1 Th first episode was Oct. 11, 1975 (I was 11)

2. George Carlin was the star

3. The show was titled "NBC's Saturday Night" not "Saturday Night Live"

4. Janis Ian and Billy Preston both played music (neither was called a musical guest)

5. The Muppets were on the show

6. There were 9 Not Yet Ready for Prime Time Players and they were not mentioned individually by name with pic. Their names were just shown all together in the opening credits (Michael O' Donoghue and George Coe were in the cast)

7. Valri Bromfield (who toured with Dan Ackroyd) and Andy Kaufman appeared. Bromfield got screwed over by Lorne Michaels. Right as she was about to go out he told her she had 2 mins instead of 6. Her performance was not good

8. George Carlin entered from the upstairs balcony and his first routine was "Football vs Baseball"

9. First song, Billy Preston singing "Nothing from Nothing"

10. Andy Kaufman did his Mighty Mouse routine

11. Janis Ian performed performed "Seventeen"

12. There was one REALLY cringey skit about aoc


** I have Peacock Network and they're showing SNL episodes

5. Armenia Kicks Off Joint Military Exercises With U.S. Despite Russian Opposition

Armenia and the United States have begun joint military exercises that have angered Moscow and come as tensions rise between Yerevan and neighboring Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The Armenian Defense Ministry said in a statement the Eagle Partner 2023 exercises began on September 11 with the purpose of preparing Armenian forces to take part in international peacekeeping missions.

Colonel Martin O'Donnell, spokesman for the U.S. command, said the exercises are "a vital opportunity for our soldiers from our two nations to build new relationships at the tactical level and to increase interoperability for peacekeeping operations."

The drills are being held at the Zar and Armavir Training Areas near Yerevan and will end on September 20. The U.S military said 85 U.S. soldiers and 175 Armenians would take part. The Americans -- including members of the Kansas National Guard, which has a 20-year-old training partnership with Armenia -- will not be using heavy weaponry, it added.

https://www.rferl.org/a/armenia-military-exercises-us-russian-opposition/32587572.html


4. Belarus's Tsikhanouskaya To Meet With U.S., Other Officials In New York During UN General Assembly

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has said she will be in New York this week for high-level meetings with officials from the United States and other countries as delegations converge for the UN General Assembly. Her chief adviser, Franak Viachorka, was later quoted as saying Tsikhanouskaya would be in the United States September 17-23. She will reportedly also meet with members of the Belarusian diaspora. Tsikhanouskaya, who was driven abroad by the brutal crackdown after Alyaksandr Lukashenka claimed a sixth presidential term after a flawed election in 2020, warned last month that Belarusian independence is under its "greatest threat" ever because of Lukashenka.

https://www.rferl.org/a/belarus-tsikhanouskaya-us-new-york-united-nations/32595563.html


3. Murdoch executives ‘told Sunak not to resign after Partygate fine’

Rishi Sunak was persuaded not to quit as chancellor over his fine for breaking lockdown laws after an intervention by executives working for media mogul Rupert Murdoch, it has been claimed.

The claim is detailed in a book by the Telegraph’s political editor, Ben Riley-Smith, and published by the newspaper’s website on Friday.

It is the latest report to suggest that Sunak was on the verge of resigning after he and Boris Johnson were fined in April 2022 for attending the then prime minister’s birthday celebration in Downing Street in June 2020.

According to the paper, Sunak shared a draft resignation statement with allies, including some who worked for Murdoch such as former Tory leader and Times columnist Lord Hague.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/15/murdoch-executives-told-sunak-not-to-resign-after-partygate-fine

2. The high-speed railway that’s uncoupling the Baltic states from Russia and their Soviet past

Rail Baltica is connecting the Baltics to Europe’s rail network, another sign of how the Baltics have swung away from Russia to the West.

The largest infrastructure project in the Baltic region for a hundred years is under way. The 870 km Rail Baltica project, which is due for completion in 2030, will connect the capitals of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia with Warsaw and the rest of Europe, allowing trains from the continent to run uninterrupted.

snip

For the EU, it’s a statement about the Baltic states’ return to Europe and their decoupling from their Soviet past.

snip

The railway will begin in Tallinn before passing through Pärnu, Rīga, Panevėžys, and Kaunas before reaching the Lithuanian-Polish border; there will also be a connection to Vilnius from Kaunas.

https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/09/16/the-high-speed-railway-thats-uncoupling-the-baltic-states-from-russia-and-their-soviet-pas


1. EU lifts bans on Ukrainian grain but Poland and Hungary move to impose unilateral restrictions

The European Commission has lifted the temporary bans on Ukrainian grain after Kyiv agreed to tighten control over its agricultural exports.

