🇷🇴 **Romania vote to ban same-sex marriage fails due to low voter turnout **
*BBC News* - <https://archive.fo/jXzFx>

A referendum to establish a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in Romania has failed - after only a fifth of voters bothered to turn out.

Romanians were being asked whether they wanted the constitution changed to specify that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

But just 20.4% of eligible voters cast ballots - short of the 30% needed.

The result may come as a suprise, as a poll on Friday indicated support for the change was as high as 90%
----------------

🇰🇵 **Kim Jong Un and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo agreed to arrange a second summit between U.S. and North Korea**
*Global News* - <https://archive.fo/SLAW0>

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo agreed to arrange a second summit between the two countries as soon as possible, South Korea’s presidential office said on Sunday.

South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in met Pompeo after the top U.S. diplomat’s trip to Pyongyang earlier in the day, which included a meeting with Kim.

Pompeo told Moon that he and Kim discussed denuclearization steps to be taken by North Korea and the issue of inspection on those actions, which Washington has been calling for, as well as the measures the United States would take, Moon’s press secretary Yoon Young-chan said in a statement.

----------------

🐾 **What it’s like to have sex as a ‘furry’**
New York Post - <http://archive.fo/uzzg4>

No, he doesn’t have sex in the wolf suit.
Much.
“When I imagined getting a suit, I thought it would be something I would want to do,” says Dominic Rodriguez, director of a new documentary on the “furry” subculture — and a member himself.
“But honestly?” he says. “The suit is so beautiful, it’s so much better than I thought it would be, I don’t want to mess it up. I could just put it on and get [oral sex], though.”
Furries, as they are known, have been the subject of much eyebrow-raising since the community came into the spotlight in the 1990s. Misconceptions and vilifications, many of which are addressed in the film, abound. So what, exactly, is a furry, according to someone on the inside?
----------------------------

🇺🇸 **Nikki Haley resigns as UN ambassador, stays mum on next move**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/JbIkp>

Nikki Haley abruptly announced her resignation Tuesday as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, catching staff and lawmakers by surprise and leaving Washington guessing about the next move for one of the administration's most prominent figures.

Speaking in the Oval Office alongside President Trump, who accepted the resignation, Haley said she would serve through the end of 2018. She preemptively sought to mute speculation she might run against her old boss, stressing that she will support Trump and will not campaign for the White House in 2020.

Haley called her time at the U.N. a "blessing," but offered no reason for leaving other than a belief that government officials must know "when it’s time to step aside."

Trump told reporters that Haley did "an incredible job" and is a "fantastic person." He said she had told him six months ago that she wanted to take a break "maybe at the end of the year."

"Now the U.S. is respected. Countries may not like what we do, but they respect what we do," she said, citing a number of achievements of the Trump administration.

"The U.S. is strong again, it's strong in a way that should make all Americans very proud," she told reporters.
----------------

🇮🇱 **Israel detains American student for her alleged boycott support**
🇺🇸 *CBS* - <https://archive.fo/ETERo>

In a groundbreaking case, Israel has detained an American graduate student at its international airport for the past week, accusing her of supporting a Palestinian-led boycott campaign against the Jewish state.

The case highlights Israel's concerns about the boycott movement and the great efforts it has made to stop it. The grassroots campaign has made significant inroads in recent years, particularly among university students and millennials.

Lara Alqasem, a 22-year-old U.S. citizen with Palestinian grandparents, landed at Ben-Gurion Airport last Tuesday with a valid student visa. But she was barred from entering the country and ordered deported, based on suspicions she is a boycott supporter.

An Israeli court has ordered that she remain in custody while she appeals. The weeklong detention is the longest anyone has been held in a boycott-related case, and it was not immediately clear on Tuesday when a final decision would be made.

Alqasem, from the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Southwest Ranches, Florida, is a former president of the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The group is a branch of the BDS movement, whose name comes from its calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel.

BDS supporters say that in urging businesses, artists and universities to sever ties with Israel, they are using nonviolent means to resist unjust policies toward Palestinians. Israel says the movement masks motives to delegitimize or destroy the Jewish state.

