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  Published Date: 2020-09-20 

 Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) told CNN’s “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper on Sunday that Democratic nominee former Vice President Joe Biden will win in November due to a “literal revolution going on” of people who “have had it” with President Donald Trump. When asked about the Affordable Care Act case that the Supreme Court is slated to hear, Klobuchar said, “First of all, that case has been discredited and strongly criticized by people all over the spectrum as that case comes to the Supreme Court. Secondly, the justices could do many different things, and I could take up your entire show with this in terms of how they handle the entire Affordable Care Act. So I don’t concede anything. But what I do know is the Affordable Care Act has helped Americans, so many of them have health care when they didn’t before. They have the protection that if you have diabetes or if you have Alzheimer’s that you are not going to be kicked off of your health insurance. That is a big deal. That is what is at stake. And I think what you translate here, and I think about the fact that this is Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat, Jake. This is her position. She never gave up. So when you ask me about rules in the future and all these things we can look at for reform that are very worthy to look at, I just look at the fact that she would not concede right now, she didn’t concede when everyone told her a man should argue that case. She just kept going. And I think that’s what you feel the spirit of all those people showing up at the Supreme Court, the outpouring of support, all the young people that are willing to show up and vote like they’ve never before voted.” She added, “All the people that are afraid of four more years with this president than they are less safe than they were before he got into office. No. I think what we have going on in this country with 200,000 people dead. I think it is a literal revolution going on. People have had it with this guy. That’s why Joe Biden is leading in states that no one ever thought that he could win. But he’s going to do it.” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN 

  Published Date: 2020-09-20 

 Tech industry elites have endorsed Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden, citing their opposition to President Trump’s efforts to prioritize Americans for high-paying tech jobs in the United States. Twenty-four winners of the Turing Award, considered the Nobel Peace Prize for computer science, have endorsed Biden on the premise that the former vice president will allow the tech industry to import more foreign workers, specifically those on H-1B visas, to fill coveted U.S. jobs. The list includes Google executive Vinton Cerf, Pixar executive Ed Catmull, Facebook executive Yann LeCun, and Alphabet executive John Hennessy. “Information technology is thoroughly globalized. Academic computer science departments attract talented students, many of whom immigrate and become American inventors and captains of industry,” the executives and industry insiders wrote in their endorsement of Biden: We celebrate open source projects, the lifeblood of our field, as exemplars of international collaboration. Computer Science is at its best when its learnings and discoveries are shared freely in the spirit of progress. These core values helped make America a leader in information technology, so vital in this Information Age. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris listen to experts before setting public policy, essential when science and technology may help with many problems facing our nation today. As American computer scientists and as US citizens, we enthusiastically endorse Joe Biden for President and Kamala Harris for Vice President. [Emphasis added] Since mass unemployment hit the U.S., spurred by the Chinese coronavirus crisis, Trump signed an executive order halting a number of visa programs including the H-1B visa. Likewise, the Trump administration is eyeing H-1B visa reforms that would more effectively weed out the business model of outsourcing that has allowed American workers to be replaced by foreign H-1B visa workers. In August, billion dollar tech corporations such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter signed onto a U.S. Chamber of Commerce lawsuit against Trump’s executive order — arguing that they have a right to import foreign workers to fill U.S. jobs. Unlike Trump, Biden has promised to increase the number of foreign H-1B visa workers that tech corporations will be able to import every year. The practice is a boon to tech executives. There are about 650,000 H-1B visa workers in the U.S. at any given moment. Americans are often laid off in the process and forced to train their foreign replacements, as highlighted by Breitbart News. More than 85,000 Americans annually potentially lose their jobs to foreign labor through the H-1B visa program. Analysis conducted in 2018 discovered that 71 percent of tech workers in Silicon Valley, California, are foreign-born, while the tech industry in the San Francisco, Oakland, and Hayward area is made up of 50 percent foreign-born tech workers. Up to 99 percent of H-1B visa workers imported by the top eight outsourcing firms are from India. John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. 