But the measure failed to satisfy Poland and Hungary, which swiftly announced they would impose their own nationwide prohibitions on a unilateral basis, the very chaotic scenario that Brussels wanted to avoid at all costs.

"We will extend this ban despite their disagreement, despite the European Commission's disagreement," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a rally on Friday. "We will do it because it is in the interest of the Polish farmer."

Shortly after, Waldemar Buda, Poland's minister of economic development, said he had signed a new "national regulation" to keep the trade embargo in place.

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/09/15/brussels-lifts-bans-on-ukrainian-grain-as-kyiv-agrees-to-impose-effective-measures-to-avoi

5. Demonstrators In Skopje Demand Justice Over Alleged Cancer-Drug Thefts

Allegations that cancer drugs were stolen from an oncology clinic in Skopje and sold on the black market have prompted an angry demonstration in the North Macedonia capital in which protestors demanded justice for affected patients.

Demonstrators threw eggs and left traces of "bloody" palms and wrote "murderers" on government buildings on September 4 after the Prosecutor-General's Office announced that an investigation was being opened into allegations made in recent media reports.

"For a person who is fighting for his life, every day is important, and in the end some directors and ministers will be found to have destroyed his life," one demonstrator who recently lost his mother to breast cancer told RFE/RL. "We had a lot of such cases in health care, and no one was responding."

The Prosecutor-General's Office on September 2 announced its investigation after media reports that said some drugs on which cancer patients depend are difficult to find and that employees of one Skopje clinic were caught reselling the drugs on the black market.

https://www.rferl.org/a/macedonia-cancer-drug-scandal-protest-skopje/32578908.html

4. Former British soldier fighting in Ukraine found dead with hands tied

A former British army soldier was found dead in a body of water in Ukraine with his hands tied behind his back after he went to the country to fight alongside Ukrainian forces, it has emerged.

Jordan Chadwick, who served in the Scots Guards from 2011 to 2015, travelled to Ukraine to fight in October last year. Eight months later, on 26 June, Lancashire police told his mother, Brenda, that her son, known as Joe, had been killed. British government officials later confirmed his death.

The Ukrainian international army repatriated the 31-year-old on 7 August. An inquest will be held in February to determine the cause of his death.

Brenda Chadwick told the BBC: “His passion to support freedom and assist others with his skills led him to leave the UK and travel to the Ukraine in early October 2022.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/09/former-british-army-soldier-fighting-ukraine-found-dead-jordan-chadwick


3. Romania To Upgrade Black Sea Port Infrastructure To Bring In More Ukrainian Grain

Romania's government will approve on September 8 a plan to upgrade road infrastructure in the Black Sea port of Constanta, part of wider investments in the port that could help more Ukrainian grain to transit. Constanta is Ukraine's largest alternative export route, with grain arriving by road, rail, or barge on the Danube. Ukraine is one of the world's biggest grain exporters, and Romanian government officials have said they aimed to double the monthly transit capacity of Ukrainian grain to Constanta to 4 million tons in the coming months.

https://www.rferl.org/a/romania-ukraine-grain-constanta/32583872.html


2. 'Pipigate': The Belgium Justice Minister splashed by a scandal after his birthday party

The Belgian Minister of Justice will surely remember his 50th birthday. Three of his guests are accused of urinating on a police car parked outside his home on the night of 14 to 15 August.

Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne appeared before Parliament on Thursday following the opening of an investigation on 23 August. He told the Belgian parliament that he had not seen three guests at his birthday party urinate on a police van outside his home and apologised for the scandalous incident.

"I would like to apologise to every police officer in the country [...] I completely understand why they are outraged. It's absolutely unacceptable," he said at an extraordinary three-hour hearing before MPs on the Justice Committee.

Van Quickenborne says he called the three suspects "and insulted them". He claimed that he had helped the investigation by asking the three suspects to appear before the public prosecutor, who was able to have them questioned.

https://www.euronews.com/2023/09/09/pipigate-the-belgium-justice-minister-splashed-by-a-scandal-after-his-birthday-party


1. As The EU Pushes Georgia To End Political Polarization, The Government Impeaches The President

When the European Union cracked open its door to Georgia last year, it made its invitation to formal candidate status conditional on the country reducing the polarization that has long vexed its domestic politics.