"Lara served as president of a chapter of one of the most extreme and hate-filled anti-Israel BDS groups in the U.S.," said Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan, who spearheads the Israeli government's efforts against the boycott. "Israel will not allow entry to those who work to harm the country, whatever their excuse."
----------------

🇨🇳 **New evidence of hacked Supermicro hardware found at U.S. telecom firm**
🇺🇸 *Chicago Tribune/Bloomberg* - <https://archive.fo/7Fnkk>

A major U.S. telecommunications company discovered manipulated hardware from Super Micro Computer Inc. in its network and removed it in August, fresh evidence of tampering in China of critical technology components bound for the U.S., according to a security expert working for the telecom company.

The security expert, Yossi Appleboum, provided documents, analysis and other evidence of the discovery following the publication of an investigative report in Bloomberg Businessweek that detailed how China's intelligence services had ordered subcontractors to plant malicious chips in Supermicro server motherboards over a two-year period ending in 2015.

Appleboum previously worked in the technology unit of the Israeli Army Intelligence Corps and is now co-chief executive officer of Sepio Systems in Gaithersburg, Maryland. His firm specializes in hardware security and was hired to scan several large data centers belonging to the telecommunications company. Bloomberg is not identifying the company due to Appleboum's nondisclosure agreement with the client. Unusual communications from a Supermicro server and a subsequent physical inspection revealed an implant built into the server's Ethernet connector, a component that's used to attach network cables to the computer, Appleboum said.

The executive said he has seen similar manipulations of different vendors' computer hardware made by contractors in China, not just products from Supermicro. "Supermicro is a victim -- so is everyone else," he said. Appleboum said his concern is that there are countless points in the supply chain in China where manipulations can be introduced, and deducing them can in many cases be impossible. "That's the problem with the Chinese supply chain," he said.

Super Micro Computer, which does business as Supermicro and is based in San Jose, California, gave this statement: "The security of our customers and the integrity of our products are core to our business and our company values. We take care to secure the integrity of our products throughout the manufacturing process, and supply chain security is an important topic of discussion for our industry. We still have no knowledge of any unauthorized components and have not been informed by any customer that such components have been found. We are dismayed that Bloomberg would give us only limited information, no documentation, and half a day to respond to these new allegations."

Bloomberg News first contacted Supermicro for comment on this story on Monday at 9:23 a.m. Eastern time and gave the company 24 hours to respond.
----------------

🇿🇦 **South Africa’s Zulu nation joins white farmers in fight against government land seizures**
*RT* - <https://archive.fo/64Chk>

The largest ethnic group in South Africa, Zulu, has spoken out against the expropriation of land without compensation in the country. Zulu is ready to cooperate with the country's white farmers, known as Afrikaners or Boers.

Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini has said the group will cooperate with South African minority rights group AfriForum.

“The Zulu nation I’m talking about will not exist if we don’t have food. That’s why I say farmers must come closer so that we discuss what we can do when we talk about agriculture and the availability of enough food in the land. That’s why I’m asking AfriForum of the Boers to come and help us,” Zwelithini said, as quoted by eNews Channel Africa.

“Because when government started talking about the appropriation of land, expropriation without compensation, Boers downed tools. There is no food in South Africa,” he added.

Zulu people are the largest ethnic group in South Africa, with an estimated 10-12 million people living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The group accounts for more than a fifth of the country’s population and its opinion is important in the context of the general elections next year.

“Anyone who wants to be voted for and elected by us, I’m going to talk now, anyone who wants to be elected by us must come and kneel here and commit that I will never touch your land,” the Zulu King said.

While kings have no official power in modern South Africa, they still have the loyalty of millions of people and are recognized in the constitution as traditional leaders.
----------------

🇺🇸 ***Breaking***
Stock Market down 800 “led by big tech companies”

UPDATE: Trump says the Fed has 'gone crazy' after the Dow tumbles 830 points in one day
Today 6:44 PM ET (MarketWatch)

🇺🇸 **‘THE GOOD CENSOR’: Leaked Google Briefing Admits Abandonment of Free Speech for ‘Safety And Civility’**
*Breitbart* - <https://archive.fo/24HKf>

An internal company briefing produced by Google and leaked exclusively to Breitbart News argues that due to a variety of factors, including the election of President Trump, the “American tradition” of free speech on the internet is no longer viable.

