Welcome to the reign of King Trump

Ego will be the guiding principle of the Trump presidency. In this respect he’s much more like a monarch than the duly elected public servant of a representative democracy, and, as monarchs do, he will keep his heirs close to the center of power, Ivanka, Don Jr, Eric, and that budding Cardinal Richelieu of a son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Top security clearances and advisory roles are contemplated for the kids, who at the same time will be running the for-profit entities of the sprawling Trump Organization. It’s hard to imagine a more ethically fraught, legally explosive situation for the children, managing a vast consortium of transnational businesses while being privy to the country’s most sensitive secrets, along with easy access to the most powerful man in the world.

The best thing Trump could do for his children would be to put his assets in a genuine blind trust, and send the kids away – far, far away from Washington – to do their own thing. Limit visits to holidays and weekends, bounce the grandkids on his knee, not breathe a word about business or affairs of state.

10 THINGS TO KNOW FOR TODAY

1. WHAT INDUSTRY COULD BENEFIT FROM IMMIGRATION PLAN

Some analysts believe the prison population could climb under the Trump administration, and private prison companies stand to benefit the most.

2. TRUMP HAS NO SAY WHETHER CLINTON IS PROBED

The Justice Department is solely responsible for conducting investigations without the influence or opinion of the White House.

3. A YEAR AFTER MCDONALD VIDEO, CHICAGO'S REFORMS UNEVEN

High crime rates persist, and a federal investigation of the city's police practices now may be concluded by the "law and order" appointees of Trump.

4. AMERICANS TAKE BREAK FROM POLITICS, TURN TO TRADITION

They'll start by jamming the nation's roads, airports and railways in what has been predicted to be one of the busiest travel holidays in nearly a decade.

5. TENNESSEE ACCIDENT REVIVES DEBATE

A crash that killed five children in Chattanooga is reviving discussion over whether school buses should also be equipped with seat belts.

6. WHO IS BEING BLAMED FOR MALAYSIAN AIR BAG DEATHS

Five Malaysians have died in accidents linked to faulty Takata air bags and some are blaming weaknesses in the country's recall system.

7. WHERE OTTO IS HEADING

The Category 1 hurricane is tracking toward a possible landfall in Costa Rica, which hasn't seen such a storm since reliable record-keeping began in 1851.

8. COURT BLOCKS FEDERAL PLAN TO EXTEND OT PAY TO MANY

The rule would have made an estimated 4 million more American workers eligible for overtime pay heading into the holiday season.

9. FOR YEEZY, A TRYING YEAR

A relentless schedule and a churning life in the social media glare apparently takes its toll on hip-hop superstar Kanye West, hospitalized for exhaustion and stress.

10. NHL EXPANSION TEAM UNVEILED

The Vegas Golden Knights' logo is a fighting helmet with a "V'' in the middle. Their colors are steel grey, gold, red and black.

I didn't protest during the presidential race. I will now

Iwoke up on 9 November in a state of shock and disbelief. As I tried to go about my day, I found myself suddenly crying when the reality of a Donald Trumppresidency started to set in. Thoughts of gay marriage being overturned, Muslims getting humiliated for their beliefs, his denial of climate change, his sexist and misogynistic language permeating our society made me sick to my stomach.

More anti-Trump action planned after second night of protests across US

 

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This was not a bad dream I could awaken from but a new era that put many of our basic rights and freedom at stake.

I knew there was a protest happening that evening from Union Square, in New York City, to protest Trump. Being a mom and 42, I didn’t think this would be part of my evening. I was chopping vegetables, trying to prepare dinner for my family, but all I could think of were Facebook posts I saw that said, don’t mourn; fight like hell.

I had taken so much for granted, suddenly aware of all the progress that we had made in the last eight years. I could see how much ground that we had gained on issues like gay rights. The US had problems, but our president was a person who shared my values. Where even just a few days ago I was thinking about how much work still needed to be done in terms of social equality, healthcare and the environment, I realized we were probably going to lose ground going forward.

And I had done nothing meaningful to impact the election. I had known that this could happen, but I didn’t believe it. It couldn’t. But it did. I was never super enthusiastic about Hillary Clinton, but I had believed the media when they said that she was probably going to win so I had done nothing. I didn’t canvass. I didn’t call voters in swing states. Now it was too late.