But before Brussels makes its critical decision on Georgia's candidacy in October, the country is embroiled in yet another bitter internal power struggle.

President Salome Zurabishvili is on a tour of Europe that so far has taken her to Berlin, Brussels, and Paris to promote Georgia's EU candidacy. But the Georgian Constitution requires the president -- whose position is largely symbolic -- to get permission from the government before conducting any foreign policy activities. According to the government, Zurabishvili asked for permission for the trip but was refused.

On the same day that she was warmly greeted in Brussels by European Council President Charles Michel, who praised her "personal commitment to advancing the European perspective of Georgia," back at home she was in trouble. The ruling Georgian Dream party announced on September 1 that it intended to launch impeachment proceedings against Zurabishvili.

https://www.rferl.org/a/eu-pushes-georgia-end-polarization-government-impeaches-president/32582744.html

5. Christie's cancels sale of Nazi heiress' jewels

The enormous collection of jewellery belonged to Heidi Horten, the wife of a Nazi who made his fortune after buying Jewish businesses under duress in the Second World War.

Christie’s have cancelled the sale of a large amount of jewels from the estate of Heidi Horten, bowing to months of international pressure.

The late Austrian billionaire’s wealth was famously rooted in Nazi profiteering by her late husband.

The auction house announced that the jewellery would no longer be available to potential buyers following outcry from clients and staff as well as from Jewish organisations.

https://www.euronews.com/2023/09/01/christies-cancels-sale-of-nazi-heiress-jewels


4. Finnish government renounces racism after a summer rocked by racist scandals

The Finnish government unveiled a new plan Thursday to try and shake off the stigma of racism that has marred the first months of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's right-wing coalition government.

The plan is aimed at combating racism and anti-Semitism, including a new law to criminalise Holocaust denial and plans to possibly ban Nazi and Communist symbols – although that could prove legally difficult.

"Every minister in the government renounces racism and is committed to actively combating it", Orpo told a press conference in Helsinki, where leaders pledged up to €1.5 million to bring in the 23 measures outlined in the plan.


https://www.euronews.com/2023/08/31/finnish-government-renounces-racism-after-a-summer-rocked-by-racist-scandals


3. ‘Incomprehensible’ killing of popular brown bear in central Italy sparks outrage

Italian politicians and wildlife experts have condemned the fatal shooting of an endangered brown bear, as a search was under way for her two cubs.

Amarena was one of the most popular of the Marsican brown bears in the Abruzzo national park in central Italy, often pictured in and around the area with her offspring.

A local man was immediately identified as the shooter, according to park authorities, which condemned the “very serious incident”.

The 56-year-old reportedly told police he fired out of fear when Amarena entered his property on the outskirts of the town of San Benedetto dei Marsi, outside the park area, on Friday.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/02/incomprehensible-killing-of-popular-brown-bear-in-central-italy-sparks-outrage


2. Russian National Granted Asylum In Bulgaria After Being Rejected Earlier

Bulgaria will allow a Russian national to stay in the country, after earlier rejecting three asylum requests. Aleksandr Stotsky fled Russia immediately after the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Stotsky, a supporter of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, argued that he risked being sent to fight in Ukraine if sent back to Russia. Stotsky's asylum request was rejected by Bulgaria's authority for refugees and a Sofia court, which ruled he was in no danger if he returned to his homeland. Following protests,

https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-stotsky-asylum-bulgaria/32574306.html


1. Armenia, Azerbaijan Report Casualties Amid 'Intense Fire' On Border

Armenia and Azerbaijan reported casualties after intense shelling near their common border on September 1, northwest of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Armenian Defense Ministry said three soldiers were killed on September 1 in intense shelling near the border with Azerbaijan northwest of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The ministry initially reported two soldiers had been killed and then raised the number to four but later said one of those believed to have died was resuscitated. The soldier has a severe gunshot wound and is in critical condition. One other soldier was wounded.

The ministry said Armenian positions were hit near the settlements of Sotk and Norabak, which are about 8 kilometers from the border.

https://www.rferl.org/a/armenia-azerbaijan-intense-fire-border-deaths/32574030.html

A Mariachi Band makes everything sound better

5. Turmoil hits Estonian Prime Minister Kallas over husband's Russia ties

Opposition figures in Estonia have called on Prime Minister Kaja Kallas to resign after it was revealed her husband's company was continuing to operate in Russia.

The Center Party announced on Friday it was starting to discuss a no-confidence motion against her, while another opposition group Isamaa said the scandal has caused "considerable damage to the interests and reputation of Estonia".

