🇺🇸 **Defense secretary signs off on spending $3.6B to build 175 miles of border wall**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/NxWXS>

Defense Secretary Mark Esper has signed off on spending $3.6 billion in Defense Department construction funds for 175 miles of wall on the southern border with Mexico, Pentagon officials told Fox News on Tuesday.

Esper has been briefing congressional leaders on the plans, including what military construction projects would be affected both in the U.S. and overseas.

The moves provoked an outcry Tuesday among some Democrats.

“Earlier today Defense Secretary Mark Esper notified me that the Department of Defense will reprogram $3.6 billion in funds appropriated for military construction and maintenance, including the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, in order to build the president’s misguided border wall,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement.

Others weighed in with just as much dissent.

“President Trump’s immigration efforts have failed since Day 1,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. “Today, he made it clear he is willing to take funds from our troops and disaster victims and divert them to try to protect his political right flank. And ultimately, that could put Americans at risk.”

For its part, the Trump administration has been touting progress made on the border.

“Construction continues on the border wall in Yuma, AZ,” Customs and Border Protection (CBP) tweeted over the weekend. “The process includes panel fabrication and delivery, demolition, soil conditioning and digging, trench digging, panel hoisting and installation.”

Use of the money had been frozen by lower courts while a lawsuit proceeded. Last month, however, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the use of about $2.5 billion.
---------------

🇳🇿 **Five killed in New Zealand as bus with Chinese tourists rolls over**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/I5FXX>

A bus carrying 27 people, mostly Chinese tourists, rolled over on a highway in New Zealand’s North Island on Wednesday, killing five people and injuring six, police said.

Police are investigating the accident on State Highway 5 near Rotorua, a popular destination for tourist groups from China, in which the bus flipped to the opposite side of the road on a “moderate to easy bend”, an official said.

“It’s a traumatic incident for all concerned, and it has far-reaching consequences,” Brent Crowe, an inspector in the Bay of Plenty region, told a news conference.

Ethnic liaison officers were coordinating with victims’ families and Chinese officials, he said, adding that police were working with the foreign ministry and the Chinese consulate to notify the next of kin.

An official at the Chinese embassy in Wellington told Reuters it was working with police to identify the victims.

Two of the injured suffered serious injuries, while four were less grievously hurt.
----------------

🇺🇸 **San Francisco Officials Designate NRA a Domestic Terrorist Organization**
*KQED* - <http://archive.fo/Nl3bl>

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday declaring the National Rifle Association a domestic terrorist organization and urging other municipalities, states and the federal go government to do the same.

The resolution calls out the NRA for inciting acts of violence and spreading "misinformation and propaganda" and encourages the city to assess and limit contracts with vendors affiliated with the NRA. It stops short, though, of putting in place any enforcement mechanisms or new regulations.

"The NRA conspires to limit gun violence research, restrict gun violence data sharing and most importantly aggressively tries to block every piece of sensible gun violence prevention legislation proposed on any level, local state or federal," said Supervisor Catherine Stefani, who sponsored the measure.

A longtime advocate for gun safety, Stefani also introduced a resolution earlier this year that authorized the San Francisco Police Department to use funds from the U.S. Department of Justice to help improve the collection, management and analysis of gun-crime evidence.

Tuesday's resolution notes America's "epidemic of gun violence, including over 36,000 deaths, and 100,000 injuries each year." It also highlights the striking frequency of mass shootings nationwide, specifically noting a massacre in nearby Gilroy in July that left four people dead, including two children.

In addition, it mentions a notable increase in hate crimes since 2015, and the growing number of guns in the U.S., which currently exceeds the country’s total population.

In a statement before the vote, NRA spokeswoman Amy Hunter said, "This ludicrous stunt by the Board of Supervisors is an effort to distract from the real problems facing San Francisco, such as rampant homelessness, drug abuse and skyrocketing petty crime."
---------------

🇺🇸 **Jussie Smollett lawyers: Even if actor faked attack, cops didn’t need to investigate it so vigorously**
*Chicago Sun Times* - <https://archive.fo/yg5Q1>

This is it.

Jussie Smollett is smokin’.

The actor, once a star of the hit-TV series “Empire,” is making one last attempt to get a city lawsuit against him tossed out of federal court before it proceeds to trial.

Sneed learned exclusively that late Tuesday night, his attorneys filed a motion responding to the city’s claim that he should pay the city more than $130,000 to cover police overtime and other costs.

The city claims the costs were incurred in connection with an investigation into a report he filed claiming he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack in River North. Police later charged Smollett with staging the attack.

Attorneys for Smollett deny the actor made up the attack, and note charges were ultimately dropped by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

“My client from the beginning has maintained his innocence and disputed the city’s allegations,” said William J. Quinlan, of The Quinlan Law Firm, who filed the motion. He noted that “it’s going to be very difficult for the city to prevail in making a case my client should pay for overtime for a case ultimately dismissed by the state’s attorney.

“It’s ridiculous and a stretch to require him to do so.”

But the latest court filing contends even if Smollett did make a false report, there is no way the city can assert he would have known the city would investigate — and investigate it to the extent cops did.

“We contend the city is wrong,” Quinlan said of the city’s assertion that Smollett should have known the city would spend nearly 2,000 hours investigating. “ ... The mere fact somebody filed a police report doesn’t presume the investigation will be done and certainly not to the extent of what the city is claiming.

