Venezuelan court convicts 6 US oil executives over corruption charges

Millions of Americans pressed ahead with their holiday plans amid record surge in coronavirus deaths, hospitalizations and infections across the US. While the number of travelers has come down substantially as compared to last year, it’s still higher than anticipated. Recently, Dr Anthony Fauci, head of NIAID, urged Americans to ’sacrifice’ their Thanksgiving travel plans for the health of the US.

The United Kingdom is planning to create a watchdog to keep an eye on tech giants, including Google and Facebook, to curb their monopolistic behavior and prevent them from exploiting consumers and small businesses. The watchdog, named Digital Markets Unit, will start operating from April next year to enforce a new code of conduct for Big Tech that dominate the online advertising market.

President Donald Trump, while alleging that ’massive fraud’ took place in the 2020 presidential election and asserting that he would keep up with his legal fight, said he would leave office if the electoral college votes for President-elect Joe Biden. Replying to a reporter’s query if he would leave after an unsuccessful electoral college vote, he said, ’Certainly I will, you know that I will.’

The United Kingdom said it has asked the country’s medicines regulator to assess whether the Covid-19 vaccine developed jointly by AstraZeneca and Oxford University should be authorized for use. This comes amid questions about the preliminary data from the vaccine’s trials after the team of researchers acknowledged that the most encouraging part of their findings came from a dosing error.

Tired of being a tourist attraction of the English-speaking world and being the subject of constant mockery, the Austrian village of Fucking is changing its name to Fugging from January 1. The village is a part of Tarsdorf municipality, Salzburg. Once, porn site Pornhub offered free premium access to residents of Fucking and towns with names like Titz, Germany or Big Beaver of Pennsylvania, US.

After being granted full pardon by President Donald Trump, Michael Flynn and his family wholeheartedly praised the president. Taking to Twitter, Flynn, who was Trump’s first national security advisor, said: ’This ’Pardon of Innocence’ is historic, sincerely appreciated & should never happen in our country again.’ Flynn’s family said Trump’s move shows ’tyranny’ won’t prevail.

Netflix has started testing a new top 50 list on its homepage which would eventually replace the top 10 list that is currently found in the app. The ’Top 50’ feature has been spotted on the PS4 app in the UK. It will have the same function as the top 10 list, but will display more content upfront. Netflix is testing another feature that will play Netflix shows and movies around the clock.

A report has claimed that the DoJ was investigating Georgia Senator David Perdue’s stock trades. The DoJ’s suspicion was around when it stumbled upon an email which suggested that Perdue was made aware of ’upcoming changes’ within a company two days prior to a major stock sale. The probe focused on the timing of Perdue’s sale of $1-5M in Cardlytics stock at $86/share before it plunged in late Jan

China is raising import taxes on Australian wine. The anti-dumping duties of up to 212.1% take effect Saturday. This comes in response to complaints Chinese wine producers were damaged by improperly low-priced Australian imports. Reacting to this, the Australian Govt. denied subsidizing wine exports. Australia’s Trade Minister said the penalties would make Australian wine uncompetitive in China.

Tawanna Purter, an Alabama mail carrier, surprised a boy when he saw birthday balloons, cards, boxes and the name of the boy outside a house. So, when she saw a boy rushing to her mail truck, she guessed it must be the birthday boy, Chip Matthews. Purter said, ’You must be Chip and today’s your birthday?’ The boy said ’yes’ started smiling. She then gifted him a dollar bill and four quarters.

Another global trial for its COVID-19 vaccine is likely to be conducted by AstraZeneca following reports that higher efficacy of the vaccine was achieved by mistake in the existing Phase 3 clinical trials. Interim results have shown 62% efficacy for a full two-dose regimen. 90% efficacy for the vaccine was seen after a half dose was given and was then followed by a full dose.

As many as three defense officials reported that a bunch of high ranking members of the Defense Policy Board were removed by the Trump administration on Wednesday. Those removed include former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger, former ranking member of the House Intelligence committee Jane Harman and former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Black Friday traditionally kicks off the holiday shopping season in the US with shoppers lining up before stores to get the best deals. However, this year has been like none other as Covid-19 made people wary of crowding, pushing thousands of stores out of business. But people are still buying, and it gives hopes to many stores on the brink that this Black Friday might just make them pull through.

France has charged four more teenagers in the beheading of Samuel Paty, a French history teacher. Three of these are students who reportedly pointed out the educator to his killer. The teenagers are facing charges of ’complicity in a terrorist murder’ tied to the Oct. 16 murder in a Paris suburb. The fourth teenager is a former student of Paty’s, too.

A ’grab-and-go’ fashion will be used in order to provide US military troops deployed overseas with Thanksgiving food this year. More than 250,000 pounds of food will be made available like this as the traditional holiday gatherings in dining halls have been ditched so as to avoid the spread of COVID-19. Turkeys, beef, ham, and shrimp have been shipped by the Defense Logistics Agency.

The internet is available almost all around the globe, but still, the same facilities have varying prices with different subscription costs, internet speeds as well as average salaries. According to the data collected, Yemen has the least affordable broadband in the world with subscriptions costing US$2,466.67 while Monaco has the most affordable broadband having $34.49 as subscription costs.

Bitcoin has plunged by close to $3,000, or over 10%, in less than 24 hours after hitting highs not seen since the end of 2017. It’s currently trading at $17,276. The fall has extended to the broader market with Ethereum, and XRP correcting 13% and 22% respectively in the last 24 hours. The falls comes amid extreme bullishness with many predicting the cryptocurrency would surpass its all-time-high.

A new poll by daily newspaper DN and market research firm Ipsos showed that 82% of Swedes are either ’somewhat’ or ’very worried’ as to whether their health-care system can meet the challenge facing it. This comes amid rising COVID-19 cases. Sweden has reported more than 34,000 new COVID-19 cases in the past week. 44% of Swedes fear authorities aren’t doing enough to fight the virus.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily barred New York from enforcing attendance limits at houses of worship in areas designated as hard hit by the virus. The court’s action pushes New York to reevaluate those restrictions. The court’s decision was a victory for the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Jewish synagogues that had sued to challenge state restrictions.

France has sent notices to US tech companies demanding they digitally pay services tax for their operations in the country in December. France announced the new tax regime in 2019 but delayed collection after US President Donald Trump reacted angrily on it. The 3% tax applies to companies with annual revenue of over €25 million ($28 million) in France and €750 million ($832 million) globally.

Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser warned that the United States will face an economic chasm unless ’Capitol Hill gets its act together’ and passes another coronavirus relief bill. Navarro said that even though the economy is improving, it is doing so at a slow pace, which means that ’we are facing a chasm that we are likely to go into unless we act now.’

United Kingdom’s Chancellor Rishi Sunak warned that the British economy is set to contract by more than 11% in 2020 due to Covid-19 setbacks – the biggest annual contraction in 300 years. With one of the highest death tolls in the world, Britain has imposed some of the harshest restrictions on movement and businesses in all of Europe, which is seen as a major reason for this unprecedented shrink.

At first glance, the smiling face in the picture is only a smiling face, but the underlying protest is far-reaching.Zolovan Oham, a civil rights activist who has drawn attention to the issue of freedom of speech in recent years. It is the latest in a series of recent protests. Consistently some of his protests made the government upset. Because In Singapore they are very strict with these protests

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, visited the DC Central Kitchen food bank to thank volunteers as they prepare Thanksgiving meals. During the visit, Emhoff said food insecurity will be one of his top issues when he serves as second gentleman. The Central Kitchen provides meals to low-income local people and trains them in cooking skills for restaurant jobs.