🇨🇦 **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.
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🇲🇽 **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.
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🇲🇽 **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.
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🇺🇸 **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.
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🇹🇷 **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.
----------------

🇬🇹 **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.
----------------

🇩🇪 **Germany urges global minimum tax for digital giants**
*Yahoo/AFP* - <https://archive.fo/4Y9Ey>

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said in an interview for publication Sunday he backed a global minimum fiscal regime for multinationals as Europe looks to levy tax notably on US tech giants.

"We need a minumum tax rate valid globally which no state can get out of (applying)," Scholz, a social democrat in conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government, told the "Welt am Sonntag" weekly.

Europe is trying to devise a strategy to tax profits from the likes of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and digital platforms such as YouTube and Airbnb which currently manage to keep fiscal exposure to a bare minimum.

Digital platforms "aggravate a problem which we know well from globalisation and which we are trying to counter -- the shifting of profits to fiscally beneficial regions," said Scholz.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Trump says US will withdraw from nuclear arms treaty with Russia**
🇷🇺 *The Guardian* - <https://archive.fo/x9yW1>

Donald Trump has confirmed the US will leave an arms control treaty with Russia dating from the cold war that has kept nuclear missiles out of Europe for three decades.

“We’ll have to develop those weapons,” the president told reporters in Nevada after a rally. “We’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out.”

Trump was referring to the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF), which banned ground-launch nuclear missiles with ranges from 500km to 5,500km. Signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, it led to nearly 2,700 short- and medium-range missiles being eliminated, and an end to a dangerous standoff between US Pershing and cruise missiles and Soviet SS-20 missiles in Europe.

The Guardian reported on Friday that Trump’s third national security adviser, John Bolton, a longstanding opponent of arms control treaties, was pushing for US withdrawal. The US says Russia has been violating the INF agreement with the development and deployment of a new cruise missile. Under the terms of the treaty, it would take six months for US withdrawal to take effect.

US hawks have also argued that the INF treaty ties the country’s hands in its strategic rivalry with China in the Pacific, with no response to Chinese medium-range missiles that could threaten US bases, allies and shipping.
----------------

🇭🇳 🇬🇹 🇲🇽 **Migrant caravan swells to 5,000, resumes advance toward US**
🇺🇸 *AP* - <https://archive.fo/rcVyk>

A growing throng of Central American migrants resumed their advance toward the U.S. border in southern Mexico on Sunday, overwhelming Mexican government attempts to stop them at the border.

Their numbers swelled to about 5,000 overnight and at first light they set out walking toward the Mexican town of Tapachula, 10 abreast in a line stretching approximately a mile (1.5 kilometers).

Several hundred more already had applied for refugee status in Mexico and an estimated 1,500 were still on the Guatemalan side of the Suchiate River, hoping to enter legally.

It was not immediately clear where the additional travelers had materialized from since about 2,000 had been gathered on the Mexican side Saturday night. They seemed likely to be people who had been waiting in the Guatemalan town of Tecun Uman and who decided to cross during the night.

They marched on through Mexico like a ragtag army of the poor, shouting triumphantly slogans like “Si se pudo!” or “Yes, we could!”

As they passed through Mexican villages on the outskirts of Ciudad Hidalgo, they drew applause, cheers and donations of food and clothing from Mexicans.

Maria Teresa Orellana, a resident of the neighborhood of Lorenzo handed out free sandals to the migrants as they passed. “It’s solidarity,” she said. “They’re our brothers.”
----------------

🇺🇸 **Trump approval jumps ahead of Obama’s midterm approval rating**
*The Hill* - <https://archive.fo/iWgwb>

President Trump's approval rating before the November elections has jumped to a higher level than former President Obama's ahead of the 2010 midterms, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

The poll found Trump's approval rating at its highest level for that poll yet, at 47 percent. Obama's approval rating was 45 percent around the same time in 2010, according to a similar NBC/Wall Street Journal poll taken in late October 2010.

Obama's approval rating was reaching a record low in October 2010, just before his party lost a significant number of seats in the House and Senate.

Trump is a historically unpopular president among the general U.S. population, but consistently retains extremely high levels of Republican support. Recent polls have put him at around a 90 percent approval rating among Republicans.

Many see the midterm elections as a referendum on the current president.

Republicans and Democrats are facing a particularly tough election year, with vulnerable Democratic senators seeking to retain their seats in states Trump won by double digits in 2016 as Republicans deal with widespread Trump disapproval among suburban women and other groups.
----------------

🇺🇸 **‘Transgender’ Could Be Defined Out of Existence Under Trump Administration**
*NY Times* - <https://archive.fo/oXnZ2>

The Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, the most drastic move yet in a governmentwide effort to roll back recognition and protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law.

A series of decisions by the Obama administration loosened the legal concept of gender in federal programs, including in education and health care, recognizing gender largely as an individual’s choice and not determined by the sex assigned at birth. The policy prompted fights over bathrooms, dormitories, single-sex programs and other arenas where gender was once seen as a simple concept. Conservatives, especially evangelical Christians, were incensed.

