Two face masks may be more protective than wearing one, but it depends on the type and fit

Doubling up on single-layer cloth masks may be better than one, but the safest homemade masks have three layers, including a nonabsorbent outer one.

Israel 'will not oppose' advanced US arms sales to UAE

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his country would not oppose US sales of advanced weapon systems to the UAE, apparently referring to F-35 fighter planes.

Senator Hirono’s Double Standard

The biggest controversy arising from Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings last week was the fact that she said she “would not discriminate on the basis of sexual preference.”How was that controversial?According to some Senate Democrats, using the term “sexual preference” is “shameful and offensive.”Patty Murray, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, wrote on Twitter: “Judge Barrett using this phrase is shameful and offensive—and it tells us exactly what we need to know about how she views the LGBTQIA+ community.”Democratic senators Cory Booker and Mazie Hirono, both members of the Judiciary Committee, criticized Barrett for saying “sexual preference” at the hearing. “Let me make clear, ‘sexual preference’ is an offensive and outdated term,” Hirono said to Barrett.> Let me make clear - sexual preference is an offensive and outdated term.> > To suggest sexual orientation is a choice? It's not. It's a key part of a person's identity.> > The LGBTQ+ community should be concerned with WhatsAtStake with Judge Barrett on the Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/4TWyATMX0Y> > -- Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) October 13, 2020Barrett apologized: “I certainly didn’t mean and would never mean to use a term that would cause any offense to the LGBTQ community.”“Amy Coney Barrett used an offensive term while talking about LGBTQ rights. Her apology was telling,” read the headline at Vox. But as it turns out, there’s little reason to think the term was offensive before Democrats pounced on Barrett for using it on October 13.Joe Biden used the term “sexual preference” in May 2020, and the late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg used it in 2017. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Dick Durbin — both Judiciary Committee members — have used the term in Senate floor speeches over the past decade.On Thursday afternoon, I caught up with Hirono in the Capitol and asked her about the apparent double standard. The Hawaii senator stands by her condemnation of Barrett for saying “sexual preference,” but won’t call on Biden to apologize for using the same term in May 2020:> National Review: Senator, last week at the hearing you mentioned that you thought it was “offensive and outdated” when Amy Barrett used the [term] “sexual preference.” It turns out that Joe Biden said it in May. Ruth Bader Ginsburg said it in 2017. Some of your colleagues on the Judiciary Committee said it maybe in 2010, 2012. Do you stand by that criticism?> > Mazie Hirono: Well, of course.> > NR: Do you think Joe Biden should apologize for saying that in May?> > Hirono: Well, look, it’s a lesson learned for all of us. But when you’re going on the Supreme Court and you’ve been a judge, as one of my judge friends said, you should know what these words mean.> > NR: Should Joe Biden apologize, too, like Amy Coney Barrett did?> > Hirono: Joe Biden is not up for the Supreme Court.> > NR: He’s up for the presidency. So, he shouldn’t apologize?> > Hirono: People will decide.> > NR: You don’t want to call on him to apologize?> > Hirono: Oh, stop it. The world is in flames.Of course, the state of the world is the same this week as it was last week when Senators Murray and Hirono smeared Barrett as a bigot for using the term, and the argument that either Barrett or Biden did anything wrong is very weak.The Huffington Post and The Atlantic have printed “sexual preference” instead of “sexual orientation” in the last six years. A gay-rights advocate used the term in a September 25, 2020, interview with the gay-rights magazine The Advocate. No one condemned or criticized any of the media outlets or Democratic politicians who used the term in the past decade.In Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, the word “preference” carried no negative connotation when used to refer to sexual orientation on October 12, 2020. On October 13, 2020 — immediately after the media and Senate Democrats pounced on Barrett — Merriam-Webster redefined the word “preference” as “offensive” when used to refer to “sexual orientation.”Amy Coney Barrett and Joe Biden may not owe anyone an apology. But Senator Hirono and several of her Democratic colleagues do.

Snow due to hit Colorado wildfire areas

"We don’t anticipate it will be a season-ending event, but we do believe it will help us a great bit," said a fire incident spokesman.

Trump targets Kamala Harris in sexist rant against the Democratic vice-presidential nominee

"We're not going to have a socialist president, especially a female socialist president ... we're not gonna' put up with it," Trump said.

George Floyd death: A city pledged to abolish its police. Then what?

Minneapolis has struggled to keep a promise that made global headlines after George Floyd's death.

saturday

By Unknown Author from NYT Briefing https://ift.tt/2TmXVAj

After a backlog, North Dakota belatedly notified 800 who tested positive.

By BY BRYAN PIETSCH from NYT World https://ift.tt/31EXqWU

Record numbers of daily infections are reported in six states, including Ohio and Illinois.

By BY MITCH SMITH from NYT World https://ift.tt/2G02bmk

Fact check: Obama administration approved, built temporary holding enclosures at southern border

A meme about a recent speech is true. The facilities were built during the Obama era -- and were intended to hold migrant children for up to 72 hours.

