News and Headlines: In The News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion.
In The News:
California man accused in 2 machete attacks at Irwindale homeless camp, police say
Fidel Esparza, 52, of La Puente, was arrested on suspicion of two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of resisting arrest, Irwindale police said in a news release.
Two victims identified Esparza as the attacker in the September incidents, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported.
During the first attack, Esparza allegedly approached a woman in the camp and slashed her on the arm with a large machete knife, police said.
More than three weeks later, Esparza allegedly attacked a man during an altercation at the same homeless camp.
Former Houston ISD third-grade teacher accused of raping, inappropriately touching several of his students: court documents
Wilbert Sequeiros, 54, is wanted for two counts of indecency with a child and one count of child sexual assault.
He is currently wanted by Houston authorities for alleged crimes committed during the 2016-2017 school year, according to court records.
These accusations against Sequeiros are coming to light as students begin to come forward, prompting more case investigations.
According to documents, one victim told HISD investigators Sequeiros forced him into having sex inside the classroom and threaten not to put him on the soccer team if he told anyone.
USS Zumwalt successfully conducts first missile test
The Zumwalt, delivered to the Navy in April, successfully showed off its ability to detect, track and engage an anti-ship cruise missile with an SM-2, the U.S. Navy announced this week.
The test also assessed the ship’s ability to hold up against the shock and vibration of weapon firing, along with any hazards and degradations resulting from the live firing, the Navy said.
At 610 feet long and 80 feet wide, which is 100 feet longer and 13 feet wider than the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, Zumwalt has the space to conduct a wide array of surface, undersea and aviation missions, the Navy has said.
First seven trainees to directly enlist in Space Force sworn-in
The first four recruits took the oath Tuesday morning and signed a commitment to join the Space Force at Fort George G. Meade Military Entrance Processing Station in Fort Meade, Md. Later in the morning, in Colorado, and three more new recruits were sworn in at the Denver Military Entrance Processing Station.
The seven recruits are headed to Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, to begin seven and a half weeks of basic training, according to Space Force.
Current members of the Space Force, including 86 officers commissioned from the U.S. Air Force Academy this past spring, transferred directly from the Air Force, he added.
US spacecraft diving to asteroid for rare rubble grab
The Osiris-Rex spacecraft dropped out of orbit around asteroid Bennu right on time, beginning a 4 1/2-hour plunge to the rough, boulder-covered face of the ancient space rock.
It was America’s first attempt to gather samples from an asteroid, something already accomplished by Japan — twice.
Bennu’s gravity was too low for the spacecraft to land — the asteroid is just 1,670 feet (510 meters) across.
As a result, Osiris-Rex has to reach out with its 11-foot (3.4-meter) robot arm while dodging boulders the size of buildings, and attempt to grab at least 2 ounces (60 grams) of Bennu.
Watchman could have saved lives in California boat fire
Investigators told the National Transportation Safety Board that because some of the recovered bodies were wearing shoes, they believe the victims were awake and trying to escape before being overcome with smoke. Coroner reports list smoke inhalation as the cause of death for all.
The absence of the required roving patrol, investigators said, delayed detection of the fire, allowing it to grow beyond the six-member crew’s firefighting capabilities, hampering evacuation efforts and directly leading to the high number of fatalities.
Board member Jennifer Homendy, who traveled to Santa Barbara in 2019 and toured a sister ship of the Conception, blasted the captain, Jerry Boylan, and owner, Truth Aquatics, during the hearing. She said the tragedy shouldn’t be called an accident.
Facebook Demonetizes Satire Site Babylon Bee, Claims Monty Python Spoof ‘Incites Violence’
Facebook is demonetizing the Christian, political satire page “The Babylon Bee” after they published an article satirizing Sen. Mazie Hirono’s comments during the Amy Coney Barrett hearings in a fictional depiction.
The Bee’s CEO Seth Dillon announced the demonetization on Tuesday in a tweet, claiming that the big tech company pulled down the article based on a “regurgitated joke from a Monty Python movie.”
“So after a manual review, Facebook says they stand by their decision to pull down this article and demonetize our page. I’m not kidding,” he wrote.
“They say this article ‘incites violence.’ It’s literally a regurgitated joke from a Monty Python movie!”
1 HPD sergeant killed, 1 wounded in shooting at apartment complex in SW Houston
The officer killed has been identified as Sgt. Harold Preston, a 41-year veteran of the department. He was preparing to retire this year.
Acevedo said Preston was shot more than once in the head. He was also shot in the shoulder area and a bullet embedded in his spine.
We don’t yet know why officers were at the complex. The suspect was taken into custody without incident and transported to Ben Taub Hospital.
This shooting comes just days after Houston Fire Department Arson Investigator Lemuel “DJ” Bruce was shot and killed in the Heights area.
According to officials, violent crime is up 11% in the city of Houston.