Now the Department of Health and Human Services is spearheading an effort to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans gender discrimination in education programs that receive government financial assistance, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times.

The department argued in its memo that key government agencies needed to adopt an explicit and uniform definition of gender as determined “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.” The agency’s proposed definition would define sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with, according to a draft reviewed by The Times. Any dispute about one’s sex would have to be clarified using genetic testing.

“Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” the department proposed in the memo, which was drafted and has been circulating since last spring. “The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”
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🇬🇧 **Groups Promoting Anti-Brexit ‘People’s Vote’ March Funded by the EU**
*Breitbart* - <http://archive.fo/Nx6Sl>

Some of the groups promoting the march for a so-called ‘People’s Vote’ for another Brexit referendum were directly funded by the EU, according to reports. The People’s Vote campaign has been dubbed the ‘Losers’ Vote’ by critics, after the fact that ‘The People’ already voted against EU membership in the 2016 referendum on the issue.

It has also been described as ‘The Soros Vote’ by Nigel Farage, in a nod to the fact that many the people pushing hardest for a second referendum are super-rich establishment figures — billionaire plutocrat and open borders campaigner George Soros being foremost among them. However, there is evidence that some of the groups promoting the campaign’s march through metropolitan London on October 20th were directly funded by the EU itself — to the tune of hundreds of thousands of euros, according to Guido Fawkes.

The European Alternatives group received 300,000 euros — covering most of its 500,000 euro budget — from European Commission citizenship and justice programmes in 2016-17, according to EU documents, while the European Movement received an even more substantial sum of 350,000 euros from the bloc.
The European Movement, which is dedicated to “the establishment of a united, federal Europe” similar to the United States of America, and described its remit as “propaganda and other activities” in its memorandum of association, has played an interesting role in the Brexit story so far.
The official Remain campaign, Britain Stronger in Europe, was set up as the Interim Campaign Ltd by the European Movement’s chairwoman, Laura Sandys.
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🇭🇳 🇬🇹 🇲🇽 **Caravan of migrants swells to 7,000 and stretches more than a mile long as they continue marching towards the U.S. border - but Trump warns full efforts are being made to stop the 'onslaught of illegal aliens'**
🇺🇸 *Daily Mail/AP* - <https://archive.fo/F6iT9>

The throng of Central American migrants advancing toward the U.S. border in southern Mexico has now swelled to a whopping 7,000 people as they defy the efforts of four governments to break them up.

Thousands of mostly Honduran migrants rose at dawn on Sunday from the shores of a river between Guatemala and Mexico and continued their trek northward, overwhelming Mexican government attempts to stop them at the border.

Their numbers swelled from 2,000 to about 5,000 overnight and at first light they set out walking toward the Mexican town of Tapachula, 10 abreast in a line stretching approximately a mile. That number has now reportedly risen to 7,000.

Several hundred more already had applied for refugee status in Mexico and an estimated 1,500 were still on the Guatemalan side of the Suchiate River, hoping to enter legally.

It came as President Donald Trump fired off a tweet on Sunday afternoon, saying: 'Full efforts are being made to stop the onslaught of illegal aliens from crossing our Southern Border.

'People have to apply for asylum in Mexico first, and if they fail to do that, the U.S. will turn them away. The courts are asking the U.S. to do things that are not doable!'
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🇯🇴 **World War 3: Jordan demands Israel RETURN land leased under 1994 peace treaty**
🇮🇱 *Express* - <https://archive.fo/CiZfj>

After immense pressure from activists and civil society groups, Jordan said that it would be reclaiming al-Ghumar and al-Baqura after ending its lease agreement with Israel.

According to the 1994 peace agreement, Israel was leased 405 hectares of land so that Israeli farmers could use the water-rich farmland for at least 25 years.

The King said: “We have informed Israel of an end to the application of the peace treaty annexes regarding al-Baqura and al-Ghumar.

"Al-Baqura and al-Ghumar have always been on top of my priorities.

Our decision is to end the annexes of the peace treaty based on our keenness to take all that is necessary for Jordan and Jordanians.

"Al-Baqura and al-Ghumar are Jordanian land and will remain Jordanian."

The deadline to renew the lease is October 25.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would reach out to Jordan in order to negotiate an extension on the leases which are set to expire next year.
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🇷🇺 **Trump says U.S. to exit landmark nuclear arms pact, Russia threatens retaliation**
🇺🇸 *Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/0w6zd>

President Donald Trump said Washington would withdraw from a landmark Cold War-era treaty that eliminated nuclear missiles from Europe because Russia was violating the pact, triggering a warning of retaliatory measures from Moscow.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, negotiated by then-President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987, required elimination of short-range and intermediate-range nuclear and conventional missiles by both countries.

“Russia has not, unfortunately, honored the agreement so we’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out,” Trump told reporters on Saturday after a rally in Nevada.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Sunday that a unilateral withdrawal by the United States would be “very dangerous” and lead to a “military-technical” retaliation.

Gorbachev, now a frail 87-year-old, said it would be a mistake for Washington to quit the treaty, and it would undermine work he and U.S. counterparts did to end the Cold War Arms race.

