There’s been another terror incident in London. Here’s what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door. (You can also get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)
1. London train explosion
Police say there’s been a “terror incident” on a train on London’s Underground. Details are still coming in, but here’s what we know right now. Witnesses say there was a small explosion during rush hour on one train car at the Parsons Green station. There are reports of injuries: people with burned faces, people being trampled. Armed police and hazardous-area response teams are on the scene. The train line is shut down, and ambulances are at the station to treat the wounded. London has suffered several acts of terrorism this year.
2. North Korea
Less than a week after the UN hit it with new sanctions, North Korea thumbed its nose at the international community yet again. The North launched a ballistic missile over northern Japan, the second time in a month the regime has fired a missile over Hokkaido island and its 22nd missile test-fired since February. There was the usual round of condemnations from other nations and the UN — and a show of force from South Korea. The South carried out a “live fire drill” and launched a missile it says could reach Pyongyang.
3. President Trump
For reasons not clear to anybody, President Trump doubled down on his infamous “both sides” comments about Charlottesville. The President, while traveling back from visiting hurricane-damaged Florida, was asked about his meeting with South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the GOP’s lone black senator and a harsh critic of Trump’s response to the Charlottesville violence. The President said, essentially, that what he’d said earlier was correct: that protesters who faced off against neo-Nazis and white supremacists were equally at fault for the violence that day. In case you’ve forgotten, many people consider Trump’s “both sides” response last month the lowest point of his young presidency.
4. Hurricane Irma
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump visited storm-ravaged Florida to get an update on hurricane relief efforts and hand out meals to survivors. It’s the President’s third such trip after a historic pair of late-summer storms made landfall seven months into his term; he made two stops in Texas after Hurricane Harvey. In Florida, Trump dodged questions about whether the storms have changed his views on climate change, saying, “We’ve had bigger storms than this.” As people share their survival stories, many Floridians face weeks without power, and Cubans and other islanders are still digging out from ruin.
5. Immigration
Motel 6 is known for its vow to “leave the light on for you.” Until recently, it seems the hotel chain was shining an unwanted light on some of its guests. Motel 6 says its employees will now stop sharing guest information with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. This comes after a report from a weekly newspaper that federal immigration agents arrested at least 20 people this year at two Motel 6 locations in the Phoenix area. Motel employees told the newspaper they regularly delivered guest lists to ICE.
BREAKFAST BROWSE
People are talking about these. Read up. Join in.
One heck of a good-bye
This morning, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will celebrate 13 years of studying Saturn — by hurling itself into the ringed planet.
Name game
How not to launch a pantry-box start-up: Name it Bodega, then be the last to realize many consider it an offensive threat to traditional mom-and-pop shops.
BFFs
There are friends, and then there are friends. Actress Francia Raisa definitely falls into the latter category after she gave Selena Gomez a kidney.
But you don’t even like pumpkin
Fall means cooler weather, football and all the pumpkin spice-flavored goodies you could ever want. Your craving for them is no accident.
Shake it
Polaroid’s an 80-year-old brand that’s fallen on hard times (thanks a lot, smartphone cameras). Now, it’s betting on a 28-year-old CEO to bring it back.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“You breathe through one (nostril), and you hold it, and you exhale through the other, and you keep going”
Hillary Clinton, explaining to CNN’s Anderson Cooper how alternate-nostril breathing works. No, really.
AND FINALLY …
Breakfast buddies
When you stay at a hotel named Giraffe Manor, don’t be surprised when friends drop by for breakfast. (Click to view)
