Los Angeles Times
Fire crews began to make slow progress against wildfires that killed at least 29 people in Northern California’s wine country as officials continued the grim search for more bodies amid the ashes.
In Santa Rosa, the hardest hit by the fires, officials said they were stunned by the scale of the destruction. An estimated 2,834 homes were destroyed in the city of Santa Rosa alone, along with about 400,000 square feet of commercial space, Santa Rosa Mayor Chris Coursey said in a press conference Thursday afternoon.
U.S. quits UNESCO, the U.N.'s educational and cultural agency. Israel immediately follows suit
Citing what it described as “anti-Israel bias” and a need for “fundamental reform,” the United States announced Thursday that it would withdraw from the United Nations agency that works to works to protect cultural and natural heritage sites across the globe.
Israel has apparently followed suit, with media reporting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed the Foreign Ministry to begin the process of pulling out of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, better known as UNESCO.
The Washington Post
Trump to end key ACA subsidies, a move that will threaten the law’s marketplaces
[Moron] Trump is throwing a bomb into the insurance marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act, choosing to end critical payments to health insurers that help millions of lower-income Americans afford coverage. The decision coincides with an executive order on Thursday to allow alternative health plans that skirt the law’s requirements.
The White House confirmed late Thursday that it would halt federal payments for cost-sharing reductions, although a statement did not specify when. Another statement a short time later by top officials at the Health and Human Services Department said the cutoff would be immediate. The subsidies total about $7 billion this year.
Trump signs order to eliminate ACA insurance rules, undermining marketplaces
[Moron] Trump signed an executive order Thursday intended to circumvent the Affordable Care Act by making it easier for individuals and small businesses to buy alternative types of health insurance with lower prices, fewer benefits and weaker government protections. […]
Critics, who include state insurance commissioners, most of the health-insurance industry and mainstream policy specialists, predict that a proliferation of these other kinds of coverage will have damaging ripple effects, driving up costs for consumers with serious medical conditions and prompting more insurers to flee the law’s marketplaces. Part of Trump’s action, they say, will spark court challenges over its legality.
Charity once led by Roy Moore has listed its headquarters for sale, a move that could bring him $540,000 windfall
A charity once led by U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore has put its historic building in Montgomery, Ala., up for sale, a transaction that could bring Moore $540,000 because of an unusual compensation arrangement he made while serving as the nonprofit group’s president.
The 1850s-era building was put on the market in April for nearly $1.9 million by Moore’s wife, Kayla, now president of the charity […]
The circumstances of the listing add to questions swirling around the charity and more than $1 million in compensation for Roy Moore while he was working part time from 2007 to 2012. Kayla Moore took over as president in 2013, earning $65,000 a year.
CNN
3 weeks after Maria, Puerto Rico's pain is unending
It's been three weeks since Hurricane Maria plowed across the island.
Since then, Puerto Rico's 3.4 million American citizens have been plagued with power outages and a dangerous shortage of drinking water. More than a hundred people remain unaccounted for.
Animal corpses rot in stagnant water, providing a breeding ground for infection and disease.
Over all of it, the shadow of debt looms. The estimated cost of Maria's damage is $95 billion -- almost an entire year's economic output for the island. For many, desperation has taken over.
FEMA actually can stay in Puerto Rico indefinitely
Donald Trump tweeted that first responders can't stay in Puerto Rico "forever," but if history is any indicator, they can definitely stay there for a long time.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency can (and does) stay involved in disaster relief for years after major catastrophes. In fact, FEMA is still spending money on relief efforts in the wake of a few major storms that are a decade (or even more) old.
Miami Herald
How small rebellions by Florida delinquents snowball into bigger beatings by staff
First he lost his freedom. Then his privileges. Then his kidney.
It started with a tantrum at a youth program on Straight Line Road over what the Tampa boy considered unfair punishment for a fight he didn’t start. A program supervisor hurled the teen to the dayroom floor, crashing him into a metal table along the way. It ended with the boy tethered to a ventilator.
AP: What Americans heard in Cuba attacks
It sounds sort of like a mass of crickets. A high-pitched whine, but from what? It seems to undulate, even writhe. Listen closely: There are multiple, distinct tones that sound to some like they're colliding in a nails-on-the-chalkboard effect.
The Associated Press has obtained a recording of what some U.S. Embassy workers heard in Havana in a series of unnerving incidents later deemed to be deliberate attacks.
Politico
Poll: Majority backs stricter gun control laws after Vegas shooting
A new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows that a majority of voters support stricter gun control laws in the wake of last week’s mass murder of 58 concertgoers in Las Vegas by a single man with nearly two dozen firearms shooting from the window of his 32nd-floor hotel room.
On most of the proposals to regulate gun ownership — including background checks, restrictions on where Americans can carry firearms and prohibitions against accessories like the “bump fire” stocks used by the Las Vegas gunman — large majorities express support in the poll, conducted last Thursday through Monday. […]
Sixty-four percent of voters support stricter gun laws, the poll shows, including 41 percent who strongly support them. Less than 3-in-10 voters, 29 percent, oppose stricter gun laws, including 16 percent in strong opposition.
Menendez case gets potential 'death blow'
When the corruption trial of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez began in early September, the federal bribery charges threatened to end his career and land him in jail. […]
After hearing testimony from Senate staffers, government bureaucrats, private jet pilots, models and former senators and Cabinet secretaries, Judge William Walls indicated he may dismiss most of the 18 charges against Menendez. […]
If Menendez prevails in court, Democrats would face the real possibility that the powerful senator will be hell-bent on running for re-election next year, despite having gone through an embarrassing and politically damaging trial.