  Published Date: 2020-09-20 

 U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler blocked an order by the Trump administration on Sunday that would have banned Chinese-owned messaging application WeChat from the Google and Apple app stores. Judge Beeler said that the order presents First Amendment concerns for users of the platform. According to a report by CNBC, a California judge blocked an order by the Trump administration that would have effectively blocked the WeChat messaging application from popular mobile app stores. Some analysts feared that the China-based applications posed information security concerns for American users. The group of plaintiffs that filed a lawsuit believe that the order would infringe upon their First Amendment rights. In her injunction order, U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler argued that the plaintiffs have sufficiently established the necessary elements to establish their claim. “In the attached order, the court grants the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction on the ground that the plaintiffs have shown serious questions going to the merits of the First Amendment claim, the balance of hardships tips in the plaintiffs’ favor, and the plaintiffs establish sufficiently the other elements for preliminary-injunctive relief,” Judge Beeler wrote in the order. An official from the Commerce Department said that the order will likely impact the performance of the application. “We expect there may be some usability for users in the United States with the app but given the fact that WeChat is heavily reliant on content delivery services in the United States to optimize the app and make sure that content can be delivered with the necessary speeds,” the official said. “Users will experience some dysfunction and latency to the point where there will be an outage or a message or something will timeout. So, we do expect it may be usable but it may not be particularly functional after Sunday,” the official continued. Breitbart News reported in August that tech giants had expressed concern that a ban on WeChat in the United States would impact their international business profits. U.S. companies operating in China use WeChat to market products to Chinese consumers. Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more updates on this story. 

  Published Date: 2020-09-20 

 The Republican Party shattered its previous fundraising record by hauling in $67.6 million in August 2020. The Washington Examiner reported that the $67.6 million represents “nearly four times what the party did in the previous four Augusts combined.” Moreover, it puts the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) total for the current campaign cycle at $1.3 billion. “This campaign is powered by real Americans who are motivated by raw enthusiasm for President Trump and a genuine belief in his agenda,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said. She then spoke to how the money will be used for Trump and other Republicans. “From now until Election Day, our unparalleled infrastructure, battle-tested Get Out The Vote operation, and historic grassroots army will work each and every day to reelect President Trump and Republicans up and down the ballot,” she said The grassroots aspects of RNC campaign are already in full swing: We have made 9 million door knocks and phone calls in Wisconsin alone. @realDonaldTrump fought hard to win the state in 2016, and we are fighting hard to win it again! #LeadRight https://t.co/TJKSX98xcD — Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) September 19, 2020 August was also a record-setting fundraising month for the National Rifle Association (NRA). Fox News reported that the NRA’s Political Victory Fund raised $1,725,700 in August 2020, which is roughly $300,000 more than it raised in August 2016. AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange 

