An insurance and private equity executive pleaded guilty Monday to participating in a vast U.S. college admissions fraud and bribery scheme in which he agreed to pay $40,000 to rig his daughter’s ACT college entrance exam. Mark Hauser, 59, entered his plea during a hearing before a federal judge in Boston held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming the latest wealthy parent to admit wrongdoing in the college admissions scandal. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to recommend that Hauser, who lives in Los Angeles, serve six months in prison and pay a $40,000 fine. He faces sentencing on Jan. 21. Fifty-eight people have been charged in the “Varsity Blues” scandal, in which prosecutors said parents conspired with California college admissions consultant William “Rick” Singer to secure their children’s college admissions fraudulently. FILE – William “Rick” Singer, front, founder of the Edge College & Career Network, exits federal court in Boston, March 12, 2019, after he pleaded guilty to charges in a nationwide college admissions bribery scandal.The parents include “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman, who received a 14-day prison sentence, and “Full House” star Lori Loughlin, who was sentenced to two months in prison. Singer pleaded guilty in March 2019 to facilitating cheating on college entrance exams and using bribery to secure the admission of students to colleges as fake athletic recruits. Hauser is the founder of Cincinnati, Ohio-based Hauser Private Equity and the owner of insurance firm Hauser Inc. Brown & Brown canceled a deal to acquire Hauser Inc. after his plea deal became public in August. Prosecutors said Hauser in 2016 agreed to pay Singer $40,000 to have an associate proctor his daughter’s ACT exam at a test center in Texas that Singer controlled through bribery and secretly correct her answers. The associate was Mark Riddell, a Florida private school counselor who has pleaded guilty to taking SAT and ACT college entrance exams in place of Singer’s clients’ children or correcting their answers while acting as a test proctor. 
 
