Welcome back to the Morning Brief——brought to you by one of America’s largest independent newspapers—The Epoch Times. 

It’s Monday October 12th, and I’m Keegan Billings.

Let’s jump right in.

Here are some other top stories today:

Statues of the Italian explorer have become targets for takedowns in recent years—particularly during the 2020 Floyd protests and riots. But Italian Americans are working to restore them.

• Two airports in Saudi Arabia were targeted in a new round of attacks by Houthis on Sunday  

• Trump said Russia and Ukraine have agreed to halt attacks on each other’s energy facilities, a deal aimed at easing global oil and diesel prices

• Volunteers are aiding recovery efforts after Hurricane Isaias tore through the Florida Panhandle and southern Alabama

• 🍵 Health: Medical tests can be lifesaving, but few patients are ever told the risks. We’ll get into some unexpected consequences of routine medical tests.

NOW, BACK TO OUR TOP STORY:

Columbus Statues Became Targets Across America. But some Italian Americans Are Fighting Back. 

A weathered black-and-white photograph, dated 1933, helps explain why a long-running battle over a statue is personal for Nick Pirro, 86, and Anthony Ilacqua, 68.

That treasured picture shows 13 men—including Pirro’s father and Ilacqua’s grandfather—standing on a barge in a canal at Brewerton, near Syracuse, New York.

They were greeting 153 tons of pink granite shipped from Italy—stone that would form the pedestal and base of a community-funded monument honoring Italians’ contributions to America, starting with the Italian-born explorer Christopher Columbus.

“It’s our history; it’s part of our community,” Pirro said.

Ilacqua said, “Columbus is representative of the immigrants’ experience—sailing across the ocean and coming to a new world.”

He noted that Columbus’s voyage dramatically changed the course of human history.

However, on this Columbus Day, the existence of the Columbus statue in Syracuse and other American cities remains threatened; some places have discontinued local observances of the federal holiday.

People who see Columbus as an invader with a shameful legacy say he doesn’t deserve to be honored. Activists have called for abolishing the Columbus Day holiday and tearing down Columbus statues.

Pirro and Ilacqua told The Epoch Times why they and their supporters are determined to preserve the Syracuse Columbus monument.

“Nobody’s history should be destroyed,” Pirro said.

Similar conflicts over statues and traditions have been playing out across the nation.

The summer riots of 2020 were a flashpoint, as protesters often turned their anger toward monuments of perceived oppressors. No figure was targeted more often than Columbus, based on news reports of vandalism, destruction, or removal campaigns.

In places such as Columbus, Ohio; San Francisco; and St. Paul, Minnesota, Columbus statues remain mothballed—hidden from public view as controversies continue. (More)

NOW, OVER TO POLITICS:

• At least one person has been killed in a new round of attacks on two airports in Saudi Arabia on Oct. 11.

according to the country’s General Authority of Civil Aviation

An attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh killed one person and injured 11 others,, one day after a Houthi attack killed another 13 at the airport—including an American.

President Donald Trump said he’s considering joining Saudi strikes against the Yemen-based Houthis. 

The aviation authority also reported an attack at the King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, nearly 250 miles northeast of Riyadh, the country’s capital.

according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.com.

As of 5 p.m. ET on Oct. 11, King Khalid International canceled more than 500 flights and delayed nearly 150 planes, 

King Fahd International canceled 40 flights and delayed more than 100 planes.

Dozens of flights have been cut at both airports for Oct. 12 as well.

Authorities are assessing the damage from the recent attacks.

The victims of the Oct. 10 attack, which targeted a passenger terminal at King Khalid International Airport, included four Saudi citizens, two residents of Bangladesh, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian, and one Sudanese, in addition to the American.

The attack injured at least 309 others, with some in critical condition.

Rubio called the attacks a “blatant disregard for innocent civilian life” and urged the violence to end.

The U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Saudi Arabia urged travelers to exercise extreme caution when using all major airports in the country.

Americans around the world have been advised to “exercise increased caution” since July because of heightened tensions in the Middle East. The department encouraged U.S. citizens to reconsider traveling through the region.

• Trump said Russia and Ukraine have agreed to halt attacks on each other’s energy facilities, a deal aimed at easing global oil and diesel prices driven up by infrastructure damage in both countries during the war. However the Details still remain unclear. 

Following the announcement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the agreement but called on Russia to heed Trump’s words.

he said in a statement on Oct. 11.

