China warns of further spread in latest COVID-19 flare-up

BEIJING (Reuters) -China's latest COVID-19 outbreak is increasingly likely to spread further, a health official said on Sunday, as authorities urged all regions to step up monitoring and called for a reduction in travel across provinces. China has largely contained the virus but it is determined to stamp out any sporadic local outbreaks, particularly in the run-up to the 2022 Winter Olympics in February. More than 100 locally transmitted cases have been confirmed over the last week across 11 provincial areas, with most linked to 13 different tour groups.

Italian flight attendants strip clothing to protest job conditions

Italian flight attendants are stripping their clothes away to protest layoffs and decreases in pay amid the launch of Italy's new airline. Roughly 50 former flight attendants from Alitalia gathered around the square outside of the Campidoglio in Rome to protest job losses and pay cuts, CNN reported. The protesters gathered in their Alitalia uniforms and then proceeded to strip down to their underwear, chanting "We are Alitalia."

Drag racer slams into spectators in Texas; 2 children killed

A driver lost control during a Texas drag racing event on an airport runway and slammed into a crowd of spectators, killing two children and injuring eight other people Saturday, authorities said. A 6-year-old boy and an 8-year-old boy were killed in the crash Saturday afternoon at an event called “Airport Race Wars 2” at the Kerrville-Kerr County Airport, police said in a news release. The driver “lost control and left the runway, crashing into parked vehicles and striking spectators who were observing the races,” Kerville police said.

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  Texas drag race driver slams into spectators, killing 2 kids

  Associated Press
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  Two boys, ages 6 and 8, killed when drag racer crashes into spectators, Texas cops say

  Fort Worth Star-Telegram

3 Children Found Abandoned, Skeletal Remains of 4th in Houston House of Horrors

Houston cops carrying out a welfare check on an apartment found a nightmare: three siblings abandoned and living with the skeletal remains of a fourth. “A very horrific situation out here, very tragic,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a Sunday press conference. The surviving children were ages 15, 10, and 7, and they had been living in “deplorable conditions” for “quite a long time,” Gonzalez said.

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  Skeletal remains, 3 abandoned kids found in apartment, sheriff says

  KTRK – Houston
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  3 kids found abounded amongst skeletal remains in Houston, sheriff says

  KXXV

Colombia's most wanted drug lord captured in jungle raid

Colombian security forces have captured the country's most wanted drug trafficker, a rural warlord who stayed on the run for more than a decade by corrupting state officials and aligning himself with combatants on the left and right. President Iván Duque likened the arrest Saturday of Dairo Antonio Úsuga to the capture three decades ago of Pablo Escobar. Colombia's military presented Úsuga to the media in handcuffs and wearing rubber boots preferred by rural farmers.

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  Colombia's most-wanted drug lord told armed forces: 'You beat me' when caught -government

  Reuters
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  Colombia captures most wanted drug lord in 'biggest blow to cocaine trade since fall of Escobar'

  The Telegraph

These 5 items are facing shortages or higher prices. Here’s where you can actually buy them affordably right now

Toys Due to shipping complications and supply shortages, many toys are expected to sell out without the promise of being restocked before the holidays. Experts advise shopping for in-demand toys as soon as you see them because CEOs from major toy companies have been warning consumers that not only will shortages abound, but price increases are also likely. Buying tip: Buy in-demand toys sooner rather than later, but for most toys it's likely okay to wait.

Brian Laundrie's parents won't have a funeral for their son, the family attorney reportedly said

There won't be a funeral for Brian Laundrie, his family lawyer told a Fox News producer. Laundrie was a person of interest in the killing of Gabby Petito. Laundrie's remains were discovered at a Florida nature reserve on October 21.

‘Predator’ jailed for spiking woman’s drink before recording sex assault at hotel

A 'predator' has been jailed after he spiked a woman's drink with cocaine, sexually assaulted her in a hotel and emptied her bank account. Sean Howarth, 31, was sentenced to seven years and two months in prison at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester on Friday. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said Howarth met his 19-year-old victim when she was with friends in a nightclub in Manchester city centre in February 2019 and spiked her drink with cocaine.

'Needle Spiking' of Women in Britain Stirs Alarm Over New Kind of Assault

Lizzie Wilson was standing in a crowded nightclub Monday night with three friends when she felt a sharp pinch in her back, as if she had been pricked by a needle. Wilson, 18, said she had heard about young women being injected with syringes at crowded clubs and immediately feared she was another victim. “Nobody should ever go through that,” said Wilson, a student in her first year of college in Nottingham in central England.

Which is more expensive: Charging an electric vehicle or fueling a car with gas?

And you're not really saving much in terms of charging costs ... you may be paying more. EV charging: Finding an electric vehicle charging station shouldn't be a scavenger hunt Costs to drive an EV compared with a gasoline car are detailed in a report Anderson Economic released Thursday called "Comparison: Real World Cost of Fueling EVs and ICE Vehicles."