Estonian public broadcaster ERR reported on Wednesday the haulage firm Stark Logistics, part-owned by Kallas's husband, Arvo Hallik, continued doing business with Russia after it invaded Ukraine.

https://www.euronews.com/2023/08/25/turmoil-hits-estonian-prime-minister-kallas-over-husbands-russia-ties


4. Supermarket in Finland welcomes dogs, with special carts for canine customers

A 'su-paw-market' in Finland is welcoming canine customers, with specially-adapted carts which allow dog owners to bring their pooches grocery shopping.

The Kesko grocery chain in the city of Tampere has introduced the "Koirakärry" - dog cart - concept as a way to welcome in more dog-owning customers at one of its stores, where usually only service animals would be permitted inside the aisles.

"The idea is already used in some countries, but not in Finland, and we have a lot of dog owners nearby," explains Matilda Tistelgren, who has been operating the supermarket with her partner Joona Pesonen since the spring.

"We have a golden retriever ourselves, and if we go out jogging with the dog and forget something from the store, we don't want to go home, leave the dog, then have to return to the store ourselves, we want to be able to take the dog with us," Matilda tells Euronews.

https://www.euronews.com/2023/08/26/supermarket-in-finland-welcomes-dogs-with-special-carts-for-canine-customers


3. Pro-Russian Bosnian Musician Plans Concerts In Romania After Moldova Ban

Bosnian musician Goran Bregovic, who has been banned from performing in Moldova because of his outspoken pro-Moscow views, is due to perform at least twice in the coming months in NATO and EU member Romania, RFE/RL has learned.

Bregovic and his band over the weekend were refused entry to Moldova, where they were scheduled to perform at a folk festival.

On August 21, Chisinau cited a ban on Bregovic imposed last year because of his pro-Russian views as the reason for not allowing his band, The Wedding and Funeral Orchestra, into Moldova.

Bregovic was to arrive in Chisinau on August 20 but canceled his trip after being told that his band had been stopped from entering Moldova.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-musician-goran-bregovic-concerts-romania-moldova-rejection/32558965.html


2. Health alarm as tide of rotting seaweed chokes UK holiday beaches

When Owen Francomb from Margate set out on a walk with his dog Gertie along Kent’s picturesque Thanet coast early this month, he didn’t imagine he’d need to be rescued from a tide of toxic sludge. But on the beach at Newgate Gap, French bulldog Gertie started sinking into a thick carpet of rotting seaweed and began to panic.

“She couldn’t move,” Francomb. says. “So I scrambled down the slipway and jumped down on to the beach, expecting the seaweed to be a foot deep, but it came up to my belt. I really struggled to wade through it.” Another dog walker had to help him and Gertie out of the stinking slime.

Over 1,000 tonnes of seaweed have been removed from beaches between Minnis Bay and Broadstairs by Thanet district council – at a cost of £65,000 – in just five weeks from the beginning of July this year, compared with a reported average of between 400-800 tonnes in an entire season.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/26/health-alarm-as-tide-of-rotting-seaweed-chokes-uk-holiday-beaches


1. Yerevan Says Airport Fired On From Azerbaijan Hours After Prime Minister's Visit

Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) has said that an airport near the southeastern border with Azerbaijan was fired upon from Azerbaijani territory hours after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian visited the facility.

The NSS said the incident took place in the early morning of August 18 at the Syunik airport in the town of Kapan. Pashinian had flown to the airport on August 17 from Yerevan.

According to the NSS, an unidentified individual fired three shots at the airport from across the border, striking windows and the roof of a building at the airport.

“We call on the authorities of Azerbaijan to conduct a proper investigation of the incident and to take measures to exclude the repetition of such incidents,” the NSS said in a statement.

https://www.rferl.org/a/armenia-azerbaijan-airport-shots-fired-pashinian/32553605.html

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Roman Catholic priest in Alabama who fled to Europe with a recent high school graduate whom he met through his work has drawn scrutiny from law enforcement and been told to stop presenting himself in public as a cleric.

Alex Crow, an expert in the theological study of demons and exorcism, is suspected of having “groomed [multiple] young girls” before going to Italy with an 18-year-old, according to an interview that local sheriff Paul Burch recently gave to Fox Nation’s Nancy Grace. The teen’s family has been trying to convince her to return home.

