Author: CensorBiz

With many European countries struggling with tracking and tracing those infected with COVID 19, Turkey is claiming some success with its HES mobile phone application. The app is increasingly seen as key by Turkish authorities in the country’s battle against the virus as the number of infections surge. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.Camera: Berke Bas 
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Protesters clashed with police, exchanging petrol bombs with tear gas, Thursday, October 1, during a student rally in Athens, Greece.The students were demonstrating over a range of issues including demands for stricter coronavirus measures in schools.The government said Wednesday all classes missed due to protests would have made up for online or repeated on weekends or holidays.Coronavirus cases have seen a steady rise in the country in the last months, particularly in the capital of Athens. (REUTERS) 
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India’s opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, scuffled with police after he was stopped from meeting family members of a rape victim, Thursday, October 1. (REUTERS)
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Malaysian palm oil producer FGV Holdings Berhad vowed Thursday to “clear its name” after the U.S. banned imports of its palm oil over allegations of forced labor and other abuses.The U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Trade issued the ban order against FGV on Wednesday, saying it found indicators of forced labor, including concerns about children, along with other abuses such as physical and sexual violence.The action, announced a week after The Associated Press exposed major labor abuses in Malaysia’s palm oil industry, was triggered by a petition filed last year by nonprofit organizations.FGV said all the issues raised “have been the subject of public discourse since 2015 and FGV has taken several steps to correct the situation.”“FGV is disappointed that such decision has been made when FGV has been taking concrete steps over the past several years in demonstrating its commitment to respect human rights and to uphold labor standards,” it said in a statement.Malaysia is the world’s second-largest producer of palm oil. Together with Indonesia, the two countries dominate the global market, producing 85% of the $65 billion supply.Palm oil and its derivatives from FGV, and closely connected Malaysian-owned Felda, make their way into the supply chains of major multinationals. They include Nestle, L’Oreal, and Unilever, according to the companies’ most recently published supplier and palm oil mill lists. Several huge Western banks and financial institutions not only pour money directly or indirectly into the palm oil industry, but also hold shares in FGV.AP reporters interviewed more than 130 former and current workers from eight countries at two dozen palm oil companies — including Felda, which owns about a third of the shares in FGV. They found everything from unpaid wages to outright slavery and allegations of rape, sometimes involving minors. They also found stateless Rohingya Muslims, one of the world’s most persecuted minorities, had been trafficked onto plantations and forced to work.Many of the problems detailed by the U.S. CBP office mirrored those found by The AP. This included restriction of movement, isolation, physical and sexual violence, intimidation and threats, retention of identity documents, withholding of wages, debt bondage, abusive working and living conditions, excessive overtime, and concerns about potential forced child labor.FGV said Thursday it wasn’t involved in any recruitment or employment of refugees. It said it doesn’t hire contract workers. Migrant workers are recruited mainly from India and Indonesia through legal channels, it said. It said it ensures workers are not forced to pay any fees.As of August, FGV had 11,286 Indonesian workers and 4,683 Indian workers, who combined form the majority of its plantation workforce.The company said it is introducing the use of an electronic wallet cashless payroll system for its workers. It doesn’t retain workers’ passports and has safety boxes throughout all its 68 housing complexes for them to keep their passports safely.FGV said it has invested 350 million ringgit ($84 million) over the past three years in upgrading worker housing and provides medical benefits. Suppliers and vendors are required to comply with the company’s code of conduct, it said.“FGV does not tolerate any form of human rights infringements or criminal offense in its operations,” it said, adding it will act on any allegation of physical or sexual violence or intimidation.FGV said it has submitted evidence of compliance with labor standards to the U.S. CBP office since last year. It said it will continue its engagement “to clear FGV’s name, and is determined to see through its commitment to respect human rights and uphold labor standards.” 
