NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
_1 Trump trademarks: China has given companies linked to President Trump and his daughter 18 new trademarks in the past two months, raising concerns about conflicts of interest in the White House on the eve of national elections. The trademarks cover products from perfume to voting machines and will be finalized after 90 days if no one objects. Ivanka Trump said in July she was shutting her namesake brand to focus on her role as a White House adviser. Critics have been especially concerned that China, where the courts and bureaucracy are designed to reflect the will of the ruling Communist Party, could try to use the Trump family’s valuable intellectual property for political leverage.
_2 Peace appeal: The NATO chief urged the Taliban on Tuesday to stop killing their fellow Afghans, an appeal that came just hours after the insurgents attacked border troops in western Farah province, killing at least 20. Speaking at a joint press conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the “Taliban must realize the war does not benefit anyone.” A resurgent Taliban now hold nearly half of Afghanistan and carry out near-daily attacks on Afghan security forces, inflicting heavy casualties. The Taliban view the U.S.-backed government in Kabul as a dysfunctional Western puppet and have refused repeated offers to negotiate with it.
_3 Lamp record: The northern Indian city of Ayodhya broke a Guinness World Record on Tuesday by lighting 300,150 earthen lamps and keeping them burning for at least 45 minutes on the banks of the river Saryu as part of the annual celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. As dusk fell in Ayodhya, where Hindus believe the god Lord Ram was born and where he returned after 14 years in exile, volunteers lit lamps, called diyas, snaking along the river, through lanes and at houses. Tuesday’s feat broke a record from 2016, when 150,009 lamps were lit.
_4 Attack plot: French security agents have arrested six people on preliminary terrorism charges for allegedly plotting to attack French President Emmanuel Macron, according to a French judicial official. The official said intelligence agents detained the six in three widely scattered regions, including one suspect in the Alps, another in Brittany and four suspects near the Belgian border in Moselle. He said the plan to target the French president appeared to be vague but violent. Authorities said the six were between 22 and 62 years old and included one woman. The suspected plot was uncovered days before President Trump and dozens of other world leaders are due in France for commemorations this weekend of the signing 100 years ago of the Nov. 11 armistice that ended World War I.
_5 Migrants perish: Spain’s maritime rescue service says at least 17 people have died trying to reach Spain in boats departing from North Africa. The service says Tuesday that it rescued 80 people Monday, including five women, from two boats and recovered the bodies of 13 dead migrants in the Alboran Sea, part of the western Mediterranean migrant route into Europe. In a separate incident, the Spanish Civil Guard says it found four bodies of migrants and 22 survivors, all men from northern Africa, after the wooden dinghy in which they were traveling hit a reef close to the coast west of the Strait of Gibraltar. The United Nations says over 2,160 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe this year.