Demonstrators marched through Glasgow to highlight the climate crisis.Andrew Testa for The New York Times
“Leaders are gathering in Glasgow for a climate summit, and the challenges they face are huge.
The outcome of COP26 will determine, to a large extent, how the world’s seven billion people will survive on a hotter planet and whether far worse levels of warming can be averted.
Fundamental differences divide the leaders. Many poor countries hard hit by climate disasters are holding out for the money promised, but not yet delivered, by the industrialized nations that fueled the crisis. Here’s what to expect.
‘That we are now so perilously close to the edge for a number of countries is perhaps the tragedy of our times,’ said Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados.
President Biden and other leaders are arriving in Glasgow after a G20 summit in Rome, where they agreed on a new corporate minimum tax, the world’s most aggressive attempt yet to stop companies from sheltering profits in so-called tax havens. But when it came to preventing future pandemics, health experts and activists said that rich nations were still not doing enough to help poor countries survive the current one.” Read more at New York Times
“ATLANTA — Perhaps Game 4 of the World Series was always going to come down to the bullpens, one way or another. The twist was that the game was decided, quite literally, on the periphery of the Houston Astros’ bullpen in the left field corner of Truist Park.
That bullpen, surrounded by neon pink signs, is where pinch hitter Jorge Soler’s landed in the seventh inning to give the Atlanta Braves a 3-2 lead they would never surrender.
That bullpen, separated by the field by the lowest section of wall in the outfield, is where Eddie Rosario chased down a would-be extra-base hit a half-inning later, ending one last Astros scoring chance before it started.
And that Astros bullpen is the one that fell just short in a game both teams covered almost entirely with relievers — a game that leaves Atlanta just one win from its first World Series title in a quarter-century.” Read more at Washington Post
Few runners have flown around the bases quite like Dansby Swanson did Saturday. Few players have hit game-tying World Series home runs for their hometown teams, either. (David J. Phillip/AP Photo)
“ATLANTA — Former president Donald J. Trump, returning to a region that dealt him a bitterly contested defeat during his failed reelection bid in 2020, attended Game 4 of the World Series on Saturday night at Truist Park, taking part in the Atlanta Braves' controversial tomahawk chop moments before gametime.
He was seated in an open-air suite down the right field line at Truist Park, arriving in public view about 15 minutes before first pitch, standing for the national anthem alongside his wife, Melania.
Herschel Walker, the former Heisman Trophy winner whose bid for a Georgia senate seat is backed by Trump, was also in the suite.
Trump, who lost the state of Georgia by less than 12,000 votes and later pressured its secretary of state to ‘find him’ the number of votes to put him over the top, returned to the World Series for the first time since October 2019, when he attended Game 5 at Washington's Nationals Park during his third year in office. Trump was roundly booed that evening after he was shown on the stadium's video board.”
Georgia had not voted for a Democratic candidate since 1992 before now President Joe Biden captured 49.5% of the vote to Trump's 49.2%. In suburban Cobb County, to which the Braves moved in 2018 when they opened Truist Park, Biden received 56% of the vote to Trump's 42%.
Trump informed Major League Baseball he would be attending Game 4, club CEO Terry McGuirk told USA TODAY Sports before Game 2. The club did extend invites to currently elected officials from both major political parties.” Read more at USA Today
There were long lines for early voting in Virginia’s general and special elections.Kenny Holston for The New York Times
“Local and statewide elections are being held around the country on Tuesday.
These elections will determine the governors of Virginia and New Jersey and the mayors and other leaders of New York City, Atlanta, Minneapolis and other places. They will also decide the fate of ballot measures on election rules, local taxes and other issues. Here are some of the Election Day basics.
Among the races to watch:
The tight governor’s race in Virginia has become a proving ground for each party’s electoral strategy: Republicans hope to hit on a recipe for renewal, while Democrats worry that a loss could force them to defend seats in blue states next year.
In New York City’s race for mayor, Eric Adams, the Democratic front-runner, faces off against his main challenger, Curtis Sliwa, a Republican. Here are their plans for the city
In Boston, Michelle Wu and Annissa Essaibi George, both Democrats, are battling to become mayor.” Read more at New York Times
“Former president Donald Trump is trying to withhold nearly 800 pages of documents from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to a court filing made Saturday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
In the filing, a National Archives and Records Administration director outlined the specific documents Trump is seeking to block from the House select committee, which months ago ordered the former president to provide records of all his actions and activities on Jan. 6. The bipartisan panel is investigating the storming of the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob trying to stop the certification of President Biden’s electoral college win, an attack that resulted in five deaths and left some 140 members of law enforcement injured.
