The Ku Klux Klan was in the news an improbable amount in the past week. On Saturday, days after former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke encouraged supporters to vote for Donald Trump, a vicious brawl erupted at a Klan anti-immigration rally in Anaheim, California. On Sunday, Trump declined on CNN to repudiate the support of Duke and the Klan, saying, "I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists." (He had disavowed Duke on Friday, and in 2000.) The Duke/KKK part of Trump's interview with Jake Tapper starts at the six-minute mark:

By the time Trump clarified his anti–David Duke stance on Twitter later Sunday, almost all of his presidential rivals — from both parties — had criticized his refusal to disavow the KKK. Trump's CNN interview also revived interest in a 1927 report in The New York Times unearthed by Boing Boing in September, when most people still expected Trump's poll numbers to crash. The newspaper story was about a KKK rally in Queens to support "native-born Protestant Americans" being "assaulted by Roman Catholic police of New York City," and one of the seven people arrested in the "near-riot" that ensued was Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump's father.

When The New York Times asked Trump about the 1927 article in September, and if he'd ever heard about his father's arrest, "Trump's barrage of answers — his sudden denial of a fact he had moments before confirmed; his repeatedly noting that no charges were filed against his father in connection with the incident he had just repeatedly denied; and his denigration of the news organization that brought the incident to light as a 'little website' — shows his pasta-against-the-wall approach to beating down inconvenient story lines," said Jason Horowitz. You can read Horowitz's interview with Trump at The New York Times. Peter Weber

North Korea is perhaps the most isolated nation on Earth, with few people allowed to leave and everything controlled by a dynastic ruling family apparently more focused on building nuclear weapons that assuring food security for the nation's population. BBC News spoke with four people who escaped North Korea to find out what life there was like, what they miss (friends and food, mostly), and what parts of the world they were able to view before breaking free.

"From a very early age we were brainwashed to believe Americans are Yankee wolves," one woman said. "I used to think all Americans were dangerous, yellow-eyed, and devilish." "I would imagine American and South Korean men would have this thick chest hair wrapping all around them," another women said, laughing. Less funny was the belief instilled in citizens that they would die and the country would collapse when the godlike leaders died, or the weekly "Regular Critique," where you were forced to reflect on your wrongs and report those of people you knew. You can watch and learn more below. Peter Weber

The owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Shad Khan, is pretty sure he's figured out why President Trump can't stop talking about the NFL, and it has to do with a deal he wasn't able to close.

Khan argues that Trump, who on Wednesday said the NFL shows "total disrespect" for the country by not forcing players to stand during the national anthem, hasn't gotten over the fact that he tried and failed to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014. "This is a very personal issue with him," Khan told USA Today on Wednesday. "He's been elected president, where maybe a great goal he had in life to own an NFL team is not very likely. So to make it tougher, or to hurt the league, it's very calculated." Khan, who purchased the Jaguars in 2011 for $760 million, said Trump's vitriol is "about money or messing with — trying to soil a league or a brand that he's jealous of."

Trump has been very vocal about players kneeling during the anthem as a peaceful way to protest police brutality, claiming it disrespects veterans and the military, while at the same time being accused of inadvertently insulting the family of a Green Beret who died in Niger earlier this month. "It's so bad," Khan said of Trump's alleged words. "It's below the lowest of the lowest expectations. It doesn't sound rational. It's bizarre." Khan, who has made his fortune manufacturing auto parts, donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund, and he told USA Today he was interested in Trump's proposed economic policies. He said he doesn't regret giving him the money, but "this ugly, toxic side sours the whole experience." Catherine Garcia

When President Trump said repeatedly last month that a Republican senator was in the hospital, Sen. Thad Cochran's (R-Miss.) office had to repeatedly point out that he was at home recuperating from a urological issue, not in the hospital. In good news for Republicans, Cochran is back in Washington to vote for a budget resolution that will pave the way for a GOP-only tax reform bill. The bad news, as Politico recounts, is that Cochran, who turns 80 in December, "appeared frail and at times disoriented during a brief hallway interview on Wednesday."

Cochran told reporters that he did not plan to retire from the Senate, where he has served since 1979, but "when queried about whether he would stay on as Appropriations chairman, Cochran seemed confused and just repeated the question," Politico said. When another reporter asked if GOP leaders had pressured him to return to Washington for the vote, he smiled and said, "It's a beautiful day outside." After being guided through a security checkpoint, Cochran started to walk into the wrong room, until a staffer led him up to the Senate chamber on the second floor. And inside the chamber, he voted yes for an amendment, despite his staff telling him to vote no, eventually changing his vote.