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Wall Street slumped Monday as markets tumbled worldwide on worries about the pandemic’s economic pain, though the S&P 500 had pared its losses by the end of the day.  The drops began in Asia as soon as trading opened for the week, and they accelerated in Europe on worries about the possibility of tougher restrictions there to stem rising coronavirus counts. In the U.S., stocks and Treasury yields weakened, while prices sank for oil and other commodities that a healthy economy would demand.  The S&P 500 fell 38.41 points, or 1.2%, to 3,281.06. It extends the index’s losing streak to four days, its longest since stocks were selling off in February on recession worries. But a last-hour recovery helped the blue-chip index more than halve its loss of 2.7% from earlier in the day.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 509.72, or 1.8%, to 27,147.70 after coming back from an earlier 942-point slide. The Nasdaq composite slipped 14.48, or 0.1%, to 10,778.80 after recovering from a 2.5% drop.  Wall Street has been shaky this month, and the S&P 500 has dropped 8.4% since hitting a record high Sept. 2 amid a long list of worries for investors. Chief among them is fear that stocks got too expensive when coronavirus counts are still worsening, Congress is unable to deliver more aid for the economy, U.S.-China tensions are rising, and a contentious U.S. election is approaching. Investors should expect the stock market to remain volatile, perhaps through the November elections, as they wait for these questions to shake out, said Jason Draho, head of asset allocation for the Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management.  Monday’s selling was exacerbated by worries about the possibility of more business restrictions in Europe, particularly as the United States heads into flu season, Draho said, and “some investors may be stepping aside.”  David Joy, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial, noted how Monday’s sharpest drops were concentrated in areas of the market most closely tied to the economy’s strength, such as energy companies and raw-material producers. “It seems to be a broader expression of worry about the economy,” he said. Bank stocks took sharp losses after a report alleged that several continue to profit from illicit dealings with criminal networks, despite U.S. crackdowns on money laundering.  Divided countryInvestors are also worried about the diminishing prospects that Congress may soon deliver more aid to the economy. Many investors call such support crucial after extra weekly unemployment benefits and other stimulus expired. But partisan disagreements have held up any renewal of what is known as the CARES Act.  “The stimulus money from the CARES Act, the impact of that, is running off, and there doesn’t seem to be any urgency in Washington to get another package together,” Joy said.  Partisan rancor is only continuing to rise, deflating hopes further. The sudden vacancy on the Supreme Court following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the latest flashpoint dividing the country. Tensions between the world’s two largest economies are also weighing on markets. President Donald Trump has targeted Chinese tech companies in particular, and the Department of Commerce on Friday announced a list of prohibitions that could eventually cripple U.S. operations of Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat. The government cited national security and data privacy concerns. That raises the threat of Chinese retaliation against U.S. companies.  Coronavirus pandemicLayered on top of all those concerns for the market is the continuing coronavirus pandemic and its effect on the global economy.  On Sunday, the British government reported 4,422 new coronavirus infections, its biggest daily rise since early May. An official estimate shows new cases and hospital admissions are doubling every week. Prime Minister Boris Johnson later this week is expected to announce a slate of short-term restrictions that will act as a “circuit breaker” to slow the spread of the disease. The number of cases has been rising quickly in many European countries, and while authorities do not seem ready to return to the tough restrictions on public life that they imposed in the spring, the new wave of the pandemic threatens the economic outlook. September’s losses for markets are reversing months of remarkable gains. Beginning in late March, when the Federal Reserve and Congress pledged massive amounts of support for the economy, the S&P 500 erased its nearly 34% in losses caused by the pandemic. Signs of budding economic improvements accelerated the gains, but growth has slowed recently. 
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Five weeks after California erupted in deadly wildfires supercharged by record heat and howling winds, crews battling flames pushed Monday to consolidate their gains before the return of the blistering, gusty weather. California has lost far more landscape to wildfires this summer than during any previous entire year, with scores of conflagrations, many sparked by catastrophic lightning storms, scorching about 3.4 million acres since mid-August. The previous record was just less than 2 million acres burned in 2018. As of Monday, more than 19,000 firefighters continued to wage war on 27 major blazes across the state, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire). FILE – A firefighter with the San Bernardino County Fire Department hoses down hot spots from the Bobcat Fire in Valyermo, Calif., Sept. 19, 2020.The fires, stoked by extreme weather conditions that scientists have pointed to as signs of climate change, have destroyed an estimated 6,100 homes and other structures and killed 26 people, three of them firefighters, CalFire reported. Another 2 million acres have gone up in flames in Oregon and Washington state during an overlapping outbreak of wildfires that started earlier this month, destroying more than 4,400 structures in all and claiming 10 lives. But a weekend of intermittently heavy showers across the western Cascade mountain range helped fire crews in the Pacific Northwest tamp down blazes in those two states. FILE – A sign advertising new homes stands in a neighborhood severely damaged by wildfire in Medford, Oregon, Sept. 20, 2020.Although California has seen little or no rain in recent days, bouts of extreme heat and gale-force winds that had produced incendiary conditions for weeks have given way to lower temperatures and lighter breezes, enabling firefighters to gain ground around most fires. “They’re going to take advantage of this cool weather while they can,” CalFire spokeswoman Lynne Tolmachoff told Reuters. The break in the weather is not expected to last much longer. Tolmachoff said forecasts call for rising temperatures, lower humidity and a return of strong, erratic winds around midweek in Southern California and by the weekend across the state’s northern half. Bobcat Fire proves stubborn  Some fires have proved more stubborn than others. One in particular, dubbed the Bobcat Fire, grew to more than 100,000 acres Monday in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles, with containment levels achieved by firefighters holding steady at just 15%, CalFire said. The Bobcat last week spread perilously close to a famed astronomical observatory and complex of vital communications towers at the summit of Mount Wilson, while forcing evacuations of communities in the foothills below. FILE – Winds blow flying embers from a burning tree at the Bobcat Fire in Juniper Hills, California, Sept. 19, 2020.Several more areas, including Pasadena, a city of 140,000 people, remained under an evacuation warning, advising residents to be ready to flee at a moment’s notice. At the opposite end of the sprawling mountain range to the north, the fire was reported to have destroyed some homes and other structures in the high desert of the Antelope Valley. Across the Bobcat Fire zone and others, ground crews with axes, shovels and bulldozers clambered through rugged canyons and mountain slopes, hacking away tinder-dry brush and scrub before it could burn, creating containment lines around the perimeter of advancing flames. They were assisted by squadrons of water-dropping helicopters and airplane tankers dumping flame retardant on the blazes. Regardless of the progress they make this week, California’s record fire season remains far from over. The height of wildfire activity historically has run through October. Five of the state’s 20 largest blazes on record have occurred this year. 
 
