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On this date in 1983, Soviet Lt. Colonel Stanislav Petrov was on duty in the nuclear command center for the USSR’s early warning system when Russian satellites twice detected the launch of five ICBMs from the US. Had Petrov followed protocol and reported the “attack,” Moscow might have retaliated, bringing about a global nuclear war. But he didn’t trust the newly-installed system, and doubted a nuclear strike would begin with only handful of missiles. So, without any additional information, Petrov decided it was a false alarm and kept it to himself. The incident only came to light after the fall of the USSR.
ID’ed –> FBI Director James Comey said that the agency believes it has identified the man with the British accent who appeared in Islamic State videos depicting the beheadings of two American journalists and a British aid worker, but didn’t release his name or any further details. (The AP, via PBS.) ALSO: Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi caused some anxiety when he said his government had intelligence that Islamic State militants planned to attack the NYC and Paris subways, but other Iraqi officials said it was just an old rumor and the NYPD downplayed the report. Arshad Mohammed reports for Reuters. AND: US jets and drones have struck 10 targets in Iraq and Syria since Thursday. According to ABC, “Seven airstrikes west of Baghdad… destroyed nine vehicles, a bunker and a command checkpoint, while three airstrikes south and southeast of Dayr Az Zawr, Syria, destroyed four tanks.”
Holder’s done –> Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday that he would step down as soon as a successor can be confirmed by the Senate. At RH Reality Check, Jessica Pieklo writes that his resignation comes at a critical time for the agency’s Civil Rights Division, “which has recently ramped up efforts to deal with police brutality and racial profiling after the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and John Crawford III.” AND: Bloomberg Businessweek’s Dave Weigel looks at six people who might replace him.
Dark money –> The AP looks at where “seven high-profile national political organizations” plan to spend their money in the final weeks leading up to the 2014 midterms.
“Children are the victims of our ignorance” –> At WSJ, pediatrician Paul Offit looks at “the inevitable outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases” that has resulted from parents succumbing to anti-vax hysteria.
Speaking of disease –> HuffPo’s Amanda Chan shares the experiences of “seven people at the front lines of the Ebola crisis.”
“The Ray Rice video for the financial sector has arrived” –> Michael Lewis writes at Bloomberg View that an episode of This American Life scheduled to be broadcast today will be a bombshell for Wall Street. It will reveal highlights of 46 hours of surreptitiously recorded conversations between federal regulators and Goldman Sachs employees, which show definitively that the former take their orders from the latter.
Apostasy –> Chris Geidner reports for Buzzfeed that three groups of “conservative activists are launching ‘an unprecedented campaign’ against three Republican candidates — two of whom are out gay men — because of their support for marriage equality and abortion.”
All your info belongs to us –> WaPo’s Craig Timberg and Greg Miller report that the FBI has “sharply criticized Apple and Google on Thursday for developing forms of smartphone encryption so secure that law enforcement officials cannot easily gain access to information stored on the devices — even when they have valid search warrants.”
“Severe terror attack” –> Chinese authorities say 50 people were killed in twin bombings in the western region of Xinjiang on Sunday, where tensions between authorities and Muslim Uighurs have resulted in over 300 deaths over the past 18 months, according to the AP.
“A branding issue for which there is no easy solution” –> MSNBC’s Steve Benen looks at a new ad campaign that pretty much the entire Internet is laughing at called, “Republicans are people too.”
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