My 15-year-old daughter was also feeling deeply disturbed by the outcome of the election. Up to this point, she had never expressed any interest in politics. But she had been looking forward to seeing the country’s first female president, and now she was comprehending her own reproductive rights at risk, and that the man who would be her president had bragged about sexually assaulting women. She was angry and upset. When I asked her if she wanted to join some of our friends protesting, she said yes.

It was the first time in her life she didn’t just want to passively watch events unfold through her social media. She was going to take action. We told my husband to watch her younger brother and to finish cooking dinner and we grabbed our coats and headed out the door.

When we arrived at the protest, we were energized immediately by the passion we found there. It stretched for several city blocks, and I could see a second crowd growing a few blocks away. Finally there was a place where we could assemble and speak our hearts and minds about Trump’s horrible policies on immigration, abortion, Islam, gay rights. We screamed and shouted in unison – pussy grab back; fuck your wall; he is not my president.

I could imagine Trump looking down at us from his penthouse window saying “Look at these idiots.” We may look powerless to him with our presence 500 feet below. But we are here and we have our voice. Thousands of us. We are not going to stand for his bigotry! We don’t want this country to ostracize or condemn innocent people because they are different. We need to protect our environment for our children. We need to have a president that doesn’t objectify women.

Can protesting change any of this? Probably not. But we have to try, instead of just clicking “like” on Facebook posts we agree with.

We need to get out there and show the world that this is not America, and we will not accept this president. We are powerful together and we need to spend these next four years getting him out of office. He is not my president.

by Yuko Kodama 

Donald Trump’s Potential Conflicts of Interest Continue To Mount

 When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe became the first foreign head of state to meet in person with President-elect Donald Trump, a photograph taken of the official event at Trump Tower in Manhattan showed a curious attendee: Trump’s daughter Ivanka.

The appearance of Ivanka Trump, who is executive vice president of development and acquisitions for the Trump Organization, raises alarm bells for those concerned about the unprecedented potential for conflicts of interest involving the incoming president.

With her two brothers, Don Jr. and Eric, Ivanka has taken the reins of her father’s vast global business empire through a so-called blind trust. (It is not a blind trust.) At the same time, the three adult children are on Trump’s transition team, giving him advice and, apparently, meeting with dignitaries from countries where they could do business in the near future.

“They shouldn’t be on the transition team because they’re going to be running the business,” said Richard Painter, who was White House ethics czar under George W. Bush. “I don’t know why they’re on the transition team. It’s a clear conflict of interest.” 

Federal conflict-of-interest laws do not apply to the president, but that does not mean that Trump’s business holdings do not create the appearance of conflicts if not actual conflicts. They are, in fact, unprecedented.

No president has ever held a fortune that spans the globe. He has licensed his name to buildings in far-flung countries, including Azerbaijan, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea and Turkey. Some are allies, some are ruled by autocratic dictatorships and some are at odds with American interests. Further, he owes hundreds of millions of dollars each to the government-owned Bank of China and the privately owned Deutsche Bank. The Trump Organization has plans to continue to expand the company around the globe during its namesake’s presidential administration.

Not only do these foreign holdings, debts and future deals present imminent conflicts of interest for American foreign policy, but they also create an immediate constitutional concern. The U.S. Constitution’s emoluments clause states that no government official shall receive favorable payment from a foreign government, foreign government-owned company or foreign official without the consent of Congress. It is, in essence, an anti-bribery clause preventing foreign corruption.

“Any of those types of arrangements, including bank loans from the Bank of China, would need to be unwound or you could have an accusation that it violates the emoluments clause,” Painter said.

This isn’t the only Chinese government-owned bank in business with Trump. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s United States headquarters are in Trump Tower in Manhattan. This government-owned bank pays rent directly to Trump through the Trump Organization. The emoluments clause could also come into play when Trump’s business sells condos at its properties or partners with foreign investors in the United States or other countries. A condo sale to a foreign dignitary could be seen as an emolument, especially if it were above the market rate. Any partnership with a royal family member in the Middle East or elsewhere could potentially violate the emoluments clause.

