USA Today NetworkWCNC-TV, Charlotte, N.C.
Published 5:36 a.m. ET Oct. 2, 2018
Four days after search crews found a body in a creek in Gastonia, the Medical Examiner’s Office identified the remains as six-year-old Maddox Ritch.
Ritch’s body was found in a creek in Gastonia on September 27. Maddox disappeared on September 22 when he got away from his father and another adult at Rankin Lake Park.
“We are deeply saddened to learn the body found by searchers last Thursday is confirmed to be Maddox Ritch,” Gastonia Police Chief Robert Helton said. “Hundreds of people searched tirelessly for this child and our work continues to answer every question we can about his tragic death.”
About 180 searchers came out to help find the missing boy Thursday, according to Gastonia Fire Chief Phil Welch. Like Helton, Welch said Thursday was a very sad day.
“There is no sense of accomplishment today,” Welch said. “There’s grieving.”
On Sunday, the funeral plans for Maddox Ritch were made public. A visitation will be held on October 4, and a funeral will be held the next day at the same location before a private burial service.
Maddox’s parents were notified immediately of the discovery by law enforcement. Formal identification of the body will be done by the medical examiner’s office, Gastonia Police said.
FBI Supervisor Jason Kaplan said it was too early in the investigation to know whether foul play factored into Maddox’s disappearance.
“The investigation is not over,” Kaplan said. “In law enforcement, we will not take anything for granted… a lot of people have lost sleep.”
On Wednesday, Ian Ritch, the Maddox’ father, took questions from reporters at the Greater Gaston Baptist Association in Gastonia. Ian said Maddox took off running in the opposite direction of him and his friend Saturday at Rankin Lake Park.
“He usually runs but will stop to give me a chance to pick him up,” Ian said.
Ian said his son’s disappearance left him sleepless for several days, and he hasn’t eaten.
“I feel guilty for letting him get so far ahead of me,” Ian said.
Investigators say they’re still looking for witnesses as they wait for the autopsy results. Authorities hope they get a hold of joggers who were at the park Saturday, as well as a man who Chief Helton said may have been among the last to see Maddox Ritch.
“In a white pick-up truck,” Chief Helton said. “I think it was a crew cab truck, had running boards loading a silver kayak out of the water. He had a camouflage hat on… So he was coming out of the water right around this time. We need to talk with him.”
Jack Skellington takes over for Santa Claus in this classic holiday film. This movie will air multiple times — beginning Oct. 1 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
The Sanderson sisters are up for a frightfully entertaining All Hallows’ Eve in this Disney classic. This movie will air multiple times — beginning Oct. 1 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
A misunderstood boy takes on ghosts, zombies, and grown-ups to save his town from a centuries-old curse. This movie will air multiple times — beginning Oct. 1 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
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5 of 44 Disney/Pixar
Monsters University — 2013 film
Go back to when Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and Sulley (John Goodman) first met in college. This movie will air multiple times — beginning Oct. 2 at 8:30 p.m. ET — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
A group college friends (including Pretty Little Liars’ Lucy Hale) travel to Mexico for one last getaway before graduation, where a seemingly harmless game of Truth or Dare turns… not harmless. It becomes available on Netflix Oct. 3.
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Monster House — 2006 film
Three kids fight to save their neighborhood from supernatural forces. This movie will air multiple times — beginning Oct. 3 at 9 p.m. ET — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
A young woman grieving the loss of her mother, a famous scream queen from the 1980s, is pulled into the world of her mom’s most famous slasher film. This movie will air multiple times — beginning at midnight ET on Oct. 3 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
Haley Bennett stars as the titular Molly Hartley, a girl who survives being attacked by her mother only to learn on her 18th birthday how much she can’t escape her family legacy. It becomes available on Netflix Oct. 4.
The classic 1960s sitcom gets a ’90s reinvention (and a stellar cast). This movie will air multiple times — beginning Oct. 4 at 9 p.m. ET — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
A beauty-queen-turned-ghost has to help an unpopular girl compete for the crown. This Freeform original will air multiple times — beginning at midnight ET on Oct. 4 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
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12 of 44 Netflix
Malevolent — Netflix original movie
This Netflix original — which becomes available Oct. 5 — centers on a brother-sister team who fake paranormal encounters for money and “get more than they bargained for when a job at a haunted estate turns very, very real.”
