5 Things for October 16: Family Freed, Somalia Bombings, California Wildfires

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 10/16/2017, 7:13 a.m.
Here's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door.
Joshua Boyle, his American wife Caitlan Coleman and their three children - A couple freed from militant captivity in Pakistan were on a flight to London on Friday, a Pakistani military source said.

By Doug Criss, CNN

(CNN) -- Here's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door.

1. Family freed

They're away from their captors, but this family doesn't exactly feel free yet. Joshua Boyle, his American wife Caitlan Coleman and their three children are safe at home in Canada. But the gravity of the five years of captivity they endured in Afghanistan at the hands of terrorists is just beginning to sink in. Boyle said their captors raped his wife and authorized the killing of their infant daughter. One of his sons had never seen daylight until they were freed. "We're pretty broken," Boyle said.

Boyle and Coleman were kidnapped in Afghanistan by terrorists in 2012. Coleman was pregnant at the time. Their three children were born in captivity. They were freed last week in Pakistan after a firefight between their captors and Pakistani rescuers.

2. Somalia bombings

No group has yet claimed responsibility for a double vehicle bombing that killed at least 277 people over the weekend in Mogadishu. It was one of the deadliest such incidents in the country's history. Hundreds were injured. Suspicion immediately fell on Al-Shabaab, the terror group that has carried out several car bomb attacks in the city. Mogadishu has endured lots of violence over the years. The country's President called for three days of mourning.

3. California wildfires

The tide may finally be turning for the better in the fight against the Northern California wildfires, some of the deadliest in the state's history. Dozens of fires are still burning, but the 11,000 firefighters are starting to contain some of the bigger blazes. The huge Atlas fire in Napa and Solano counties is more than half contained. Evacuation orders were lifted for the city of Napa, and they might be lifted soon for folks in Sonoma County.

People who've been able to return home are coming back to a grim new reality, with some finding nothing left but ash. The death toll is at least 40 and more than 200 people are still missing. So far the fires have torched an estimated 217,000 acres.

4. Puerto Rico

Things are so desperate in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria that some people are drinking water pumped from a hazardous-waste site. More than three weeks after the storm slammed the US territory, 35% of residents still don't have safe drinking water. CNN watched late last week as a water utility distributed water from a well at the Dorado Groundwater Contamination Site, which was listed in 2016 as part of the federal Superfund program for hazardous waste cleanup.

It's not clear if there's a risk to the public from the well's water. The local water utility said it didn't know the well was in a Superfund site. The EPA said it would start tests. Electricity's still out in a huge part of the island too, but Puerto Rico's governor plans to restore 95% of power by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, another storm that was born in the Atlantic is racing toward Ireland and the UK. The former Hurricane Ophelia will strike as a post-tropical storm, bringing with it strong winds, heavy rain and a big storm surge.

5. Colin Kaepernick

Colin Kaepernick is fighting back. The former NFL QB has filed a grievance against the NFL, claiming team owners have colluded to keep him out of the league. Kaepernick was the first NFL player to take a knee as a form of protest during the National Anthem. He has yet to be picked up by another team since opting out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers back in March.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"The era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over"

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Stranger things

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A big drop

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NUMBER OF THE DAY

31

The age of Sebastian Kurz, Austria's next chancellor. Kurz, a conservative, will be Europe's youngest leader and is expected to put the far-right in an Austrian governing coalition for the first time in more than 10 years.

And finally ...

In your face

Here's a montage of Michael Keaton making that face that he makes in all his movies.

YouTube

Michael Keaton Always Makes This Face

From Mr. Mom to The Founder, the great Michael Keaton has always incorporated a small acting gesture in all of his performances. While normally all in the face, it's a defeated kind of shrug, as if to mock his scene partner's complacency. Red Cow on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/redcowenterta... Red Cow on Reddit! https://www.reddit.com/r/redcowentert... Red Cow on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/RedCowEntert... Red Cow on Instagram! https://instagram.com/redcowentertain... Red Cow on Twitter! https://twitter.com/redcowent Red Cow Merchandise! http://redcowentertainment.com/store And much more at http://www.redcowentertainment.com.