Both of these situations, though, could be shielded from the public. Condo buyers in some cases can hide their purchases behind a limited liability company (LLC), and Trump has refused to disclose his investment partners in any of his businesses. The partnership issue could be alleviated if Trump disclosed his tax returns; he is the first president elected in nearly 60 years to have not released his tax returns.

Trump’s conflicts of interest are not solely limited to his overseas holdings.

Sitting about one mile from the White House in the heart of Washington is the Trump International Hotel. It is Trump’s most imminent conflict of interest.

The Trump Organization, through a connected LLC, operates the hotel on a 60-year lease from the General Services Administration, a government contracting agency. That lease specifically states that “no … elected official of the Government of the United States … shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom.” Federal anti-corruption laws further prohibit government employees from holding government contracts. When Trump comes into office, he will appoint a new head of the GSA, who will run an agency that will negotiate the lease with Trump’s children annually. This creates a huge imbalance of power for the agency and its career civil servants, raising obvious questions about whether the government can get the best deal for the public.

Trump will also get to appoint new members to the National Labor Relations Board, which has two vacancies. This independent agency enforces labor law and investigates unfair labor practices or the illegal suppression of collective bargaining. On Nov. 3, the NLRB ruled in favor of workers who voted to form a union at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas. After workers voted to unionize, Trump refused to acknowledge them or to meet with them. The board ordered Trump to start bargaining toward a contract. The Trump hotel is now appealing the NLRB ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

With the ability to reshape the NLRB, Trump could remake the board in a way that favors his business interests.

An entirely different brand of conflict of interest cropped up after the whole Trump family appeared on CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday. Ivanka Trump appeared wearing a $10,800 bracelet from her personal jewelry brand. After the show, an email went out from her company hawking the bauble, an apparent attempt to use the presidency and the fame it affords to sell consumer goods. Her company apologized and blamed it on “a well-intentioned marketing employee.”

These conflicts also extend to one of Trump’s closest aides, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Kushner, the 35-year-old husband of Ivanka Trump, serves on the executive committee of his father-in-law’s presidential transition. His brother, Josh Kushner, happens to run a multibillion-dollar health care start-up called Oscar that relies on Obamacare for its existence. In addition, Oscar investor Peter Thiel also sits on Trump’s presidential transition executive committee. This could create a personal conflict of interest when discussions of repealing and replacing Obamacare occur.

Even though they do not have control of either chamber of Congress, Democrats will seek to impose some level of accountability on the president-elect and his business empire. They hope some Republicans are concerned as well.

“You can’t have conflicts of interest that are that significant, present those to the public and have a straight face about it,” Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) said.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, has already called for hearings on Trump’s “blind trust.” In a letter to Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the Oversight Committee, Cummings wrote, “Mr. Trump’s unprecedented secrecy and his extensive business dealings in foreign countries raise serious questions about how he intends to avoid conflicts of interest as president.”

Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) introduced legislation that would extend the federal conflict-of-interest law to cover both the president and vice president. This would mean that Trump would have to place his holdings into an actual blind trust, not a trust he claims his children will run.

In a statement, Clark said, “Every recent president in modern history has taken steps to ensure his financial interests do not conflict with the needs of the American people. The American people need to be able to trust that the President’s decisions are based on the best interests of families at home, and not the President’s financial interests.”

Sarbanes says to expect Democrats to continue to demand that these conflicts of interest be resolved.

“I think Trump’s going to give us endless examples or instances of things that on their face are offensive to people’s sense of what’s proper,” he said. “He’s already doing it.”

10 things you need to know today

1. Clinton blames FBI director for defeat 

In a call with donors Saturday, Hillary Clinton blamed her loss on FBI Director James Comey, who sent a letter to Congress 11 days before the election reopening his agency's investigation into her use of a private email server while secretary of state based on the discovery of new emails. "There are lots of reasons why an election like this is not successful," Clinton said, and "our analysis is that Comey's letter raising doubts that were groundless, baseless, proven to be, stopped our momentum." Worse than the initial letter, Clinton said, was the second letter Comey sent two days before the election saying no new evidence justifying prosecution had been found, news she argued undecided voters interpreted as evidence for Donald Trump's allegations of a rigged system.