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13 of 44 Richard Foreman, Jr. SMPSP/Hulu
Into the Dark — Hulu series
Hulu and Blumhouse Television will premiere the first installment of Into the Dark, the first-ever year-round event series that will bring fans 12 standalone feature-length episodes on the first Friday of every month throughout the year. The first installment launches Oct. 5.
A group of misfit friends go on the treasure hunt of their lives. This movie will air multiple times — beginning at 8:20 p.m. ET on Oct. 5 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
Eddie Murphy brings the legendary Disney theme park ride to life. This movie will air multiple times — beginning at 2:50 p.m. ET on Oct. 6 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
One of Disney’s most terrifying villains gets a backstory — and in the form of Angelina Jolie! This movie will air multiple times — beginning at 9:45 p.m. ET on Oct. 6 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
A zombie love story! So, isn’t this more of a Valentine’s Day film? This movie will air multiple times — beginning at 11:50 p.m. ET on Oct. 6 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
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The Walking Dead — AMC series
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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street — 2007 film
Johnny Depp sings! This movie will air multiple times — beginning Oct. 7 at 8:40 p.m. ET — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
More Johnny Depp in white makeup. This movie will air multiple times — beginning at 11:20 p.m. ET on Oct. 7 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
Ahead of Ryan Reynolds’ remake, watch the original. This movie will air at midnight ET on Oct. 8 as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
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22 of 44 Universal Pictures
Jurassic Park — 1993 film
A fun day at the park! Or not. Can you guess? Clever girl. This Steven Spielberg classic will air multiple times — beginning Oct. 9 at 3 p.m. ET — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
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The Lost World: Jurassic Park — 1997 film
The Jurassic Park sequel will air multiple times — beginning at 3 p.m. ET on Oct. 10 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
A twist on the Tarzan story! This movie will air multiple times — beginning at midnight ET on Oct. 11 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
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The Haunting of Hill House — Netflix series
Based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson, this chilling series launches Oct. 12.
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Light as a Feather — Hulu series
Teens start dying off in the manner predicted in a game of “Light as a feather, stiff as a board” in this series, which launches Oct. 12.
The French gothic novel gets the Disney treatment. This movie will air multiple times — beginning at midnight ET on Oct. 12 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
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Monsters, Inc. — 2001 film
Boo! Sulley and Mike scare up a little girl, setting their monster world into a tizzy. This movie will air multiple times — beginning at 7:25 p.m. ET on Oct. 13 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
Decorating Disney: Halloween Magic — Freeform special
From the executive producers of the Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings series, Freeform has ordered this behind-the-scenes special promising to “reveal all the tricks and treats behind the transformation of the Walt Disney World and Disneyland resorts into the scariest, yet still magical, places on Earth.” The special will air multiple times — beginning at 8 p.m. ET on Oct. 14 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
Ghosts, ghouls, goblins, and so many other fun and spooky beings check in… and check out in this animated hit. The movie will air multiple times — beginning at 9 p.m. ET on Oct. 14 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
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33 of 44 Bret Curry/AMC
AMC Visionaires: Eli Roth’s History of Horror — AMC series
Masters of horror ranging from Stephen King to Jordan Peele to Jamie Lee Curtis scare up a history of the frightening genre in this series, which is hosted by Eli Roth and premieres at midnight ET on Oct. 14.
After his daughter (Abigail Breslin) is infected with a virus that transforms her into a zombie, a small-town farmer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) will stop at nothing to save her. The movie will air multiple times — beginning at midnight ET on Oct. 18 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
Season 2 of this anthology series launches Oct. 19 and will cover our culture’s “most fascinating foundational myths, whether it’s the story of witchcraft in America or one of the most significant mass murderers of all time,” says executive producer Gale Anne Hurd. “We also have episodes this season that were not based on podcasts.” FYI, that mass murderer? Hungarian noblewoman Elizabeth Báthory, who allegedly murdered hundreds of young girls in order to bathe in their blood in an attempt to retain her youth.
