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November 2017

Over the weekend, Saudi Arabia witnessed the arrests of 17 princes, including billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal. The arrests came after the government formed an anti-corruption committee led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, King Salman's favorite son and heir to the throne. Experts said these arrests happened as a way for King Salman to clear "any remaining obstacles to his son's ascension to the throne." However, it may have an affect on the world economy as bin Talal owns 95% of Kingdom Holding, which has stakes in Apple and Twitter.

A few years ago, West Africa experienced an Ebola outbreak, killing almost 12,000 people. The Red Cross was one international organization that traveled to the continent to supposedly help the countries fight the disease and provide proper care to the sick. Three years later, it seems that the Ebola virus isn't the only parasite sucking the life out of Africans.
Fraud by Red Cross workers and others wasted at least $6 million meant to fight the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the organization confirmed Saturday. The revelations follow an internal investigation of how the organization handled more than $124 million during the 2014-2016 epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Tuesday's gubernatorial election in Virginia is shaping up to be a nail-biter. While Democrat Ralph Northam, at times up by double digits, initially appeared the likely winner, the Las Vegas shooting, an ill-considered and grotesque attack ad by the Northam-supporting Latino Victory Fund, and recent revelations from former DNC chair Donna Brazile are likely to impact both voter turnout and late deciders. The potential for a GOP win is not insignificant.

This is a developing story, so reports vary at this time. A shooting this morning at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas has left at least 27 people dead and over two dozen more wounded.  The shooter was reportedly killed by police following a brief chase. Fox News reports:

The mass shooting was reported at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, which is about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio. The gunman has been fatally shot by police.

In a number of recent posts, we’ve been covering the Palestinian effort at UNESCO to erase the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, Hebron and other historical sites in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). As we’ve discussed, since 2011 when the UN body recognized Palestine as a state, Palestinian officials have undertaken what amounts to a cultural jihad—hijacking the UNESCO agenda by repeatedly forcing its members to consider Jewish heritage sites as purely Islamic.

Earlier this week, Professor Jacobson noted that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is focused on process crimes and other things unrelated to the purpose of the Trump campaign-Russia collusion investigation. He wrote:
So I’ve had to watch several news cycles without being able to jump in. One of those cycles was the indictment of Paul Manafort and the guilty plea disclosure for George Papadopoulos. Certainly this is not the end of the Mueller investigation story, but so far, it’s proceeding as predicted: Rounding up the usual suspects close to Trump and process crimes.

During the 2016 campaign, there had been a lot of social media speculation about Hillary Clinton's health. That speculation was ridiculed as conspiracy theories and fake news. But when Hillary stumbled and almost fell during the 9/11 memorial, the conspiracy theories didn't seem so conspiratorial anymore. We all remember the infamous video, Clinton Collapse: Hillary rushed away from 9-11 ceremony: