President Joe Biden cancels another $4.5 bln in student debt

Debt forgiveness plans have been challenged by Republicans

VP Kamala Harris says she'll continue to address education costs if elected

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday canceled another $4.5 billion in student debt for more than 60,000 borrowers, bringing the number of public service workers who have had their student loans for higher education forgiven to over 1 million.

The cancellation is Biden's latest effort to fulfill his 2020 campaign pledge to deliver debt relief to millions of Americans before he leaves office in January, even as his efforts hit road blocks in the courts.

Texas Supreme Court halts execution of Robert Roberson

Lawmakers subpoena Roberson to testify, creating unprecedented legal clash

Roberson guilt questioned by many including lawmakers, lead detective in his case

Oct 17 (Reuters) - The Texas Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily halted the execution of a man scheduled to become the first person to be put to death in the United States for murder attributed to shaken baby syndrome, according to a court document.

The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of a bipartisan group of state lawmakers who asked that the execution, scheduled to take place on Thursday evening, be delayed.

The lawmakers requested the delay after issuing an unprecedented subpoena on Wednesday for death row inmate Robert Roberson to appear before them and answer questions about his case.

Texas representatives Joe Moody and Jeff Leach, who orchestrated Roberson's subpoena and have championed his cause, praised the Texas Supreme Court decision in a written statement.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20973709

US charges former Indian intelligence officer named Vikash Yadav

Charges say Yadav directed plot against Sikh separatist in US

US case is separate from case of another Sikh separatist killed in Canada

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The United States has charged a former Indian intelligence officer for allegedly directing a foiled plot to murder a Sikh separatist and Indian critic in New York City, with the FBI warning against such a retaliation aimed at a U.S. resident.

An indictment of Vikash Yadav was ordered to be unsealed on Thursday. The U.S. Justice Department indictment mentioned Yadav as a former officer in India's Research and Analysis Wing spy service.

Washington has alleged that Indian agents were involved in an attempted assassination plot against Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen.

"The FBI will not tolerate acts of violence or other efforts to retaliate against those residing in the U.S. for exercising their constitutionally protected rights," FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement.

The indictment alleged that beginning in May 2023, Yadav, described as an employee of the Indian government at the time, worked together with others in India and abroad to direct a plot against Pannun. The indictment described Pannun as a political activist, a critic of the Indian government and an advocate for a separate homeland for Sikhs.

India has labeled Sikh separatists as "terrorists" and as threats to its security. Sikh separatists demand an independent homeland known as Khalistan to be carved out of India. An insurgency in India during the 1980s and 1990s killed tens of thousands.

Yadav, 39, was still in India and the United States was expected to seek his extradition, the Washington Post reported, citing American officials.

A Kootenai County magistrate judge with numerous reprimands who appeared in court dressed as Darth Vader on Halloween is up for re-election in November. A campaign led by a former litigant of a divorce and custody case he oversaw in 2012 hopes to remove him.

Judge Clark A. Peterson, 57, was appointed to the bench in 2010 and has faced complaints over the years that his fantasy role-playing hobby interfered with his judicial work.

Campaign fliers call Peterson “Demon Lord” in reference to his former avatar: the demon prince Orcus, Lord of the Undead. He posted hundreds of comments on online fantasy message boards while at work, according to a 2013 Spokesman-Review story.

The judicial council’s investigation also looked into other allegations of misconduct by Peterson. On Halloween, he appeared in court dressed as Darth Vader, walking out from his chambers with Star Wars music playing on his cell phone.

A $28.5 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit against the university helped create a fresh precedent for prosecuting predatory advertising in for-profit education.

Rifle association workers wrote letter warning that inaction against Doug Hamlin will ‘destroy’ NRA’s comeback chances

The board of the National Rifle Association (NRA) is facing pressure to suspend the gun rights group’s chief executive, Douglas Hamlin, following revelations that Hamlin was involved in the sadistic killing of a cat.

The news broke as Donald Trump cancelled a planned appearance with Hamlin next week in Savannah, Georgia, where the Republican nominee for president was meant to give a keynote address to an NRA convention. Organizers said Trump had a scheduling conflict.

An anonymous letter sent by “concerned employees” of the NRA to the board contained a litany of concerns about Hamlin, who was appointed in July following a corruption scandal at the group.

Chief among those concerns was new revelations – published by the Guardian last week – that Hamlin was involved in the gruesome killing of a house cat named BK when he was the president of his fraternity at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1979.

The suit is the first by an attorney general against an individual doctor for allegedly violating a restriction on gender-affirming care for minors.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a Dallas doctor Thursday accusing her of providing transition-related care to nearly two dozen minors in violation of state law.

Paxton alleged that Dr. May Chi Lau, who specializes in adolescent medicine, provided hormone replacement therapy to 21 minors between October 2023 and August for the purpose of transitioning genders. In 2023, Texas enacted a law, Senate Bill 14, banning hormone replacement therapy and other forms of gender-affirming care for minors.

Days before the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen made a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about her alleged affair with the Republican presidential candidate. It did not quite go as planned. When Trump was in the White House, Daniels’s claims about their relationship (which Trump denies) went public. Years later, in May 2024, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to the payoff.