“Smollett has no control over that,” Quinlan added.
---------------

🇺🇸 **Biden's eye fills with blood during CNN climate town hall**
*Washington Examiner* - <https://archive.fo/ZB7PC>

Former Vice President Joe Biden's left eye appeared to have a blood vessel burst while he was participating in CNN's town hall on climate change.

Biden has long been plagued by health issues. In 1988, he suffered an aneurysm that burst and required him to undergo emergency surgery. The then-senator was so close to death that a Catholic priest began preparing to administer the sacrament of last rites.

Months later, surgeons clipped a second aneurysm before it burst. Biden then took a seven-month leave from the Senate following the surgery. He’s described the operation as “they literally had to take the top of my head off.”

Doctors removed a benign polyp during a colonoscopy in 1996. In 2003, Biden had his gallbladder removed. He also suffers from asthma and allergies, and takes a prescription drug to lower his cholesterol. He has also taken medication for an enlarged prostate.

Biden hasn’t disclosed his medical history since 2008 when doctors found he had an irregular heartbeat.
---------------

🇿🇼 **Robert Mugabe: death of a liberation 'colossus' who crushed his foes as Zimbabwe unraveled**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/TdXl3>

Robert Mugabe, the bush war guerrilla who led Zimbabwe to independence and crushed his foes during nearly four decades of rule as his country descended into poverty, hyperinflation and unrest, died on Friday. He was 95.

He was one of the most polarizing figures in his continent’s history, a giant of African liberation, whose rule finally ended in ignominy when he was overthrown by his own army. He died in Singapore, where he had long received
medical treatment.

“It is with the utmost sadness that I announce the passing on of Zimbabwe’s founding father and former President, Cde (Comrade) Robert Mugabe,” a post on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s official Twitter account said.

Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s long-serving security chief who helped oust him from power, cut short a trip to a World Economic Forum in South Africa. He called an emergency meeting of the ruling ZANU-PF party to discuss declaring Mugabe
a national hero — a certain formality — and was due to address the nation.

Tributes poured in from African leaders. South Africa’s government mourned a “fearless pan-Africanist liberation fighter”. Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta hailed a “man of courage who was never afraid to fight for what he
believed in, even when it was not popular”.

At home, even foes paid respects.

“He was a colossus on the Zimbabwean stage and his enduring positive legacy will be his role in ending white minority rule & expanding a quality education to all Zimbabweans,” tweeted David Coltart, an opposition senator and
rights lawyer.

But others said his legacy was overshadowed by the harm he did to his people.
----------------

🇺🇸 **ThinkProgress, a Top Progressive News Site, Has Shut Down**
*The Daily Beast* - <https://archive.fo/tQVb4>

ThinkProgress, the influential news site that rose to prominence in the shadow of the Bush administration and helped define progressivism during the Obama years, is shutting down.

The outlet, which served as an editorially independent project of the Democratic Party think tank Center for American Progress (CAP), will stop current operations on Friday and be converted into a site where CAP scholars can post.

Top officials at CAP had been searching for a buyer to take over ThinkProgress, which has run deficits for years, and according to sources there were potentially three serious buyers in the mix recently. But in a statement to staff, Navin Nayak, the executive director of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, said the site was ultimately unable to secure a patron.

“Given that we could find no new publisher, we have no other real option but to fold the ThinkProgress website back into CAP’s broader online presence with a focus on analysis of policy, politics, and news events through the lens of existing CAP and CAP Action staff experts,” said Nayak. “Conversations on how to do so are just beginning, but we will seek to reinvent it as a different platform for progressive change.”

A dozen ThinkProgress employees will be losing their jobs, a CAP aide said, as many who were on staff had already gone to work elsewhere and some were incorporated into the larger CAP infrastructure. Those who are being laid off will be given a severance package that runs through the end of November and health care coverage that lasts through the year, said the CAP aide.
---------------

🇬🇧 **Sticking to Brexit plan, Johnson will not seek a delay**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/rCnRx>

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is sticking to his Brexit plan and will not seek a delay to Britain’s departure from the European Union at a summit next month, two ministers said on Sunday despite the latest resignation
from his government.

After work and pensions minister Amber Rudd’s quit late on Saturday over his Brexit policy, the ministers said Johnson was determined to “keep to the plan” to leave the EU by Oct. 31 with or without a deal to ease the transition.

Johnson’s strategy to leave “do or die” by that deadline has been shaken by the events of recent days, which have prompted critics to describe him as a “tin pot dictator” and deepened uncertainty over how Britain’s 2016 vote
to leave the EU will play out.

He has lost his Conservative government’s majority in parliament, expelled 21 rebels from the party and failed to force through a new election. Then his own brother quit, saying he was torn between family loyalty and the
national interest.

Saturday’s resignation of Rudd - who backed remaining in the EU in the 2016 referendum when Britain voted 52%-48% to leave - over what she called the government’s disproportionate focus on preparing for a no-deal Brexit
has only heightened the sense of crisis.

On Sunday, Rudd denied she was accusing the government of lying over its efforts to negotiate a Brexit deal, saying she was just reporting what she had seen.

“I am saying that 80 to 90% of the work that I can see going on on the EU relationship is about preparation for no deal. It’s about disproportion,” she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.

“The purpose of this resignation is to make the point that the Conservative Party at its best should be a moderate party that embraces people with different views of the EU.”
----------------

🇮🇱 **Israel's Netanyahu announces post-election plan to annex West Bank's Jordan Valley**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/PL1SZ>

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his intention on Tuesday to annex the Jordan Valley, a large swathe of the occupied West Bank, if he wins a closely contested election just a week away.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement that “all signed agreements with Israel and the obligations resulting from them would end” if Netanyahu went through with the move.

