|  | | | | | | | | | The Election | | | | | | A federal judge denied an emergency request from Donald Trump’s campaign on Thursday to stop ballot counting in Philadelphia so long as Republican observers were not present. Trump’s campaign had sued Philadelphia County’s Board of Elections earlier in the day to seek an emergency injunction.
The U.S. Postal Service said about 1,700 ballots had been identified in Pennsylvania at processing facilities during two sweeps Thursday and were being delivered to election officials. In a court filing early Friday, USPS said 1,076 ballots had been found at the USPS Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center. About 300 were found at the Pittsburgh processing center, 266 at a Lehigh Valley facility and others found at other Pennsylvania processing centers.
Philadelphia police said they are investigating an alleged plot to attack the city’s Pennsylvania Convention Center, where votes from the hotly contested presidential election are being counted. Local police received a tip about a Hummer with armed people driving up from Virginia with plans to attack the convention center, a police representative said. | | | | | | | | Facebook removed a fast-growing group in which supporters of President Donald Trump posted violent rhetoric, as it and other companies tackled baseless claims and potential violence after a contentious election.
Twitter suspended an account used by former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon after he recorded a video in which he called for beheading FBI Director Christopher Wray as well as Dr. Anthony Fauci for being disloyal to Trump.
At least nine popular YouTube channels were promoting debunked accusations about voting fraud in the presidential race, conspiratorial content that could jeopardize advertising and memberships revenue they get from the video service. | | | | | | | | Some House of Representatives Democrats blamed Tuesday’s election losses on colleagues who embraced defunding police departments and “socialist” policies, according to sources familiar with a phone call they held. Democrats went into this week’s congressional elections, in which all 435 House seats were up for grabs, with high hopes of significantly building on their majority control of the chamber. Instead, in a jolt that has cast a pall over the party even as Joe Biden was close to toppling Donald Trump, the party suffered the net loss of about a half-dozen House seats.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | What you need to know about the coronavirus today | | | | | | Police arrest 104 Londoners for lockdown breaches
British police said they arrested 104 Londoners on Thursday for breach of coronavirus regulations, adding that they expected more arrests as policing operations continued into the night. People gathered in central London despite new restrictions that have been imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
Paris bans nighttime food and drink delivery
Paris will ban delivery and takeaway services for prepared food and alcohol between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. from Friday. The police prefecture also said the sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks in public spaces would be banned at night. President Emmanuel Macron imposed a new lockdown last month, forcing non-essential shops - such as those not selling basic foods or medicines - to close, and making people use signed documents to justify being out on the streets.
Aspirin to be tested as potential COVID-19 drug
Aspirin will now be evaluated as a possible treatment for COVID-19 in one of the United Kingdom’s biggest trials looking into a range of potential treatments for the illness. Patients infected by the novel coronavirus are at a higher risk of blood clots because of hyper-reactive platelets, the cell fragments that help stop bleeding. Aspirin is an antiplatelet agent and can reduce the risk of clots, the RECOVERY trial’s website said.
Mink ‘good reservoirs’ for COVID-19
Mink appear to be susceptible to the new SARS-CoV-2 virus and “good reservoirs” for the disease, with a mutated strain having caused infections in a dozen people in Denmark, a World Health Organization official said on Thursday. Denmark plans to cull its entire mink population and announced strict new lockdown measures in the north of the country to prevent a mutated coronavirus from spreading in the animals and to humans. | | | | | | | | | | | | Reuters reporters and editors around the world are investigating the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
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