Розділ: Повідомлення
«Неприємно, але цілий і здоровий»: один із керівників поліції потестив новий електрошокер проти правопорушників
Керівник патрульної поліції Євген Жуков випробував на собі дію електрошокера Taser, який може бути застосований правоохоронцяит проти порушників, повідомив міністр внутрішніх справ України Арсен Аваков у твітері і розмістив відповідне відео.
«Керівник патрульної поліції України Євгеній Жуков випробував на собі дію електрошокеру Taser. Це медично сертифікована нелетальна зброя, яка знерухомлює правопорушника, але не завдає небезпечних поранень. Неприємно, але ефективно та менш небезпечно», – повідомив Аваков.
Сам Євген Жуков назвав вказаний електрошокер «безпечним способом» зупинити правопорушника і додав, що використання Taser схвалило Міністерство охорони здоров’я України.
«Це було досить неприємно, але я цілий і здоровий, м’язи максимально скоротилися, але я весь час був у свідомості й міг вільно дихати. Щойно Taser вимкнувся, неприємні відчуття зникли», – поділився Жуков своїми відчуттями.
11 листопада уряд скерував на розгляд парламенту законопроєкт про розширення підстав використання поліцією електрошокерів. Очільник МВС Арсен Аваков заявив, що відомство вже отримало першу партію сучасних електрошокерів.
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By Gromada | 11/23/2020 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Biden Expected to Pick Foreign Affairs Veteran as Secretary of State Nominee
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is reported to have selected one of his closest foreign affairs advisers, Antony Blinken, to be secretary of state in his new administration, as the projected winner of the U.S. election appears set to re-engage the United States in an array of global alliances that President Donald Trump had abandoned.
The 58-year-old Blinken is a veteran of U.S. foreign affairs decision-making for two decades, and according to multiple news accounts, agrees with Biden on the need for the U.S. to play a leading role again in world affairs, a change from Trump’s “America First” credo that at times left the United States at odds with other long-time Western allies.
In his first days in office after the January 20 inauguration, Biden plans to overturn Trump policies and rejoin the Paris climate agreement, stop the U.S. exit from the World Health Organization and attempt to again join other nations in the international pact to curb Iran’s nuclear weapons development.
Blinken served first under former President Bill Clinton, then later as deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser under former Democratic President Barack Obama when Biden was vice president. And while Republican former President George W, Bush was in power, Blinken was the Democratic staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
In addition to Blinken’s nomination, which must be approved by the Senate, Biden transition officials told news media that the incoming U.S. leader plans to name two other foreign policy veterans to key positions — Jake Sullivan as national security adviser and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as his nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.FILE – Then-Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield, right, testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 9, 2014.Sullivan is another Biden foreign policy adviser. Thomas-Greenfield, an African American, is a former career Foreign Service officer and would hold one of the most high-profile diplomatic posts in the new administration.
Biden is expected to officially make the three appointments on Tuesday and could also announce other Cabinet-level nominations even as Trump continues to contest Biden’s election as the country’s 46th chief executive.
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Monday are meeting virtually from Wilmington, Delaware, with the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The non-partisan organization includes the mayors of more than 1,400 cities, each with a population of 30,000 or more.
The conference has pushed for more federal aid to state and local governments as the number of coronavirus cases surges in the U.S. But negotiations for more relief have stalled between Congress and the White House. Biden has called for a new aid deal before he takes office but prospects for its passage by the end of December are uncertain.
Trump insists he won election
Trump is continuing to claim he won the election despite Biden’s unofficial 306-232 majority vote in the Electoral College. The electoral vote determines U.S. presidential elections, not the national popular vote, although Biden leads there, too, by more than 6 million votes.
Trump’s legal fight against the election results has been fruitless so far, with his campaign losing or withdrawing 34 lawsuits claiming vote and vote-counting fraud in key battleground states Biden was projected to win to claim a four-year term in the White House.
Trump is pursuing other lawsuits and appeals of decisions he has lost, attempting to upend Biden’s win.
Trump’s legal team filed an appeal Sunday after its latest courtroom defeat late Saturday in Pennsylvania, whose 20 electoral votes Biden won by an 81,000-vote margin.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann declared that the Trump campaign had presented “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations” in its effort to throw out millions of votes in Pennsylvania and hand the state’s electoral votes to Trump.FILE – A canvas observer photographs Lehigh County provisional ballots during vote counting in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Nov. 6, 2020.“In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state,” Brann wrote.
After a hand recount of 5 million votes, the southern state of Georgia on Friday certified Biden’s victory there, while Pennsylvania and the midwestern state of Michigan could do the same on Monday. The Trump campaign has since requested another recount of the votes in Georgia.
Despite his legal setbacks, Trump has refused to authorize his administration to cooperate with Biden on his transition to office.
Transition stalled
On Sunday, Biden’s incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain rebuked Emily Murphy, the Trump-appointed head of the General Services Administration, for so far refusing to ascertain that Biden is the apparent election winner so that federal funding can be made available for the transfer in control of the government and Biden aides can talk with officials at numerous agencies.
“I hope that the administrator of the GSA will do her job,” Klain said on ABC’s “This Week,” referring to Murphy.
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By Polityk | 11/23/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
На других «карантинних» вихідних поліція припинила роботу 1 347 закладів
Поліцейські припинили роботу 1 347 суб’єктів господарювання протягом вихідних 21 і 22 листопада, йдеться в повідомленні Національної поліції.
Крім того, правоохоронці склали 1 144 адміністративних протоколи та винесли 1 395 постанови за перебування в громадських будівлях і транспорті без масок.
«Поліція за два вихідні дні закрила 1347 суб’єктів господарювання, які працювали всупереч карантинним обмеженням. Зокрема: закладів торговельного та побутового обслуговування – 969, закладів громадського харчування – 327, закладів з надання послуг розміщення – 18, торговельно-розважальних центрів – 22, спортивних залів та басейнів – п’ять, дискотек та нічних клубів – чотири, театрів, кінотеатрів та музеїв – два», – заявляють у правоохоронному відомстві.
Читайте також: Перший карантин вихідного дня виконувався «так собі» – Степанов
Крім того, правоохоронці почали два кримінальні провадження за статтею про порушення санітарних правил щодо запобігання інфекційним хворобам та масовим отруєнням.
Загалом, за даними Нацполіції, з початку карантину навесні правоохоронці склали 58 034 адміністративних протоколи та відкрили 494 кримінальних провадження у зв’язку з порушеннями карантину.
11 листопада уряд ухвалив рішення, яким відмовився від адаптивного карантину і поширив на територію всієї країни дію «помаранчевої зони». Крім того, був запроваджений карантин вихідного дня, яким зокрема заборонена робота розважальних закладів.
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By Gromada | 11/23/2020 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
З 2021 року вступники з ТОТ проходитимуть безкоштовні курси для абітурієнтів – МОН
Безкоштовні підготовчі курси для абітурієнтів із тимчасово окупованих територій працюватимуть в Україні з 2021 року, повідомив заступник міністра освіти і науки Андрій Вітренко.
«Підготовчі курси працюватимуть. Це норма закону, й вона має виконуватися. Ми наразі над цим працюємо», – сказав Вітренко на онлайн-форумі «Діалоги про реформи: на шляху до Вільнюса».
У свою чергу, голова комітету Верховної Ради з питань освіти, науки та інновацій Сергій Бабак повідомив, що наразі в проекті державного бюджету на 2021 рік не передбачено впровадження таких курсів.
«Ми для того й існуємо в парламенті, щоб виправляти деякі помилки. Тому ми внесли окрему правку щодо забезпечення фінансування підготовчих курсів. До другого читання ми боротимемося за додаткові 100 млн грн на окрему бюджетну програму, яка дасть змогу організувати такі підготовчі курси, більше того, – виплачувати стипендії та давати місця в гуртожитках для дітей, які приїдуть сюди після 10-го класу й розпочнуть підготовчу роботу для вступу до вишів України», – сказав Бабак.
За даними Міносвіти, цьогоріч до українських закладів вищої освіти з тимчасово окупованих територій Донбасу та Криму вступили понад дві тисячі осіб.
