Dose Of News Useful Today

Friday, October 30th

Set Your Clocks

Happy Friday! Reminder: Daylight Savings Time ends this Sunday. Enjoy your extra hour of sleep (or, ya know, whatever else you’d do with an extra hour) -- we sure will.

Have a great Halloween weekend. 🎃😎

Daily Sprinkle

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”

-Milton Berle

Terrorist Attack in France

A man armed with a knife attacked a Catholic church in Nice, France, on Thursday, killing three in what French President Emmanuel Macron described as an “Islamist terrorist attack.”

A deeper dive…
Officials said the male suspect, who was shot and captured by police early Thursday morning, is believed to have acted alone, and they are not currently searching for other assailants.

The police did not suggest a motive for the attack, though Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi said the suspect “repeated endlessly ‘Allahu Akbar’" (God is greatest). The killings followed days of protests in several Muslim-majority countries (including Iraq, Iran, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Turkey, Jordan, & Pakistan) triggered by President Macron’s introduction of measures to combat “radical Islamism” in early October.
The Muslim protesters also objected to the September republication of a series of Charlie Hebdo cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, which Macron endorsed after French teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded by an extremist on Oct. 16 for showing the cartoons in his classroom.

MICHEL EULER/ASSOCIATED PRESS: Pro-free speech demonstrators in France pay homage to Samuel Paty following his death.

Apart from Nice, two other attacks took place on Thursday relating to anti-France sentiment across many Muslim countries. A man wielding a knife was shot dead by police near the French city of Avignon after reportedly lunging at the officers shouting “Allahu Akbar,” while a man in Saudi Arabia was arrested after allegedly stabbing a guard outside the French consulate.

What’s Next?
In a speech following the Nice attack, President Macron called for firmness and unity: “I say it with great clarity once again: we won’t surrender anything.” He also increased the number of soldiers deployed across the country to protect schools and places of worship, especially Catholic churches.

Dozens of international governments released statements on Thursday condemning the attack, including many Muslim-majority nations such as Turkey, Iran, Jordan, Pakistan, and Qatar.

So… what are people saying?

France terror attacks – and global outrage – leave Macron facing greatest test of his presidency

LEFT CENTER → The Independent (Opinion)

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🌍 Protests Around the World:

🇧🇾 Belarus partially closed its borders and appointed new security officials on Thursday in an attempt to quell months of nationwide protests, which began due to allegations of election fraud by President Alexander Lukashenko in the country’s Aug. 9 presidential election.

🇵🇱 Poland saw its seventh day of mass protests yesterday in response to a ban on all abortions in cases of fetal abnormalities issued by the country’s top court last Thursday.

🇹🇭 In Thailand, thousands of people gathered in Bangkok on Monday, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and advocating for pro-democracy reforms to the country’s monarchical system following an allegedly skewed 2019 election.

Election Update

Nearly 81M Americans have already voted according to data curated by a University of Florida professor, while a CNN/Edison Research/Catalist analysis on Wednesday reported ~36% of registered voters (over 75M people) have already cast their ballot. By the polls:

National

Source: RealClearPolitics

Key Battleground States

Source: RealClearPolitics

LEFT CENTER → Can We Trust Pennsylvania's Polls? (NYT Opinion)	RIGHT CENTER → An Option Trader's View On The Election (Barrons OPINION)

🌀 Hurricane Zeta swept across Louisiana and up through the Southwestern U.S. on Thursday, leaving at least six people dead and ~2M without power as it made its way into Virginia.

FBI Warns of Ransomware Assault

Three federal agencies warned against a wave of attacks from cybercriminals targeting the U.S. healthcare system in a joint report released Wednesday. The FBI, CISA, and HHS said the cyberattacks involve ransomware technology that encrypts essential information used by hospitals until a ransom payment is completed.

More: Security experts say that five hospitals have already been attacked, with potentially hundreds more to come.

Econ 101

U.S. GDP (Gross domestic product) grew at its fastest rate ever in the third quarter (33.1%) on the heels of the worst quarter in history, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said in a report published Thursday. Separately, the Department of Labor reported that 751k new people filed for unemployment insurance last week, down from the previous week’s level (revised up by 4k to 787k).