2. Conway says Trump's chief of staff decision is 'imminent' 

Donald Trump's erstwhile campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, who is working on his transition team, told reporters Saturday announcement of the president-elect's pick for chief of staff is "imminent." She acknowledged that Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus has "expressed interest" in the position and is under consideration, but reiterated that "it's Mr. Trump’s decision ultimately." How Trump will choose to staff his administration is the subject of much debate, as he ran his campaign as an indictment of the Washington establishment but, with 4,100 jobs to fill, has stacked his transition team with Washington insiders.

3. Trump compliments Clinton, moderates ObamaCare plan 

President-elect Donald Trump made "immediately repealing and replacing ObamaCare" a key promise of his campaign, but in his first on-air interview since the election, Trump moderated his plan for the Affordable Care Act. He described the law's ban on denial of coverage for preexisting conditions as "one of the strongest assets" and said ObamaCare's provision that children under 26 can stay on their parents' insurance is "something we're going to try and keep." Trump also praised Hillary Clinton as a gracious loser, labeling her concession call "lovely" and "tough." The full 60 Minutes conversation airs Sunday.

Source: Politico, CBS Evening News

4. Democrats bicker over power, direction 

The Democratic Party finds itself at a crossroads in the wake of Hillary Clinton's unexpected loss to Donald Trump, and party progressives want to see the "Clinton-corporate wing" of the Democratic establishment gone for good. The Democrats' civil war currently centers on who will be the next chair of the Democratic National Committee, a seat presently held by an embattled interim chair, Donna Brazile. Candidates for the position have rapidly multiplied as too many Washington connections have become a liability.

5. Paris marks attacks anniversary, celebrates Bataclan reopening 

Sunday marks the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead last November. French President Francois Hollande unveiled a memorial plaque Sunday morning, and the names of every person slain were read aloud at a somber memorial event. Saturday evening, the Bataclan, a music venue where the bulk of the casualties occurred, reopened with a performance led by Sting. Proceeds of the concert were donated to two charities helping survivors of the attacks, and the families of those who were killed were all given tickets.

6. 52 killed, more than 100 wounded in ISIS attack in Pakistan 

At least 52 people were killed and 100 more wounded in an attack on a Muslim shrine in the Balochistan province of Pakistan on Saturday. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing, calling it "a martyrdom attack" on the Sufi sect of Islam, which ISIS believes to be heretical. The death toll may continue to rise, in part because the blast site's remote location makes it difficult for emergency medical services to transport the injured. The explosion occurred at the Shah Noorani shrine, where hundreds were gathered to watch a nightly ritual dance at sunset.

Source: Reuters, CNN

7. Colombia and FARC rebels agree to revised peace deal 

A month after Colombians voted down a historic peace deal between the government in Bogotá and the FARC rebels, the two sides have reached a new agreement to end 52 years of bloody internal conflict. The new deal reportedly incorporates suggestions from those who said the old deal was too lenient toward the rebel fighters. "We call upon all Colombia and the international community ... to back this new accord and its quick implementation so as to leave the tragedy of war in the past," the negotiators said in a statement. "Peace cannot wait anymore."

8. New Zealand hit with tsunami caused by powerful earthquake 

A 7.8 magnitude earthquake shook New Zealand north of Christchurch Sunday morning, leaving little direct damage there or in the capital city of Wellington. But tsunami waves caused by the quake began arriving about two hours later. Officials warned New Zealanders they should get to higher ground away from the ocean in case the waves — initially measuring about six feet — become larger and more dangerous. Aftershocks from the earthquake continued throughout the morning.

9. South Korean president to be questioned by prosecutors over confidante scandal 

After days of massive protests in Seoul demanding the resignation of South Korean President Park Geun-hye, prosecutors will question Park over accusations that she gave an old friend, Choi Soon-sil, undue influence in state affairs. Choi herself, seen as a corrupt, Rasputin-like figure, will also be investigated. The date for Parks' questioning is presently "undecided," said an official at the prosecutors' office, but it is expected to happen within the next few days.

