TWITTER FLAGS TRUMP TWEETS AS BATTLE SPILLS TO SOCIAL MEDIA

At least five of President Donald Trump's tweets about election results-on

Wednesday morning alone-were flagged as false or misleading by Twitter.

Twitter has flagged multiple tweets from the president over the course of

just 12 hours between midnight on Election Night and the morning of November

4. Nearly all of the tweets flagged by the social media company's moderators

make baseless claims about voter fraud and mail-in ballots. One Trump tweet

labeled by Twitter as false or misleading accuses Democratic Party officials

of taking away the president's lead in states by making ballots "magically

disappear."

That one and four others are still accessible with a click, but users first

see the same message from Twitter's moderators: "Some or all of the content

shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election

or other civic process."

The latest Trump tweet to be flagged for containing false or misleading

information claims Democrats are "working hard to make up 500,000 vote

advantage in Pennsylvania disappear -- ASAP. Likewise, Michigan and others!"

That tweet, sent at 12:01 p.m. ET on Wednesday, is followed by a Twitter

exclamation-point symbol and the message: "Learn more about US 2020 election

security efforts." Clicking the line leads to a Twitter information page

highlighting how rare voter fraud is across the country.

One tweet still visible is Trump's false declaration in the early morning

hours that prematurely declared himself the winner.

US FORMALLY EXITS PARIS CLIMATE DEAL

After a three-year delay, the US has become the first nation in the world to

formally withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.

President Trump announced the move in June 2017, but UN regulations meant

that his decision only takes effect today, the day after the US election.

The US could re-join it in future, should a president choose to do so.

The Paris deal was drafted in 2015 to strengthen the global response to the

threat of climate change.

It aims to keep the global temperature rise this century well below 2C above

pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature

increase even further to 1.5C.

EUROPE, NOT CHINA, THE MAIN CAUSE FOR COVID-19 GLOBAL SPREAD, STUDY SHOWS

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, China's role in the origin and

spread of the illness has been hotly debated. While a new study finds

there's no doubt the pandemic started in Asia, Europe may have been the

actual "super spreader" months ago.

An analysis of 27,000 virus genomes from across the world reveals COVID-19

likely jumped from horseshoe bats to humans in China. From there, European

nations acted as the main source of the pandemic's migrations to other

countries and continents.

A team from the University of Huddersfield worked with geneticists from the

University of Minho in Portugal to map the dispersal of SARS-CoV-2. Their

findings suggest travel restrictions across Britain and the rest of Europe

went into effect too late to stop the pandemic from reaching the United

States.

The geneticists usually track ancient human migrations using DNA samples. In

this case however, the team capitalized on COVID's genome being very similar

to their normal work. With records going back to May, during the original

height of the pandemic, the study was able to track infection figures using

the largest dataset of virus genomes to date.

Huddersfield's Prof. Martin Richards says the study is part of the ongoing

effort to figure out as much about the coronavirus as possible. The team

adds that defining where infections rates skyrocketed will help nations

rethink their policies in future emergencies.

"With thousands of lives still at risk," Dr. Maria Pala adds in a university

release. "The need for scientific research is now more crucial than ever."

BIDEN WINS MORE VOTES THAN ANY OTHER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN US HISTORY:

REPORT

Democratic nominee Joe Biden has won more votes than any other presidential

candidate in the US history, shattering a record set by former President

Barack Obama, according to a media report.

As of November 4, Biden had got over 70.7 million votes, more than anyone

who has ever run for president, the National Public Radio (NPR) reported.

This count includes 300,000 more votes than what Obama got in 2008, which

was the previous record. Biden surpassed the popular vote record of

69,498,516 set by Obama in 2008.

Biden, in a tight electoral vote fight to the White House against incumbent

President Donald Trump, is 2.7 million votes ahead of the Republican leader

in the popular vote. His lead is growing as counting picks pace in key

battleground states.

NPR said millions of votes are still being tabulated across the country,

including in California, which has reported 64 per cent of the votes

counted.

Trump was also nearing Obama's record with 67.32 million votes as of

Wednesday. Given that over 100 million votes were received through early

voting and mail-in ballots, NBC News reported that there were at least 23

million votes still to be tallied, allowing Biden to further increase his

vote tally.

UK SAYS US TIES WILL GO 'FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH' WHOEVER WINS

Britain on Wednesday insisted its close partnership with the United States

was in safe hands whoever comes out on top of the tumultuous presidential

election, while noting disagreement over the Paris climate pact.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a populist ally of President Donald Trump,

refused to be drawn in parliament when grilled about the Republican's

premature claim of victory and his intention to ask the Supreme Court to

halt the vote counting.

But Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: "I'm not worried about the

relationship.

"The contours of the opportunities and the risks always shift a little bit,

but that needs to be set against the context of this bedrock and this wider

set of interests which are so strong," he told Sky News.

Raab also downplayed differences with Democrat Joe Biden over the UK's plans

for Northern Ireland after its Brexit divorce from the European Union.

Former prime minister Theresa May noted that the election dispute coincided

with Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate

accord taking effect on Wednesday.

"We will soon know who will be the next US president. But, sadly, today also

marks the US leaving the Paris accord -- the world's foremost attempt to

build consensus on climate change," she tweeted.

"Whoever is elected has an immense responsibility to help tackle our

planet's greatest challenge."

Britain is due next year to convene the UN's next climate summit, COP 26,

and Johnson's spokesman said the government was looking forward to a

"successful hosting" of the multinational meeting, which has been delayed by

the coronavirus pandemic.

"Obviously we've made clear to the US administration throughout this process

that we remain firm supporters of the Paris Agreement," the spokesman told

reporters.

PARLIAMENT SHUT, 2nd WAVE FEARED AS COVID-19 CASES SOAR IN PAKISTAN

Pakistan government on Wednesday sealed the parliament house in Islamabad

after at least 30 employees of the two houses, the national assembly and

senate, tested positive for Covid-19. This is the second time that the

parliament house has been sealed.

The building will remain shut until Nov 9, officials said, adding that even

after reopening of the parliament house complex, only selected staff will be

allowed to resume work.

During last week's sittings of the two houses, many - including lawmakers

and permanent staffers - were seen blatantly violating the standard

operating procedures set by the government to prevent the spread of the

disease.

According to officials, a monitoring system - comprising closed-circuit

television (CCTV) cameras - would now be installed in the parliament house

and special staff members would be deployed to ensure the strict

implementation of the SOPs.

Coronavirus cases have been surging again in Pakistan with over 1,300 new

cases reported on Wednesday, the highest single-day number since July 30.

With the new infections, the nationwide Covid-19 tally jumped to 3,37,573,

while 18 more succumbed in the last 24 hours, pushing the death toll to

6,867. Around 3,16,060 infected people have recovered so far.

Pakistan has recorded over 4,500 fresh cases in the last four days alone,

prompting the government to reimpose its 'smart' lockdown, mainly in 30 big

cities, besides making masks mandatory in public places.

CHINA GIVES PAKISTAN TWO SHIPS FOR SECURITY OF CPEC SEA ROUTE

China yesterday handed over two maritime patrol vessels to the Pakistan Navy

for joint security along the sea route of the China-Pakistan Economic

Corridor+ (CPEC), Dawn reported.

Yesterday, the Chinese vessels were received by the Commander of the

Pakistan Navy Vice-Admiral Arifullah Hussaini. The ships are called PMSS

Hingol and PMSS Basol after two rivers in the region.

"The ships have become part of the Pakistan Navy from today and the

(Pakistan) navy would become stronger with the induction of these maritime

vessels," Hussaini was quoted as saying by the Dawn. He added that the

Pakistan-China friendship+ was becoming stronger and deeper than the ocean,

day by day.

China is expected to provide two more ships "Dasht" and "Zhob" to the

Pakistan navy. It is already working on them and they are expected to be

completed soon.

Pakistan has already raised a new division of the army to ensure security

along the CPEC route and in and around the Gwadar port+ . Security of Gwadar

city has been handed over to the army's new division created during the

tenure of former chief of army staff retired Gen Raheel Sharif.

TURKEY FINES SOCIAL MEDIA GIANTS FOR BREACHING ONLINE LAW

Turkey has issued fines against global social media companies for failing to

appoint a representative to ensure they conform to Turkish law, a senior

official said Wednesday.

Omer Fatih Sayan, chairman of the Information and Communication Technologies

Authority, said Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Periscope, YouTube and TikTok

would be fined 10 million lira (USD 1.2 million) each.

The fines are the first step on an escalating scale of penalties that can

end in a block on 90 per cent of the site's internet traffic bandwidth.

Social media firms with more than 1 million daily users in Turkey had been

due to notify the government that they would establish a representative in

the country by Monday.

The fine is the first of five stages to penalise companies that do not

comply with the law, which came into force on October 1.

"I have complete faith that social network providers will make

representative notices to our country as the legal process progresses,"

tweeted Sayan, who is also Turkey's deputy transport and infrastructure

minister.

"Our aim is not to be in conflict with these providers serving billions of

people around the world."

Critics say the law is a government bid to control the online sphere. Some

90 per cent of newspapers and TV news channels are controlled by the

government or its supporters.