“We are awaiting clear details of the dialogue between America and Russia–and we expect [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to follow through on what President Trump said.”

Russia carried out strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in Kharkiv on Oct. 11. Over the past week, Zelenskyy said, Russian forces have carried out more than 200 strikes on electricity generation and transmission sites of Ukraine, as well as 17 strikes on the country’s gas and oil facilities.

Moscow has not issued a statement confirming the agreement.

On Oct. 9, Trump said he reached a deal with Putin to supply diesel to the United States and global markets amid rising fuel prices.

Trump announced that Russia had agreed to immediately export more than 300,000 tons of diesel to the global markets. An additional 500,000 tons of diesel will be shipped out in November, followed by an additional million tons in December, he said.

in a Truth Social post announcing the deal Trump said

Another 3 million tons of diesel could be delivered following the initial exports depending on the condition of Russia’s refineries, 

Trump criticized Zelenskyy for expressing disappointment with the diesel deal.

On Oct. 9, Zelenskyy issued a long statement on X, saying, “Any easing of sanctions against Russia without a clear and lasting de-escalation agreement with Russia is an obvious weakness.”

Trump told reporters that Zelenskyy has had the opportunity to settle the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine “many times” but has chosen not to.

Trump said.

“That’s a war that should have never started, and I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president,” 

In recent months, Ukraine has expanded its drone capabilities, launching long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries.

Ongoing attacks have caused widespread fuel shortages across Russia. In response to these attacks, Russia implemented a ban on diesel exports starting in July.

Recent drone strikes on Russian refineries and sanctions on Russian petroleum have knocked out nearly one-third of the country’s export capacity, according to the International Energy Agency, affecting global energy supply.

In addition to that, tightening global oil supplies amid the conflict with Iran have caused U.S. diesel prices to climb to historic highs, averaging more than $6 per gallon nationwide.

Trump has repeatedly urged both Ukraine and Russia over the past several weeks to stop carrying out military strikes on energy infrastructure.

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AND MORE ON POLITICS:

• Nearly 15K immigration detainers issued by ICE between Jan. 20, 2025, and Sept. 14, 2026 were not honored by New York City because of its sanctuary policies, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

(DHS) said in an Oct. 9 statement.

There were 47,750 criminal charges and convictions linked to these detainers that New York City ignored between Jan. 20, 2025, and Sept. 14, 2026, the 

An immigration detainer is a request from ICE asking local, state, or federal law enforcement agencies to notify the agency before releasing a removable immigrant or to hold the individual for up to 48 hours beyond the scheduled release time so that DHS can take custody of the person.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in the statement.

“Sanctuary politicians create an environment for criminal activity to thrive, not for American citizens to be safe,” 

“When you have sanctuary cities and politicians, you endanger the safety of the public.”

The DHS statement was issued in the context of the recent shooting of Oscar Bengal, a criminal illegal immigrant in New York. Bengal, from the Dominican Republic, was shot on Oct. 8 while federal immigration agents were attempting to arrest him in the Bronx.

Bengal was sent to a local hospital for treatment and subsequently placed in detention.

The illegal immigrant had previous criminal convictions for grand larceny and has been arrested for drug possession, assault, weapons charges, and robbery, according to DHS. He is allegedly associated with the Trinitarios street gang, which is implicated in the murder of a Border Patrol officer last year.

Bengal had entered the United States illegally and was arrested by the New York Police Department in December 2023. However, he was released back into the community in a few days because of sanctuary policies, DHS said.

The illegal immigrant had previous criminal convictions for grand larceny and has been arrested for drug possession, assault, weapons charges, and robbery, according to DHS. He is allegedly associated with the Trinitarios street gang, which is implicated in the murder of a Border Patrol officer last year.

Bengal had entered the United States illegally and was arrested by the New York Police Department in December 2023. However, he was released back into the community in a few days because of sanctuary policies, DHS said.

According to New York’s January 2025 guidance update for local authorities regarding immigration enforcement, there is no legal obligation for a local law enforcement agent to detain an individual pursuant to an ICE detainer.

• Pope Leo XIV revealed that he is planning to undergo surgery after doctors found a small, localized nodule in his lung.

Leo said in an Oct. 11 post on X.

“It was detected at a very early stage and is well-localized,” 

“The doctors believe that it is best to intervene, so, following their advice, I have decided to undergo surgery to remove it.”

The surgery is expected to take place in “the coming days,” and the pope did not specify exactly when or where the operation would take place.

