Good morning! If you recently had a surprisingly delicious Minute Maid Zero Sugar Lemonade, we've got some bad news. That thing was loaded to the gills with sugar. Coca-Cola issued a recall for the improperly labeled drinks, which the FDA called "a health hazard situation."

EH?

🍁 Canada casually accuses India of murder

It’s always awkward when your friends are fighting, especially when it involves a murder.

White Canadian Obama, otherwise known as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, bluntly accused India on Monday of murdering Canadians on Canadian soil. Politicians usually prefer to be more (literally) diplomatic about things like this, but Trudeau's statement went all-in.

• He said there's "clear and compelling evidence" that Indian officials have engaged in "over a dozen threatening and violent acts" toward South Asian Canadians, "including murder."

• Trudeau then expelled six Indian diplomats from his country, including India's ambassador to Canada.

The allegations are tied to the 2023 shooting death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen who was originally from India. Nijjar was an Indian activist who was part of a movement calling for an independent Sikh nation to be carved out of Indian territory (Sikhs are an Indian religious minority). India’s government considered him a terrorist.

• Canada believes the diplomats in question were part of a broad criminal network built to intimidate Canadian Sikhs out of any sort of Sikh separatist activism.

• It's not just Canada, either. Last year, the U.S. Justice Department accused India of trying to kill an American Sikh activist. India's cooperating with the U.S. investigation.

In return, India expelled six Canadian diplomats, including Canada's ambassador to India. India’s foreign ministry said, “India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau government’s support for… separatism against India.” It then claimed the accusation was meant to boost Trudeau’s sagging political prospects.

Back on the home front, Trudeau’s political future is circling the drain as members of his own Liberal Party try to force him from office. He’s led Canada since 2015 and polls show voters are ready to move on. Spectacular hair can only get you so far.

Elsewhere in international beefs: Landlocked Ethiopia signed a deal for port access with neighboring Somaliland. Which is nice, except... Somaliland is a breakaway province of Somalia, not a country. It’s causing, um, problems.

GOVERNMENT

🔋 The Biden administration has its eyes set on a Congolese cobalt mining company. Cobalt (of "cobalt blue" fame) is critical for everything from lithium-ion batteries to military equipment to medical devices and about 75% of the world's supply comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And, because of course, China has been buying up all the suppliers. Now Chemaf, one of the big boys, is for sale. The White House is greasing the wheels with at least three U.S. companies to snag it.

🎖️ The Department of Defense (DOD) granted honorable discharges to 800 veterans who got kicked out of the military due to their sexual orientation. Created as a moderate compromise, the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy ran from 1994 to 2011. It banned gay servicemembers from coming out while also banning discrimination against closeted members. The latest batch of discharge upgrades means 96% of affected vets (~13,500 in total) now have honorable discharge status -- and full access to veterans benefits.

☢️ Nuclear power is on the rise again after decades of stagnation. Two reactors in Georgia recently became the first new builds in the U.S. in over 30 years. Now Google wants some of that juice to feed its energy-hungry AI data centers. To that end, the company is teaming up with Kairos Power to build cute lil mini reactors. Before proceeding, however, the deal will need some hefty approvals from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

2024

👨‍🌾 Pennsylvania’s forgotten swing vote

The fight for the White House just might be decided by Pennsylvania. And the fight for Pennsylvania just might be decided by a few thousand Amish voters... who are being registered by the flamboyant former head of Gays for Trump.

• Pennsylvania's 80,000-strong Amish community doesn't often vote, preferring instead to put their "faith in God."

• Republican voter registration activist Scott Presler, a gay, self-described "not extremely masculine male" is on the ground there trying to pull in up to 20,000 Amish voters.

• A local farmer was recently raided by police for selling unpasteurized milk. Presler says Trump will protect their "dairy" along with school choice, religious freedom, and more.

President Biden won Pennsylvania by 80,000 votes in 2020. With polls showing a jump ball in the state this year, a few thousand Amish votes could be just enough to make a difference. After all, the same strategy helped put George W. Bush over the top in Ohio and back into the White House in 2004.

POLITICS

🗳️ Early voting breaks records in Georgia

Election Day is still 20 days away, but millions of votes have already been cast. Mail-in voting is in full swing in many states and early in-person voting is kicking off, too. President Jimmy Carter, who just turned 100, had his birthday wish (to live long enough to vote for Harris) granted when early voting began in Georgia yesterday.

• Election officials reported record turnout, with more than 250,000 people casting ballots. That's more than 5% of the state's entire 2020 vote.