10. SNL mourns Clinton's loss, mocks those surprised by it in Chappelle episode 

Comedian Dave Chappelle made his Saturday Night Live debut this week in an election postmortem episode with an uneven tone. The completely serious cold open simultaneously mourned the recent death of songwriter Leonard Cohen and the demise of Hillary Clinton's presidential hopes, featuring Kate McKinnon as Clinton singing Cohen's "Hallelujah." In a wide-ranging monologue, Chappelle criticized Donald Trump as an "internet troll" but concluded he would give Trump a chance, adding after a reflection on the history of African Americans in the White House, that "we, the historically disenfranchised, demand that he give us one too." Chappelle was also joined by Chris Rock in a sketch about an election watch party that skewered white Democrats' surprise at Trump's win.

Millions To Lose Insurance,’ And Other Likely Headlines From The Trump Presidency

Millions of people lose health insurance.

Undocumented workers face new threats of deportation.

Progress on reducing greenhouse gases starts to reverse.

Conservatives regain a majority in the Supreme Court, and are poised to expand their influence.

Deficits rise, forcing cuts to programs on which the poor and middle class depend.

Those are some of the headlines you could see over the next four years, now that Donald Trump has been elected the 45th president of the United States. 

Trump did not run a substantive campaign. He talked about policy only sporadically, without much detail and frequently in contradictory terms.  This created the impression that he didn’t have ideas about what he wanted to do ― and that he’d act unpredictably.

Trump also fought with Republican leaders in Congress, particularly House Speaker Paul Ryan, and adopted a few key positions ― particularly on trade ― that were at odds with the party’s orthodoxy. This created the impression that he wouldn’t be able to govern, because he wouldn’t be able to collaborate with Congress.

But like the polls that predicted a Clinton win, these perceptions about Trump are flawed. The truth is that Trump has always had some basic ideas about how he’d like to reshape public policy.

And for all of his bluster about challenging the establishment, Trump and the Republicans in Congress believe in many of the same things.

Predicting how a Trump presidency will play out is difficult at this point. Neither party really prepared for this eventuality and there are some pretty big unknowns, like whether Democrats can use the filibuster to block Republican proposals ― and whether Republicans change Senate rules in response. Governing is a lot harder than campaigning, and it will require confronting trade-offs that Trump ― and, to some extent, Republicans in Congress ― have never confronted before.

But *even allowing for all of that,* it’s not hard to imagine Trump working closely with a Republican Congress, in order to rewrite vast swaths of the federal code.

One obvious area of consensus is Obamacare. Repealing and replacing President Barack Obama’s signature health care law has been an explicit goal for both Trump and the Republicans, and in just the last two weeks Trump has made clear he intends to make it a priority.

The “replace” part of that vow remains fuzzy, so it’s impossible to say precisely what that would mean. And in the one test case for repeal so far, a newly elected Republican governor in Kentucky decided not to follow through on a promise to back out of its Medicaid expansion ― a major component of Obamacare ― because doing so would deprive hundreds of thousands of insurance.

But even if Trump and Republicans decided not to go full repeal, or to replace the health care law with a meaningful alternative, the end result is likely to be far fewer people with insurance or far less financial protection from medical expenses ― because the thrust of Republican plans are to scale back consumer protections and reduce government spending.

One way or another, it mean reversing the progress of the last few years, so that the health care system looks more like the one that existed before reform ― with cheaper, skimpier policies available to people in good health, but fewer insured overall and bigger bills for people with serious medical problems.

Taxes are another area of broad agreement. Trump may have presented himself as a threat to the establishment and champion of the little guy, but when it comes to economic policy he’s actually a very ordinary Republican who believes in policies that are very good for businesses and the wealthy, and not so good for everybody else.

And so both Trump and his Republican allies have called to reduce or eliminate the estate tax, to lower income tax rates, and to give give new breaks to corporations. Analyses of these tax plans by independent organizations, such as the Brookings-Urban Tax Policy Center, show that benefits flow disproportionately to the wealthy.

But those tables actually understate the extent to which tax cuts shift resources, because these tax cuts end up depriving the federal government of trillions of dollars of revenue. That creates deficits that, inevitably, lead to cuts in programs on which the poor and middle class tend to rely. Those can include everything from food stamps to Medicare.