Air Bud’s little buddies celebrate Halloween in this movie, which will air multiple times — beginning at 8 a.m. ET on Oct. 21 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer star as three women set on a supernatural path by a mysterious stranger (Jack Nicholson). This movie will air multiple times — beginning at 8:20 p.m. ET on Oct. 22 — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
“Season 2 is much soapier, scarier, sexier,” shares co-showrunner Nicole Snyder, who says the show is aiming to be more like the hit HBO vampire drama True Blood. Adds co-showrunner Eric Charmelo: “We were thinking of this season as a supernatural noir.… Don’t believe what you’re seeing, because there’s always a twist on a twist on a twist.” What viewers should expect to see are dueling love triangles, “demonic cancer,” and witches’ and vampires’ worst nightmare: hipsters. (Ours, too.) Season 2 premieres Oct. 26 at 9 p.m. ET.
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39 of 44 SYFY
Channel Zero — Syfy series
This horror anthology series returns Oct. 26 at 11 p.m. ET for season 4, which is called The Dream Door, based on Charlotte Bywater’s Hidden Door, and directed by E.L. Katz.
Season 2 of this anime-influenced animated series — which is based on the classic video game property — launches Oct. 26.
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42 of 44 Disney/Pixar
Toy Story of Terror! — 2013 short film
Things get spooky for Woody and the gang in this half-hour special, which will air multiple times — beginning Oct. 27 at 11:25 p.m. ET — as part Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween programming.
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Tell Me a Story — CBS All Access series
Based on a Spanish-language series, Kevin Williamson’s psychological thriller Tell Me a Story reimagines Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, and The Three Little Pigs in modern-day Manhattan. It launches Oct. 31.
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Stan Against Evil — IFC series
The season 2 finale of this underrated gem of a horror comedy found Stan (John C. McGinley) and Evie (Janet Varney) playing with time, to potentially disastrous results for the creepily endearing little town of Willard’s Mill. Season 3 — premiering Oct. 31 at 10 p.m. ET — will see the ramifications of that timeplay, well, play out.
Damaged roads, bridges and airports are creating a logistical nightmare for the Indonesian government and relief agencies as they try to get vital supplies to Palu, four days after the city and its surrounding areas were devastated by an earthquake and tsunami.
At least 844 people have been confirmed dead, but officials expect that number to rise as rescuers reach towns and villages cut off since the disaster struck on Friday evening. Some 50,000 people are known to have lost their homes.
Indonesia has asked for international assistance from governments and aid agencies to deal with the humanitarian crisis. Countries including Japan, the US, China and Turkey have already offered to help, according to the Asean Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Centre), which is coordinating the aid effort with the Indonesian government.
Jan Gelfand, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Country Cluster Support office in Jakarta, whose teams are in the disaster zone, described the situation as, “nightmarish”. The organisation said Palu has been devastated and it is only now getting access to Donggala, an area on the coast to the north of Palu.
Indonesia plans mass burials for quake and tsunami victims
“Red Cross and other teams are working round the clock but the biggest challenge at the moment is getting access to all communities, and then bringing large quantities of vital relief supplies into the disaster zone,” Gelfand said in a statement. “Transport links, power and communications are still down.”
The Indonesian government has identified six priority needs: air transport, tents, water purification, generators, field hospitals and disease control.
Ruptured runway
Aid efforts are being hampered by damage to the airport, which is forcing more traffic, including aid trucks, onto the roads. The airport’s runway ruptured during the quake making it impossible for many planes to land, and the control tower ruined.
“We need to clear the logistics highway,” Arnel Capili, Director of Operations at AHA Centre, told Al Jazeera in a phone interview from Jakarta. “It’s one thing to bring the assistance to Palu. We then have to get it out to the other affected areas.”
Kuala Lumpur-based Mercy Malaysia, is preparing to send a medical team to Sulawesi in the next two to three days. “Our focus in the first week is usually health,” said Mercy Malaysia President Dr Ahmad Faizal Mohd Perdaus. “We are capable of deploying a field hospital and a full team, but the issue is logistics.”
Mercy’s rapid assessment team is on its way to Palu to get a better assessment of what’s needed, and how it can best be delivered.
“Roads, bridges and other infrastructure have been damaged also as a result of landslides, some of them pretty big ones,” Dr Ahmad Faizal said, adding it had taken far longer for the assessment team to get to the affected area than expected.