Читайте також: МОН розширив перелік ВНЗ зі спрощеним вступом для випускників з окупованих територій
10 липня президент України Володимир Зеленський підписав закон про вступ без ЗНО для випускників із ОРДЛО та Криму. Перед тим Верховна Рада ухвалила законодавчі зміни, що, зокрема, передбачають можливість вступу до всіх українських вишів за вступними іспитами (або на основі ЗНО – за власним вибором) в межах встановлених квот для абітурієнтів, місцем проживання яких є тимчасово окупована територія і територія на лінії зіткнення. Раніше вступ за квотою передбачався лише для жителів тимчасово окупованого Криму та Севастополя, і тільки до обмеженого переліку закладів вищої освіти.
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By Gromada | 11/23/2020 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Нові штрафи за відсутність маски в Україні: чи дотримуються правил у Києві? (відео)
21 листопада в Україні набув чинності закон, який запроваджує штрафи за перебування в громадських будівлях і громадському транспорті без захисних масок (від 10 до 15 неоподатковуваних мінімумів доходів громадян (тобто від 170 до 255 гривень). Як ставляться українці до такого покарання? Чи вважають його дієвим? Та чи дотримуються самі маскового режиму у громадських місцях?
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By Gromada | 11/23/2020 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Biden to Name First Cabinet Members on Tuesday
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden plans to name the first members of his Cabinet on Tuesday, a key aide said Sunday, even as President Donald Trump urged on Republicans to help him in his longshot legal effort to overturn his re-election defeat. Ron Klain, Biden’s incoming White House chief of staff, declined in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” show to say which agency heads Biden would name. But the president-elect said last week he had settled on a new Treasury secretary and that his selection would appeal to “all elements of the Democratic Party… progressive to the moderate coalitions.” While Biden is transitioning to become the country’s 46th president at his inauguration on January 20, Trump has refused to concede. On Sunday, the outgoing U.S. leader told his followers on Twitter, “We will find massive numbers of fraudulent ballots… Fight hard Republicans.” It’s all about the signatures on the envelopes. Why are the Democrats fighting so hard to hide them. We will find massive numbers of fraudulent ballots. The signatures won’t match. Fight hard Republicans. Don’t let them destroy the evidence! FILE – Sen. Pat Toomey returns from a break in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 3, 2020.“President Trump has exhausted all plausible legal options to challenge the result of the presidential race in Pennsylvania,” Toomey said. “I congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory. They are both dedicated public servants and I will be praying for them and for our country.” Another Trump adviser, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, told the ABC show, “The conduct of the president’s legal team has been a national embarrassment.”Christie said Trump should concede and that Republicans should instead focus on winning two Senate run-off elections in the southern state of Georgia in early January that will determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the Senate for the next two years.“The rearview mirror should be ripped off,” Christie said.After a hand-by-hand recount of 5 million votes, the southern state of Georgia certified Biden’s victory there on Friday, while Pennsylvania and the midwestern state of Michigan could do the same on Monday. The Trump campaign has since requested another recount of the votes in Georgia. FILE – Officials work on ballots at the Gwinnett County Voter Registration and Elections Headquarters, Nov. 6, 2020, in Lawrenceville, near Atlanta, Georgia.Despite his legal setbacks, Trump has refused to authorize his administration to cooperate with Biden on his transition to power. Biden aide Klain rebuked Emily Murphy, the Trump-appointed head of the General Services Administration, for so far refusing to ascertain that Biden is the apparent election winner so that federal funding can be made available for the transfer in control of the government and Biden aides can talk with officials at numerous agencies. “I hope that the administrator of the GSA will do her job,” Klain said, referring to Murphy. Klain said the Republican president’s efforts to overturn the results were a disgrace, “definitely not the democratic norm.” “A record number of Americans rejected the Trump presidency, and since then Donald Trump’s been rejecting democracy,” Klain said. Klain said that with the surging outbreak of the coronavirus in the United States, Biden’s inauguration would be “scaled down” from the normal large event on the steps of the U.S. Capitol followed by a luncheon with key lawmakers, a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House and gala inaugural balls in the evening. But he said plans have not been finalized. “There is something here to celebrate,” Klain said. “We just want to do it in a safe way.”
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By Polityk | 11/23/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Українська громада у США вшанувала жертв Голодомору панахидою онлайн
У найбільшому храмі Нью-Йорка, соборі Святого Патрика, 20 листопада відбулася онлайн-панахида за жертвами Голодомору в Україні.
Панахиду провели першоієрарх Української православної церкви США митрополит Антоній та єпископ Української греко-католицької церкви (УГКЦ), єпарх Української католицької єпархії Стемфорда Пол Хомницький.
Цього року через пандемію коронавірусної інфекції Український конгресовий комітет Америки (УККА) закликав представників громади приєднуватися до панахиди віртуально.
Українські громади у світі вперше віддають шану жертвам Голодомору саме в режимі онлайн-заходів, які тривають протягом листопада. Календар заходів оприлюднив Світовий конгрес українців.
21 листопада віртуальне вшанування також проводить Конгрес українців Канади.
22 листопада Музей Голокосту в Іллінойсі спільно із Києво-Могилянською Фундацією Америки представить свідчення дітей, що вижили, своїми думками про Голодомор поділиться сценаристка фільму «Ціна правди» Андреа Халупа.
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By Gromada | 11/22/2020 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
В Україні вшанували День гідності і свободи
В Україні, у столиці Києві і багатьох інших місцях, вшанували День гідності і свободи.
Зокрема, в центрі Києва зібралися люди, здебільшого учасники протестів 2013–2014 років у столиці, щоб ушанувати пам’ять загиблих під час Революції гідності. Біля Хреста пам’яті Героїв Небесної сотні відбувся спільний поминальний молебень. А на пішохідному містку через алею Героїв Небесної Сотні біля майдану Незалежності вивісили банер із написом «Не втрачаймо гідність! Захистімо Свободу!».
Президент Володимир Зеленський, який перебуває на ізоляції через COVID-19, через відеозв’язок провів зустріч із учасниками революцій 1990, 2004, 2013–2014 років, захисниками держави і представниками інтелектуальної еліти, повідомила Банкова. За цим повідомленням, він, серед іншого, говорив про необхідність об’єднуватися не «проти», а «за» і обіцяв, що його влада «обов’язково запровадить інструмент народовладдя».
Ідеться про законопроєкт, що пропонує запровадити «народовладдя через всеукраїнський референдум». Він викликає серед скептиків критику з нагадуваннями про те, що до референдумів, плебісцитів часто вдаються диктаторські, авторитарні режими, що в сучасному світі референдум перетворився радше на маніпулятивний інструмент або використовується, коли в демократичних державах еліти не можуть ухвалити рішення і перекладають відповідальність на суспільство, що так звані елементи народовладдя активно використовуються як інструменти ведення гібридної війни Росією на території країн колишнього СРСР.
Також у повідомленні Банкової згадано про внесене в нього виправлення: Революцію на граніті 1990 року спершу помилково залічили було до року 1991-го.
У Львові в річницю початку Революції гідності на площі Ринок її учасники, волонтери, представники громадськості нагадали перехожим головні ідеї Майдану.
Вони тримали фотографії загиблих майданівців, а також плакати з гаслами: «Вони загинули, щоб ми продовжили боротьбу», «Небесна сотня дивиться за нами», «Знов олігархи при владі?», «Гідність – це не опускати руки, коли перемога близько», «Їхня кров – наше життя».
Біля Меморіалу Героїв Небесної сотні львів’яни запалили лампадки, молодь читала вірші, присвячені цим подіям.
«Революція гідності – це справді преображення української душі, здатності відстоювати свої права. Майдан був відповіддю на те, що хотіли загнати українців. Ми не можемо датися, допустити того, щоб постулати Майдану були затерті байдужістю тих, для кого він ще не відбувся», – сказав єпископ УГКЦ Степан Сус.
Увечері у Львові відбувся традиційний марш із нагоди річниці початку Революції гідності.
У Дніпрі теж вшанували пам’ять Небесної сотні і загиблих на сході України бійців. Жалобний захід відбувся ввечері біля Поклонного Хреста, поблизу Дніпропетровської ОДА. Його встановили саме на тому місці, звідки 2014 року вирушали на фронт перші українські добробати.