Burch has publicly released two letters written by Crow, 30, to support that assertion. In one of the letters to the teen, Crow described how he loved her and claimed that they were married. The Pillar, a Catholic news outlet, reported that the letter was for Valentine’s Day, when the girl was 17 and had not yet graduated from the parochial school where Crow had sat in on classes and met with students in the context of the sacrament known as confession.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/18/alabama-priest-groomed-young-girls-before-fleeing-italy-teen

5. Doctors were forced to apologise for raising alarm over Lucy Letby and baby deaths

Lucy Letby’s colleagues were ordered to apologise to her after repeatedly raising concerns that the nurse may have been behind a series of unexplained baby deaths, the Guardian has learned.

Senior doctors had warned for months that Letby was the only staff member present during the sudden collapses and deaths of a number of premature babies on the Countess of Chester hospital’s neonatal unit.

She was not removed from the ward until early July 2016, a year after a doctor first alerted a hospital executive to a potential link. By that time she had murdered seven babies and attempted to kill another six, a court found on Friday.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/19/doctors-were-forced-to-apologise-for-raising-alarm-over-lucy-letby-and-baby-deaths


4. Romania Sends Navy Divers, Helicopter After Suspected Mine Explodes At Black Sea Resort Area

Romanian officials said the NATO member nation's navy had sent a team of specialized divers and a helicopter to search for stray mines along the Black Sea coast after an explosion shook the embankment near the resort town of Costinesti. No one was injured in the blast. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, mines have been placed in the Black Sea by both sides of the war. Strong waves and winds have often brought the explosives toward the Romanian coast. Western reports say Russia planted additional mines in the region after it left a UN-brokered grain deal.

https://www.rferl.org/a/romania-mines-ukraine-russia-black-sea/32547719.html


3. Former Austrian leader Sebastian Kurz charged with giving false evidence to a corruption inquiry

Sebastian Kurz has been charged with making false statements to a parliamentary inquiry into a scandal that brought down his first government, prosecutors said. The court said Kurz will go on trial on 18 October.

Austria's former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has been charged with making false statements to a parliamentary inquiry into alleged corruption in his first government, which collapsed in a scandal in 2019, prosecutors said Friday.

An indictment against Kurz, his former chief of staff, Bernhard Bonelli, and a third person was filed at the state court in Vienna, the prosecutors' office that investigates corruption cases said in a statement. The court said Kurz will go on trial on 18 October.

The charges result from an investigation that was launched in 2021, when Kurz was still chancellor. It centres on his testimony to a parliamentary probe that focused on alleged corruption in the coalition he led from 2017, when his conservative People's Party formed a government with the far-right Freedom Party, until its collapse in 2019.

https://www.euronews.com/2023/08/18/former-austrian-leader-sebastian-kurz-charged-with-giving-false-evidence-to-a-corruption-i


2. Three Bulgarians Suspected Of Being Russian Spies Arrested In Britain

Three Bulgarian nationals suspected of spying for Russia in the U.K. have been arrested and charged as part of a major national security investigation, the BBC reported on August 15. RFE/RL contacted the Bulgarian Embassy in London for confirmation, but it said it had no information at the moment and had not been contacted by British authorities. The BBC named the suspects as Orlin Rusev, 45, Biser Djambazov, 41, and Katrin Ivanova, 31. The A spokeswoman for the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said the department is still investigating the case. The accused were arrested in February and have been in custody since then, according to the BBC.

https://www.rferl.org/a/bulgarians-suspected-russian-spies-arrested-britain/32549125.html


1. Russian women fear return of murderers freed to fight for Wagner

The 2020 murder of Vera Pekhteleva, by her ex-boyfriend, was so gruesome that even in Russia, where violence against women often goes under the radar, it caused a media outcry.

Vladislav Kanyus spent hours torturing Pekhteleva before she died; neighbours repeatedly called police to report horrifying screams coming from the neighbouring apartment, but the police did not show up. At trial, it emerged there had been 111 injuries on Pekhteleva’s body.

Last summer, a court in Siberia sentenced Kanyus to 17 years in prison for the murder. Pekhteleva’s family members were disappointed that the judge dismissed additional charges of rape and unlawful imprisonment, but breathed a sigh of relief that the murder charge alone would put Kanyus behind bars for 17 years.

snip

As part of the deal, convicts were told that if they fought for six months and survived, they would be allowed to go back to normal life without serving the rest of their sentences. Later, prisoners were also freed to fight for the regular Russian army and for other Wagner-like formations fighting with the Russians in Ukraine.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/19/russian-women-wagner-convicts-war-ukraine