Chagrin Falls

Huawei CFO's lawyers set to grill witnesses as U.S. extradition case resumes

The second day of witness testimony in the extradition case of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou to the United States will kick off in a Canada courtroom on Tuesday, when her lawyers are expected to question officials involved in her 2018 arrest. The five days of scheduled hearings will focus on allegations by her lawyers of abuses of process committed by Canadian and U.S. authorities during her arrest in December two years ago at the Vancouver International Airport. Meng, 48, is facing charges in the United States of bank fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei's [HWT.UL] business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to break U.S. sanction laws.

Trump comment on 'blowing up' Nile Dam angers Ethiopia

Its PM condemns "aggressions" after Donald Trump says Egypt might destroy a controversial Nile dam.

Inside an Attempted Election Hack: A US Cybersecurity Operative Tells All

We are now one week from Election Day.  In recent days, multiple reports have emerged suggesting that Russia and Iran seek to influence the outcome of the process. This is, of course, an especially fraught situation, because that is more or less what happened in 2016. To get a better sense of the current threats, […]The post Inside an Attempted Election Hack: A US Cybersecurity Operative Tells All appeared first on InsideHook.

Bangladesh holds massive protest against French cartoons

Around 10,000 people in Bangladesh rallied in the South Asian nation's capital on Tuesday to protest France's president and his staunch support of secular laws that deem caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad as protected under freedom of speech. Protesters from the conservative Islami Andolon Bangladesh group, which supports the introduction of a blasphemy law in the Muslim-majority country, carried banners and placards reading: “All Muslims of the world, unite” and “Boycott France”. It was the largest protest yet against the cartoons in recent days.

Trump and Africa: How Ethiopia was 'betrayed' over Nile dam

The US president has sided with Egypt in the escalating dispute over a mega dam, analysts say.

AP PHOTOS: Kyrgyzstan village untouched by political unrest

TASH-BASHAT, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — The political turmoil that has gripped Kyrgyzstan hasn't reached the quiet village of Tash-Bashat in the mountains near the capital, where residents talk about the country's feuding elites with resignation and disdain. Kanat Kaliyev, a 57-year-old farmer, and his family said they have little respect for authorities, whom they see as deeply corrupt. Kaliyev and other villagers cautiously welcome Sadyr Zhaparov, who became the country's caretaker leader after President Sooronbai Jeenbekov was forced to step down under pressure from protesters following the disputed Oct. 4 parliamentary election.

Can I celebrate Halloween during the pandemic?

Health experts say some Halloween traditions like crowding on doorsteps for candy and inching your way through haunted houses heighten the risk of spreading COVID-19 and should be avoided. Outdoor pumpkin carving, a virtual or neighborhood costume parade or a scary movie marathon at home are some options that minimize contact with strangers. “There are lots of creative ways to approach this and make this year memorable,” said Dr. Colleen S. Kraft, who specializes in infectious diseases at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

California braces for more fire danger from winds

California prepared for another round of dangerous fire weather Tuesday even as crews fought a pair of fast-moving blazes in the south that critically injured two firefighters and left more than 100,000 under evacuation orders. A fire that broke out around dawn Monday prompted evacuation orders for thousands of homes in the area of Irvine, while a few miles away another blaze did the same in the Yorba Linda area.

Explainer: What to watch at the fifth plenum of China's Communist Party

Chinese President Xi Jinping and members of the Central Committee, the biggest of the ruling Communist Party's elite decision-making bodies, are meeting this week to formulate economic and social policy goals for the next five years. Policy proposals will be discussed at the plenum, the fifth meeting of the Central Committee since the 2017 party congress, on Oct. 26-29. The final blueprint will be approved and released when the National People's Congress, or parliament, meets in its annual session next year.