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Hong Kong’s leader said the city has returned to “stability” as thousands of security forces fanned out in the streets to put down any pro-democracy protests Thursday. During the traditional flag-raising ceremony Thursday to mark the anniversary of modern-day China’s founding in 1949, chief executive Carrie Lam praised the sweeping new security law imposed by Beijing that has chilled pro-democracy activity in the semi-autonomous city.“Over the past three months, the plain truth is…that stability has been restored to society while national security has been safeguarded,” Lam said about the law, which took effect in July.Police in riot gear blocked off parts of Hong Kong’s popular Causeway Bay shopping district in anticipation of a protest march called for by online activists.  Under the new security law, anyone in Hong Kong believed to be carrying out terrorism, separatism, subversion of state power or collusion with foreign forces could be tried and face life in prison if convicted.The new law was a response to the massive and often violent pro-democracy demonstrations that engulfed the financial hub in the latter half of last year.  The protests have tapered off since authorities imposed restrictions on large outdoor crowds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  
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Democrats on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee said Republicans are rushing the Supreme Court confirmation process for Judge Amy Coney Barrett and reiterated calls for postponing the review of her nomination until after the presidential inauguration in January.In a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham released late Wednesday, Democrats said the timeline Graham has set does not allow for a thorough FBI background investigation, review of her entire judicial record or for Barrett to answer senators’ questions.“This timeline is a sharp departure from past practice,” the Democrats wrote. “Even more, it undercuts the Senate’s ability to fulfill its advice and consent role and deprives the American people of a meaningful opportunity to gauge the nominee and her record for themselves.”Graham, a South Carolina Republican, met with Barrett on Tuesday. He described her as highly qualified and has said he is “committed to ensuring that the nominee gets a challenging, fair, and respectful hearing.”President Donald Trump nominated Barrett, a conservative jurist he previously tapped for the federal bench in 2017, to fill the seat of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the court’s best-known liberal who died September 18 at the age of 87.Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and it appears Barrett has enough Republican support to be confirmed, despite fierce opposition from Democrats.The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to begin three to four days of formal confirmation hearings on October 12. A vote in the full Senate could come by the end of the month.Democrats have argued the next justice should be named by the winner of the November presidential election, a view Republicans championed when there was a Supreme Court vacancy in 2016. In that year, former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, put forth a nominee to replace the late justice Antonin Scalia, an arch conservative.A public opinion poll by The New York Times and Siena College released Sunday showed 56% of voters indicated the seat should not be filled until after the election, while 41% said Trump should make the choice.Barrett has been meeting with other Republican senators, including talks Wednesday with Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Todd Young of Indiana. She is scheduled to meet Thursday with Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. So far, no Democrat has agreed to meet with her.Democrats have also argued that if Barrett joins the court, she should recuse herself from any potential cases that may arise from the November election due to potential conflicts of interest.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected that view Wednesday, calling it “ridiculous” and saying Democrats “are grasping at straws.” 
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Former Sierra Leone president Ernest Bai Koroma must appear before an anti-graft commission Monday to answer questions about alleged corruption during his tenure of just over a decade in office.The summons by the commission is part of an effort by Koroma’s successor, President Julius Maada Bio, to pinpoint who was behind the country’s economic collapse.In conjunction with the inquiry, Koroma and more than 100 officials have been barred from leaving the country after a judicial probe accused them of unlawfully enriching themselves during his 2007-18 tenure.The allegations are linked to wrongdoing involving mining, construction and procurement contracts.Korma has previously denied any wrongdoing.Reuters reported Wednesday that Koroma had not spoken in public about the controversy, but the All People’s Congress party, which Koroma still leads, is planning to appeal the action against him.