Despite leaked video footage showing top executives declaring their intention to ensure that the rise of Trump and the populist movement is just a “blip” in history, Google has repeatedly denied that the political bias of its employees filter into its products.

But the 85-page briefing, titled “The Good Censor,” admits that Google and other tech platforms now “control the majority of online conversations” and have undertaken a “shift towards censorship” in response to unwelcome political events around the world.

Examples cited in the document include the 2016 election and the rise of Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) in Germany.

Responding to the leak, an official Google source said the document should be considered internal research, and not an official company position.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Stock Market plummets more than 800 points, tech companies the cause**
*CNBC* - <https://archive.fo/1qgMO>

Stocks sank on Wednesday as a steep decline in tech shares and worries of rapidly rising rates sent Wall Street on pace for its worst day in eight months.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 831.83 points lower at 25,598.74 as Intel and Microsoft fell more than 3.5 percent each. The Nasdaq Composite plummeted 4 percent to 7,422.05.

The S&P 500 dropped 3.3 percent to 2,785.68, with the tech sector underperforming. The broad index also posted a five-day losing streak — its longest since November 2016 — and fell below its 50-day and 100-day moving averages, widely followed technical levels.

Both the Dow and S&P 500 posted their biggest one-day drops since early February, while the Nasdaq notched its largest single day sell-off since June 24, 2016.

Stocks have fallen sharply this month. For October, the S&P 500 and the Dow are down more than 4.4 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, has lost more than 7.5 percent.
----------------

@w7 wheres the news?

🇨🇦 **Canada starts legal marijuana sales Wednesday as world watches closely**
*USA Today* - <http://archive.fo/QvFOU>

VANCOUVER – Canada’s launch of legal marijuana sales may set the stage for a global cannabis revolution, unleashing a wave of high-quality medical research that could bolster pot's reputation as a healthier alternative to alcohol and tobacco and fuel a economic boom across the USA.

Starting Wednesday, Canada becomes the highest-profile country to not only decriminalize cannabis possession and use, but to tax, regulate and monitor its growth, distribution and sale.

"They know they are the global leaders if they get it right. And they are making this a priority from the top down," said April Pride of Van der Pop, a Seattle-based women-focused cannabis lifestyle brand operating in the USA and Canada.

Canada’s national approach means pot businesses can use banks, trade stocks and sponsor peer-reviewed medical studies like any other pharmaceutical operation. It's a far cry from the piecemeal approach taken in the USA, where cannabis entrepreneurs worry the Justice Department may swoop in if the political winds shift. Though a majority of states have adopted some form of legal weed, marijuana remains illegal at the federal level in the USA.

----------------

🇺🇸 **Trump calls Stormy Daniels 'Horseface'**
*The Hill* - <https://archive.fo/iXUD8>

President Trump on Tuesday called adult-film star Stormy Daniels "Horseface" and threatened to "go after" her after he won a court victory over his alleged mistress.

“'Federal Judge throws out Stormy Danials [sic] lawsuit versus Trump. Trump is entitled to full legal fees.' @FoxNews Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas. She will confirm the letter she signed! She knows nothing about me, a total con!' he tweeted.

The tweet comes one day after a federal judge in California threw out Daniels's defamation lawsuit against Trump and ordered Daniels to repay the president's legal fees.

Daniels's attorney, Michael Avenatti, responded by calling Trump a "disgusting misogynist" and a "liar" who has dishonored his family and country.

"You are a disgusting misogynist and an embarrassment to the United States. Bring everything you have, because we are going to demonstrate to the world what a complete shyster and liar you are. How many other women did you cheat on your wife with while you had a baby at home?" he tweeted.

The former adult film star later hit back at Trump, making a ribald reference to his genitals.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present your president. In addition to his...umm...shortcomings, he has demonstrated his incompetence, hatred of women and lack of self control on Twitter AGAIN! And perhaps a penchant for bestiality. Game on, Tiny," she tweeted.
----------------

🇺🇸 **“People just can’t know that.” MO Sen. McCaskill Hides Agenda Including “semi-automatic rifle ban” from Moderate Voters, Staffers Reveal in Undercover Video it “could hurt her ability to get elected.”**
*Project Veritas* - <https://archive.fo/VAtkV>

Project Veritas Action Fund has released a third undercover video from campaigns during this 2018 election season. This report exposes how incumbent Senator McCaskill and individuals working on her campaign conceal their liberal views on issues in order to court moderate voters.

