Presidential election uncertainty - Congress largely unchanged - Poland delays abortion restrictions

Trump won Ohio (and its 18 electoral votes), according to projections from Fox News and NBC News, in what many saw as a must-win for the president. Biden had hoped to do better than Clinton four years ago, who lost the Buckeye State by about 8 percentage points. “We’re still in the game in Georgia, although that’s not what we expected,” Biden said. Millions of mail ballots were still being counted in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.
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Florida has see-sawed between Republicans and Democrats while supporting whoever won the White House for the last 24 years. Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, focused on older voters, veterans and Hispanics. But polling suggested Biden wasn’t receiving as much support from Hispanics, a crucial voting bloc, as Democrat Hillary Clinton had in 2016. Trump, who changed his residency to Florida from New York during the presidency, campaigned on reducing taxes and supporting the military.
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The number of people voting has now exceeded 2016’s total in more than 2,000 of the nation’s counties in 48 states, which ran the gamut from rural to suburban and urban. The most dramatic increases came both in places that voted heavily for Trump in 2016 and those with the country’s whitest populations.

Democrats gained a seat when ex-Gov. John Hickenlooper ousted GOP Sen. Cory Gardner in Colorado, a must-win to flip the Senate, but couldn’t hold on in Alabama, where former college football coach Tommy Tuberville beat Sen. Doug Jones. With several contests still too early to call, and one Georgia race heading to a January runoff, the final verdict is expected to drag on.
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At the same time, several battlegrounds broke for Republicans: South Carolina, where White House ally Lindsey Graham survived the race of his political career against Jamie Harrison; Texas, as Sen. John Cornyn turned back former Air Force helicopter pilot MJ Hegar; Kansas, with Rep. Roger Marshall prevailing over state Sen. Barbara Bollier, a former Republican who energized Democrats in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932; and Iowa, where Sen. Joni Ernst defeated Democrat Theresa Greenfield in a race seen as a toss-up.
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Securing the Senate majority will be vital for the winner of the presidency. Senators confirm administration nominees, including the Cabinet, and can propel or stall the White House agenda. With Republicans now controlling the chamber, 53-47, three or four seats will determine party control, depending on who wins the presidency because the vice president can break a tie.

On 22 October, [a high court] decided aborting foetuses with congenital defects violates the constitution - only permitting terminations in cases where there is a risk to the woman's life or in instances where a crime has taken place - such as rape or incest. For almost two weeks, hundreds of thousands of people in Poland have defied coronavirus restrictions to take part in huge rallies denouncing the move.
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The ruling was scheduled to be formally published on Monday. But with it remaining unpublished, it has no legal power. Experts on constitutional law say delaying publication of the ruling would violate a legal provision that constitutional court rulings be published "without delay".
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A government official said leaders are taking time to debate the contested decision, with the prime minister appealing for talks with protesters and opposition legislators to find a solution. President Andrzej Duda, who is aligned with the government, has proposed a new law that would allow the abortion of foetuses with life-threatening defects, but ban them for disorders such as Down's syndrome.

Trump has long relied heavily on the German-based financial giant, and he currently owes the bank about $340 million. Bank officials concerned about the president's ability to repay the loans have discussed foreclosing on his properties or even seizing his assets, according to Reuters. If Trump is no longer in office, Deutsche Bank executives believe it will be easier to demand repayment, according to Reuters.
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Executives tired of the negative publicity and legal scrutiny believe they will have more "freedom" to sever their relationship with Trump if he loses the election, which they hope will ease congressional scrutiny of the bank if Democrats win the Senate. Deutsche Bank has already faced numerous federal and local investigations into its dealings with Trump, which one senior executive described as "serious collateral damage" for its longtime relationship, according to Reuters.
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The bank's management committee overseeing reputational risks for the company in the Americas has floated an idea to sell off Trump's debt on the secondary market, as it did in the past. However, the idea has failed to gain traction, because "it is not clear who would want to buy the loans and the attendant problems that come with it," according to the report.

The heart of the storm began to move inland on Tuesday, wrenching roofs off houses and causing rivers to overflow. In Puerto Cabezas on the Atlantic coast, trees were torn down and power lines were severed, plunging much of the city into darkness. About 10,000 people were in shelters in the city and an equal number in smaller towns across the region, according to city officials.
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After pummeling Nicaragua, Eta is expected to head through Honduras, where it will weaken in the mountains before moving on to Belize. The northern indigenous regions directly in Eta’s path are some of Nicaragua’s poorest. Many people nearby live in flimsy homes that stand little chance against such a powerful storm.
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Nicaragua’s army moved red-helmeted troops specialized in search and rescue to Puerto Cabezas. Along Honduras’s northern Caribbean coast, torrential rains from Eta’s outer bands caused some rivers to overwhelm their banks Monday, forcing evacuations. The storm was forecast to spend much of the week meandering over Central America.