Small lung nodules are found in nearly one out of three chest CT scans, and most are not cancerous, the nonprofit medical center stated.

But if the nodule grows and presses on a person’s airway or if it is cancerous, patients can experience symptoms such as chest pain, coughing up blood, hoarseness, loss of appetite, and recurrent respiratory infections such as bronchitis or pneumonia.

• The way automated vehicles drive frustrates many motorists sharing the road with them, leading to more dangerous driving and possibly road rage. That’s according to one of the findings of a newly released paper that aims to gauge the effects of integrating automated vehicles into car fleets worldwide.

published in the journal Communications Engineering in October. the title of the new paper is,

“Automated vehicles drive safer but induce riskier behavior in human drivers in car-following scenarios”  

Researchers Yueying Chu and Peng Liu from Zhejiang University, and Ying Gao and Zhigang Xu from Chang’an University, sought to answer two questions using available AV driving data: Will AVs drive more safely? And will AVs make nearby human drivers drive safer?

The answer to the first question was yes.

the researchers reported.

“Our evidence clearly shows that AVs drive safer and smoother as compared to their human counterparts in car-following,” 

The answer to the second question was complicated, and potentially deadly.

Cars following AVs tend to drive more slowly because that is what drivers most often do when a slow car is in front of them. In that sense, the behavior of human-driven vehicles was coded as safer.

The reason AVs tend to be the slower cars is that they are programmed to obey all traffic laws and treat speed limits as an upper bound, not a suggestion.

Yet following behind AVs also led human drivers to engage in behavior that the researchers coded as risky. Human-driven cars followed AVs more closely, which is another way of saying they tailgated them.

The Chinese researchers examined several reasons why this might be the case. Their best answer was that because AVs in the lead do not tend to vary their speed, human drivers are more comfortable leaving a smaller gap.

they write

“So, ironically, AVs’ better velocity and acceleration management might, unconsciously or implicitly, lead their human followers to maintain a shorter distance and create higher tailgating potentials,”.

The paper did not examine passing.

On a road with multiple lanes in both directions, passing is relatively safe behavior. Statistically, on two-lane roads, it is much more dangerous because it can lead to collisions with oncoming traffic, sideswipes, or other damaging, often fatal, outcomes.

More tailgating wasn’t the only potentially dangerous finding in the paper. It also found that because AVs tend to leave more distance than humans would between themselves and the lead car, other human-driven cars are more likely to “cut in” to that gap, which can lead to accidents, the Chinese researchers found.

That AVs leave significant room and that humans tend to tailgate them is consistent with other findings involving AVs and accidents.

• The Trump administration has sent out an email to millions of Medicare recipients that the federal government is in the process of sending them $90 payments.

The Medicare-related payments were announced by Trump earlier this month, with eligible seniors receiving the $90 in a direct deposit. People without the ability to receive direct deposits will receive a check at the mailing address they have registered with Medicare, with both the payments and checks being sent in early October.

To be eligible for the payment, seniors must be enrolled in Medicare B health insurance. However, those whose premiums are already covered by Medicaid or who pay an adjusted amount based on higher income will not qualify.

A fact sheet released by the White House earlier this month said that more than 20 million seniors will get the aid.

When it was announced, Trump said on social media that the payments will come from the ​Medicare Improvement Fund, which he said was given $2 billion by Congress ​to improve the Medicare fee-for-service program.

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It’s called a “sting jet.”A catastrophic cluster of tornado-like winds emerged on the edge of Hurricane Isaias and swept across hundreds of miles of Florida and Alabama like an atmospheric landslide.

While coastal, more densely populated areas such as Florida’s Pensacola Beach and Destin faced their own destructive suite of storm surge and roof-ripping winds, this extremely rare wind event left the sparsely populated rural areas farther north bombarded by falling trees that crushed homes, downed power lines, and completely cut off entire communities.

Now, volunteers armed with chainsaws, winches, and emergency supplies are pushing into that Flora-Bama pine-and-oak forest to rescue people and reconnect them to civilization.

The volunteers assembled in the parking lot of Jubilee Church in Pensacola on the morning of Oct. 11. They circled up in prayer, had a safety briefing, and set off in caravans of SUVs and pickup trucks.

They wore matching blue shirts bearing the United Cajun Navy emblem, and with it came the expectation that people in need would get the help they needed for free from kind, helpful, competent volunteers.

David Eversole has been with the National Weather Service since 1992 and had never heard of a sting jet until Oct. 10.

