Workers assemble the set for the vice presidential debate at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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Vice presidential debate –> Two men who each might be a heartbeat from the presidency will debate at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, tonight at 9 p.m. ET. Compared to Hillary Clinton’s decades-long political career and Trump’s years of televised bombast, Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Tom Kaine are relatively unknown and scandal-free — and that might be best for viewers who want to hear a discussion about policy for a change. NPR’s Mara Liasson offers four questions ahead of the debate, including, “Does anyone know who they are?”
Also, see our explainers from earlier this year: “What You Need to Know About Mike Pence” and “What You Need to Know About Tim Kaine.”
Hurricane hits Haiti –> Makini Brice for Reuters: “The fiercest Caribbean storm in almost a decade ripped into Haiti’s southwestern peninsula early on Tuesday, packing 145 mph (230 kph) winds and storm surges that killed at least one person and damaged homes… Overnight, Haitians living in vulnerable coastal shacks on the Tiburon Peninsula frantically sought shelter as Hurricane Matthew closed in, bringing heavy rain and driving the ocean into seaside towns.”
US and Russia stop talking about Syria –> Michael R. Gordon and Andrew E. Kramer for The New York Times: “The United States on Monday suspended talks with Russia over the protracted conflict in Syria, accusing the Kremlin of joining with the Syrian Air Force in carrying out a brutal bombing campaign against the besieged city of Aleppo. Anticipating the end of the talks after repeated warnings from American officials, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia responded by withdrawing from a landmark arms control agreement that calls for each side to dispose of 34 tons of plutonium, a material used in nuclear weapons.”
Trump Foundation ordered to stop fundraising –> The Washington Post reported last week that Trump’s charitable foundation lacked the proper certification to solicit other people’s money in New York State. Reports indicate that it has relied solely on other people’s money, which it used, in part, to protect Trump’s business interests, since 2008. Yesterday, the New York Attorney General’s office ordered the charity to “immediately cease soliciting contributions.” A Morning Consult poll found Trump’s charity bothers voters even more than the Clinton Foundation.
Supreme Court shrugs on Wisconsin’s dark money –> Ed Pilkington for The Guardian: “The supreme court on Monday declined to consider an appeal to reopen an investigation relating to the use of corporate cash in the election campaigns of Gov. Scott Walker and fellow Republicans in Wisconsin. The decision of the nation’s highest court to reject the appeal from prosecutors in the state delivered a blow to campaigners who had hoped it would prompt a thorough review of the role of so-called ‘dark money’ – undisclosed donations passed through lobby groups – in US elections. The prosecutors’ investigation into links between Walker and third-party groups that received millions of dollars in secret corporate funding was shut down in 2015, at the order of the top court in Wisconsin.”
Foreign influence –> Benjamin Oreskes for Politico: “Of the 1,009 members of Congress who have left Capitol Hill since 1990, 114 of them — just over 11 percent — lobbied for or otherwise represented a foreign government, foreign-owned company or think tank, according to a POLITICO review of records filed with the tiny DOJ office charged with enforcing the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a 1938 law passed to deal with the threat of Nazi propagandists in the United States.”
Nobel Prize –> “British-born scientists David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz were awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for work that ‘revealed the secrets of exotic matter,’ the prize committee said… The three ‘opened the door’ to an unknown world where matter takes unusual states or phases, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said,” AP reports. “Thouless, 82, is a professor emeritus at the University of Washington. Haldane, 65, is a physics professor at Princeton University in New Jersey. Kosterlitz, 73, is a physics professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.”
“Bill! Let’s go! I gotta get home!” –> ICYMI, President Obama learned it’s really hard to make Bill Clinton leave when he’s not ready to say goodbye.
Morning Reads was compiled by John Light and edited by Michael Winship. See a story that you think should be included in Morning Reads? Tell us in the comments!
We produce this news digest every weekday. You can to receive these updates as an email newsletter each morning.
