Tuesday, November 2 top stories
It is Tuesday, November 2. Here are today’s top stories.
At the COP26 climate summit, over 100 world leaders signed a pledge to end and reverse deforestation by 2030 and contribute about $19 billion to the effort.
Forests are essential to protecting the Earth from climate change because they absorb and remove carbon dioxide (CO2), a warming gas, from the air.
The U.S., Canada, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and China are among the signatories.
BBC said climate experts were happy to see the pledge but said they were concerned about whether the countries would follow through because there was a similar pledge in 2014 on deforestation but without any results.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg gave a speech outside of the conference in which she said the gathering would amount to nothing because the leaders were pretending to take our future seriously.
On Sunday at the Shanghai Disneyland, Chinese government officials ordered the entire park to be locked down after one woman who visited the park the day earlier either tested positive for Covid-19 or was in contact with someone who was infected. The park lockdown meant over 33,000 visitors were forced to stay at the park until they tested negative, and all of them tested negative. Disneyland was closed on Monday and Tuesday. “Deadline” said the lockdown shows how strict the Chinese government is over the coronavirus.
On Monday, about 2,300 members of the New York City Fire Department called in sick and did not show up to work. City leaders suspect that it is because they are avoiding or protesting a deadline for city employees to receive at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by Friday of last week. Only 75% of NYC’s firefighters are vaccinated.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said about 9,000 municipal workers were put on unpaid leave due to failing to get the vaccine by the deadline. However, over 90% of the 370,000 city workers were vaccinated. There are thousands of employees who have requested religious exemptions for the vaccine.
On Monday night at a school basketball game in Mississippi, a woman who reached into her purse to take out her phone because it was ringing accidentally pulled the trigger of her gun, discharging it. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. The game was suspended, all spectators left the building, and police escorted the woman to an office. The woman had an enhanced concealed carry permit, which allows her to carry the gun at the basketball game, but she was charged with discharging the weapon within city limits. She had a $500 bond and will have to appear in court.
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On Monday the Supreme Court listened to arguments about the controversial Texas abortion law that prohibits abortions after six weeks by allowing private citizens to sue those who violated the six-week ban.
At issue was whether abortion providers could proceed with their lawsuits against the state of Texas, which could ultimately suspend the Texas abortion ban.
CNN reported that the arguments lasted three hours and that now the nine justices will continue to deliberate in private. CNN said two conservative justices, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, expressed doubts or concerns on whether Texas has enough authority to overrule federal precedent established by Roe v. Wade in 1973, which allows abortions up to about 22 weeks of pregnancy.
Today several gunmen and a suicide bomber attacked a military hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan and killed at least 25 people and wounded many others. The attack lasted for several hours. The hospital was in one of Kabul’s nicer neighborhoods. The hospital served wounded Taliban fighters and soldiers who fought for the former government.
A spokesperson for the Taliban said the attackers were members of ISIS. A gate to the hospital was bombed by a suicide bomber. Gunmen then went into the hospital and opened fire on wounded Taliban fighters as they were laying on their beds. Some doctors and nurses locked themselves in rooms.
The New York Times said attacks from ISIS have killed at least 90 people and wounded hundreds of people over the past several weeks and that the Taliban government doesn’t have much experience with defending civilians from these types of attacks.
A luxury high-rise building in Lagos, Nigeria that was under construction suddenly collapsed on Monday. The building was 21 stories high and the entire structure pancaked. At least six people were killed and many are missing and feared dead. News videos showed people carrying away the injured and struggling to reach those who are still trapped inside. Reporters said they could hear people calling for help from within the rubble.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/01/politics/supreme-court-texas-abortion-kagan-analysis/index.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59088498
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-vaccine-mandate-firefighters-fdny-call-sick-new-york/
https://deadline.com/2021/11/shanghai-disneyland-visitors-locked-in-covid-1234866167/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/02/world/asia/afghanistan-kabul-hospital-attack.html
https://www.wapt.com/article/whats-the-deal-with-the-second-amendment/38135405
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/02/africa/lagos-nigeria-building-collapse-rescue-intl/index.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lagos-building-collapse-nigeria-deaths-people-missing-2021-11-02/