Bomb at seminary in Pakistan kills 8 students, wounds 136

A powerful bomb blast ripped through an Islamic seminary on the outskirts of the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday morning, killing at least eight students and wounding 136 others, police and a hospital spokesman said. The bombing happened as a prominent religious scholar during a special class was delivering a lecture about the teachings of Islam at the main hall of the Jamia Zubairia madrassa, said police officer Waqar Azim. TV footage showed the damaged main hall of the seminary, where the bombing took place.

Sheldon Adelson’s Last Roll of the Dice May Be His Boldest

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- No one ever said that the casino industry didn’t involve risky bets. Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire founder of Las Vegas Sands Corp., is considering a $6 billion sale of the Nevada casinos that made his fortune, people familiar with the matter told Gillian Tan and Christopher Palmeri of Bloomberg News.That’s a gutsy move. The casino industry is in the grip of a record slump. Gaming revenues on the Las Vegas Strip were down 39% from a year earlier in August. In Macau, where Sands China Ltd.’s resorts accounted for 61% of its parent’s operating income last year, the year-on-year fall in casino gambling revenues was 90% last month. Singapore, whose Marina Bay Sands hotel forms the third leg of Adelson’s empire, has been closed off to the outside world by coronavirus and is only slowly recovering. After such a run of bad cards, isn’t this a moment to stand pat?Things aren’t playing out that way. Indeed, if anything, Adelson is upping the stakes on a strategy that’s sustained Las Vegas Sands for its 16-odd years as a listed company: betting larger and larger sums on his Asian operations in the hope that returns from the properties will outstrip anything available in Nevada.There are substantial drawbacks involved in that approach right now. The Macau casinos are entirely dependent upon licenses due to expire in 2022. The territory’s government has yet to release details of requirements for license renewals, and there are enormous political risks inherent in the process. Macau is caught in the crossfire of a deteriorating U.S.-China relationship. Thanks to their Macanese resorts, Las Vegas Sands and fellow Vegas mainstay Wynn Resorts Ltd. have the biggest exposure to China and its territories among members of the S&P 500.(1) Macau’s government has long orbited closer to Beijing than Hong Kong ever did, and any vestiges of independence are being squeezed out under President Xi Jinping’s drive to integrate the two territories with mainland Chinese cities as a unified Greater Bay Area megalopolis. Adelson, meanwhile, is politically exposed as one of the most substantial donors to President Donald Trump, China’s leading antagonist in the trade war. A bet that Sands’s licenses will be renewed without extracting crippling penalties is a wager that the diplomatic wildfire razing so many aspects of the U.S.-China trading relationship will leave Macau untouched.Singapore isn’t without problems, either. A lawsuit by a gambler at Marina Bay Sands last year has resulted in a police investigation into how the casino handles players’ money, calling attention to its relationship with the junket operators who provide finance and travel arrangements to bring in high-rolling gamblers.While Singapore’s casino regulator has already closed its investigation, that license is also up for renewal in 2022. Any adverse finding from the police probe or problems renewing its Macau license would complicate efforts to show that Sands has the ethical and financial capacity to keep operating its Singapore gaming floors.One way of spreading those sorts of risks would involve diversifying. Until recently, you could have argued Las Vegas Sands was doing this. Alongside its original core business in Nevada, the company was looking to build a $10 billion resort in Japan as that country opened up its gambling market — but Adelson walked away from that in May.Adelson himself is 87 years old, owns 52% of the company, and was treated last year for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A changing of the guard wouldn’t necessarily be a disaster. Chief Operating Officer Robert Goldstein and Chief Financial Officer Patrick Dumont have long experience managing the company, and if anything, a Las Vegas Sands without Adelson’s close association with Trump may have an easier time of it in Macau. Still, mogul-run casinos carry a fair amount of “key person risk.” Wynn Resorts, whose founder Steve Wynn stepped down as chief executive officer in 2018 after reports in the Wall Street Journal about sexual harassment of employees, has trailed the performance of its rivals ever since.Most importantly, nothing changes the fact that a casino empire focused on four separate jurisdictions just 12 months ago is now looking to place all its chips on two. You can take Adelson’s decision to double the stakes in Macau and Singapore as a sign of his confidence that he holds all the cards, but in truth even he doesn’t know which way the regulators will go. Investors wagering on Sands’s next chapter should remember that, for a skilled player, a strong hand and a bluff can look exactly the same. (1) MGM Resorts International is in a similar position, but its Macau operation is considerably smaller as a share of the group.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities, as well as industrial and consumer companies. He has been a reporter for Bloomberg News, Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Guardian.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Vietnam evacuating low-lying areas as strong typhoon nears

