Arizona refuses US demand to remove containers along border
Arizona is refusing the federal government’s demand to take down double-stacked shipping containers it placed to fill gaps in the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, saying it won’t do so until the U.S. moves to construct a permanent barrier. The Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs dug in its heels in an Oct. 18 letter to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey ordered installation of more than 100 double-stacked containers placed over the summer near the Morelos Dam in the Yuma, Arizona area. It’s the latest immigration policy flap between Republican border states and the Biden administration.
Fentanyl pills disguised in candy bags seized at LA airport
Authorities say thousands of suspected fentanyl pills disguised in candy boxes were seized Wednesday at Los Angeles International Airport. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says someone with bags of candy tried to get through security screening at the airport Wednesday morning. However, authorities discovered that small boxes and bags of Sweetarts, Skittles, and Whoppers didn’t contain candy. Instead, they found about 12,000 suspected fentanyl pills. Authorities say the would-be trafficker fled but has been identified. Authorities recently have warned that drug dealers have been disguising fentanyl in candy wrappers and manufacturing them in rainbow colors. The Sheriff’s Department is urging parents to inspect their children’s candy at Halloween.
FDA panel recommends pulling preterm birth drug from market
A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee on Wednesday recommended removing the drug Makena from the market, after years of study showed the fast-tracked drug had failed to prevent preterm birth. Makena has been in use for 11 years, and the panel’s vote was widely viewed as a test of the agency’s “accelerated approval” program, which has expedited nearly 300 promising drugs to the market in 30 years. This is the first time in more than a decade that the agency, which typically follows the advice of its expert panels, appears poised to force a drugmaker to stop selling a fast-tracked product.
Judge says Trump signed statement with data his lawyers told him was false
Former President Donald Trump signed a document swearing under oath that information in a Georgia lawsuit he filed challenging the results of the 2020 election was true, even though his own lawyers had told him it was false, a federal judge wrote Wednesday. The accusation came in a ruling by a U.S. district judge, David Carter, ordering John Eastman, the conservative lawyer who strategized with the former president about overturning the election, to hand over 33 more emails to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Carter determined the emails contained possible evidence of criminal behavior.
Trump deposed in defamation suit filed by E. Jean Carroll
Former President Donald Trump answered questions under oath in a defamation lawsuit filed by a writer who says he raped her in the mid-1990s. The deposition Wednesday provided lawyers for E. Jean Carroll a chance to interrogate the Republican ex-president about Carroll’s assault allegations, as well as statements he made in 2019 when she first told her story publicly. Trump has said the rape allegation is “a hoax and a lie.” A judge last week rejected Trump’s request to delay the deposition. Details on how the deposition went weren’t immediately disclosed.
Putin declares martial law in 4 illegally annexed Ukrainian regions
President Vladimir Putin declared martial law in four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine on Wednesday, but in a telling sign that his real concerns may lie far closer to home, he also moved to put the economy on a wartime footing and imposed restrictions in more than two dozen areas across Russia. With battlefield losses mounting in Ukraine and the Russian public simmering over an unpopular military conscription order, Putin’s actions appeared to be less a show of strength than a sign of disarray. As a practical matter, Moscow has only tenuous control of the eastern Ukrainian regions where it imposed martial law, weeks after illegally annexing them.
North fires more shells toward inter-Korean sea buffer zone
North Korea has fired about 100 more artillery shells toward the sea in response to South Korean live-firing drills at border areas as the rivals accuse each other of dialing up tensions with weapons tests. The drills conducted by both sides come amid heightened animosities over recent North Korean missile tests that it calls simulated nuclear attacks on South Korean and U.S. targets. The artillery firings Wednesday were North Korea’s third in less than a week. Seoul says the North Korean shells landed in maritime buffer zones the two Koreas created off their eastern and western coasts as part of agreements they made in 2018 to reduce tensions. South Korea’s Defense Ministry says its drills at land border areas didn’t violate the 2018 accord.
By wire sources