Said James O’Keefe, founder and president of Project Veritas Action:

“This undercover report shows just how broken our political system has become. Senator McCaskill hides her true views from voters because she knows they won’t like them.”

Senator McCaskill revealed her intention to vote on various gun control measures in undercover footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Doh0d78lin4
----------------

🇭🇳 🇬🇹 🇲🇽 **Northbound migrant group doubles in size, enters Guatemala**
🇺🇸 *Yahoo/Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/VdRMw>

Up to 3,000 migrants crossed from Honduras into Guatemala on Monday on a trek northward, after a standoff with police in riot gear and warnings from Washington that migrants should not try to enter the United States illegally.

The crowd more than doubled in size from Saturday, when some 1,300 people set off from northern Honduras in what has been dubbed "March of the Migrant," an organizer said. The migrants plan to seek refugee status in Mexico or pass through to the United States.

Reuters could not independently verify the number of participants, but images showed a group carrying backpacks and clogging roads near the border, some waving the Honduran flag.

The impoverished nations of Central America, from which thousands of migrants have fled in recent years, are under mounting pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to do more to curb mass migration.

"We are seriously concerned about the caravan of migrants traveling north from Honduras, with false promises of entering the United States by those who seek to exploit their compatriots," the U.S. Embassy in Honduras said in a statement on Sunday evening.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence last week called on presidents in the region to tackle the issue, saying Washington would be willing to help with economic development and investment in return.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Washington to Decide on First-of-Its-Kind U.S. Carbon Fee**
*Bloomberg* - <https://archive.fo/vI2UC>

Voters in Washington state will go to the polls Nov. 6 to decide whether or not they want to impose a first-of-its-kind “fee” on carbon emissions. Ballot initiative 1631 marks the second time the state will vote to put a cost on emissions. A prior effort, labeled a carbon tax, failed when it was on the ballot two years ago.

Proponents including Democratic Governor Jay Inslee and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates are hoping the new proposal -- which the state estimates would raise $2.3 billion for clean-energy investment by 2025 -- will win more backing. If passed, it would be the first effort of its kind enacted by referendum anywhere in the world, making the state a global leader in climate policy at the same time the Trump administration is reversing some federal measures.

“If it passes, it would encourage carbon-tax supporters in other states -- as a matter of political reality, this means ‘blue’ states -- to pursue analogous referendums,” said Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates in Houston, said in an email.

Because Washington is already one of the cleanest U.S. states in terms of greenhouse gases, a carbon fee would be less of a burden for households there than in other places, according to Neelesh Nerurkar, vice president with the Washington-based research firm ClearView Energy Partners LLC.

Fifty percent of registered voters support the measure, with 36 percent opposed, and 14 percent undecided, according to a poll conducted Oct. 4 to Oct. 9 by Elway Research and Crosscut, an online news provider. The margin of error is 5 percent.
----------------

🇫🇷 **Italy brands France a 'disgrace' after police dump migrants across border**
🇮🇹 *Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/k8bwX>

Italy’s far right Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini branded France an “international disgrace” on Tuesday for having driven two migrants across its border and dumping them in Italy.

Tensions between the neighbors have risen as Rome has accused Paris of hypocrisy by refusing to take in a fair share of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have reached Italy by boat since 2014.

On Friday, witnesses reported seeing a French police van cross the mountain border at Claviere, near the Italian ski resort of Sestriere, and making two black men get out in a wooded area before driving back the short distance to France.

Italy demanded explanations from France and on Monday French media quoted the head of the Hautes-Alpes region that flanks Italy as acknowledging that its police had crossed the border, calling the incursion “an error”.

Salvini, who serves as interior minister and is also head of the far-right League, dismissed the explanation and demanded to know the identities of the two men, who he said were migrants.
----------------

🇵🇸 **U.N. allows Palestinians to act more like full member in 2019**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/PZxPj>

The 193-member United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday allowed the Palestinians to act more like a full U.N. member state during meetings in 2019 when they will chair the group of 77 developing nations.

