Thursday, October 29 top news briefs
It is Thursday, October 29. Here are top news briefs.
In Nice, France, a man with a knife killed three people at a church building.
The suspect was arrested and is still alive. His name is Brahim Aouissaoui. Witnesses said he yelled “Allah Akbar.” French President Emmanuel Macron said Islamic terrorists attacked the country.
There have been high tensions in France after a middle school teacher was murdered (beheaded) after there was outrage about the teacher showing controversial Charlie Hebdo comics to students. The drawings were of revered prophets in the Muslim religion and was an affront to their religious beliefs. So it sparked controversy and the teacher was killed. French authorities issued a security crackdown that affected Muslim communities. Two Muslim women were stabbed at Eiffel Tower. Now, there is this attack in Nice, which was the site of a terror attack in 2016 when a man drove a large truck into crowds of people celebrating a national holiday, killing 86 people and injuring over 450 others.
President Donald Trump tweeted that “our hearts are with the people of France” and said America stands with them in fighting “Radical Islamic terrorist attacks.”
Hurricane Zeta made landfall in Louisiana on Wednesday afternoon as a Category 2 storm. At least five people died from the storm and over 2 million people are without electricity. One man died when he was electrocuted by a downed power line. One man in Georgia died when a tree fell into a mobile home. Two other people in Georgia died when a tree fell on their home directly over their beds. In Mississippi, a man died by drowning — he was filming waves at a marina when floodwaters overwhelmed him. Multiple states in the southeastern U.S. were affected.
We are only five days away from Election Day on Tuesday. CNBC said Joe Biden is leading in national polls, but said Donald Trump is neck-to-neck with Biden in key battleground states such as North Carolina or Pennsylvania. Both Trump and Biden visited Tampa, Florida today.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from Republicans in Pennsylvania to block a three-day extension for receiving absentee ballots. That means votes will still be counted three days after the deadline.
A court in Minnesota said absentee ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day for them to be counted. The state wanted to count absentee ballots as long as they were postmarked by November 3, but that’s nixed. Minnesota Republicans applauded the decision, while Democratic leaders were opposed to it.
Over 80 million people have voted early already. 52 million were via mail ballots and 28 million were via in-person votes.
The U.S. had 88,000 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, which is the highest number ever for this country. Axios said we may be going through a third spike — with the first in April, the second in August, and the third now.
That’s the top news briefs. Be sure to check out our coverage of the Mavrick Fisher trial. Stay with the light.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/29/weather/hurricane-zeta-thursday/index.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/29/biden-maintains-polling-lead-over-trump-with-five-days-left-to.html
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/10/29/us/trump-biden-election
https://electproject.github.io/Early-Vote-2020G/index.html
https://www.axios.com/court-rules-minnesota-absentee-ballots-8-pm-election-day-7b30c6bd-bd16-4df2-892f-1cd13af690f9.html