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Директору-розпоряднику Міжнародного валютного фонду Крісталіні Георгієвій направили листа зі зверненням про початок роботи в онлайн-режимі місії фонду в Україні, повідомив прем’єр-міністр України Денис Шмигаль.

Як повідомляє пресслужба уряду, Шмигаль сказав про це під час онлайн-зустрічі з директором Європейського департаменту Міжнародного валютного фонду Альфредом Каммером, на якій ішлося про співпрацю офіційного Києва з фондом.

«Україна високо цінує всебічну підтримку МВФ, що надається у непрості для всього світу часи», – сказав прем’єр-міністр.

Він також запросив Альфреда Каммера відвідати Україну, після завершення обмежувальних заходів у зв’язку із поширенням гострої респіраторної хвороби COVID-19.

7 травня після багатомісячних переговорів із Україною щодо трирічної програми розширеного фінансування МВФ урешті відмовився від неї і запропонував вужчу програму stand-by через «безпрецедентну невизначеність щодо економічних і фінансових перспектив і необхідність зосередити політичні пріоритети на короткостроковому стримуванні й стабілізації» в Україні.

9 червня Рада директорів Міжнародного валютного фонду схвалила 18-місячну програму співпраці з Україною на п’ять мільярдів доларів, яка буде виконана в разі виконання Україною низки умов.

Перший транш у 2,1 мільярда доларів Україна отримала вже 12 червня.
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The U.S. Department of Justice said Monday that three U.S. cities have “permitted violence and destruction of property” to persist and threatened to cut federal funding if they don’t take measures to restore law and order. According to a news release, New York City, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, risk the loss of funding. “When state and local leaders impede their own law enforcement officers and agencies from doing their jobs, it endangers innocent citizens who deserve to be protected, including those who are trying to peacefully assemble and protest,” said Attorney General William Barr.   FILE – U.S. Attorney General William Barr speaks during a press conference in Chicago, Illinois, Sept. 9, 2020.”We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance. It is my hope that the cities identified by the Department of Justice today will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens,” Barr said. “This is just one of President (Donald) Trump’s games,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference Monday. “It’s thoroughly political. It’s part of his campaign strategy.”He added that the move was “insulting” to New Yorkers. De Blasio also said he saw “anything but anarchy” Monday morning when he was greeting preschool children in Queens. According to USA Today newspaper, the city’s corporation counsel floated the idea of suing the Trump administration should it withhold federal money. FILE – Police use chemical irritants and crowd control munitions to disperse protesters during a demonstration in Portland, Oregon, Sept. 5, 2020.Spokespeople for the mayors’ offices in the other two cities could not be immediately reached for comment. The DOJ list was in response to a Sept. 2 memo issued by the White House which directed the Office of Management and Budget to look into cutting federal funding to “anarchist jurisdictions.” The Department of Justice said more cities could be added to the list.Protests erupted in cities across the United States following the May 25 death of George Floyd, an African American man, in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to the DOJ, New York City saw a 177% increase in shootings in July 2020 compared to July 2019. At the same time, the city cut $1 billion from its police department budget, the statement said. Portland saw more than three months straight of violent protests and a 140% increase in shootings in June and July, compared to the same period last year, the DOJ said. During that time, the city cut police funding, and the city’s mayor, Ted Wheeler, refused the Trump administration’s offer to provide federal law enforcement to help curb the violence, according to the DOJ.  FILE – Construction buildings burn near the King County Juvenile Detention Center in Seattle, July 25, 2020.Officials in Seattle allowed protesters to set up an “autonomous” zone in the downtown area, which stood for a month. During that time, crime rose 525%, according to the DOJ, and two teenagers were shot to death. The mayor and governor refused federal help, the DOJ said. In early September, Trump said his administration would “do everything in its power to prevent weak mayors and lawless cities from taking federal dollars while they let anarchists harm people, burn buildings, and ruin lives and businesses.” It is not clear what federal funding could be withheld. 
 
