority holds deep-seated prejudice against the Rohingya, many of whom are denied citizenship and civil rights, including the right to vote.

The coronavirus pandemic was a prominent backdrop to the elections, which were held as scheduled even though some parties had urged a postponement. Traditional campaign events like mass rallies were curbed to control the spread of the virus, while Suu Kyi was able to project a strong image of leadership in state media and social media while conducting official government business.

No reliable official figures were available on voter turnout. More than 90 parties contested the election and 37 million people were eligible to cast ballots, including 5 million first-time voters.

Yway Mal, an independent vote counting service, said the NLD had secured 64 seats and its main opponent, the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, had won seven so far.

The People’s Alliance for Credible Elections, one of the biggest poll watching organizations in Myanmar, said that in almost one-third of the polling stations it monitored, a small number of people were unable to cast ballots because their names were not on the voting lists.

But the group described election day voting as peaceful and said no major incidents were recorded.

Pyae Sone Win, The Associated Press

Analysis: Saudi Arabia preferred a Trump win. Their fears of a Biden presidency may be well-founded
Analysis by Nic Robertson, CNN 

Of all the pressing foreign policy issues on President-elect Joe Biden's plate, relations with Saudi Arabia will not be top of the pile.

KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT - DECEMBER 8: King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud meets with Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah IV Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (not seen) in Kuwait City, Kuwait on December 8, 2016. (Photo by Bandar Algaloud / Saudi Royal Council / Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

China, Iran and perhaps North Korea will dominate, yet Riyadh -- which will host the G20 Leaders' virtual summit later this month -- could soon work its way up the stack.

A senior Saudi diplomat told me a week before the US election that the kingdom was ready to work with whomever won. Yet the impression I was given during this conversation was that, due to some of Biden's comments during the campaign, indicating that he would be tough on Saudi, the Democrat would not be Riyadh's pick.

Another source with knowledge of political discussions in the kingdom told me that the Saudis had found President Donald Trump a good if unpredictable and even potentially dangerous ally.

After Saudi oil facilities were attacked with cruise missiles last September -- and Saudi and US investigators determined "with very high probability" that they were launched from Iran -- the source told me that the Saudis had to ask Trump not to escalate tensions further by retaliating. They genuinely thought he could trigger a war by accident, he said.

© CNN Joe Biden

Others within the Kingdom worry that Biden could be a reset to the Obama years, which they believe was soft on Iran, and potentially unreliable for their security.

Their fears may be well-founded.

Biden has pledged to re-engage with Tehran on the multinational nuclear deal Trump pulled out of, and during a Democratic debate last fall threatened to throttle billions of dollars of arms sales to Saudi.

"I would make it very clear we were not going to in fact sell more weapons to them, we were going to in fact make them pay the price and make them in fact the pariah that they are," Biden said last November.

But where Biden may find himself working with with Saudi Arabia is on Middle East peace. This is an ambition that almost every American president strives for, and in the past year Trump has created a momentum of sorts.

The Saudi diplomat said that Trump had "put a lot of pressure" on Riyadh to follow the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan in normalizing relations with Israel, adding that Saudi support was a "prize" Trump has yet been unable to win -- an indication that even at this late stage in his presidency, Trump may still harbor hopes of winning the Saudis over.

Trump and his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, have achieved some movement in the region, but fallen far short of what the outgoing president originally promised -- a long-term peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians.

Kushner ran point on making deals that gave the appearance of quid pro quos -- the UAE would get sophisticated US F-35 fighter jets, and Sudan would be removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism -- although all sides deny these transactions were part of the agreements. Congress has yet to sign off on the fighter jets; and Sudan remains on the State Department's terror list.

At the time I met the diplomat, rumors were circulating that Riyadh was holding out on its commitments to Trump in case it needed to barter with Biden, but the diplomat said that wasn't true, and laid out the facts as he saw them.

Saudi Arabia will always "act out of their own national security interests," he said, but it also has an outsized relevance on the very emotive issue of Palestinian statehood as Saudi decisions will "shift other Muslim nations to follow."

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud is the custodian of Islam's two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina, giving him a legitimacy and clout in the religion that is unrivaled by any other person. The Saudi government believes he is central to winning over the world's 1.8 billion Muslims, but a wrong call by him could be disastrous for the kingdom, leaving it open to accusations of selling out and abandoning the Palestinians.

The diplomat told me he thought it 90% unlikely the King would back Trump's plan. Yet it is clear that when his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, takes the throne -- which could happen on Biden's watch -- the calculations could change.

Saudi's current position on Palestinian-Israeli peace is a two-state solution based around the 1967 borders. This is what Saudi leaders have been trying to get feuding Palestinian factions to unite around for well over a decade. In 2007 they briefly believed they had succeeded, but agreement fell apart and Saudi frustrations with the Palestinians have been growing steadily ever since, the diplomat told me.

The diplomat said that in a relatively recent meeting with a Palestinian official, he warned him that time was running out, that "in 10 years no one will care" about the Palestinians. The diplomat said he told the Palestinian official they should have engaged with Kushner's so-called "deal of the century" to get beneficial terms.

In late August, King Salman let an Israeli commercial flight carrying Kushner and an Israeli delegation overfly Saudi airspace on the way from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi as it inaugurated that new relationship. It was a clear message to the Palestinians the clock is ticking, as was Bahrain normalizing relations with Israel.

But perhaps the most overt message signaling a change in Saudi position came last month. The very highly-respected Saudi diplomat, Prince Bandar bin Sultan al Saud -- a former ambassador to the US and intelligence chief -- told Saudi TV: "The Palestinian cause is a just cause, but its advocates are failures, and the Israel cause is unjust, but its advocates have been proven successful."

He wouldn't have done that without the King's permission. The meaning was obvious: The country is tired of waiting for Palestinians to make peace and is preparing to move on.