Opposition leader flees Venezuela, heads towards Spain and the United States

Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López escaped from the South American country and was traveling on Saturday to Spain, where he will spend time with his family before eventually heading towards the United States to continue the efforts to outs the Nicolas Maduro regime, sources close to the former political prisoner told el Nuevo Herald.

Kansas Man Snatched Daughters From Home Where Boys Were Found Dead: Cops

Kansas police are hunting for a man they say abducted his two young daughters from a home where two boys were found dead.Donny Jackson, 40, is believed to be driving a black Honda accord, according to an Amber Alert that was issued Saturday. Cops actually had him in their grasp. Around 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, police stopped his vehicle on Highway 169 near the Oklahoma border, while the girls were in the car, but let him drive on.The reason for the traffic stop wasn’t specified but it wasn’t related to the abduction. It wasn’t until 45 minutes later—when cops got a call from a home in Leavenworth—that they discovered the slain boys and learned that 7-year-old Nora and 3-year-old Aven were missing.The relationship between the boys and the girls is not known, but Jackson’s Facebook page contains photos of two brothers posing for first day of school photos.His account is also full of postings denying the usefulness of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic and mocking the Black Lives Matter movement, religious aphorisms, conspiracy theories, and cryptic comments.“When you have to lie to the mother’s body to carry your seed, do not expect the abomination to succeed,” one Sept. 10 comment read.“Why do they call it the bible belt?” he wrote on Aug. 31. “Disciplinary action requires a belt occasionally.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Oklahoma Democrat Rejects Biden’s Promise to ‘Transition’ Away from Oil Industry

Representative Kendra Horn (D., Ok.) immediately distanced herself from Joe Biden's claim during the Thursday presidential debate that he would "transition" away from the oil industry.Towards the end of the debate, President Trump challenged Biden to say whether or not he would go after the oil industry."I would transition from the oil industry, yes,” Biden responded. "It has to be replaced by renewable energy over time….And I’d stop giving to the oil industry—I’d stop giving them federal subsidies. [Trump] won’t give federal subsidies to solar and wind. Why are we giving it to the oil industry?”Biden campaign spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield attempted to clarify that the former vice president only wants to end federal subsidies for the oil and gas industry, not eliminate it entirely. However, Representative Horn stated that she did not concur with Biden's initial comments."Here’s one of the places Biden and I disagree. We must stand up for our oil and gas industry," Horn wrote on Twitter about half an hour after Biden made his remarks. "We need an all-of-the-above energy approach that’s consumer friendly, values energy independence, and protects [Oklahoma] jobs."Horn also touted an endorsement from Steven C. Agee, dean of the Meinders School of Business at Oklahoma City University and former president of an oil and gas exploration company.Horn narrowly defeated Republican Steve Russell in 2018 and became the first Democrat to represent Oklahoma's 5th congressional district since 1975. The district itself encompasses Oklahoma City, and its voters largely backed Donald Trump in the 2016 elections.The Chamber of Commerce, the powerful Washington, D.C.-based business lobby, has also given its endorsement to Horn. The endorsement drew surprise and condemnation from Republicans."I question how the U.S. Chamber could endorse a candidate who consistently voted against the largest industry in Oklahoma, employing over 90,000 workers throughout the state," State Chamber of Oklahoma President Chad Warmington wrote in an August letter to the lobby. Warmington was apparently referring to the oil industry.

France reacts after Erdogan questions Macron's mental health

France recalled its ambassador to Turkey for consultations after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said President Emmanuel Macron needed mental health treatment and made other comments that the French government described as unacceptably rude. Erdogan questioned his French counterpart's mental condition while criticizing Macron’s attitude toward Islam and Muslims. “What is the problem of this person called Macron with Islam and Muslims?” Erdogan asked rhetorically during his Justice and Development party meeting in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri.

Elderly couple who refused to evacuate home was killed by Colorado wildfire, local authorities say

The couple's "only desire was to be together in the home they loved," their family said in a statement.

Minneapolis Residents Sue City Over Alleged Police Department Rollbacks

The lawsuit counters the widespread calls to defund police departments and take officers off the streets

Turkey's Armenians 'cannot breathe' as Karabakh rhetoric rages

Turkey's support of Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh is loud and intensely partisan, and the tiny Armenian community in Turkey is feeling under pressure.

Scott Peterson, who killed pregnant wife, faces death penalty at resentencing

“At this point in time, we are on track to retry" the death penalty case, a prosecutor told a judge in California on Friday.

Evo Morales leaves Argentina for Venezuela: report

Bolivia's former president Evo Morales left Argentina for Caracas late Friday in an official Venezuelan aircraft, the official Argentine news agency Telam said.

Judge slashes bond for man linked to plot to kidnap Whitmer

A judge on Friday slashed bond from $10 million to $100,000 for a man accused of assisting in a scheme to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and commit other violence against state government. A defense attorney argued that Pete Musico was kicked out of the group in the early summer because he was too “soft” and wouldn't commit to violence after participating in armed but legal spring rallies at the Capitol. “He was telling them you cannot accomplish what we're trying to accomplish through violence,” Kareem Johnson said.

Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner threaten lawsuit over COVID billboards

One billboard shows Trump smiling and gesturing to coronavirus death numbers in the U.S. Another features Kushner next to body bags and a quote he reportedly said in March: "[New Yorkers] are going to suffer and that's their problem."

The South was a lost cause for Democrats. Now eight key Senate seats are in play.

"You'd sometimes have a good candidate run, but they had no capacity to raise money or get involvement from the national party. That’s changed now," one Democratic strategist said.

Wall Street Journal’s News Side Releases A Piece Debunking Opinion Side’s Hunter Biden Screed

A pro-Trump writer at the Wall Street Journal’s opinion section published a convoluted column Thursday evening asserting that newly released text messages proved that former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter was involved in an alleged pay-for-play scheme with his dad and a Chinese energy company.But just hours later, Wall Street Journal reporters published their own story that seemed to emphatically dismiss the opinion piece’s conclusions, saying a review of documents by the paper revealed “no role for Joe Biden.”Both the Journal’s opinion section and straight news operation published their dueling stories based on text messages shared with the paper by Tony Bobulinski, a businessman who was involved in a scuttled venture with Hunter Biden in 2017 involving a Chinese oil company.In a press conference on Thursday before the second and final presidential debate, Bobulinski claimed that he had text messages on multiple phones showing that Joe Biden was a part of a discussion with his son about a business venture with a Chinese energy company.Pete Buttigieg Deftly Shuts Down Fox News’ Hunter Biden SmearIn her opinion piece on Thursday, Kim Strassel argued that despite the fact that the messages were sent after Joe Biden had left office, and before he launched his presidential campaign, the texts showed that Hunter Biden “was cashing in on the Biden name” and that “Joe Biden was involved” in the plan.“The former vice president is running on trust and good judgment. The Hunter tale is at best the story of a wayward son and indulgent father. At worst, it is an example of the entire Biden clan cashing in on its name with a U.S. rival,” she wrote.Strassel wrote that according to the messages, one of Hunter Biden’s business partners in the venture told Bobulinski, “don’t mention Joe being involved, it’s only when u are face to face.” She also said that some messages that referred to an unnamed business partner were references to the former vice president.But according to the Wall Street Journal’s own reporting, the text messages did not show the pay-for-play scheme that Strassel outlined.“Text messages and emails related to the venture that were provided to the Journal by Mr. Bobulinski, mainly the spring and summer of 2017, don’t show either Hunter Biden or [Joe’s brother] James Biden discussing a role for Joe Biden in the venture,” Journal reporters Andrew Duehren and James T. Areddy wrote.The Journal did note that Bobulinski said Hunter Biden appeared to reference his father as a potential business partner in one set of text messages, allegedly referring to him as the “big guy.” Biden’s team has denied that the former vice president ever was involved in business ventures with his son, and has released his tax returns, which the campaign says show no business dealings with foreign companies.The push to put the spotlight on Hunter Biden’s scuttled business dealing with a Chinese energy firm has been part of a last-ditch attempt by the Trump campaign and its allies to recreate the drama of the Clinton email scandal that helped propel Trump to the White House.Earlier this week, the New York Post published a story with the alleged contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, which was provided to the tabloid by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. As The New York Times reported, the piece so thoroughly lacked credibility that one Post reporter refused to put his name on the story over such concerns.Giuliani acknowledged to the Times that the Post lacks certain journalistic standards, explaining that he specifically opted to give the story to the tabloid because they wouldn’t “spend all the time they could to try to contradict it before they put it out.” And later this week, the president’s lawyer admitted that even if his claims about Hunter Biden are not accurate, “the American people are entitled to know it.”While other outlets have steered clear of the story because of questions about the validity of the text messages and how they were obtained, earlier this month, Trump hinted that the Wall Street Journal was preparing to drop a major story about Hunter Biden, sparking rumors about the contents of the Journal’s story.Thursday’s dust-up wasn’t the first time in recent months that the paper’s reporting staff has seemed to be at odds with its right-leaning opinion section.In June, 280 Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones staffers sent a letter to the publisher of the paper saying the opinion section's "lack of fact-checking and transparency, and its apparent disregard for evidence, undermine our readers’ trust and our ability to gain credibility with sources.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

WATCH: Trump posts his version of '60 Minutes' interview

President Trump uploaded a cut of his "60 Minutes" segment to Facebook on Thursday before its Sunday evening broadcast on CBS. Trump this week abruptly ended his interview with Lesley Stahl and walked off camera.

The one poll to care about today.

By BY NATE COHN from NYT The Upshot https://ift.tt/3jjNeck

Descubrimiento en las líneas de Nasca: la figura de un gato de 2000 años de antigüedad

By BY TIFFANY MAY from NYT en Español https://ift.tt/3mclRmc

Trump’s Claims About Hunter Biden Sends Online Activity Soaring

By BY SHEERA FRENKEL from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/31BMSYp

Kamala Harris urges Georgia’s Black voters to reject racism with their ballots.