There are some areas where Trump and the Republicans are likely to be at odds ― either because he’s already taken different positions than they have, or because he’ll change his mind. He really has been vague and inconsistent on many issues. An example is the minimum wage, an issue on which most Republicans share a common view. (They oppose raising it.)

But on domestic policy, at least, those fights are likely to be the exception, not the rule. And on those issues where Trump couldn’t bend Congress to his will, he’d still be executive authority at his disposal.

That is likely to mean peeling back Obama’s new regulations on everything from power plant emissions to banking activities, while failing to enforce the regulations that stay on the books. And of course Trump could make broad changes toimmigration enforcement, just like Obama did.

Even if Trump doesn’t follow through on all of his campaign promises, it’s likely he will increase deportations of undocumented residents already here ― and scale back temporary protections that Obama afforded them.

And that’s the thing to remember. Both Trump and Republicans have embraced radical agendas for governing. They might end up realizing only a portion of them. But that would still add up to a tectonic shift in policy.

Elections have consequences. And the consequences of this election will be big.

Donald Trump Heads To Court For Trump University Lawsuit On Heels Of Election

Within a few weeks of winning the White House, President-elect Donald Trump could face another group of U.S. citizens, a federal jury in California, courtesy of a lawsuit by former students of his now-defunct Trump University who claim they were defrauded by a series of real-estate seminars.

A hearing in federal court in San Diego is set for Thursday, and the trial is scheduled to begin on Nov. 28, barring any delays or if Trump decides to settle the case.

While presidents enjoy immunity from lawsuits arising from their official duties, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that this shield does not extend to acts alleged to have taken place prior to taking office. The 1997 ruling came in the sexual harassment lawsuit filed against President Bill Clinton by Paula Jones, which was settled before it went to trial.

Lawyers said they could think of no similar situation like the one now involving Trump.

“I’m certain there is nothing comparable to this,” said Alan Dershowitz, professor emeritus at Harvard Law School.

Florida Moving Faster From Battleground To Blue? Thanks, Donald.

Republicans once were able to count on California, Texas and Florida in presidential contests. Then it was only Texas and Florida. A Clinton win in the Sunshine State on Tuesday could confirm the start of an era where Democrats head into presidential contests able to count on three of the mega-states ― California, New York and Florida ― with Republicans having only Texas.

  There are 46 other states and the District of Columbia, of course, but the four big ones account for a total of 151 electoral votes ― more than a quarter of the total available.

 “It reduces the math to a tiny group, but it’s a useful group,” said Ruy Teixeira, a demographer with the liberal Center for American Progress think tank. “If Florida is gone, that only leaves Texas.”

And that means that an electoral map that already was starting to lean in favor of Democrats would tilt that way even more drastically. “It’s not a like a coin flip anymore. It’s like a weighted coin,” Teixeira said.

Clinton’s campaign, of course, is doing everything it can to make that a reality. For months, Democratic staff and volunteers have been registering tens of thousands of new Latino voters all over the state, but with a particular focus in the Central Florida counties, where migration from Puerto Rico has been most intense.

And on Sunday, the final day of early voting, the campaign is putting an exclamation point on that effort with a visit to Kissimmee by a Clinton surrogate who is nearly as popular with Latinos as he is with African Americans: Obama himself.

10 THINGS TO KNOW FOR TODAY

1. CLINTON ACCUSES TRUMP OF STOKING HATRED; HE DISPARAGES HER HONESTY

With polls showing Trump closing in on Clinton in key battleground states, her campaign is rushing to shore up support in Michigan and other long-standing Democratic strongholds.

2. WHAT FINAL PRE-ELECTION US JOBS REPORT COULD HOLD

The report is expected to show that hiring was solid in October, consistent with a decent economy yet one also pocketed by weaknesses that have left many feeling left behind.

3. IRAQI SPECIAL FORCES LAUNCH ASSAULT DEEPER INTO MOSUL

The urban combat is the most intense fighting since the Iraqi offensive began over two weeks ago to drive IS from Iraq's second-largest city.

4. LARGE BLAST HITS CITY IN TURKEY'S KURDISH SOUTHEAST REGION

The apparent car bombing in Diyarbakir kills 8 people and came hours after authorities detained at least 12 pro-Kurdish legislators for questioning in terror-related probes.