The message to foreign capitals, perhaps to Washington in particular, is equally clear: The time is coming when a deal may be done.

AOC says 'extremely hostile' and incompetent Democrats had her reconsidering political career

Devika Desai NOV 9, 2020

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez might quit politics if Democrats continue to be “hostile” towards progressive causes, she has said in an explosive New York Times interview .

© Provided by National Post

 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-NY) listens as Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Financial Services Committee 

On Saturday, the Bronx native offered her congratulations to U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris, but slammed Democrats for blaming progressives after the party showed poorly in many of the Senate and House races that accompanied the election.

“Externally, there’s been a ton of support, but internally, (the party) been extremely hostile to anything that even smells progressive,” she said.

She admitted to the New York Times that she wasn’t even sure she was going to run for re-election this year, citing “stress,” “violence” and a “lack of support from her own party” as reasons for her reluctance.

Despite her initial hesitations, Ocasio-Cortez ran for and won second term in the House, handily defeating first-time Republican challenger John Cummings. But the odds of her staying put are still precarious, she asserted.

“I’m serious when I tell people the odds of me running for higher office and the odds of me just going off trying to start a homestead somewhere — they’re probably the same. It’s your own party thinking you’re the enemy,” she said. “When your own colleagues talk anonymously in the press and then turn around and say you’re bad because you actually append your name to your opinion.”

Post-election, several Democrats pointed fingers at their progressive colleagues for the party’s poor performance. Representative Abigal Spanberger, who narrowly won her seat in a conservative-leaning district of Virginia, blamed colleagues for supporting the “defund the police.” Democrats must consider the election results a “failure” and change strategies, or else they will be “crushed” in future elections, she said.

But Ocasio-Cortez said the failings came from the Democrats’ lack of core campaign abilities — not from any policy goals pursued by those further to the left of the party.

“There’s a reason Barack Obama built an entire national campaign apparatus outside of the Democratic National Committee,” she said. “And there’s a reason that when he didn’t activate or continue that, we lost House majorities. Because the party – in and of itself – does not have the core competencies, and no amount of money is going to fix that.”

© Andrew Kelly Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez holds her filled ballot as she votes early at a polling station in The Bronx, New York City, U.S., October 25, 2020.

It’s clear, she said, that progressive politics do not hurt candidates.

“Every single candidate that co-sponsored Medicare for All in a swing district kept their seat. We also know that co-sponsoring the Green New Deal was not a sinker. Mike Levin was an original co-sponsor of the legislation, and he kept his seat,” she said.

She accused moderate Democrats of being “sitting ducks” and attributed their losses to inadequately-funded campaigns.

“If you’re not door-knocking, if you’re not on the internet, if your main points of reliance are TV and mail, then you’re not running a campaign on all cylinders. I just don’t see how anyone could be making ideological claims when they didn’t run a full-fledged campaign,” she said.

The support for Donald Trump, she said, is an indicator of the unrest within the U.S., and Democrats need to commit to “anti-racist, deep canvassing in this country” to prevent more white voters from shifting to the other side. “There’s no amount of people of color and young people that you can turn out to offset that,” she said.

“Before the election, I offered to help every single swing district Democrat with their operation. And every single one of them, but five, refused my help,” she said. “And all five of the vulnerable or swing district people that I helped secured victory or are on a path to secure victory. And every single one that rejected my help is losing. And now they’re blaming us for their loss.”

'We are here to vote Blue': AOC's Twitch stream of video game Among Us attracts 430,000 viewers

Why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Bernie Sanders for president at the Democratic convention

It’s time for the party to stop viewing her and her progressive-minded colleagues as the enemy, she said.

“This isn’t even just about winning an argument. It’s that if they keep going after the wrong thing, I mean, they’re just setting up their own obsolescence,” she said.

She’s One Of Politics’ Rising Stars, But Here’s Why AOC Wasn’t Sure She Would Run For A Second Term

Danielle Campoamor NOV 9, 2020

Leading up to the 2020 presidential election, both Democrats vying for congressional seats and voters preparing to cast their ballots turned to the same source for input: the rising likes of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. And this was for good reason. Apart from holding her actual job and running for reelection herself, AOC campaigned for now president-elect Joe Biden as the co-chair of his Climate Change task force; She played ‘Among Us’ on Twitch, which over 400,000 people watched in real-time as she discussed health care policy and the need to vote along progressive lines and focus on down ballot races; And, she went on CNN and told their millions of viewers that electing Kamala Harris to the vice presidency is “really incredible” and “amazing that so many little girls are growing up with this being the norm for them.” 

© Provided by Refinery29 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-NY) listens as Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Financial Services Committee on “An Examination of Facebook and Its Impact on the Financial Services and Housing Sectors” in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC on October 23, 2019. 

(Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

In so many ways, Ocasio-Cortez’s influence over this election was astronomical. The freshman congresswoman already has a strong allegiance of young voters behind her — but it’s one that she doesn’t take lightly or for granted. So it’s ironic that the progressive Democratic socialist who won reelection handedly this term would continue to find herself on the receiving end of her party’s harshest criticism, both inside and out. 

In an interview with the New York Times, Ocasio-Cortez admitted that for the first six months of her term she didn’t know whether or not she was going to run for reelection — the byproduct of being vilified by both Republicans and middle-of-the-road Democrats alike. “It’s the lack of support from your own party,” she said. “It’s your own party thinking you’re the enemy. When your own colleagues talk anonymously in the press and then turn around and say you’re bad because you actually append your name to your opinion.”

In 2019, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi attacked AOC and the “squad” — Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib — telling the Times, “All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world, but they didn’t have any following. They’re four people, and that’s how many votes they got.” In the same year, an article was published in Politico in which close to a dozen Democrats denigrated AOC for her “political style.”

