Teachers in a Texas school district were told last week that a new state law requiring them to present multiple perspectives about “widely debated and currently controversial” issues meant they needed to make “opposing” views on the Holocaust available to students.

NBC News obtained an audio recording of the official, Gina Peddy, the Carroll Independent School District’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, speaking to the teachers about how to work under the constraints of the new law, known as House Bill 3979. The law was passed amid a wave of efforts in Republican-led statehouses to prevent “critical race theory,” “divisive” topics and concepts related to race and bias from being taught to children.

“Under this law, it would be impossible to teach that Nazi Germany was inherently antisemitic, or that the Third Reich oppressed Jews simply because they were Jews, because that would identify Nazis as inherently biased and Jews as inherently and systemically oppressed,” Russel Neiss, a Jewish educator in St. Louis, wrote in the St. Louis Jewish Light in May about legislation that had been proposed in Missouri. Lawmakers there are continuing to push for anti-critical race theory rules for schools.

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China said Monday its launch of a new spacecraft was merely a test to see whether the vehicle could be reused. 

The launch involved a spacecraft rather than a missile and was of "great significance for reducing the use-cost of spacecraft and could provide a convenient and affordable way to make a round trip for mankind's peaceful use of space," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said.

China's space program is run by its military and is closely tied to its agenda of building hypersonic missiles and other technologies that could alter the balance of power with the United States.

"China will work together with other countries in the world for the peaceful use of space and the benefit of mankind," Zhao said.

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Colin Powell, the first Black US secretary of state whose leadership in several Republican administrations helped shape American foreign policy in the last years of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st, has died from complications from Covid-19, his family said on Facebook. He was 84. "General Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to complications from Covid 19," the Powell family wrote on Facebook, noting he was fully vaccinated. Powell had multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells that suppresses the body's immune response, as well as Parkinson's, Peggy Cifrino, Powell's longtime chief of staff, confirmed to CNN. Even if fully vaccinated against Covid-19, those who are immunocompromised are at greater risk from the virus. "We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American," the family said.

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In the future a computer could store our DNA code and will send out warnings when we need gene therapy – warding off fatal diseases by removing genetic mutations.

Implanted microchips would also alert doctors to the ageing of our cells.

They even hope to back up our personalities online

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In August, 4.3 million US workers, almost 3 percent of the entire American workforce, voluntarily left their positions, the highest number since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking “quits” in 2020. The reasons for this remarkable number are numerous and complex but one thing is for certain; the pandemic has had a huge effect on how workers perceive themselves in the workplace

This huge number of resignations comes at a time of great labor unrest in the US. Nearly 100,000 workers are on strike in October, perhaps the grievances of the strikes point toward some of the reasons for the many resignations.

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Alex Stone has details.

Every year around now retailers announce they need to fill holiday positions to get through the buying rush and to help relieve staff taking vacation.  But this year amid labor shortages and sky high online shopping, Amazon says it badly needs seasonal workers to help ship out products.  Last year it brought onboard 100-thousand seasonal workers.  This year it needs 150-thousand and it’s sweetening the deal.  It will pay up to $3000 in a sign on bonus for seasonal workers, $18 per hour pay, and a $3 per hour bump for certain shifts.  It’s not quite the 200-thousand workers Amazon needed in 2019 but Amazon was already on a hiring spree this year before the holidays.  Target says it needs 100-thousand workers.  Macy’s needs 76-thousand.  Walmart and Target are also upping their perks to bring on seasonal workers. 

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Steve Roberts, ABC NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST

Former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell has died at age 84 due to complications from COVID-19. As tributes from everyone from former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush to current Secretary of State Anthony Blinken pour in, Steve, who got to know Powell quite well covering him for the NY Times during his turn as national security adviser to President Reagan and later when he was regularly mentioned as a presidential candidate for US News and World Report, reflects on Powell's considerable legacy.

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Plus, protester shot by Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha is now suing Wisconsin authorities.

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