“More than 5 million people around the world have died of Covid-19. This staggering threshold was surpassed early this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Last week, the World Health Organization warned that global Covid-19 cases and deaths are increasing for the first time in two months, spurred by big increases in Europe. As cases continue to multiply in some areas, the South Pacific island nation of Tonga has recorded its very first case of Covid-19. The discovery has prompted thousands of Tongans to get vaccinated and could result in a national lockdown.” Read more at CNN
“The FDA is examining whether Moderna's COVID vaccine can cause a rare side effect in teenagers known as myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle. The findings will help them decide whether to approve the vaccine for children ages 12 to 17.
Pfizer's vaccine was authorized for children ages 5-11 last week, but the White House is cautioning parents to be patient as the program gets fully up and running.” Read more at NPR
“World leaders are meeting at the COP26 summit in Glasgow for some of the most important climate talks in years. More than 120 leaders will speak today, setting the tone for two weeks of negotiations that will hopefully end with a firm global plan to take on, as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, ‘coal, cars, cash and trees.’ The latest UN climate report, released in August, painted a dire picture and predicted the world must halve emissions over the next decade to begin reversing disastrous climate effects. President Biden has already pledged to reach that goal by 2030, and part of his mission in Glasgow will be convincing other nations that the US is serious about its climate commitment. Passing that huge US spending bill, with the biggest-ever investment in combatting climate change, would have helped, but it’s still being formulated in Congress.” Read more at CNN
“ATLANTA (AP) — Just in time, Carlos Correa and the Houston Astros broke out the bats.
Because if they had waited any longer, this World Series would’ve been over.
Staggered by Adam Duvall’s grand slam in the first inning, Correa and Alex Bregman ended their slumps in a hurry. They kept swinging, too, refusing to let their season slip away and rallying past the Atlanta Braves 9-5 early Monday to cut their Series deficit to 3-2.” Read more at AP News
“House Democratic leaders are pushing for votes on both the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and the $1.75 trillion economic plan as soon as tomorrow. Many House Progressives signaled yesterday they'd likely back both bills -- a hopeful sign that weekslong gridlock between progressive and moderate Democratic factions may soon end. The economic spending bill has been drastically pared down, and many key Democratic priorities, like paid family leave, have been left on the cutting room floor. However, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says the Biden administration will continue to push for those priorities in other ways. As far as deadlines, the next important date to watch for is December 3. That’s when newly extended transportation funding -- put in place to buy time on the infrastructure bill -- runs out. That’s also when the US is expected to hit the debt ceiling.” Read more at CNN
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is taking up challenges to a Texas law that has virtually ended abortion in the nation’s second-largest state after six weeks of pregnancy.
The justices are hearing arguments Monday in two cases over whether abortion providers or the Justice Department can mount federal court challenges to the law, which has an unusual enforcement scheme its defenders argue shield it from federal court review.
In neither case is the right to an abortion directly at issue, but the motivation for lawsuits filed by abortion providers and the Justice Department is that the Texas law conflicts with landmark Supreme Court rulings that prevent a state from banning abortion early in pregnancy.
The justices will hear a separate challenge to the decisions in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in a case over Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks. Those arguments are set for Dec. 1.” Read more at AP News
“The homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse — the teenager who killed two people and injured a third last year amid the unrest that followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis. — is set to begin Monday, the culmination of a polarizing case that rallied far-right groups and came to symbolize the country’s bitterly entrenched divisions.
Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, faces two homicide charges and an attempted homicide charge along with a misdemeanor for possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18. He has pleaded not guilty on all counts. If convicted guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, Rittenhouse faces a sentence of life in prison.
The case is a political powder keg, pulling together several explosive issues that defined a year of violence, protest and extremism in the United States. Rittenhouse was among the wave of armed civilians who descended on Kenosha in August 2020, saying they wanted to patrol streets and guard businesses after peaceful demonstrations there gave way to nightly riots in response to the police-shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man.
After the shootings, the armed teen walked toward police with his arms raised, video footage shows, only to be allowed to return to his home 20 miles away in Illinois. Rittenhouse later turned himself in amid an outcry and accusations that law enforcement had effectively deputized him and other armed civilians, fueling volatility in the city and laying the groundwork for the deadly encounters.