Israel captured the West Bank in a 1967 war and Palestinians, who signed interim peace deals with Israel in the 1990s that include security cooperation, seek to make the area part of a future state.

Israeli political commentators saw Netanyahu’s declaration, in a speech broadcast live on Israel’s main TV channels, as a bid to siphon support away from far-right rivals who have long advocated annexation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

“Today, I announce my intention, after the establishment of a new government, to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea,” Netanyahu said in a speech broadcast live on Israeli TV channels, calling the area “Israel’s eastern border”.

That step, he said, could be taken “immediately after the election if I receive a clear mandate to do so from you, the citizens of Israel”.
----------------

🇺🇸🇳🇱 **Dutchmen arrested at secret US airbase Area 51 with drones and cameras**
*DutchNews* - <https://archive.fo/pAojs>

Two Dutch men have been arrested in the US for trying to enter an area of desert in Nevada known as Area 51, which is controlled by the military.
Area 51, around 120 miles north of Las Vegas, is home to a heavily guarded US military base. According to UFO conspiracy theorists, it is also home to the remains from a flying saucer that supposedly crashed in Roswell,
New Mexico in 1947.

The two men, Ties Granzier aged 20 and Govert Sweep aged 21, had a drone, a camera and laptops with them in the car they were driving. They were arrested on Tuesday, three miles inside the security zone, after telling police they had seen the signs but wanted to look at the site anyway.
Both men have several YouTube channels with tens of thousands of subscribers. Subscribers to Sweep’s channel are told that he ‘travels around the world in search of the most challenging adventures’.

Area 51 is a popular pilgrimage for UFO watchers and other conspiracy theorists.

In July Facebook users were invited to sign up for an attempt to storm Area 51 on September 20. More than a hundred thousand people had agreed to do so before the organisers agreed to hold a festival instead, at the request of the FBI.
Alienstock was cancelled earlier this month due to ‘lack of infrastructure, poor planning, risk management and blatant disregard for the safety.’
----------------

Was this translated? Because its translated bad

rewrote it a bit. it's not translated, they're just shit writers

🇺🇸 **Felicity Huffman handed prison time over college admissions scandal**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/ygmre>

US actress Felicity Huffman has been sentenced to 14 days in prison for her involvement in a college admissions scandal.
The Desperate Housewives star admitted to paying $15,000 (£11,500) to have her daughter's exam answers secretly corrected in 2017.
She must also do 250 hours of community service and pay a $30,000 fine.

Parents and athletics coaches were among 50 people charged in the scheme, but none of the children were indicted.

"There are no excuses or justifications for my actions. Period," Huffman said in a statement after her sentencing. "I would like to apologise again to my daughter, my husband, my family and the educational community for my actions.
"And I especially want to apologise to the students who work hard every day to get into college, and to their parents who make tremendous sacrifices supporting their children."

Judge Indira Talwani said she believes Huffman has accepted full responsibility for her actions, but "trying to be a good mother does not excuse" what she did.

She must report to prison in six weeks. Prosecutors had asked for a month in prison and a $20,000 fine.

The parents charged in the college scam investigation allegedly paid bribes, had exams altered, and even had their children edited into stock photos to fake sporting talents on applications.
Prosecutors say they managed to fraudulently secure spots for the teenagers at elite US universities including Yale, Georgetown and Stanford.

Huffman pleaded guilty to mail and honest services fraud in May. She is the first parent sentenced in the scandal.

.
Her legal team had asked for a year of probation in lieu of jail time, 250 hours of community service and a $20,000 fine.
But prosecutors wrote in a memo last week that "neither probation nor home confinement (in a large home in the Hollywood Hills with an infinity pool) would constitute meaningful punishment or deter others from committing similar crimes".
----------------

🇸🇦 **Houthi drones hit two Aramco plants, Saudis say fires contained**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/rbwC8>

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group on Saturday attacked two Saudi Aramco plants, including the world’s biggest oil processing facility, sparking fires in the latest flare up of violence in the Gulf.

Saudi Arabia said it had brought the blazes under control, without specifying whether oil production or exports were affected. State television said exports were continuing.

The drone strikes on the world’s biggest oil exporter come as state oil giant Saudi Aramco has accelerated plans for an initial public offering to as early as this year, and follow earlier cross-border attacks on Saudi oil installations and on oil tankers in Gulf waters.

Saudi Arabia, leading a coalition of Sunni Muslim countries that intervened in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis, has blamed regional rival Shi’ite Iran for previous attacks, which Tehran denies. Riyadh accuses Iran of arming the Houthis, a charge denied by the group and Tehran.

The extent of damage from the drone strikes in Abqaiq and Khurais provinces remains unclear. Nine hours after the pre-dawn attacks, Aramco has issued no statement and the authorities have not reported on casualties.

Abqaiq is located 60 km (37 miles) southwest of Aramco’s Dhahran headquarters. It contains the world’s largest oil processing plant, handling crude from the giant Ghawar field and for export to terminals Ras Tanura - the world’s biggest offshore oil loading facility - and Juaymah. It also pumps westwards across the kingdom to Red Sea export terminals.

Khurais, 190 km further southwest, contains the country’s second largest oilfield.

