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17 October 20
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Bruce Springsteen: 'I'll See You on the Next Plane' to Australia if Trump Wins
Louis Chilton, The Independent
Chilton writes: "Bruce Springsteen has said that he would consider moving to Australia should Donald Trump win re-election in November."
‘I’m predicting right now he’s gonna lose,’ added the Boss
ruce Springsteen has said that he would consider moving to Australia should Donald Trump win re-election in November.
However, the “Born in the USA” singer-songwriter also added he thought Trump, whose poll numbers are currently lagging far behind his opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden’s, would lose.
“I love Australia,” Springsteen told the Australian press. “Every time, we have nothing but good times down there. It’s always a treat to come. Love the people, love the geography, great place for motorcycle trips, it’s close to our hearts.”
“If Trump is re-elected – which he will not be; I’m predicting right now he’s gonna lose – if by some happenstance he should be, I’ll see you on the next plane.”
Springsteen has long been an outspoken critic of the Republican president.
In June, he described Trump as a “threat to democracy” in an interview with The Atlantic.
“I don’t know if our democracy could stand another four years of his custodianship,” he said. “These are all existential threats to our democracy and our American way of life.”
Some Trump supporters were also the subject of ridicule recently after blasting Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” outside the hospital where the president was being treated for coronavirus.
The 1984 track was seemingly chosen as a rousing all-American anthem, but the song’s lyrics actually offer a scathing critique of the idea of US patriotism.
'There also appears to have been some inconsistency in how strictly election officials needed to review a ballot to determine if it should be rejected.' (photo: 234 Radio)
Black Voters' Mail-In Ballots in North Carolina Being Rejected at Higher Rate
Sam Levine, Guardian UK
Levine writes: "Black voters in North Carolina are disproportionately having their mail-in ballots flagged for potential rejection in the battleground state, setting off alarms about disenfranchisement."
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Voters at a polling precinct. (photo: Jessica McGowan/Getty Image
Federal Appeals Courts Emerge as Crucial for Trump in Voting Cases
Jim Rutenberg and Rebecca R. Ruiz, The New York Times
Excerpt: "In appointing dozens of reliable conservatives to the appellate bench, Mr. Trump has made it more likely that appeals come before judges with legal philosophies sympathetic to Republicans on issues including voting rights."
Federal district courts have tended to rule for Democrats in litigation over how to run the election, but appeals courts, well stocked with the president’s nominees, are blocking them.
his month, a federal judge struck down a decree from Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas limiting each county in the state to a single drop box to handle the surge in absentee ballots this election season, rejecting Mr. Abbott’s argument that the limit was necessary to combat fraud.
Days later, an appellate panel of three judges appointed by President Trump froze the lower court order, keeping Mr. Abbott’s new policy in place — meaning Harris County, with more than two million voters, and Wheeler County, with well under 4,000, would both be allowed only one drop box for voters who want to hand-deliver their absentee ballots and avoid reliance on the Postal Service.
The Texas case is one of at least eight major election disputes around the country in which Federal District Court judges sided with civil rights groups and Democrats in voting cases only to be stayed by the federal appeals courts, whose ranks Mr. Trump has done more to populate than any president in more than 40 years.
A woman cooks at a camp at Matamoros, Tamaulipas state, Mexico. (photo: Lexie Harrison-Cripps/AFP/Getty Images)
Endless Waits at an Immigrant Camp on the Mexico Border Are Pushing Desperate People to Make Tough Choices
Adolfo Flores, BuzzFeed
Flores writes: "Fernando and his pregnant wife stared out at the river that separates the US and Mexico and considered wading across its treacherous waters with their two children after waiting in a dangerous border city for over a year with no end in sight."
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Members of the Proud Boys, a gang that supports President Trump, hold a rally in Delta Park on the edge of Portland, Oregon. (photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis/Getty Images)
Reports: Neo-Nazi and Proud Boys Groups Push Trump Campaign Poll Watching Operation Online
Josh Margolin, Olivia Rubin and Luke Barr, ABC News
Excerpt: "Officials in multiple states are taking aggressive steps to protect voters from efforts by militias or other armed groups seeking to congregate near polling places on Election Day, as simmering online activity indicates that some groups are trying to register as campaign poll watchers for Donald Trump's campaign."