Antonio Sabato Jr. defends Kirstie Alley for pro-Trump views, says Hollywood leftists have ‘lost their minds’
“Kirstie is a wonderful person,” the actor said. “We’re voting for someone you’re not voting for. We’re voting for no socialism, we’re voting for protecting our borders, to make our lives a lot better, [and] lowering taxes.”
“Hollywood is always bullying us. This is out of control,” he added about the backlash he and Alley have received for their conservative political views.
Sabato, who recently released the book “Sabato: The Untold Story.,” said his life in Florida is drastically different.
He told Fox Business that in his book he talks about his experience being in the movie industry for more than three decades and how “all of a sudden” because his “political views are different than these crazies in the liberal world in California,” he was shunned.
Domestic Violence Shelter Takes Funding Cut After Supporting BLM, Cops Break Partnership
The shelter called Embrace, which serves around 90,000 people across four counties, lost $25,000 in funding from Barron County and at least 14 law enforcement groups out of 17 total partners ended their relationship with the domestic violence organization, according to CNN. Embrace proclaimed their support for BLM in a statement on their webpage in September, CNN reported.
Embrace also claimed America “must grapple with our country’s long history of racism, slavery, genocide, and colonization.”
Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald resigned from the board of Embrace following the announcement, citing concerns that the organization’s support for BLM included an endorsement of “defunding the police.”
“Because some of these social issues were for defunding the police, I’m not going to be part of an agency that supports anything to do with defunding the police,” he said in an interview, according to CNN.
FOX NEWS VIDEO: US has China ‘under arrest’: Gen. Jack Keane
Fox News senior strategic analyst Gen. Jack Keane on China threatening to detain innocent U.S. nationalists in response to the DOJ’s prosecution of Chinese scholars.
Thug beats cop’s face bloody in brutal attack livestreamed on Facebook. Of course, it features laughing onlookers egging on suspect.
A bystander recorded the attack on cellphone, and it went live on Facebook, the station said, adding that the video gained dozens of shares. The video lasted 11 minutes, WPDE reported in an earlier story.
The station said the officer asked a man for assistance, but the man refused. Several people came outside, and some urged others to help, WPDE noted. The officer was repeatedly punched in the face.
The clip does show one man pulling the attacker away from the officer, but another man is heard saying, “Let ’em whup his ass! Let ’em whup his ass!”
Politics:
McConnell says any Pelosi-Mnuchin deal would get Senate vote
The Kentucky Republican’s remarks came as Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have arrived at a critical phase of their talks — a deadline day of sorts — if any relief is going to be enacted by Election Day.
The contours of a potential deal are taking shape behind the scenes even as President Donald Trump’s GOP allies are recoiling at the administration’s tolerance for a $2 trillion package.
Despite GOP opposition, McConnell said if such a bill passed the Democratic-controlled House with Trump’s blessing “we would put it on the floor of the Senate.”
Pelosi and Mnuchin were slated to talk again Tuesday amid signs that they are continuing to narrow their differences.
How Politics And Bureaucrats Killed A Campaign To Inform Americans About COVID
Commentary/Opinion:
Again, there is not a single allegation here that any of the information in the ads was anything but scientifically accurate.
The complaint here is not that HHS was planning to provide any misinformation to the American people, but rather that they would offer accurate information that would encourage people to be hopeful based on the work of the federal government on things like vaccines and therapeutics.
So, why would that be a bad thing?
The only plausible answer is that it would be bad because it could help Donald Trump politically.
The simple fact of the matter, obvious to everyone in both the government and the media, is that the better the response is in reality or in perception, the more it helps the president politically.
Emails from Hunter Biden’s flipped partner describe deals with Russian criminal & Chinese communists
When Bevan Cooney — the recently flipped business partner to Hunter Biden and Devon Archer — went to jail in 2019, investigative reporter Peter Schweizer thought he’d never gain access to the damning emails Cooney once promised.
That all changed three weeks ago when Schweizer was given complete access to Cooney’s Gmail account. He describes to Glenn just SOME of the business deals described within these emails — like Hunter working with an alleged Russian criminal AND with Chinese communists to secure their assets OR to secure one-on-one time with his dad, Joe.
The worst part for the Dems is that these emails aren’t printouts or copies…they come straight from Cooney’s email account.
So, what new lie will the left concoct to explain THIS?
FOX NEWS VIDEO: Bannon rips Joe Biden over NY Post story: ‘This is a scandal of major proportions’
Commentary/Opinion:
Steve Bannon, a former adviser to President Trump, argues new Hunter Biden documents ‘shows you once again the FBI getting involved in a presidential election.’
Biden campaign faces backlash for TV ad depicting Michigan tech CEO as struggling bar owner
After inheriting money from his wife’s grandfather, which he likened to “winning the lottery,” Malcoun said he founded CKM Capital Partners in 2013 and eventually became an “angel investor” in local tech companies, according to a 2018 interview with Click On Detroit.