The Guardian
Trump to rebuke Iran but won't call for sanctions that threaten nuclear deal
Donald Trump is expected to disavow the Iran nuclear deal in a speech on Friday denouncing the government in Tehran, but he will not call for the US to abandon the agreement, according to officials briefed on the president’s intentions. […]
Trump will not ask Congress to reimpose sanctions, which would most likely cause the collapse of the 2015 agreement. Instead, the president will recommend Congress amends its own legislation so that Iranian infringements of the deal, and potentially other actions outside the scope of the agreement, would automatically trigger the reimposition of those sanctions.
Trump’s speech will include a list of allegations of malign Iranian behaviour, focusing on its ballistic missile programme, its role propping up the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad and its support for the Lebanese Shia militia, Hezbollah.
Astronomers find half of the missing matter in the universe
It is one of cosmology’s more perplexing problems: that up to 90% of the ordinary matter in the universe appears to have gone missing.
Now astronomers have detected about half of this missing content for the first time, in a discovery that could resolve a long-standing paradox.
The conundrum first arose from measurements of radiation left over from the Big Bang, which allowed scientists to calculate how much matter there is in the universe and what form it takes. This showed that about 5% of the mass in the universe comes in the form of ordinary matter, with the rest being accounted for by dark matter and dark energy.
EU withdrawal bill debate postponed as Brexit talks hit buffers
Ministers have been forced to postpone next week’s debate on the EU withdrawal bill on a chaotic day that saw Michel Barnier warn of a “disturbing deadlock” in the divorce talks in Brussels and a growing whispering campaign against the chancellor in Westminster.
Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the House of Commons, told MPs the key piece of Brexit legislation would not be debated next week, as they had planned, as the government struggles to respond to a deluge of hostile amendments.
Labour said it had identified more than a dozen of the 300 amendments that already have the backing of seven or more Tory MPs, theoretically enough to defeat the government.
BBC News
Ozone layer recovery could be delayed by 30 years
Rising global emissions of some chlorine-containing chemicals could slow the progress made in healing the ozone layer.
A study found the substances, widely used for paint stripping and in the manufacture of PVC, are increasing much faster than previously thought.
Mainly produced in China, these compounds are not currently regulated. Experts say their continued use could set back the closing of the ozone hole by up to 30 years.
Scientists reported last year that they had detected the first clear evidence that the thinning of the protective ozone layer was diminishing.
Australia jet and navy data stolen in 'extensive' hack
Sensitive information about Australia's defence programmes has been stolen in an "extensive" cyber hack.
About 30GB of data was compromised in the hack on a government contractor, including details about new fighter planes and navy vessels.
The data was commercially sensitive but not classified, the government said. It did not know if a state was involved.
Deutsche Welle
Austria's leading election candidates target Muslims to score points
Austria's elections are in the homestretch. The topics of immigration, Islamization and refugees are dominating the campaign like never before – it has become a race between the right and the far-right.
Hakima walks her son to school every day. Their route takes them down a long lane of chestnut trees. The avenue is particularly beautiful in the autumn sunlight. Normally, their stroll here is pleasant. But for the last several weeks, the idyllic lane has also been lined with election posters, some from the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). Their posters are emblazoned with slogans pronouncing that Islamization must be stopped. Hakima says that such images cloud her mood even on the most beautiful of days. "If I understand correctly, that man is attacking the other one because he once said that Islam was part of Austria, and the one attacking wants to stop Islamization," she says. "We are from Syria and we are Muslims, so yes, I do feel as if it is about me."
The Root
City of Los Angeles Looks to Fully Decriminalize Street Vending as a Means of Protecting Undocumented Immigrants From Immigration Agents
Street vendors are a common sight in Los Angeles. For many immigrants, it is a way to make an honest living, but it also exposes them to the risks of being arrested and possibly detained and deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. While the city decriminalized street vending on sidewalks in February 2017, that change did not apply to vendors who operate in the city’s parks. A motion filed by City Council members on Tuesday seeks to rectify that, NBC reports.
Council members Jose Huizar and Mitch O’Farrell introduced the motion that would direct city staff to remove criminal misdemeanor charges for vending in parks and recommend other penalties that would compel compliance without exposing vendors to the threat of a criminal penalty. […]
“In February, the Los Angeles City Council voted to decriminalize street vending in order to keep our mostly immigrant vendors out of the overreaching aggressive arms of our federal government looking to target otherwise law-abiding immigrants for deportation,” Huizar told NBC. “This motion and another I co-introduced last week help us maintain a consistent stance against the federal government and more importantly, in support of our immigrant community.”
Did Voter Suppression Give Trump the Election?
[…] A study from the battleground state of Wisconsin “estimates 16,800 or more people in Dane and Milwaukee counties were deterred from casting ballots in November because of Wisconsin’s voter ID law,” Patrick Marley and Jason Stein reported Sept. 26 for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“The study by University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Ken Maye rconcluded 16,800 to 23,250 voters in the two counties — the Democratic strongholds of Wisconsin — did not vote because of the voter ID law,” they wrote. “The $55,000 survey was paid for with property tax money by Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell, a Democratic opponent of the law.“Key portions of those surveyed said they did not vote because they did not have ID that would allow them to or did not believe the IDs they had could be used under the voting law. The study found the ID law disproportionately affected African-Americans and low-income people.
Slate
Google Home Minis Were Recording Unsuspecting Users
It turns out that some Google Home Minis, the smart speakers that the company released in early October, were almost continuously recording audio from users’ homes. According to Artem Russakovskii, founder of the tech blog Android Police, a glitch in his device’s touch mechanism caused the Mini to randomly wake up, capture sounds, and then transmit them to Google without him knowing.