Judge blocks DOJ threats, Italy strike, Burnham 'open to slave trade apology'

Hi, I'm Elena Cassass in London. It's Saturday, October 31st. Today, a judge has ordered the Trump administration to stop threatening to prosecute state and local election officials. An Air Force 1 fly over for a Halloween event at the White House causes flight delays. And the UK Prime Minister says he's open to a formal apology for Britain's historical role in the slave trade. This is Royce's world news, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, 7 days a week. A judge in San Francisco has ordered the Trump administration to stop threatening state and local election officials with prosecution if they don't comply with demands related to voting by alleged non-citizens. Judge Trina Thompson issued a restraining order that blocks the Justice Department from demanding officials remove voters from their roles or refuse them a ballot. The DOJ earlier warned California election officials they could be charged with a crime if they count more than 20,000 mail-in ballots returned by people the administration claims aren't US citizens. At the same time, the Justice Department is asking a judge to stop Alaska from certifying the election if Republican Senator Dan Sullivan loses because another candidate with the same name was on the ballot. All of this comes as a record 48 million Americans have already cast early ballots ahead of Tuesday's votes. Legal reporter Andrew Garrow-Witzwood has more. Let's start in Alaska. If the Justice Department wins this civil lawsuit, you do have a potentially very messy fight over determining if somebody casts their ballot for this challenger Dan Sullivan or who the Trump administration views as a kind of a sham Dan Sullivan did the voter intend to vote for him where they confused how he determined that. If it comes down to Alaska and you have that kind of fight taking place, that could get really messy. And California, the Justice Department is asking to set aside about 20,000 mail ballots from people the administration says are likely non-citizens. They're also sending out subpoenas for information from election officials about potential non-citizen voting. And so there certainly are concerns that going out publicly with this issue of non-citizen voting is a potential prelude to challenging the results of the election, making claims by the Trump administration that it wasn't fair, that it was moored by fraud. And so there are certainly fears that when the government gets involved and starts making these claims, you know, that's a potential situation that we could be heading into. More than 70,000 police have been deployed in France this Saturday ahead of another wave of protests against the cost of living and heavy-handed policing. Two weeks ago, peaceful demonstrations were hijacked by groups of looters who vandalized shops, set fire to public buildings, and caught security forces off guard. Authorities are determined to avoid a repeat. Despite the crackdown, unions and student groups say they will keep marching to call for action on high prices and underfunded schools. Meanwhile, in Italy, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets on Friday in a nationwide strike. Insure in, riot police used batons and a water cannon to force crowds back. The strikers are demanding higher wages, stronger public services and relief from Italy's rising cost of living. protesters also opposed increased military spending. The UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham says he's open to formally apologising for Britain's historical role in the slave trade. That would be a major shift in policy, and it could clear the way for King Charles to apologise that a meeting of former British colonies next week. Mr. Burnham wrote in a newspaper essay that his predecessors had refused to have an honest conversation about the UK's participation in the slave trade. Caribbean states have been calling for financial reparations. Mr. Burnham rejected the idea of a cash payout, but historian Alan Lester told Reuters reparations could mean 'development aid' or 'restructuring' of debt. We're not talking about a cash transfer. We're talking about decades worth of more slightly more favourable financial conditions being negotiated as a reparative mechanism. So that's the cause most likely way in which reparations will occur. An apology as well will be symbolically extremely important accompanying those kinds of negotiations. It's not clear if the Prime Minister or King Charles actually will issue a formal apology for slavery, but ahead of Tuesday's meeting of former British colonies in Antigua, Royal commentator Affua Hagan told Reuters Pressure is growing on the King. We know that Buckingham Palace have said that there will be no apology when it comes to the royal family's involvement in enslaving African people and their involvement in slavery, and of course the British government has said that they are not keen on paying reparations. That may change, we never know, because the reparations movement is gathering speed, gathering for us and becoming much louder and harder to ignore. The White House this week hosted children for a trick or treat event with the President, as his standard fare, what was less conventional was what happened overhead. Footage from the event shows President Trump pointing upwards, telling the camera to look to the skies. What they saw was the underbelly of Air Force 1 flying over at very low altitude. The plane made two lower than normal passes around the White House on Thursday, which prompted the FAA to temporarily halt traffic at nearby Reagan-Washington National Airport. The flyover also flew over nearby neighbourhoods, freaking out a few onlookers who tweeted they thought a plane was crashing. The DC City Council said in a social media post that only 15 minutes notice was provided before the flyover. And quote, it startled many, including us. Meanwhile, in school systems across the US, divisions remain over integrating AI into classrooms, leaving many teachers to navigate the transition largely on their own. Reporter Helen Costa has been talking to teachers across the country and says many are looking for creative workarounds. AI has been, by far, the most drastic technological development that has affected them as teachers and then has affected their students. Even in schools where cell phones are banned, I'd want you to tell me that her students were going to the bathroom to look up AI answers on their phone to help with exams and in-class exercises. But Helen says teachers are less concerned about cheating than they are about how their students are learning. And I heard over and over again that teachers are worrying about what AI will do for students' critical thinking. I talked to a humanities middle school teacher in San Francisco. She teaches sixth graders. And now instead of having take home essays, she actually has oral exams in class for her sixth graders. So in addition to other in-class exercises, she gives students questions on this spot, and they're expected to answer it in real time. And she thinks that that's a way to assess them where she doesn't have to worry about them relying on AI for anything. The backlash against AI also means a move away from screens in general. I talked to other teachers who are just relying more on paper and pen. As socials as he drives spoke to, has his students go to a notebook that he keeps in bins and takes that out when they enter the class every day. And he's really scaling back the students use her phone books because there's just so much screen time. They're just an additional work. And finally, if your idea of Halloween fun is being chased through a maze by a chainsaw wielding farmer, we've got just a place. At Tully's Farm in southern England, visitors are dodging zombies and killer clowns through mazes, a shocktoberfest celebrates its 30th year. For some people, it's a nightmare. For others, it's Halloween. For more on any of the stories from today, as well as more analysis and news shaping our world, check out roaches.com or the Roaches app. There's a link in the description to download it and start getting pure news straight from the source. Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player, and if you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Roaches seven days a week. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.