Raffensperger calls Trump 'just plain wrong' after election call - BBC News

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Georgia's top election official Brad Raffensperger has called President Donald Trump's false claims that he won the state in 2020 "just plain wrong".

Mr Raffensperger's comment came after Mr Trump pressured him in a phone call to "find" votes proving his win.

Criticism of Mr Trump's call has been widespread, with some claiming that it amounts to illegal vote tampering.

Republicans fear that the call could undermine their efforts to win two Senate races in Georgia on Tuesday.

If Republicans win both Georgia senate seats in the run-off election, they will retain control of the Senate. If their candidates lose, Democrats will control the Senate, House of Representatives and White House.

• Trump's hour-long phone call fact-checked
• Why is the Georgia election so important?

"He did most of the talking. We did most of the listening," Mr Raffensperger told ABC News on Monday. "But I did want to make my points that the data that he has is just plain wrong," he said, describing what he told the president's team during the hour-long call on Saturday.

"He had hundreds and hundreds of people he said that were dead that voted. We found two, that's an example of just - he has bad data," he added.

What did Trump say on the call?

In Saturday's phone call, Mr Trump can be heard alternately cajoling and pressurising Georgia's secretary of state to "recalculate" the vote tally.

"I just want to find 11,780 votes," he said. The number would have given him a total of 2,473,634 votes in the state, one more than Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, who received 2,473,633 votes.

He also accused Mr Raffensperger - a fellow Republican - of shredding ballots and engaging in criminal acts that cost Mr Trump the election. He called the disproven allegations "a criminal offence," adding that it presents "a big risk to you".

Mr Raffensperger responded by pointing out that Mr Trump's campaign has lost several legal challenges in court, saying: "The challenge you have, Mr President, is that the data you have is wrong."

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2021-01-04 16:08:00Z
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Georgia election: Donald Trump's phone call fact-checked - BBC News

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US President Donald Trump spent more than an hour on the phone to election officials in Georgia, as he continues to try to overturn the result in the state.

He made a number of accusations of fraud for which he did not provide evidence.

We've fact-checked some of his claims.

Claim 1: 'So dead people voted. And I think the number is close to 5,000 people [in Georgia].'

President Trump and his supporters have repeatedly claimed thousands of votes were cast in states across the country, using the identities of people who had died.

But Georgia's top election official, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, denied the president's assertion, saying there were just two confirmed cases of dead people voting in the state.

The president's lawyer Cleta Mitchell, also on the call, responded to this by suggesting they had details of dead people voting.

"There is a universe of people who have the same name and same birth year and died," she told Mr Raffensperger.

However, our previous investigation into a list of "10,000 dead voters" in Michigan found this approach seriously flawed.

Cross-referencing lists of deaths across the US and voters in a particular state produces thousands of matches - with the same name and birth year - both dead and alive.

Our study in Michigan produced a large number of matches even when the month of birth was included.

And we contacted a sample of these "dead voters" and found them very much alive.

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Claim 2: '[There] were thousands and thousands of ballots in a box that was not an official or a sealed box.'

The president is referring to a video taken at a counting facility at the State Farm Arena, in Fulton County, Georgia, suggesting it reveals fraudulent activity by election workers.

The footage shows officials returning to their counting areas and a container with ballots being pulled out from under a table

"When they came back," Mr Trump said in his phone call, "they didn't go to their station.

"They went to the apron wrapped around the table, under which were thousands and thousands of ballots in a box that was not an official or a sealed box."

Election officials have previously responded to this accusation, saying the footage shows normal practice.

Gabriel Sterling, the voting system implementation manager in Georgia, tweeted state investigators who had watched the whole video had found nothing untoward.

An official investigation found "the entire security footage revealed there were no mystery ballots that were brought in from an unknown location and hidden under tables as has been reported by some".

Fulton County elections director Richard Barron said workers "put those ballot bins under their workspace because it's the most convenient place to put those things".

And state authorities said there was nothing unofficial about the boxes containing the ballots.

Claim 3: 'They ran out because of a water-main break. And there was no water main, there was nothing. There was no break.'

Mr Trump is referring to a pause in the counting at the same location in Fulton County.

At the time, election officers issued a press statement saying a water leak had affected a room where absentee ballots were being tabulated.

An official investigation later clarified "what was initially reported as a water leak... was actually a urinal that had overflowed".

The report said this had not affected the counting of votes by Fulton County later that evening.

President Trump also said when election workers had returned "there were no Republican poll watchers - actually, there were no Democrat poll watchers".

This is true - but the official investigation found they had been neither asked to leave or prevented from returning.

Frances Watson, chief investigator for the Georgia secretary of state, said: "Nobody gave them any advice on what they should do.

"And it was still open for them or the public to come back in to view at whatever time they wanted to."

Claim 4: 'You had out-of-state voters - they voted in Georgia but they were from out of state - of 4,925.'

Ryan Germany, a lawyer representing Georgia's secretary of state's office during the call, has rejected this claim.

"Every one we've been through are people that lived in Georgia, moved to a different state but then moved back to Georgia legitimately," he said.