By BY STEPHANIE SAUL from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3miRNWd

A resurgent virus attacks the heartland, just before the election.

By BY EILEEN SULLIVAN, ALBERT SUN, SARAH MERVOSH AND REBECCA HALLECK from NYT World https://ift.tt/35tGu6L

Trump defends family separation in debate, says immigrant kids whose parents can't be found are 'so well taken care of'

During a rare presidential debate exchange about immigration, President Trump defended his administration’s family separation policy for undocumented immigrants, which has left hundreds of children without their parents for years, saying the kids are “so well taken care of” in federal facilities.

Senators Collins, Murkowski Vote Against Moving Forward with Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Confirmation

Senators Susan Collins (R., Maine.) and Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) voted on Friday against moving the Senate into an executive session to allow McConnell to expedite the final confirmation vote that is expected to seat Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.The Senate ended up approving the move to executive session — which allows McConnell to file cloture, thereby overcoming any potential filibuster — by a vote of 51-46. Republicans are attempting to confirm Judge Barrett to the Court bench next week, cementing a 6-3 majority of conservative justices.However, moderate Republicans Collins and Murkowski did not support the motion. Collins has already stated she will not vote in favor of Barrett's nomination because of the vote's proximity to the presidential election.Additionally, the Maine senator is in the midst of a difficult reelection campaign against Sarah Gideon, the Democratic speaker of the state House. President Trump is deeply unpopular among Maine voters, and the senator has struggled to keep a level of ideological distance between Trump and herself.Murkowski has not stated definitively how she will vote during the confirmation, although she, like Collins, has repeatedly voiced opposition to holding the confirmation in the week before elections."I’ve shared for a while that I didn’t think we should be taking this up until after the election, and I haven’t changed," Murkowski told Newsweek on Thursday. When asked if her comments meant she intends to vote against Barrett's confirmation, the senator responded, "That means I haven’t changed my mind on that."Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to confirm Barrett on Monday. While Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D., Il.) has acknowledged that the Democrats cannot effectively stop the confirmation, Democrats engaged in procedural delay tactics on Friday in an attempt to slow the process.

America's 1.3 million Jehovah's Witnesses will be sitting out this election

Jehovah's Witnesses do not vote, run for public office, serve in the military, or take "any action to change governments."