Every Day, Biden Smells Like More of a Loser

With a hint of confusion in his eyes and a whiff of failure in the air around him, Joe Biden is watching his approval ratings continue to plummet to the point where just 42 percent of Americans approve of his job performance. Which makes sense, since at least so far Biden really doesn't seem very good at this whole being president thing despite dreaming of and preparing for it for decades. With his staff trying to hide him from the press, and his penchant for saying confusing things, Biden isn't rhetorically equipped to talk himself out of this mess.

Body of missing Texas man found in Grand Teton after four-day search, rangers say

The body of a man who went missing in Grand Teton National Park was found Sunday, park rangers said. A search for Jared Hembree, a 26-year-old from Texas, began Thursday when law enforcement officials received a call of concern “after an interaction with him outside the park,” park officials said. After a four-day search, officials found his body in the eastern part of the national park, park rangers said.

Afghanistan hurtling towards collapse, Sweden and Pakistan say

Afghanistan plunged into crisis after the hardline Islamist Taliban movement drove out the Western-backed government in August triggering the abrupt end of billions of dollars in assistance to its aid-dependent economy. "The country is on the brink of collapse and that collapse is coming faster than we thought," Swedish development minister Per Olsson Fridh told Reuters in Dubai. He said economic freefall could provide an environment for terrorist groups to thrive, but that Sweden would not channel money through the Taliban, instead boosting its humanitarian contributions through Afghan civil society groups.

Remove a Confederate Statue? A Tennessee City Did This Instead.

Sawyers and like-minded residents did not get the statue removed, but they have come up with a provocative response to it: a new bronze statue in Franklin's public square depicting a life-size soldier from the U.S. Colored Troops, largely Black regiments that were recruited for the U.S. Army during the Civil War. The new monument, which was unveiled Saturday before a crowd of hundreds, and five recently added markers tell the story of the market house where enslaved people were auctioned and the role that local Black men played in fighting for their freedom.

Erdogan orders removal of 10 ambassadors, including US envoy

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that he had ordered 10 foreign ambassadors who called for the release of a jailed philanthropist to be declared persona non grata. The envoys, including the U.S., French and German representatives in Ankara, issued a statement earlier this week calling for a resolution to the case of Osman Kavala, a businessman and philanthropist held in prison since 2017 despite not having been convicted of a crime. Describing the statement as an “impudence,” Erdogan said he had ordered the ambassadors be declared undesirable.

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  Erdogan's critics say expulsion call is diversion from economic woe

  Reuters
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  Finland's leader: Turkey decision on envoys 'regrettable'

  Associated Press

Bicyclist kicks attacking 500-pound brown bear as it mauls him, Alaska cops say

A bicyclist spotted a brown bear on an Alaska trail. Then it started running toward him, officials said. The biker was about 30 feet from the brown bear Tuesday when it started to charge, Alaska Wildlife Troopers in Cantwell said.

North Korea may be making plans for a future without Kim Jong Un

Rumors have swirled around North Korean leader Kim Jong Un since he took power in 2011. Long absences from public view have prompted speculation about his health and who would succeed him. Political moves in North Korea suggests preparation for such a change, but experts said who comes next is unknowable.

How intensive modding ushered in China’s computer revolution

In my previous essay on TechCrunch, I examined the profound challenges which confronted the computer engineers trying to fit tens of thousands of Chinese characters in a memory system designed to handle a much smaller alphanumeric symbolic system. Now, I turn to the question of Chinese character output—monitors, printers, and related peripherals—where still more challenges confronted engineers seeking to render Western-manufactured personal computers and computer peripherals compatible with Chinese character text. While we call them “peripherals,” suggesting a sort of supporting role, they are in fact at the very center of computing in Chinese, from the extreme limitations that Chinese computing faced in the 1970s and 80s to the immense strides and successes it has experienced from the 1990s onward.

It’s no stimulus check, but 17 million Americans are missing out on free money

The promise of free money is typically pretty alluring. After all, the stimulus checks Congress handed out during the early months of the pandemic were enormously popular, and nearly 3 million people have signed a petition calling for more. A 401(k) match from your employer is the closest thing many people get to free cash.

The story of Carol and Karen: Two experimental Facebook accounts show how the company helped divide America

They were created by a Facebook researcher to explore how the social media platform deepened political divides in the U.S. by recommending content rife with misinformation and extremism. The experiment shows that Facebook, which had 2.9 billion monthly active users as of June 30, knew before the 2020 presidential election that its automated recommendations amplified misinformation and polarization in the U.S., yet the company largely failed to curtail its role in deepening the political divide.

Afghanistan heading towards collapse faster than expected, Swedish minister warns

Afghanistan is heading towards economic collapse that risks spiralling the country into a new political crisis, Sweden's minister for international development cooperation warned on Saturday. Afghanistan has been plunged into crisis following the collapse of the Western-backed government and Taliban take over in August, which was met with an abrupt end of billions of dollars in assistance to its aid-dependent economy. "My concern is that the country is on the brink of collapse and that collapse is coming faster than we thought," Per Olsson Fridh told Reuters in Dubai, warning that economic freefall could provide an environment for terror groups to thrive.