📌 Brexit Aftermath, 100 Missing in N.C., More

Britain's exit from the European Union cost London's financial center about 40,000 jobs, said the City of London’s Lord Mayor.

Michael Mainelli, the Lord Mayor, said Dublin had gained the most, attracting 10,000 positions. Milan, Paris and Amsterdam also benefited from jobs migrating from London after Britain voted to quit the EU trading bloc in 2016.

“Brexit was a disaster," said Mainelli. “We had 525,000 workers in 2016. My estimate is that we lost just short of 40,000. … The City voted 70-30 to remain. We did not want it.”.

Although some hoped that Brexit would allow London to reduce immigration, ditch large amounts of EU regulation and bolster the economy, immigration rose, regulation proved hard to untangle, and the economy slowed.

National account data shows that financial services output in Britain has fallen by 1% since late 2019 — a stark contrast with France and Germany, where it has increased by 8%, and Ireland's 18% growth.

Britain’s Office for Budget Responsibility said in March its prediction that Brexit would cause trade volumes to shrink by 15% was “broadly on track.” This equates to “a 4% reduction in the potential productivity of the UK economy (relative to remaining in the EU), with the full effect felt after 15 years.”

Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Helene ravaged communities, 92 people are still missing in North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper said.

“The task force, law enforcement and other partners will continue working to locate those who are unaccounted for,” Cooper said Tuesday. N.C. also reported 95 storm-related deaths.

Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 storm. It traveled north, making its way through Georgia and the Carolinas.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said survivors have been reluctant to accept assistance due to disinformation that “federal employees, state and local officials are actually planning to take survivors’ property away,” leading to a reluctance to access the immediate relief they are entitled to.

Over 800 US military veterans penalized under “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” have been honorably discharged years after its repeal.

Former Rep. Patrick Murphy, a Democrat, said he was “thrilled” with the current administration's effort to right historical wrongs. The discriminatory policy was lifted in 2011, influenced by the congressional effort he led.

The US Department of Defense said Tuesday that, of the nearly 13,500 individuals “administratively separated” under the now-repealed policy but had served long enough to receive a “merit-based characterization” of their service, roughly 96% will receive an honorable discharge.

Former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, announced in 1993 the US government's "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" policy targeting the LGBTQ community in the US military.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced a little over a year ago that the DOD would begin a “proactive” review of the military records of service members discharged due to the policy.

Murphy said he was pleased with the “long-overdue correction to the thousands of veterans who served their country honorably …only discharged because of who they loved.”

A study highlights a significant relationship between high-skilled immigration and regional entrepreneurship in the US.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers temporarily in specialty occupations, such as in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

When high-skilled immigrants in a metropolitan area doubled, entrepreneurship in that region increased by 6% within three years, the researchers noted.

The long-term effects of immigration on regional entrepreneurship could be even more significant as immigrants gain more experience and legal status, enabling them to start businesses, according to the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” report.

Further research could explore the potential role of other factors, such as access to capital or regional policies, in shaping the relationship between high-skilled immigration and entrepreneurship, the report said.

Medics delivering euthanasia to people not dying say it is “morally distressing” and legal provisions are too vague to be protective.

Canada has the world’s fastest-growing program for euthanasia, in which medical practitioners kill patients with an injection of drugs at their request. Canada’s legal requirements allow euthanasia for people with “irremediable suffering” from serious but nonfatal medical conditions and disabilities.

Adults with serious, incurable conditions must have a written request approved by two independent doctors or nurse practitioners.

Those with nonterminal cases must be informed of other ways to relieve their suffering, among other requirements, and there’s a minimum 90-day assessment period.

A significant number of people euthanized when they are in unmanageable pain but not about to die live in poor areas. In Ontario, Canada’s most populated province, over 75% of people euthanized when their death wasn't imminent required disability support in 2023 before their death.

When Canada legalized assisted dying in 2016, officials said they wanted to reduce suffering and support individual autonomy and freedom of choice — and polls have consistently shown public approval. Unlike many other countries, Canada doesn’t require that patients exhaust all medical treatments before seeking death. The government faces challenges to its euthanasia laws. Dying with Dignity filed a lawsuit saying it’s “discriminatory” to exclude mentally ill people. A coalition of disability-rights organizations has a contrasting view, arguing euthanasia legislation has resulted in premature deaths of people with disabilities.

A treaty aiming to ensure equitable utilization and sustainable management of the world's longest river has vocal dissent.

Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have endorsed the Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA), which became effective on October 13. But Egypt and Sudan rejected it.

Several upstream countries have long argued that colonial-era agreements unfairly allocated greater rights over the river Nile to the downstream states of Egypt and Sudan.

The Nile River has long been a focal point of geopolitical tension in eastern Africa, particularly between Egypt and Ethiopia. Tensions rose when Ethiopia built a large hydropower project on the Blue Nile, which Cairo said would harm its water security.

A Minnesota horticulture teacher won an annual pumpkin-weighing contest in California for the fourth consecutive year. Travis Gienger, of Anoka, Minn., beat his closest competitor by six pounds to clinch the victory at the 51st World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco. Gienger’s winning gourd weighed 2,471 pounds, falling short of the world record he set last year — 2,749 pounds. Gienger and his family drove his gargantuan gourd for 35 hours to California. He said the giant pumpkin’s next stop will be in Southern California, where professional carvers will do a 3D carve for a Halloween event.