Inside Putin’s Mysterious Purge of Top FSB Official General Sergei Smirnov

MOSCOW—President Vladimir Putin vowed on Thursday he would not be swayed by Western pressure over the poisoning of his most prominent domestic critic, Alexei Navalny.Nonetheless, a reported mysterious shakeup in a Russian intelligence agency, and other comments by Putin, suggest the Kremlin has been forced to at least try to demonstrate distance between the president and those who might be behind Navalny’s poisoning with the military nerve agent Novichok.Speaking in front of Russian businessmen, Putin declared he had personally allowed Navalny to leave Siberia for Berlin for medical treatment, which saved the opposition leader’s life. A few hours later, Putin fired the deputy director of Federal Security Service (FSB), General Sergei Smirnov, according to a report in a respected business newspaper, RBK. General Smirnov oversaw an FSB department that has been linked in British media reports to the poisoning.Navalny, a 44-year-old anti-corruption activist and opposition leader, collapsed on a plane from Siberia to Moscow on Aug. 20. He was in coma while his wife, Yulia, and members of his anti-corruption organization struggled to even visit his sickbed at the hospital, as he was surrounded by FSB and police officers. According to a report in The Guardian, one of the departments managed by General Smirnov, the so-called FSB’s Second Service, was behind Navalny’s poisoning with Novichok.The shakeup in the FSB became a big day for Kremlin-watchers, who in the best of times struggle to figure out the centers of power behind the Kremlin and FSB doors. To be sure, the firing of the general could have other explanations than the poisoning.Navalny Had Many Enemies in the Kremlin—but Who Wanted Him Dead?Still, Russia’s media wondered about a link between Smirnov and Navalny. Pavel Lobkov, a news presenter, was on live Rain TV on Thursday for the president’s speech. “First we heard Putin babbling away his usual drill about the evil West and how we relaxed. But then after 6 p.m. he began to talk about Navalny and then we saw the biggest news of the day: Putin removed General Smirnov,” Lobkov told The Daily Beast. “The official reason was age—Smirnov turned 70—but considering what his Second Service was famous for, it could be the punishment for not doing a clean poisoning job. Since FSB is a completely closed and secret service, we did not manage to find anybody competent to comment on Smirnov’s case.”Smirnov had worked in the KGB and FSB since 1974, first in Putin’s hometown of Leningrad —now St Petersburg—where Putin has also served in the Soviet KGB, then at the central FSB apparatus in Moscow.News agencies published bits of Putin’s address to the Russian elite and his comments about Navalny. He was reading a text from a piece of paper, quite unusual for Putin, who typically speaks for hours without looking at his notes. His announcement of his personal role in evacuating Navalny was mixed with defiance. “Looking at what is happening in the world, in other countries, I want to tell those who are still waiting for Russia to gradually fade away: We are worried about only one thing—how not to catch a cold at your funerals.”Navalny, who is still undergoing medical treatment in Germany after being in a coma for nearly three weeks, said Putin was personally behind his poisoning. In his first interview, with Der Spiegel magazine, Navalny said only the most influential people in the secret services, the FSB director Alexander Bortnikov and the head of foreign intelligence office, Sergei Naryshkin, could order the Novichok attack without an approval by Russia’s commander-in-chief. Navalny also blamed Putin for ordering the attack in his interview with Russia’s most popular blogger, Yuriy Dud, viewed by more than 21 million people.“Putin is afraid of Navalny, the only real opposition leader, who will definitely come back to Russia, fight to get registered for the presidential elections in three years and win the election to be Russia’s next president,” a close Navalny ally, Lyubov Sobol, told The Daily Beast in a recent interview.An investigative reporter at The Bell, Anastasia Stognei, said that General Smirnov was in charge of several key FSB departments, including department K, which is dealing with economic crimes. The department was famous for several high-profile arrests with links to domestic politics, including the cases of ex-minister of economic development, Aleksey Ulyukayev, and the owner of Summa group, Ziyavudin Magomedov.Putin Is Facing the Toughest Fight of His Presidency as Former USSR Goes up in FlamesLast April, the FSB arrested three of its own officials in Smirnov’s K Department, on suspicion they took multi-million dollar bribes from Russian bankers. “Smirnov was directly involved with the banking sector. Our sources explained the high-profile arrests with ‘insider fighting’ inside the FSB between Smirnov’s clan and Sergei Korolev, the head of economic security service, who they say is going to replace Smirnov as the deputy head of FSB,” Stognei said.Intrigues in Russia’s secret services have far-reaching consequences, said Sergei Parkhomenko, a commentator on Russia’s politics. Parkhomenko said that Smirnov was a lost chess piece in the fight of Russian secret services. “There are several ‘cleaners’ around Putin, who do dirty jobs in the most dirty ways; Putin might make comments about some personalities, his services fulfil what they believe were the boss’ wishes, then we hear of Anna Politkovskaya’s or Boris Nemtsov’s assassinations, poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko or a less successful poisoning attempt of Sergei Skripal or Navalny,” Parkhomenko told The Daily Beast on Thursday. “But we don’t have any clue. Maybe there were more than 100 successful poisoning attempts, when young and healthy people died a quiet death.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Christian singer to host evangelical ‘worship protest’ on Washington DC’s National Mall with 15,000 expected to attend

The event scheduled this weekend will not require attendees to wear masks or social distance

Scoop: Rudy Giuliani declined offer of compromising Hunter Biden emails and images in May 2019

Giuliani turned the offer down out of credibility concerns, a source familiar with the meeting tells Salon

North Carolina man plotted to assassinate Biden, FBI claims

A North Carolina man had plans to assassinate Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden before he was ultimately arrested by the FBI, according to federal court documents. Federal officials detailed the shocking plot in court filings in a case against Alexander Hillel Treisman, who was arrested in May on child pornography charges. The FBI requested that Treisman remain behind bars until his trial, using the alleged assassination plot as justification.

China threatens retaliation over US-Taiwan arms sale

China on Thursday threatened to make a "legitimate and necessary" retaliation over the US sale of $1 billion worth of missiles to Taiwan as Beijing becomes increasingly strident over its claims to the self-ruled island.

US embassy in Turkey issues a warning about 'potential terrorist attacks and kidnappings' of Americans and foreigners in Istanbul

In response to the threat, the embassy suspended its services and urged American citizens to be careful, avoid crowds, and keep a low profile.

