‘Russian mischief after election likely’

The assessment reflects widespread concern among US spy agencies that a months-long campaign by Russia to rattle the mechanisms of American democracy will probably continue after polls close on one of the most polarizing races in recent history, extending and amplifying the political turbulence. US security officials have not ruled out Russian-sponsored disruption on Election Day. In recent weeks, officials at the Department of Homeland Security have collected evidence of apparent Russian “scanning” of state-run databases and computer voting systems. 

“Whether they were really trying hard to get in, it’s not clear,” a US official said. Still, the decentralized nature of US polling would make it extraordinarily difficult to subvert a nationwide race. Instead, U.S. officials said it is more likely that Russia would use hacking tools to expose or fabricate signs of vote-rigging, aiming to delegitimize an election outcome that Republican candidate Donald Trump has said he may refuse to accept if he does not win. 

“I think it’s correct to say the Russians don’t think they can dictate the outcome,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. But even as votes are being tallied Tuesday, Schiff said, Russian intelligence services are likely to be “looking through their troves of hacked documents and seeing what they can release.” Whether Trump or Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton prevails, Schiff said, the United States “can expect a lot more of the same in terms of cyber-malevolence and influence” from Moscow. 

US officials said there is still time for last-minute disruptions, even if the overall election appears relatively secure. Several officials said they fear that even an isolated operation that forces a voting system offline could erode confidence. Schiff and others said they remain worried that Moscow could dump doctored documents over the weekend that appear to expose illegality by the Clinton or Trump campaigns — disclosures designed to create confusion among voters and be difficult to disprove before citizens cast their votes.

A group of Sri Lankan Tamils in Jaffna will break over 1,000 coconuts and light as many candles to bless Hillary Clinton, saying the Democratic presidential candidate’s win would be important for the future of the minority community. “We will dash 1,008 coconuts on November 8 to bless her ahead of the US election. We expect her to win the election,” M K Shivajilingam, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) member of the Tamil controlled northern provincial council said. The event will take place in Jaffna’s historic Kandsamy Kovil in Nallur. There will also be lighting of 1,008 candles at the Jaffna Cathedral, he added. Tamils in Sri Lanka believe they can find political solution only with the intervention of the US and Clinton’s win would be important for the future of the minority community in Sri Lanka, Shivajilingam said.

As Americans, will vote for a new president, hundreds and thousands of voters in California’s Bay Area and Boulder, Colorado, will also decide whether they want levies on sugary drinks, another step toward making soda taxes a norm.

Three cities in California, San Francisco, Berkeley, Albany and Boulder, Colorado, have become the latest battleground in a socalled “War on Sugar”, that centers on sweetened drinks. Over 80,000  voters will decide on ballot measures to introduce taxes of 1 or 2 cents per ounce on soft drinks on Nov. 9, just weeks after the World Health Organization (WHO) advocated that governments should impose these types of levies. The push for taxes on sugar and sodas has gathered momentum this year, as officials and health advocates seek ways to stem health epidemics of diabetes and obesity. On most ballots, the tax would not apply to diet sodas but does affect some juices, sports drinks and other beverages with added sugar. Reducing consumption of sugary drinks is seen as a relatively easy way for people to cut down on added sugars, recommended by groups including the WHO, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the American Heart Association. The trend has prompted worry and millions of dollars in advertising and lobbying campaigns from beverage industry giants like PepsiCo Inc and Coca-Cola Co that are facing declining sales of their flagship products in markets including the United States.