Day: November 9, 2020

Twitter says it could strip President Donald Trump’s account of certain privileges when projected election winner Joe Biden takes office on January 20.
 
Trump’s recent tweets alleging voter fraud in the November 3 election have been tagged by Twitter, with notices that say for example, “This claim about voter fraud is disputed.”
 
Ordinarily, Twitter would remove such tweets, but affords world leaders some further latitude.
 
“A critical function of our service is providing a place where people can openly and publicly respond to their leaders and hold them accountable,” a Twitter spokesman told the Bloomberg news agency. “With this in mind, there are certain cases where it may be in the public’s interest to have access to certain tweets, even if they would otherwise be in violation of our rules.”
 
This policy, however, does not apparently extend to former leaders, Twitter told the Reuters news organization.
 
“This policy framework applies to current world leaders and candidates for office, and not private citizens when they no longer hold these positions,” a Twitter spokesman told Reuters in a statement.
 
Trump is refusing to concede the election, alleging voter fraud. He is suing various states over what he says are irregularities.  
 
Media organizations, including VOA, have projected Biden as the winner of the election, with 279 electoral votes.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the news from pharmaceutical company Pfizer that its potential vaccine showed better than 90% efficacy in Phase 3 tests. But he cautioned that a vaccine is still a long way off and that one vaccine is not a solution.Speaking to reporters in London, Johnson said the data released Monday by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, indicated the vaccine is safe, but the findings must be peer reviewed.Johnson stressed these are the “very, very early days” of this vaccine search, and he compared this news to “the distant bugle of the scientific calvary coming over the brow of the hill.” The prime minister said the bugle is louder, but the calvary is still a long way off.Johnson said the British government earlier this year ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, enough for one-third of the British population. He said they had ordered 300 million more doses from five other potential vaccines as well.But the prime minister said if the Pfizer vaccine proves effective and passes all appropriate safety checks, then the government will begin a nationwide vaccine distribution program administered by the National Health Service.Johnson was also asked about the results of the U.S. election being called for Joe Biden, with Kamala Harris as his vice president-elect. He congratulated the two Democrats and said while his government has had a good relationship with the Trump administration, he has no doubt that will continue under Biden.Johnson said he was particularly excited to work with the incoming administration in their efforts to fight climate change.
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The secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson, has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a department spokesperson. The HUD secretary “is in good spirits and feels fortunate to have access to effective therapeutics which aid and markedly speed his recovery,” the agency’s deputy chief of staff, Coalter Baker, said in a statement. After experiencing symptoms, Carson, 69, went to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he was tested, reports say. The noted pediatric neurosurgeon is expected to fully recover. A memo sent to HUD staff said Carson was “resting at his house and is already beginning to feel better.” Anyone who came into contact with Carson will be notified, the memo said. Carson was one of several people who attended an election night party at the White House on Tuesday, where few attendees wore masks or practiced social distancing, several news organizations have reported. Also, the White House recently announced that chief of staff Mark Meadows and other staffers had tested positive for the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease. Meadows’ diagnosis was announced November 6. A few weeks ago, President Donald Trump was hospitalized at Walter Reed after he was diagnosed with the coronavirus.President-elect Joe Biden has called on Americans to wear a mask. He said at a news conference Monday that wearing a mask is “not a political statement.” Carson joined the Trump administration in 2017. Carson ran unsuccessfully as a Republican presidential candidate in 2016. 
 
