1

Facebook freezes political ads ahead of U.S. presidential election

Facebook has been criticised for allowing political ads to be "micro-targeted" on its platform, with serious consequences because they can only be seen by small groups and cannot be widely discussed; CEO Mark R. Zuckerberg announced on his Facebook page that the company would take steps to ban any political news from the platform in the seven days leading up to the U.S. election on November 3. He worries that a split in the country could lead to internal seism.

2

Former Mexican President Nieto may face trial for corruption.

Mexico is already preparing for big midterm elections scheduled for 2021. The lower house of Congress will then be re-elected, and 15 states, which make up nearly half of Mexico, will elect new governors. Corruption is a major problem. Former Mexican President Nieto is accused of taking more than $7.5 million in bribes. If he is criminally prosecuted, it would be a historic victory for incumbent President Obrador, who has vowed to root out corruption;

3

The United States is considering banning imports of cotton products from Xinjiang.

The Trump administration is considering a ban on some or all of Xinjiang's cotton products, which could be introduced as soon as Tuesday. There have been reports of forced labour in the region. The possible ban will have a huge impact on clothing manufacturers around the world. In July, the Trump administration argued that some clothing companies were using forced labor to blacklist them and ban the purchase of U.S. products. The Chinese companies and their international clothing brand customers deny the allegations and reject the government ban.

4

The Australian government has ordered more than 84 million doses of the new crown vaccine.

Australia's federal government has announced it will order the world's leading vaccine and produce it locally in Australia if oxford university and AstraZeneca's candidate new crown vaccine successfully passes clinical trials. It is part of an A$1.7 billion vaccine supply and production agreement. In addition to the Oxford/AstraZeneta vaccine, the agreement includes a candidate vaccine developed jointly by the University of Queensland and CSL, which will also be produced locally in Australia. According to the agreement,Early access to the Oxford/AstraZeneta vaccine will allow Australians to get it as early as January next year. Australia is expected to be able to vaccinate 3.8 million doses between January and February 2021.