  Published Date: 2020-08-24 

 Image copyright PA Media Image caption Schools in Northern Ireland welcomed some year groups back on Monday It is "vitally important" children go back to school, with the life chances of a generation at stake, Boris Johnson has said in a message to parents. As the autumn term begins in Northern Ireland, the prime minister said the risk of contracting coronavirus at schools across the UK was "very small". He said "it is far more damaging for a child's development and their health... to be away from school any longer". Mr Johnson's words echoed those of the UK's four chief medical officers. They have all signed a joint statement alongside deputy chief medical officers to reassure parents schools could mitigate risks during the pandemic. In Scotland, schools have already reopened. Some pupils in Northern Ireland are returning to school on Monday, while term starts in England and Wales in September. Mr Johnson thanked school staff for spending the summer "making classrooms Covid-secure", in a statement released on Sunday evening. And in a video message shared on Twitter, he said children faced physical and mental health risks from not being in the classroom. "The best way to tackle any mental health problems is to get our kids into school in September," he added. Image copyright Number 10 Image caption The PM has spoken of the "moral duty" to reopen schools safely to all pupils Citing comments from England's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty at the weekend, Mr Johnson said the risk of catching coronavirus in school was "very small and it is far more damaging for a child's development and their health and wellbeing to be away from school any longer". "This is why it's vitally important that we get our children back into the classroom to learn and to be with their friends," he added. "Nothing will have a greater effect on the life chances of our children than returning to school." Prof Whitty said on Sunday that children were more likely to be harmed by not returning to school next month than if they caught coronavirus. He cited evidence of children "much less commonly" needing hospital treatment or becoming severely ill with coronavirus than adults. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Can children catch and spread coronavirus? According to the Office for National Statistics' latest data on ages, there were 10 deaths recorded as "due to Covid-19" among those aged 19 and under in England and Wales between March and June - and 46,725 deaths among those aged 20 and over. And of the more than one million children who attended pre-school and primary schools in England in June, 70 children and 128 staff were infected in outbreaks of the virus, according to a Public Health England study published on Sunday. Coffee breaks 'risk factor' It said most of the 30 outbreaks detected in that time had likely been caused by staff members infecting other staff or students, with only two outbreaks thought to involve students infecting other students. The study also suggested children who went to school during June were more likely to catch coronavirus at home than at school. Dr Jenny Harries, England's deputy chief medical officer, told BBC Breakfast the study should "reassure" teachers that transmission from students to teachers was rare. But she said the higher risk of staff-to-staff transmission meant teachers should remember "when it's their coffee break, and they get a well-earned rest in the day, to ensure that they maintain their social distancing, good hand hygiene, all those sorts of things while they have their break, because that does seem to be a risk factor". No 'plan B' Separate guidance for reopening schools has been published for England,Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Paul Jackson, head teacher of a primary school in east London, told the BBC that it would have been useful to have clearer guidance from the government for school leaders and additional funding to help to pay for extra cleaning and other resources. "Whether you are a very small school, with maybe just 70 pupils or whether you are a large school like us with 750 pupils, the guidance issued is exactly the same," he said. The NEU, the UK's largest teaching union, said schools are being let down by the lack of a "plan B" as they prepare to reopen. It said more staff, extra teaching space and greater clarity on what to do if there is a spike in cases was needed for schools to reopen safely. Shadow education secretary Kate Green told ITV the responsibility of getting children back to school lay with ministers, not the trade unions, and that the government has failed to send a "strong and clear message" to reassure parents. Simon Kidwell, head teacher at Hartford Manor Primary and Nursery in Northwich, Cheshire, said any inconsistencies in schools' approach to the virus - such as one closing due to an outbreak, but another staying open - would "erode parental confidence". Dr Harries said, if a pupil tests positive the school should seek advice from the local Public Health England team, in line with government guidance for schools in England. She said "it may not always be necessary for a [classroom] bubble to go into isolation" and that it will depend on the school's "local circumstances". Kay Mountfield, head teacher at Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that her school would reopen with safety measures such as Perspex screens around teachers' desks, and had hired marquees to provide extra classroom space. But she echoed Mr Jackson's call for clarity and support, and urged the government to set up a dedicated helpline for educational leaders so that if schools need advice about keeping their sites safe, "we are not going to be sitting up at two in the morning, dialling 111, as we were before we went into lockdown". Education Secretary Gavin Williamson wrote in the Sunday Times that he wanted to reassure every parent and pupil schools were "ready for them", and the autumn return to schools was "more important than ever". But he was later forced to defend taking a trip to see family in North Yorkshire this month, amid claims he missed a "crucial meeting" a week before A-level results were due. Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Layla Moran said the country and "seemingly the PM" had "lost faith" in Mr Williamson. "To restore confidence among parents, pupils and teachers the best thing the prime minister could do is sack him, rather than speak for him," she said. 

