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Officials in key battleground states say they’re investigating shady robocalls warning residents to stay home on Election Day.Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said early Tuesday that her office had received “reports of multiple robocalls going to Flint residents that, due to long lines, they should vote tomorrow”—meaning the day after the election, when polls would be closed. The false claims, Nessel said, were an attempt to “suppress the vote.”And in Iowa, the Des Moines Register reported that the Secretary of State’s office has contacted the FBI about calls telling voters in the swing state to “stay home, stay safe and don’t vote.” The Federal Communications Commission said it was also aware of reports of misleading calls. The Secretary of State’s office in Kansas tweeted that it had received reports of robocalls “telling voters to stay home” and urged residents to ignore them. In Nebraska, state officials received reports of mass robocalls telling state residents to “stay home,” though there was no election-specific message and it’s not clear if voters, in this case, were the target.John Scott-Railton, a researcher at the University of Toronto’s CitizenLab, obtained a transcript of one of the calls, in which a robotic voice instructs Nebraskans, “This is just a test call. Time to stay home. Stay safe and stay home.” Data supplied by the spam-blocking firm Robokiller (which is owned by IAC, the parent company of The Daily Beast) shows that the same message has been around since at least December 2019, with about 287 million transmissions across all 50 states. In September, Canadian news outlet Ottawa Matters reported that police were investigating similar calls to phones in Canada and Australia, as well as the U.S.Anonymous robotic calls that spread election disinformation have long been a tactic of voter suppression. Bumbling pro-Trump dirty tricksters Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman were charged with conspiracy to commit an election law violation and telecommunications fraud in Michigan and Ohio in connection with robocalls that allegedly targeted minority voters in both states with misinformation about mail-in ballots.Jack Burkman, Jacob Wohl Charged in Alleged Voter Suppression SchemeThe robocalls to voters come as millions of Americans head to the polls and as intelligence officials in the Trump administration brace for the possibility that domestic or foreign actors engage in disinformation efforts to alter the results of the 2020 presidential election. Two senior officials say the administration is monitoring the robocalls and working with state officials to publicly warn voters that the recordings are not authentic.For weeks, top officials in the intelligence and national security apparatus have worked to track down and mitigate threats to the 2020 presidential election, including threats posed by foreign actors on voting infrastructure and those peddling disinformation.Director of the Office of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe in an unusual Oct. 21 announcement, said his office and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) had identified attempts by both Iran and Russia to undermine confidence in the election. Ratcliffe said Iran had orchestrated an effort to send threatening emails to voters in Pennsylvania and Florida designed to intimidate. The intelligence community has previously said Iran seeks to undermine Donald Trump’s candidacy. In the Oct. 21 briefing, Ratcliffe also said Russia had attempted to meddle in the election but did not give details about that effort.Kimberly Guilfoyle Caught Lying About Vote-by-Mail in RobocallsOfficials working on securing the election say states have worked for weeks with CISA to set up surveillance teams to monitor potential infrastructure attacks and that they are concerned about an uptick in disinformation.One senior administration official said intelligence agencies, working with social media companies, have already begun tracking posts pushing out false narratives about the candidates, including one tweet sent by former Director of the Office of National Intelligence Ric Grennell. Grenell on Nov. 1 published a photo of a maskless Vice President Joe Biden on a plane speaking with one of his staff. “Washington, DC phony! @JoeBiden doesn’t wear a mask on a plane – but wears one OUTSIDE!?” Grenell wrote, even though the picture of Biden was taken in 2019 before the pandemic began.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
November 3, 2020Read More
Republican Maria Elvira Salazar has defeated Democrat Donna Shalala for a House seat in Florida. Salazar, a Spanish-language television newscaster, won in her second try for the office after Shalala prevailed in 2018. Salazar sharply criticized Shala…
November 3, 2020Read More
Dublin, Nov. 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The “Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the Middle East and North Africa 2021 and beyond – MEED Insights” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering. Modern infrastructure and world-class public services are central to the national visions being pursued across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), as governments try to meet the needs of growing populations. Equally important, is the goal to grow private sector participation in driving growth and creating jobs. Executed properly, public private partnerships (PPP) will deliver these goals. PPPs provide a model that allows governments to continue developing strategic projects and services without the need to increase direct state capital spending. At the same time, a reliable flow of well-structured, commercially attractive PPP