Fantasy Football Panic Meter: Will J.K. Dobbins return to his early-season form?

Associated Press

Greek leaders tell German president a WWII reparations claim is very much alive

Greek leaders on Wednesday revived a long-standing demand for war reparations stemming from Nazi Germany’s World War II occupation of Greece, during a visit by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Steinmeier ruled out German compliance, telling Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou that for his country, from a legal point of view the issue has been long settled. “But we remain committed to our historic responsibility” over the occupation, said Steinmeier, whose three-day visit to Greece includes stops at sites of Nazi atrocities.

Associated Press

England cricket captain Stokes says his home was burglarized with his family present

England cricket captain Ben Stokes says masked burglars stole jewelry in a break-in at his home while his family was in the house and he was away in Pakistan. Stokes announced on Wednesday that the break-in took place Oct. 17 at his Castle Eden home in northeast England. Among the items taken was his OBE, or Order of the British Empire, a medal given on behalf of the country.

Associated Press

Biden, Cyprus president discuss administration push to win cease-fires in Gaza and Lebanon

President Joe Biden and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides on Wednesday discussed a new effort by the U.S. administration and mediators in the Middle East to forge cease-fires to end fighting in Lebanon and Gaza. Christodoulides leads the European Union nation closest to Gaza. The small Mediterranean island nation has played a critical role in efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza since the war between Hamas and Israel began more than a year ago.

Associated Press

Roaring Kitty has dissolved his holdings in Chewy, but meme stocks are alive and well

A pivotal actor in the meme stock craze that began during the pandemic continues to hold a powerful sway over the movement of shares in major U.S. corporations. Nearly four months after revealing a massive stake in the online pet supply retailer Chewy, Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, has dissolved his entire holdings in the company. Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in July revealed that Gill had acquired 6.6% of the company’s shares after hinting at investments using pictures of dogs on the social media platform X.

Reuters

Canada would have to double defense spending by 2032-33 to meet NATO target, watchdog says

Canada would have to double current defense spending by fiscal 2032-33 to achieve its stated goal of meeting NATO targets, an increase that could violate fiscal anchors put in place last year to control expenditures, a parliamentary watchdog said on Wednesday. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed to increasing defense spending to at least 2% of gross domestic product after coming under mounting pressure from the United States and other NATO powers to spell out a timetable for coming in line with the alliance’s target. But if the government keeps that promise, it may need to compromise its stated ambition of shrinking its fiscal deficit as a proportion of GDP, the Parliamentary Budget Office said on Wednesday.

Associated Press

PepsiCo is closing 4 bottling plants and cutting nearly 400 jobs as it streamlines operations

PepsiCo said Wednesday it plans to close four U.S. bottling plants and lay off nearly 400 workers as part of its efforts to streamline its operations. PepsiCo confirmed that closure earlier this week. Earlier this month, PepsiCo lowered its sales forecast for the year as consumers in the U.S., China and elsewhere pulled back on buying its drinks and snacks after years of price hikes.

Reuters

Amazon workers ‘appalled’ by AWS CEO’s return to office remarks, urge policy reversal

(Reuters) -More than 500 Amazon.com employees sent a letter on Wednesday to the CEO of its AWS unit urging reversal of a full return-to-office policy and rejecting his assertion that the rule had broad support and opponents should leave Amazon Web Services. “We were appalled to hear the non-data-driven explanation you gave for Amazon imposing a five-day in-office mandate,” the letter begins. AWS CEO Matt Garman, at an Oct. 17 all-hands meeting of the cloud computing unit, said nine out of 10 workers he had spoken with supported the return-to-office policy, set to take effect early next year.

Associated Press

Indigenous people march in Brazil’s capital against bill limiting land rights

Bearing images of animals and covered in body paint, hundreds of Indigenous people marched Wednesday in Brazil’s capital, urging Congress to drop a proposed constitutional amendment that has the potential to paralyze and even reverse land allocations. The bill aims to add to the Constitution a legal theory, championed by the agribusiness caucus, that the date the Constitution was promulgated — Oct. 5, 1988 — should be the deadline for Indigenous peoples to have already either physically occupied claimed land or be legally fighting to reoccupy territory. Indigenous rights groups have argued that establishing a deadline is unfair, as it does not account for expulsions and forced displacements of Indigenous populations, particularly during Brazil’s agriculture frontier expansion in the 20th century.

Associated Press

Minnesota GOP scores a win challenging who will review absentee ballots in Hennepin County

The Minnesota Supreme Court has ordered election officials in the state’s most populous county to go back to a list submitted by the state’s Republican Party and pick new members for a board that validates absentee ballots. In an order handed down late Tuesday, the court said officials in Hennepin County — home to Minneapolis and many of its suburbs — had a duty to appoint election judges off the party’s list before letting cities pick from it and exhaust the number of people available. Until now the county absentee ballot board had been filled by four Democrats and one Republican.

AFP

Smog-beset Pakistan megacity curbs rickshaws, restaurants

Pollution puffing rickshaws and barbeque restaurants were banned from operating in parts of Pakistan’s second-largest city of Lahore on Wednesday, as public health officials battle choking smog.Rickshaws running on more polluting two-stroke engines will be blocked from the zones whilst restaurants barbequing without filters to control smoke are subject to a “complete ban”.

AFP

Trump’s election fraud claims raise alarms of 2020 repeat

Donald Trump has seized on isolated irregularities caught by US election officials to claim “cheating” has occurred, amplifying expectations that he will again reject results if he loses next week’s vote.Pennsylvania, which Trump lost by some 80,000 votes to Biden, is once again among the handful of battlegrounds expected to decide the outcome of the national race.