[guest post by Dana]

Here are a few news items to chew over. Feel free to share anything you think might interest readers. Please remember to include links.

First news item

Mitch McConnell’s new campaign ad aims for the heartstrings:

Second news item

Aunt Becky reports to prison early:

The actress Lori Loughlin reported to a federal prison in Northern California on Friday to start a two-month sentence for her role in a massive college admissions cheating scandal, according to officials at the prison and the federal prosecutor’s office…The “Full House” star surrendered to authorities at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, about 40 miles east of San Francisco. She was early; the judge who sentenced her ordered her to report to prison on Nov. 19…Loughlin, who was assigned Bureau of Prisons number 77827-112, has also been ordered to pay a fine of $150,000 and complete 100 hours of community service once she is released

Third news item

Asian tiebreakers:

Asian American and Pacific Islanders could provide the margin of victory in the country’s 10 most contested states, which are scattered across the Midwest, South and Southwest, according to a new report commissioned by the National Education Association.

The survey, conducted in July and September with 875 Asian constituents, finds new insight into an overlooked community that holds an outsize influence on Senate and presidential races. A majority of the study respondents are of Chinese, Indian and Filipino descent.

The report highlighted the fact that a third of registered AAPI voters, more than 2 million in total, live in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.

Fourth news item

Checking in with the Mexicans for Trump:

[S]ome of the Mexican president’s supporters are pulling for an unlikely candidate in the upcoming US election: Donald Trump.

“We want President Trump to stay in office. Why? Because there’s good communication between him and President López Obrador,” said Carolina Mayor, a veterinarian. “They understand each other perfectly because they’re nationalists. They’re nationalist presidents.”

Amlo, as Mexico’s president is known, has not commented on the election, saying he wants to stay out of US politics. But he has forged a surprisingly close relationship with Trump, going out of his way to praise the US president, and deploying the national guard to crack down on Central American migants.

Trump, meanwhile, has dialed down the insults and repeatedly called Amlo a “great guy”.

Fifth news item

She’ll still carry water for him:

During an off-script portion of his speech, the president mentioned that [Laura] Ingraham was at the rally and looked around to point her out to the crowd. But Trump quickly pounced on Ingraham when he saw that she had donned a face mask.

“I can’t recognize you. Is that a mask? No way. Are you wearing a mask? I’ve never seen her in a mask,” Trump said. “Look at you. Oh, she’s being very politically correct. Whoa. Whoa.”

Sixth news item

France digs in against radical Islamic terrorism:

France’s interior minister said on Friday more militant attacks on its soil were likely and the country was engaged in a war against Islamist ideology following the second deadly knife attack in its cities in two weeks.

Minister Gerald Damarnin was speaking a day after an assailant shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in Nice. The man was shot by police and is now in critical condition in a hospital…

Speaking outside the church in Nice on Thursday, Macron said France had been attacked “over our values, for our taste for freedom, for the ability on our soil to have freedom of belief…And I say it with great clarity again today: We will not give any ground.”

Seventh news item

Pay attention, America: Europe going on lockdown again:

Europe’s whack-a-mole strategy of imposing local lockdowns to squash the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic didn’t work. Now it’s time to pull out the big guns.

Germany and France both announced new four-week national lockdowns on Wednesday night. They followed the Czech Republic and Ireland, which put country-wide restrictions in place earlier this month. Spain and the United Kingdom could be next.

Eighth news item

Trump administration violates U.S. policy:

Over 200 children from countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras have been forced into Mexico after trying to cross into the U.S. in the last eight months, according to the New York Times, where they were placed with welfare authorities and into shelters operated by religious groups and private organizations.

According to U.S. policy and an agreement with the Mexican government, only Mexican children and children with adult supervision can be pushed back into Mexico after trying to cross the border, the report said, others are supposed to be flown back to their home countries by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

…

An email from U.S. Border Patrol’s assistant chief, Eduardo Sanchez, obtained by the Times, confirmed that unaccompanied children had been sent back into Mexico instead of being flown to their home countries, and acting commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection agency Mark Morgan acknowledged that expelling unaccompanied non-Mexican children to Mexico was against U.S. policy.

Ninth news item

The legendary Sean Connery has died at 90:

Sir Sean died peacefully in his sleep, while in the Bahamas, having been “unwell for some time”, his son said.

Jason Connery said his father “had many of his family who could be in the Bahamas around him” when he died overnight in Nassau.

He said: “We are all working at understanding this huge event as it only happened so recently, even though my dad has been unwell for some time.

“A sad day for all who knew and loved my dad and a sad loss for all people around the world who enjoyed the wonderful gift he had as an actor.”

Have a great weekend.

–Dana