The bodies of 34 children were recovered after a landslide ploughed into a church in Sigi Biromaru district. Another 52 students were reportedly missing.
Indonesia: Tsunami death toll tops 800 amid search for survivors
Mass graves
In searing heat and humidity, the situation in Palu has become increasingly desperate since the 7.5-magnitude quake, and the tsunami that followed shortly afterwards. The authorities have begun to bury bodies in mass graves amid concern about disease, while some survivors have resorted to looting shops for basic supplies. Crowds have formed at petrol stations, where supplies are almost exhausted.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesperson for Indonesia’s disaster agency, said 10 fuel tankers, accompanied by a police escort, were on their way to the city to alleviate shortages with the national oil company, Pertamina, planning more deployments. Efforts are also under way to restore electricity.
Some areas of the city were swallowed up by liquefaction, with hundreds of people thought to be buried in the mud. Liquefaction takes place when loose, wet soil is shaken by the force of the earthquake and starts to behave like a liquid.
On Tuesday, a team from the National Search and Rescue Agency rescued a 38-year-old man who had been trapped since Friday in a financial building in the area. Video obtained by Reuters news agency showed the still conscious man pulled gently from the rubble after three hours, and taking a few steps to a waiting stretcher.
Local media say hundreds of people have thronged to the airport in recent days trying to get out of the stricken city. A navy vessel capable of taking 1,000 people at a time is likely to be deployed to help with evacuations.
President Donald Trump’s administration this week began denying visas to the unmarried, same-sex partners of foreign diplomats and officials and employees of the United Nations — making marriage a requirement to be eligible for a visa.
The policy was made effective Monday.
It comes despite the fact that the majority of countries do not recognize same-sex marriage and many same-sex couples face prosecution in their own countries.
The shift was detailed in a memo circulated at the United Nations’ headquarters in New York last month. It gives the same-sex partners of foreign diplomats and United Nations workers until the end of the year to get married or leave the country.
Foreign Policy magazine, which first reported the story, estimated there are at least 10 current United Nations employees who would need to get married to get their partners’ visas renewed. It was not clear how many foreign diplomats and United Nations employees with pending U.S. posts will be affected by the policy change.
About 12 percent of the 193 United Nations member states represented in New York allow same-sex marriage, according to Samantha Power, a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations who served under former president Barack Obama.
The Trump administration believes the new policy is more consistent with the 2015 Supreme Court ruling to legalize same-sex marriage. The heterosexual partners of foreign diplomats and United Nations employees are also not eligible for U.S. visas.
However, critics of the move argue that the new policy will create hardship for same-sex couples from countries that ban same-sex marriage or only offer civil unions.
“Those not yet in the country will need to show they’re married to secure a visa, potentially forcing those living in countries without marriage equality to choose between a posting at UN headquarters or family separation,” Akshaya Kumar, deputy United Nations director at Human Rights Watch, wrote in a blog post.
UN Globe, which advocates for non-discrimination of LGBTI staff at the UN and in its peacekeeping operations, said it was an “unfortunate change in rules, since same-sex couples, unlike opposite-sex couples, have limited choices when it comes to marriage.”
Power, the former ambassador, described the policy in a tweet as “needlessly cruel and bigoted.” The State Department said the rule change would promote equal treatment.
Officials reached the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement after a year of negotiations Sunday.
President Donald Trump portrayed it as a groundbreaking pact.
But analysts say the new agreement isn’t too different from the original NAFTA deal.
While President Donald Trump hails a revised NAFTA as the “most advanced trade deal in the world,” some analysts are wondering what all the hype is about.
Officials reached a breakthrough on the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement in 11th-hour negotiations Sunday night, calming fears that the trilateral deal could be scrapped when a self-imposed deadline hit hours later. But analysts say the new deal doesn’t look very different from the trade dynamics that have governed the US and its neighbors for decades.
“New deal, with a new name, but aside from dairy access and some bells and whistles, hardly a major rewrite that warranted so much wasted time over a 13-month long period of negotiations,” David Rosenberg, chief economist at Toronto-based Gluskin Sheff, said in a note sent out to clients.
To be sure, USMCA resolves previous sticking points and includes major concessions from both sides. For example, it opens up about 3.5% of Canada’s protected dairy market to US farmers and allows Canadians to purchase five times the amount of foreign products online without paying an additional import tax.