Many Western employees of Aramco live in Abqaiq. The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh said it was unaware of any injuries to Americans from the attacks.
----------------

🇧🇸 **Bahamas brace for another storm just weeks after Hurricane Dorian**
*CBS News* - <https://archive.fo/AztJn>

Tropical Depression Nine strengthened into Tropical Storm Humberto near the Bahamas Friday night, the National Hurricane Center said. The Bahamian government issued a tropical storm warning for its
northwestern islands — the same area devastated by Hurricane Dorian earlier this month.

As of 11 p.m. ET, the storm was about 130 miles east-southeast of Great Abaco Island and about 225 miles east-southeast of Freeport, Grand Bahama Island, the hurricane center said. Tropical Storm Humberto
had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was moving northwest at 6 mph.

A group organized by retired Navy Seals and the conservation group Sea Shepherd has been loading up supplies to send to remote islands that may be impacted by the approaching storm. When CBS News caught up
with them, the group had four tons of essentials — food, water and generators — it had loaded onto a ship.

Residents are doing whatever they can to prepare. With few boats intact, locals are shuttling them to the few dozen people who remain. "I mean, we really don't need another hurricane.
As you can see, we don't need another one. But we just have to prepare," Sinetra Higgs told CBS News.

Hurricane Dorian devastated the northern Bahamas. Entire neighborhoods were flattened, homes shredded, shipping containers and boats hurled inland. Some airports were submerged, while terminals were covered in debris.

Some residents remain frustrated at the government's response, especially with another storm on the way. Many residents said that the only assistance they've gotten came from foreigners — and that they're
still living without cell service, power and running water.

The Bahamian government said it's coordinating relief efforts from Nassau. But since most of the field teams come from private foreign aid groups, that's all the residents in hard-hit communities see.
----------------

🇬🇧 **Woman, 25, reveals she gave HERSELF a £7K pay rise because 'she earned it' - at London company that lets employees set their own salaries**
*Daily Mail* - <https://archive.fo/eWqsN>

Asking for a pay rise can be nerve-wracking, but one employee has revealed how she was able to give herself a salary increase, thanks to a unique scheme at her workplace.

Cecilia Manduca, 25, who works for London-based company GrantTree, which helps businesses secure government funding, recently decided to take her salary from £30,000 to £37,000.

GrantTree doesn't decide its employees salaries, and instead lets them set what they earn, funding expert Cecilia explained on BBC 5 Live's Wake Up to Money.

However, people cannot grant themselves a raise without discussing it with their colleagues beforehand, and it must be in line with what they would be paid for a similar role at another company.

Cecilia explained that while she struggled a lot with the idea of a £7,000 raise, she was encouraged in her choice by her colleagues.

'I felt a lot of doubts asking for that raise. It took a lot of talks with other people,' she said.

Cecilia's decision to give herself a raise came after her responsibilities had evolved.

'I was aware that my job had changed. I was aware I was going way beyond my targets,' she added.

'When I spoke with my colleagues internally and asked for advice, the advice they gave me was that, yes, I did deserve it and I was worth it,' she added.

Discussing the possibility of a raise openly with one's colleagues is one of the requirements of the GrantTree model.

Instead of going through the traditional pay review process, the employee will sit down with the whole team.

The team will discuss whether the person deserves the increase and whether this would be fair to the rest of the company.

And GrantTree employees can also decrease their salary to reflect their work and responsibilities.
----------------

🇺🇸 **What we know: 2,246 fetal remains found in Illinois home of ex-Indiana abortion doctor**
*Indianapolis Star* - <https://archive.fo/Apzkw>

After Dr. Ulrich Klopfer died in rural Crete, Illinois, on Sept. 3, authorities found "2,246 medically preserved fetal remains" in his home.

Klopfer performed thousands of abortions in northern Indiana clinics before his medical license was revoked in 2016. But it's unclear where the fetal remains came from, though the Will County, Illinois, Sheriff's office said in a news release there was no evidence that Klopfer performed abortions on his Illinois property.

Public records show that Klopfer had not been licensed to practice medicine in Illinois since 1990, when he failed to renew his license. Records do not show Klopfer holding any other state's medical license after the Indiana suspension.

Authorities are not saying if they think Klopfer, 79, transported the remains from Indiana, how the fetal remains had been preserved or why the remains may have been in his possession in the first place.

Kathy Hoffmeyer, Will County, Ill., Sheriff's spokeswoman, on Monday called this a sensitive investigation and declined to release details.

Indiana records allege the doctor, first licensed in 1979, had a history of bad record keeping in his clinics.

According to a complaint filed by the Indiana Medical Licensing Board, Klopfer worked in clinics in South Bend, Gary and Fort Wayne from 2012 to 2015.

The board in 2016 found that Klopfer failed to properly file paperwork regarding abortions performed at the clinics, including some that were dated the same day as the procedure, a violation of Indiana's 18-hour waiting period.

The licensing board found he performed abortions on two 13-year-olds without filing paperwork within three days as required by law.
--------------

🇺🇸 **The Pentagon is canceling three border wall projects because the costs went up**
*Military Times* - <https://archive.fo/wpREb>

Three proposed sections of border wall for Arizona are on hold, according to a Monday federal court filing, because they’re going to cost more than the Defense Department planned on spending.

The Army Corps of Engineers “has determined that there are insufficient contract savings to undertake the the three additional” projects, totaling 20 miles of construction on the U.S.-Mexico border, that Defense Secretary Mark Esper originally approved on Aug. 26, per court documents.

