We're just sending quick updates on some top stories this morning and tomorrow morning as Americans celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. We'll be back with normal twice-daily editions on Monday!
Inside Daily Brief (Nov 23rd, 2017)
On Thursday, the Argentine Navy suggested that a noise detected around the last known location of their missing submarine was likely an explosion. Spokesman Enrique Balbi described the noise as "an anomalous, singular, short, violent and non-nuclear event." The ARA San Juan, carrying a crew of 44 people, vanished after making final contact with Argentine authorities on November 15. Unless the crew can manage to surface the vessel, or send a tube to the surface to replenish the submarine's fresh air supply, they will likely run out of oxygen within 7-10 days. A dozen nations are scanning the South Atlantic for the ARA San Juan by air and sea. The noise was also detected by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization in Vienna, Austria. – CNN
President Trump thanked members of the US military for their service in a video conference from Mar-a-Lago on Thursday to commemorate the Thanksgiving holiday. The President spoke live with members of the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division, currently deployed in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He told them "we're really winning," that the US military is "being talked about again as an armed forces" and vowed that "we're not fighting any more to just walk around, we're fighting to win." He also promised the troops "big, fat, beautiful tax cuts." Trump wished the nation a Happy Thanksgiving on Twitter, renewing his promise to build a border wall with Mexico and boasting about "jobs coming back," the "highest stock market ever" and "lowest unemployment in 17 years." – USATODAY
Two additional women have come forward claiming to have been inappropriately touched by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), raising his overall number of accusers to four. Last week, radio host Leeann Tweeden published a story about being groped and kissed by Franken against her will during a 2006 USO Tour. On Monday, Lindsay Menz claimed to have been groped by Franken during a photo op at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010. Yesterday, two more women - who chose to remain anonymous - related separate stories about Franken grabbing their buttocks to Huffington Post. The new accounts bear numerous similarities to Menz's story, with Franken groping the women while posing for photographs. One of the anonymous accusers, who claims to have been grabbed by Franken at a 2008 Democratic fundraiser in Minneapolis, also claims he suggested they visit a nearby bathroom together. Franken specifically denied this detail: "I can categorically say that I did not proposition anyone to join me in any bathroom." – HUFFPO
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A Philadelphia woman has raised over $32,000 to help a homeless man who had loaned her his last $20. In October, 27-year-old Kate McClure found herself stranded alone and out of gas at 11 pm near a freeway exit ramp. She met Johnny Bobbitt Jr., a homeless local who camps by the same exit ramp, and he loaned her the money to get home. McClure and her boyfriend Mark D'Amico eventually befriended Bobbitt, and started a page to support him on GoFundMe, which brought in more than $32,000 in just 12 days online. – PHILLY
Google has teamed up with Swedish indie band Vita Bergen to demonstrate improvements to its Google Translate tool. Vita Bergen recorded the new single "Light the Lights" in Swedish, then used Google Translate to create variations in English, French and Spanish. The band has put all three new versions of the song online, and will embark on a mini-tour of Europe to perform on the streets of London, Paris and Madrid. About one year ago, Google Translate switched to a process utilizing neural machine translation, hoping to create more accurate overall translations - with more focus on context and meaning - than the standard word-by-word process. – VENTUREBEAT
Black Friday has apparently "lost its luster," with many American consumers opting to do their gift shopping gradually throughout the holiday season. According to the National Retail Federation, 2017 will likely be the first year that more Americans do their holiday shopping online than in department stores. (Online spending in the US is expected to surpass $100 billion this year.) A number of big-box retailers are responding in kind, with less fanfare around massive in-store Black Friday discounts and more focus on online discounts and ongoing promotions. As well, consumers are increasingly starting their shopping earlier in the season - an estimated 40% of Americans had already started purchasing holiday gifts before November 1st. – WAPO
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