  Published Date: 2020-08-24 

 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption For most schools in Scotland the wearing of face coverings is currently voluntary The use of face coverings in corridors and communal areas of secondary schools is set to be introduced in Scotland. The government is in the "final stages" of consultations with teachers and councils about having pupils wear face coverings while moving between classes. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was acting in response to new guidance from the World Health Organisation. However, there are not currently any plans to have pupils wear masks while in the classroom. The use of face coverings in schools is currently voluntary, although some schools have started advising staff and pupils to wear them to help combat Covid-19. Young people returned to Scotland's schools earlier in August with no requirements for physical distancing between younger pupils, and no rules around face coverings. However, over the weekend the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued fresh guidance saying children over the age of 12 should wear masks. At her daily coronavirus briefing, Ms Sturgeon said Education Secretary John Swinney was "in the final stage of consulting teachers and local authorities for the use of face coverings in secondary schools when moving around corridors and communal areas". She said there was more mixing between different groups of children in these areas, and that there was less scope for effective ventilation. Pupils are also thought to be more likely to raise their voices in crowded areas, increasing the risk of aerosol transmission of the virus. Ms Sturgeon said the government's scientific advisers were also considering whether face coverings should be made mandatory on school transport. However, she said they were "not currently consulting on any proposal" to have pupils wear masks in class, saying: "There is greater scope for physical distancing in classrooms and [face coverings] are more likely to interfere with teaching and learning." She added: "The best way to ensure schools can stay open safely is for all of us to play our part in keeping transmission rates in the community as low as possible." 

  Published Date: 2020-08-24 

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Protesters set vehicles on fire in Kenosha Protests have erupted in the US state of Wisconsin after police shot a black man many times while responding to what they said was a domestic incident. The man, identified as Jacob Blake, is in a serious condition in hospital. Video posted online appears to show Mr Blake being shot in the back as he tries to get into a car in the city of Kenosha. Authorities in Kenosha declared an emergency overnight curfew after unrest broke out following the shooting. Hundreds of people marched on police headquarters on Sunday night. Vehicles were set on fire and protesters shouted "We won't back down". In a public safety alert, police urged 24-hour businesses to consider closing because of "numerous" calls about armed robberies and shots being fired. Officers used tear gas to try to disperse hundreds of protesters who defied the county-wide curfew, which is in place until 07:00 on Monday (12:00 GMT). Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers condemned the shooting of Mr Blake, who was reportedly unarmed. "While we do not have all of the details yet, what we know for certain is that he is not the first black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country," he said in a statement. "I have said all along that although we must offer our empathy, equally important is our action. In the coming days, we will demand just that of elected officials in our state who have failed to recognise the racism in our state and our country for far too long." Jacob Blake's name was trending on social media and thousands signed a petition calling for the officers involved to be charged. The shooting comes amid heightened tensions in the US over racism and police brutality following the death of African-American man George Floyd earlier this year. What happened? Kenosha Police Department said the "officer involved shooting" happened shortly after 17:00 on Sunday. It added that officers had provided "immediate aid" to Mr Blake, who was taken to a hospital in Milwaukee. It said police had been responding to a "domestic incident" but gave no details about what led to the shooting. The Wisconsin Department of Justice is investigating the incident. It said the officers involved had been placed on administrative leave. In video footage shared on social media, three officers can be seen pointing their weapons at a man identified as Mr Blake as he walks around a parked SUV. As he opens the door and leans into the car, one officer can be seen grabbing his shirt and opening fire. Seven shots can be heard in the video, as witnesses shout and scream. The officers involved have not been officially named. Prominent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump told CNN that Mr Blake's family had reached out to him for assistance. In a tweet, he said Mr Blake's three sons were in the car he was getting into when he was shot. "They saw a cop shoot their father. They will be traumatized forever. We cannot let officers violate their duty to PROTECT us," he wrote. He said the shooting happened after Mr Blake tried to break up a fight. Witnesses also told local news site Kenosha News that Mr Blake had tried to break up a fight between two women and that police had attempted to use a Taser on him prior to the shooting. Clyde McLemore, a spokesman with a nearby chapter of Black Lives Matter, told reporters "the frustration is boiling to the top and we're sick and tired". Black Lives Matter protests were held across the US and around the world after African-American man George Floyd was killed in police custody in Wisconsin's neighbouring state of Minnesota in May. A white police officer knelt on Mr Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes before he died. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with murder. 