The United States, Israel and Australia voted against the move, which won 146 votes in favor. There were 15 abstentions and 29 countries didn’t vote.

“We cannot support efforts by the Palestinians to enhance their status outside of direct negotiations. The United States does not recognize that there is a Palestinian state,” U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Jonathan Cohen told the General Assembly.

The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Israel captured those territories in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally.

“We strongly oppose the Palestinians’ election as chair of the G77 as well as this so-called enabling resolution,” he said. “Only U.N. member states should be entitled to speak and act on behalf of major groups of states at the United Nations.”

In 2012, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine when it upgraded the Palestinian Authority’s U.N. observer status to non-member state - like the Vatican - from entity.
----------------

🇨🇳 **China says internment camps are 'free vocational training'**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/E6kEY>

China on Tuesday characterized its mass internment of Muslims as a push to bring into the "modern, civilized" world a destitute people who are easily led astray — a depiction that analysts said bore troubling colonial overtones.

The report is the ruling Communist Party's latest effort to defend its extrajudicial detention of Central Asian Muslim minorities against mounting criticism.

China's resistance to Western pressure over the camps highlights its growing confidence under President Xi Jinping, who has offered Beijing's authoritarian system as a model for other countries.

About 1 million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other minorities have been arbitrarily detained in mass internment camps in China's far west Xinjiang region, according to estimates by a U.N. panel. Former detainees say they were forced to disavow their Islamic beliefs in the camps, while children of detainees are being placed in dozens of orphanages across the region.

The report by the official Xinhua News Agency indicated that key to the party's vision in Xinjiang is the assimilation of the indigenous Central Asian ethnic minorities into Han Chinese society — and in turn, a "modern" lifestyle.

Xinjiang Gov. Shohrat Zakir said the authorities were providing people with lessons on Mandarin, Chinese history and laws. Such training would steer them away from extremism and onto the path toward a "modern life" in which they would feel "confident about the future," he said.
----------------

🇭🇺 **Hungary gender studies ban draws university anger**
*Yahoo/AFP* - <https://archive.fo/b3GkB>

A prestigious Hungarian university on Tuesday blasted a government decree that prohibits gender studies courses as a "major infringement" on academic freedom.

The decree, signed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban and in force since Saturday, dropped the subject from a list of masters degree programmes entitled to official accreditation and financial support.

Institutions are also now barred from launching new courses in the discipline, although students who have already begun courses may complete their studies, according to the decree.

"This is a major infringement on academic freedom and university autonomy," said the Budapest-based Central European University (CEU) in a statement.

"Eliminating this programme will be a significant loss to the Hungarian scholarly community and for democratically-minded public policy," said the CEU, one of only two universities in Hungary that offered gender studies degrees.

The decree is seen by critics as the latest attack by Orban's right-wing government on both university independence and political opponents of its socially conservative policies.
----------------

🇭🇳 🇬🇹 🇲🇽 **Trump Threatens To Cut Off Funding To Countries Allowing Citizens To Immigrate Illegally To US**
🇺🇸 *The Daily Caller* - <https://archive.fo/X1ter>

President Donald Trump warned several South American countries that they will no longer receive payments from the United States unless they combat illegal immigration efforts by their citizens in a tweet sent Tuesday.

“We have today informed the countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador that if they allow their citizens, or others, to journey through their borders and up to the United States, with the intention of entering our country illegally, all payments made to them will STOP (END)!” Trump tweeted.

The president continued to rail against illegal immigration by sending another tweet just minutes later.

“Anybody entering the United States illegally will be arrested and detained, prior to being sent back to their country!” Trump said.

Trump’s tough talk on immigration comes as the 2018 midterms approach and Republicans attempt to keep control of Congress.
----------------

🇺🇸 **U.S. Wins Title of World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time in a Decade**
*Breitbart* - <https://archive.fo/YxIbk>

The World Economic Forum, which hosts the annual conference of global elites in Switzerland, said on Tuesday that the United States is the most competitive economy in the world.