Священники ПЦУ відслужили заупокійну літію за полеглими борцями за незалежність України. На захід також прийшли містяни – учасники Революції гідності, родичі загиблих, громадські активісти.
«Гарна назва – Небесна сотня… Символічно – вони залишаються для української нації цими ангелами, символом честі, гідності, порядності. Вони увійшли до новітньої історії країни», – сказав керівник Дніпровської єпархії ПЦУ Симеон.
Дніпряни запалили лампадки і поклали квіти до підніжжя монумента.
Уранці керівництво області, силовики і містяни вшановували пам’ять загиблих біля світлин на Алеї Героїв. Як повідомили в пресслужбі ОДА, захід відбувся із дотриманням карантинних норм, без зайвих урочистостей. Квіти до монументів покладали не більш ніж по 3 людини.
У Запоріжжі учасники акції до Дня гідності та свободи зібралися на майдані Героїв Революції, де взимку 2013–2014 років проходила більшість акцій місцевого Майдану. В акції взяло участь близько сотні запорожців, серед яких місцеві волонтери, активісти, ветерани війни на Донбасі. Вони заспівали гімн, а також поклали квіти до пам’ятного знаку героям Революції гідності.
«Святкуємо День гідності та свободи, який дістався українському народові великими жертвами. І, на жаль, святкуємо його в дуже складні часи. Вчора я біля супермаркету випадково почув розмову двох людей, один із яких казав іншому: «Придумали какую-то гиднисть». Тобто далеко не всі члени нашого суспільства усвідомили, що відбулося в 2014 році. До того ж, як ми всі знаємо, після минулорічних виборів сталося так, що Україна, можна сказати, стала на шлях реваншу і розвороту від європейського шляху. Але той фундамент, який було закладено в 2014 році, коли український народ сказав «так» європейській інтеграції, незалежності і свободі, вже не відмінити», – сказав під час мітингу ветеран війни на Донбасі, учасник місцевого Майдану Валерій Прозапас.
На початку заходу його організатори закликали всіх присутніх обов’язково вдягти маски, а також дотримуватися дистанції під час акції, зокрема під час покладання квітів.
21 листопада в Україні відзначають День гідності та свободи – на честь початку цього дня Революції гідності 2013 року і початку 22 листопада Помаранчевої революції 2004 року.
Це свято відзначалося 22 листопада як День свободи з 2005 по 2011 рік. За президентства Віктора Януковича його відзначення офіційно скасували, об’єднавши із Днем Соборності 22 січня.
У 2014 році президент Петро Порошенко відновив його офіційний статус із новою назвою, відтоді Україна одночасно святкує річниці початку Помаранчевої революції і революції Євромайдану.
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By Gromada | 11/22/2020 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
US Minorities Push for Diverse Biden Cabinet
Native Americans are urging President-elect Joe Biden to make history by selecting one of their own to lead the powerful agency that oversees the nation’s tribes, setting up one of several looming tests of Biden’s pledge to have a Cabinet representative of Americans.
O.J. Semans is one of dozens of tribal officials and voting activists around the country pushing selection of Rep. Deb Haaland, a New Mexico Democrat and member of the Pueblo of Laguna, to become the first Native American secretary of interior. Tell Semans, a member of the Rosebud Sioux, that a well-regarded white lawmaker is considered a front-runner for the job, and Semans chuckles.
“Not if I trip him,” Semans says.
African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans and other people of color played a crucial role in helping Biden defeat President Donald Trump. In return, they say they want attention on problems affecting their communities — and want to see more people who look like them in positions of power.
“It’s nice to know that a Native American is under consideration,” said Haaland, who says she is concentrating on her congressional work. “Sometimes we are invisible.”
In Arizona, Alejandra Gomez was one of an army of activists who strapped on face masks and plastic face shields in 100-plus-degree heat to go door-to-door to get out the Mexican American vote. Intensive Mexican American organizing there helped flip that state to Democrats for the first time in 24 years.
“We are at a point where there was no pathway to victory” for Democrats without support from voters of color, said Gomez, co-executive director of the political group Living United for Change in Arizona. “Our terrain has forever changed in this country in terms of the electoral map.
“So we need to see that this administration will be responsive,” she said.FILE – Congresswoman Deb Haaland, Native American Caucus co-chair, joined at right by Congresswoman Judy Chu, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 5, 2020.Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said it was important that Biden’s Cabinet “reflects the country, and particularly his base that supports him,” including women, racial and ethnic minorities and other groups.
The departments of defense, state, treasury, interior, agriculture, energy and health and human services and the Environmental Protection Agency are among Biden’s Cabinet-level posts where women and people of color are considered among the top contenders. As with interior, where retiring New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall is thought to be a leading prospect, the candidacies of people of color are sometimes butting up against higher-profile white candidates.
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, whose February endorsement of Biden played a critical role in reviving the former vice president’s struggling campaign, said he is confident Biden’s Cabinet and White House staff will reflect the nation’s diversity.
“I think Joe Biden has demonstrated he takes the concerns of African Americans seriously,” said Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black member of Congress. “I expect him to be Lyndon Baines Johnson-like on civil rights.”
At the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge and California Rep. Karen Bass, respectively, are being considered. Fudge, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, would be the first Black woman to lead agriculture, which oversees farm policy and billions of dollars in farm and food programs and runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — better known as food stamps — that feeds millions of low-income households.
Fudge’s main competitor is former North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, who was long seen as the front-runner but faces growing opposition from progressives worried that she would favor big business interests at the sprawling department.
Clyburn, who is known to hold considerable sway with Biden, backs Fudge, calling her accomplished and experienced. “What you need is someone who understands the other side of agriculture,” he said. “It’s one thing to grow food, but another to dispense it, and nobody would be better at that than Marcia Fudge.″FILE – African American supporters of president-elect Joe Biden celebrate on Black Lives Matter Plaza across from the White House in Washington, Nov. 7, 2020, after Biden was projected the winner of the 2020 presidential election.Biden has promised to pick a diverse leadership team. His running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, will be the nation’s first female, first Black and first Asian American vice president.
In January, Biden assured a Native American candidate forum that he would “nominate and appoint people who look like the country they serve, including Native Americans.”
Native Americans say they helped deliver a win in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Arizona and elsewhere, voting for Biden by margins that sometimes hit the high 80th percentiles and above. A record six Native American or Native Hawaiian lawmakers were elected to Congress.
For the Department of Interior, consideration of Udall — a political ally of Biden’s for nearly 50 years who would be the second generation of his family to serve as interior secretary — is facing the historic candidacy of Haaland, a first-term congresswoman.
Asked if qualified white men with political seniority might have to step aside to make room for people of color, Udall told The Associated Press that Biden should be judged by his overall leadership team, including Cabinet secretaries and White House leaders.
“What you should look at a year or two years down the line is the leadership team at interior or EPA or agriculture,” said Udall, whose late father, Stewart, served as interior secretary in the 1960s. “Do they look like a leadership team to represent America?″
The Interior Department deals with nearly 600 federally recognized tribes but also manages public lands stretching over nearly 20% of the United States, including oil and gas leasing on them. That makes the agency critical to Biden’s pledge to launch ambitious programs controlling climate-destroying fossil fuel emissions.
Tribal officials concur there has never been a Native American as head of interior. The department’s websites cite six Native American heads of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which was transferred to the Interior Department from the War Department in 1849.
Haaland, vice chair of the House Committee for Natural Resources, also is getting support from many Democrats and progressives in Congress.
She told the AP that regardless of what job she had, she’d be working to “promote clean energy and protect our public lands.”
The push for her appointment makes for what historian Katrina Phillips of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, says is “one of the first times we’re seeing in public spheres such a broad push on Indigenous issues.”
“We have finally reached the point where there’s a broader American consensus … recognizing Native people deserve a voice,” said Phillips, a member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe.
Government decisions on tribal issues made by “somebody that never had to live the life” would likely be different than decisions made by someone from the community, said Semans, who lives on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota and helps run the Four Directions Native-voting project. Haaland’s pick would be “something very historical.”
“I have all kinds of respect for Mr. Udall. But there is not one rule or regulation that interior could change that would affect him or his family,” Semans said. “Ever.”