She’s been labeled simply a “Twitter star” who doesn’t “understand how [the House] works yet” and who needs to learn the “difference between being an activist and a lawmaker in Congress” — and that’s just the vitriol she’s endured from establishment Democrats. Republicans, for the most part, have been even worse, with Ocasio-Cortez regularly fighting off the likes of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, while being made Fox News punchline.

There’s undoubtedly a slew of reasons why Democratic leadership is threatened and therefore attacking AOC — changing of the old guard, a more progressive platform that would hold wealthy Democrats as well as Republicans accountable, a more inclusive and diverse political landscape that would usurp old white Democratic leadership, to name a few — but one reason is abundantly clear: AOC is right.

Her political ideology is not only popular, but an accurate representation of a Democratic party that has failed the very people that most recently propelled Biden and Harris towards the presidency. Over 90% of Black women voted for Biden. And it was Black women leading grassroots organizations and community activist networks that made it possible for Black, brown, and Indigenous people to overcome voter suppression to vote in key states like Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. 

“The leadership and elements of the party — frankly, people in some of the most important decision-making positions in the party — are becoming so blinded to this anti-activist sentiment that they are blinding themselves to the very assets that they offer,” AOC said. 

A reported 56% of Americans believe providing accessible, affordable health care should be the responsibility of the government — i.e. Medicare for All. And nearly two-thirds of all Americans want the government to do more to combat climate change — i.e. the Green New Deal. The idea that the Democratic party should do more to appeal to white working class voters and to the possible detriment of their base is to knowingly harm the people who fended off the very real threat of fascism in the year 2020.

And by proxy, it should come as no surprise that Ocasio-Cortez — who has carried the weight and burden of all-encompassing criticism of the progressive movement since her first election — considered leaving the institution that has repeatedly failed her. Perhaps, instead, the party should channel their energy in propping up the women who helped get Biden elected in the first place, rather than tear her down for considering leaving the toxic workplace they created.

AOC Gives Marco Rubio A Lesson In Socialism

AOC's Outfits Aren't Against Democratic Socialism

AOC’s White Suit Sends A Message

Georgia was reliably red. Young, Black voters helped turn it blue

Mark Gollom 


On the midtown streets of Atlanta Saturday night, much of the young, diverse crowd celebrating the victory of Joe Biden as president could rightfully take some credit for the political shift underway in the state.

Young people, specifically the Black youth vote, combined with a shift in demographics and a voter registration push means Georgia, a so-called bible-belt state with 16 electoral votes, is no longer a reliable win for Republican presidential candidates.

The state's demographics had been shifting for a while, said Helen Butler, executive director of Georgia's Coalition for the Peoples' Agenda, a voter mobilization organization. But "no one expected" the changes to sway the state's vote so quickly, she said.

"A lot of people weren't paying a lot of attention to that," said Butler.

As of Sunday morning, the official results in Georgia have not been determined, but Biden is slightly ahead of Donald Trump.

The last time a Democratic presidential nominee claimed victory in the state was back in 1992, when Bill Clinton won by 13,000 votes.

© Brynn Anderson/Associated Press On the midtown streets of Atlanta Saturday night, much of the diverse crowd celebrating Joe Biden's victory could rightfully take some credit for the political shift taking place in the state.

However, since Barack Obama ran for president, Republican presidential candidates have won the state by only single digits — five per cent for John McCain, seven per cent for Mitt Romney and five per cent for Donald Trump in 2016.

At least some of that dwindling of support for Republican presidential candidates can be attributed to metro Atlanta — the big blue dot with a population of about six million in a red state of more than 10 million.
Numbers in Atlanta overwhelming

"When you go outside the urban areas, you're basically seeing support for Trump," said Jacquelyn Bettadapur, chair of the Cobb County Democratic Committee.

"It's just that the numbers in Atlanta are so overwhelming that they're starting to tip the equation in our favour."

Cobb County, a suburb of Atlanta and part of that blue dot along with Henry and Gwinnett counties, had been strongly Republican for years but actually flipped to blue in 2016 when Hillary Clinton ran for president.

"I think it was kind of an interesting history, because not only was [Cobb County], red and voting red, this was the home of [former House Speaker] Newt Gingrich," Bettadapur said.

However, more younger and diverse constituents — people from out of state — are moving in for jobs, she said.

"What's happening is the county is becoming more urbanized, becoming an extension of Atlanta, if you will," she said

.

© Mark Gollom/CBC Roderick Pogue, a resident of Gwinnett County, says his community was mostly white. 15 years ago, but has since become much more diverse.

Roderick Pogue, a resident of neighbouring Gwinnett County, said when he moved into his neighbourhood about 15 years ago, it was mostly white. Now, it's a real mix.

"Georgia has changed a lot," he said. "People are coming from other areas to work. So Georgia has grown and in the process of it growing, you have diversity, you have a lot of Democrats here now."

More than half of the votes Biden received in Georgia came from the Atlanta metro region. The area welcomes tens of thousands of new residents every year, including people from other states and immigrants, who have played a role in turning the state toward Democrats.

WATCH | The tight margins between Trump and Biden in Georgia mean the state is headed for a recount:

While new residents may have boosted Biden's political fortunes in the state, so, too, have votes cast by young people. In Georgia, 21 per cent of votes were cast by voters ages 18-29, making young people the age group most supportive of Biden, according to Tuft University's Center for Information & Research On Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).

Young Black voters in the state chose Biden over Trump with a margin of 90 per cent to eight per cent while young white voters in Georgia backed Trump over Biden 62 per cent to 34 per cent, CIRCLE said.
Youth turn Georgia into cliffhanger

If young voters had come out in smaller numbers, Biden's lead and chance to win the state would have dwindled.

Young voters in Georgia, particularly youth of colour "seem to have made this once-solid-red state into a cliffhanger swing state in the 2020 presidential election," CIRCLE said.

© Mark Gollom/CBC University student Yona Longchamp said she was motivated to vote following Trump's win in 2016.