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U.S. lawmakers are sounding alarms about the threat from China, warning Washington has so far failed to keep up with Beijing as it emerges as a global power.The concerns, voiced in two separate reports Wednesday, criticize U.S. intelligence agencies and policymakers for clinging too long to the notion that increased trade and interaction with China would push Beijing to eventually align itself with Western values.Instead, the reports argue, the United States is struggling to push back as it faces a real danger of being replaced by China on the world stage.“The stakes are high,” according to a redacted report released by Democrats on the FILE – In this June 30, 2020 file photo, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, after a meeting at the White House in Washington.The House Intelligence Committee report, based on hundreds of hours of interviews with intelligence officials and reviews of thousands of assessments, criticized U.S. intelligence agencies for becoming overly focused on their counterterrorism mission and for failing to adapt to the threats of a changing world.“While the United States was busy engaging al-Qaida, ISIS [Islamic State] and their affiliates, offshoots and acolytes, Washington’s unchallenged dominance over the global system slipped away,” the report said.To better counter China and other emerging threats, the report said, U.S. intelligence agencies need to make better use of information commonly available on the internet, social media and elsewhere.The report also said U.S. intelligence officials need to pay more attention to nonimmediate, nonmilitary threats “such as global health, economic security and climate change.”And the report called for a greater focus on recruiting and mentoring what it described as “the next generation of China analysts.”“The good news is that we still have time to adapt,” said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff in a statement. “It’s my hope that the intelligence community will work hand in hand with the congressional oversight committees to make these necessary changes quickly.”Ranking Member Michael McCaul, R-Tex., questions witnesses during a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing, Sept. 16, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington.A second report released Wednesday, by Republican lawmakers, was no less damning, recommending more than 400 changes to Washington’s China strategy.”To preserve democracy and freedom around the world, the U.S. must act decisively with our allies to regain the initiative,” the China Task Force report warned.Chinese Communist Party ideology “is undermining the core principles of the international system and putting Americans’ safety and prosperity at risk,” it said. “Leniency and accommodation of the CCP and its oppressive agenda is no longer an option.”The report calls on policymakers to boost counterintelligence operations against China and to make sure that the U.S. medical and national security supply chains no longer need to reply on Chinese-made goods.It also recommends increased spending on defense to better counter Chinese nuclear capabilities as well as China’s growing conventional forces.“For more than 40 years, we have tried to bring them into the family of nations as a responsible partner, but they have refused to behave responsibly,” China Task Force Chairman Michael McCaul said in a statement.
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Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​.Daily Debunk Claim: 1 in 1,000 Black Americans have died in the Covid-19 pandemic.Vedict: TrueRead the full story at: Vox Social Media DisinfoScreenshotCirculating on social media: Claim that everyone arriving in Zimbabwe will now have to pay US$60 for a PCR test.Verdict: MisleadingRead the full story at: ZimFact
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Six months into the global coronavirus pandemic, there are few signs of a rebound for the airline industry. Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren examines the economic and safety issues for airlines with commercial and military pilot Tammie Jo Shults, Nick Calio of Airlines for America and economist Brian Pearce with the International Ait Transport Association. Airdate: September 1, 2020.
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Republican U.S. President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, clashed in a contentious, chaotic presidential election debate Tuesday night, trying for 90 minutes to convince American voters that the other one was unfit to lead the United States for the next four years. They argued over the world-leading coronavirus death toll of 205,000 in the U.S., the integrity and honesty of the November 3 vote, Trump’s nomination of conservative jurist Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, fractured racial relations in the U.S., environmental policies and more. 
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Farmers in northern Nigeria have lost more than two million tons of rice, a quarter of the country’s projected harvest, due to flooding.  Despite the loss, Nigeria is so far upholding a year-long ban on land-based imports of rice to crack down on smuggling and boost local production.  Ifiok Ettang reports from Argungu, Nigeria.Camera:  Ifiok Ettang    Produced by:   Jason Godman 
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The Cambodian government has allocated $1.2 billion to bolster an economy struggling with the withdrawal of some European trade perks and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Luke Hunt reports from Phnom Penh.David Potter and Ny Chann contrinbuted to this report.
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Kuwait on Wednesday swore in its new emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who pledged to preserve the country’s unity and stability. The 83-year-old Sheikh Nawaf, the former crown prince of Kuwait, succeeds his half-brother, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who died Tuesday at the age of 91. FILE – Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah looks as he witnesses a signing ceremony with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.The late ruler’s body is due to arrive back in Kuwait on Wednesday.  “With great sadness and sorrow, we mourn to the Kuwaiti people, the Arab and Islamic nations, and the friendly peoples of the world, the death of the late His Highness Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, Emir of the State of Kuwait who moved next to his Lord,” the royal palace said in a Tuesday statement, according to Kuwaiti state television.  Two months ago, Sheikh Sabah was flown to the U.S. aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 flying hospital after undergoing surgery, according to NBC News.  Before assuming power in 2006, he was Kuwait’s top diplomat, and during that time, he worked to mend fences with Iraq, fractured since the 1990 Gulf War, which saw a coalition of forces, led by the U.S., liberate Kuwait after Iraq invaded.  Sheikh Sabah hosted donor conferences to raise money for Iraq, Syria and other war-torn countries. He also worked to ease continuing tensions between Qatar and other Arab states.  A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called Sheikh Sabah a “close friend of the United Nations” who “always sought to strengthen relations for the shared goal of sustaining peace and stability in the region and around the world.”  “His Highness was a distinguished statesman and an outstanding humanitarian who contributed to building bridges of understanding in the Gulf region and beyond,” the spokesman added.Internally, Sheikh Sabah’s tenure was marked by strong political rivalries, the 2011 Arab Spring and unstable oil prices, AP reported.  “He represents the older generation of Gulf leaders who valued discretion and moderation and the importance of personal ties amongst fellow monarchs,” said Kristin Diwan, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, speaking with AP. “No question he has suffered from the lack of deference and respect shown by the younger and more brash young princes holding power today.”  Sheikh Nawaf is the 16th ruler in Kuwait’s al-Sabah dynasty, which dates to 1752. He is the sixth emir since Kuwait gained independence from Britain in 1961.   