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By Polityk | 11/21/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Протягом попередньої доби бойовики сім разів обстріляли позиції українських військових – штаб
Гібридні російські війська сім разів порушили перемир’я протягом доби 20 листопада, повідомляє штаб Операції об’єднаних сил.
Зокрема обстріли фіксували в районі Шумів – зі стрілецької зброї, а також у поблизу Кам’янки, Водяного, Піщевика, Павлопіля та Авдіївки – зі стрілецької зброї та гранатометів.
«Також, з боку тимчасово окупованої Ужівки у напрямку Водяного, окупанти здійснили дистанційне мінування позицій наших військ використовуючи заборонені міни ПОМ-2», – йдеться в зведенні.
Читайте також: «ДНР» замовчує катастрофу, Україна атакує в Мінську: тиждень на Донбасі
За даними штабу, внаслідок обстрілів ніхто з військових Об’єднаних сил не постраждав. З початку поточної доби обстрілів не фіксували.
Незаконні збройні угруповання не робили заяв щодо обстрілів 20 листопада.
Збройний конфлікт на Донбасі триває від 2014 року після російської окупації Криму. Україна і Захід звинувачують Росію у збройній підтримці бойовиків. Кремль відкидає ці звинувачення і заявляє, що на Донбасі можуть перебувати хіба що російські «добровольці».
За даними ООН, від квітня 2014-го до 31 липня 2020 року внаслідок збройного конфлікту на Донбасі загинули від 13 100 до 13 300 людей.
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By Gromada | 11/21/2020 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Trump Makes Late-term Bid to Lower Prescription Drug Costs
Trying to close out major unfinished business, the Trump administration issued regulations Friday that could lower the prices Americans pay for many prescription drugs.But in a time of political uncertainty, it’s hard to say whether the rules will withstand expected legal challenges from the pharmaceutical industry or whether President-elect Joe Biden’s administration will accept, amend or try to roll them back entirely.”The drug companies don’t like me too much. But we had to do it,” President Donald Trump said in announcing the new policy at the White House. “I just hope they keep it. I hope they have the courage to keep it,” he added, in an apparent reference to the incoming Biden administration, while noting the opposition from drug company lobbyists.The two finalized rules, long in the making, would:— Tie what Medicare pays for medications administered in a doctor’s office to the lowest price paid among a group of other economically advanced countries. That’s called the “most favored nation” approach. It is adamantly opposed by critics aligned with the pharmaceutical industry, who liken it to socialism. The administration estimates it could save $28 billion over seven years for Medicare recipients through lower copays. It would take effect January 1. — Require drugmakers, for brand-name pharmacy medications, to give Medicare enrollees rebates that now go to insurers and middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers. Insurers that deliver Medicare’s Part D prescription benefit say that would raise premiums. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates it would increase taxpayer costs by $177 billion over 10 years. The Trump administration disputes that and says its rule could potentially result in 30% savings for patients. It would take effect January 1, 2022.FILE – A research scientist works in a laboratory at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. in San Diego, March 4, 2015.’Reckless attack’The pharmaceutical industry said Trump’s approach would give foreign governments the “upper hand” in deciding the value of medicines in the U.S. and vowed to fight it.”The administration is willing to upend the entire system with a reckless attack on the companies working around the clock to end this pandemic,” the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said in a statement, adding that it is “considering all options to stop this unlawful onslaught on medical progress and maintain our fight against COVID-19.”The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the “most favored nation” rule would lead to harmful price controls that could jeopardize access to new, lifesaving medicines at a critical time.Trump also announced he was ending a Food and Drug Administration program designed to end the sale of many old, and potentially dangerous, unapproved drugs that had been on the market for decades.Sales of hundreds of these drugs, including some known to be harmful, have been discontinued under the program. But an unintended consequence has been sharply higher prices for consumers for these previously inexpensive medicines after they were approved by the FDA.President Donald Trump listens as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Seema Verma, speaks during a news conference at the White House in Washington, Nov. 20, 2020.Different Medicare pathTrump came into office accusing pharmaceutical companies of “getting away with murder” and complaining that other countries whose governments set drug prices were taking advantage of Americans.As a candidate in 2016, Trump advocated for Medicare to negotiate prices. As president, he dropped that idea, objected to by most Republicans. Instead, Trump began pursuing changes through regulations.He also backed a bipartisan Senate bill that would have capped what Medicare recipients with high bills pay for medications while generally limiting price increases. Ambitious in scope, the legislation from Senators Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., did not get a full Senate vote.Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, a former drug company executive, said the rules would “break this model where patients suffer, where prices increase every year,” while corporate insiders enrich themselves.Addressing the prospect of legal battles, Azar said, “We feel that both regulations are extremely strong, and any industry challenging them is declaring themselves at odds with American patients and President Trump’s commitment to lowering out-of-pocket costs.”The international pricing rule would cover many cancer drugs and other medications delivered by infusion or injection in a doctor’s office.It would apply to 50 medications that account for the highest spending under Medicare’s Part B benefit for outpatient care. Ironically, the legal authority for Trump’s action comes from the Affordable Care Act, the Obama-era health care overhaul he’s still trying to repeal.The rule also changes how hospitals and doctors are paid for administering the drugs, to try to remove incentives for using higher-cost medications.FILE – Ann Lovell holds her prescriptions at her home in South Jordan, Utah, following her visit to Tijuana, Mexico, Jan. 31, 2020. She travels every few months to Tijuana to buy medication for rheumatoid arthritis at a steep discount.Democrats’ preferenceRelying on international prices to lower U.S. costs is an approach also favored by Democrats, including Biden. But Democrats would go much further, authorizing Medicare to use lower prices from overseas to wrest industry concessions for all expensive medications, not just those administered in clinical settings.Embodied in a House-passed bill from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., this strategy would achieve much larger savings, allowing Medicare to pay for new benefits such as vision and dental coverage. It also would allow private insurance plans for workers and their families to get Medicare’s lower prices.Trump has taken other action to lower prescription drug costs by opening a legal path for importing medicines from abroad. Also, Medicare drug plans that cap insulin costs at $35 a month are available during open enrollment, currently under way.Prices for brand-name drugs have continued to rise during Trump’s tenure, but at a slower rate. The FDA has put a priority on approving generics, which cost less.
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By Polityk | 11/21/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Georgia Certifies Recount, Confirming Biden Victory
Following a hand recount of ballots, officials in Georgia certified U.S. presidential election results in the state, confirming that President-elect Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump. Yet the president shows no signs of conceding. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the latest.
Producer: Bakhtiyar Zamanov
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By Polityk | 11/21/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden Adds Obama Administration Veterans to Top Staff
President-elect Joe Biden is adding four Obama-Biden administration veterans to his top ranks as he continues to build out his White House team.Cathy Russell, who was Jill Biden’s chief of staff during the Obama administration, will serve as director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, evaluating applicants for administration roles. Louisa Terrell, who served as a legislative adviser to the president in the Obama administration and worked as deputy chief of staff for Biden in the Senate, will be director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. Terrell has already been engaged in Capitol Hill outreach as part of Biden’s transition team.FILE – U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, accompanied by his wife Jill, attends a Veterans Day observance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Nov. 11, 2020.Carlos Elizondo, who was social secretary for Jill Biden during the Obama administration, will reprise his role and serve as social secretary for the incoming first lady. And Mala Adaga will serve as her policy director. Her role hints at what Biden may focus on as first lady — Adaga previously worked as a director for higher education and military families at the Biden Foundation, and also advised Jill Biden on policy during the Obama administration.The announcements come just a few days after Biden unveiled his first major round of top White House staff, including the appointment of his current campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, to serve as deputy chief of staff, and campaign co-chair Rep. Cedric Richmond as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. Late last week, he announced that longtime aide Ron Klain will serve as his chief of staff.While the new hires give a sense of the White House that Biden is beginning to build, he has yet to appoint someone to fill the role of COVID coordinator, which Klain announced this week, or name individuals for key communications roles. His team has thousands more staff-level roles to fill when it takes over the administration in January, and they’re currently reviewing applications and reaching out to potential candidates for key roles.Biden has indicated he plans to make and announce some of his Cabinet picks around Thanksgiving, and he said Thursday he’s already made his decision for Treasury Secretary.