The U.S. has not held the number one spot since 2008, when the aftermath of the financial crisis and bungled recovery efforts left the U.S. economy limping.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Supreme Court agrees to hear a case that could determine whether Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies can censor their users**
*CNBC* - <https://archive.fo/FwcPb>

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could determine whether users can challenge social media companies on free speech grounds.

The case, Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck, No. 17-702, centers on whether a private operator of a public access television network is considered a state actor, which can be sued for First Amendment violations.

The case could have broader implications for social media and other media outlets. In particular, a broad ruling from the high court could open the country's largest technology companies up to First Amendment lawsuits.

That could shape the ability of companies like Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet's Google to control the content on their platforms as lawmakers clamor for more regulation and activists on the left and right spar over issues related to censorship and harassment.

The Supreme Court accepted the case on Friday. It is the first case taken by a reconstituted high court after Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation earlier this month.
----------------

beep boop

free speech

beep boop

orangeman bad

🇺🇸 **Stoned Driver Crash Risk Grows as Legal Pot Spreads in the U.S.**
*Bloomberg* - <https://archive.fo/L0wyH>

As the push to legalize marijuana gains momentum, so is evidence that more permissive policies on the drug are putting motorists at risk.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found, in a study to be released on Thursday, that traffic accidents are rising in states that have legalized recreational marijuana. That followed stark warnings from the National Transportation Safety Board, which on Tuesday issued several recommendations to combat drug-impaired driving.

“The last thing in the world that we want is to introduce another legal substance where we may be adding to that toll and to the carnage on our highways,” said David Harkey, president of the Insurance Institute. “With marijuana impairment, we’re just now starting to understand what we don’t know.”

After retail sales of recreational cannabis began, the frequency of collision insurance claims in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington State rose about 6 percent higher than in nearby states where marijuana is still illegal, the IIHS said in the study.

A separate IIHS study saw a 5 percent increase in the rate of crashes per million vehicle registrations reported to police in Colorado, Oregon and Washington versus neighbors that haven’t legalized the drug.

"The bottom line of all of this is that we’re seeing a consistently higher crash risk in those states that have legalized marijuana for recreational purposes," Harkey said.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Plug pulled on Lena Dunham’s Lenny Letter website**
*New York Post* - <https://archive.fo/cdxDF>

Lena Dunham’s feminist-leaning site, the Lenny Letter, is shutting down.

The website from the co-creator of HBO’s “Girls,” which blasted twice-a-week emails with articles on women’s topics, will cease operations on Friday, The Post has learned.

A rep for Dunham did not respond to requests for comment.

Rumblings of Lenny’s closure began to trickle out earlier this week when freelance writers were notified by editors that they would receive “kill fees,” or compensation for written works that haven’t been published.

The newsletter had always struggled for ad support, according to industry sources, and a series of controversies hasn’t helped. Last November, Dunham caught flak when she defended former “Girls” writer Murray Miller after an actress accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2012.

Lenny Letter’s readership has plunged precipitously since July 2017, sources said, when it reportedly had 500,000 subscribers, with nearly half of them still opening its newsletters.
----------------

🇲🇽 **Mexico deploys hundreds of riot police as migrants near**
*Yahoo/AFP* - <https://archive.fo/cuveV>

Mexico deployed hundreds of riot police Thursday to its border with Guatemala as a caravan of Central American migrants prepared to cross on their way to the United States, defying President Donald Trump's threats.

Hundreds of federal police in riot gear fanned out on the international bridge in Suchiate, on the Mexican-Guatemalan border, as the caravan of several thousand Honduran migrants trekked toward the crossing.

Guatemala also sent police reinforcements to its side of the border, after Trump threatened to cut aid to the region, deploy the military and close the US-Mexican border if the migrants were allowed to continue.

A first group of several hundred migrants arrived late Wednesday in the border town of Tecun Uman, Guatemala, where they overflowed a local shelter, leaving many to sleep in the town square or on the street, an AFP correspondent said.

Many were traveling with a single change of clothes and little money. Others were carrying young children in their arms.

