HEIST: Word leaked yesterday that French authorities arrested two men in connection the brazen daytime jewelry theft at the Louvre, one of the men just as he was about to leave the country.

  Two other men are being sought and there’s no word yet on the $102 million in royal jewelry taken just over a week ago.

  French news media announced the arrests before senior law enforcement was ready.  “I deeply regret the hasty disclosure of this information,” Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor said a statement. She said that the leaked information would hinder “the 100 or so investigators who mobilized in the search for both the stolen jewelry and for all of the criminals.”

  The thieves posing as workers with a job to do used a truck-mounted lift to reach the second floor before using power tools to break a window and climb into the jewelry room. In a caper that took less than seven minutes, they grabbed  eight precious crown jewels before speeding off on motor scooters.

  The German company that made the construction lift recognized its equipment in pictures and immediately rolled out a new advertising campaign. “When you’re in a hurry, the Böcker Agilo carries your heavy treasures,” the ad boasted under a photo of the lift parked outside the Louvre.

THE CHINA DEAL: Chinese and American trade negotiators said they have agreed to a framework of a deal on tariffs and other trade issues in advance of an expected meeting between President Trump and China’s Xi Xinping later this week

  “We are moving forward to the final details of the type of agreement that the leaders can review and decide if they want to conclude together,” Jamieson Greer, the United States trade representative, said to reporters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital.

  Greer said that the negotiations had included rare earth metals, which are mostly produced in China and are now under stringent export controls imposed by Beijing. “We talked about extending the truce, we talked about rare earths, of course, we talked about all kinds of topics,” he said.

  Greeted by traditional dancers in Kuala Lumpur, Trump did his traditional two-fisted arrhythmic Trump-da-dump dance.

  The President was met in Japan today by the emperor.

OH CANADA!: Still fuming about a Canadian television ad against tariffs,  President Trump announced over the weekend that he would punish the northern neighbors with an additional 10 percent tariff on its goods.

  Trump had already suspended trade talks with Canada in retaliation for the ad paid for by the Province of Ontario. “The sole purpose of this FRAUD was Canada’s hope that the United States Supreme Court will come to their ‘rescue’ on Tariffs that they have used for years to hurt the United States,” Trump on social media. 

  The ad that has run during both World Series games features Republican President Ronald Reagan decrying tariffs as an economic tool that hurts everyone. Trump called the ad “fake,” even though it faithfully plays what Reagan said.

  Relations between the US and Canada have drastically deteriorated since Trump’s election, his imposition of tariffs, and insults that Canada should be the 51st state.

THE REGIME:

— The Trump administration says no federal food aid will go out on November 1^st because of the government shutdown.

— Bodies with burns and missing limbs have begun washing up on the beaches of Trinidad following the US strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. While the Trump administration claims its military attacks are to interdict the drug trade out of Venezuela, which is a relatively minor producer compared to Colombia, Mexico, Bolivia and Peru, some insiders tell reporters the real goal is to drive President Nicolás Maduro out of power.

  President Trump says Maduro was not legitimately elected and that he’s a drug kingpin. Although Trump tends to like dictators, he doesn’t care for the socialist ones.

THE OBIT PAGE: Actress June Lockhart, who was America’s kind and wise mother in the long ago television series “Lassie” about a family and their dog, died at age 100 in Santa Monica.

  Lockhart replaced Cloris Leachman as Ruth Martin, a farm wife and foster mother of Jon Provost’s character Timmy and his courageous collie, Lassie, in 1958 and played the role for six years.

  In 1965 she took the role of a wife and mother in the series “Lost in Space,” this time with a robot warning her son of danger rather than a dog. “Danger Will Robinson!” became a punchline.

  Lockhart had begun her stage career on Broadway and had her first film role at 13 in the 1938 version of “A Christmas Carol.”

  She appeared in “Sergeant York” (1941), with Gary Cooper; “All This, and Heaven Too” (1940), with Bette Davis; and “Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944), with Judy Garland.

  Lockhart told NPR that astronauts told her they were inspired to go to space by “Lost in Space,” but no one ever told her “Lassie” moved them to become a farmer.

THE SPIN RACK:  In a statement of the obvious, California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he will consider a run for president after the 2026 midterm elections. He has long been considered one of the likeliest Democrats to run. — Director Francis Ford Coppola who made “The Godfather” movies says he’s broke and selling a $1 million watch to scrape up some cash. Coppola had lost it all self-financing the $100 million flop “Megalopolis.” — NY Giants rookie sensation running back Cam Skattebo is out with a season … and possibly even career-ending injur against the Philadelphia Eagles yesterday. Skattebo went down with his cleats caught in the ground and his right foot ended up 90 degrees to the left. It was so gruesome broadcasters wouldn’t show the replay.

BELOW THE FOLD: The price of Halloween candy is up 11 percent this year.

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