The filing is part of three ongoing lawsuits over using $2.5 billion in DoD counter-drug funding on border projects.

The Supreme Court lifted a freeze on that spending, handed down by a lower court, in July. But as the suit is ongoing, the Pentagon must file updates to its plans in federal court.

Back in August, the Corps of Engineers estimated it would be able to build that additional 20 miles of wall after crunching the numbers and finding “lower-than-expected” contract costs, meaning more money freed up for more construction.

But the final totals didn’t come back that way, and so two planned segments in Yuma and one in Tuscon are now on the back burner.

That $2.5 billion is meant to build more than 100 miles of border barriers through California, Arizona and New Mexico.

In September, Defense Secretary Mark Esper approved the use of $3.6 billion more, the cost of 127 military construction projects in the U.S. and abroad, to build or reinforce 11 more sections of wall.

At the time, defense officials told reporters on background that building more barriers meant less need for troops to deploy to the border to defend it.

The projects are on the books for throughout 2020, officials said, and border deployments are expected to continue at least that long.

As of late August, the department had spent $450 million to fund those deployments.
--------------

🇺🇸 **Major Democratic donor Ed Buck arrested, charged with running drug den**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/zJxB3>

Ed Buck, the California Democratic megadonor, was arrested Tuesday and charged with operating a drug house after a third man reportedly suffered an overdose inside his West Hollywood home last week and survived.

Buck has faced public scrutiny after two black men died from overdoses 18 months apart inside his home. He was not charged in those cases.

Buck was charged with three counts of battery and is accused of injecting the alleged third victim with methamphetamine on Sept. 11, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Prosecutors wrote in court papers obtained by the Times that Buck used his position of power to manipulate his victims into participating in his sexual fetishes.

“These fetishes include supplying and personally administering dangerously large doses of narcotics to his victims,” the prosecutors wrote, according to the Times.

Seymour Amster, Buck’s attorney, told Fox News that he would not comment on the arrest and said he is dealing with the issue. Amster has in the past defended his client and insisted that he did nothing wrong.

In July 2017, a young black man, Gemmel Moore, was found dead of a drug overdose in Buck’s apartment. Buck, who is white, was not charged.

An autopsy report said Moore, 26, died of a methamphetamine overdose. He was found naked on a mattress in the living room, which was littered with drug paraphernalia.

Eighteen months later, 55-year-old Timothy Dean also suffered a methamphetamine overdose. Prosecutors didn’t file criminal charges, citing insufficient evidence. Activists, however, have called for his arrest.

In the most recent incident, Buck allegedly brought the man to his home earlier this month and injected him with methamphetamine. About a week later, the man returned to Buck's home and was injected again and suffered an overdose, according to court documents obtained by KTLA.
--------------

🇨🇦 **Justin Trudeau Wore Brownface at 2001 ‘Arabian Nights’ Party While He Taught at a Private School**
*Time* - <https://archive.fo/FzqFg>

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, wore brownface makeup to a party at the private school where he was teaching in the spring of 2001. TIME has obtained a photograph of the incident.

The photograph has not been previously reported. The picture was taken at an “Arabian Nights”-themed gala. It shows Trudeau, then the 29-year-old son of the late former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, wearing a turban and robes with his face, neck and hands completely darkened. The photograph appears in the 2000-2001 yearbook of West Point Grey Academy, a private day school where Trudeau was a teacher.

Earlier this month, TIME obtained a copy of the yearbook, The View, with the photograph of Trudeau in brownface from Vancouver businessman Michael Adamson, who was part of the West Point Grey Academy community. Adamson was not at the party, which was attended by school faculty, administrators and parents of students. He said that he first saw the photograph in July and felt it should be made public.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday night, following TIME’s publication of the photo, Trudeau apologized: “I shouldn’t have done that. I should have known better and I didn’t. I’m really sorry.” When asked if he thought the photograph was racist, he said, “Yes it was. I didn’t consider it racist at the time, but now we know better.”

Trudeau said he wore “makeup” in high school to sing “Day-O,” a Jamaican folk song famously performed by African-American singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte. “I deeply regret that I did that,” he said.
--------------

🇺🇸 **Colt suspends production of AR-15 for civilian market**
*Yahoo/AP* - <https://archive.fo/1PljO>

Gun-maker Colt is suspending its production of rifles for the civilian market including the popular AR-15, the company said Thursday in a shift it attributed to changes in consumer demand and a market already saturated with similar weapons.

The company said it will focus instead on fulfilling contracts with military and police customers for rifles.

"The fact of the matter is that over the last few years, the market for modern sporting rifles has experienced significant excess manufacturing capacity," Colt's chief executive officer, Dennis Veilleux, said in a written statement. "Given this level of manufacturing capacity, we believe there is adequate supply for modern sporting rifles for the foreseeable future."

Veilleux said the company, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2016, remains committed to the Second Amendment. He said the company is expanding its lines of pistols and revolvers.

Despite a national debate on gun control, Colt's decision seems driven by business considerations rather than politics, said Adam Winkler, a gun policy expert at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
--------------

🇧🇷 **Without Brazil, donors unlock $500 million to preserve rainforests**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/fW0Ad>

International donors agreed on Monday to free up more than $500 million in aid to protect tropical rainforests, including the Amazon where wildfires are raging, France’s president said on Monday at a U.N. meeting shunned by Brazil.

