15
ANNOUNCED
That the U.S. State
Department will
remove Sudan from a
list of state sponsors
of terrorism, by
President Trump, on
Oct. 19.LIFTED
Pakistan’s ban on
social-media app
TikTok , on Oct. 19,
after the Chinese-
owned company
agreed to block
accounts that spread
“obscenity and immo-
rality,” per regulators.AGREED
Purdue Pharma,
maker of OxyContin,
to plead guilty to
federal charges over
its part in the opioid
crisis, according
to the U.S. Justice
Department on
Oct. 21.DISCOVERED
Human remains,
during excavations in
search of victims of
the 1921 massacre
and destruction of
a Tulsa, Okla., Black
neighborhood known
as Black Wall Street,
on Oct. 20.LANDED
The first commercial
passenger flight from
the UAE to Israel, on
Oct. 19, following
an agreement to
normalize relations
between the nations.DEBUTED
Music label Big Hit
Entertainment,
which created
mega-band BTS, on
the South Korean
stock market, on
Oct. 15. The offering
values Big Hit at
$7.6 billion.DISCONTINUED
Tab, Coca-Cola’s fi rst
diet soda, introduced
in 1963, per a com-
pany announcement
on Oct. 16. The deci-
sion will take effect
by the end of 2020.KILLED
Samuel Paty, teacher and symbol
A death reopens a schism in France
EVEN IN A COUNTRY THAT HAS SUFFERED MULTIPLE TERRORIST
attacks in the past fi ve years, the beheading of a schoolteacher on
Oct. 16 has stunned France, igniting a cultural and political battle
that could threaten the prospects of President Emmanuel Macron.
Samuel Paty, a middle-school teacher, was stabbed and decapi-
tated by an attacker on the streets of a quiet town northwest of
Paris. Witnesses say the suspected killer, an 18-year-old of Chechen
origin who came to France as a refugee, shouted, “Allahu Akbar.”
Within minutes, police shot him dead.
The murder, apparently in retribution for Paty’s showing his stu-
dents cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, has cracked open a deep
schism that is rarely far from the surface in France. At issue is how
France’s 5.7 million Muslims assimilate, or not, in a country whose
constitution is based on an unyielding principle of secularism. Mus-
lim leaders fear the killing will precipitate a state crackdown that will
deepen the divide between moderate and radical worshippers. “I
fear that this attack will be the last drop that makes the water spill,”
says Hassen Chalghoumi, a moderate Muslim cleric.
It also presents a steep challenge to Macron. Just 18 months
before he faces a tough re-election battle, the controversy sur-
rounding the killing threatens to shift the national conversation to
the turf of the country’s resurgent far right. “Macron is identifi ed
with the economy, with liberalism, with his international reputa-
tion,” says Emmanuel Rivière, a top executive at the Kantar polling
agency. “He is not identifi ed with crime and terrorism.”
—VIVIENNE WALT/PARISOn Oct. 18 in Strasbourg, France, a memorial
pays tribute to teacher Samuel PatyMilestonesSIGNED
Mental health’s
new number
IF YOU KNEW YOU WERE
having a heart attack, you
wouldn’t hesitate to call 911.
The National Suicide Hot-
line Designation Act now
aims to make it just as re-
fl exive to seek help during a
mental-health crisis.
Signed into law on
Oct. 17 by President Don-
ald Trump, the act means
people experiencing suicidal
ideation or a mental-health
emergency will, by July
2022, need to dial only three
digits—988—to connect
with someone at a crisis cen-
ter. The system off ers access
to specialists while being
easier to remember than the
National Suicide Prevention
Lifeline’s existing 10-digit
phone number.
Regina Miranda, a sui-
cide researcher at Hunter
College, says the new hot-
line could make people more
comfortable getting help—
particularly people of color,
who may hesitate to call 911
given potentially “fragile re-
lationships with police.” So
long as the system gets ade-
quate funding, Miranda says,
“this three-digit number has
the potential to make a sub-
stantial diff erence.”
—JAMIE DUCHARMEIf you or someone you know may
be contemplating suicide, call the
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
at 800-273-8255 or text HOME to
741741 to reach the Crisis Text LineBy
July 2022,
Americans
in mental
crisis will be
able to reach
a hotline by
dialing 988