WHAT'S BREWING
TRUMP PLANS TO CASH IN WITH 'VICTORY PARTY' IN D.C. Trump appears to be planning his election night “victory” party not in his new home state of Florida, but in Washington ― providing him possibly his final opportunity to cash in on his presidency. While Trump votes by mail using his resort in Palm Beach as a mailing address, Mar-a-Lago has only a small number of guest rooms. In contrast, his hotel a few blocks from the White House has 263 rooms that during peak periods cost more than $1,000 to several thousand dollars per night to occupy. Those rates could put hundreds of thousands of extra dollars from supporters into Trump’s own pocket. [HuffPost]
ACB DRAGGED FOR CLAIMING SHE 'NEVER' DISCRIMINATES ON SEXUAL PREFERENCE Amy Coney Barrett claimed during her confirmation hearing that she has “never” discriminated based on “sexual preference,” prompting backlash from LGBTQ advocates who denounced her statement as offensive and inaccurate. Barrett stated during her nomination ceremony last month that she has adopted the “judicial philosophy” of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative judge who delivered the dissenting opinion in the 2015 landmark decision requiring states to grant and recognize same-sex marriages. [HuffPost]
SOLAR SET TO DETHRONE COAL The Paris-based International Energy Agency said renewables would make up 80% of new power generation by 2030, overtaking the fossil fuels that presently dominate electricity production. Installing solar photovoltaics is “consistently cheaper” than building coal or natural gas plants in most countries, and solar projects “now offer some of the lowest cost electricity ever seen,” the IEA’s researchers said in their decade-long outlook for the 2020s. The organization expects solar energy to eclipse coal as the top source of electricity in the next five years, with wind energy following close behind. [HuffPost]
GIULIANI SAYS 'PEOPLE DON'T DIE' OF COVID-19 ANYMORE Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, falsely claimed that “people don’t die of [COVID-19] anymore” while standing in a cramped room of Trump supporters in Philadelphia. The former New York mayor was attending a Columbus Day gathering of Italian Americans for Trump and speaking without wearing a mask when he uttered the ridiculous lie. “Young people don’t die at all," he said. "Middle-aged people die very little. And even elderly people have a 1% chance of dying.” [HuffPost]
FEDERAL COURT STRIKES DOWN ANTI-ABORTION MOVE IN TEXAS In a win for abortion rights groups, a federal appeals court has struck down a Texas law that had banned an abortion procedure that is commonly used after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit decided to lift the state’s ban on dilation and evacuation (D&E), a standard method of abortion in the second trimester of pregnancy. The Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit in 2017 challenging the ban on behalf of Whole Woman’s Health in partnership with Planned Parenthood. [HuffPost]
HALF OF CORALS ON GREAT BARRIER REEF HAVE DIED SINCE '90s Half of the corals on Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef have died since the 1990s, according to a troubling new study that analyzed just how devastating years of catastrophic mass bleaching have been for one of the planet's most biodiverse structures. The paper found dramatic losses of corals large and small, of nearly every major species, from branching colonies of pale yellow staghorn to massive protrusions that look like underwater tables. [HuffPost] | 