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President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden sparred over policy and traded insults in their first debate on Tuesday night, just five weeks before the presidential election.  Mike O’Sullivan reports on the combative confrontation. Camera: Henry Hernandez 
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President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden met Tuesday for the first presidential debate ahead of the Nov. 3 election. The 90-minute matchup was moderated by Fox News host Chris Wallace and held at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Here are three takeaways from the debate: Interruptions Trump repeatedly talked over both Biden and moderator Wallace during the debate. The result was chaotic, as both men frequently interrupted each other. The prime-time broadcast often showed a side-by-side view of the candidates with each man talking, at times simultaneously. Trump was often rebuked by Wallace, who told the president to “please let the vice president talk.” At one point Biden told Trump, “Will you shut up, man?”President Donald Trump gestures while speaking during the first presidential debate Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020, at Case Western University and Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio.Trump’s Taxes Just two days before Tuesday’s debate, The New York Times Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden gestures while speaking during the first presidential debate, Sept. 29, 2020, at Case Western University and Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio.’Race and violence’One of the six topics chosen by Wallace was “race and violence” in U.S. cities, such as in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last month. Last week, FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials warned that white supremacist groups pose a rising threat of violence in the U.S. A tense exchange between Trump and Wallace occurred when the moderator asked the president to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and tell them to stand down and not contribute to the violence occurring at some anti-racism rallies. Trump at first appeared to sidestep the question, and then when pushed, he said, “What do you want me to call them? Give me a name.” Wallace offered up the  group known as the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group. Trump spoke to the group, saying, “Proud Boys, stand back, stand by.” He then pivoted, however, criticizing left-wing activists. “Somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem,” he said. 
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Republican U.S. President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, clashed in a contentious, chaotic presidential election debate Tuesday night, trying for 90 minutes to convince American voters that the other one was unfit to lead the United States for the next four years. They argued over the world-leading coronavirus death toll of 205,000 in the U.S., the integrity and honesty of the November 3 vote, Trump’s nomination of conservative jurist Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, fractured racial relations in the U.S., environmental policies and more. Trump disputed a New York Times report this week that he only paid $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016, when he first ran for the presidency, and in 2017, his first year in office. Trump said he paid “millions of dollars,” but Biden claimed Trump “pays less tax than the average schoolteacher.” Name-calling, personal attacks Mostly they insulted each other with cutting barbs, name-calling and personal attacks.  “He’s the worst president America has ever had,” Biden contended as he and Trump stood at podiums on a debate stage at a university in the Midwestern city of Cleveland, Ohio. Several times, Biden called Trump “a clown.” Trump, seeking a second four-year term after his upset 2016 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, retorted to Biden, “I’ve done more things in 47 months [as president] than you’ve done in 47 years” as a U.S. senator and vice president under former President Barack Obama. Trump argued that if Biden takes over as president next January, “you will have a depression like no one has ever seen” because of the Democrat’s plan to raise taxes on corporate earnings from 21% to 28% and on individuals who make more than $400,000 a year.Watch party for the first presidential debate in Lititz, Sep. 30, 2020.Early on, the two candidates, both in their 70s, clashed sharply over how to control the unchecked pandemic in the U.S. “The president has no plan,” Biden claimed. “He knew it was deadly and didn’t tell you about it.” Biden, alluding to Trump’s frequent golf outings, said the president “should get out of the sand trap” and stop the advance of the pandemic. He referenced Trump’s recent remark that the death toll in the U.S. “is what it is,” with Biden adding that was because, “You are what you are.” Trump responded, “We’ve done a great job. We’re weeks away from a vaccine.” The president accused Biden of calling Trump xenophobic for placing initial restrictions on travel from China, where the virus originated. Trump said if he had not acted, 2 million would have died in the U.S.   