5. S. KOREA LEADER TAKES SOLE BLAME FOR SCANDAL

The apology from President Park Geun-hye comes amid rising suspicion that she allowed a mysterious confidante to manipulate power from the shadows.

6. ELECTION FRAUD CLAIMS RESONATE WITH GROWING AUDIENCE

Populist candidates in the U.S. and abroad increasingly play the fraud card, hoping to gain by spreading distrust of the establishment, even at the cost of turmoil.

7. 'EVERY TIME WE LOOK FROM THE WINDOW, WE SEE DESTRUCTION'

Samira Mohammed sums up the devastation that 19 months of airstrikes by Saudi Arabia and its allies have wrought upon the city of Saada, Yemen.

8. WHY SCHOOL BUS DRIVER IN CRASH SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN BEHIND WHEEL

Glenn R. Chappell's commercial driver's license was suspended two months earlier.

9. OPRAH'S ELVES UNVEIL HER 101 FAVORITE THINGS

The list includes affordable stocking stuffers, from a box of hair bands wrapped like candy, to big-ticket items like a smart TV that looks like contemporary art.

10. CROWDS OF CUBS FANS SET FOR WORLD SERIES PARADE

Fans have a lot of pent-up celebrating to do after the Cubs' Game 7 victory in Cleveland broke a 108-year championship drought.

Hey, Melania Trump, Have You Met Your Husband?

a Trump doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to public speaking. Her speech Thursday at a Pennsylvania campaign rally ― her first solo event of the election cycle ― didn’t go swimmingly either.

The wife of Donald Trump talked about her childhood in Slovenia, her advocacy for women and children, and, most notably, bullying. She said that if she became first lady, “one of [her] main focuses” would be online bullying ― because social media, “like anything that is powerful, it can have a bad side.”

If you’re choking on your tea right now, wait until you read what Twitter had to say about this anti-bullying stance, which Melania’s notoriously vitriolic husband doesn’t seem to share. 

Hey @MELANIATRUMP ...maybe you should start teaching the biggest child of all...@realDonaldTrump "American values" before you preach to USA

10 THINGS TO KNOW FOR TODAY

1. NO MORE BILLY GOAT, NO MORE BARTMAN, NO MORE BLACK-CAT CURSES

Ending more than a century of flops, futility and frustration, the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series title since 1908, outlasting Cleveland 8-7 in 10 innings in Game 7.

2. EARLY VOTING: TIGHTER RACE, BUT STILL GOOD SIGNS FOR CLINTON

AP data show she maintains an apparent advantage over Trump, with roughly one-fourth of all ballots already cast.

3. HOW ISLAMIC STATE GROUP LEADER RALLIES FIGHTERS IN IRAQ

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi releases a new message ordering the militants to "make their blood flow like rivers" in the fight for Mosul against Iraqi government forces.

4. AP: CHINA CARFENTANIL TRADE THRIVING

The weapons-grade chemical is suspected in hundreds of drug overdoses in the United States and Canada.

5. CDC: PROGRESS REDUCING UNINSURED RATE MAY STALL

The study suggests Obama's health care law may be reaching a limit to its effectiveness in a nation politically divided over the government's role in guaranteeing coverage.

6. CHILEAN CHILDREN'S CARE IN CRISIS

The government says that 865 youths have died in an agency's care the past 11 years and the country has now committed $ 3.7 million for an overhaul.

7. OFFICIALS: BLAZE AT MISSISSIPPI BLACK CHURCH WAS ARSON

The FBI has opened a civil rights investigation after someone torched Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church and spray-painted "Vote Trump" on an outside wall.

8. WHO THINKS HE CAN BEAT NETANYAHU

Political newcomer Yair Lapid believes he has the moderate formula that will allow him to do something that has eluded Israeli politicians for nearly a decade.

9. IN AFRICA, WHAT HAS SIZEABLE VALUE

Some entrepreneurial Senegalese hope to create a new business model for the secondhand clothing trade to give more local people jobs.

10. QUEEN B BUZZES INTO CMAs

Beyonce helps celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Country Music Awards' with a secret performance of her song "Daddy Lessons" with the Dixie Chicks.