Cochran is one of the longest-serving Republican lawmakers ever, but he isn't all that old by Senate standards — Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) served until he was 100, for example. And he doesn't face re-election until 2020, Politico notes, though "Republicans are desperate for him to stay in office and avoid a special election," presumably elevating a less-establishment-oriented Republican to his seat. Peter Weber

While volunteering at a children's hospital, Blake Rockwell and the kids would talk about sports and watch games together, an experience that inspired Rockwell to start Special Spectators, a nonprofit that gets seriously ill children out of the hospital and onto the field.

Rockwell launched the nonprofit in 2002, and since then, more than 10,000 kids and their families have received VIP treatment at college athletic games. Special Spectators works with children's hospitals and universities to set up the visits, with each one unique, but the kids typically meet the coaches and players, get to try on gear, attend a tailgate, sit in the best seats in the house, and go on the field, where they are greeted with cheers. "A lot of these kids, they're in it for the long haul," Rockwell told CNN. "Their treatment protocol might be three years. And their tanks start to run low. Days like this restore the spirit in these kids to continue to fight."

This is a matter close to Rockwell's heart; his older brother, Chuckie, was born with a congenital heart defect, and he wasn't able to play sports, but the kids in their neighborhood made sure he was involved, making him the referee during every game. Chuckie died at 10 years old, right before Blake was born, but he said he always remembered the kindness the other kids showed his brother, and that's why he decided to start volunteering at the children's hospital that treated Chuckie. Catherine Garcia

On Tuesday, anonymous White House officials, reportedly including Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, reached out to numerous news organizations to inform them that former President Barack Obama had not called White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in 2010 after his son, Marine 1st Lt. Robert Kelly, was killed in Afghanistan. They did this because on Tuesday morning, President Trump had suggested to Fox News Radio, without being asked, that reporters "ask General Kelly, did he get a call from Obama?" Maybe nobody took him up on the offer.

Trump's decision to invoke Kelly's son was seen by some commentators as lacking in taste and decorum, since Kelly himself has made an evident effort to keep Robert Kelly's death out of the realm of political debate. On Wednesday, Sanders said she believes that "General Kelly is disgusted by the way that this has been politicized and that the focus has become on the process and not the fact that American lives were lost. I think he's disgusted and frustrated by that. If he has any anger, it's toward that."

Sanders said she's not sure if Kelly "knew of that specific comment" about his son beforehand, but that he and Trump "had certainly spoken about it, and he's aware. And they've spoken several times since then." Peter Weber

His champagne wishes were replaced with sparkling wine reality, and now, he's suing.

Daniel Macduff of Quebec booked a flight on Sunwing Airlines to Cuba, going with the airline because it advertised a complimentary champagne toast for passengers, BBC News reports. What he was served wasn't champagne from the French region it's named after, but rather sparkling wine, Macduff said, and even that was provided only on the outbound flight. Macduff's attorney, Sebastien Paquette, says this is a classic case of misleading marketing. "It's not about the pettiness of champagne versus sparkling wine," he told the BBC. "It's the consumer message behind it."

Sunwing's marketing materials clearly showed authentic champagne, Paquette said, but Sunwing, which calls the lawsuit "frivolous and without merit," argues the terms "champagne vacations" and "champagne service" were used to "denote a level of service in reference to the entire hospitality package," not to describe beverages passengers would receive. The company has made some changes, no longer referring to champagne in its marketing materials and clearly stating online to expect sparkling wine only on southern routes, but that hasn't stopped 1,600 other plaintiffs from joining the class action lawsuit, Paquette said. They are seeking compensation for the difference in price between a glass of champagne and a glass of sparkling wine, in addition to punitive damages. Catherine Garcia

President Trump has been criticized for saying nothing following the deadly ambush earlier this month that killed four U.S. soldiers in Niger, but just one day after the attack, National Security Council staffers drafted a statement for Trump expressing his condolences, Politico reports. For some reason, it was never released.

On Wednesday, Politico saw a copy of the statement, which read in part: "Melania and I are heartbroken at the news that three U.S. service members were killed in Niger on Oct. 4 while providing guidance and assistance to Nigerien security force counter-terror operations. We offer our deepest condolences to the families and friends of these brave American soldiers and patriots. They will remain in our thoughts and prayers." (After the statement was drafted, the body of a fourth soldier killed in the ambush was discovered.) An NSC staffer emailed the statement out at 10:01 a.m. on Oct. 5, and NSC and Pentagon officials read it, Politico reports, but it's unclear why the message was never released. When a Politico reporter called the NSC employee who wrote the statement to ask about it, that person hung up, and the council's spokesman declined to comment.

On Oct. 5, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the administration's "thoughts and prayers" were with the families of the fallen, but Trump remained mum until Monday, when a reporter asked him why he had been silent about the matter. Trump tried to deflect by falsely claiming that former President Barack Obama rarely if ever called the families of soldiers who had died, and the issue took on a new complexity on Tuesday, when a congresswoman accused Trump of making "insensitive" remarks to the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, telling her Johnson knew what he was signing up for. Trump, on Twitter, suggested he hadn't said that. Catherine Garcia