Yona Longchamp, a university student and resident of Atlanta, said many of her friends were motivated to vote following Trump's victory four years ago.

"My entire high school minus one teacher were up in arms because we were all like, 'Did he really win? Is this a joke?' So since then, it was just, come 2020, it's our time."

But other reasons for more Georgians voting Democrat this election can also likely be linked to people like Stacey Abrams.

© Brynn Anderson/The Associated Press Many have credited Stacey Abrams, seen speaking to Biden supporters in Atlanta Nov. 2, with turning out Black voters in the state in the 2020 election. Abrams is a lawyer and former state legislator who lost acrimonious race for governor in 2018 that was mired in allegations of voter suppression.

Abrams, a lawyer and former state legislator who lost the governorship in Georgia to Republican Brian Kemp and attributed the loss in large part to voter suppression, has since launched several "voter protection" organizations that are credited for getting an estimated 800,000 residents registered to vote.

"Stacey Abrams was out there doing voter registration, but we're doing education," said Butler of Coalition for the Peoples' Agenda. "We're doing mobilization. We had 1,300 volunteers that were doing poll monitoring, to be at the polling locations to ensure that people could exercise their right to vote.

"We were working on those issues to ensure that every vote counts."

© Marie Morrissey/CBC 

Supporters of Joe Biden in Atlanta celebrate his win Saturday night.

U.S. criticized for police brutality, racism at U.N. rights review

By Stephanie Nebehay

© Reuters/CAITLIN OCHS FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators protest in the aftermath of the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd

GENEVA (Reuters) - Major powers, including allies, criticised the United States for its human rights record on Monday during a U.N. review, citing the use of the death penalty, police violence against African Americans and the separation of migrant children from their families.

© Reuters/Lindsey Wasson FILE PHOTO: Protesters rally against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Seattle

Activists also said that the Human Rights Council's examination of the United States, the first since May 2015, amounted to an indictment of the Trump administration's policies and called for President-elect Joe Biden to usher in reforms.

Dozens of delegations took the floor at the half-day session to voice concerns and make recommendations.

"What we saw today was unsurprising condemnation by many countries around the world of the United States' human rights record," Jamil Dakwar, director of the human rights program at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told a news briefing.

"We've heard country after country...calling and urging the United States to take serious measures to address structural racism and police violence," he said.

The Trump administration, which quit the Geneva forum in June 2018 accusing it of an anti-Israel bias, defended U.S. policies.

"Our presence in this process demonstrates our nation’s commitment to human rights," Robert Destro, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, told the talks.

The case of George Floyd, an African American who died in May after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, ignited massive protests across the United States and the world, putting the country's human rights record in the global spotlight once again.

Alexander Maugeri, U.S. deputy assistant attorney general, said that authorities in Minnesota had filed second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in Floyd's death.

"A number of member states raised concerns about discrimination and excessive force in policing. Where there is misconduct by police officers or law enforcement agencies, state and federal law provide remedies," Maugeri said.

China and Russia called on the United States to root out racism and police violence, while Cuba and Venezuela said it must provide equal access to health care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

France called on U.S. authorities to halt executions at the federal level, close Guantanamo Bay detention facility, and "guarantee women and girls access to their rights and sexual and reproductive health." Britain called for "ensuring access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services."

Joshua Cooper of the US Human Rights Network, a national network of campaigners, said that more than a dozen countries voiced concern at the U.S. position on family planning.

"The United States made clear that they don't see abortion as a human right," said Denice Labertew of the Women LEAD network.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

Trump tweets that Defense Secretary Mark Esper has been 'terminated'
Rebecca Shabad and Carol E. Lee and Courtney Kube

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Monday that he fired Mark Esper as his defense secretary and said Christopher Miller would serve as the acting secretary of the Department of Defense.

© Provided by NBC News 
Defense Secretary Esper has had 'resignation letter ready 

"I am pleased to announce that Christopher C. Miller, the highly respected Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (unanimously confirmed by the Senate), will be Acting Secretary of Defense, effective immediately," Trump tweeted, announcing his first personnel move since losing the presidential election.

He added, "Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service."

Esper's ouster was Trump's first personnel move since losing the election. Esper has been working with Congress recently to strip Confederate names from military bases, which Trump opposes.

Trump's announcement comes after NBC News reported last week that Esper had prepared a letter of resignation. NBC News has previously reported that Esper has long been at odds with Trump. The two disagreed, for example, about the use of active-duty troops to respond to protests across the nation this summer.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, excoriated the president in a statement on Monday, calling Esper's firing an attempt "to sow chaos."

“The abrupt firing of Secretary Esper is disturbing evidence that President Trump is intent on using his final days in office to sow chaos in our American Democracy and around the world," she said. "Continuity and stability are always important during a presidential transition; they are absolutely imperative at this moment, as this historically erratic Administration prepares for its departure."

She added, "It is disturbing and dangerous that, at this precarious moment, our military will now be led by an official who has not been confirmed for this position by the Senate.”

Esper also distanced himself from Trump’s photo-op at St. John’s Episcopal Church after a crowd of protesters was violently dispersed from Lafayette Square during the protests over police brutality this summer.

Esper also said he would not support Trump invoking the Insurrection Act to quell civil unrest during the protests when Trump was threatening to do so.

VIDEO
McCaffrey: 'No logical sense' for Trump to fire Mark Esper
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/newspolitics/trump-tweets-that-defense-secretary-mark-esper-has-been-terminated/ar-BB1aQAVM?ocid=msedgdhp


Further, Esper attempted to cut funding in the Pentagon budget for Stars and Stripes, a newspaper for U.S. military personnel that has been published since the Civil War, which Trump pushed back on.

