Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that he saw nothing criminal in Hunter Biden's past business ties with Ukraine or Russia.
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3. Power shut off in California as winds, fire danger increase
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4. Rubiconfs Nate Morris Named Fulbright Specialist Scholar
?????ogram Administered by U.S. Department of State and J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship BoardAtlanta, GA, Oct. 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nate Morris, the founder and CEO of Rubicon, has earned the prestigious designation as a Fulbright Specialist Scholar, a program run by the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.Rubiconis a technology innovator in the waste and recycling industry. gRubiconfs model for improving waste efficiency will serve to teach and inspire future leaders,h said Heather Nauert, former acting Undersecretary for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy and Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State. gNate will be an excellent ambassador for American innovation.hMorris will serve a three-year term as a Fulbright Specialist Scholar once the programfs initiatives resume. Because of COVID-19, its activities have been suspended until the U.S. Department of State determines it is safe to resume operations.gIt is an honor to represent the United States and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board to share best ideas and practices as it relates to entrepreneurship and the environment,h said Morris. gIt is a prestigious and iconic program.hgI welcome the opportunity to share my experiences creating a mission-driven business and working with some of the worldfs leading visionaries, business leaders, and investors with my host institution,h said Morris. gThese lessons will be valuable to budding entrepreneurs looking to use business to solve some of the most pressing challenges in their country.h The Fulbright Specialist Program, part of the larger Fulbright Program, was established in 2001 by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The program pairs highly qualified U.S. academics and professionals with host institutions abroad to share their expertise, strengthen institutional linkages, hone their skills, gain international experience, and learn about other cultures while building capacity at their overseas host institutions.Specialists, who represent a wide range of professional and academic disciplines, are competitively selected to join the Fulbright Specialist Roster based on their knowledge, skill sets, and ability to make a significant contribution to projects overseas. Those individuals that have been approved to join the Fulbright Specialist Roster are then eligible to be matched with approved projects designed by foreign host institutions from more than 150 countries and other areas. Once abroad, Specialists partner with their host institution to conduct project activities in support of the host institutionfs priorities and goals.The Fulbright Specialist Program aims to provide a short-term, on-demand resource to international host institutions, giving them greater flexibility in how they participate with the Fulbright program. Specialists are strongly encouraged to continue to work with host institutions in the years following their initial exchange, creating opportunities for ongoing cooperation and consultancies.Of those who have participated in the program, 86 have received the Pulitzer Prize; 75 have been MacArthur Fellows; 60 have received a Nobel Prize; 37 have served as heads of state or governments; 10 have been elected to the U.S. Congress; and one has served as secretary general of the United Nations.Morris, an entrepreneur from Kentucky, is passionate in the belief that innovation in the technology sector can be effective in eliminating waste in all its forms and, at long last, address the global threat posed by waste. He is a passionate advocate for gAmerican Innovationh and the key role that must play in developing a sustainable American infrastructure in a post COVID-19 world.Founded with a $10,000 line of credit, Rubicon now operates in 20 countries on 5 continents. The company helps Fortune 500 organizations, main street businesses, and municipalities around the world move toward zero waste. Under Morrisfs leadership as Chairman and CEO, Rubicon has become a catalyst for groundbreaking change across the waste management sector. Rubicon has been recognized as gOne of the Worldfs Most Innovative Companiesh byFast Company and as an gIndustry Disruptorh byInc. Magazine.A ninth-generation Kentuckian, Morris was born in Lexington and raised by a single mother with help from his grandmother and grandfather, an Army veteran and former President of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 862.Morris was the first Kentuckian to be named to Fortunate Magazinefs g40 under 40h list and to be recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He is also the youngest inductee ever to the Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame. About RubiconRubicon is a software company that provides smart waste and recycling solutions for businesses and governments worldwide. Using technology to drive environmental innovation, the company helps turn businesses into more sustainable enterprises, and neighborhoods into greener and smarter places to live and work. Rubiconfs mission is to end waste, in all of its forms, by helping its partners find economic value in their waste streams and confidently execute on their sustainability goals. Learn more at www.rubicon.com.Rubiconfs inaugural Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Report, Toward a Future Without Waste, can be found at www.rubicon.com/esg-report/. CONTACT: Dan Bayens [email protected] (859) 489-3022
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5. Time for Brexit deal is short, and significant gaps remain - UK PM Johnson's spokesman
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6. Severed families, raided workplaces and a climate of fear: Assessing Trump's immigration crackdown
