First Thing: human remains found in search for Brian Laundrie
Good morning.
Human remains have been discovered in a Florida park during the search for Brian Laundrie, the fiance of Gabby Petito, the FBI has said. Investigators said they also found items they believe belonged to Laundrie, more than a month after the 23-year-old went missing.
Laundrie is a person of interest in the killing of Petito, 22, who was reported missing on 11 September by her parents while the couple were on a cross-country trip. Laundrie has been missing since 14 September, two weeks after he returned to his parents’ Florida home alone.
Whose remains have been found? They have not been identified, the FBI said.
What has Laundrie been charged with? Laundrie was charged in his absence with the unauthorized use of a debit card in September.
Trump to launch social media platform called Truth Social
Donald Trump, who has been banned from Facebook and Twitter, plans to launch a social media platform called TRUTH Social. The former president said the site aimed to rival the major tech firms that have denied him a platform, adding that it would be launched at the start of next year.
“I’m excited to soon begin sharing my thoughts on TRUTH Social and to fight back against big tech,” Trump said in a statement.
When was Trump barred from Facebook and Twitter? The former president was banned after the Capitol attack
When will the platform be launched? It will be open to “invited users” for a beta launch in November, with plans to make it more broadly available at the beginning of next year.
In-N-Out shuts in San Francisco over vaccine mandate
In-N-Out Burger has temporarily closed in San Francisco after refusing to enforce the city’s vaccine mandate, becoming the first restaurant in the city to do so over the requirement.
Officials shut the business after several failed spot checks and after the chain said it would not make staff check customers’ vaccination status – a legal requirement in the city – before allowing them to dine indoors.
“We refuse to become the vaccination police for any government,” Arnie Wensinger, the company’s chief legal and business officer, said, calling the requirement “unreasonable, invasive and unsafe”.
Why is In-N-Out taking this position? For political, not practical, reasons. Wensinger called the mandate “clear governmental overreach … intrusive, improper, and offensive”.
Will other branches be affected? San Francisco has just one In-N-Out, and most of the chain’s restaurants are in Texas, southern California and Utah, which do not have statewide vaccine mandates. However, the Los Angeles mayor is expected to sign a mandate into law next month, with potential ramifications for branches there.
In other news …
The Syrian government is pocketing millions of dollars of foreign aid by forcing UN agencies to use a lower exchange rate. The Central Bank of Syria siphoned off 51 cents of every aid dollar sent to Syria, making UN contracts a lucrative source of income for the president, Bashar al-Assad, and his government.
The Vikings settled in North America exactly 1,000 years ago,analysis of wood from buildings in Newfoundland, Canada, has revealed. A new type of dating technique using a solar storm as a reference point showed that the L’Anse aux Meadows settlement was occupied in 1021.
The UK and New Zealand have struck a trade deal, as ministers hope to stymie the latter’s reliance on China. The agreement, worth £2.3bn in trade a year, is forecasted to add no value to Britain’s GDP, while it may increase New Zealand’s by 0.3%.
Chile’s far-right presidential candidateJosé Antonio Kast is surging in the polls ahead of the 21 November election. Kast, a supporter of the dictator Augusto Pinochet, is one point ahead of the leftwing candidate Gabriel Boric.
Stat of the day: there are nearly 9,000 craft breweries in the US
The number of craft breweries in the US has grown to 8,800, up from about 1,800 in 2010. Despite this staggering rise, most craft beer is restricted to the region in which it is brewed, with attempts by small breweries to go national held back in part by post-Prohibition laws. Just four brands dominate 78.6% of the grocery store market share.
Don’t miss this: firefighters struggle with homelessness
At a time when wildfires are incinerating the western US, low wages and a lack of affordable housing and job security mean firefighters are struggling with homelessness, forced to live in tents, cars and derelict buildings. These problems, along with the pressures of the job, are having a devastating effect on the firefighters, who describe colleagues killing themselves or dying of substance abuse.
Climate check: rising temperatures could lead to kidney disease epidemic
Millions of workers around the world could be affected by chronic kidney disease caused by heat stress owing to rising temperatures, doctors have said. Epidemics have emerged in hot, rural regions of countries including El Salvador and Nicaragua, where unprecedented numbers of agricultural workers are dying from irreversible kidney failure.
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Last Thing: thief unwittingly broadcasts face to thousands after snatching journalist’s phone
A man has been arrested for allegedly stealing a journalist’s phone, being used to livestream the aftermath of an earthquake in Egypt. Escaping on a motorbike, the thief unwittingly broadcast his face to more than 20,000 viewers watching the broadcast. He was arrested just hours later at his home and confessed.
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