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By Polityk | 11/21/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
‘No More Room for Delay’: Biden Wants Emergency COVID-19 Aid
President-elect Joe Biden is calling on Congress to enact billions of dollars in emergency COVID-19 assistance before the year’s end, according to a senior adviser who warned Friday that “there’s no more room for delay.”Biden transition aide Jen Psaki delivered the remarks before Biden’s first in-person meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer since he was projected the winner of the presidential election. Biden hosted the pair Friday afternoon at his makeshift transition headquarters in a downtown Wilmington, Delaware, theater.Biden sat with Schumer, Pelosi and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, all wearing masks and spaced out around a bank of tables.”In my Oval Office, mi casa, you casa,” Biden said during the brief portion of the meeting that journalists were allowed to witness. “I hope we’re going to spend a lot of time together.”Pelosi said at an earlier news conference that she and Schumer would be talking with Biden about “the urgency of crushing the virus,” as well as how to use the lame-duck session of Congress, legislation on keeping the government funded and COVID-19 relief.FILE – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks after the Senate Republican GOP leadership election on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 10, 2020.But prospects for new virus aid this year remain uncertain. Pelosi said talks with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the GOP leadership on Thursday did not produce any consensus on a new virus aid package.”That didn’t happen, but hopefully it will,” she said.Also Friday, McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, proposed that Congress shift $455 billion of unspent small-business lending funds toward a new COVID-19 aid package. His offer came after a meeting with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.Biden’s new governing team is facing intense pressure to push another COVID-19 relief bill and come up with a clear plan to distribute millions of doses of a prospective vaccine, even as Biden is just days away from unveiling the first of his Cabinet picks, which are subject to Senate confirmation.Psaki said that Biden, Pelosi and Schumer are working together on a pandemic relief bill before Congress adjourns for the year.”They’re in lockstep agreement that there needs to be emergency assistance and aid during the lame-duck session to help families, to help small businesses,” Psaki said. “There’s no more room for delay, and we need to move forward as quickly as possible.”The president-elect has also promised to work closely with Republicans in Congress to execute his governing agenda, but so far, he has focused his congressional outreach on his leading Democratic allies.The meeting came two days after House Democrats nominated Pelosi to be the speaker who guides them again next year as Biden becomes president, though she seemed to suggest these would be her final two years in the leadership post.FILE – President Donald Trump walks down the West Wing colonnade from the Oval Office to the Rose Garden to speak to the press, at the White House in Washington, Nov. 13, 2020.President Donald Trump continues to refuse to allow his administration to cooperate with Biden’s transition team. Specifically, the Trump administration is denying Biden access to detailed briefings on national security and pandemic planning that leaders in both parties say are important for preparing Biden to govern immediately after his January 20 inauguration.Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Friday on “CBS This Morning” that Biden’s charge that the transition delays would cost American lives was “absolutely incorrect.””Every aspect of what we do is completely transparent – no secret data or knowledge,” Azar said.
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By Polityk | 11/21/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Держава надасть стипендії понад 20 науковцям за роботу «з увічнення подій» Революції гідності – МОН
У Міністерстві освіти і науки України повідомили, що 21 вчений отримуватиме державні стипендії для увічнення подій Революції гідності та вшанування подвигу Героїв Небесної сотні.
«Державні іменні стипендії для увічнення подій Революції гідності та вшанування подвигу Героїв України – Героїв Небесної сотні – призначено 21 молодому вченому… У період з 12 до 19 листопада 2020 року розглянуто матеріали, подані 153 претендентами, які працюють або навчаються в закладах вищої освіти та наукових установах», – йдеться в повідомленні МОН.
За даними відомства, переможці конкурсу з 2021 року отримуватимуть стипендію в розмірі двох прожиткових мінімумів.
«Відбір претендентів відбувався за кількома номінаціями (іменні стипендії в честь загиблих Героїв Небесної сотні – ред.): стипендія імені Дмитра Максимова – 4 особи; стипендія імені Назарія Войтовича – 5 осіб; стипендія імені Романа Гурика – 4 особи; стипендія імені Устима Голоднюка – 5 осіб; стипендія імені Юрія Поправки – 3 особи», – додади у Міносвіти.
Завтра, 21 листопада, в Україні відзначатимуть День гідності та свободи, що знаменує початок цього дня двох революцій: Помаранчевої (2004 року) та Революції гідності (2013 року).
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By Gromada | 11/21/2020 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
У поліції розповіли, як діятимуть у перший день штрафів за відсутню маску в транспорті і громадських місцях
Голова Національної поліції України Ігор Клименко роз’яснив, якими будуть дії правоохоронців 21 листопада, коли вступлять у дію нові санкції за порушення карантину.
«Відповідно до нововведень, поліцейські тепер можуть не лише складати адміністративні протоколи за порушення карантину, а й на місці виносити рішення стосовно фізичних осіб, котрі перебувають у громадських будівлях чи транспорті без вдягнутих масок або респіраторів. Але першочергово поліцейські діятимуть превентивно, тобто спершу зроблять зауваження. І лише у випадку відмови будуть документувати дії правопорушника», – пояснив Ігор Клименко.
За його словами, у суботу та неділю поліцейські по всій країні проводитимуть рейдові перевірки, аби проконтролювати дотримання суб’єктами господарювання рішення уряду щодо «карантину вихідного дня».
Відповідно до закону «Про внесення змін до Кодексу України про адміністративні правопорушення щодо запобігання поширенню коронавірусної хвороби (COVID-19)», перебування у громадських будинках, спорудах, громадському транспорті під час дії карантину без вдягнутих засобів індивідуального захисту, зокрема, респіраторів або захисних масок, що закривають ніс та рот, у тому числі виготовлених самостійно, передбачає накладення штрафу від 170 до 255 гривень.
Відповідний закон 19 листопада підписав президент Володимир Зеленський. Верховна Рада ухвалила його 6 листопада.
В Україні протягом останньої доби виявили рекордні 14 575 нових випадків коронавірусної хвороби COVID-19.
За весь час пандемії в Україні захворіли 598 085 людей, одужали – 274 324, померли – 10 598.
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By Gromada | 11/21/2020 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Mnuchin Denies Trying to Hinder Incoming Administration
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin denied Friday that by ending several emergency loan programs being run by the Federal Reserve, he was trying to limit the choices President-elect Joe Biden will have to promote an economic recovery.Mnuchin said his decision was based on the fact the programs were not being heavily utilized. He said Congress could make better use of the money by reallocating it to support grants to small businesses and extended unemployment assistance.”We’re not trying to hinder anything,” Mnuchin said in a CNBC interview. “We don’t need this money to buy corporate bonds. We need this money to go help small businesses that are still closed.”However, critics saw politics at play in Mnuchin’s decision, saying the action would deprive the incoming administration of critical support the Fed might need to prop up the economy as coronavirus infections spike nationwide.FILE – Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is pictured during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 19, 2017,”There can be no doubt, the Trump administration and their congressional toadies are actively trying to tank the U.S economy,” Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said in a prepared statement Friday. “For months, they have refused to take the steps necessary to support workers, small businesses and restaurants. As the result, the only tool at our disposal has been these facilities.”Mnuchin on Thursday had written Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announcing his decision not to extend some of the Fed’s emergency loan programs, which had been operating with support from the Treasury Department. The decision will end the Fed’s corporate credit, municipal lending and Main Street Lending programs as of December 31.The decision drew a rare rebuke from the Fed, which said in a brief statement Thursday that the central bank “would prefer that the full suite of emergency facilities established during the coronavirus pandemic continue to serve their important role as a backstop for our still-strained and vulnerable economy.”Move ‘ties the hands”The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also criticized the move. “A surprise termination of the Federal Reserve’s emergency liquidity program, including the Main Street Lending Program, prematurely and unnecessarily ties the hands of the incoming administration and closes the door on important liquidity options for businesses at a time when they need them most,” said Neil Bradley, the chamber’s executive vice president, in a prepared statement.Private economists argued that Mnuchin’s decision to end five of the emergency loan facilities represented an economic risk.”While the backstop measures have been little used so far, the deteriorating health and economic backdrop could shine a bright light on the Fed’s diminished recession-fighting arsenal and prompt an adverse market reaction,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.Under law, the loan facilities required the support of the Treasury Department, which serves as a backstop for the initial losses the programs might incur.In his letter to Powell, Mnuchin said he was requesting that the Fed return to Treasury the unused funds appropriated by Congress.FILE – Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell testifies during a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Sept. 24, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.He said this would allow Congress to reappropriate $455 billion to other coronavirus programs. Republicans and Democrats have been deadlocked for months on approval of another round of coronavirus support measures.In public remarks Tuesday, Powell made clear that he hoped that the loan programs would remain in effect for the foreseeable future.”When the right time comes, and I don’t think that time is yet, or very soon, we’ll put those tools away,” he said in an online discussion with a San Francisco business group.The future of the Main Street and Municipal Lending programs has taken on greater importance with Biden’s victory. Many progressive economists have argued that a Democratic-led Treasury could support the Fed taking on more risk and making more loans to small and midsized businesses and cash-strapped cities under these programs. That would provide at least one avenue for the Biden administration to provide stimulus without going through Congress.Relatively few loansNeither program has lived up to its potential so far, with the Municipal Lending program making just one loan, while the Main Street program has made loans totaling around $4 billion, to about 400 companies.Republicans including Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo of Idaho and Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania supported Mnuchin’s move.”Congress’ intent was clear: These facilities were to be temporary, to provide liquidity and to cease operations by the end of 2020,” Toomey said in a statement. “With liquidity restored, they should expire, as Congress intended and the law requires, by December 31, 2020.”
