Here are the headlines you Need2Know for Friday, October 23, 2020:
FINAL DEBATE
CATCH UP: President Trump and Joe Biden sparred over the coronavirus response, accused each other of shady business dealings and offered starkly different visions of the future in the final presidential debate, which was relatively calm and civilized by the standards of this election season. If you missed it, we put together a four-minute highlight reel: WATCH
HUNTER BIDEN: A former business partner of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, said ahead of the debate that the former VP was involved in Hunter trying to set up an investment deal with a Chinese oil company. That venture never went anywhere, and the Wall Street Journal is now reporting that Joe Biden didn’t have any role in it. WSJ
COVID-19: LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
The U.S. is now seeing more than 70,000 new cases every day, and deaths are back above the grim 1,000-a-day milestone as the virus surges in the upper Midwest, rural areas, and shows signs of roaring back in the Sun Belt. Chicago will institute a 10 pm curfew for non-essential businesses as of tonight. The FDA has formally approved remdesivir for treating hospitalized patients, making it the first treatment to be given official approval by regulators. COVID TRACKING PROJECT
SCOTUS NOM ADVANCES
The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to send Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate. All Democrats on the committee boycotted the committee vote, but it didn’t much matter. The Senate could confirm Barrett as soon as Monday, eight days before the election. WASH POST
FRANCE TERROR ARRESTS
French authorities investigating the brutal decapitation of the high-school teacher Samuel Paty are said to believe that his killer was in contact with a Russian-speaking jihadist in Syria, suggesting that the attack that has horrified the country may not have been a lone-wolf event. Antiterrorism police have arrested seven people, including two schoolchildren who were allegedly paid to point out Paty to the man who beheaded him. GUARDIAN
GAP PIVOTS
Gap, a mainstay of the American shopping mall, is making major changes to its business model in the wake of the pandemic. The retailer says it will close 30 percent of its stores in the next three years as it moves away from a focus on malls and restructures around e-commerce and “off mall” locations -- at the detriment to mall owners that are seeing other anchor tenants flee or go belly up. Gap will also close many Banana Republic stores and shift that brand away from work clothes and toward activewear and knits, for obvious reasons. BLOOMBERG
PS5 STREAMING
When the new PlayStation goes on sale next month, it will be more like an all-in-one entertainment hub than a gaming console. Sony confirmed the PS5 will launch with Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Hulu, Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, Peacock, Twitch and YouTube (though, notably, not HBO Max). Sony is betting that will make the $400 PS5 an attractive splurge for families, not just hardcore gamers. THE VERGE
SUNDAY NIGHT SHUFFLE
The NFL is making some last-minute schedule changes for Week 7 to ensure there’s a game to air Sunday in primetime. The Bucs-Raiders game, originally scheduled for Sunday night, has been moved up to a 4:05 pm ET start, just in case the Raiders can’t suit up due to COVID restrictions. Seahawks-Cardinals, originally an afternoon game, will now be played Sunday at 8:20 pm ET. ESPN
BRUCE & PAUL
Two of music's biggest icons are back in action. Bruce Springsteen’s latest album, Letter to You, is out today, along with a making-of documentary that just dropped on Apple TV+. The record is getting raves, with one critic saying it comes “as close to the electricity of live music as it gets.” Meanwhile, Paul McCartney is putting the finishing touches on the third album in his 50-year-long trilogy of solo records. McCartney III will be out Dec. 11. Here’s a video of Bruce & Paul doing I Saw Her Standing There together in 2012, just because: WATCH
MCCONAUGH-MOIR
If you’ve noticed that Matthew McConaughey seems to be everywhere all of a sudden, it’s not because he has a new movie out. He does have a new memoir, though, and the book has been generating buzz for the actor’s candid reflections of his childhood, including a previously untold account of being sexually abused as a teen. McConaughey also writes about why he was estranged from his mom for years, and his unconventional career path. The memoir, titled Greenlights, is on shelves now. HUFFPO
LEFTOVERS: THE CASE FOR ROCKING
Life is stressful right now. Whether it’s the anxiety about the election, what comes after, the virus, the economy, childcare, wildfires… everyone is feeling it. How to deal? David Aloi, a writer in L.A., suggests a coping mechanism he learned as a toddler: rocking. At the end of a long day, Aloi says he draws the shades, lays in bed, and just rocks his head and body from side to side for 20 minutes. There’s science to suggest that “sleep-related rhythmic movements” -- the technical term for rocking back-and-forth -- induces relaxation and peels away stress. NYT MAG
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