Monday, October 31 top stories
It is Monday, October 31. Happy Halloween. Here are today’s top stories.
154 killed in South Korea crowd disaster
On Saturday, at least 154 people in South Korea died in a crowd crush during Halloween festivities in Seoul, the capital city.
Videos on social media showed that there were hundreds of people that tried to cram through narrow streets and alleys.
It is not known exactly what caused the crowd to become deadly. Those videos on social media showed that in one specific area where there is a narrow alley with a sloped floor, there were dozens of people that appeared to be stacked on top of one another and compressed. First responders struggled to pull out people because they were stuck by the weight of others. When crowds were able to recede, there were many victims on the streets.
At least two U.S. citizens and 26 other foreigners were among the dead. Most of the victims were young people that were teenagers or in their 20’s. It was the country’s first Halloween celebration without coronavirus restrictions.
The South Korean government said there is now a period of national mourning that will last until November 5. Officials are investigating how this could have happened. South Korea’s president said the government would cover the victims’ funeral and medical costs.
141 killed by collapsed bridge in India
On Sunday in western India, at least 141 people died when a pedestrian suspension bridge over a river collapsed. News reports said many people were celebrating the Diwali festival and the bridge was overcrowded. The bridge was built in 1880 and was recently renovated.
India’s Prime Minister Modi is from the state where the bridge collapsed called Gujarat. Modi said he feels deep pain and promised cash compensation for the families of those killed or injured.
There is an investigation into a private company that runs the bridge and sells tickets for people to walk across it.
Updates on Paul Pelosi attack
Here are updates on Paul Pelosi, who was attacked at his San Francisco home on Friday by a hammer-wielding man named David DePape. Paul is the husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
Paul was hit in the head with a hammer and underwent surgery for a skull fracture and is expected to recover.
Police said DePape broke into the Pelosi household around 2 a.m. on Friday. Nancy was not at home at the time. News reports said DePape carried zip ties and duct tape with him in addition to a hammer. When police officers arrived at the home, they saw DePape hit Paul before arresting him.
CBS News reported that according to police sources, DePape had a list of people that he wanted to target. DePape will be arraigned on Tuesday on state charges that may include attempted homicide. Today he received federal charges of assault and attempted kidnapping.
In separate but related news, a conspiracy theory spread online that DePape and Paul were lovers. Elon Musk tweeted out a link about this story, but he later deleted it after it had already spread widely. Police said there was a “violent break-in” and that Paul and DePape did not know each other before the incident, contradicting the theory.
Donald Trump Jr. tweeted out a mocking post of a “DePape Halloween costume” that showed an image of a pair of underwear and a hammer, which shows that he believed or wanted to believe the rumors about that were amplified by Musk.
We’ll know more about DePape in the coming days. So far, news reports said he had a personal blog showing he believed in many conspiracy theories, such as QAnon, pizzagate, or that the Holocaust was a hoax.
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Brazil presidential elections: Lula defeats Bolsonaro
There was a presidential election in Brazil on Sunday in which the incumbent, conservative Jair Bolsonaro, lost to a liberal challenger named Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Lula will be inaugurated on January 1.
Reuters explained that this is “the end of Brazil’s most right-wing government in decades.” Lula used to be the Brazilian president, serving from 2003 to 2010.
Lula said in a victory speech that he would unite a divided country, work to preserve the Amazon rainforest, and make global trade fairer.
President Biden congratulated Lula for winning the election.
Supreme Court hears arguments in affirmative action case
The Supreme Court heard hours of debate in a case that challenges whether colleges and universities can include race as a factor in whether to accept prospective students. The idea is called affirmative action.
Supporters say it helps universities to maintain a diverse student body that is a reflection of the American population, while opponents said it unfairly blocks prospective students from being accepted, such as a qualified white — or Asian — student being passed over because there are too many other students of the same race.
This case concerns Harvard and the University of North Carolina, but the decision will affect every program of higher education in the country.
News analysts said the Supreme Court’s conservative justices, who have a 6-3 supermajority, expressed skepticism about affirmative action. The Court usually issues its decisions in the middle of summer.
NASA shows image of Sun “smiling”
NASA shared an image of the Sun that makes it seem like the Sun is smiling. That’s because there are three dark patches of areas that are cooler than the surrounding areas and the three spots happen to look like two eyes and a grin. NASA said the spots are called “coronal holes, which appear as irregular black patches when the sun is imaged in ultraviolet light or certain types of X-ray images.”
Some thought the sun looked like a jack-o’-lantern. Maybe the Sun is just trying to say “Happy Halloween.”
That’s all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/30/asia/seoul-crowd-surge-investigation-intl/index.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-63445154
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/31/politics/paul-pelosi-attack-what-we-know
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/31/supreme-court-affirmative-action-case-harvard-unc/