"Some of these groups will be listening to his false claims of fraud."
fficials in multiple states are taking aggressive steps to protect voters from efforts by militias or other armed groups seeking to congregate near polling places on Election Day, as simmering online activity indicates that some groups are trying to register as campaign poll watchers for Donald Trump's campaign.
In Michigan, an open carry state, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on Friday announced a ban on open carry firearms at and near polls.
"Michiganders should know that law enforcement across multiple levels is working together to ensure that anyone who wishes to exercise their right to vote in person on Election Day can do so safely and without the threat of intimidation," said Col. Joe Gasper, the state's police director.
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal issued a statement, also on Friday, that reiterated guidance for local law enforcement to help protect voters. Poll watchers "may not harass or intimidate voters, engage in electioneering, cause disturbances at polling places or challenge voters based on their race or ethnicity or how they are expected to vote," the statement said.
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo said at a Thursday press conference that she's "putting security provisions in place" to assure voters "there's no place for violence, there's no place for threats."
The measures come as online accounts tied to neo-Nazi sympathizers and "alt-right" groups such as the Proud Boys have been generating posts that encourage supporters to join the campaign's Election Day operations, according to two new reports this week. That includes sending out links to poll-watching registration sites for the Trump campaign's so-called Army for Trump, an effort working to recruit thousands of supports to sign up as poll watchers for the campaign on Election Day.
In one instance, a Proud Boys-affiliated user, in a group that claimed to circulate to 1,800 people affiliated with the Proud Boys, shared the link to sign up, writing that Democrats "don't want us Republicans to be in their polls," according to the report from SITE Intelligence Group, a non-governmental agency group that tracks potential security threats online, that was released on Tuesday. A separate SITE report released on Thursday said a link was shared within a neo-Nazi channel that claims to have about 5,000 members.
"The call to watch the polls, initially made by President Trump himself in the first presidential debate, has been answered by several far-right groups," the SITE report said.
Samantha Zager, deputy national press secretary for the Trump campaign, said in a statement to ABC News on Friday that the president "has unequivocally denounced hate groups by name on numerous occasions but the media refuses to accurately cover it because that would mean the end of a Democrat Party talking point."
In one instance, a Proud Boys-affiliated user, in a group that claimed to circulate to 1,800 people affiliated with the Proud Boys, shared the link to sign up, writing that Democrats "don't want us Republicans to be in their polls," according to the report from SITE Intelligence Group, a non-governmental agency group that tracks potential security threats online, that was released on Tuesday. A separate SITE report released on Thursday said a link was shared within a neo-Nazi channel that claims to have about 5,000 members.
"The call to watch the polls, initially made by President Trump himself in the first presidential debate, has been answered by several far-right groups," the SITE report said.
Samantha Zager, deputy national press secretary for the Trump campaign, said in a statement to ABC News on Friday that the president "has unequivocally denounced hate groups by name on numerous occasions but the media refuses to accurately cover it because that would mean the end of a Democrat Party talking point."
ABC News previously has obtained videos of Trump campaign poll watcher training sessions, held in multiple battleground states, in which attendees explicitly were told to avoid interacting with voters.
The SITE report said efforts by the Proud Boys or similar groups to volunteer for Trump "have so far not been followed with direct threats of voter suppression," but it could be "inferred" that their "presence at election locations as 'poll watchers' would potentially serve to intimidate, pressure and harass oppositional voters."
"Some of these groups will be listening to his false claims of fraud, and you put that in combination with his refusal to condemn white supremacists and civil unrest -- it really is a very thinly veiled call for his most militant supporters to go to the polls," Mary McCord, a longtime national security official and Georgetown University Law professor, previously told ABC News.
Previously, at a debate, Trump urged his backers to "watch very carefully" at polls on Election Day, heightening already high political tensions. He later backtracked, saying at a Thursday town hall event, "I denounce white supremacy."
Experts have told ABC News they're concerned over the Trump campaign's use of the word "Army" in recruiting poll watchers.
"An 'army' doesn't sound like people just there to observe," said Sean Morales-Doyle, deputy director of voting rights and election programs at the Brennan Center for Justice. "An 'army' sounds like people there to engage in war with the enemy."