But Eric Winograd, a senior economist at AllianceBernstein, thinks the changes are “entirely trivial” from a US perspective. “If those sound like small numbers it’s because they are,” he said. “There is no reason to change US economic forecasts as a result of the deal. No doubt the Administration will herald the accord as a game-changer, but in economic terms it certainly is not.”
Building on a previous agreement between the US and Mexico, USMCA also revamps production standards for automakers across the three countries. Under the new agreement, three-quarters of a car’s parts must originate from North America in order to be exempt from duties. It offers Mexico and Canada partial protection from broader auto tariffs the Trump administration has threatened to impose, but falls short of marking those countries exempt.
“To me it seems like it’s a stonewashed and ripped NAFTA, if you will, rather than a modernized agreement,” Hugo Perezcano Díaz, a director at the Center for International Governance Innovation and a former trade official for the Mexican government, said.
Still, USCMA represents a major victory for Trump, who has vowed to rewrite global trade relationships since the campaign trail. It won early approval from businesses and lawmakers across the aisle and even put the Republican administration in a rare alliance with labor unions.
The new agreement also signals the Trump administration is open to maintaining trade deals with some countries, analysts say, although most fell short of including China in that list.
“In a sense, we look at this as something that does have a constructive message both for North American trade and for fears around trade wars more broadly,” Bruce Kasman, a JP Morgan economist, said. “What we wouldn’t do is extrapolate this to the US-China relationship.”
Negotiations between Washington and Beijing remain deadlocked after the Trump administration followed through with another round of import taxes on Chinese goods last month, leading to retaliatory tariffs and the cancellation of high-level trade talks.
“The US relationship with China is much more complicated than its relationship with Canada,” Rosenberg agreed. “And of course the stakes are considerably higher when dealing with China — the Chinese have leverage over the US that Canada simply doesn’t have.”
Before he grew up to be a Tony-nominated playwright and director, Conor McPherson wanted to be in a band. An aspiring teenage guitarist, according to an official bio. So it must have come as a thrill when Bob Dylan’s management approached him to imagine a way to bring the folk-rock legend’s music to the stage. Trusted with six decades of songs, McPherson aims high — this is no biographical jukebox musical.
His original script for Girl From the North Country, which McPherson also directs, is the Dubliner’s first set in America, in this case Depression-era Duluth, Minnesota. (Later Dylan’s birthplace.) Yet despite a sold-out run in London, the show currently at New York’s Public Theater feels like a misstep. The challenge of collaborating with this monumental body of work trips up the much-acclaimed McPherson. His words — blustery, profane, biting — never find a way to mesh with the evocative, easy poetry of the troubadour himself.
This play with music (rather than traditional musical in which the songs further the narrative) concerns the proprietors and residents of a rooming house just before Thanksgiving, 1934. They are a predictably sad lot of folks, each one in a bad way. Collectively they are: facing foreclosure, pregnant and unwed, lovelorn and alcoholic, failing mentally, cheating guiltily, widowed and broke, and burdened by a grown child with a developmental disability.
They rage at one another, enter into awkward courtships, and slip in and out of sobriety and affliction. And then they break into often rousing rock tunes. The effect is extremely odd: An uneasy mash-up of a hard-luck ensemble drama and the Bob Dylan songbook, a sort of The Jokerman Cometh.
The cast and on-stage band put over the songs well in their new arrangements. (There are roughly 20, first recorded between 1963 and 2012.) But even as you’re tapping your toes, you may well be shaking your head: Why this upbeat rendition of “The Hurricane” just after tragedy hits? Are we ever going to hear again from those two star-crossed lovers after their duet of “I Want You” from Blonde on Blonde? (Sorry: no. That’s just one storyline that is dropped like a stitch in a homemade scarf.) And good grief, what’s with the disco ball?
Among those distinguishing themselves in this ambitious jumble is Sydney James Harcourt as a boxer who has done someone else’s time. (This echo of the real Rubin Carter, the subject of a Dylan song, is one of the few straight lines drawn between the music and the story.) Also Kimber Sprawl as the girl-in-trouble whom he woos. Luba Mason delights doing triple duty acting, singing, and playing the drums. And the watchable Mare Winningham has a stand-out moment leading the group in “Like a Rolling Stone.” But what this confident delivery of the most famous number in the show has to do with her otherwise sporadically demented lady-of-the-rooming-house character is not made clear. After more than two hours in their company, many of North Country’s residents remain complete unknowns. B
The confirmed death toll from an earthquake and tsunami on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island has risen to 1,234, from 844, the national disaster agency said on Tuesday.