The migrants planned to wait for the rest of the caravan to arrive, then cross the border en masse in hopes of overwhelming the Mexican authorities, who have vowed to detain anyone without a visa.
----------------

🇲🇽 **Trump threatens to send MILITARY to seal southern border if Mexico doesn't stop Central American immigrants including 'MANY CRIMINALS' from reaching the U.S.**
🇺🇸 *Daily Mail* - <https://archive.fo/wt0Ox>

Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to seal America's southern border with military force unless Mexico intervenes to stop the flow of illegal immigrants traveling to the U.S. from Central America.

The stern, tweeted warning came as a group of more than 4,000 travels north through Mexico in the hope of reaching the United States, despite having no visas or other legal papers to enter.

Trump blamed his Democratic rivals for the resulting chaos, saying 'they want Open Borders and existing weak laws.'

He resurrected the claim that launched his White House campaign in 2015, saying that 'this large flow of people' includes 'MANY CRIMINALS' and putting the words in uppercase letters for effect.

'I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught – and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!' Trump wrote.

'All Democrats fault for weak laws!' he added.

Trump on Thursday also renewed Wednesday's threat to stop all payments to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, including humanitarian aid, if their governments 'allow their citizens, or others, to journey through their borders and up to the United States.'

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to fly to Mexico on Friday.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Arizona man, 62, falls into mine shaft, breaks bones and kills 3 rattlesnakes before being rescued days later**
*Fox News* - <http://archive.fo/XZDBI>

A 62-year-old man was rescued from the depths of an Arizona mine shaft Wednesday -- two days after he plunged into the pit and began an ordeal during which he nursed his numerous injuries while simultaneously fending off a trio of rattlesnakes, officials said.

John Waddell was lifted out of the 100-foot-deep shaft Wednesday after his friend, Terry Schrader, heard Waddell hollering near Eagle Eye Road and milepost 13, located about 35 miles south of Aguila, Arizona, FOX10 Phoenix reported.

When Waddell plummeted into the shaft Monday, he broke both his legs. Worse, as he lay helpless, he suddenly discovered several rattlesnakes were slithering around him. Waddell said he managed to kill three of the serpents during the trying two days underground, all the while hoping someone would eventually hear his cries for help.

It took rescuers nearly six hours to pull Waddell out of the shaft to safety and then to airlift him to a hospital. Although Waddell was severely dehydrated and had broken his legs, his injuries were not life-threatening, FOX10 reported.
----------------

🇹🇷 **People-Smugglers Bringing Illegal Migrants to EU in Limos, Luxury Cars**
*Breitbart* - <http://archive.is/hAahA>

People-smugglers are transporting “desperate” illegal migrants to the European Union via Turkey in limousines and luxury cars at up to 3,000 euros a time.

Greek police have arrested five suspected people-smugglers from Georgia, a European country outside the EU bloc in the Caucasus, who they believe to be part of a more substantial and only partly dismantled criminal network, Ekathimerini reports.

The Athens-based newspaper describes the smugglers as transporting illegal migrants through Turkey in limos and other luxury cars fitted with licence plates from Bulgaria — which joined the European Union in 2007 — with the plates being switched for Greek ones near the Islamist-led country’s land border with the EU in East Thrace.
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🇹🇷 **Recordings prove Jamal Khashoggi was killed, Turkish investigators claim **
*The Guardian* - <http://archive.is/uQ8ts>

Turkish investigators have claimed video and audio recordings exist that prove Jamal Khashoggi was killed, a sign that Ankara is willing to keep up the pressure on Riyadh to back up its claims it has nothing to do with the dissident journalist’s disappearance.

US government officials told the Washington Post late on Thursday that their Turkish counterparts claimed the recordings from 2 October proved Khashoggi was murdered and his body dismembered during a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to pick up marriage paperwork.

The alleged audio evidence – which Turkish sources have also suggested exists in comments to the Guardian – is particularly strong, according to officials.

“You can hear his voice and the voices of men speaking Arabic,” a source told the Washington Post. “You can hear how he was interrogated, tortured and then murdered.”
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🇸🇦 **Fight at Consulate Led to Journalist’s Death, Saudis Say - 18 Saudi citizens have been detained pending final results of investigation**
🇹🇷 *The Wall Street Journal* - <https://archive.fo/d5hCT>

Saudi Arabia’s government acknowledged that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside its consulate in Istanbul, saying he died after a brawl.

