| Need To Know |
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| World's Most Wanted Man Dead |
| President Trump announced yesterday that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died in a Saturday raid in the Northern Syrian province of Idlib. According to officials, a person suspected to be Baghdadi detonated an explosive vest after being cornered by US special forces. If confirmed, it would end a five-year search for the elusive leader. Baghdadi, an unknown religious academic (see profile) until rising through ISIS ranks in 2006, remained reclusive even to his followers, releasing just two brief communications this year. The operation came amid a tumultuous two weeks in the region, with US forces withdrawing to make way for a Turkish operation to sweep Kurdish fighters from the area. Both Turkish and Kurdish leaders claimed credit for providing intelligence supporting the raid. Despite no longer controlling any territory (see map), experts say ISIS has evolved into a shadow terror network capable of significant attacks, which include a Sri Lanka bombing earlier this year that killed 259. |
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| Pope to Consider Married Priests |
A council of Roman Catholic bishops recommended over the weekend that Pope Francis amend Church rules to allow married men to serve as priests. The proposal, which would be limited to remote dioceses in the Amazon region but could serve as a precedent to address a global shortage, would overturn a nearly 1,000-year-old prohibition on the practice. The Church faces an acute priest shortage, with the number of priests dropping by 1% over the past five decades (see data) despite the worldwide Catholic population increasing by more than 65%, to 1.3 billion. The shortage is particularly bad in the dense Amazon rainforest, where - despite being located in heavily Catholic South America - parishioners can wait months to see a priest. The council also considered (but did not ultimately support) allowing women to become deacons and pushed the Vatican to recognize "ecological sins."
Pope Francis is expected to make a decision on the recommendations by the end of the year. |
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| Texas Shooting |
Two people were killed and 12 injured after a gunman opened fire during an off-campus party near a Texas A&M University satellite campus late Saturday night. Six of the 12 injured were hurt in the chaos following the shooting, the other six sustained gunfire - of the latter, four remain in critical condition. Unlike other high-profile mass-shootings, the suspect was able to elude police, largely because the attack took place at a costume party with more than 750 people. Officials say they are looking for a single shooter and say they have reason to believe the shooter may have been targeting a single person. Details have been difficult to confirm, with a police representative saying that virtually none of the hundreds of people present were able to provide consistent information on the shooter's identity.
Gunshots disrupted a vigil for the victims last night, held nearly an hour away from the original attack. |
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| In The Know |
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| Sports, Entertainment & Culture |
| > Houston Astros win three in a row to go up 3-2 against Washington Nationals in 2019 World Series; Game 6 scheduled for tomorrow in Houston (8pm ET) (More) |
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| > Comedian Dave Chappelle wins the 2019 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (More) |
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| > England tops New Zealand to reach finals in 2019 Rugby World Cup; will face South Africa in finals (More) |
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| Science & Technology |
| > Scientists develop new method to remove carbon dioxide from air streams; usable at concentrations as low as 400 parts-per-million, or roughly atmospheric conditions (More) |
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| > Health officials say nearly 900 children in Pakistani city of Ratodero confirmed to have HIV due to reuse of syringes; only a quarter of population has been tested (More) |
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| > New technique uses sound waves and magnets to push around single cells; offers new route for targeted drug delivery and nanomedicine (More) |
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| Business & Markets |
| > United Auto Workers ends 40-day strike against General Motors on Friday, after approving a 4-year labor deal (More) |
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| > Pentagon awards $10B/10-year cloud computing contract to Microsoft over Amazon; The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract is part of Pentagon’s digital modernization (More) |
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| > Luxury brand conglomerate LVMH - owner of dozens of high-end brands including Louis Vuitton & Hennessy - offers $14.5B for Tiffany & Co. (More) |
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| Politics & World Affairs |
| > Tens of thousands of protesters form human chain across Lebanon, from cities of Tripoli to Tyre, in broad demonstrations against country's political elite (More) |
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| > Hurricane-force winds drive widespread wildfires across Northern California; 180,000 people told to evacuate, almost 2.5 million people to lose power during planned shut-offs (More) |
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| > Freshman Rep. Katie Hill (D, CA-25) resigns after ethics probe is opened over inappropriate relationship with staffer (More) | Former Rep. John Conyers, founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, dies at age 90 (More) |
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