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By Polityk | 11/21/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Birthday Time: Biden Turns 78, Will Be Oldest US President
President-elect Joe Biden turned 78 on Friday. In two months, he’ll take the reins of a politically fractured nation facing the worst public health crisis in a century, high unemployment and a reckoning on racial injustice.
As he wrestles with those issues, Biden will be attempting to accomplish another feat: demonstrate to Americans that age is but a number and he’s up to the job.
Biden will be sworn in as the oldest president in the nation’s history, displacing Ronald Reagan, who left the White House in 1989 when he was 77 years and 349 days old.
The age and health of both Biden and President Donald Trump — less than four years Biden’s junior — loomed throughout a race that was decided by a younger and more diverse electorate and at a moment when the nation is facing no shortage of issues of consequence.
Out of the gate, Biden will be keen to demonstrate he’s got the vigor to serve.
“It’s crucial that he and his staff put himself in the position early in his presidency where he can express what he wants with a crispness that’s not always been his strength,” said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University who has advised legislators from both parties. “He has got to build up credibility with the American people that he’s physically and mentally up to the job.”
Throughout the campaign, Trump, 74, didn’t miss a chance to highlight Biden’s gaffes and argue that the Democrat lacked the mental acuity to lead the nation. Both critics and some backers of Biden worried that he was sending the wrong message about his stamina by keeping a relatively light public schedule while Trump barnstormed battleground states. Biden attributed his light schedule to being cautious during the coronavirus pandemic.
Some of Biden’s rivals in the Democratic primary also made a case on age — while skipping Trump’s vitriol — by raising the question of whether someone of Biden’s and Trump’s generation was the right person to lead a nation dealing with issues like climate change and racial inequality.
Brian Ott, a Missouri State University communications professor who studies presidential rhetoric, said Biden was hardly impressive as a campaigner, but has proven far more effective with his public remarks since Election Day.
Ott said Biden’s victory speech was poignant, and his empathy showed in a virtual discussion that he held earlier this week with frontline healthcare workers. The president-elect’s experience — a combination of age and nearly 50 years in politics — conveys more clearly through the prism of governing than the chaos of campaigning, he said.
“The rhetoric of governing, unlike the rhetoric of campaigning, is collaborative rather than adversarial,” Ott said.
Biden’s relatively advanced age also puts a greater premium on the quality of his staff, Baker said. His choice of Sen. Kamala Harris, more than 20 years younger than him, as his running mate effectively acknowledged his age issue. Biden has described himself as a transitional president but hasn’t ruled out running for a second term.
“He’s well served in making it known from Day One that she’s ready to go,” Baker said of Harris. “She’s got to be in the images coming out of the White House. They also need to, in terms of their messaging, highlight her inclusion in whatever the important issue or debate is going on in the White House.”
Biden, in a September interview with CNN, promised to be “totally transparent” about all facets of his health if elected but he hasn’t said how he’ll do that.
The campaign has made the case that Biden isn’t your average septuagenarian.
His physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, in a medical report released by the campaign in December, described Biden as “healthy, vigorous … fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief.”
O’Connor reported that Biden works out five days a week. The president-elect told supporters that during the pandemic he has relied on home workouts involving a Peloton bike, treadmill and weights.
In 1988, Biden suffered two life-threatening brain aneurysms, an experience that he wrote in his memoir shaped him into the “kind of man I want to be.” O’Connor also noted in his report that Biden has an irregular heartbeat, but it has not required any medication or other treatment. He also had his gall bladder removed in 2003.
A September article by a group of researchers in the Journal on Active Aging concluded that both Biden and Trump are “super-agers” and are likely to outlive their American contemporaries and maintain their health beyond the end of the next presidential term.
Some of Biden’s White House predecessors left behind breadcrumbs about the dos and don’ts of demonstrating presidential vigor, said Edward Frantz, a presidential historian at the University of Indianapolis.
Reagan made sure the public saw him chopping wood and riding horses. Trump, after being diagnosed with the coronavirus, quickly returned to a busy campaign schedule — holding dozens of crowded rallies in battleground states in the final weeks of the campaign. Those events flouted coronavirus guidelines on social distancing, wearing masks and avoiding large gatherings.
In 1841, William Harrison, 68, attempted to show off his vigor by delivering a lengthy inaugural address without a coat or hat. Weeks later, Harrison, then the oldest president elected in U.S. history, developed a cold that turned into pneumonia that would kill him just a month into his presidency. It’s disputed whether Harrison’s illness was related to his inaugural address.
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By Polityk | 11/21/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
«Марія» – «найвідоміша у світі виставка про Голодомор» – уперше в Україні
20 листопада 2020 року в Музеї Голодомору в Києві презентували проєкт Лесі Марущак «Марія». Виставка триватиме з 20 листопада 2020 року до 31 березня 2021 року за підтримки Світового конгресу українців
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By Gromada | 11/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Trump, Allies Take Frantic Steps to Overturn Biden’s Victory
President Donald Trump and his allies are taking increasingly frantic steps to subvert the results of the 2020 election, including summoning state legislators to the White House as part of a longshot bid to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.
Among other last-ditch tactics: personally calling local election officials who are trying to rescind their certification votes in Michigan, suggesting in a legal challenge that Pennsylvania set aside the popular vote there and pressuring county officials in Arizona to delay certifying vote tallies.
Election law experts see it as the last, dying gasps of the Trump campaign and say Biden is certain to walk into the Oval Office come January. But there is great concern that Trump’s effort is doing real damage to public faith in the integrity of U.S. elections.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, one of Trump’s most vocal GOP critics, accused Trump of resorting to “overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election.” Romney added, “It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President.”
pic.twitter.com/S3kFsIRGmi— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) November 20, 2020Trump’s own election security agency has declared the 2020 presidential election to have been the most secure in history. Days after that statement was issued, Trump fired the agency’s leader.
The increasingly desperate and erratic moves have no reasonable chance of changing the outcome of the 2020 election, in which Biden has now received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history and has clinched the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win.
But the Republican president’s constant barrage of baseless claims, his work to personally sway local officials who certify votes and his allies’ refusal to admit he lost is likely to have a lasting negative impact on the country. Legions of his supporters don’t believe he lost.
“It’s about trying to set up the conditions where half of the country believes that there are only two possibilities, either they win or the election was stolen,” said Justin Levitt, a constitutional law scholar and professor at Loyola Law School. “And that’s not a democracy.”
The phrase “Count Every Vote” is projected on a giant screen organized by an advocacy group in front of the State Capitol while election results in several states have yet to be finalized, Friday, Nov. 6, 2020, in Lansing, Mich. (AP Photo/David…The two GOP canvassers in Michigan’s Wayne County said in a statement late Wednesday they lacked confidence that the election was fair and impartial. “There has been a distinct lack of transparency throughout the process,” they said. But there has been no evidence of impropriety or fraud in Michigan, election officials have said.
