Train Crash In Hoboken, India And Pakistan Clash And Zika Returns

PNUT GALLERY We partnered with VotePlz to make it easy for you to register to vote, check your registration or request an absentee ballot. If you’re already registered, take a minute to subscribe to our weekly music recommendations, Sweet Chili Delivery. IN A NUTSHELL: MUST READ  World Watches In Horror As Two Countries With Nukes Decide To Wrestle When dealing with nuclear-armed rivals, nobody really likes surprises. But India surprised us all when it launched “surgical strikes” across its de facto border with Pakistan. Indian special forces crossed into Pakistan-ruled Kashmir, claiming to have killed suspected militants numbering in the double digits. However, Pakistan said these weren’t surgical strikes and just silly cross border exchanges of fire that killed two of its solders. India says its raid was a response to an attack by Pakistan-backed militants that killed 18 soldiers. What happens now? Pakistan’s half-denial of India’s attack implies that it doesn’t want to escalate the situation and that it understands that India will respond to any more provocation by Pakistan-backed militants. However, with Hindu Nationalism on the rise in India (restaurants are offering discounts using the code FPAK) and political instability in Pakistan, the risk that someone does something stupid is high. Eyes Are On NJ Transit After Deadly Train Crash In Hoboken NUTS & BOLTS: SHOULD READ  Syrian Ceasefire But A Mere Distant Memory In light of the failure of yet another ceasefire, Russia decided to add insult to injury by saying it’s going to continue bombing rebel-held eastern Aleppo despite the United States’ pleas to stop. However, the fact that they are asking the US to improve their system of separating opposition fighters from “terrorists” is a pretty stark reminder that Russia doesn’t seem to know exactly who they are bombing. For lack of a stronger word, Secretary of State John Kerry called this “irrational.” Meanwhile, the US decided to supply light arms to Kurdish members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the hopes that it will incentivize a charge on the ISIS held city of Raqqa. Turkey is not too happy about this as they view a subset of the SDF, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), as terrorists. The move threatens to disrupt the fragile common front shared between the two countries against the Islamic State as Turkey fears it will reignite the Kurd’s campaign for a Kurdish homeland. The US hopes that Turkish/Kurdish differences can be put aside in the face of global terrorism and civil war, while subtly suggesting the Kurdish should probably… maybe…one day?… get their own land. Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf Back In The Hot Seat John Stumpf just keeps getting burned. That may be fair, given that Wells Fargo is under investigation for profiting off the creation of two million fake accounts. Stumpf testified Thursday on Capitol Hill, but received fiery criticism from both sides of the aisle. “You clearly have failed,” said North Carolina Republican Patrick McHenry. Amidst rising pressure, including a $2.6 billion class-action lawsuit on behalf of Wells Fargo employees that were fired for not reaching sales quotas, Wells Fargo stripped Stumpf of $41 million worth of stock awards. While that wasn’t one of the crazy punishments our readers had in mind, it seems like a fair start. PNUTTY VIDEO: Elizabeth Warren roasted Stumpf during a hearing last week. Zika Retains Its Role As A Virus From The Twilight Zone Just when our paranoia about Zika virus began to subside, a new infection in Utah is making experts wonder if the virus can be passed on via sweat or tears. Until recently, it was thought that Zika was only transmitted through the bite of infected mosquitoes. We then learned that in rare instances, it could also be transmitted via semen and from pregnant women to their fetuses. Now, it appears that the 38-year-old who contracted Zika in Utah caught the virus from simply sitting at his father’s hospital bedside. The case gets even more bizarre. There have been no reports of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying Zika in Utah. The newly infected patient has neither travelled to Zika-infected areas nor has he had sex with anyone who had. If that’s not a scary enough mystery, the new patient’s Zika virus was identified in his urine, but not his blood. Even worse, the latest diagnosis also also raises new questions about Zika’s deadliness. The patient’s 73-year-old father died of organ failure after contracting Zika in Mexico, even though he had been relatively fit and healthy before then. The Basics: Getting To Know The Zika Virus KEEPING OUR EYE ON Singapore: Amos Yee, a popular teenage blogger, was found guilty by a Singapore court of “wounding religious feelings” in one of his internet posts. The 17-year-old will spend six weeks in jail for criticizing Christianity and Islam online. Mexico: The body of Catholic priest José Alfredo López Guillén was discovered outside of Michoacán, where he led a congregation. Mexican authorities are concerned as this is the third time a priest was abducted and murdered in less than a week. Yemen: Local officials in the central province of Bayda claim that a recent US drone strike killed two senior members of al Qaeda’s Yemen branch. Although the US acknowledges its own use of drones in Yemen, the government does not comment publicly on attacks. PNUTTY VIDEOS If you thought Donald Trump & Hillary Clinton were aggressive during Monday’s debate, you should see the fight that broke out during a parliamentary debate in Georgia. LOOSE NUTS: FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT  There Is A Cat Running (And Pouncing) For President Still not impressed with those human (and possibly robot) presidential candidates? Why not consider Limberbutt McCubbins, a street-smart tabby cat eager to fight for the middle class. Though Limberbutt’s owners originally created his campaign website as a joke, he quickly received thousands of Facebook fans. And since there technically isn’t a law that prevents a feline presidential candidate, Limberbutt was officially registered with the FTC. But don’t think that Limberbutt is just another Washington fat cat; he’s eager to pounce on trade agreements and supports the legalization of cat-nip. With such a platform, it’s hard not to say #ImWithPurr. WEEKEND READS

• Have you finished Narcos Season Two yet? If you need more of Pablo Escobar check out Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw. Also, Pablo’s son was pretty upset about the show.
• The New York Times reviews the latest Hitler biography: Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939.
• The Washington Post uses machine-learning and charts to show us just how racist and radical the alt-right has become.
• Michael Chabon wrote a beautiful essay about the relationship between father and son.
• And Google uses artificial intelligence to make a machine that can translate like a human can.
• One of the perks of being a US ambassador abroad is that you get to live in one of these fancy residences (WSJ paywall).
• Now that there’s peace, what’s next for Colombia?
• The New York Times Magazine explores the civil war in the right-wing media that Trump kicked off.
• The NPR tries to explain who Pepe the frog is and why it’s deemed a hate symbol.
• Travon Free: You can’t imagine a world without black people.
• Will self-driving cars lead to an urban nirvana or is that just a fallacy? We take a look at the myths behind the movement.
• The Greek Analyst has 30 lessons from the Greek Crisis, many of them are relevant for the upcoming US election this November.
• Politico wants you to know that if Trump does dispute the election, there would be no good way out for the US.
• The Guardian’s 29 tips for being a horrible boss, makes for hilarious reading.