Vietnam scrambled Tuesday to evacuate more than a million people in its central lowlands as a strong typhoon approached while some regions are still dealing with the aftermath of recent killer floods, state media said. Typhoon Molave is forecast to slam into Vietnam’s south central coast with sustained winds of up to 135 kilometers (84 miles) per hour on Wednesday morning, according to the official Vietnam News Agency. The typhoon left at least 3 people dead and 13 missing and displaced more than 120,000 villagers in the Philippines before blowing toward Vietnam.

Biden goes on offense in Georgia while Trump targets Midwest

One week until Election Day, Joe Biden is going on offense, heading Tuesday to Georgia — which hasn’t backed a Democrat for president since 1992 — and pushing into other territory where President Donald Trump was once expected to easily repeat his wins from four years ago. The Democratic presidential nominee planned to travel to Iowa, which Trump took by 10 points in 2016, later in the week. The aggressive schedule is a sign of confidence by the Biden team, which is trying to stretch the electoral map and open up more paths to 270 electoral college votes.

Worst place, worst time: Trump faces virus spike in Midwest

Gabe Loiacono is the kind of voter President Donald Trump can ill afford to lose. A college history professor who last cast a ballot for a Democrat more than 20 years ago, Loiacono is voting for Democrat Joe Biden because he thinks Trump has utterly failed in his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. New infections are raging in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the upper Midwest.

Hurricane Zeta is ashore in resort zone of Mexico's Yucatan

Hurricane Zeta, the 27th named storm in a very busy Atlantic season, made landfall on the Caribbean coast of the eastern Yucatan Peninsula late Monday while whipping the resorts around Tulum with rain and wind. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Zeta came ashore just north of Tulum with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph). Quintana Roo state Gov. Carlos Joaquín had warned that “nobody should be on the streets ... you shouldn’t go out anymore” until the hurricane passed.

Issues important to Trump await Barrett on Supreme Court

Amy Coney Barrett's first votes on the Supreme Court could include two big topics affecting the man who appointed her. The court is weighing a plea from President Donald Trump to prevent the Manhattan district attorney from acquiring his tax returns. It is also considering appeals from the Trump campaign and Republicans to shorten the deadline for receiving and counting absentee ballots in the battleground states of North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Barrett swearing-in differs markedly from 'superspreader'

It's been only a month since President Donald Trump's Rose Garden event to announce he was nominating Amy Coney Barrett to serve on the Supreme Court. When the just-confirmed Barrett returned to the White House on Monday to take her constitutional oath, the celebration was moved to the broader South Lawn, chairs for more than 200 guests were spread about 6 feet apart, and the mask-wearers greatly outnumbered those who declined to cover their faces.

UN investigator says Belarus must stop repressing its people

The U.N. human rights investigator for Belarus demanded Monday that the government “stop repressing its own people,” saying at least 20,000 were detained in August and September and hundreds reported beaten, intimidated, tortured or ill-treated in custody. Anais Marin quoted sources in the Interior Ministry and non-governmental groups for those figures and said most detainees have ended up facing administrative or criminal charges, citing over 400 criminal cases against protesters since disputed elections Aug. 9.