??>Donald Trump was on the defensive about his immigration policies in the final presidential debate, with a question about 545 migrant children taken by the U.S. government who may never be reunited with their parents. Immigration authorities say they cannot find the childrenfs families, many of whom have been deported to Central America. Taking children away from their families at the border was part of a broader strategy aimed at discouraging immigrants from coming. The cruelty of the family-separation policy traumatized migrant children and spurred nationwide protests. A federal judge ordered the government to reunite the separated families on June 26, 2018.Four years ago, candidate Trump was on the offensive about enforcement, portraying immigration as a threat to American security. Trump laid out his platform in an Aug. 31, 2016, campaign speech. This overview examines President Trumpfs record on three big promises made in that speech. 1: The bang[I]mmigration will be suspended [from] places like Syria and Libya.hIn a 2017 executive proclamation, the Trump administration indefinitely barred immigrants from Iran, Syria, North Korea, Chad, Libya, Yemen and Somalia from entering the U.S. The rule, a revised version of the gMuslim banh previously struck down as discriminatory, was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018. Though the specific countries included in the ban have changed since then, the ban has dramatically limited immigration from several Muslim-majority countries. Immigrant visas to people from war-torn Yemen dropped from over 1,000 per month in 2016 to less than 100 per month in 2018. Student and tourist visas from the banned countries also plummeted.The Trump administration reduced refugee admissions allowed into the U.S. by capping the number who may be resettled in the country at 15,000 in 2020, down from 85,000 in 2016. This also disproportionately affected those from Muslim-majority regions. 2: Extreme enforcementgAll immigration laws will be enforced.hThis promise was, perhaps, doomed from the start. The federal government lacks capacity and popular support to fully enforce U.S. immigration laws, which one federal court called ga maze of hyper-technical statutes and regulations.h Doing so would also require surveillance and militarization that most Americans would find unacceptable.Under Trump, a system prioritizing the removal of people found guilty of a crime was replaced with instructions to deport gall removable aliens,h including those who had been allowed to stay in the U.S. by discretion of an immigration judge.To this end, the administration pledged to hire an additional 10,000 enforcement agents. Hiring has fallen short ? both Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have fewer agents now than they did in 2016. Two numbers that have grown under Trump are the number of child migrants held in state custody and the daily total of immigrants imprisoned in prisonlike detention centers. The U.S. detains more migrants than any other country, a trend that has been growing since the Clinton administration. The daily average hit a historic peak of over 50,000 in October 2019. That population has since declined during the pandemic. 3: The wallgWe will build a great wall c and Mexico will pay.hDespite an executive order signed just days into his term calling for securitizing the border, Trump has fortified less new mileage along the U.S.-Mexico border than his two predecessors. George W. Bush added about 450 miles along all four southern border states ? California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas ? under a bipartisan 2006 congressional agreement called the Secure Fence Act. Around 100 more miles of the border were fenced under Barack Obama. As of August 2020 Trump had covered just 5 previously unfenced miles along the U.S.-Mexico border. Double barriers or replacement fencing have also been constructed on several hundred miles since 2016.The government does not fully disclose the length or location of border walls on its website, making these figures difficult to pin down. But Trumpfs 5 new miles bring the total length of fenced U.S.-Mexico border to around 660 miles. The Mexican government has refused to bankroll any of this project. So has Congress, which in 2018 rejected Trumpfs request of US$18 billion to build 864 miles of border wall. Trumpfs subsequent diversion of funds from the defense budget for a border wall by declaring a gstate of emergencyh was ruled improper by a federal appeals court earlier this month. Crackdown through criminalizationLargely stymied by the courts and Congress in implementing some of his promised anti-immigration policies, Trump and his administration advanced a strategy of harsh law enforcement and regulatory changes to crack down on immigrants.ICE regularly conducts dramatic SWAT-style raids in migrant-heavy workplaces like poultry plants and occasionally detains people near gsensitive locationsh like churches, something ICEfs own guidelines recommend against. When immigrants go for a routine ICE check-in, they may be apprehended and deported. gZero toleranceh rules expose even legal permanent residents to removal by making a long list of actions into deportable offenses, including using welfare services, admitting to addiction problems or failing to inform the government quickly of a change of address. By the numbers, President Barack Obama still removed more people each year, partly because unauthorized border crossing by Mexican nationals across the southern border was higher during the Obama years. But Trumpfs immigration enforcement is more random and punitive, vastly increasing criminal prosecutions for immigration-related offenses and removing people who have been in the U.S. longer. Trump has also tried repeatedly to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. The Trump administration has also dramatically restricted the federal system allowing migrants to apply for asylum under international and domestic law and has treated asylum seekers as if they were criminals. The administration finally shut it down entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many such actions have been challenged as unconstitutional, among them family separation and sending asylum seekers to Mexico to wait while their claims are processed, and the cases will be heard by the Supreme Court next year. The balanceAll told, Trump has made over 400 changes to immigration policy, largely fulfilling his 2016 promises and creating a climate of fear even among immigrants who are legal residents and citizens.However, because these changes happened almost entirely through executive ordersr ? not legislative action ? they can be undone by a future president, even without congressional support. But the human cost to migrant parents and children cannot so easily be reversed.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Miranda Cady Hallett, University of Dayton.Read more: * Thousands of asylum seekers left waiting at the US-Mexicoborder * Migrant caravans restart as pandemic deepens the humanitarian crisis at the US-MexicoborderMiranda Cady Hallett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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7. Brexit decision entirely separate from U.S. election outcome says PM Johnson
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8. Japan rejects nuclear ban treaty; survivors to keep pushing
Japan said Monday it will not sign a U.N. treaty that bans nuclear weapons and does not welcome its entry into force next year, rejecting the wishes of atomic bomb survivors in Japan who are urging the government to join and work for a nuclear-free world. The United Nations confirmed Saturday that 50 countries have ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, paving the way for its entry into force in 90 days. The announcement was hailed by anti-nuclear activists, but the treaty has been strongly opposed by the United States and other major nuclear powers.