  Published Date: 2020-08-24 

 Image copyright EPA Image caption Kellyanne Conway said she had made the decision in order to focus on her children Kellyanne Conway has announced that she is resigning from her post as senior adviser to US President Donald Trump. In a statement, Mrs Conway, 53, said she was stepping down at the end of August to focus on her children, giving them "less drama, more mama". Her husband, George, an outspoken critic of the president, will also be stepping back from political activism. She added that her decision was "completely my choice", and that she would announce future plans "in time". The announcement came hours after one of Mrs Conway's daughters, Claudia, 15, tweeted that her mother's job had "ruined [her] life". Mrs Conway, who is still scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, informed Mr Trump on Sunday night. A Republican strategist and veteran pollster, she was the first woman to manage a successful US presidential campaign, spearheading Mr Trump's effort in 2016. As senior counsellor at the White House, Mrs Conway acted as political adviser to President Trump and maintained a highly influential position in the administration. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mrs Conway said her time in the White House "has afforded me blessings beyond compare" In contrast, her husband George is a co-founder of The Lincoln Project - a Republican political action committee working to prevent the re-election of President Trump in 2020. "The past four years have allowed me blessings beyond compare," she said in a statement. "[George and I] disagree about plenty but we are united on what matters most: the kids," she added. "Our four children are teens and tweens starting a new academic year, in middle school and high school, remotely from home for at least a few months," continued Mrs Conway. "As millions of parents nationwide know, kids 'doing school from home' requires a level of attention and vigilance that is as unusual as these times." Claudia Conway's tweet about her mother went viral over the weekend. Skip Twitter post by @claudiamconwayy my mother’s job ruined my life to begin with. heartbreaking that she continues to go down that path after years of watching her children suffer. selfish. it’s all about money and fame, ladies and gentlemen. — CLAUDIA CONWAY (@claudiamconwayy) August 23, 2020 Report She later tweeted that she was taking a "mental health break" from social media, saying "this is becoming way too much". Kellyanne Conway is one of Mr Trump's most ardent supporters, but has long been a controversial figure. She has become well known for sparring with journalists in defence of the president. One of her most famous lines was "alternative facts", the phrase she used to describe then White House press secretary Sean Spicer's highly questioned figures about the number of people attending Mr Trump's inauguration. In a 2017 interview, she cited a non-existent "massacre" to defend the administration's immigration restrictions. That same year, the US government's ethics advisory board said she should be investigated after she urged people, during a live interview, to buy clothing developed by the president's daughter Ivanka. More recently, the government's oversight agency advised last year that she should be fired for engaging in banned political activities while in office. She has often found herself caught between her husband and the president. Mr Conway has publicly disparaged the president, describing him as "incompetent". The president, in response, has called him a "stone cold LOSER" and said that he had turned down Mr Conway for a job in the justice department. 

  Published Date: 2020-08-24 

 Anoosheh Ashoori was arrested in Iran in 2017 and sentenced to 10 years in prison after being accused by the Iranian government of spying, charges he denies. He is one of eight known dual-nationality British citizens to have been arrested and detained in Iran in recent years. That number includes Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, convicted under spying charges that have been widely denounced as baseless. Nizar Zakkar is a Lebanese businessman and US resident who spent four years in the same prison under similar charges. The US government has claimed such detentions amount to hostage taking for ransom, an allegation denied by Iran. The BBC’s Darragh MacIntyre investigates these arrests and suggestions there may be more British citizens in similar circumstances. You can watch “Hostage in Iran” on Monday 24th August on BBC One at 19:30 BST. 