projects will stimulate private investment and ensure that strategic performance targets to improve services and reduce waste are achieved. But despite these compelling selling points, PPPs largely have failed to gain traction in the region outside the electricity sector, where modular construction, sovereign offtake guarantees, and long-term feedstock supply agreements reduce complexity and risk. The New Normal There are many reasons for the slow adoption of PPPs in the Mena region. Lack of supportive legal and institutional frameworks. Lack of capacity. Lack of track record. Failure to provide bankable projects that are attractive to investors. And so on. But the biggest factor has been a lack of political will to move to PPP. There has been no urgent need to hand over state assets to private developers. This picture has changed. Since 2015, oil prices have hit the revenues of oil producing countries, particularly those in the GCC. In 2020, COVID-19 applied breaking strain to the regional economies, and traditional public spending trends is being reviewed and cut back. Historically governments have invested heavily into infrastructure projects and public assets such as hospitals, schools, transport and more. Post-COVID-19 world, new forms of project finance are required. Governments across the region are turning their focus to alternative project finance solutions, and PPP contracts are taking shape. The report identifies a pipeline 242 PPP projects worth an estimated $223bn being developed. These include schools projects in Saudi Arabia, healthcare in Kuwait and water and power projects in Qatar. In early 2020, Abu Dhabi announced its intention to tender US$2.7 billion in PPP projects to finance and operate new social, municipal and transportation assets. Bankable projects It will not be easy, and the latest push towards PPP must avoid the pitfalls of the past to succeed. Selecting appropriate and bankable projects will be key, as will building up institutional capacity and developing a body of skilled civil servants. This report is the latest premium market intelligence report from MEED Insight. It provides a comprehensive review of the region’s growing PPP market and assesses the outlook, opportunities and challenges for PPP in the region. Covering 14 markets in the Mena region, PPP in the Middle East and North Africa 2021 assesses the legal and institutional frameworks that are being set up to support PPPs. It examines the PPP project pipeline in each country and considers the political, economic and commercial challenges involved in contracting successful PPP projects. Scope of the report: * Covers 14 country markets, including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, UAE * Examines the plans for PPP in all sectors including education, healthcare, housing, power, transport, wastewater and water * Details of the pipeline of over 242 current and planned PPP projects * Examines the history of PPP projects in the region * Assesses PPP investment and contracting opportunities in the region * An update on progress on existing PPP projects * As assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on PPP plans * Explains PPP legal and institutional frameworks in the region * Details key clients and PPP projects sponsors * Details of PPP central units and PPP legislation Key Topics Covered: 1\. PPP moves forward amid COVID crisis 2\. Gulf-GCC regional summary 3\. PPP in Bahrain 4\. PPP in Iran 5\. PPP in Iraq 6\. PPP in Kuwait 7\. PPP in Oman 8\. PPP in Qatar 9\. PPP in Saudi Arabia 10\. PPP in the UAE 11\. Levant 12\. PPP in Jordan 13\. PPP in Lebanon 14\. North Africa 15\. PPP in Algeria 16\. PPP in Egypt 17\. PPP in Morocco 18\. PPP in Tunisia 19\. Appendix For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/2ll59 About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world’s leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900
November 3, 2020Read More
The Associated Press will count the nation’s vote in real time Tuesday and report the results of presidential, congressional and state elections — as it has for more than 170 years. The way the information is compiled on election night may have change…
November 3, 2020Read More
The army is accused of carrying out revenge killings after three policemen and six soldiers were killed.
November 3, 2020Read More
An already strange Russian murder probe took a further twist on Tuesday, when police investigating the crossbow killing of a business magnate known as “the Sausage King” discovered an elderly man chained to a bedpost in a suspect’s flat. Police said th…
November 3, 2020Read More
Russia’s top diplomat said Tuesday that about 2,000 fighters from the Middle East have joined the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, the worst outbreak of hostilities in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in more than a quarter-century. Russian …
November 3, 2020Read More
Here, Julie Pace, Washington bureau chief for The Associated Press, explains why patience is pivotal. “One of the biggest things that I would encourage people to do today is to have patience,” says Pace, a longtime political and White House correspond…
November 3, 2020Read More
Alassane Ouattara wins a controversial third term in an election marred by protests and clashes.
November 3, 2020Read More
The last four years have delivered so many shocks that anything seemed possible to Lacey Stannard, the wife of a soldier. A part of her thought it was crazy to drive 10 hours roundtrip to cast a Democratic vote in deep-red Tennessee, but a larger part…
November 3, 2020Read More
Nigerians pay tribute to EndSars protester Anthony Unuode after he was killed in the capital.
November 3, 2020Read More
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