According to a sworn declaration from John Laster, director of the White House liaison division at NARA, Trump is trying to assert executive privilege over 46 pages of records from the files of former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former senior adviser Stephen Miller, former deputy counsel Patrick Philbin and Brian de Guzman, the former director of White House information services.
Those records include ‘daily presidential diaries, schedules, appointment information showing visitors to the White House, activity logs, call logs, and switchboard shift-change checklists showing calls’ to Trump and former vice president Mike Pence; they also include drafts of speeches about Jan. 6 and three handwritten notes about Jan. 6 from Meadows, the filing stated.
Read John Laster's sworn declaration
Trump is also trying to exert executive privilege over 656 pages of records from a second batch of files, which include ‘pages from multiple binders containing proposed talking points’ for former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, ‘presidential activity calendars and a related handwritten note’ for Jan. 6, draft text of a presidential speech for the Save America March on Jan. 6, a handwritten note from Meadows listing ‘potential or scheduled briefings and telephone calls concerning the January 6 certification and other election issues,’ and a draft executive order on the topic of election integrity, the filing stated.
From a third batch of records, Trump is seeking to block 68 pages that include a draft proclamation honoring the Capitol Police and officers Brian D. Sicknick and Howard Liebengood, who died after the insurrection; ‘an email chain originating from a state official regarding election-related issues’; a memo regarding a potential lawsuit against several states Biden won; ‘talking points on alleged election irregularities in one Michigan county; and a document ordering various actions about election security.’
The filing was in response to — and shed more light on — a lawsuit Trump filed this month against the select committee and the National Archives in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking to block the disclosure of records related to his whereabouts, communications and activities that day.
‘The Committee’s request amounts to nothing less than a vexatious, illegal fishing expedition openly endorsed by Biden and designed to unconstitutionally investigate President Trump and his administration,’ Trump’s lawsuit stated. ‘Our laws do not permit such an impulsive, egregious action against a former president and his close advisors.’
Attorneys for both the Department of Justice and the House select committee, which also filed a response this week to Trump’s lawsuit, proposed that the former president’s motion for a preliminary injunction on disclosing these materials be denied. A U.S. district judge has set a hearing on the matter for Nov. 4. The committee’s subpoena has a Nov. 12 deadline to turn over the requested records.” Read more at Washington Post
“When Republican Rep. Bill Posey of Florida ended an Oct. 21 House floor speech with a fist pump and the phrase ‘Let’s go, Brandon!’ it may have seemed cryptic and weird to many who were listening. But the phrase was already growing in right-wing circles, and now the seemingly upbeat sentiment -- actually a stand-in for swearing at Joe Biden -- is everywhere.
South Carolina Republican Jeff Duncan wore a ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ face mask at the Capitol last week. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz posed with a ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ sign at the World Series. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s press secretary retweeted a photo of the phrase on a construction sign in Virginia.
The line has become conservative code for something far more vulgar: ‘F—- Joe Biden.’ It's all the rage among Republicans wanting to prove their conservative credentials, a not-so-secret handshake that signals they’re in sync with the party’s base.
Americans are accustomed to their leaders being publicly jeered, and former President Donald Trump’s often-coarse language seemed to expand the boundaries of what counts as normal political speech.
But how did Republicans settle on the Brandon phrase as a G-rated substitute for its more vulgar three-word cousin?
It started at an Oct. 2 NASCAR race at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Brandon Brown, a 28-year-old driver, had won his first Xfinity Series and was being interviewed by an NBC Sports reporter. The crowd behind him was chanting something at first difficult to make out.
The reporter suggested they were chanting ‘Let’s go, Brandon’ to cheer the driver. But it became increasingly clear they were saying: ‘F—- Joe Biden.’” Read more at Richmond Times
“Foreign-national children who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus will not need to self-quarantine for seven days upon arrival in the United States, health officials said Saturday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an amended order clarifying its position Saturday after some international travelers raised concerns about their children needing to self-quarantine for that long under new rules that will apply once a travel ban on visitors from 33 countries is lifted on Nov. 8.
The United States is lifting travel restrictions that have meant most foreign nationals who have been in the United Kingdom, several European Union countries, Brazil or China in the previous 14 days are not permitted to enter the United States. Most non-U. S. citizens and nonimmigrants arriving by air will be required to show both proof of vaccination and proof of a negative coronavirus test taken within three days of departure.” Read more at Washington Post
“MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The quest by a civil rights pioneer to have her arrest record wiped clean after nearly 70 years after she protested racial segregation has raised the possibility of similar bids to clear the names of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., whose convictions remain on the books in Alabama’s capital.