Electoral college explained: how Biden faces an uphill battle in the US election

Trump won the presidency in 2016 despite Clinton receiving almost 3m more votes, all because of the electoral college. How does the system work? Who elects the US president?When Americans cast their ballots for the US president, they are actually voting for a representative of that candidate’s party known as an elector. There are 538 electors who then vote for the president on behalf of the people in their state.Each state is assigned a certain number of these electoral votes, based on the number of congressional districts they have, plus two additional votes representing the state’s Senate seats. Washington DC is also assigned three electoral votes, despite having no voting representation in Congress. A majority of 270 of these votes is needed to win the presidency.The process of nominating electors varies by state and by party, but is generally done one of two ways. Ahead of the election, political parties either choose electors at their national conventions, or they are voted for by the party’s central committee.The electoral college nearly always operates with a winner-takes-all system, in which the candidate with the highest number of votes in a state claims all of that state’s electoral votes. For example, in 2016, Trump beat Clinton in Florida by a margin of just 2.2%, but that meant he claimed all 29 of Florida’s crucial electoral votes.Such small margins in a handful of key swing states meant that, regardless of Clinton’s national vote lead, Trump was able to clinch victory in several swing states and therefore win more electoral college votes. Biden could face the same hurdle in November, meaning he will need to focus his attention on a handful of battleground states to win the presidency.A chart showing electoral college votes by state The unequal distribution of electoral votesWhile the number of electoral votes a state is assigned somewhat reflects its population, the minimum of three votes per state means that the relative value of electoral votes varies across America.The least populous states like North and South Dakota and the smaller states of New England are overrepresented because of the required minimum of three electoral votes. Meanwhile, the states with the most people – California, Texas and Florida – are underrepresented in the electoral college.Wyoming has one electoral college vote for every 193,000 people, compared with California’s rate of one electoral vote per 718,000 people. This means that each electoral vote in California represents over three times as many people as one in Wyoming. These disparities are repeated across the country.A visual of population per electoral vote by state Who does it favour?Experts have warned that, after returning two presidents that got fewer votes than their opponents since 2000, the electoral college is flawed.In 2000, Al Gore won over half a million more votes than Bush, yet Bush became president after winning Florida by just 537 votes. In all, the US has had five presidents who lost the overall popular vote but won the election.A chart showing recent election outcomes by popular vote and electoral college marginsProfessor George Edwards III, at Texas A&M University, said: “The electoral college violates the core tenet of democracy, that all votes count equally and allows the candidate finishing second to win the election. Why hold an election if we do not care who received the most votes?“At the moment, the electoral college favours Republicans because of the way Republican votes are distributed across the country. They are more likely to occur in states that are closely divided between the parties.”Under the winner-takes-all system, the margin of victory in a state becomes irrelevant. In 2016, Clinton’s substantial margins in states such as California and New York failed to earn her enough electoral votes, while close races in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Michigan took Trump over the 270 majority.A visual showing margins and electoral votes by state gained by Trump and Clinton in 2016As candidates easily win the electoral votes of their solid states, the election plays out in a handful of key battlegrounds. In 2016, Trump won six such states - Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – adding 99 electoral votes to his total.The demographics of these states differ from the national average. They are older, have more white voters without college degrees, and often have smaller non-white populations. These characteristics generally favour Republicans, and made up the base of Trump’s votes in 2016.For example, 67% of non-college-educated white people voted for Trump in 2016. In all six swing states, this demographic is overrepresented by at least six percentage points more than the national average.default The alternativesSeveral alternative systems for electing the president have been proposed and grown in favour, as many seek to change or abolish the electoral college.Two states – Maine and Nebraska – already use a different method of assigning their electoral college votes. The two “Senate” votes go to the state-wide popular vote winner, but the remaining district votes are awarded to the winner of that district. However, implementing this congressional district method across the country could result in greater bias than the current system. The popular vote winner could still lose the election, and the distribution of voters would still strongly favour Republicans.The National Popular Vote Compact (NPVC) is another option, in which each state would award all of its electoral college votes in line with the national popular vote. If enough states signed up to this agreement to reach the 270 majority, the candidate who gained the most votes nationwide would always win the presidency.However, the NPVC has more practical issues. Professor Norman Williams, from Willamette University, questioned how a nationwide recount would be carried out under the NPVC, and said that partisanship highlighted its major flaws. Only Democratic states are currently signed up, but support could simply switch in the future if a Republican candidate faces winning the popular vote but not the presidency.The NPVC is a solution that would elect the president with the most votes without the difficulty of abolishing the electoral college that is enshrined in the constitution.The current system is also vulnerable to distorted outcomes through actions such as gerrymandering. This practice involves precisely redrawing the borders of districts to concentrate support in favour of a party. The result being abnormally shaped districts that disenfranchise certain groups of voters. Today, an amendment that would replace the college with a direct national popular vote is seen by many as the fairest electoral system.According to Professor Edwards III, “There is only one appropriate way to elect the president: add up all the votes and declare the candidate receiving the most votes the winner.”default

Fauci says Trump hasn't attended a coronavirus task force meeting in several months

It's been "several months" since President Trump was in attendance for a meeting of the White House coronavirus task force, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci.Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, in an interview with Meet the Press on Friday described the current status of the White House coronavirus task force, explaining that it is now meeting less regularly than it used to earlier in the pandemic despite the U.S. seeing an uptick in daily COVID-19 cases."The number of task force meetings have diminished, and we're averaging right now about one a week," Fauci said.Asked by Chuck Todd when Trump himself last attended one of these meetings, Fauci said "that was several months ago." Fauci also said in the interview that Scott Atlas, a controversial White House COVID-19 adviser who has no background in epidemiology and recently posted a false claim that masks don't work that was removed by Twitter, has the president's "ear" more than he does. "I definitely don't have his ear as much as Scott Atlas right now," Fauci said. "That has been a changing situation. We certainly interact with the vice president at the task force meetings, and the vice president makes our feelings and what we talk about there known to the president. But direct involvement with the president in the discussions, I have not done that in a while."Fauci's comments come days after Trump attacked him as a "disaster" and said that people are "tired of hearing Fauci and these idiots." > WATCH: @chucktodd: How often do covid-19 task force meetings occur? MTPDaily> > Dr. Anthony Fauci: "They certainly are less than they used to be. ... We're averaging right now about one a week." pic.twitter.com/9BKvTeok4B> > -- Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) October 23, 2020More stories from theweek.com Trump loses on the merits Who won the final 2020 debate? Call it a draw. Get ready for Trump TV, America

