News Headlines - 17 October 2020
The U.S. budget deficit eclipsed $3.1 trillion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to government data released Friday, by far the biggest one-year gap in U.S. history... The deficit last year was about $1 trillion, which represented an elevated level but pales in comparison with this year’s tally. For 2020, the government spent $6.552 trillion, up from $4.447 trillion one year ago, according to the data released jointly by the White House and the Treasury Department. The government brought in $3.420 trillion in tax revenue this year, a slight decrease from 2019.
C-SPAN said Thursday that Steve Scully, the network's senior executive producer and political editor, has been placed on "administrative leave" for lying about being hacked earlier this month.
Scully admitted to "errors in judgement" and apologized in a statement.
And President Trump took a victory lap, proclaiming on Twitter, "I was right again!"
Scully had been selected by the Commission on Presidential Debates to moderate the town hall-style debate that was supposed to take place on Thursday night. It would have been a pinnacle moment for his career. Last week, however, the debate was scrapped after Trump objected to the virtual format imposed by the commission.
▽Brazilian senator allegedly found with cash in his underwear during police raid - CNN
A Brazilian senator was allegedly caught with huge amounts of cash hidden in his underwear during a Federal Police raid on Wednesday, a court order says -- part of a wider ongoing probe into the possible misuse of funds for the Covid-19 pandemic response... According to a Supreme Court order citing the police investigation, police video allegedly showed Rodrigues with about 15,000 reais (about $2,700) stuffed into his briefs during their search of his home. More money was found by authorities when the senator allegedly "put his hand inside his underwear and took other bundles of money totaling 17,900 reais" the order says, for a total cache worth more than $5,800.
▽Shakespeare First Folio fetches a record $10m at auction - BBC News
A copy of William Shakespeare's First Folio has been sold for a record $9.98m (￡7.6m) at auction in New York.
The 1623 book, published seven years after the Bard's death, was the first collected edition of his plays.
About 235 copies of the book exist, but only a handful of complete versions are known to be in private hands.
The edition sold on Wednesday was the first complete copy to go under the hammer since 2001, when one fetched $6.1m (￡4.9m) - the previous record.
▽Sagawa named on tape as behind Moritomo Gakuen document-tampering | The Japan Times
A court hearing Wednesday heard Nobuhisa Sagawa, a former senior official at the Finance Ministry, referred to in an audio recording as a decision-maker behind a high-profile document-tampering scandal involving the ministry...
According to lawyers representing the plaintiff, the official said in the recording that the tampering was based on "a decision made by Sagawa" and that Akagi's file gave a "full explanation about how we tampered with the documents."
