I'M NOT LOSING: TRUMP REFUSES TO COMMIT TO ELECTION RESULTS IF DEFEATED

US President Donald Trump, who earlier said he would peacefully leave if he is voted out in the upcoming presidential elections, has now taken a U-turn.

Trump is now refusing to publicly commit to accepting the results of the upcoming White House elections as the polls are showing him lagging behind his opponent Joe Biden.

It harks back to a similar threat he made during the 2016 race against Hillary Clinton. The US President has been lagging behind his rival Joe Biden in recent polls.

But speaking during an interview on Fox News Sunday, Mr Trump scoffed these numbers.

"I have to see. Look ... I have to see," Trump said in an interview with Fox news. “No, I''m not going to just say yes. I''m not going to say no, and I didn't last time either.”

Trump, as he has made it clear earlier too, does not trust the initial polls. Calling them "fake polls", he compared the situation to the 2016 Presidential elections and said, “First of all, I'm not losing, because those are fake polls. They were fake in 2016 and now they're even more fake. The polls were much worse in 2016.”

The race for a second-term of Presidency was, reportedly, going better than the present situation till the pandemic and 'Black Lives Matter' protests hit the country. The American citizens have been divided on Trump's response to the pandemic. While some agree with the President on reopening the economy, experts strongly urge the President to come up with better plans to save the country from the widespread of the deadly virus.

Trump has not adhered to the health experts' advices and has continued to hold rallies and large gatherings without following the health and safety protocols and guidelines issued by the health experts of the country.

The protests, too, have added fuel to the fire. President Trump has gone out of his way, this year, to show his support to the minority groups of the country to gain votes after the hate crimes against the African-American community increased massively, and Trump too was spotted passing apparent racist comments towards Asian-American journalists during White House press conference.

TWITTER EMBARRASSED, DISAPPOINTED, APOLOGISES ON MEGA CRYPTO HACK

Twitter on Saturday said they are embarrassed, disappointed and, more than anything, sorry for what happened with some of its high-profile users as attackers successfully manipulated its employees and used their credentials to access internal systems, including getting through the two-factor protections.

In the first detailed summary of the “social engineering attack” via a crypto scam that hit at least 130 users this week, Twitter said for 45 of those accounts, the attackers were able to initiate a password reset, login to the account and send Tweets.

“We are continuing our forensic review of all of the accounts to confirm all actions that may have been taken. In addition, we believe they may have attempted to sell some of the usernames,” the micro-blogging platform said in a statement.

For up to eight of the Twitter accounts involved, the attackers took the additional step of downloading the account’s information via “Your Twitter Data” tool.

This is a tool that is meant to provide an account owner with a summary of their Twitter account details and activity.

“We are reaching out directly to any account owner where we know this to be true. None of the eight were verified accounts,” said Twitter.

The company said the attackers were not able to view previous account passwords, as those are not stored in plain text or available through the tools used in the attack.

“We are actively working on communicating directly with the account-holders that were impacted”.

The company said it will soon restore access for all account owners who may still be locked out as a result of the remediation efforts.

HOPE PROBE: UAE LAUNCHES HISTORIC FIRST MISSION TO MARS

The first Arab space mission to Mars blasted off Monday aboard a rocket from Japan, after weather delays set back the launch of the probe dubbed “Hope.”

A live feed of the launch showed the rocket carrying the unmanned probe, known as “Al-Amal” in Arabic, lifting off from the Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan.

“We have launched the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 42 (H-IIA F42) carrying aboard the Emirates Mars Mission’s (EMM) HOPE spacecraft... at 6:58:14 (JST) (2158GMT),” rocket manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said in a statement shortly after the launch.

Five minutes after launch, the rocket carrying the probe was on course, carrying out the first separation of its flight.

The Emirati project is one of three racing to Mars, including Tianwen-1 from China and Mars 2020 from the United States, taking advantage of a period when the Earth and Mars are nearest.

“Hope” is expected to reach Mars’s orbit by February 2021, marking the 50th anniversary of the unification of the UAE, an alliance of seven emirates.

Once there, it will loop the planet for a whole Martian year, or 687 days.

While the objective of the Mars mission is to provide a comprehensive image of the weather dynamics in the Red Planet’s atmosphere, the probe is a foundation for a much bigger goal -- building a human settlement on Mars within the next 100 years.

The UAE also wants the project to serve as a source of inspiration for Arab youth, in a region too often wracked by sectarian conflicts and economic crises.

CHINA COMMITTING GROSS ABUSES AGAINST UIGHURS: U.K.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Sunday it was clear the Uighur minority in China had suffered abuses of their human rights.

“It is clear that there are gross, egregious human rights abuses going on, which is why in Geneva at the UN we raised this with 27 partners ... to call out the government of China for its human rights abuses of the Uighurs, also of Hong Kong,” Raab told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show.

Beijing’s ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming told the same programme that most Uighurs were living happily and that ethnic minorities in China were treated as equals.

CORONAVIRUS: THIRD DAY OF WRANGLING OVER HUGE EU RECOVERY PLAN

EU leaders trying to hammer out a huge post-coronavirus economic recovery plan are now in an unscheduled third day of a testy summit in Brussels.

Some member states believe the proposed €750bn ($857bn; £680bn) package is too large and should come as loans, rather than grants.

Austria said there was still a "way to go", while Hungary's PM lashed out at his Dutch counterpart.

Germany's Angela Merkel said a deal might not be reached on Sunday.

With the impasse still unbroken on Sunday evening, President of the European Council Charles Michel reminded the leaders that 600,000 people had died of the virus worldwide and he hoped that the "headline tomorrow is that the EU has accomplished mission impossible".

US ELECTION 2020: KANYE WEST LAUNCHES UNCONVENTIONAL BID FOR PRESIDENCY

Kanye West has officially launched his campaign for the 2020 US presidential election, with an unorthodox rally in Charleston, South Carolina.

West, 43, is running for as a candidate for his self-styled "Birthday Party".

At the event, the rapper appeared to make policy decisions off-the-cuff, and went on several rants - including on abortion and on Harriet Tubman.

Fans have questioned whether his last-minute bid for the White House is actually a promotional stunt.

The Charleston rally did little to clarify whether his run is genuine. But a now-deleted tweet sent from West's account on Saturday, appearing to show the song list for a new album, added to the speculation.

The event, held at a wedding and conference hall in the city, was said to be open to registered guests only - but West's campaign website had no function for people to register or RSVP.

ERDOGAN VISITS HAGIA SOFIA AFTER RECONVERSION TO MOSQUE

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid a surprise visit to Hagia Sofia on Sunday just days before the first Muslim prayers are due to be held at the Istanbul landmark since it was reconverted to a mosque last week.

In a lightning visit billed as an inspection, Mr. Erdogan took stock of the conversion work, the president's office said, providing pictures showing scaffolding inside the building.

Diyanet, the country's religious authority, said Christian icons would be curtained off and unlit “through appropriate means during prayer times”.

“Our goal is to avoid harming the frescoes, icons and the historic architecture of the edifice,” Mr. Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in a television interview on Sunday.

It was unclear whether Mr. Erdogan planned to be among some 500 worshippers set to attend Friday prayers.