 
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With the coronavirus pandemic entering its worst phase yet, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden says the country is “still facing a dark winter,” warning that 200,000 more people could die of COVID-19 before a vaccine is widely made available.  Speaking on Monday after receiving a briefing from his transition team’s new coronavirus advisory board, Biden, in a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, cautioned “the challenge before us right now is still immense and growing, and so is the need for bold action to fight this pandemic.”  The United States has surpassed 10 million cases of the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University, with infection rates, hospitalizations and the number of deaths all rising.  A White House coronavirus task force meeting, led by Vice President Mike Pence, is being held later Monday.  Earlier in the day, one drugmaker announced that an early analysis suggests its vaccine is very effective in preventing COVID-19.Pfizer said a data monitoring committee found no serious safety concerns with its vaccine, which requires two doses. The pharmaceutical company and its German partner, BioNTech, intend to apply for emergency authorization for the vaccine after the third week of November. It is one of four vaccines in the United States in the final stage of testing.  FILE – Pfizer says it will ask for emergency authorization later this month for its COVID-19 vaccine currently undergoing testing. Photo illustration.Biden, calling this a “positive note,” said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will soon run a process of rigorous reviews and approvals, but it “must also be grounded in science and fully transparent, so that the American people can have confidence that any approved vaccine is safe and effective.”  The president-elect added that the vaccine, even if approved, will not be widely available for many months, thus “the challenge before us right now is still immense and growing, and so is the need for bold action to fight this pandemic.”  The government’s assistant health secretary, Public Health Service Admiral Brett Giroir, speaking separately to reporters on a conference call after Biden’s remarks, echoed the president-elect’s plea for all people in the country to wear masks until the vaccine can be widely deployed.  A lot of people remain at risk until that time, the admiral said, expressing hope that after mass vaccinations, COVID-19, while not eradicated, hopefully, “it’ll be like polio, that it’ll be a rare occurrence and one that we can deal with.” Asked about the Biden transition team’s announced plan to tackle the pandemic, Giroir replied, “I haven’t seen anything in the testing strategy that we’re not already doing.”  Giroir, a top health official in the outgoing administration of President Donald Trump promised, “we will work together between testing and smart policies to slow the spread, flatten the curve, save lives and set up for an effective and smooth transition to the next administration.”  
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Richard Branson’s Virgin Hyperloop has completed the world’s first passenger ride on a super high-speed levitating pod system, the company said on Sunday, a key safety test for technology it hopes will transform human and cargo transportation. Virgin Hyperloop executives Josh Giegel, its Chief Technology Officer, and Sara Luchian, Director of Passenger Experience, reached speeds of up to 107 miles per hour (172 km per hour) at the company’s DevLoop test site in Las Vegas, Nevada, the company said. “I had the true pleasure of seeing history made before my very eyes,” said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chairman of Virgin Hyperloop and Group Chairman and Chief Executive of DP World. Los Angeles-based Hyperloop envisions a future where floating pods packed with passengers and cargo hurtle through vacuum tubes at 600 miles an hour (966 kph) or faster.Virgin Hyperloop test in Las Vegas, Nevada, Nov. 9, 2020.In a hyperloop system, which uses magnetic levitation to allow near-silent travel, a trip between New York and Washington would take just 30 minutes. That would be twice as fast as a commercial jet flight and four times faster than a high-speed train. The company has previously run over 400 tests without human passengers at the Nevada site. The test comes a month after Reuters first reported that Virgin Hyperloop picked the U.S. state of West Virginia to host a $500 million certification center and test track that will serve as a proving ground for its technology. The company is working toward safety certification by 2025 and commercial operations by 2030, it has said.  Canada’s Transpod and Spain’s Zeleros also aim to upend traditional passenger and freight networks with similar technology they say will slash travel times, congestion and environmental harm linked with petroleum-fueled machines. 
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Tropical Storm Eta made landfall late Sunday in the Florida Keys on its way into the eastern Gulf of Mexico before taking another aim at the southeastern U.S. state later this week. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm had maximum sustained winds of 100 kilometers per hour as it brought heavy rainfall and life-threatening flash floods to parts of southern Florida. Forecasters expect the storm to strengthen slightly into a hurricane later Monday or Tuesday but weaken again into a tropical storm before making a mainland Florida landfall. Officials have closed beaches, ports and coronavirus testing sites in the state and urged people to stay home. Florida’s governor has also declared a state of emergency in several counties to speed the government’s response. Forecasters expect Eta to drop 15 to 30 centimeters of rain on central and southern Florida through Friday. Parts of the Bahamas, Jamaica and Cuba will also see some heavy rains. Eta was a strong hurricane when it hit Nicaragua last week, bringing flooding rains to communities from Panama to Mexico. Rescuers in Guatemala continued searching Sunday for people caught in a landslide and authorities raised the official death toll to 27 with more than 100 people still missing. The storm has been blamed for at least 20 deaths in southern Mexico and at least 20 more in Honduras. 
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