The debate came five weeks ahead of the election. It was the first of three times the two candidates will meet face to face to debate during the next month. At Tuesday’s encounter, the two candidates frequently interrupted each other, although the debate moderator, Fox News journalist Chris Wallace, more than an hour into the face-off rebuked Trump for not following the debate rules to allow each candidate to finish his answers unimpeded. One of the most personal attacks occurred as Biden recounted a recent Atlantic magazine article alleging that Trump, on a trip to Paris in 2018 for the centenary of the end of World War I, described U.S. war dead as “suckers” and “losers,” a claim the president has denied. Biden said that his late son, Beau Biden, who served in the armed services before dying of cancer in 2015, was not a loser or sucker.  “You’re not going to talk about my son Beau that way,” Biden emotionally told Trump.  Trump said he didn’t know Beau Biden but did know Biden’s son Hunter, whom he has claimed benefited financially with a lucrative position on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company, at the same time Biden was vice president and overseeing U.S. policy related to Ukraine. Racial tensions in the US On fractured racial relations in the U.S., Biden accused Trump of “using everything as a dog whistle to generate racial tension,” recalling how Trump said there were “fine people” on both sides after torch-carrying white nationalists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.From l-r, first lady Melania Trump, President Donald Trump, Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden and Jill Biden, walk off stage at the conclusion of the first presidential debate Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020.Trump rejected Wallace’s overture to condemn white nationalists, instead saying he is “doing better than any Republican” ever in political support from Black voters.  The president attacked Biden for writing anti-crime legislation in the 1990s when he was a senator, saying that he referred to Black criminal suspects as “super predators.” Trump assailed “radical left Democrats” whose mayors oversee some of the country’s biggest cities. A number of violent protests erupted in those cities in recent months in demonstrations against police abuse of minorities in the aftermath of the May death of a Black man, George Floyd, while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The president demanded that Biden commit to “law and order” in American cities. “He doesn’t want to say, ‘law and order,’” Trump contended. Biden said he advocates “law and order with justice.” The Democratic candidate said he would rejoin the international Paris climate change accord that Trump withdrew the U.S. from. Trump, asked by Wallace whether he accepts that climate change is caused by the actions of people, replied, “To an extent, yes.” But Trump contended that on-going raging wildfires in the Western U.S. could mostly be curbed by “good forest management.” Biden said that Trump’s nomination of Barrett to the Supreme Court threatened the national health care law approved during his vice presidency under Obama and imperiled the landmark 1973 court decision legalizing abortion rights in the U.S. Trump said, “I think she’s going to be fantastic. We won the election; therefore, we had the right to choose her.”   Early voting Early voting has started in some U.S. states and millions of people have requested or been sent absentee ballots, so they do not have to face other people at polling stations across the country on Election Day in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.   Trump, as he has repeatedly said in recent weeks, condemned election officials throughout the country for mailing unsolicited ballots to voters. “This is going to be a fraud like you’ve never seen,” he said, citing a handful of Trump absentee ballots found recently in a trash can. Biden urged Americans to vote and said there is “no evidence” that mailed-in ballots will lead to fraud but called for all votes to be counted in the election. Polls have shown that more Democrats favor absentee voting, while Republicans more often say they will vote on Election Day in person. The high-stakes debate, perhaps watched on television or livestreamed by 100 million people, comes as Biden has for weeks maintained about a 7-percentage-point advantage over Trump in national polls, threatening to make Trump the third U.S. president in the past four decades to lose reelection for a second four-year term in the White House.  However, the race is closer in several key battleground states, which raises the possibility that Trump could once again lose the popular vote — as he did against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 — and still win more of the all-important state electors to claim victory. 
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