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American citizens must be registered to vote in the country’s elections. The process to do so varies by state. VOA breaks it down.
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На українському міжбанківському валютному ринку вдень 21 вересня долар намагається подолати річний максимум щодо гривні. За даними Finance.ua, станом на 12:20 котирування сягнули 28 гривень 20–22 копійок за одиницю американської валюти. Такі показники повторюють і частково перевищують пікові значення цього року, зафіксовані 26 березня – тоді торги завершилися на рівні 28 гривень 19–22 копійки за долар.

Національний банк України встановив опівдні довідкове значення курсу 28 гривень 19 копійок за долар, це на 2 копійки більше від офіційного курсу на 21 вересня.

Ще близько місяця тому, 17 серпня, долар оцінювався на міжбанку дешевше майже на гривню, тоді торги завершилися на рівні 27 гривень 23,5–25,5 копійки за одиницю американської валюти.
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The newly formed U.S. Space Force is deploying troops to a vast new frontier: the Arabian Peninsula.
Space Force now has a squadron of 20 airmen stationed at Qatar’s Al-Udeid Air Base in its first foreign deployment. The force, pushed by President Donald Trump, represents the sixth branch of the U.S. military and the first new military service since the creation of the Air Force in 1947.
It has provoked skepticism in Congress, satire on Netflix, and, with its uncannily similar logo, “Star Trek” jokes about intergalactic battles.
Future wars may be waged in outer space, but the Arabian Desert already saw what military experts dub the world’s first “space war” — the 1991 Desert Storm operation to drive Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Today, the U.S. faces new threats in the region from Iran’s missile program and efforts to jam, hack and blind satellites.
“We’re starting to see other nations that are extremely aggressive in preparing to extend conflict into space,” Col. Todd Benson, director of Space Force troops at Al-Udeid, told The Associated Press. “We have to be able to compete and defend and protect all of our national interests.”
In a swearing-in ceremony earlier this month at Al-Udeid, 20 Air Force troops, flanked by American flags and massive satellites, entered Space Force. Soon several more will join the unit of “core space operators” who will run satellites, track enemy maneuvers and try to avert conflicts in space.
“The missions are not new and the people are not necessarily new,” Benson said.
That troubles some American lawmakers who view the branch, with its projected force of 16,000 troops and 2021 budget of $15.4 billion, as a vanity project for Trump ahead of the November presidential election.
Concerns over the weaponization of outer space are decades old. But as space becomes increasingly contested, military experts have cited the need for a space corps devoted to defending American interests.
Threats from global competitors have grown since the Persian Gulf War in 1991, when the U.S. military first relied on GPS coordinates to tell troops where they were in the desert as they pushed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait.
Benson declined to name the “aggressive” nations his airmen will monitor and potentially combat. But the decision to deploy Space Force personnel at Al-Udeid follows months of escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
Hostilities between the two countries, ignited by Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of the U.S. from Iran’s nuclear accord, came to a head in January when U.S. forces killed a top Iranian general. Iran responded by launching ballistic missiles at American soldiers in Iraq.
This spring, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched its first satellite into space, revealing what experts describe as a secret military space program. The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on Iran’s space agency, accusing it of developing ballistic missiles under the cover of a civilian program to set satellites into orbit.
World powers with more advanced space programs, like Russia and China, have made more threatening progress, U.S. officials contend. Last month, Defense Secretary Mark Esper warned that Russia and China were developing weapons that could knock out U.S. satellites, potentially scattering dangerous debris across space and paralyzing cell phones and weather forecasts, as well as American drones, fighter jets, aircraft carriers and even nuclear weapon controllers.
“The military is very reliant on satellite communications, navigation and global missile warning,” said Capt. Ryan Vickers, a newly inducted Space Force member at Al-Udeid.
American troops, he added, use GPS coordinates to track ships passing through strategic Gulf passageways “to make sure they’re not running into international waters of other nations.”