Esper said in a statement, "I am particularly proud of these accomplishments in light of the challenges we faced along the way: a global pandemic; confrontations with Iran and its proxies throughout the Middle East; continued deployment of troops into conflict zones; domestic civil unrest; malign behavior globally by Russia and China; and a charged political atmosphere here at home. Through thick and thin, however, we have always put People and Country first."

Esper had served as defense secretary since July 2019, taking over from Jim Mattis, who resigned from the role in late 2018. Mattis had also been critical of Trump's approach as commander in chief.

Miller, meanwhile, has served as director of the National Counterterrorism Center since August. Before that, he served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and combating terrorism. Miller served in the military from 1983 to 2014, according to the Defense Department.

Given that Trump named Miller as the acting secretary, it's unlikely the president will formally nominate Esper's replacement before he leaves office in January. Once President-elect Joe Biden takes office in January, he will have the power to nominate his own secretary of defense, whom the Senate would have to confirm.

Richard Pilger: DOJ's top election crimes prosecutor quits in protest after Barr tells federal attorneys to probe unsupported allegations of voting irregularities

The Justice Department's top election crimes prosecutor resigned Monday in protest after Attorney General William Barr told federal prosecutors that they should examine allegations of voting irregularities before states move to certify results in the coming weeks

.

© MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images 

US President Donald Trump (R) and US Attorney General William Barr step off Air Force One upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on September 1, 2020.

By Evan Perez, CNN Justice Correspondent 

Richard Pilger, director of the elections crimes branch in the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, told colleagues in an email that the attorney general was issuing "an important new policy abrogating the forty-year-old Non-Interference Policy for ballot fraud investigations in the period prior to elections becoming certified and uncontested." Pilger also forwarded the memo to colleagues in his resignation letter.

Pilger's resignation email didn't make clear whether he plans to stay in the department in another capacity.

Barr's densely worded memo had told prosecutors they could take investigative steps such as interviewing witnesses during a period that they would normally need permission from the elections crimes section. It's not clear what practical effect the policy would have in an election in which President Donald Trump trails President-elect Joe Biden by tens of thousands of votes in several key states.

Barr didn't provide any indication that the Justice Department has come up with evidence to support Trump's claim of massive fraud in last week's election.

In his memo, Barr notes that while "most allegations of purported election misconduct are of such a scale that they would not impact the outcome of an election and, thus, investigation can appropriately be deferred, that is not always the case."

"Furthermore, any concerns that overt actions taken by the Department could inadvertently impact an election are greatly minimized, if they exist at all, once voting has concluded, even if election certification has not yet been completed," he wrote.

The attorney general has previously been supportive of Trump's unfounded claims about voter fraud, and this latest move comes during an incredibly tense time and could inflame an already fraught transition. President-elect Joe Biden is beginning his transition into office while Trump and his administration refuse to recognize the former vice president's victory, making baseless claims about voter fraud and illegal votes that threaten to undermine the bedrock of American government.

Barr's letter to criminal prosecutors broke a days-long silence that has been awkward as Trump and his campaign lawyers have held news conferences and filed lawsuits that have been devoid of any evidence of widespread fraud. Trump claims voting irregularities explain why he is behind in states he would need to win reelection and has refused to concede defeat to President-elect Joe Biden.

The memo came after weeks of internal discussions among Justice officials, during which senior officials told Barr changing the policy on fraud investigations would be a bad idea, according to a person briefed on the discussions. Barr issued the memo Monday to the surprise of senior officials, including Pilger, the person briefed on the matter said.

A Justice official said no one asked or directed Barr to issue his memo.

The purpose of the memo is unclear, since prosecutors already know their responsibilities to investigate vote fraud and other irregularities. But it could serve to provide the President some indication that Barr and the Justice Department are working to find the evidence that Trump and his campaign so far haven't produced.

Barr told prosecutors in his Monday memo: "I authorize you to pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities prior to the certification of elections in your jurisdictions in certain cases, as I have already done in specific instances."

"While serious allegations of voter fraud should be handled with great care, specious, speculative, fanciful or far-fetched claims should not be a basis for initiating federal inquiries," Barr wrote.

Barr has been described by some Justice officials as obsessed with the idea of voter fraud in recent weeks. He has repeatedly inquired about efforts by prosecutors to look for signs of fraud, Justice officials say. He also asked about the possibility of sending federal officers to polling stations, though he was advised that federal law prohibited sending armed federal officers to guard the polls.

This story and its headline have been updated with additional developments on Monday.

OVERNIGHT ENERGY: White House removes leader of major climate report | Trump administration faces suit over removal of endangered species protections for gray wolves

Rebecca Beitsch THE HILL

NOV 8, 2020


IT'S MONDAY! Welcome to Overnight Energy, The Hill's roundup of the latest energy and environment news.

© Getty Images OVERNIGHT ENERGY: White House removes leader of major climate report | Trump administration faces suit over removal of endangered species protections for gray wolves

DISMISSED:

-Eyes on the clime... The White House has removed the top adviser responsible for leading the government's assessment of the status of climate change.

Michael Kuperberg, a climate scientist serving as executive director of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), has returned to his previous post at the Department of Energy.

Kuperberg's reassignment came late Friday night, according to The Washington Post, removing him as leadership of the Fifth National Climate Assessment transitions to a new hire.

The report involves drafting hundreds of top scientists to weigh in on climate change, often producing dire warnings about the limited time the U.S. has to act in order to avoid the most severe consequences.

Kuperberg was already slated to be replaced by Betsy Weatherhead, a longtime climate scientist recently hired at the U.S. Geological Survey. But the shakeup means he will no longer be able to continue to work on the report as expected.

According to The New York Times, some observers fear the administration may seek to place David Legates, a deputy administrator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, into the top slot.

Legates, an academic with a history of questioning humans' influence on global warming, could influence USGCRP as it seeks to select the academics and other experts that will write the report's sections.

The Fifth National Climate Assessment has already had trouble getting off the ground.