“Do they really not understand in Washington what this could lead to?” Interfax news agency quoted Gorbachev as saying.
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🇺🇸 **Judge bars New Hampshire proof of residency requirement for new voters**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/ukpFs>

A New Hampshire judge on Monday put on hold a law requiring some voters to present proof of residency when they register, saying it would lengthen lines at polling places and make it difficult for students, disabled voters and others to cast ballots.

The temporary injunction against the Republican-backed law comes two weeks before U.S. Congressional elections that will determine whether opposition Democrats or U.S. President Donald Trump’s Republicans retain full control of the federal government’s legislative branch.

The measure, which passed largely along party lines and went into effect last year, required those seeking to register within 30 days of an election to present documents proving that they live in the area where they intend to vote. Without such proof, they must agree to either send it in within 10 days or the state will seek to verify their domicile.

The law does not require proof of address when voting.

“Where the law threatens to disenfranchise an individual’s right to vote, the only viable remedy is to enjoin its enforcement,” Presiding Justice Kenneth C. Brown wrote in his decision for the Hillsborough Superior Court Northern District in Manchester.

He added that the registration form is too complicated for many people to understand.
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🇪🇺 **YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki warns users about EU 'meme ban' **
*Mashable* - <https://archive.fo/YQyAP>

YouTube is sounding the alarms at the highest level over new controversial copyright legislation in the EU.

In a new blog post updating YouTube creators on the company’s priorities for the remainder of the year, CEO Susan Wojcicki focused on Article 13 of the European Union Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market.

While there are a number of problematic parts to this new legislation, such as Article 11 — which the EFF described as akin to a “link tax,” requiring internet platforms "to obtain a license before linking to news stories" — YouTube is putting the spotlight on Article 13, which has been widely referred to as a “meme ban.”

Article 13 of this new EU copyright law update, also known as the EU Copyright Directive, places copyright liabilities on sites with user-generated content, basically requiring them to scan uploads for copyrighted content. It’s been compared to YouTube’s own Content ID system for copyrighted material, but even YouTube believes it extends further than that.

Memes, parodies, educational videos, or any sort of remixes — all kinds of content that makes up the YouTube community that would currently pass as fair use — could be in danger. This would have sprawling effects on the internet as a whole.

Wojcicki did not mince words, saying that “Article 13 as written threatens to shut down the ability of millions of people — from creators like you to everyday users — to upload content to platforms like YouTube.” She also highlighted the economic impact of the legislation stating that “hundreds of thousands of jobs” are threatened by Article 13. The YouTube CEO continued: “This legislation poses a threat to both your livelihood and your ability to share your voice with the world.”
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🇺🇸 **Explosive Device Found in Mailbox at George Soros’s Westchester County Home**
*New York Times* - <https://archive.fo/eCgs9>

An explosive device was found on Monday in a mailbox at the Westchester County home of George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who is a favorite target of right-wing groups, the authorities said.

A law enforcement official confirmed that the device was found near Mr. Soros’s home. It did not explode on its own, and bomb squad technicians “proactively detonated” it, the official said.

Federal and state law enforcement officials responded to the scene in Katonah, N.Y., a hamlet in the upscale town of Bedford in northern Westchester, after the Bedford Police Department received a call about a suspicious package at about 3:45 p.m.

“An employee of the residence opened the package, revealing what appeared to be an explosive device,” the police said in a statement. “The employee placed the package in a wooded area and called the Bedford police.”

Mr. Soros was not home at the time.

The police said they had turned the case over to the F.B.I., which did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In a tweet late Monday night, the bureau’s New York office said it was conducting an investigation “at and around a residence in Bedford” and that there was no threat to public safety.
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🇸🇦 🇬🇧 **Saudi Arabia pays UK firms millions to boost image - PR agency Freud’s, the Independent, Vice and Tony Blair Institute for Global Change among those with links**
*The Guardian* - <http://archive.fo/HGaXO>

London has become a hub for global Saudi public relations and media influence campaigns, with British firms earning millions of pounds from efforts to improve the image of the kingdom and its regional allies in recent years, a Guardian investigation has found. The reputation of Saudi Arabia, always controversial due to its record on human rights and involvement in the ongoing Yemeni war, has taken a battering in the past fortnight following the apparent murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The investigation into how London has become a focus of lobbying efforts in recent years to burnish the country’s image reveals:

Major PR agency Freud’s, which has worked with Saudi Arabia, is now distancing itself from the kingdom. There are fresh concerns over the Independent’s decision to establish a partnership with a Saudi publisher with close links to the Saudi government.

The London office of online publisher Vice has been working on a series of films to promote Saudi Arabia. A Saudi publishing company that is signing partnerships with western media firms has donated to the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in return for his advice to the country. A company largely staffed by former employees of the collapsed PR firm Bell Pottinger has advised the Saudi state on communications strategy.

Although some media companies have longstanding relationships with the country, many advertising and PR groups rushed into the kingdom during the rise to power of Mohammed bin Salman, who became crown prince in June 2017. His recent attempts to improve the country’s overseas image have been undermined by Khashoggi’s disappearance.
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