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil flows, has been the scene of a series of tense encounters, with Iran seizing boats it claims had entered its waters. One disrupted signal or miscalculation could touch off a confrontation.
For years, Iran has allegedly jammed satellite and radio signals to block foreign-based Farsi media outlets from broadcasting into the Islamic Republic, where radio and television stations are state-controlled.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has warned that commercial aircraft cruising over the Persian Gulf could experience interference and communications jamming from Iran. Ships in the region have also reported “spoofed” communications from unknown entities falsely claiming to be U.S. or coalition warships, according to American authorities.
“It’s not that hard to do, but we’ve seen Iran and other countries become pretty darn efficient at doing it on a big scale,” said Brian Weeden, an Air Force veteran and director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation, which promotes peaceful uses of outer space. “There’s a concern Iran could interfere with military broadband communications.”
Responding to questions from the AP, Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman at Iran’s mission to the United Nations, said “Iran will not tolerate interference in our affairs, and in accordance with international law, will respond to any attacks against our sovereignty.” He added that Iran has faced numerous cyber attacks from the U.S. and Israel.
Failing an international agreement that bars conventional arms, like ballistic missiles, from shooting down space assets, the domain will only become more militarized, said Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association. Russia and China have already created space force units and the Revolutionary Guard’s sudden interest in satellite launches has heightened U.S. concerns.
Still, American officials insist the new Space Force deployment aims to secure U.S. interests, not set off an extraterrestrial arms race.
“The U.S. military would like to see a peaceful space,” Benson, the director of Space Force troops stationed in Qatar, said. “Other folks’ behavior is kind of driving us to this point.”
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We continue to look at life during the pandemic and some creative ways people are helping their community.  
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Indian authorities have confirmed that at least eight people died in a residential building collapse Monday morning in Maharashtra state.Search and rescue teams are working to find and bring to safety dozens of people who may be trapped in the rubble.At least 11 people were injured when the four-story building collapsed, the commissioner of Bhiwandi in Thane district, a suburb of India’s financial capital, Mumbai, said.Pankaj Ashiya said that the building was more than 30 years old and was due for repair and renovation, which were delayed due to the COVID-19 lockdown.During the June-September monsoon season, when heavy rains weaken the foundations of buildings that are poorly constructed or old, India experiences frequent structure collapses.  
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In Afghanistan on Sunday, relatives of victims and witnesses told the Associated Press that government airstrikes in the northern part of the country killed at least 24 people, including children, and wounded six others.Two witnesses contacted by the Associated Press news agency said most of those killed in Saturday’s airstrikes, which hit the village of Sayed Ramazan in Kunduz province, were civilians.”This is the shell of the bomb,” said Khan Mohammad, a relative of the victims, indicating spent munitions. “Seven children were at the corner of the house where the bomb was dropped.”Villagers said the first airstrike targeted a house belonging to a Taliban fighter.”If you (the government) want to make peace, why you are dropping bombs?” asked Mozafer Khan, a relative of the victims. “Because of one Taliban they have killed 20 (civilian) people.”The airstrikes came as government and Taliban negotiators are meeting for the first time in Qatar to end the decades-long war and conflict in Afghanistan and settle the future of the country.The Afghan Defense Ministry said the airstrikes killed 30 Taliban fighters and an investigation was underway into allegations that civilians were among those killed.The village of Sayed Ramazan is in Khanabad district, which is controlled by the Taliban.A spokesperson for the group condemned the airstrikes and said the Taliban was not conducting any military operations in the area at the time of the airstrikes.The United Nations has strongly condemned both sides in Afghanistan’s conflict for the killing of civilians.  
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