The numbers given by Mr Trump's team regarding these supposed out-of-state voters were "not accurate", Mr Germany added.

Speaking ahead of Tuesday's Senate run-off election in Georgia, Mr Raffensperger said "qualified Georgians and only Georgians are allowed to vote in our elections" and out-of-state voters would not be tolerated.

And he warned anyone attempting to game the system: "We will find you and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law."

• Viral vote count claims fact-checked
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• A simple guide to the US election
• How you can be US president without winning most votes

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2021-01-04 13:36:00Z
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Trump-Biden transition and Georgia Senate election: Live updates - CNN International

President-elect Joe Biden is poised to make a final push in Georgia today ahead of the state's high stakes Senate runoff elections tomorrow.

Biden will campaign in Atlanta, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris traveled to Savannah on Sunday. This will be the second visit to the state for both the President-elect and Vice President-elect as they campaign for the Democratic candidates, Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, in hopes that the party will gain control of the Senate.

The President-elect's Monday trip to Georgia will coincide with President Trump traveling to Dalton, Georgia, for a rally to campaign for the state's incumbent Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.

Why this election is key: Control of the chamber hinges on next week's match-ups. If Democrats win both races, the Senate makeup would be 50-50, positioning Harris to serve as the tie-breaking vote and setting up an easier path for Biden to advance the agenda he promoted during his campaign.

During Biden's last stop earlier in December, which came on the heels of the Electoral College affirming his victory, he slammed Perdue and Loeffler, arguing that they stood by and "fully embraced nullifying nearly 5 million Georgia votes." He urged Georgians to vote as if their lives depended on it.

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2021-01-04 14:16:19Z
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Iran 'resumes enriching uranium to 20% purity at Fordo facility' - BBC News

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Iran has resumed enriching uranium to 20% purity, in its most significant breach yet of the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers.

Government spokesman Ali Rabiei told Mehr news agency that the process had started at the underground Fordo plant.

Enriched uranium can be used to make reactor fuel but also nuclear bombs. Weapons-grade uranium is 90% purity.

Iran has suspended a number of commitments since the US abandoned the nuclear deal and reinstated sanctions.

There was no confirmation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the latest announcement. But the watchdog did say on Friday that it had been informed by Iran that it planned to enrich to 20%.

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2021-01-04 11:02:00Z
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Covaxin: Concern over 'rushed' approval for India Covid jab - BBC News

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Experts have raised concerns over India's emergency approval of a locally-produced coronavirus vaccine before the completion of trials.

On Sunday, Delhi approved the vaccine - known as Covaxin - as well as the global AstraZeneca Oxford jab, which is also being manufactured in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi touted the approval as a "game changer" but health experts warn it was rushed.

Health watchdog All India Drug Action Network said it was "shocked".

It said that there were "intense concerns arising from the absence of the efficacy data" as well a lack of transparency that would "raise more questions than answers and likely will not reinforce faith in our scientific decision making bodies".

The statement came after India's Drugs Controller General, VG Somani, insisted Covaxin was "safe and provides a robust immune response".

He added the vaccines had been approved for restricted use in "public interest as an abundant precaution, in clinical trial mode, to have more options for vaccinations, especially in case of infection by mutant strains".

"The vaccines are 100% safe," he said, adding that side effects such as "mild fever, pain and allergy are common for every vaccine".

• How do you vaccinate a billion people?
• How a 'warm vaccine' could help India tackle Covid

The All India Drug Action Network, however, said it was "baffled to understand the scientific logic" to approve "an incompletely studied vaccine".

One of India's most eminent medical experts, Dr Gagandeep Kang, told the Times of India newspaper that she had "not seen anything like this before". She added that "there is absolutely no efficacy data that has been presented or published".

Even social media users were quick to point out that approving the vaccine before trials were complete was a matter of concern irrespective of how safe or effective the vaccine eventually turned out to be.

Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin might turn out to be best Vaccine in world. That’s not the Point. Concern is that it has been approved without Peer Reviewed Phase 1-2 results and incomplete Phase 3 Trial. Govt saying it is 110% safe is not Data and “Give it a Chance” is not strategy

— Joy (@Joydas) January 3, 2021

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

A matter of trust

Vikas Pandey, BBC News, Delhi

Many scientists and opposition politicians have raised questions over what they say is the hasty authorisation of Covaxin, an Indian-made vaccine by local pharmaceutical firm Bharat Biotech.

The company has developed the vaccine with the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research - and the effort has been touted as an example of India's might in vaccine development and production.

Regulators say the vaccine is safe and effective. The firm says phase 1 and phase 2 trials have shown good results.

But scientists say that the government's decision not to release data on the vaccine's efficacy for peer review has raised concerns.

Mr Modi has welcomed the approval, saying Covaxin is a shining example of his ambitious Atmnirbhar (self-reliance) India campaign.

But experts worry that questions over the approval process don't bode well for the campaign. And there could be deeper issues. Many believe that the government needs to be more transparent about the authorisation process because the success of the Covid-19 vaccine programme depends on public trust.

The emergency authorisation also sparked a fierce debate on Indian Twitter on Sunday night between ministers and opposition leaders.