Though due in 2022, the website for the report already anticipates delivery by the end of 2023.

The administration delayed in putting the call out for researchers to help with the report, beginning the process only after media reports.

According to the Post, Kuperberg was surprised by the reassignment.

"He was extremely dedicated," a White House official told The Post. "He did a very good job of figuring out how to walk that political line. He had no idea it was coming."

Read more on reported roadblocks here.

-I don't give a... Ousted Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chair Neil Chatterjee spoke emotionally about his demotion by President Trump in an early Saturday Facebook post, alluding that he was proud to have taken recent stances that may have irked the White House.

Chatterjee was replaced by newest FERC Commissioner James Danly, who has proven to be a more conservative vote in his time on the commission since March.

Chatterjee had recently signaled support for carbon pricing in electricity markets, a move that would be damaging for coal. Chatterjee also told E&E News that a refusal to implement Trump's September order to suspend diversity trainings was a factor in the tumult.

"It's been a difficult few days. I have dedicated almost the entirety of my professional career to public service. I am a deeply flawed person. I know for certain I have not always made the right decision. But I can honestly say that I tried to get it right to the best of my limited abilities," Chatterjee wrote.

"My entire family has sacrificed a great deal so that I could have the opportunity to serve my country. I don't give a f@&! what people think of me. I will be judged by my grandchildren. And as of this moment I am confident that I will be able to look them in the eyes when they ask me where I stood on the most significant issues of this time and be proud. This is not the last you will hear from me. Not even close. Onward."

Read more on the shakeup at FERC here.

IN COURT:

-Wolf watch... The Trump administration is facing a lawsuit over its recent decision to remove endangered species protections for gray wolves.

On Friday, a coalition of conservation groups filed a notice of intent to sue over the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) decision, which was finalized late last month.

The FWS rule lifts more than 45 years of protections for the wolves, except for a small band of Mexican gray wolves present in Arizona and New Mexico.

The new notice argued that the basis for the decision was both legally flawed and not based on the best available science. It cited a peer review commissioned by the government that was critical of the delisting proposal.

"Given that gray wolves in the lower 48 states occupy a fraction of their historical and currently available habitat, the Fish and Wildlife Service determining they are successfully recovered does not pass the straight-face test," said John Mellgren, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center, in a statement on Monday.

"While the Trump administration may believe it can disregard science to promote political decisions, the law does not support such a stance," Mellgren added.

FWS has argued the wolf has fully recovered.

Read more on the suit here.

-Sucking up a lot of energy... Separate coalitions of 13 states and six environmental groups filed two lawsuits against the Trump administration Wednesday after it failed to update energy efficiency standards for 25 types of appliances.

The standards cover appliances ranging from dishwashers to refrigerators to air conditioners that, without federal guidelines for efficiency improvements, may cost consumers an extra $580 billion in energy costs and release 2 billion metric tons of carbon emissions by 2050.

"It's astonishing that the Trump administration is failing to carry out this common-sense law that saves people money and reduces air pollution," Howard Crystal, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity's Energy Justice Program, said in a release.

"The climate crisis demands we do everything possible to reduce carbon emissions to ensure a livable planet, and we can't afford to let the Department of Energy abdicate its responsibility."

The suits target the Department of Energy, which is required to update appliance standards every six years.

The move follows other actions taken by the department to roll back efficiency standards for lightbulbs and another rule to exempt quick wash dishwashers from energy efficiency standards--even though most dishwashers already meet them.

Read more on the suit here.

OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY:

World's largest coal producer warns of bankruptcy risk, The Financial Times reports

Scientists relieved as Joe Biden wins tight U.S. presidential election, Scientific American reports

Interior secretary was involved in Vigneto whistleblower case, document shows, The Associated Press reports

ICYMI: Stories from Monday and the weekend...

Former FERC Chair Chatterjee on demotion by Trump: 'I don't give a f@&!'

Tropical Storm Eta makes landfall in the Florida Keys, expected to strengthen

Trump administration sued for failing to update efficiency standards for 25 appliances

Trump administration faces suit over removal of endangered species protections for gray wolves

White House removes leader of major climate report

Whales and other marine mammals susceptible to COVID-19 through wastewater: study

HALIFAX — A new study says COVID-19 could be spread to whales and other marine mammal through improperly treated sewage and wastewater.

VICTORIA BC FLUSHES IT'S RAW SEWAGE INTO THE OCEAN

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Researchers at Dalhousie University in Halifax say while there have been no documented cases to date, both dolphins and beluga whales have been infected with related coronaviruses in the past.

In the study, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, scientists describes how they used genomic mapping to determine which marine mammals would be vulnerable to the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

When the team looked at amino acids to which the virus binds, they found striking similarities between those in humans and in several marine mammals, including dolphins, beluga whales, seals and sea otters.

Graham Dellaire, director of research in the university's pathology department, said the team found at least 15 marine mammal species were susceptible to infection because they each carry a protein required for the virus to infect cells.

The study predicts that the majority of whale, dolphin and porpoise species — 18 out of 21 — have the same or higher susceptibility to the virus as humans, while eight out of nine seal species are also predicted to be highly susceptible.

“Many of these species are threatened or critically endangered," Dellaire said in a statement. "In the past, these animals have been infected by related coronaviruses that have caused both mild disease as well as life-threatening liver and lung damage."

Studies have shown the virus is excreted in feces and can survive in water for up to 25 days, raising the possibility that wastewater could spread the disease — as has happened in Spain, Italy and France, where the virus was detected in untreated sewage.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2020.

Bayer makes 'substantial progress' in Roundup cancer lawsuits, mediator says

By Jonathan Stempel 

© Reuters/MIKE BLAKE FILE PHOTO: Monsanto Co's Roundup shown for sale in California

(Reuters) - A court-appointed mediator on Monday said Bayer AG has made "substantial progress" toward resolving tens of thousands of remaining claims that its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer.

