فردای آشنا

Americans are becoming less eager to try out a first-generation coronavirus vaccine, while President Donald Trump is suggesting that it could be ready before the Nov. 3 election, according to the latest Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index.

Both Republicans and Democrats are showing less interest in the vaccine, with 60% of Americans saying they don’t want to take a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it becomes available. That number is up from 53% in August, reports Axios.

Democrats marked the biggest drop in people likely to try the vaccine, dropping 13 percentage points to 43%. Republicans dropped 8 points to 41%. Independents fell by two points, to 43% 

In other numbers:

• 9% said they’re “very likely” to take the first-generation vaccine, down from 17% in August.
• 33% said they are “not at all like...

Edward Snowden, who is living in exile in Russia after leaking classified intelligence documents from his time as a CIA defense contractor, has agreed to give up more than $5 million earned from a book of speeches to the U.S. government, CNN reports, citing court records.

Snowden’s book “Permanent Record” was published last year without approval of the government. That violated contracts he signed with the CIA and National Security Agency.

The Justice Department sued to get Snowden’s profits. A federal judge has sided with the department and is considering how much Snowden must pay. The judge has not approved the plan, according to CNN.

Snowden had earned $4.2 million from book sales, royalties, and other rights...

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus is making work for at least one private investigator in California now that the state has declared COVID-19 as an “injury” under its workers compensation law if a person contracts the disease within 14 days of an “outbreak” at work.

Sacramento PI Chris Champlin has been hired by companies to find evidence that someone did not contract the virus at work, since businesses are assumed to be the infection source unless they can prove otherwise.

“There is a lot of information out there that people love to put on social media,” Champlin told local CBS affiliate KOVR. “Protests, the large gatherings, if you were there or a friend of a friend was there, we can identify that on social media.”

California considers an “outbreak” as four employees testing positi...

Iran is ready for a full prisoner exchange with the United States, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a virtual address to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Monday, amid heightened tension between the longtime foes.

Washington has long demanded that Iran release U.S. citizens including Iranian-American father and son Baquer and Siamak Namazi, who it says are political prisoners.

Tehran denies it holds people for political reasons and has accused many of the foreigners in its jails of espionage. It says Iranians detained in the U.S., mostly for breaking sanctions, are being unjustly held.

“There are Iranians in U.S. prisons who are there only because they refuse to betray their country (Iran)...

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, still remains undecided about whether a Supreme Court nominee should be confirmed before the November election.

Romney told reporters Monday he will talk to fellow Republicans on Tuesday at a closed-door lunch.

“Until then, I’m going to be waiting to get a chance to speak to those colleagues,” Romney said.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the Senate will vote on a nominee before the year ends.

“We’re going to move ahead with the nomination,” McConnell said.

Republicans control 53 votes and can only lose four GOP members on the road to confirming a nominee. Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine seem to be opposed to a nominee, claiming the election is too close and voters should be able to weigh in Nov. 3.

Some think Romney will also opt to ...

Four labor auditing firms and a non-profit are refusing to verify supply chain information for companies manufacturing products in China’s Xinjiang province, a region where the United States and human rights organizations have accused the government of detaining minority Muslim Uighurs in internment camps and using them as forced labor.

Bureau Veritas SA of France, TUV SUD AG of Germany, Sumerra LLC of the United States, RINA SpA of Italy, as well as American nonprofit certification organization Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production have told The Wall Street Journal they will not perform labor-audit or inspector services in Xinjiang...

The protests in Portland, Oregon, that have have gone on for more than 100 days, often turning violent, may continue for years if issues of racial injustice aren’t properly addressed, the president of the city’s NAACP chapter says.

Though the protests stopped during the serious smoke from the raging wildfires in the West, they have resumed now that the smoke has subsided. They began in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man, while in custody of Minneapolis police officers on Labor Day.

Protests across the country over Floyd’s death have largely dissipated, but they have continued in Portland, with some protestors setting fires and spraying graffiti.

Rev. E.D...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., announced she will vote in person for the November elections.

Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Sunday: 

“Republicans don’t want vote by mail bc it chips away at their ability to do exactly this: target and disenfranchise Black voters and people of color. These scenes are specifically happening in Black communities, not white ones. This is BY DESIGN, & it’s their test run for Nov.”

Ocasio-Cortez has advocated mail-in voting since the coronavirus pandemic began.

When the summer started, the New York congresswoman warned Republicans do not back mail-in voting because it would limit their disenfranchisement of Black voters.

Ocasio-Cortez, who backed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt...

The managing editor of a right-leaning political website and who has spent much of this year blasting Dr. Anthony Fauci and public health officials’ coronavirus pandemic guidance was actually one of Fauci’s co-workers until he was fired after his identity was discovered.

The Daily Beast published a lengthy piece about the person known on Twitter as “streiff,” the managing editor of RedState.com. In reality, he is named William B. Crews and worked as a public affairs specialist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Fauci is the director of that agency.

Using his pseudonym, Crews has called the wearing of masks “a political statement” and called Fauci a “mask nazi...

Occidental Petroleum Corp said on Monday it will pay a $200 million quarterly dividend to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc in cash instead of common stock, even as the company tries to reduce debt following a plunge in oil prices.

In a regulatory filing, Occidental said the payment on its perpetual preferred stock would be made on Oct. 15.

Berkshire bought $10 billion of Occidental preferred stock in August 2019, helping fund the Houston-based company’s $35.7 billion acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

The preferred stock carries an 8% annual dividend. Occidental exercised its option to pay Berkshire’s two prior quarterly dividends in common stock. Berkshire disclosed last month it sold the stock comprising the first of these payouts.

Occidental “has the ability to generate su...