In a statement carried by Saudi state television early Saturday, the government’s attorney general said 18 Saudi citizens have been detained pending the final results of a continuing investigation into the death of Mr. Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi journalist and government critic.

“Discussions between citizen Jamal Khashoggi and those who met him while he was in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul led to a brawl and a fist fight, which led to his death,” the statement said, citing the preliminary findings of the investigation.

Mr. Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. He was accompanied to the entrance by his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, who first raised the alarm of his disappearance.

The Saudi monarch, King Salman, ordered the formation of a new committee responsible for overhauling the country’s intelligence agency to be led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. That was a clear indication that the crown prince won’t face immediate repercussions for Mr. Khashoggi’s death.

In a royal order carried by state-run media, King Salman also announced that two senior government officials—both close aides of the crown prince—have been relieved of their posts. They are Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, the deputy chief of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence, and Saud al-Qahtani, who was in charge of media affairs at the royal court.
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🇿🇦 **South African city set to seize land in national ‘test case’**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/vZQsN>

As South Africa’s passionate debate over land redistribution grows, one city outside Johannesburg is preparing what the mayor calls a “test case” for the nation — the seizure of hundreds of acres of land from private owners, without paying for it, to build low-cost housing.

Like other South African cities, Ekurhuleni faces a dire housing crunch, with some 600,000 of its nearly 4 million people living in “informal settlements” and a shortage of land to build homes.

Last month, Ekurhuleni’s city council voted in favor of forging ahead with “expropriation without compensation,” a legal tool that the ruling African National Congress says is necessary to correct the historic injustices of apartheid and distribute land more equitably.

Nearly a quarter-century after the end of white-minority rule, white South Africans comprise just 8 percent of the population but still hold most of the individually owned private land, keeping most economic power in the hands of a few and making the country one of the most unequal societies in the world.

In July, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the ANC planned to amend the constitution to allow for expropriation without compensation, sparking concerns that the move could destabilize the fragile economy and spur conflict in an already socially divided nation.
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🇬🇹 **The indigenous people genocide case in Guatemala: justice delayed, justice denied?**
*opendemocracy.net* - <http://archive.is/3MUI1>

There was a military structure that designed, planned and executed operations aimed at eradicating Guatemala’s indigenous peoples. On Wednesday September 26, at about 7pm, in a courtroom filled to bursting point, the High Risk Court B declared, for the second time in five years, that genocide was committed in Guatemala.

Following more than two years of witness testimonies, forensic evidence and expert reports the court declared that they had sufficient evidence to prove that the Guatemalan army committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the Mayan Ixil people between 1982 and 1983, one of the most violent eras of the 36 year internal armed conflict in Guatemala.
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🇬🇹 **Mexico slowly processes caravan migrants at Guatemala border**
🇲🇽 *AP* - <https://archive.fo/gVKE7>

Mexican authorities for a second straight day Saturday refused mass entry to a caravan of Central American migrants held up at the border with Guatemala, but began accepting small groups for asylum processing and gave out some 45-day visitor permits that would theoretically allow recipients time to reach the United States.

Seeking to maintain order after a chaotic Friday in which thousands rushed across the border bridge only to be halted by a phalanx of officers in riot gear, authorities began handing out numbers for people to be processed in a strategy seen before at U.S. border posts when large numbers of migrants show up there.

Once they were processed, migrants were bused to an open-air, metal-roofed fairground in the nearby city of Tapachula, where the Red Cross set up small blue tents on the concrete floor. Easily 3,000 people or more the previous day, the crowd on the bridge thinned out noticeably.

Some migrants tore open a fence on the Guatemala side of the bridge and threw two young children, perhaps age 6 or 7, and their mother into the muddy waters about 40 feet below. They were rafted to safety in on the Mexican bank.

Some on the bank yelled warnings to migrants on the bridge not to get on buses organized by Mexican authorities, claiming it was a ruse to deport them. There was no evidence of anyone being deported through such trickery, but the warnings made plenty leery of boarding, like Fidelina Vasquez, a grandmother traveling with her daughter and 2-year-old grandson.

A Mexican migration official who declined to give his name because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly said that between Friday and Saturday, authorities had deported by bus about 500 people who voluntarily decided to return.
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