Trump’s allies have homed in on the way that the president’s early lead in Michigan and some other states on election night slipped away as later votes came, casting it as evidence of something nefarious.
But a massive influx of mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic leaned largely to Biden, who encouraged his supporters to vote by mail, and those votes were the last to be counted. So it appeared Trump had an edge when he really didn’t.
In fact, Biden crushed Trump in Wayne County, a Democratic stronghold that includes Detroit, by a more than 2-1 ratio on his way to winning Michigan by 154,000 votes, according to unofficial results.
Earlier this week, the county’s two Republicans canvassers blocked the certification of votes there. They later relented and the results were certified. But a person familiar with the matter said Trump reached out to the canvassers, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, on Tuesday evening after the revised vote to express gratitude for their support. Then, on Wednesday, Palmer and Hartmann signed affidavits saying they believed the county vote “should not be certified.”
They cannot rescind their votes, according to the Michigan secretary of state. The four-member state canvassing board is expected to meet Monday and also is split with two Democrats and two Republicans.
Trump appears intent on pushing the issue. He has invited Michigan’s Republican legislative leaders, Senate Majority Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield, to the White House, according to two officials familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly. The two have agreed to go, according to one official, but they haven’t commented publicly, and it’s not clear what the purpose of the meeting is.
The Michigan Legislature would be called on to select electors if Trump succeeded in convincing the state’s board of canvassers not to certify Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in the state. But both legislative leaders have indicated they will not try to overturn Biden’s win.
“Michigan law does not include a provision for the Legislature to directly select electors or to award electors to anyone other than the person who received the most votes,” Shirkey’s spokeswoman said last week.
During a press conference in Wilmington, Delaware, on Thursday, Biden said Americans are “witnessing incredible irresponsibility, incredibly damaging messages are being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy functions.”
He added, “I just think it’s totally irresponsible.”Former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for President Donald Trump, speaks during a news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters, in Washington, Nov. 19, 2020.Earlier, Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and others had held a press conference to allege a widespread Democratic election conspiracy involving multiple states and suspect voting machines. But election officials across the country have said repeatedly there was no widespread fraud.
Many of the allegations of fraud stem from poll watchers who filed affidavits included with lawsuits in battleground states aimed at delaying vote certification. Those affidavits lean into innuendo and unsupported suggestions of fraud.
For example, they refer to suitcases in a polling place but make no suggestion that ballots were being secretly counted. There are allegations of ballots being duplicated — something routinely done when a ballot is physically damaged. There are claims that partisan poll watchers were too far away to observe well and therefore something fishy was probably going on. But they don’t have proof. Poll watchers have no auditing role in elections; they are volunteer observers.
Giuliani cited a few sworn affidavits that he said showed a vast Democratic conspiracy, but he added that he could not reveal much of the evidence. One he cited was from Jessy Jacob, identified as a city employee in Detroit who said she saw other workers coaching voters to cast ballots for Biden and the Democrats.
A judge who refused to block certification of Detroit-area results noted that Jacob’s claims included no “date, location, frequency or names of employees” and that she only came forward after unofficial results indicated Biden had won Michigan.
Trump legal adviser Jenna Ellis, who joined Giuliani, said more evidence would be forthcoming and that Trump’s allies would have more success in courts going forward. But so far, most of their legal actions have been dismissed.
Chris Krebs, the Trump administration election official fired last week over the comments about the security of 2020, tweeted: “That press conference was the most dangerous 1hr 45 minutes of television in American history. And possibly the craziest.”
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., tweeted: “Rudy and his buddies should not pressure electors to ignore their certification obligations under the statute. We are a nation of laws, not tweets.”
In Pennsylvania, where the Trump campaign is challenging the election results in federal court, a legal team led by Giuliani suggested in a filing Wednesday that the judge order the Republican-led state legislature to pick delegates to the Electoral College, potentially throwing the state’s 20 electoral votes to Trump. A judge canceled an evidentiary hearing in the case.
The Maricopa County Elections Department officials conduct a post-election logic and accuracy test for the general election as observers watch the test, Nov. 18, 2020, in Phoenix, Arizona.In Arizona, the Republican Party is pressuring county officials to delay certifying results. The GOP lost a bid on Thursday to postpone certification in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous. In northwestern Arizona, Mohave County officials postponed their certification until next week.
Judge John Hannah ruled without explanation, except to bar the party from refiling the case. The judge promised a full explanation in the future.
Maricopa County officials are expected to certify elections results on Friday.
Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes, and Maricopa County put him over the top. The county performed a hand count of some ballots the weekend after the election, which showed its machine counts were 100% accurate. The same was found Wednesday during routine post-election accuracy tests.
In Georgia, where officials have been auditing the results of the presidential race, Trump has repeatedly attacked the process and called it “a joke.”
He has also made repeated incorrect assertions that Georgia election officials are unable to verify signatures on absentee ballot envelopes. In fact, Georgia requires that they be checked.
The Associated Press called Biden the winner of Georgia and its 16 electoral votes on Thursday night.
A top Georgia election official said earlier Thursday that a hand tally of ballots cast in the presidential race had been completed, and that the results affirmed Biden’s narrow lead over Trump. The secretary of state’s office planned to release results of the audit later Thursday.
During the hand tally, several counties found previously uncounted ballots that the secretary of state’s office has said would reduce Biden’s lead to just under 13,000 votes, with roughly 5 million total votes cast. Georgia law allows a candidate to request a recount within two business days of certification if the margin is less than 0.5 percentage points. That recount would be done using machines.
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By Polityk | 11/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Доба на Донбасі: два порушення режиму тиші, один поранений
Гібридні російські сили двічі порушили режим припинення вогню в зоні бойових дій на Донбасі за добу 19 листопада, повідомляє штаб Операції об’єднаних сил.
Обстріли зафіксували в районі Авдіївки – з автоматичного станкового гранатомета та стрілецької зброї, і поблизу Мар’їнки, де, за даними штабу, працював снайпер.
Внаслідок обстрілів один український військовий був поранений – за повідомленням, він у лікарні, його стан задовільний.
Читайте також: У Донецьку вже дві доби не можуть підняти шахтарів з-під завалу (рос.)
«За поточну добу, 20 листопада, у районі відповідальності оперативно-тактичного угруповання «Північ» російсько-окупаційні війська здійснили одну збройну провокацію проти українських захисників біля Шумів, застосувавши стрілецьку зброю. Втрат та поранень серед наших військовослужбовців немає», – додають у штабі.
Незаконне збройне угруповання «ДНР» заявляє про обстріл окупованої ним території з боку українських військових. Аналогічне угруповання «ЛНР» таких заяв не робило.
Збройний конфлікт на Донбасі триває від 2014 року після російської окупації Криму. Україна і Захід звинувачують Росію у збройній підтримці бойовиків. Кремль відкидає ці звинувачення і заявляє, що на Донбасі можуть перебувати хіба що російські «добровольці».
За даними ООН, від квітня 2014-го до 31 липня 2020 року внаслідок збройного конфлікту на Донбасі загинули від 13 100 до 13 300 людей.
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By Gromada | 11/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Білорусь: КДБ затримав журналістку, яка готувала публікацію про загиблого Романа Бондаренка
Увечері 19 листопада в Мінську затримали журналістку порталу Tut.by Катерину Борисевич, яка готувала матеріал про загиблого мінчанина Романа Бондаренка. Про це повідомляють білоруські медіа.
За повідомленням білоруської служби Радіо Свобода, Борисевич відвезли до слідчого ізолятора КДБ Білорусі, завтра її мають допитати, але невідомо, в якому статусі.
Донька Борисевич повідомила виданню Tut.by, що журналістка вийшла в магазин, але згодом повернулася в супроводі силовиків. В квартирі відбувся обшук і вилучили ноутбук. Менш як за годину Борисевич забрали люди в масках.
Читайте також: Прокуратура Білорусі попередила священників, які критикували владу за знищення меморіалу Бондаренка
Портал оприлюднив відео, на якому видно, як жінка виходить із під’їзду свого дому в супроводі людей в цивільному та масках.