High court won’t extend Wisconsin's absentee ballot deadline

The Supreme Court is siding with Republicans to prevent Wisconsin from counting mailed ballots that are received after Election Day. In a 5-3 order, the justices on Monday refused to reinstate a lower court order that called for mailed ballots to be counted if they are received up to six days after the Nov. 3 election. A federal appeals court had already put that order on hold.

US solidifies sanctions against Iran oil before election

President Donald Trump's administration on Monday slapped fresh sanctions on Iran's oil sector including over sales to Syria and Venezuela, reducing Joe Biden's room for maneuver if he wins next week's election.

Trump eyes hosting election night party at his DC hotel

President Donald Trump has his eye on hosting an election night party at his own hotel in the nation’s capital. Over the past several days, the campaign has pushed out fundraising emails in the president’s name offering donors the chance to enter a drawing “to join Team Trump at the Election Night Party in my favorite hotel,” in Washington, suggesting he will use his luxury hotel as the backdrop for reacting to election results. The campaign has also spotlighted plans for the party in fundraising blasts from the president's son Donald Trump.

Vladimir Putin Sees Nothing 'Criminal' In Hunter Biden's Ukraine Work

Russian President Vladimir Putin has openly disagreed with President Trump's debate claims about Hunter Biden. President Trump has blasted Democratic opponent Joe Biden for his son's alleged unethical ties in the region. Joe Biden has dismissed them as false.

Putin Says Nothing Criminal In Hunter Biden's Ukraine Work

Russian President Vladimir Putin has openly disagreed with President Trump's debate claims about Hunter Biden. President Trump has blasted Democratic opponent Joe Biden for his son's alleged unethical ties in the region. Joe Biden has dismissed them as false.

Sudan’s leader: Israel deal 'incentive' to end pariah status

Sudan’s leader said Monday that the decision to normalize ties with Israel was an incentive for President Donald Trump’s administration to end Sudan’s international pariah status. Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling sovereign council, told state television that without the normalization with the Jewish state now, Sudan would have had to wait until deep into next year to be removed from the U.S.'s list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Albania repatriating 5 family members of fighters in Syria

Albania's prime minister said Monday that four children and a woman, all related to Albanian nationals who joined Islamist extremist groups fighting in Syria and Iraq, are being repatriated from a Syrian camp. Edi Rama told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Beirut, Lebanon, that the return of the five was arranged after 12-month negotiations, and that his government also hoped to secure the repatriation of other Albanian nationals stuck in Syria in similar circumstances. All five were taken to Beirut Monday, where Rama had dinner with them, and were due to fly back to the Albanian capital of Tirana Tuesday.

Why Nigerian looters are targeting Covid-19 aid

Raids on warehouses and businesses continue in the wake of anti-police brutality protests.

Under Trump, US no longer leads world on refugee protections

For decades, America led the world in humanitarian policies by creating a sanctuary for the oppressed, admitting more refugees annually than all other countries combined. Trump has arguably changed the immigration system more than any U.S. president, thrilling supporters with an “America first” message and infuriating critics who call his signature domestic issue insular, xenophobic and even racist. Before November's election, The Associated Press is examining some of Trump’s biggest immigration policy changes, from halting asylum to stepping back from America’s humanitarian role.

US health official says pandemic clearly can be controlled

A day after White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said “we’re not going to control the pandemic,” a top Trump administration health official said Monday that Americans have already proven they can do that through basic safeguards shown to work. “I think we can control the pandemic,” Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Brett Giroir said on a call with reporters.

Barrett ads tied to interest groups funded by unnamed donors

The confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is the culmination of a decadeslong coordinated effort by a constellation of conservative groups, fueled by tens of millions of dollars from wealthy anonymous donors, to tilt the high court farther to the right. At the forefront has been Judicial Crisis Network, which has spent at least $6.3 million in five weeks on national television spots supporting the Republican effort to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee a week before the election. The group spent an additional $2.9 million on digital ads, direct mail and text messages supporting Barrett as of Oct. 26, according to data obtained by The Associated Press from a conservative advertising firm.

