10 things you need to know today: October 31, 2016

Wrigley Field celebrates the Cubs&#039; win

(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Jump to category:

1. Hillary Clinton's lead narrows in poll after latest FBI email news
2. Cubs beat Indians in Game 5 to stay alive in World Series
3. FBI gets warrant to review emails linked to Clinton aide
4. Racially sensitive trials get underway in Charleston
5. Clinton takes apparent early-voting lead
6. U.S. tells consulate workers' families to leave Istanbul
7. Iceland's prime minister to resign after Pirate Party surge
8. Reid says Comey broke law; Trump says Clinton did
9. Oklahoma murder suspect dies in shootout after week-long manhunt
10. Landmarks from Middle Ages crumble in latest Italy earthquake

published 31 October 2016

1. Hillary Clinton's lead narrows in poll after latest FBI email news

An ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll released Sunday suggested the presidential race had tightened slightly after FBI Director James Comey told Congress about new emails possibly related to Hillary Clinton's private email server. The poll, conducted partly before and partly after Comey's Friday revelation, showed Clinton's lead over Republican nominee Donald Trump narrowing to just 1 percentage point nationally, down from 2 points just before Comey's letter and 12 points a week earlier. Trump has gained as more Republicans rally behind him. