10 things you need to know today: October 4, 2016

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1. New York's attorney general tells Trump Foundation to stop fundraising
2. Supreme Court declines to reconsider order blocking Obama's immigration plan
3. Deadly Hurricane Matthew reaches Haiti
4. State Department suspends bilateral Syria talks with Russia
5. Clinton's polling lead over Trump widens
6. Taliban fighters enter key Afghan provincial capital
7. Vice presidential candidates prepare for tonight's debate
8. Trump's comments on vets with PTSD spark Biden response
9. Turkey extends state of emergency as post-coup crackdown continues
10. British researchers win Nobel Prize for physics

published 4 October 2016

1. New York's attorney general tells Trump Foundation to stop fundraising

The office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) has told Donald Trump that his charitable foundation is violating state law, and ordered the foundation to stop soliciting donations immediately because it lacks proper state certification. James Sheehan, head of the attorney general's charities bureau, said the violation notice went out on Friday. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, started the Donald J. Trump Foundation to distribute proceeds from sales from his book, The Art of the Deal, but since 2008 it has been funded by outside donations. By failing to get certified, it avoided rigorous outside audits the state requires for large charities.

The Supreme Court on Monday denied a request from the Obama administration to reconsider a ruling that blocked President Obama's plan to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation. The Supreme Court remains shorthanded following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February, and the Republican-led Senate's refusal to consider the replacement Obama nominated, Merrick Garland. The conservative and liberal wings of the court split 4 to 4, leaving in place an appeals court ruling that blocked the immigration plan.

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Hurricane Matthew hit the western tip of Haiti's southern peninsula on Tuesday morning with top sustained winds of 145 miles per hour, making it a dangerous Category 4 hurricane. The storm, which was 35 miles south of Tiburon, Haiti, at 5 a.m., has hurricane-force winds extending up to 40 miles from its center. Matthew was expected to dump 15 to 25 inches of rain on southern Haiti, with up to 40 inches in some spots, raising the threat of potentially deadly landslides. The storm has killed at least one Haitian fisherman, as well as one person in Colombia and another in St. Vincent. Forecasters remain uncertain whether the storm will hit the U.S. as it continues north later in the week, but its latest track shifted to increase the threat to Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

The State Department announced Monday that it was suspending bilateral Syria ceasefire talks with Russia. Secretary of State John Kerry warned Moscow a week ago that the U.S. might cut off talks after Russia and Syria launched a bombing offensive on rebel-held neighborhoods in Aleppo, endangering civilians and relief deliveries. On Monday, at least seven people were killed after "bunker-buster" bombs fully destroyed the largest hospital in rebel-held areas in the city. "Everybody's patience with Russia has run out," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.

Hillary Clinton's lead over Donald Trump has continued to widen since she was widely declared the winner of the first presidential debate last Monday, according to new CNN/ORC and CBS News/New York Times polls released. In the CNN/ORC survey of likely voters, 47 percent of respondents backed Clinton, and 42 percent favored Trump, while 7 percent supported Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and 2 percent supported the Green Party's Jill Stein. The CBS News/New York Times poll showed Clinton moving to a 4-point lead over Trump, up from a pre-debate tie.

Taliban insurgents on Monday fought their way into the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, a key provincial capital. Taliban fighters have besieged the city since briefly overrunning it last year. A spokesman for the American-led NATO mission in Afghanistan confirmed that there was "sporadic fighting" in Kunduz, but said there was no evidence "to support the reports that Kunduz is under significant attack." Residents in the city said Taliban fighters were using civilian homes for cover, and Afghan forces also were clearing residents out of some homes to set up front-line defenses.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) square off Tuesday night in what might be the most important evening of their political careers — the 2016 vice presidential debate in Longwood, Virginia. Both main-party vice presidential candidates are seasoned politicians, but, more than their own records, they'll need to defend the unpopular candidates at the top of both their tickets. The forum comes a week after the first of three debates between Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump. Clinton was widely declared the winner of the first debate, and since then she has widened her lead in polls.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Monday that some military personnel develop mental health issues because they are not "strong" and "can't handle it." Vice President Joe Biden responded at a rally, saying Trump was being insensitive to the thousands of veterans who return from service with the "unseen wounds" of post-traumatic stress disorder. Biden said he doesn't think Trump was "trying to be mean," but is just "so thoroughly, completely uninformed." Trump's campaign accused the media of distorting his comments to boost Clinton. "Mr. Trump was highlighting the challenges veterans face when returning home after serving their country," said retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, one of Trump's top advisers.

Turkey announced Monday that it was extending the three-month-long state of emergency it declared after a failed military coup. Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said after a cabinet meeting that the state of emergency will remain in effect for another three months, starting Oct. 19. The government continued its post-coup crackdown on Tuesday, suspending 12,800 police officers over their suspected links to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Gulen's movement is accused of spearheading the coup attempt, which killed at least 270 people. The state of emergency allows the government to bypass parliament and rule by decree.

Three Britons — David Thouless, Duncan M. Haldane, and Michael Kosterlitz — won the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for theoretical discoveries on exotic states of matter. "They have used advanced mathematical methods to study unusual phases, or states, of matter, such as superconductors, superfluids or thin magnetic films," said the Nobel Foundation in a statement. "Thanks to their pioneering work, the hunt is now on for new and exotic phases of matter." The winners' work could help pave the way for advances in revolutionary technologies, such as quantum computers.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.