The Brazilian Amazon is facing its worst spate of forest fires since 2010, prompting a global outcry and worries that destruction of parts of the world’s largest rainforest could hurt demand for Brazil’s exports.

Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations in August offered $20 million of emergency aid to help fight Amazon fires, a gesture Brazil at the time criticized as colonialist.

French President Emmanuel Macron had called for a wider alliance to protect rainforests worldwide using the United Nations General Assembly as a platform to garner support.

France, Chile and Colombia met on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders on Monday, despite the absence of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a climate change skeptic who is promoting development in the Amazon
region.

“Everybody thinks ‘How are you going to do without Brazil?’” Macron said during a speech. “Brazil is welcome and I think everyone wants to work with Brazil (...) It will come, it takes a very inclusive approach”.

Macron hit back at Bolsonaro’s accusations that Paris had no role to play, saying that French Guiana, a French overseas territory in South America, shared a more than 700-kilometre border with Brazil, making it a player in
protecting rainforests.

France would contribute $100 million out of $500 million in the package, Macron said. Germany, Britain and the European Union were also among the contributors to investments in biodiversity preservation and lasting development.
----------------.

🇦🇫 **At least 40 civilians at wedding party killed during nearby U.S.-backed Afghan army raid**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/2wTeP>

At least 40 civilians attending a wedding party were killed by explosions and gunfire during a raid by U.S.-backed Afghan government forces on a nearby Islamist militant hideout, officials in Helmand province said on Monday.

The raid, days after a U.S. drone strike aimed at militants hiding among farmers killed 32 pine nut harvesters, showed how civilians have borne the brunt of a war that has re-intensified since U.S.-Taliban peace talks
collapsed two weeks ago.

Afghan officials said a house being used by the Taliban to train suicide bombers was located adjacent to the bride’s home that came under fire during Sunday night’s commando assault in the Musa Qala area of Helmand in
Afghanistan’s south.

On Monday, 30-year-old Musa Qala resident Mohammad Salim carried bodies of cousins and relatives to a burial ground from a house decorated for his sister-in-law’s wedding.

Salim and two senior provincial government officials said 40 people, including 12 children, were killed at the wedding venue when Afghan forces swooped on the house used by Taliban and al Qaeda militants to train male
and female suicide bombers.

“We were going to the bride’s house for the henna ceremony, some of us were outside the home and some inside, (when) suddenly the battle began...We told the security forces that we were not members of the Taliban,” Salim told Reuters.

“But both sides ended up killing civilians,” he said. Another 13 wedding party participants were injured.

A senior Afghan Defence Ministry official said the raid was against “a foreign terrorist group actively engaged in organizing terrorist attacks”. He said government forces had also destroyed a large warehouse of militants’ equipment.
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🇸🇪 **Teenager Thunberg angrily tells U.N. climate summit 'you have stolen my dreams'**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/uZtBU>

Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg on Monday opened the United Nations Climate Action Summit with an angry condemnation of world leaders for failing to take strong measures to combat climate change -
“How dare you,” she said.

Days after millions of young people took to the streets worldwide to demand emergency action on climate change, leaders gathered for the annual United Nations General Assembly aiming to inject fresh momentum into
stalling efforts to curb carbon emissions.

A visibly emotional Thunberg, 16, said in stern remarks at the opening of the summit that the generations that have polluted the most have burdened her and her generation with the extreme impacts of climate change.

“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you,” said the Swedish teenager, her voice quivering.

“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,” Thunberg said, adding that the plans that leaders will unveil will not be enough to respond to the rate of the planet’s warming.

Thunberg has galvanized a new wave of climate change activism through her weekly Fridays for Future school strikes, which she began with her weekly, solitary protests outside of the Swedish parliament.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had warned governments ahead of the event that they would have to offer action plans to qualify to speak at the summit, which is aimed at boosting the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat
global warming.

“Nature is angry. And we fool ourselves if we think we can fool nature, because nature always strikes back, and around the world nature is striking back with fury,” Guterres said.
----------------

Tell me again why grown adults are listening to a 16 year old kid?

because autism is her super power

🇺🇸 **US state of Massachusetts bans all e-cigarettes**
*Yahoo/AFP* - <https://archive.fo/8DUke>

Massachusetts on Tuesday officially became the first US state to ban -- if temporarily -- the sale of all electronic cigarettes, going further than states that only prohibited flavored products.

The ban is effective immediately and will run until January 25, said Governor Charlie Baker, who declared a public health emergency in the northeastern state.

San Francisco in California had already adopted a similar citywide ban in July, but until now no other state had imposed a statewide ban.

"The purpose of this public health emergency is to temporarily pause all sales of vaping products so that we can work with our medical experts to identify what is making people sick and how to better regulate these products to protect the health of our residents," Baker said.

In the past weeks a wave of severe vaping-linked pulmonary diseases that has sickened hundreds and caused seven deaths have been reported in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Massachusetts has recorded three confirmed and two likely cases, and some 50 other ailments are under analysis.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s laboratories are testing more than 150 samples of suspect product, but have yet to identify the substance responsible for the patients' pulmonary diseases.
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🇺🇸🇺🇦 **READ: White House transcript of Trump call with Ukrainian president*
*Washington Examiner* - <https://archive.fo/7uFF7>

The transcript of the July 25 phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioning former Vice President Joe Biden and allegations of corruption was released today following an intelligence community whistleblower complaint centered on the conversation.

