Day: December 4, 2020

VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran is raising pressure on U.S. President-elect Joe Biden with plans to install more advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges at an underground plant in breach of its deal with major powers, a U.N. nuclear watchdog report showed on Friday.

The confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report obtained by Reuters said Iran plans to install several more cascades, or clusters, of advanced IR-2m centrifuges in the underground plant at Natanz, which was apparently built to withstand aerial bombardment.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-iaea/iran-pressures-biden-with-plan-to-increase-underground-enrichment-machines-idUSKBN28E1XM

Ontario is reporting 1,780 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday.

This is a slight decrease of the 1,824 cases reported on Thursday and comes with another increase in testing.

Locally, there are 633 new cases in Toronto, 433 in Peel and 152 in York Region. 

There are 1,553 more resolved cases and over 56,000 tests completed.

Ontario reports a decrease in COVID-19 cases with more testing

The prismatic ‘monoliths’ that have shown up in recent days throughout the world are actually the same experimental teleportation device currently being tested by Russian scientists – or at least so they claim.

Mysterious metal objects have been appearing and disappearing since last week in various parts of the planet, from a Utah desert to Romania’s countryside to a Californian mountaintop. 

https://www.rt.com/russia/508697-monoliths-russian-teleportation-device/

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is calling for a signature audit after video footage emerged allegedly showing Fulton County poll workers counting ballots without monitors present.

A private security firm inside Atlanta’s State Farm Arena provided the surveillance video to Trump campaign lawyers at 1 a.m. ET on Thursday, attorney Jacki Pick said Thursday on Newsmax TV’s“Stinchfield.”

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/kemp-signature-audit-georgia/2020/12/04/id/1000018/?dkt_nbr=6F12122i24rl

THESSALONIKI, Greece (Reuters) – Authorities in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki have dug dozens of graves for the victims of COVID-19 after a sharp increase in the number of deaths.

Greece has ordered a second nationwide lockdown after a spike in cases of the new coronavirus. By Thursday, it had recorded 111,537 cases and 2,706 deaths.

Thessaloniki, a city of about one million and where the first nationwide cases surfaced in February, has been particularly hard hit during the second wave.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-greece-cemetery/in-silence-greek-city-buries-coronavirus-dead-idUSKBN28E1YF?il=0

Beijing has successfully powered up its “artificial sun” nuclear fusion reactor for the first time, China’s People’s Daily reported on Friday. It’s designed to be a clean energy source, similar to the real Sun.

Made to replicate the natural reactions that occur in the sun using hydrogen and deuterium gases as fuels, the HL-2M Tokamak reactor is China’s largest and most advanced nuclear fusion experimental research device. 

It is located in southwestern Sichuan province and was completed late last year. The reactor is often called an “artificial sun” due to the enormous heat and power it produces.

https://www.rt.com/business/508677-china-turns-on-artifical-sun/

VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran has told the U.N. nuclear watchdog it plans to install three more cascades, or clusters, of advanced IR-2m centrifuges at its underground uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, the agency told member states on Friday in a report obtained by Reuters.

“Iran informed the Agency that the operator of the Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz ‘intends to start installation of three cascades of IR-2m centrifuge machines’ at FEP,” the agency wrote, adding that the three cascades were in addition to one of IR-2m machines already used for enrichment there.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-iaea/iran-plans-to-install-more-advanced-atomic-centrifuges-underground-iaea-idUSKBN28E1XM?il=0

WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) – Washington’s point man on North Korea, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, is scheduled to visit Seoul next week to meet with South Korean officials, five sources with knowledge of the trip told Reuters.

The trip has not been announced by the State Department, and a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Seoul said he had no announcement to make.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-usa-northkorea-biegun/u-s-envoy-to-visit-south-korea-next-week-sources-idUSKBN28E1Y7?il=0