The mediator Kenneth Feinberg spoke at a Zoom hearing in San Francisco federal court, where a judge still oversees nearly 2,000 unresolved cases over glyphosate-based Roundup, which Bayer acquired with its purchase of Monsanto. Other cases are in state courts.

"We're not there yet but we are certainly making substantial progress," said Feinberg, who oversaw compensation programs for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. "It's just a question of when and how quickly they'll get resolved."

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria had previously paused the federal litigation and given Bayer until Nov. 2 to settle.

Bayer has said 1,861 of the 3,787 plaintiffs in that litigation had not settled. Chhabria did not extend the stay, meaning some cases could move toward trials.

"I'm not interested in having such an elongated schedule for the adjudication of these cases," he said.

Bayer has said Roundup is safe for human use. It said it has resolved about 88,500 of an estimated 125,000 filed and unfiled claims, and is "fully committed" to settling the litigation.

The German company inherited liability for the lawsuits when it bought Monsanto for $63 billion in June 2018, becoming the world's largest supplier of seeds and pesticides. Its shares have since fallen 54%.

In June, Bayer projected it would pay up to $10.9 billion to resolve Roundup litigation, mostly for existing claims and $1.25 billion for future claims.

Last week, it increased the projected cost of future claims to $2 billion, and took a 9.25 billion euro ($10.9 billion) writedown in its crop science business.

Bayer lost three Roundup trials in 2018 and 2019. In October, the California Supreme Court declined to hear its appeal from a $20.5 million award to school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson for his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The case is In re Roundup Products Liability Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 16-md-02741.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Stephen Coates)

SOS*

'I just want to see the evidence': Scientists want more data to confirm Pfizer vaccine is 90 per cent effective

The vaccine news sent hopes soaring, but scientists caution critical information is missing and warned of the perils of science by press release

Author of the article: Sharon Kirkey
Publishing date:Nov 10, 2020 •

People walk past the Pfizer Headquarters building in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 9, 2020. PHOTO BY CARLO ALLEGRI/REUTERS

Some 420 words into Pfizer Inc.’s press release announcing that a first peek at early data suggests its COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90 per cent effective, signalling a “great day for science and humanity,” came this cautionary note: “As the study continues, the final vaccine efficacy percentage may vary.”

The press statement, which sent hopes and global stock markets surging, was based on 94 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in a trial that has enrolled nearly 44,000 people, nearly 39,000 of whom have received both doses of the experimental vaccine known as BNT162b2.

Few other details were released. The early data have not been peer-reviewed or published. The vaccine seems safe, with no serious concerns observed, however safety information is still being accumulated. And while a 90 per cent efficacy, if it holds, would be “unbelievable,” scientists say, this was the first interim analysis, and not the final word.
 
With confirmed cases rising, nerves fraying and more than one million related deaths globally, the stakes are “beyond imagination,” Albert Bourla, chairman and chief executive officer of Pfizer told The Washington Post. The vast majority of Canadians remain susceptible to COVID-19 and, after seven months of this, there is so much anticipation for a vaccine that any good news is understandably celebrated.

“We see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday at a briefing with reporters.

But experts caution that it’s too early to call this a vaccine win. It’s not known whether the vaccine prevented serious infections, or mainly mild ones, and it’s too early to know how long any immunity might last.

“It’s well known in clinical trials that sometimes when you have really, really positive effects in the interim analysis, those positive effects get smaller as you complete the trial,” said McGill University professor of biomedical ethics Jonathan Kimmelman. The phenomenon is known as regression toward the mean.

He and others don’t want to understate the significance of Pfizer’s update. A vaccine that provides more than 90 per cent protection against COVID-19 “would be absolutely amazing and would definitely go a huge way to leading us out of the pandemic,” said Toronto infectious diseases specialist Dr. Andrew Morris.

“I just want to see the evidence.”

Canada has bought the rights to 20 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine. Ottawa, hedging its bets, has also signed pre-order agreements with Quebec-based Medicago, Moderna and other companies for up to 358 million doses of different vaccine candidates. A federal advisory committee has recommended those over 70 be first in line for vaccines, followed by healthcare professionals and then essential workers.

Monday’s statement by Pfizer and German partner BioNTech was based on an early analysis of its Phase 3 trial, the final stage of human testing. Volunteers are given either the experimental vaccine, which is administered in two doses, 21 days apart, or a placebo. Volunteers and researchers are “blinded,” meaning neither knows who gets what.

After 94 infections were confirmed among volunteers, an external, independent data and safety monitoring board found that “the case split between vaccinated individuals and those who received the placebo indicates a vaccine efficacy rate above 90 per cent, at 7 days after the second dose,” the companies said.

“Today is a great day for science and humanity,” Bourla said in a statement.

The reported 90 per cent efficacy rate, which surprised many experts, is above the 50 per cent minimum target the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said it would require to grant emergency use authorization for any COVID-19 vaccine.

The trial will continue until there are 164 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and a median two months of safety data following the second and final dose — the amount of safety data the FDA wants. Volunteers in the trial will be monitored for “long-term protection and safety” for an additional two years.

The companies expect to seek U.S. emergency use authorization later this month and say they can produce up to 50 million vaccine doses globally in 2020, and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine targets the spike protein that adorns the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19, raising hopes for other vaccines that use the same approach.

Still, the supply chain will be a challenge: an mRNA-based vaccine like Pfizer’s has to be shipped and stored at temperatures as low as minus 80 degrees Celsius, “as cold as the South Pole in the depths of winter,” as David Gelles of The New York Times noted.

Vaccines are also meant to do two things: protect the person who has been vaccinated from getting sick with disease, and protect the next person from being infected.

Still unknown: “Does (the Pfizer vaccine) attenuate the disease? Does it reduce spread to other people,” Morris, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto said. “Those are equally important things.”