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern delivers her victory speech in Auckland, New Zealand, after being reelected in a historic landslide win on October 17. (photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty Images)
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Wins Historic Reelection
Anna North, Vox
North writes: "New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been hailed around the world for her government's quick action on Covid-19, which has helped New Zealand avoid the mass infections and deaths that have devastated the US and Europe. Now, voters in the country have responded to her leadership by handing Ardern and her Labour Party their biggest election victory in 50 years."
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Pollution from a factory. (photo: Science Focus)
Air Pollution Linked to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Damage in Young Brains
Tiffany Duong, EcoWatch
Duong writes: "While it is well known that air pollution negatively harms lungs and hearts, it could also be affecting the brains of young people."
Tiny air pollution particles make their way up to the brainstems of young people where they accumulate, new research published in the journal Environmental Research showed. These same nanoparticles have been "intimately associated" with the molecular damage that serves as a hallmark for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, The Guardian reported. That linkage could have global implications if confirmed because 90% of people currently live with toxic outdoor air, another Guardian article reported.
Alzheimer's Society defines air pollution as being made up of several different components including gases, chemical compounds, metals and tiny particles known as particulate matter. When we breathe and eat, these nanoparticles enter our bodies and circulate through our bloodstream to the brain, where they can accumulate in the brain stem, The Guardian reported.
The researchers found abundant pollution nanoparticles and evidence of nerve cell growths, plaque and tangles that are linked to neurological disease in the brainstems of 186 young people (ages 11 months to 27 years) from Mexico City who died suddenly, reported First Post.
"The iron-and aluminum-rich nanoparticles found in the brainstem are strikingly similar to those which occur as combustion- and friction-derived particles in air pollution (from engines and braking systems)," said Barbara Maher, part of the research team, reported Science Alert.
In addition to the high presence of particulate matter, the brainstems also showed signs of early and progressive neurovascular nerve damage, First Post reported. The way these particles reacted with brain cells could increase oxidative stress and eventually lead to death of neurons, the report said.
The participants had all experienced lifelong exposure to particulate pollution, Study Finds reported. Brains of similarly-aged people from less-polluted areas did not display the same disease markers, The Guardian reported.
According to CNN, Mexico City has struggled with dangerous air pollution levels for decades. Statista found that the capital city reported an average particulate matter concentration in 2019 more than double the World Health Organization's recommended maximum average concentration. Air pollution rates in the majority of major cities exceed the same safe level of pollution, Alzheimer's Society reported.
Other studies have linked higher pollution levels to increased rates of different mental health diseases and wellness issues. One study similarly found that living in cities with high air pollution put children at higher risk of Alzheimer's and suicide. The researchers in that study also found that Alzheimer's disease started in the brainstem of young urbanites who'd been exposed to high levels of particulate matter and called high pollution levels "a serious health crisis."
Another study linked rising air pollution with increased rates of children's psychiatric diseases.
This latest study takes the correlation one step further. According to The Guardian, it's the first time a physical mechanism, namely the accumulation of nanoparticles in the brain stem, has been observed that can possibly explain why brain damage increases as rates of air pollution go up.
"(O)ur new findings indicate that what air pollutants you are exposed to, what you are inhaling and swallowing, are really significant in development of neurological damage," Maher told Science Alert.
The next step for researchers is to show whether the nanoparticles cause the damage and whether that damage leads to disease later in life.
"We can't prove causality so far, but how could you expect these nanoparticles containing those metal species to sit inert and harmless inside critical cells of the brain?" Maher told The Guardian. "That's the smoking gun – it seriously looks as if those nanoparticles are firing the bullets that are causing the observed neurodegenerative damage."
Maher said that the findings provide a hypothesis that now can be tested by further research. This can be done, for example, by observing whether increased exposure to pollution nanoparticles correlates with brain stem damage that affects movement control and the gait of young people.
According to The Guardian, other experts are cautious about the findings, citing that many other factors can contribute to neurodegenerative diseases. While the scientists say it is still premature to say that the brain damage caused by air pollution directly leads to the development of these diseases, the findings provide a pathway for future research to confirm causation.
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