Незадовго до цього Генеральна прокуратура Білорусі повідомила про відкриття кримінальної справи щодо лікаря лікарні швидкої допомоги та «іншої особи» за фактами «розкриття лікарської таємниці, яке потягнуло за собою тяжкі наслідки». Йдеться про результати медичного огляду Романа Бондаренка, який помер після викрадення й побиття.
Результати медичного огляду Бондаренка, який вперше опублікував Tut.by, підтверджують, що він прибув до мінської швидкої допомоги абсолютно тверезим – всупереч версії, висловленій владою та особисто Олександром Лукашенко.
Читайте також: У Білорусі взяли під варту четвертого за тиждень співробітника Радіо Свобода
Житель Мінська Роман Бондаренко був жорстоко побитий увечері 11 листопада і помер в лікарні на наступний день. З’являється все більше свідчень того, що нападники могли бути пов’язані з правоохоронними органами. Загибель Бондаренка викликала масове обурення, марш його пам’яті 15 листопада в Мінську був розігнаний владою.
your ad hereBy VilneSlovo | 11/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Свобода слова
Venezuelan President Blames Rival for Trump’s Apparent Election Defeat
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is blaming his rival, opposition leader Juan Guaido, for U.S. President Donald Trump’s apparent reelection defeat.Maduro said Thursday, he received a message from someone in the United States he refused to identify, that if Trump had trusted Maduro instead of Guaido, the election result would have been different.Maduro seemed to mock Trump for recognizing Guaido as Venezuela’s self-proclaimed interim president saying, “You preferred to bet on an imbecile and that imbecile led you to defeat.”Maduro’s comments might also be a public rebuke of Trump and his administration, which has long favored Guaido, who was also backed by some other Western leaders.Thursday a team of Trump campaign lawyers claimed nationwide vote fraud is resulting from what they characterized as a conspiracy among Democrats, a voting machine company in Canada, Venezuelan socialist leaders, Cuban and Chinese communists, antifa and philanthropist George Soros.
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By Polityk | 11/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Joe Biden Wins Georgia, Flipping State for Democrats
Joe Biden has won Georgia and its 16 electoral votes, an extraordinary victory for Democrats who pushed to expand their electoral map through the Sun Belt. The win by Biden pads his Electoral College margin of victory over President Donald Trump. Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election November 7 after flipping Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin to the Democrats’ column. Biden now has 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232. Trump won Georgia by 5 percentage points in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton. In 2020, Democrats had focused heavily on the state, seeing it in play two years after Democrat Stacey Abrams narrowly lost the governor’s race. Both of Georgia’s Senate seats were on the ballot this year, further boosting the state’s political profile as well as spending by outside groups seeking to influence voters. Those two races are headed to a January runoff. Georgia hadn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Bill Clinton in 1992.
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By Polityk | 11/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Перший етап вакцинації від COVID-19 охоплюватиме передусім медиків – Степанов
Міністр охорони здоров’я України Максим Степанов заявив, що працівники галузі охорони здоров’я будуть у пріоритеті першого етапу щеплень від COVID-19.
«Завершилась онлайн-конференція з представниками COVAX (ініціативи щодо глобального доступу до вакцин проти COVID-19). Було визначено подальший план дій щодо поставки майбутньої вакцини в Україну. Було визначено подальший план дій щодо поставки майбутньої вакцини в Україну. Наша держава отримуватиме її декількома траншами. Перший становитиме близько 1 млн 200 тисяч доз. У пріоритеті першого етапу щеплення –працівники галузі охорони здоров’я. Люди, які щохвилини наражають себе на небезпеку, рятуючи інших», – повідомив Степанов у фейсбуці.
За його словами, усього в рамках COVAX планується надати Україні близько 8 мільйонів доз вакцини проти коронавірусної інфекції.
«Наші наступні кроки у співпраці з COVAX – підписання технічної потреби від України та умов співпраці», – додав Степанов.
Напередодні головний державний санітарний лікар України Віктор Ляшко повідомив, що Україна отримала підтвердження від ініціативи COVAX, створеної для швидкого і справедливого доступу вакцин від COVID-19 у світі, що може розраховувати на виділення на безплатній основі вакцини від коронавірусної хвороби для 20% населення.
В уряді вже повідомляли, що влада веде переговори зі світовими компаніями щодо закупівлі додаткових партій вакцин для України, серед цих компаній є і Pfizer, і Moderna.
Раніше у Всесвітній організації охорони здоров’я казали, що вакцина сама по собі не зможе спинити пандемію COVID-19. Навіть після початку вакцинації доведеться продовжувати практику спостережень за поширенням коронавірусу; продовжувати тестувати людей, ізольовувати хворих тощо.
За весь час пандемії в Україні на COVID-19 захворіли 583 510 людей, одужали – 266 479, померли – 10 369. За минулу добу в країні виявили рекордні 13 357 хворих.
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By Gromada | 11/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Biden Conducts Virtual Meeting with State Governors
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden continues his transition to power, meeting virtually on Thursday with leading state governors even as President Donald Trump continues his long-shot legal efforts to overturn the election results and retain the presidency.Biden, two months ahead of his inauguration on January 20, is meeting with Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and other state leaders from his home city of Wilmington, Delaware.Their discussions are likely to center on Biden’s plans when he takes office to control the surging number of coronavirus infections in the U.S. and what can be done before he starts his four-year term in the White House.Hundreds of thousands of new infections are being recorded in the U.S., with the figure topping 180,000 on some recent days and the death toll now totaling more than a quarter million, the most in any country across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University.Dozens of public health experts on Thursday urged the Trump administration to allow the presidential transition process to officially start to confront the pandemic, giving incoming Biden officials access to information the Trump administration has compiled about medical supplies and the vaccines that are being developed. Preventative shots may soon be available for the most vulnerable Americans.The health officials’ letter was written to Emily Murphy, administrator of the General Services Administration, who has yet to sign paperwork declaring that Biden had won the election so the transition can officially start.“In light of the public health crisis facing the nation, it is imperative that you ascertain Joe Biden as President-elect immediately under the Presidential Transition Act,” they wrote, adding: “Doing so will enable the incoming Biden team to liaise with key health officials in the Trump Administration and prepare a robust, coordinated response to the pandemic.”But to date the country’s 45th president has refused to concede defeat to the prospective 46th chief executive after their bitter, months-long election campaign. As a result, Trump has kept Biden from seeing government intelligence about national security threats the U.S. might be facing or granted Biden aides access to a long list of government agencies.The Republican Trump is clinging to the hope that he yet can overturn the results in a handful of battleground states that Biden won and retain the presidency, even as national news media say that the Democrat won well more than the 270-majority in the 538-member Electoral College that is determinative in U.S. presidential elections, not the national popular vote, which Biden also won.Trump has lost numerous lawsuits claiming voting and vote-counting irregularities, and final vote tabulations are upholding Biden’s victories in key states.The southern state of Georgia has completed its recount, which cut Biden’s advantage from slightly more than 14,000 votes to 12,781 after it was discovered that some ballots in two Trump-leaning counties had not originally been counted. But Biden is still projected to win the state’s 16 electoral votes.Staying at the White House without venturing out for public appearances, Trump said on Twitter, “Thousands of uncounted votes discovered in Georgia counties. When the much more important signature match takes place, the State will flip Republican, and very quickly. Get it done!”Thousands of uncounted votes discovered in Georgia counties. When the much more important signature match takes place, the State will flip Republican, and very quickly. Get it done! @BrianKempGA— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2020He complained, “Almost ZERO ballots rejected in Georgia this election. In years past, close to 4%. Not possible. Must have signature check on envelopes now. Very easy to do. Dems fighting because they got caught. Far more votes than needed for flip. Republicans must get tough!Almost ZERO ballots rejected in Georgia this election. In years past, close to 4%. Not possible. Must have signature check on envelopes now. Very easy to do. Dems fighting because they got caught. Far more votes than needed for flip. Republicans must get tough! @BrianKempGA— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2020The Trump campaign withdrew a lawsuit against officials in the Midwestern state of Michigan that sought to stop the state from certifying its election results, which showed Biden winning by 155,000 votes. The lawsuit dealt with minor issues that would not have overturned the statewide result and did not provide proof of fraud.
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By Polityk | 11/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