Parks, a Black seamstress and activist who was convicted of violating racial segregation laws after refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in 1955, was convicted of violating racial segregation laws. King, who helped lead the resulting Montgomery Bus Boycott, paid a $500 fine after being convicted in 1956 of violating a law banning boycotts.” Read more at Boston Globe
“While medical experts say it’s unclear why an Oklahoma inmate began convulsing and vomiting after the first of three drugs used to execute him was administered, all agree the dosage was massive compared with what’s standard in surgeries — with one doctor calling it ‘insane.’
The state’s prisons agency is now likely to face new litigation, which may focus on the state’s description of the execution of John Marion Grant for the 1998 slaying of a prison cafeteria worker as ‘in accordance with’ protocols.
Grant, 60, convulsed and vomited after the sedative midazolam was administered. That drug was followed by two more: vecuronium bromide, a paralytic, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.” Read more at Boston Globe
“American Airlines has canceled hundreds of flights over Halloween weekend, pointing to weather disruptions in Texas and tight staffing.
The Texas-based carrier canceled more than 540 flights nationwide and delayed more than 400 on Saturday, according to flight tracker Flight Aware. More than 470 Sunday flights have also been canceled.
In a Saturday letter to staff shared with USA TODAY, American Airlines said the cancellations were caused by two days of severe winds in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.” Read more at USA Today
“From Seattle to Maine, a huge swath of states across the Northeast and as far west as the state of Washington could have a chance to see the northern lights this Halloween weekend, according to the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute.
Depending on the weather and factors like light pollution, millions of Americans as far south as Pennsylvania could see the aurora borealis, or northern lights, as early as Saturday night.
The Geophysical Institute shows northern parts of states including New York, Maine, North Dakota, Michigan and Wisconsin and all of New England could see a glimpse of the lights.
If weather allows, ‘highly active auroral displays’ will be seen from be visible overhead in Portland, Oregon and New York City, according to the Geophysical Institute.” Read more at USA Today
“Over the past five years, police officers have killed more than 400 drivers or passengers who were not wielding a gun or a knife, or who weren’t under pursuit for a violent crime — a rate of more than one a week, a Times investigation found.
Many were stopped for common traffic offenses: a broken taillight, running a red light or swerving across double yellow lines. Relative to the population, Black drivers were overrepresented among those killed.
Traffic stops — which can be driven by the demand for revenue to fund towns — are the most common interactions between police officers and the public. The police consider them among the most dangerous things they do.
Officers have been charged in 32 cases, and nearly two dozen are pending. Only five officers have been convicted of crimes for the killing of motorists. But The Times found that evidence often contradicted the officers’ accounts. A visual investigation rolled back the footage capturing 120 fatal traffic stops and found that in dozens of incidents, officers made tactical mistakes that put them in positions of danger.” Read more at New York Times
Erin Gauch of Middletown, R.I., has doubts about her 9-year-old son, David, getting vaccinated.Katherine Taylor for The New York Times
“Children ages 5 to 11 could start receiving Covid-19 vaccines as soon as Wednesday. Reluctant parents, even those who got the shot, could be an obstacle.
In announcing its authorization of a lower-dose shot made by Pfizer for the age group, the F.D.A. said that trial data showed the shot was safe and prompted strong immune responses in children. The most common side effects were fatigue, fever and headache. But some parents are reluctant to consent, questioning whether a brand-new vaccine is worth it when most coronavirus cases in youngsters are mild.
In an Opinion essay, Dr. Lee Savio Beers, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, explains why children should be vaccinated against Covid.” Read more at New York Times
Security guards stand at the entrance to the film set for “Rust,” outside of Santa Fe, N.M.Anne Lebreton/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“A reconstruction of the events leading up to the fatal shooting on the set of an Alec Baldwin film revealed a cascading series of mistakes.
During a scene for the movie, ‘Rust,’ Baldwin reached across his chest, drew a revolver from a shoulder holster and moved it toward the camera, when it went off, killing the cinematographer. The crew had been assured the gun was ‘cold,’ meaning it held no live ammunition.
Days before the fatal shooting, at least two accidental gun discharges on set had put crew members on edge. Law enforcement officials in New Mexico are now trying to determine whether negligence on the set rose to the level of a crime — and how the live round got inside the revolver.” Read more at New York Times