It is an event whose rarity almost equals that of its mother cyclone’s record-late arrival in hurricane season.

“I have never seen it, and I’ve been with the [National] Weather Service since 1992,” he told The Epoch Times.

What happened was a mass of dry air collided with the outer storm wall of Hurricane Isaias. That dry pocket began to rapidly suck up the storm’s moisture, making the air immediately much heavier.

That sudden shift in air density created a downburst effect that produced intense tornado-like winds on the ground.

But these weren’t necessarily tornadoes—although residents on the ground reported tornado sightings.

“That’s what happens during a thunderstorm,” Eversole said. “It ingests that drier air and the precipitation, and the thunderstorm starts to evaporate, and that starts making a lot of cold air, which is heavy, and so that starts sinking down.

“Now the sting jet, that is like that phenomenon but on steroids.”

This was a single cluster of catastrophic winds that sliced through the Florida and Alabama landscape. Radar screenshots show a bright line of intensity streaking from the coastline, through Milton, Florida, across the state line to Frisco City and Monroeville, Alabama. Gusts of 117 miles per hour were reported on Santa Rosa Island, and winds of 114 miles per hour were reported at Whiting Field near Milton.

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MAIN

9 Unexpected Consequences of Routine Medical Tests 

Hi it’s Helen Billings here with our Monday Health story, and for today I’ll be mentioning some Unexpected Consequences of Routine Medical Tests. 

Aliright Medical tests can be lifesaving, but few patients are ever told how accurate they actually are, what unexpected scenarios commonly unfold, or how they can prepare themselves for the problems tests can bring. Now  here are seven things everyone should know about tests.

But first a quick disclaimer. This list is meant to just give you some ideas to think about, we recommend consulting a healthcare professional before making a decision.. 

Ok now lets get to the list.

One. A Single Test Can Lead to 5 More.

A routine test can seem harmless, even responsible. Your doctor recommends it, and your neighbor just had one. However, a test doesn’t always end with one clear answer. Sometimes the result leads to another test, then another, each with its own risk. (More)

Fear can keep the cascade going, but you can stop it at any time. One way to do that is to ask your doctor what another test will tell you that you don’t already know, and what that will change about your treatment.

Two. The Test Can Sound a False Alarm.

Most people getting screened feel fine and don’t have the disease in question. But every test occasionally flags a healthy person by mistake. Because healthy people far outnumber sick ones, those mistakes add up. 

Before your next test, ask your doctor: If it comes back abnormal, how often does that actually mean disease?

Three. Tests Find Inconsequential Diseases.

Tests are good at finding things, even things that don’t matter. The problem is that it’s often unclear which findings matter, and sorting that out can mean a grueling round of more tests.

A test helps only if catching the disease early keeps you from getting sick or dying later. If it doesn’t, you take on the worry and the bills without the benefit. For someone who feels fine, tests must clear a high bar to be helpful.

Four. Tests Can Turn You Into a Patient.

Your blood sugar is a couple of points too high. Your cholesterol is just outside the normal range. You feel the same as yesterday. But now your chart says “abnormal.” Medical tests make it easier than you might think to go from being a healthy adult to a patient.

Five. A Test Can Plant an Unshakable Worry

A test can uncover something you were never looking for, and once you know it’s there, you can’t stop worrying about it.

Six. The Test Itself Can Hurt You

It’s easy to look at a test as a simple way to look inside the body, and sometimes it is. However, every test, no matter how simple, carries physical risks.

Procedures carry their own dangers. For every 10,000 screening colonoscopies, nearly 15 cause major bleeding and 3 tear the bowel.

And a CT scan, for example, uses far more radiation than a standard X-ray. 

Seven. The Test Result Can Follow You.

Once a diagnosis lands in your chart, it tends to stay. The next doctor may read your chart before meeting you. An old or uncertain label can shape how the next doctor sees a new symptom—and what gets tested next.

Now lastly, In a healthcare system geared to chase down symptoms and eliminate potential risks, a test can trigger a series of problems few patients are prepared to handle.

The key is to know what can happen and weigh the risks and benefits before you say yes. A couple of questions can help: What will this test tell us that we don’t already know? What will we do differently with the answer?

Ok. I wanna thank you for listening and I hope you’re off to a healthy week.

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And before we leave, here are some words of wisdom to start the day…Today’s quote is by our 28th president

Woodrow Wilson, 

He said,

“One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty counsels.” 

—Woodrow Wilson