A 7.5 magnitude earthquake on Friday triggered tsunami waves as high as six metres (20 feet), which ravaged the small city of Palu, on the west coast of Sulawesi.
Al Jazeera’s Jamela Alindogan, reporting from Makassar, said help must come from abroad as the scale of the devastation has left everyone struggling to cope.
“If you look at the level of devastation caused by the disaster, we see that everybody is affected by it, police officers, rescue workers and even medical workers have also become victims of it,” she said.
“At this point what is important is to clear logistics in order for aid to come in, all the roads coming in to the areas affected must be covered.”
Nearly 200,000 people have been displaced and are in need of emergency help, while thousands have been streaming out of the stricken areas.
Rescuers have yet to reach many affected areas leading to fears the death toll could rise again.
Nigel Timmins, Oxfam’s humanitarian director, said it could take weeks to realise the full extent of the disaster.
“It’s not just a wall of water, it’s a wall of water full of debris: concrete, trees, cars – everything being churned around like a giant cement mixer. It’s like a huge bulldozer that clears away the land and afterward you’re left with complete chaos,” Timmins told Al Jazeera.
About 1,700 houses in one Palu neighbourhood were swallowed up, with hundreds of people believed buried, the national disaster agency said.
There was also mounting concern over Donggala, a region of 300,000 people north of Palu and close to the epicentre, and two other districts – with a combined population of about 1.4 million.
Initial reports from Red Cross rescuers who had reached the outskirts of Donggala district were chilling.
“The situation in the affected areas is nightmarish,” Jan Gelfand, head of an the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) office in Jakarta, said in a statement.
“The city of Palu has been devastated and first reports out of Donggala indicate that it has also been hit extremely hard by the double disaster,” Gelfand said.
‘People in dire need’
Indonesian police on Tuesday said they have arrested dozens of people for looting on the quake and tsunami-struck island of Sulawesi, where survivors have raided shops for water, food and other goods.
“On the first and second day clearly no shops were open. People were hungry. There were people in dire need. That’s not a problem,” said deputy national police chief Ari Dono Sukmanto.
“But after day two, the food supply started to come in, it only needed to be distributed.”
However Sukmanto said that people grabbing food would still be tolerated.
Police in Palu have largely stood by, unable or unwilling to stop the looting.
President Widodo authorized the acceptance of international help, Nugroho said Monday, adding that generators, heavy equipment and tents were among the most-needed items.
The European Union and about 10 countries have offered assistance, including the United States and China, he said.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Tuesday that his government had given $360,000 to help victims and was in talks with Indonesian authorities about a second round of aid.
The initial funds would go to the Indonesian Red Cross for the most obvious emergency aid needs, such as tarpaulins.
Editors, USA TODAY
Published 2:32 a.m. ET Oct. 2, 2018
Stormy Daniels’ tell-all book hits stores
Stormy Daniels’ memoir “Full Disclosure,” in which she details her alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump and her life as a stripper and porn star, is out Tuesday. Some facts from the book were in the news last month based on advanced copies. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, writes that she grew up poor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was sexually abused at age 9 and became a stripper while in high school. She writes in graphic detail about her tryst with Trump, whom she says she met at a golf tournament in 2006. Whenever she saw Trump in the years since, she writes that “‘I had sex with that’, I’d say to myself. Eech,’” according to a report in The Guardian.
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Adult film actress, Stormy Daniel, says that she has written a tell-all book that will be released on October 2nd. Buzz60
Tropical Storm Rosa threatens Southwest
The remnants of Hurricane Rosa are forecast to bring heavy rain and the threat of flash flooding to the Southwest over the next few days. The now-tropical storm — which had been as strong as a Category 4 hurricane — was poised to make landfall along Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula on Monday evening. Flood watches were in effect for southern Nevada, southeastern California, southwestern and central Utah and the western two-thirds of Arizona, including the cities of Phoenix, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. The National Hurricane Center warned that up to a half-foot of rain in Arizona could bring “life-threatening flash flooding” and “dangerous debris flows and landslides.”