A whistleblower with knowledge of the phone call made a complaint to Trump-appointed Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who deemed the complaint “serious” and “urgent," but acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire declined to release the contents of the whistleblower complaint to Congress after consulting with the Justice Department. This set off a firestorm on Capitol Hill, and lawmakers called for Trump to be impeached following claims that the president pressured Ukraine to investigate the 2020 Democratic presidential front-runner and his son Hunter Biden.

The former vice president bragged in 2018 that he threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees if Ukraine didn’t fire top prosecutor Viktor Shokin. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani alleged for months that Biden wanted Shokin fired because Giuliani says Shokin undertook an investigation into Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma Holdings, which employed Biden's son as a board member starting in 2014, reportedly paying him $50,000 a month.

Democrats and others countered the claims made by Giuliani and Trump's allies by pointing out that the governments in the United States and many European countries saw Shokin as a hindrance to Ukraine’s anti-corruption investigations and called for his ouster. Ukraine removed Shokin in 2016.

https://www.scribd.com/document/427411245/Trump-Zelensky-trancript#download&from_embed
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🇺🇸 **City bans calling someone an ‘illegal alien’ out of hate**
*New York Post* - <https://archive.fo/6gi3E>

It’s now against the law in New York City to threaten someone with a call to immigration authorities or refer to them as an “illegal alien” when motivated by hate.

The restrictions — violations of which are punishable by fines of up to $250,000 per offense — are outlined in a 29-page directive released by City Hall’s Commission on Human Rights.

“‘Alien’ — used in many laws to refer to a ‘noncitizen’ person — is a term that may carry negative connotations and dehumanize immigrants, marking them as ‘other,'” reads one passage of the memo. “The use of certain language, including ‘illegal alien’ and ‘illegals,’ with the intent to demean, humiliate, or offend a person or persons constitutes discrimination.”

The directive goes on to list several examples of acts and comments that would run afoul of the restrictions, including harassing people over their accents or grasp of English, or wielding the threat of a call to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a tool of hate.

“A hotel prohibits its housekeepers from speaking Spanish while cleaning because it would ‘offend’ hotel guests or make them uncomfortable,” reads one hypothetical.

“An Indian immigrant family complains to their landlord about mold and cockroaches in their unit. The landlord tells them to ‘just deal with it’ and threatens to call ICE if they file a complaint in housing court,” reads another.

“A store owner tells two friends who are speaking Thai while shopping in his store to ‘speak English’ and ‘go back to your country,’ ” reads a third.

The Commission on Human Rights made clear that the directive is, at least in part, a rebuke of federal crackdowns on illegal immigration.
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🇳🇱 **Utrecht police arrest bird**
*RTV Utrecht* - <https://archive.fo/OWj9P>

The Utrecht police have put a bird on water and bread in a cell. The animal was caught together with its owner for a shoplifting.

The suspect had taken his bird and it was on his shoulder when he was arrested by the police. There was no bird cage the animal could enter, so that's why agents put him in a cell.

The bird got a white sandwich and some water there, the police write on Instagram. On the photo you can see the beast next to two slices of white bread.

The police write that it is a parakeet, but that is disputed by the readers of RTV Utrecht. They say that it is an agapornis, or a lovebird.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Sanders has heart procedure, cancels campaign events for now**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/MuHH5>

Bernie Sanders’ campaign said Wednesday that the Democratic presidential candidate had a heart procedure for a blocked artery and was canceling events and appearances “until further notice.”

The 78-year-old Sanders was taken to a Las Vegas hospital after he experienced chest discomfort during a campaign event Tuesday and sought medical evaluation. Two stents were “successfully inserted” and Sanders “is conversing and in good spirits,” according to the campaign.

Sanders’ wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, was en route to Las Vegas on Wednesday and said in an email to The Associated Press that her husband was “doing really well.”

Tick Segerblom, a Clark County, Nevada, commissioner who was at Sanders’ fundraiser Tuesday, said the senator seemed fine at the time. “He spoke well. He jumped up on the stage. There was just nothing visible,” Segerblom said.
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🇭🇰 **Teenager shot as violence flares hours after Hong Kong imposes emergency powers**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/Flc6L>

Hong Kong police shot and wounded a teenage boy on Friday, as violent protests erupted across the Chinese-ruled city hours after its embattled leader Carrie Lam invoked colonial-era emergency powers last used more than 50 years ago.

Lam, speaking at a news conference, said a ban on face masks would take effect on Saturday under the emergency laws that allow authorities to “make any regulations whatsoever” in whatever they deem to be in the public interest.

Nearly four months of anti-government protests have plunged Hong Kong into its biggest political crisis since its handover from Britain to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula that granted it autonomy
and broad freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland.

The Beijing-backed leader said the banning of face masks was necessary to quell escalating violence and didn’t rule out the prospect of further measures if the unrest continued.

But the move only enraged protesters, who took to the streets as darkness fell to vent their anger.

Sirens echoed through the streets as protesters set fires, hurled petrol bombs at police and burned the Chinese national flag, in a direct challenge to authorities in Beijing.

Police said an officer in Yuen Long, a district in the outlying New Territories that saw fierce clashes in July, had fired a shot in self-defense after a protester threw a petrol bomb at him, setting him on fire.

Local media reported a 14-year-old boy had been shot and the city’s Hospital Authority said a 14-year-old was in a serious condition, without giving further details.
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🇩🇪 **Two killed in shooting in eastern German city of Halle: police**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/vHTPh>

Two people were killed in a shooting in the eastern German city of Halle on Wednesday and police said they were looking for suspects who fled the scene.