  Published Date: 2020-08-24 

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption During the announcement, President Trump called on Americans to donate blood plasma The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given emergency authorisation to use plasma to treat Covid patients. The technique uses antibody-rich blood plasma from people who've recovered from the disease and has already been applied to 70,000 people in the US - in trials or for the gravely ill. The FDA says initial trials indicate it is safe, although more are needed to prove effectiveness. Several experts have questioned the robustness of studies into its use. The announcement came a day after President Donald Trump accused the FDA of impeding the rollout of vaccines and therapeutics for political reasons, and on the eve of the Republican National Convention, where Mr Trump will launch his campaign to win a second term in the White House. "This is what I've been looking forward to doing for a long time," the president told reporters on Sunday. "I'm pleased to make a truly historic announcement in our battle against the China virus that will save countless lives." Mr Trump described the procedure as a powerful therapy, as he appealed to Americans to come forward to donate plasma if they had recovered from Covid-19. More than 176,000 people have died from coronavirus since the start of the outbreak in the United States, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Nearly 5.7 million cases have also been confirmed nationwide. The country has had more confirmed cases and deaths than anywhere else in the world. Does plasma treatment work? The FDA had already approved the use of plasma transfusions on coronavirus patients under certain conditions. It has now given the treatment "emergency use authorisation", rather than full approval, saying that early research suggests blood plasma can decrease mortality and improve patient health if it is administered within the first three days of admittance to hospital. However, more trials are needed to prove its effectiveness. The agency said it had concluded it was safe after reviewing the results of 20,000 patients who had received the treatment so far. The FDA said people under the age of 80 who were not on a respirator and received plasma containing high levels of antibodies had a 35% better survival rate a month after the treatment than those who had received plasma with a low level of antibodies. "It appeared that the product is safe and we're comfortable with that and we continue to see no concerning safety signals," said Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. In his own comments, Mr Trump removed the FDA's nuanced language, saying the plasma treatment had been "proven to reduce mortality by 35%". Several experts, including Dr Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House's coronavirus task force, have expressed reservations about the robustness of studies so far. Balance of risks Many countries are using plasma as a coronavirus therapy, but it's not yet clear how effective the treatment is. The decision by the US FDA to grant emergency use is a balance of risks. It says, based on the evidence so far, convalescent plasma may lessen the severity or shorten the length of Covid-19 illness. Certainly, sick coronavirus patients whose own immune systems are struggling to fight off the pandemic virus might get protection from a transfusion of antibody-rich plasma from someone who has successfully recovered from Covid-19. Convalescent plasma has been used to successfully treat other diseases, including Ebola. It is generally well-tolerated, but unwanted effects can occur, including harmful allergic reactions. A recent UK analysis said it remained "very uncertain" whether plasma was beneficial for people admitted to hospital with Covid-19. Trials are ongoing to understand precisely which patients might benefit and by how much. Experts want "gold standard" evidence to inform treatment decisions and gathering that data will take time. In a statement, the Infectious Diseases Society of America said that while there were "some positive signals that convalescent plasma can be helpful in treating individuals with Covid-19.... we lack the randomised controlled trial data we need to better understand its utility in Covid-19 treatment". Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University, called it "a political stunt". "Convalescent plasma may have some efficacy, but we need to have definitive data," he wrote on Twitter. The World Health Organization last month said that "Covid-19 convalescent plasma can be made available on an experimental basis through local production provided that ethical and safety criteria are met for its preparation and use". What's the latest on vaccines? In a tweet on Saturday, President Trump said "the deep state, or whoever, at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics. "Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after [the US presidential election]," he added. Earlier this year, US regulators gave emergency authorisation to Gilead Science Inc's remdesivir as a therapeutic treatment for coronavirus. Meanwhile, a report by the Financial Times suggests the White House is considering granting emergency authorisation for a vaccine being developed by Oxford University and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, ahead of the US presidential election on 3 November. The White House has not commented on the story, but a spokesperson for AstraZeneca told Reuters that efficacy results for its trials were not expected until later this year.