Rittenhouse, now 18, has been lauded as a hero by many on the political right, with conservative supporters and celebrities funding the $2 million needed for his bail in November. Weeks after his release, the teen was seen posing for pictures at a Wisconsin bar with members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group with a history of violence.” Read more at Washington Post
“The judge in the trial of Derek Chauvin on Monday will release the names of the 15 jurors and alternates, months after the former Minneapolis police officer was found guilty in the murder of George Floyd. After Chauvin's conviction in April, Judge Peter Cahill initially said he would keep the names sealed for 180 days, citing the high-profile nature of the case. A media coalition including USA TODAY had asked Cahill to release the jurors’ identities, saying the media and public have a right to the information and there was no known threat to juror safety. Seven of the jurors spoke publicly for the first time Thursday night, sharing their experiences in the courtroom and how the trial impacted their lives.” Read more at USA Today
“Members of the House panel investigating the January 6 Capitol riot are reexamining a 134-year-old law that they say former President Trump and his allies exploited to try to prevent the verification of the 2020 election. The Electoral Count Act was meant to give Congress a process by which to certify Electoral College votes submitted by the states. But election experts say it needs updating to ensure that a losing party can never subvert the Electoral College results. The committee’s new interest in this law undercuts a legal argument made by Trump that the panel has no true legislative purpose for seeking his White House documents. Elections will also be top of mind across the country tomorrow, as states and communities head to the polls. Virginia’s gubernatorial race will be of particular interest, as many see it as an early referendum on Democratic and Republican influence leading into next year’s midterms.” Read more at CNN
“A U.S. military jury condemned torture by the C.I.A. after 9/11, calling it ‘a stain on the moral fiber of America.’” Read more at New York Times
“Southwest Airlines is investigating a pilot who said ‘Let’s go Brandon,’ a phrase Republicans use to taunt Biden, over the intercom.” Read more at New York Times
“White House press secretary Jen Psaki said she tested positive for COVID-19, adding she had not been in close contact with the president since Wednesday.” Read more at USA Today
“Federal regulators have done little to stop a strain of salmonella spreading through the chicken industry, ProPublica reports.” Read more at New York Times
“With massive stakes for both parties in tomorrow's Virginia governor's race, the one place to watch — both to forecast the result and understand the outcome — is Loudoun County.
Why it matters: Loudoun (the second "u" is silent), about 40 miles outside D.C., reflects national and state demographic trends. And it's ground zero for cultural battles that have given Republican Glenn Youngkin last-mile momentum against Democrat Terry McAuliffe.
Zoom out: Democratic candidates in Virginia long relied on running up the vote in cities and fast-growing suburbs to win statewide.
Loudoun County was once a sleepy Washington exurb. Then its population more than doubled in 20 years along a booming tech corridor, a diversifying area key to Democratic success in the Old Dominion.
What's happening: Loudoun captured the national spotlight over controversies in its public school system, with Fox News showing heated-school board fights over masks and instruction on race.
Republicans believe that has helped Youngkin — once the underdog and now neck and neck with McAuliffe, a former Virginia governor — chip away at the blue wall.
Even if Youngkin wins the race, he'll probably lose Loudoun. But insiders are watching how much he can reverse the big gains Dems have made in the county in the past three major elections.
In other words: All roads in this race lead to Loudoun.
It's the wealthiest county in the U.S. (median income: $142,000).
It has been Virginia's fastest growing county over the past decade, and is now the fourth largest.
That growth has been pushing the county blue, with Dems taking control of the county board of supervisors in 2019 and Biden decisively beating Trump there last year.
But many of these people are parents with children in the public schools (28% of the county's population is under 18) who are being drawn into culture wars not just around COVID precautions but around teenage gender identity, and how lessons involving race are taught.
Loudoun's population is two-thirds white, 20% Asian-American and 8% African-American.
Between the lines: Democrats say Youngkin is pouring kerosene on divisive culture war issues. The Republican has declared he'd ban teaching of critical race theory, and seized on a sexual assault case that allegedly occurred in a Loudoun high school bathroom.
It’s unclear how much that tumult will matter. But education suddenly shot up as the third, after the economy and COVID, as a top campaign issue in a Washington Post-Schar School poll.
Congressman Don Beyer, a Democrat from Alexandria, told Axios he doesn't think the race will be decided by conservatives' case on how race is taught.
‘I think the people that it's catching on with were never going to be our voters to begin with,’ Beyer said after a rally for McAuliffe in Alexandria on Friday.
But Youngkin told reporters Saturday after a rally at a farmers' market in deep-blue Alexandria, where his supporters spilled into the street and took up a lane of traffic:
‘We’re going to make some really surprising gains across the commonwealth.’