Mass-selling daily Bild said on its website the shooting took place in front of a synagogue. Bild reported that a hand grenade was also thrown onto a Jewish cemetery

“According to initial findings, two people were killed in Halle,” local police said on Twitter. “There were several shots. The alleged perpetrators have fled with a vehicle. We are searching urgently and ask citizens to remain in their homes.”

The attack occurred on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in Judaism when Jews fast for more than 24 hours, seeking atonement.

National rail operator Deutsche Bahn said the main train station in Halle had been closed.
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🇹🇷 **Turkish army launches push into Syria, air strikes hit border town**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/vwXsQ>

Turkey launched a military operation against Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria on Wednesday, with air strikes hitting the border town of Ras al Ain.

President Tayyip Erdogan, announcing the start of the action, said the aim was to eliminate what he called a “terror corridor” on Turkey’s southern border.

Turkey had been poised to advance into northeast Syria since U.S. troops began vacating the area in an abrupt policy shift by U.S. President Donald Trump, widely criticized in Washington as a betrayal of America’s Kurdish militia allies.

A Turkish security source told Reuters the military operation into Syria has been launched with air strikes and will be supported by artillery and howitzer fire.

Several large explosions rocked Ras al Ain, just across the border across from the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar, a CNN Turk reporter said, adding that the sound of planes could he heard above. Smoke was rising from buildings in Ras al Ain, he said.

World powers fear the action could open a new chapter in Syria’s war and worsen regional turmoil. Ankara has said it intends to create a “safe zone” in order to return millions of refugees to Syrian soil.
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🇩🇪 **Yom Kippur shooter unmasked: Attacker's face is revealed after gunmen kill two people, leave explosives near German synagogue and throw grenade at Jewish cemetery - as manhunt continues**
*Daily Mail* - <https://archive.fo/VKHnl>

An attacker has been unmasked after gunmen killed two people near a synagogue in Germany on Yom Kippur - Judaism's holiest day - leaving explosives near the house of worship and throwing a grenade into a cemetery.

One woman was shot dead in the city of Halle around midday as attackers tried to get inside a nearby synagogue where around 80 people were praying, but were stopped by 'security measures'.

A man was then shot dead after the gunmen drove to a kebab shop close to the synagogue before opening fire a second time.

Video taken outside the shop shows a man dressed in military fatigues firing what appears to be a shotgun into the street and his face is then revealed as he walks back up the road.

Witnesses said the attackers also used a submachine gun during the attack and threw a grenade into the Jewish cemetery, leaving several injured.

Improvised explosive devices were also left outside the front of the synagogue, local media reported, as the terrified congregation barricaded themselves inside.

Police have since arrested one suspect, but told residents to 'stay alert' while a manhunt continues. Gunshots were later reported in Landsberg, 10 miles from Halle, though it was not immediately clear if they were linked.
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🇺🇸 **Lights out: Power cut in California to prevent deadly fires**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/pK84r>

More than a million people in California were without electricity Wednesday as the state’s largest utility pulled the plug to prevent a repeat of the past two years when windblown power lines sparked deadly wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes.

The unpopular move that disrupted daily life — prompted by forecasts calling for dry, gusty weather — came after catastrophic fires sent Pacific Gas & Electric Co. into bankruptcy and forced it to take more aggressive steps to prevent blazes.

The drastic measure caused long lines at supermarkets and hardware stores as people rushed to buy ice, coolers, flashlights and batteries across a swath of Northern California. Cars backed up at traffic lights that had gone dark. Schools and universities canceled classes. And many businesses closed.

Most of downtown Sonoma was pitch black when Joseph Pokorski, a retiree, showed up for his morning ritual of drinking coffee, followed by beer and cocktails.
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🇺🇸 **Amazon Workers May Be Watching Your Cloud Cam Home Footage**
*Bloomberg/Yahoo* - <https://archive.fo/6OZBe>

Dozens of Amazon workers based in India and Romania review select clips captured by Cloud Cam, according to five people who have worked on the program or have direct knowledge of it. Those video snippets are then used to train the AI algorithms to do a better job distinguishing between a real threat (a home invader) and a false alarm (the cat jumping on the sofa).

An Amazon team also transcribes and annotates commands recorded in customers’ homes by the company’s Alexa digital assistant, Bloomberg reported in April.

AI has made it possible to talk to your phone. It’s helping investors predict shifts in market sentiment. But the technology is far from infallible. Cloud Cam sends out alerts when it’s just paper rustling in a breeze. Apple Inc.’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa still occasionally mishear commands. One day, engineers may overcome these shortfalls, but for now AI needs human assistance. Lots of it.

At one point, on a typical day, some Amazon auditors were each annotating about 150 video recordings, which were typically 20 to 30 seconds long, according to the people, who requested anonymity to talk about an internal program.

The clips sent for review come from employee testers, an Amazon spokeswoman said, as well as Cloud Cam owners who submit clips to troubleshoot such issues as inaccurate notifications and video quality. “We take privacy seriously and put Cloud Cam customers in control of their video clips,” she said, adding that unless the clips are submitted for troubleshooting purposes, “only customers can view their clips.”

Nowhere in the Cloud Cam user terms and conditions does Amazon explicitly tell customers that human beings are training the algorithms behind their motion detection software.
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