Weekly Review

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump debated one another for the third and final time during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.^[1] In the debate, Trump said he would keep voters “in suspense” about whether he will accept the outcome of the election, before later clarifying his remarks at a rally in Ohio. “I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election,” he said, “if I win.”^[2] While voting in a local election in Chile, President Michelle Bachelet had to return to the polling station after forgetting her identification, and then had to do so again after failing to sign the voter registry, which is required by law.^[3] At least 70 people were killed in Cameroon when an overcrowded train derailed, and 13 people were killed in Palm Springs, California, when a tour bus en route to Los Angeles from Las Vegas crashed into a tractor-trailer.^[4][5] Telecommunications company AT&T agreed to buy Time Warner for $85.4 billion in a bid to find new ways to reach consumers, and hackers took control of Internet-connected cameras and baby monitors to overwhelm the routing company Dyn with traffic, causing worldwide disruption to outlets such as Netflix and Amazon.^[6] Bob Dylan continued not to acknowledge winning the Nobel Prize in literature. “We were aware that he can be difficult,” said a member of the Swedish Academy.^[7]

New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s former top aide testified that the governor knew that the September 2013 closure of the George Washington Bridge would create significant traffic for residents of Fort Lee, whose mayor had refused to endorse Christie’s re-election.^[8] French authorities began to clear the migrant camp known as the Jungle, in the northern city of Calais, sending 6,500 migrants to relocation centers across the country, and Somali pirates released 26 sailors held hostage since 2012. “We eat rat,” said a sailor of how he fed himself during captivity.^[9][10] Tens of thousands of people signed a petition calling for the impeachment of a judge in Montana who sentenced a man to 60 days in jail for raping his 12-year-old daughter, and a man in California was sentenced to 1,503 years in prison for raping his teenage daughter. ^[11][12] A couple at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Greenville, South Carolina, left their waitress a note telling her “the woman’s place is in the home,” in lieu of a tip.^[13] Hundreds of women in yoga pants marched through Barrington, Rhode Island, to defend their right to wear the garment, and Trump vowed to sue every woman accusing him of sexual assault. “I look so forward to doing that,” he said.^[14][15]

A black bear named Pedals, famous for walking upright on his hind legs through Rockaway Township, New Jersey, was reported killed by a hunter, and a hiker in California was attacked after he interrupted two bears mating. It was a “pretty good bear attack,” said the local police chief.^[16][17] A woman was found wandering around Sacramento carrying a human skull on a stick; in Amherst, Wisconsin, a woman was charged with disorderly conduct after smearing peanut butter on 30 vehicles parked outside a gathering she mistook for a Trump rally; and a Connecticut convenience-store robber was caught by police after he asked an officer directions to a nearby pastry shop.^[18][19][20] Thai and Australian authorities asked their soccer fans to refrain from “joyful activities” during the nations’ World Cup qualifier next month, and the Chicago Cubs advanced to the World Series for the first time in more than 70 years, breaking the curse of the billy goat, allegedly placed on the team when a tavern owner and his goat were turned away in 1945. “The goat,” then club owner P. K. Wrigley is said to have remarked, “stinks.”^[21][22]

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