The bottom line: Loudoun = all the trends.” Read more at Axios
“Lives Lived: Jerry Remy spent seven seasons in a Boston Red Sox uniform and another 34 years as the team’s broadcast analyst. Fans elected him as the first president of the fan club Red Sox Nation. He died at 68.” Read more at New York Times
Shaking up cocktails. Timothy Smith for The New York Times
“Drink cocktails, and turn it into research. That’s what two experts on bars and alcohol did.
David Wondrich and Noah Rothbaum have created a book that they say has no clear antecedent: ‘The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails,’ a 900-page tome with more than 1,150 entries on alcoholic drinks. They started the project about a decade ago. ‘Naïvely, going into it, I thought, ‘We’ll do this two, three years,’ Rothbaum told The Times.
In the book, you will find that rum got its start in Asia; that the secret recipe for the Italian aperitivo Campari was based on Stoughton’s bitters, an English product; and that rock and rye, a sweetened whiskey drink that has recently made a comeback, began as a quack cure for tuberculosis.” Read more at New York Times
Sydney Airport today.
Photographer: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg
“CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Sydney’s international airport came alive with tears, embraces and laughter on Monday as Australia opened its border for the first time in 20 months, with some arriving travelers removing mandatory masks to see the faces of loved ones they’ve been separated from for so long.
Australia and other countries in the Asia-Pacific have had some of the world’s strictest COVID-19 pandemic lockdown measures and travel restrictions, but with vaccination rates rising and cases falling, many are now starting to cautiously reopen.
Some, like China and Japan, remain essentially sealed off to foreign visitors, but Thailand also started to substantially reopen Monday and many others have already started, or plan to follow suit.” Read more at AP News
“A knife-wielding man rampaged through a Tokyo Metro train on Sunday, setting a fire and injuring at least 17 passengers as commuters headed into the city center for Halloween festivities, Japan’s NHK public television reported. Police have made an arrest.
Police said that the assailant wore a ‘character outfit’ that could have resembled a Halloween costume or a comic book character, Kyodo News reported.
A 24-year-old man was arrested at the scene and was under investigation. He told police he wanted to kill at least two people to receive the death penalty, NHK reported.
At least one person, a man in his 70s, was stabbed and is in serious condition, according to Japanese media. It was not clear how many people were injured by the knife, the fire or the resulting chaos as passengers fled the scene. The express train on the Keio Line made an emergency stop so passengers could disembark.” Read more at Washington Post
“Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said he will never ‘willingly’ stand down and called for an overhaul of Sudan’s fragile political process following a military coup last week. Hamdok has been under house arrest since Sudan’s top general, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, dissolved the country’s ruling council instead of turning over control of the body to a civilian leader as planned. Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated across Sudan over the weekend in protest of the military takeover. The activist group that organized the protests is demanding the restoration of the country's transitional civilian government. Military and civilian groups have maintained a shaky power-sharing alliance in the country since the 2019 Sudan uprising that led to the toppling of President Omar al-Bashir's three decade rule.” Read more at CNN
“Japan’s election. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party kept its majority in Japan’s House of Representatives by a 28-seat margin in Sunday’s election, despite suffering some high profile constituency-level losses. The LDP’s 15-seat loss beats pollster expectations, which had pointed to a possible loss of the LDP’s outright majority. In a sign of shifting allegiances among the Japanese electorate, the conservative Japan Innovation Party appears to have leapfrogged Komeito to become the third-largest party in the lower house.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“U.S.-China tensions. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi held an hourlong meeting in Rome on Sunday, in what a State Department official described as an “exceptionally candid” exchange. The two had not met in-person since an acrimonious summit in Alaska in March. This time Taiwan was the point of division, with Blinken warning China to maintain the status quo, while Wang accused the United States of undue interference.
‘We require the United States to pursue a real one China policy, not a fake one China policy,’ Wang said after the meeting, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“France and Britain’s fish fight. A meeting between French President Emmanuel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the sidelines of the G-20 summit has failed to heal a rift between the two countries triggered by a post-Brexit fishing rights dispute. The outcome of the Sunday meeting was itself discordant, as British officials contradicted French claims that the two had agreed to deescalate tensions. The lack of resolution means that a French threat to impose sanctions on Nov. 2 is still in effect.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“TikTok owner ByteDance ordered its employees to end their day by 7 p.m., one of the first tech companies in China to officially mandate shorter working hours.” Read more at Bloomberg
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