Here are the headlines you Need2Know for Tuesday, October 27, 2020:
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BARRETT CONFIRMED
The Senate voted to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, 52-48, with one Republican (Sen. Susan Collins) and all Democratic senators voting against. The president held a nighttime swearing-in ceremony for Barrett, a month to the day since the last function in her honor that became a likely superspreader event. She can start work today. Barrett’s addition makes the Court the most conservative it has been in decades and represents the culmination of a decades-long push by the GOP to remake the judiciary in its image. WASH POST
COVID-19: LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
New restrictions are going into place in cities and states across the country dealing with uncontrolled spread of the coronavirus. Idaho is moving back to Stage 3 restrictions on gatherings; Newark, N.J. is putting a curfew on non-essential businesses; El Paso, Texas is going to a two-week curfew as its hospitals overflow. The scene in Europe isn’t much better: France has had close to a quarter million new cases in the last week; the UK has recorded more than 150,000; Belgium’s hospital system is on the brink of collapsing and doctors are being asked to work even if they’ve tested positive. NY TIMES
7 DAYS
President Trump is keeping a bruising schedule of events into the final week of the campaign, hosting huge outdoor rallies in places that are seeing cases surge. The president has been raging against the media’s focus on the pandemic that’s killed more than 225,000 Americans, calling it a “Fake News Media Conspiracy” and saying the winter is going to be “great.” Joe Biden has been keeping a somewhat lighter schedule of events, focusing on states that Trump won in 2016. He will be in Georgia today and Iowa later this week. In a blow to Democrats, the Supreme Court has ruled that mail-in ballots in Wisconsin can only be counted if they arrive by Election Day. JOURNAL SENTINEL
CLIMATE
TROPICS: Hurricane Zeta made landfall in Mexico just north of Tulum as a Cat 1 storm with 80 mph winds. Zeta may weaken a bit but is expected to reorganize over the Gulf today and tomorrow, with a landfall expected somewhere between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala. on Wednesday night. TRACK
FIRES: The Silverado Fire exploded in size in Orange County, Calif., forcing the evacuations of nearly 100,000 residents near the city of Irvine and injuring two firefighters. The local utility, Southern California Edison, says its equipment may have sparked the blaze. AP
MARKETS TANK
U.S. stocks fell sharply, with the Dow notching its worst day since early September, closing down 650 points on the combination of new coronavirus cases and lack of progress on a new stimulus bill. The S&P and Nasdaq fell, too. The worst-performing stocks were travel, hospitality and leisure companies like Royal Caribbean and Marriott, signaling that investors don’t see that sector recovering until the pandemic is over or without massive federal help. CHEDDAR
NEW AIRPODS
Apple is reportedly at work on the next iterations of its popular AirPod wireless earbuds. The next-gen AirPod Pro could lose its trademark “stem,” and the next-gen entry-level AirPods could look more like the current Pro model. Apple is said to be eyeing the first half of next year for the AirPods, which have become a surprising source of growth for the company. BLOOMBERG
NFL INJURIES
BROWNS: Odell Beckham Jr., the star wide receiver for the 5-2 Cleveland Browns, is done for the season. The Browns announced that OBJ tore his ACL in last Sunday’s game against the Bengals. ESPN
COWBOYS: In what is perhaps the perfect metaphor for the Dallas Cowboys' season, Mike Nolan, the team's defensive coordinator, had to abruptly leave his weekly conference call with reporters after he accidentally got hot sauce in his eye. The Cowboys are 2-5 and have given up a league-worst 243 points in seven games: WATCH
'HOCUS POCUS' REUNION
The stars of the Halloween cult classic Hocus Pocus reunited in an Instagram video to encourage young people to vote. The reunion came after Bette Midler let it slip in an interview that she, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy -- the original Sanderson Sisters -- would be appearing together in the Hocus Pocus sequel in the works at Disney. PEOPLE
SPOTTED...
… Emily Ratajkowski, revealing her pregnancy in an essay and photoshoot for Vogue. The supermodel writes about why she doesn’t like it when her husband tells people that “we’re pregnant,” and why they’re waiting to reveal the baby’s gender: READ IT
LEFTOVERS: BRIGHT SIDE OF THE MOON
NASA confirmed that there is water on the surface of the moon that’s lit by the sun, suggesting that water could be distributed across the lunar surface and not just in cold, dark places near the poles. The space agency used a modified 747 with a built-in telescope flying at 45,000 feet to snap photos that puts to rest one of the most long-standing questions about the moon. Speaking of the moon, it’ll be full on Saturday night for Halloween -- the first time that’s happened in 19 years (and it’s a blue moon, too). CNN
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