Coronavirus deaths are rising again in the US, as feared

Deaths per day from the coronavirus in the U.S. are on the rise again, just as health experts had feared, and cases are climbing in practically every state, despite assurances from President Donald Trump over the weekend that “we're rounding the turn, we're doing great.” With Election Day just over a week away, average deaths per day across the country are up 10% over the past two weeks, from 721 to nearly 794 as of Sunday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Newly confirmed infections per day are rising in 47 states, and deaths are up in 34.

Moon holds more water in more places than ever thought

The moon’s shadowed, frigid nooks and crannies may hold frozen water in more places and in larger quantities than previously suspected. While previous observations have indicated millions of tons of ice in the permanently shadowed craters of the moon’s poles, a pair of studies in the journal Nature Astronomy take the availability of lunar surface water to a new level. More than 15,400 square miles (40,000 square kilometers) of lunar terrain have the capability to trap water in the form of ice, according to a team led by the University of Colorado’s Paul Hayne.

Iran pleads at UN against US wars

Iran's foreign minister on Monday urged action at the United Nations against US unilateralism as he denounced Washington over wars waged since 2001.

Somalia conflict: Al-Shabab 'collects more revenue than government'

Al-Shabab uses threats and violence to extort the money from Somalis, a new report says.

Strikers in Belarus press for authoritarian leader's ouster

Factory workers, students and business owners in Belarus on Monday began a strike to demand that authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko resign after more than two months of continuing mass protests following a disputed election. Most state-run enterprises continued to operate despite the strike, which was called by opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Students in some universities refused to attend lectures and marched in Minsk in protest.

Tom Cotton is campaigning hard, just not for reelection

Six years after being elected in an expensive and heated race, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton is on the ballot again and he's campaigning hard — just not in Arkansas. With no Democratic rival and millions in campaign funds to spend, Cotton has run ads in the battleground states of Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. Cotton's moves show a barely concealed ambition: While his GOP colleagues are struggling mightily to save their Senate seats, his schedule has all the hallmarks of someone focused on the White House in 2024.

Soldiers fire on Guinea protesters after disputed election

Guinean soldiers fired on protesters with automatic rifles after the controversial re-election of the country's president last week, according to videos shared on social media. President Alpha Condé, a former freedom fighter who once described himself as the 'Mandela and Obama of Guinea', won almost 60 per cent of the vote, the country's official election body announced on Saturday. The victory grants the 82-year-old the right to begin his third term, which opponents have called a power grab in violation of the country's constitutional two-term limit. Mr Condé says a referendum in March legitimises his position. The opposition candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo, who was reported to have garnered just over 33 per cent of the vote, urged his followers to take to the streets after he proclaimed the vote rigged and himself the rightful winner. Videos on Twitter showed families crying over the shooting of their relatives and security forces vandalising the homes and property of protesters. With reports of dozens of people killed in the unrest that has followed last Sunday's poll, analysts fear further bloodshed between the country's two main ethnicities - the Mandinka, the president's ethnicity, and the Fulani, Mr Diallo's. Emissaries from the United Nations, the African Union and West Africa’s regional power bloc rushed to the country's capital Conakry on Sunday to try to defuse tensions. Mr Condé became Guinea’s first democratically-elected president in 2010 after more than four decades as an opposition leader. He spent years in exile after he was imprisoned and tortured by Guinea's former dictator Lansana Conté. When Mr Condé finally came to power, he was widely lauded as a champion of democracy by the likes of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Hungarian liberal activist and billionaire, George Soros. But in recent years the ageing president has grown more authoritarian in the hopes of hanging on power.

Trump's closest allies around the world are distancing themselves from him in apparent preparation for a Biden win

Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Boris Johnson have refused to echo President Donald Trump's attacks or set up meetings with Joe Biden's team.