Trump has been trying to get his conviction thrown out or at least delay his sentencing (maybe forever). But we’ve already learned plenty of lurid details about the alleged relationship. So why would Trump make a second attempt to silence Daniels ahead of the 2024 election?

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reported on Wednesday that Trump’s attorney recently made another offer to Daniels. In 2018, years before the Manhattan DA brought charges against Trump, Daniels filed a defamation suit over a Trump tweet attacking her for claiming that she was threatened by a stranger to stay quiet about their affair. A federal judge dismissed the suit months later, and Daniels was ordered to pay Trump’s legal fees. As of this summer, the two camps were still haggling over the final amount: Team Trump had asked for $652,000 at one point, while Team Daniels said it should be closer to $600,000, per Maddow. Then in July, Trump’s lawyer sent a letter to Daniels’s representative saying that a payment of $620,000 was too low, but that they would agree to it if Daniels signed a nondisclosure agreement. According to MSNBC, the letter said this:

We disagree that a payment of $620,000.00 would be in full satisfaction of the three judgement. However, we can agree to settle these matters for $620,000.00, provided that your client agrees in writing to make no public or private statements related to any alleged past interactions with president Trump, or defamatory or disparaging statements about him, his businesses and/or any affiliates or his suitability as a candidate for President.

Daniels’s lawyer rejected the offer. Eventually, Trump’s attorney said that after speaking to “my client and co-counsel,” they would agree to $635,000 — with no mention of Daniels remaining silent. Daniels’s attorney said they eventually settled on $627,500 with no NDA.

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The [Environmental Protection Agency] has set a 10-year deadline for most utilities to replace lead service lines, but omitted requirements for schools to replace the water fountains or plumbing that have lead components.

Archived at https://ghostarchive.org/archive/F5qXx

“It’s hard because the Democratic Party doesn’t have the infrastructure here like the Republican Party does,” said Kirkpatrick, 39. “Democrats here have always felt like we had to be quiet. But if we were a little louder, people would understand this is a battleground that’s up for grabs.”

Democrats have long imagined a blue wave would roll in to break through the conservative landscape in the heart of the South Plains. It hasn’t happened.

After adjusting for inflation, wages are higher than at any point in U.S. history, and after adjusting for age and sex, the percentage of the population that is employed is around its peak in U.S. history.

Microplastics have been identified in the water we drink, the air we breathe and the food we eat – including seafood, table salt, honey, sugar, beer and tea. Sometimes the contamination occurs in the environment. Other times it’s the result of food processing, packaging and handling. More data is needed on microplastics in human foods such as land-animal products, cereals, grains, fruits, vegetables, beverages, spices, and oils and fats.

As equipment has advanced, scientists have identified smaller particles. They’ve found microplastics in our lungs, livers, kidneys, blood and reproductive organs. Microplastics have crossed protective barriers into our brains and hearts. While we eliminate some microplastics through urine, faeces and our lungs, many persist in our bodies for a long time.

Israeli officials said Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israel Defense Forces in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday. Hamas has not commented publicly on the reports.

Sinwar was the mastermind of the Oct. 7 terror attacks, which killed 1,200 people and set off Israel's year-long war against Hamas in Gaza. Israel has made killing him a key objective, and may now be more willing to scale back its military operations in Gaza.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine made an urgent plea in Brussels, though it’s unclear to what extent the officials gathered there will go along with it.

The policy, first introduced during the 2020 election, is meant to prevent misinformation about voting, including candidates prematurely claiming victory before a race is called.

Google is implementing the policy "out of an abundance of caution and to limit the potential for confusion, given the likelihood that votes will continue to be counted after Election Day," per a spokesperson.

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Even Baier seemed to acknowledge that Harris won the day.

“I think she had a mission that she wanted to do,” Baier said after the interview. “Maybe she wanted to have a viral moment or pushback. She came to Fox News and she wanted to have a go-after-Donald-Trump viral moment that plays on a lot of other channels and on social media. She may have gotten that.”

Harris received rave reviews from across the political world.

🗳️ Register to vote: https://vote.gov/

Earlier this year, two Harvard medical historians published an article on a leading American medical journal’s willful ignorance of Nazi atrocities in the 1930s and ’40s. The article found that the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious medical publications, either chose not to cover the Nazi regime’s racist and antisemitic health policies, mass killings, and medical experimentation, or, in one case, praised the Nazi health care system for its approach to public health.

The New England Journal of Medicine convened a symposium on Wednesday where the authors, Joelle M. Abi-Rached and Allan M. Brandt, could present their findings — and Abi-Rached took the opportunity to call the journal out for repeating its mistakes today.

“Is the silence of the journal regarding the pulverization of the health care system in Gaza, and Israel’s relentless attack on health care workers and the creation of a public health and humanitarian disaster and the weaponization of starvation similar or different to its silence during the Holocaust?” Abi-Rached said toward the end of her talk,

Archived at https://ghostarchive.org/archive/ln4rX

In the House of Mirrors, political captives were pushed to the brink of insanity and death. Some are telling their stories now that the woman who put them there, Sheikh Hasina, is gone.