• Also in Georgia, a state judge ruled that county election boards can't refuse to certify election results due to fraud concerns, saying those worries need to be settled in court.

• Elsewhere, Barack Obama and Tim Walz will rally in Madison, Wisconsin next Tuesday, October 22, to celebrate the start of early in-person voting there.

Now that Joe Biden, 81, is out of the (campaign) picture, Donald Trump's health is in the spotlight. Kamala Harris released a glowing medical report last week and pressure is growing on Trump, 78, to do the same. The Trump campaign, when asked for a medical report, pointed to a November 2023 letter from his physician.

• Critics say that doesn't cut it. And many voters agree. The number of Americans who believe he's "mentally sharp" has declined by 6% since last year.

The world’s least controversial billionaire is now a political mega-donor. Federal disclosure forms filed yesterday show Elon Musk giving $75 million to a pro-Trump group. Donations to campaigns are limited to a few grand. But there are no limits on certain outside groups, called Super PACs, that aren't allowed to coordinate with the official campaigns.

😲 Scandal update: North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson's (R) candidacy for governor tanked last month after a CNN bombshell report (which we covered here) involving a long string of weird comments on porn sites. Robinson denied the allegations and sued CNN yesterday for defamation.

📻️ Harris media blitzes continues as Trump wins union support

Kamala Harris, long hit for being media shy, is upping her game in the closing stretch. She'll sit down for an interview with Fox News this evening, which Fox says will not be edited. CBS is under fire for bias after it heavily edited recent interviews with the VP and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

• Harris sat down with Charlamagne tha God yesterday as part of her effort to solidify support among Black men. But some supporters say this should've happened months ago. It's too late to "break the glass" now that she's already soured with some Black men in Michigan.

• The VP is being accused of plagiarizing parts of her 2009 book. Conservative activists say she ripped large, uncited chunks from other sources, including Wikipedia.

Donald Trump: The Border Patrol union endorsed Trump this week, as it did in 2016 and 2020. The group represents 16,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents and is one of the few Republican-aligned government unions. Its president, Paul Perez, appeared alongside Trump at a rally and said "every city" in America is "going to go to hell" if Harris wins. At the event, Trump unveiled a plan to hire 10,000 extra Border Patrol agents.

• In a repeat of his 2016 and 2020 campaigns, Trump said he would soon release a shortlist of possible Supreme Court nominees,

• In a feisty economic interview in Chicago, the reporter accused Trump of not facilitating a "peaceful transfer of power" out of office in 2021. Trump denied that charge, noting that he "left the morning" he "was supposed to leave." Trump also defended his plan for hefty tariffs (taxes on imports).

• A Trump event in Pennsylvania took a strange, Trumpian turn after two people fainted. After calling for medical attendants, the ex-president closed the night by throwing on some music and bopping around on stage for 39 minutes.

TRIVIA

The U.S. government’s massive debt breaks new size records daily (debt — so hot right now). According to the finance pros at the U.N.’s International Monetary Fund (IMF), we’re not alone in that. Ballooning government debt is a problem all over the world. According to the IMF, how much total debt will all the world's governments have by the end of 2024?

Hint: We’re looking for a dollar amount that’s about 93% of the entire world’s economy.

BRIEFS

● In a show of anger, North Korea on Tuesday blew up unused roads and railways leading into South Korea. North Korea in January bailed on peaceful reunification and officially named South Korea the “invariable principal enemy.”

● Two giant pandas, have arrived at D.C.'s National Zoo as part of China's global "panda diplomacy." Bao Li and Qing Bao will take some time to get acclimated before making their debut on January 24.

● The Biden administration is considering country-specific caps on the export of AI chips from U.S. companies like Nvidia. Motivated by national security fears, primary targets would be China and the Middle East.

● China ran some huge military drills around Taiwan this week in retaliation for Taiwan's recent vow to "resist" Chinese control. One-fifth of global maritime trade passes through the Taiwan Strait, so a war here would be a slight issue.

● Cash-strapped Boeing plans to raise $25 billion by selling bonds and new shares of stock. Already neck-deep in problems (like doors yeeting off mid-flight), an ongoing two-month strike by 33,000 workers isn’t exactly helping.

● The U.S. gave Israel an ultimatum: Improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza ASAP or say goodbye to all the weapons. Meanwhile, Israel says it found terrorist tunnels near U.N. positions in Lebanon.

QUOTE

ANSWER

A new report from the IMF estimates that global public debt (aka national debt or government debt) will exceed $100 trillion by the end of 2024. By 2030, the report estimates the number will exceed the value of the entire global economy (that is, global GDP).