MLB playoffs: NL wild-card gets postseason party started
After a historic Monday in which two Game 163s were played to determine the National League Central and NL West champions, there is no rest for the weary losers of those games —the Chicago Cubs and Colorado Rockies. The Rockies must travel to Chicago for Tuesday’s NL wild-card game (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) after falling short to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have the look of a serious World Series contender. The wild-card winner will advance to play the Milwaukee Brewers in a best-of-5 divisional playoff series starting Thursday.
One year ago Tuesday, rock superstar Tom Petty died in Los Angeles after being found unconscious and in cardiac arrest at his Southern California home. Petty, 66, had just finished a 40th-anniversary tour, playing arenas, festivals and an occasional stadium. Timed to the anniversary of his death, Petty’s family and former Heartbreakers bandmates Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench have curated a 60-song box set featuring dozens of previously unreleased recordings, titled “An American Treasure.” In January, the Los Angeles County coroner determined Petty died of an accidental drug overdose.
Nobel hands top prize in physics
The Nobel Prize in physics will be announced Tuesday, a day after two researchers won top honors in medicine for launching a new way to attack cancer by treating the immune system rather than the tumor. Monday’s honorees, Jim Allison, 70, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Tasuku Honjo, 76, of Kyoto University in Japan, learned how cancer can put the brakes on the immune system — and how to release those brakes. Their research led to the development of ipilimumab, an antibody used on patients with melanoma, an aggressive skin cancer.
MoviePass appears to be taking desperate measures to try to beef up its subscription numbers.
On Friday, the movie-ticket subscription service sent an email to members whose subscription had lapsed informing them that they would be enrolled in a “select test group” of subscribers who could watch one movie a day, based on its limited “existing inventory,” for $9.95 a month.
But MoviePass says in the email that those who do not opt out of the test-group plan will see their subscription restored and the credit card on file charged $9.95 monthly beginning October 5.
The email, with the not-so-urgent subject line “MoviePass Updates,” was flagged to Business Insider on Friday by a person who said they canceled their subscription but still received the email. The person said they completed the opt-out prompt and hoped they had now fully cut ties with MoviePass.
The complete letter is below:
Business Insider
The news quickly spread on social media over the weekend, with many former MoviePass users saying they were baffled about why they would have to opt out of a service they didn’t renew or outright canceled.
MoviePass’ “terms of use” webpage says: “To cancel, you must notify MoviePass in writing via email at least one business day prior to the next billing date stating your intent to cancel and providing the full name and email address on the account. You may also cancel your membership by using the MoviePass app. Cancellations are not effective until confirmation is sent to you via email, and you are responsible for all charges until cancellation is confirmed.”
“Signing up consumers without their permission is unfair and abusive,” said Joan Martínez Evora, a lecturer in business law at the University of Miami Business School. “Placing technological barriers like hiding icons from the screen, or showing errors, or automatically re-enrolling without giving fair notices with reasonable choices are unacceptable and the resulting ‘agreements’ unenforceable.”
Andrew C. Wicks, the Ruffin Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, described the email as “inappropriate and potentially bordering on bullying the customer.”
“How many times do I have to say ‘no’ before you hear ‘no’?” Wicks said.
MoviePass sent Business Insider the following statement about the Friday email:
“MoviePass sent an email offer on September 28, 2018 to a set of members who had not yet opted-in to the new offering of three movies per month. The offer was the opportunity to restore their original unlimited plan (up to one new movie title per day based on existing inventory) — the subscription plan they had originally signed up for. This was a one-time promotional offer that is valid through October 5 for some subscribers, many of whom have expressed an interest in the original plan and a request for its return. As part of the offer, if the member does not wish to return to the original plan, they can simply opt-out in the email prior to October 5 and they will not be auto-charged.
“There are a number of members who received the email from whom we have previously received conflicting indications over the last several months — having initially opted-out and then opting back in as we tweaked the offering. We had left their accounts suspended in an abundance of caution and are now offering them the opportunity to return to the plan that they originally liked.”
MoviePass did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s inquiry about why people who canceled the service were saying they still received the email.
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