Turkish burgers off the menu in Saudi Arabia as trade boycott bites fast food industry

With its spicy sauce and Ottoman-themed packaging, the “Turkish burger” is one of the more exotic choices on the menu at Saudi Arabian restaurant Herfy. Or, at least, it was. This week, the Turkish patty has vanished from the menu and been replaced with an identical “Greek burger,” the latest casualty of Saudi Arabia’s unofficial boycott of Turkish products. “It’s the same thing,” one Herfy worker, Mahmood Bassyoni, told customers as he offered them a taste of the burger, according to Bloomberg news agency. “Just the name changed.” The boycott reportedly began after Recep Tayyip Erdogan outraged Riyadh, one of its main rivals in the Middle East, by claiming that “Arab countries in the Gulf will not exist for long but Turkey will always remain powerful.” Tensions have also simmered over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate and differing attitudes towards Islamist groups in the region. Mr Erdogan has accused Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, of ordering the murder personally, something that he vehemently denies. The Telegraph approached Herfy for comment on whether the rebranding was related to the boycott but had not received a response at the time of publication. According to Arab News, a Saudi news website, the boycott has been gaining steam in recent weeks, with major supermarket Al Sadhan Group expressing support for the campaign. This was followed by dairy firm Tamimi Markets adding its voice to the backlash against Turkish goods, along with a number of online fashion retailers.

Judge slashes bond for man linked to plot to kidnap Whitmer

A judge on Friday slashed bond from $10 million to $100,000 for a man accused of assisting in a scheme to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and commit other violence against state government. A defense attorney argued that Pete Musico was kicked out of the group in the early summer because he was too “soft” and wouldn't commit to violence after participating in armed but legal spring rallies at the Capitol. “He was telling them you cannot accomplish what we're trying to accomplish through violence,” Kareem Johnson said.

India buzzes with fake news of 'civil war' in Pakistan

Who was behind rumours that police and troops were fighting in Karachi, and what was the motive?

Turkey's Armenians 'cannot breathe' as Karabakh rhetoric rages

Turkey's support of Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh is loud and intensely partisan, and the tiny Armenian community in Turkey is feeling under pressure.

In two political battlegrounds, thousands of mail-in ballots are on the verge of being rejected