Also missing from Pfizer’s press release was any mention of whether the experimental vaccine prevents hospitalizations or deaths.

“You’d really need to see the full array of safety information to have a critical appraisal of the vaccine,” Kimmelman said.

A Royal Society of Canada policy briefing released last week on the furious pace of COVID-19 science and how it’s being communicated to the public cautions that many in Canada “already have concerns about any vaccine and hesitancy is on the rise.”

“If there is a reversal of fortunes for this vaccine, people in the public begin to have more doubts about what companies or various sponsors are reporting…. You really want to be confident that you have worked out all the kinks, that you have reliable findings before you go public,” Kimmelman said.

“Presumably, Pfizer is making this information public because they think it ought to inform some people’s decisions. Why not wait until you have carefully vetted the data, that you’ve completed the trial, before you issue these results?”

National Post

*SAVE OUR SHARKS

Federal government looks to impose limits on dividends, executive pay from airlines who receive bailout

Sources also said the government would demand companies open up their books to see 'how bad things really are' and ensure the aid package is only 'exactly what they need'

Author of the article: Christopher Nardi

Publishing date:Nov 09, 2020 •

Government sources say any future Canadian airline bailout will include many limitations on what the money can or cannot be spent on. PHOTO BY DARRYL DYCK/THE CANADIAN PRESS/FILE

OTTAWA – The federal government wants to impose strict conditions on airline companies that may receive a COVID-19 bailout, such as limiting executive bonuses and dividend payments and agreeing to annual climate-related financial disclosures.

Sunday, Transport Minister Marc Garneau announced in a statement that the federal government was developing an aid package for the airline industry to help it stay afloat after being devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of his announcement, Garneau promised Canadians that airlines would have to commit to reimbursing clients who have cancelled flights because of the pandemic.

He also said no aid would come if airlines wouldn’t promise to maintain important regional connections throughout the country, as well as continuing to purchase key goods and services from the Canadian aerospace industry.

“Before we spend one penny of taxpayer money on airlines, we will ensure Canadians get their refunds,” Garneau’s statement read. “We will ensure Canadians and regional communities retain air connections to the rest of Canada, and that Canadian air carriers maintain their status as key customers of Canada’s aerospace industry.”

But government sources say any future airline bailout will also include many limitations on what the money can or cannot be spent on. It will also include certain financial disclosure obligations during and after the negotiations.

More specifically, they say the government will pull a page out of the conditions laid out in the Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility (LEEFF), which is a heavily criticized short-term interest bearing loan program aimed at large Canadian employers.
MORE ON THIS TOPIC

Bains suggests Ottawa may draw on scorned federal loan program for airline bailout
Opposition parties demand passenger refunds as condition of any airline bailouts
Pilots push Trudeau for $7-billion bailout as restrictions choke travel

To be eligible for a LEEFF loan, companies must accept a list of conditions such as limiting dividends and executive pay and bonuses all the while committing to minimizing loss of employment, sustaining domestic business activities and providing annual climate-related financial disclosures.

“The same conditions that you find in the LEEFF will be included in any and all deals that will be negotiated,” one government source explained. They were granted anonymity so as to discuss details of upcoming negotiations freely.

Sources also explained that the government would demand aerospace companies open up their books to see “how bad things really are” and to ensure that the aid package is only “exactly what they need.”

“We want aid to be the smallest amount possible,” one source summarized.

“We are still feeling the scars from the bonuses paid out to former Bombardier CEO Alain Bellemare. The government very much remembers that decision, and we don’t want that happening again,” they continued.

That is referring to a series of extremely controversial decisions by the Montreal-based company to hike executive pay and bonuses over recent years all the while it laid of thousands of workers and received millions of dollars in public funds to support its struggling aerospace division.

For example, Bombardier awarded US$32.6 million to senior executives in 2016 — a 50 per cent increased compared with 2015 — at the same time it was receiving a $372.5-million loan from Ottawa to keep its CSeries and Global 7000 programs afloat.

Earlier this year, the company came under fire again for offering Bellemare a $17.5 million compensation package after he announced he was stepping down in March.

“We are still feeling the scars from the bonuses paid out to former Bombardier CEO Alain Bellemare. … We don’t want that happening again.” PHOTO BY PETER J. THOMPSON/NATIONAL POST/FILE

On Monday morning, Industry Minister Navdeep Bains opened the door to simply using the LEEFF program to aid airlines, airports and other crucial parts of the industry.

“We’ll look at different options (such as) the LEEFF program in terms of liquidity support,” Bains said, noting the industry was being “devastated” by the pandemic.

To date, only two firms have received LEEFF loans since the program came into effect in May. Critics have complained that it imposes too many operating restrictions and the interest rates are well above the average from private lenders.

Regardless of the shape it would take, an airline bailout would be the first targeted commercial aid promised by the Liberals since the beginning of the pandemic in March.

And the help can’t come soon enough, according to the airline industry.

Monday, Air Canada reported a loss if $685 million for the third quarter of the year, in addition to a net cash burn of $9 million per day.

The airline also admitted to considering closing 95 additional routes (on top of the 30 domestic routes already suspended indefinitely earlier this year) until Garneau’s announcement Sunday that an aid package was coming.

“(Monday’s) results reflect COVID-19’s unprecedented impact on our industry globally and on Air Canada in what has historically been our most productive and profitable quarter,” CEO Calin Rovinescu wrote in a statement.

Mike McNaney, president and CEO of the National Airlines Council of Canada with represents Air Canada, WestJet, Air Transat and Jazz Aviation, said he was “encouraged” by Garneau’s announcement.

“Airlines are struggling to remain viable because of the economic chaos created by COVID-19. All measures have been taken to reduce costs, and revenue has fallen beyond the means of even the most extreme cost cutting measures to address. The industry will not recover without strong federal leadership,” he said in a statement Sunday.