India's health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan called out opposition leaders for failing to "applaud" the country's "prowess" in locally producing a vaccine.

Members of the main opposition Congress party, Shashi Tharoor and Jairam Ramesh, and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, Akhilesh Yadav, were among those who raised concerns about the manner in which Covaxin was approved.

This is all we are saying. Of course we will be proud if the vaccine turns out to work effectively. But offering it before Phase3 clinical trials have proven efficacy is a violation of every scientific protocol &unheard of in the world. Jingoism is no substitute for common sense. https://t.co/aRlU8TvYHT

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) January 4, 2021

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

Disgraceful for anyone to politicise such a critical issue.

Sh @ShashiTharoor, Sh @yadavakhilesh & Sh @Jairam_Ramesh don't try to discredit well laid out science-backed protocols followed for approving #COVID19vaccines

Wake up & realise you are only discrediting yourselves !

— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) January 3, 2021

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

The approval comes as India gears up to vaccinate its population of more than 1.3 billon people. Amid fears that richer countries are buying up much of the vaccine supply, India too appears to be stockpiling vaccines.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Adar Poonawalla, whose Serum Institute of India (SII) is manufacturing the AstraZeneca Oxford vaccine, said the jab was given emergency authorisation on the condition that it would not be exported outside India.

Mr Poonawalla said his company, the world's largest vaccine maker, was also not allowed to sell the shot in the private market.

This has raised concerns in India's neighbouring countries, including Nepal and Bangladesh, which were primarily depending on the SII to start vaccinating their populations.

Bangladesh had already ordered 30 million doses of the vaccine in the first phase, Reuters reported, but now the fate of the order is unclear. The country's health secretary told local media in December last year that it expected the first batch of the jab by February.

India plans to vaccinate some 300 million people on a priority list by August.

It has recorded the second-highest number of infections in the world, with more than 10.3 million confirmed cases to date. Nearly 150,000 people have died.

Both vaccines approved on Sunday can be transported and stored at normal refrigeration temperatures.

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2021-01-04 08:49:00Z
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Nóra Quoirin: Coroner records schoolgirl jungle death as 'misadventure' - BBC News

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A London schoolgirl found dead on holiday in a Malaysian jungle died by misadventure, a coroner has recorded.

Nóra Quoirin, 15, from Balham, south-west London, was discovered dead nine days after she went missing from an eco-resort in August 2019.

A verdict of death by misadventure indicates it was an accident, rather than criminal.

Reacting to the verdict, Nóra's mother Meabh Quoirin said: "We will still fight for Nora's story to be heard."

Mrs Quoirin had told the inquest that she believed her daughter was abducted, and rejected the possibility that her daughter might have wandered off alone.

Malaysian Police have insisted that Nóra's disappearance has always been a missing persons case and ruled out any criminal involvement.

The authorities closed the case in January 2020, and Nóra's parents pushed for the inquest.

During the inquest a British pathologist who carried out a second post-mortem examination said Nóra's body had no injuries to suggest she was attacked or restrained.

On the inquest's final day of evidence, an investigating officer who was on duty the morning Nóra was reported missing said he was confident there were no criminal elements involved in her disappearance.

Coroner Maimoonah Aid delivered her verdict on Monday after hearing evidence from 48 witnesses.

• Group 'waited hours' after schoolgirl's body find
• 'Voice heard' at vanished girl's holiday home
• Vanished girl's body 'showed no signs of assault'
• Male DNA 'found near dead schoolgirl'

The family were staying in Sora House in Dusun eco-resort near Seremban, about 40 miles (65km) south of Kuala Lumpur, when they reported Nóra missing, the day after they had arrived.

Nóra, who was born with holoprosencephaly - a disorder which affects brain development - was eventually found by a group of civilian volunteers in a palm-oil plantation less than two miles from the holiday home nine days after vanishing.

The Quoirin's legal team have discussed with Nóra's parents their rights moving forward which include the possibility of applying for a revision of the verdict at the High Court of Seremban.

Louise Azmi, one lawyer for the family, said they had pressed for an open verdict to reflect the lack of positive evidence in the case regarding what happened to Nora.

An open verdict would leave open the possibility that a criminal element was involved in Nora's death, Mrs Azmi said.

She told the BBC based on everything the family know of Nora, "they continue to believe it is impossible she would have willingly walked away into the jungle".

The family's legal team say parents Meabh and Sebastien Quoirin are "disappointed" with today's verdict.

But, Coroner Maimoonah Aid said her verdict was made not on "theories" and "speculation" surrounding the case, but on the balance of probabilities of the evidence presented before her.

With no evidence to the contrary she ruled out foul play.

Moving forward, the Quoirin family now have the possibility to apply for a revision of the verdict with the High Court of Seremban - where there is precedent of this happening before.

In 2019, following an appeal, a Malaysian coroner's verdict of misadventure concerning the death of 18-year-old model Ivana Smit was overturned in Kuala Lumpur and reopened as a murder investigation.

According to Quoirin family lawyer Sakthy Vell, the family say they now need time to consider their next course of action.

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2021-01-04 08:10:00Z
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