Tens of millions of Americans have already cast their ballots for the 2020 election by mail, building on a historic shift in voting methods that started with primary elections held during the COVID-19 pandemic.Mail-in ballots, however, aren’t automatically accepted as in-person ballots are. Rather, they can be rejected if they have signature defects on their return envelopes. Unless cured by voters – which means that voters fix the signature errors on them – these submitted ballots will be rejected. Thanks to ongoing reporting of voter turnout in two battleground states, Florida and North Carolina, we can identify the number of mail-in ballots at risk of being rejected. So far, we can tell that there are thousands of ballots flagged for rejection in these two states. In addition, racial minorities and Democrats are disproportionately more likely to have cast mail ballots this election that face rejection. The signature issue with mail ballotsAbove, we use the word “risk” when describing ballots in Florida and North Carolina that have been flagged for rejection. While these ballots have signature defects, they have not yet been formally rejected.Not all states have the same requirements for mail-in voting, but ballots usually face rejection if they’re missing a voter’s signature. Another source of defects is an ostensibly mismatched signature. This happens when an elections official concludes that a voter’s signature on a return envelope doesn’t match the voter’s signature on file. Some states, like North Carolina, require witness signatures on ballot return envelopes, with the lack of such a signature considered a defect. Enough ballots face rejection to sway an electionOur counts of mail ballots facing rejection in Florida and North Carolina are conservative. When calculating them using official data, we assume that any inconsistencies we find in the data are resolved in favor of ballot acceptance.That said, here is what we know as of Oct. 22. In Florida, 3,210,873 voters have cast mail ballots, and of these, 15,003 ballots face rejection, corresponding to a potential ballot rejection rate of 0.47%. This rate is not an estimate. It is based on counts drawn from official statewide data.These thousands of mail ballots currently in limbo can make a difference. Consider the 2018 midterm election. In his successful United States Senate bid in this contest, Republican Rick Scott beat incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson by only 10,033 votes. Over 2 million Floridians have yet to return the mail ballots sent to them by county election officials, so the number of mail ballots subject to rejection in Florida could grow well beyond 15,000.In North Carolina, an even greater percentage of mail ballots face rejection. In that state, 8,228 of 701,425 mail ballots fall into this category, yielding a potential rejection rate of 1.2%.As in Florida, North Carolina’s elections can be extremely close. In the state’s 2016 gubernatorial race, a mere 10,277 votes out of roughly 4.6 million cast separated the winner, Democrat Roy Cooper, from incumbent Republican Pat McCrory. The number of ballots at risk in North Carolina – 8,228 – remains smaller than this margin but could grow as more ballots are returned. Partisan and race-based ballot rejection ratesThe risks of mail ballot rejection are not spread uniformly across voters, and rejected mail ballots are not politically neutral. We can see from our Florida and North Carolina election data that registered Democrats have greater rejection rates than Republicans. The partisan differences in potential ballot rejection rates – Democratic rate minus Republican rate – are approximately 0.07% and 0.16% in Florida and in North Carolina, respectively.In addition, Democrats have expressed a greater willingness to vote by mail than Republicans – though this might be changing. This will compound any biases caused by differing ballot rejection rates across Democratic and Republican voters.Official election data in Florida and North Carolina also reveal a clear racial pattern among mail ballots facing rejection: Black and Hispanic voters are much more likely to have their ballots flagged for missing signatures or other discrepancies than are white voters.In Florida, ballots cast by Hispanic voters face a rejection risk 2.6 times that of white voters. In North Carolina, where the two most common racial groups are Black and white, the risk of ballot rejection for Black voters is three times that of white voters. White voters thus have lower ballot rejection rates than minority voters, who tend to support Democratic candidates over Republican ones. Ballots can still be ‘cured’In both Florida and North Carolina, voters who have submitted mail ballots with signature defects can still cure them. Florida voters have the opportunity to fix their mail ballots through Thursday, Nov. 5. This can be done via affidavit. Details about ballot curing in North Carolina were until recently tied up in court. But voters in the state can now, in some cases, fix ballots with defects. However, ballots in North Carolina missing witness signatures cannot be cured, and voters in the state who cast these types of ballots must request new ballots if they want their votes to count.Curing a ballot with a signature defect requires knowing that it is facing rejection. But not all states send out notices informing voters of ballot defects.In some states, voters who cast mail-in ballots can check on the status of their ballots with local officials or using web resources provided by the secretary of state, which voters can do in New Mexico and Ohio.However, other states, such as Maine and New Hampshire, don’t have laws mandating that voters get the opportunity to cure mail ballots of deficiencies. For this election, though, officials in these two New England states have developed procedures to allow voters to fix ballots with defects.[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]Given the surge of mail-in ballots in this election cycle, there’s likely to be confusion over rejected ballots and cures. In the future, it’ll be important for states to provide voters with transparent processes for fixing defective ballots so they can ensure they’ll be able to exercise the right to vote.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Michael Herron, Dartmouth College and Daniel A. Smith, University of Florida.Read more: * Mail delays, the election and the future of the US Postal Service: 5 questions answered * Mail-in voting is safe and reliable – 5 essential readsMichael Herron submitted an expert report on behalf of plaintiffs in the matter of North Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans et al. v. North Carolina State Board of Elections et al. Daniel A. Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

The Lincoln Project savages Trump's debate claim that separated migrant kids are 'so well taken care of'

Just minutes after President Trump declared during Thursday night's debate that migrant kids separated from their parents are "so well taken care of" inside U.S. facilities, the Lincoln Project released a searing four-second ad combining his words with the wails of children.This week, lawyers tasked with reuniting migrant kids with their families told a court they haven't been able to track down the parents of 545 children. They were separated under the Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy, and when asked about this by moderator Kristen Welker, Trump claimed the government is working to find the parents, but added that many are smuggled into the country by coyotes and when kids are placed in U.S. facilities, they are "so well taken care of."Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden pushed back, saying the children in question were ripped away from their parents, not smugglers, and called the act "criminal." On Twitter, PBS NewsHour reporter Amna Nawaz said that she has "been inside the border processing centers where many kids and families were held. They were under resourced. Crowded. Staff overwhelmed. Groups of young kids crammed into windowless rooms."The Lincoln Project wasted no time bringing attention to Trump's claim. Their video uses footage from facilities, showing young children wrapped up in mylar blankets inside cages, and the audio is Trump's claim that "they're in facilities that were so clean ... so well taken care of," mixed with the sounds of kids crying. Watch the ad below. > "They're so well taken care of." pic.twitter.com/IysMjSvE0g> > -- The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 23, 2020More stories from theweek.com Trump loses on the merits Who won the final 2020 debate? Call it a draw. Get ready for Trump TV, America

Appeals Court Says Uber and Lyft Must Treat California Drivers as Employees

By BY KATE CONGER from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/35kko6I

Police Killing of Black Man Sets Off Protests in Illinois

By BY MICHAEL LEVENSON from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3manUaD

Watch Live: The Final 2020 Presidential Debate

By BY THE NEW YORK TIMES from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/31yBywu

Debate Preview: There Will Be Muting

By BY LISA LERER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/37KWZ1h