He’s also served as CEO of Nutshell, a customer relationship management software company, since 2014, and under his leadership the firm raised at least $5.5 million in angel and venture capital, according to his Crain’s Detroit Business 40 under 40 profile.
Malcoun also co-founded Cahoots, a co-working tech hub, and purchased three buildings in downtown Ann Arbor to host entrepreneurs.
According to Federal Election Commission data, Malcoun donated $5,000 to Biden For President in July.
Glenn Greenwald: ‘Adam Schiff Is Seriously the Most Pathological Liar in All of American Politics’
“And what makes it so much worse is that the reason the Bidens aren’t answering basic questions about this story, basic questions like did Hunter Biden drop that laptop off at that repair shop?” Greenwald continued. “Are the emails authentic? Do you deny that they are? Do you claim any have been altered? Or any of them for fabricated? Did you, in fact, meet with Burisma executives as these emails suggest?
The reason that they don’t answer any questions is because the media has signaled that they don’t have to — that journalists will be attacked and vilified simply for asking.”
Greenwald went on to attack the CIA for what he deemed to be an effort to manipulate domestic politics.
“The whole point of the intelligence community since the end of World War II was that whatever propaganda the CIA produces, whatever disinformation campaigns they engage in, were never supposed to be directed domestically,” Greenwald said.
Ingraham: Pre-election intimidation squads are hard at work
Commentary/Opinion:
Biden’s government is only for people who behave.
Tucker: The left gets ready for a post-Trump world
Commentary/Opinion:
Some on the far left float the idea of a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” if Trump loses the election; Author JD Vance weighs in.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer: ‘If you’re tired of lockdowns … wearing masks, or you wish you were in church this morning,’ then vote for Joe Biden
“If you’re tired of lockdowns, or you’re tired of wearing masks, or you wish you were in church this morning or watching college football or your kids were in-person instruction, it is time for change in this country, and that’s why we’ve got to elect Joe Biden,” Whitmer told Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” Sunday.
Some Twitter users who commented on the “Meet the Press” clip said Whitmer’s insistence on Americans voting for Biden if they want lockdowns to end and if they want to go back to church sounded like a thinly veiled ultimatum:
Also this month Michigan’s attorney general indicated she would no longer enforce Whitmer’s executive orders on the coronavirus after the state Supreme Court ruled the emergency powers that the governor seized were unconstitutional — a ruling Whitmer was not happy with, to say the least.
World News:
One killed in clashes as Guinea awaits result of presidential election
Damantang Albert Camara said the clashes erupted in Kissidougou some 700 km (420 miles) southeast of the capital Conakry after Diallo declared on Monday that he had won the Oct. 18 presidential election.
“One person was killed, and many, including police officers who intervened, were injured,” Camara told Reuters, adding that a curfew has been declared in the area.
Diallo’s victory claim before the official count was completed by the electoral commission raised concerns it could escalate violence in the tense aftermath of the vote.
Big Aussie employers call for big changes in open letter to Victorian govt
The people in charge of seven of the country’s largest employers are calling for the Victorian government to let people go back to work.
The bosses of Wesfarmers, Coca-Cola Amatil, BHP, The Commonwealth Bank, Orica, Newcrest Mining and Incitec Pivot have written an open letter, pleading for the state’s economy to be kick-started urgently.
The Herald Sun reported the industry leaders are calling for a staged return of workers to offices and the re-opening of small businesses. The letter described the current situation as “not sustainable” and claimed Victorians are “hurting badly, personally and economically.”
Turkey warns EU over East Med dispute; UAE-US-Israel trilateral summit held-TV7 Israel News 20.10.20
1) Senior delegations from the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Israel held a trilateral summit meeting at Ben Gurion International Airport – where a series of agreements were signed between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi.
2) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warns Europe over its unwavering support for Greece and Cyprus – emphasizing that ‘the only path to achieving peace and stability in the eastern Mediterranean goes through the acknowledgement and respect of Ankara’s interests.’
3) Tensions are seemingly escalating between Turkey and Russia – with Moscow announcing a joint naval exercise with Egypt in the black Sea; while Ankara bolsters its relations with Ukraine.
Agreement on warheads brings U.S., Russia closer to extending nuclear treaty
Russian President Vladimir Putin had earlier offered to extend the treaty for five years without any preconditions, which the U.S. rejected.
Late last week, Putin proposed a one-year extension without conditions, and the U.S. countered that any agreement must include the one-year freeze on all nuclear arms, including those not covered by New START.
The Trump administration on Tuesday sounded a positive note after Russia’s statement.
“We appreciate the Russian Federation’s willingness to make progress on the issue of nuclear arms control,” Megan Ortagus, a State Department spokesperson, said in a statement.
Commentary/Opinion:
American Students Deserve a Better Education
It’s a big topic right now, the state of education. PragerU CEO Marissa Streit tackles some of the major issues with Sarah Huckabee Sanders.