USA

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Elon Musk plans to lay off most of Twitter’s workforce if and when he becomes owner of the social media company, according to a report Thursday by The Washington Post.

Musk has told prospective investors in his Twitter purchase that he plans to cut nearly 75% of Twitter’s employee base of 7,500 workers, leaving the company with a skeleton crew, according to the report. The newspaper cited documents and unnamed sources familiar with the deliberations.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, was sentenced Friday to serve four months behind bars after defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols allowed Bannon to stay free pending appeal, a potentially lengthy process, and also imposed a fine of $6,500 as part of the sentence. Bannon was convicted in July of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition and the other for refusing to provide documents.

ESTANCIA, N.M. (AP) — Republican county commissioners in this swath of ranching country in New Mexico’s high desert have tried everything they can think of to persuade voters their elections are secure.

They approved hand-counting of ballots from the primary election in their rural county, encouraged the public to observe security testing of ballot machines and tasked their county manager with overseeing those efforts to make sure they ran smoothly. None of that seems enough.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol issued a subpoena Friday to Donald Trump, exercising its subpoena power against the former president who lawmakers say “personally orchestrated” a multi-part effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The nine-member panel issued a letter to Trump’s lawyers, demanding his testimony under oath by Nov. 14 and outlining a request for a series of corresponding documents, including personal communications between the former president and members of Congress as well as extremist groups.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 20 (APP): Pakistan has appreciated the technical hold that China placed Wednesday on a proposal by India and the United States to blacklist Hafiz Talah Saeed, the son of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba chief, Hafiz Saeed.

SALT LAKE CITY (Utah, US), Oct 20 (NNN-Xinhua) — An F-35 crashed at the Hill Air Force Base in the US state of Utah at the north end of the runway Wednesday evening, with the pilot hospitalized after ejection, military authorities said.

According to a tweet from the 388th Fighter Wing, the accident occurred when the unidentified pilot was on a routine training mission. The combat unit flies the F-35 for the United States Air Force and operates the Utah Test and Training Range.

Oct 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory committee on vaccines on Thursday approved adding COVID-19 vaccines to the agency's recommended immunization schedules for both children and adults.

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted unanimously to add the vaccines to the schedules, which contain recommendations to physicians on which shots their patients should receive and when.

Several committee members stressed that they were not setting a requirement for anyone to receive the shots.

Oct 19 (Reuters) - An 80-year-old Georgia man illegally parked on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, saying he wanted to deliver documents to the Supreme Court, was arrested on Wednesday after three guns were found in his van, police said.

Tony Payne of Tunnel Hill, Georgia, was taken into custody three weapons-related charges, the U.S. Capitol Police said in a written statement.

Two passengers in the van were detained but not arrested.

WASHINGTON/LONDON, Oct 20 (Reuters) - U.S. firms developing a new generation of small nuclear power plants to help cut carbon emissions have a big problem: only one company sells the fuel they need, and it's Russian.

That's why the U.S. government is urgently looking to use some of its stockpile of weapons-grade uranium to help fuel the new advanced reactors and kick-start an industry it sees as crucial for countries to meet global net-zero emissions goals.

DETROIT, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS), Korea's top automaker, is investigating child labor violations in its U.S. supply chain and plans to "sever ties" with Hyundai suppliers in Alabama found to have relied on underage workers, the company's global chief operating officer Jose Munoz told Reuters on Wednesday.

A Reuters investigative report in July documented children, including a 12-year-old, working at a Hyundai-controlled metal stamping plant in rural Luverne, Alabama, called SMART Alabama, LLC.