Tech Earnings (buckle up, these were all released yesterday):

🔍 Alphabet disclosed a net third-quarter profit of $11.25B (up from $7.07B over the same period last year) on revenues of $46.17B (up from $40.50B last year).

🛒 Amazon reported a net Q3 income of $6.3B on revenues of $96.15B, a major increase over the year-ago period, in which the company reported $2.1B in net income on revenues of $69.98B.

📱 Facebook saw a 29% year-over-year increase in net income, which jumped to $7.85B on revenues of $21.47B (up 22%).

💬 Twitter posted a net third-quarter profit of $29M on revenues of $936M, but reported its slowest rate of user growth in years. The company’s stock fell as much as 16% after hours following an 8% gain in regular trading Thursday.

🍎 Apple reported a net income of $12.67B for the fourth fiscal quarter on revenues of $64.7B. The numbers are similar to the same quarter last year, when Apple posted a $13.69B profit on revenues of $64.0B.

Also…

📺 Netflix announced a price increase of its standard and premium plans yesterday (now $13.99 & $17.99).

One Aww-some Event

The Green K9, a pet supply store offering doggy daycare and grooming in Ijamsville, MD, is committed to raising money and awareness for local animal rescue groups, hosting events throughout the year to encourage community members to support these organizations. However, due to the pandemic, the Green K9 could not conduct its usual fundraisers this year – that was, until this past weekend.

On Sunday, the Green K9 held a “Howl-o-Ween Dog Costume Contest” in a local park, where canines of all sizes competed for the title of best Halloween costume, as well as for best dog and human costume pair along with their owners. The cute competition, which included pets dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood and a sunflower (photos) – raised money for Operation Paws for Homes, a nonprofit that rescues animals from kill shelters and finds them forever homes.

A Heartwarming Home-Warming Story

According to Gord Tanner, a director at Toronto’s Shelter, Support, and Housing Administration, the city’s homeless shelter system is already nearing full capacity as the region braces for winter. With the pandemic's economic repercussions dramatically increasing the number of people facing homelessness, the community is scrambling to find ways to keep people out of the cold while maintaining social distancing measures.

Last month, in response to this pending housing crisis, 28-year-old carpenter Khaleel Seivwright began building temporary, insulated mobile shelters for people experiencing homelessness in Toronto. The emergency habitats, which are made out of wood and fiberglass, can keep an inhabitant warm in environments as cold as -18°F. Khaleel, who can construct a shelter in just 8 hours, spends approximately $1,000 on each one but gives them away to those in need for free.

Batesville Brings The Energy

In 2017, the energy efficiency company Entegrity conducted an energy audit of the Batesville School District in Batesville, AR, and found that its utility bills surpassed a whopping $600K. Nevertheless, the audit also determined that the school system, which was operating at a $250K budget deficit, could save $2.4M over 20 years by making one significant change – installing solar panels.

Following the audit’s recommendations, the district installed more than 1,400 solar panels at Batesville High School. This action decreased the facility’s annual energy consumption by 1.6M kilowatts, enough to send the entire school system into a $1.8M surplus. As a result, the Batesville School district was able to raise the average pay of its teachers by between $2K and $3K, inspiring 20 other local school districts to emulate Batesville’s environmentally-friendly model.

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🏙️ Tank You Very Much… the Taiwanese Army recently held its Combat Readiness Week, which involves exercises with tanks and other armored vehicles camouflaged in urban environments. (Photos)

🧠 On The Brain… Australian scientists succeeded in having two paralyzed men control their computers using a tiny Bluetooth prosthesis implanted in their brains.

🐶 It’s A Dog’s World… UK scientists discovered that five distinct groups of dogs were already present at the end of the ice age, meaning their first ancestors date back more than 11,000 years.

🕷 Advanced Web Design… in a study published Thursday in Current Biology, scientists describe how the ogre-faced spider uses its keen sense of hearing to lunge out and capture bugs using a web spun between two of its legs.