Thursday, August 20, 2020

Six In The Morning Thursday 20 August 2020

Steve Bannon charged with fraud over Mexico wall funds


Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has been arrested and charged with fraud over a fundraising campaign to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.
Mr Bannon and three others defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors in connection with the "We Build the Wall" campaign, which raised $25m (£19m), the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said.
Mr Bannon received more than $1m, at least some of which he used to cover personal expenses, the DoJ said.



Russian activist Alexei Navalny unconscious after being 'poisoned'

Opposition politician may have been poisoned by toxic substance in his tea, says press secretary

The Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny is in a coma and on a ventilator in a hospital intensive care unit after a suspected poisoning.
“We assume that Alexei was poisoned with something mixed into his tea,” his press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, tweeted. “That was the only thing he drank this morning. The doctors say that the toxin was absorbed more quickly because of the hot liquid. Right now Alexei is unconscious.”
An outspoken critic of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Navalny was returning to Moscow by plane from Tomsk in Siberia when he began to feel ill. The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk and he was taken to hospital. A mobile video shot on the plane showed medical personnel rushing onboard as a man screamed in agony.

Judge dismisses Trump's second attempt to block criminal investigation into his business dealings


A federal judge has dismissed Donald Trump's second attempt to block a criminal investigation into him by Manhattan prosecutor Cyrus Vance, who is seeking to subpoena eight years of the president's tax filings.
"Under their theory of temporary absolute immunity, even if the President (presumably any president) while in office were to shoot a person in the middle of New York's Fifth Avenue, he or she would be shielded from law enforcement investigations and judicial proceedings of any kind, federal or state, until the expiration of the President's term," the federal judge wrote, denying the president's lawsuit motioning to end Mr Vance's investigation.

Cuba joins the race for vaccine against the coronavirus

Cuba has a lot of experience in vaccine research. The Caribbean island is currently working on one against the novel coronavirus while Russia is planning to have its own vaccine produced in Cuba.

Up until recently, Cuba had handled the pandemic quite efficiently. However, over the past couple days, the Caribbean island has reported a rising number of people infected by the novel coronavirus.
This is why last week the government imposed a fresh lockdown for Havana. Restaurants and bars were closed again. Public transport ground to a halt and beaches were cordoned off. People believe that only an efficient vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 can bring long-term relief.

France, Germany see surge in coronavirus cases as holidaymakers return home

France and Germany recorded their worst daily infection rates in months with concerns growing Thursday that coronavirus cases could spike in Europe just as holidaymakers return home and children go back to school.
France, one of Europe's worst-hit countries, on Wednesday recorded new coronavirus cases at the fastest daily rate since May.
Almost 3,800 Covid-19 infections were confirmed in the past 24 hours, the French health ministry's DGS public health division said.

Apple helped the US government build a 'top secret' iPod, former engineer says


By Rishi IyengarCNN Business

David Shayer was sitting at his desk in 2005 when his boss's boss at Apple (AAPL) asked him to take on a "special assignment" for the company: help the US Department of Energy build a "top secret" iPod.
Shayer, one of the early software engineers hired to work on the first iPod, detailed the request this week in a blog post. In addition to the head of iPod software, who approached him that day, Shayer claimed only two others within Apple knew about the project: the vice president of the iPod division and the senior vice president of hardware. All those involved have since left the company, he said.



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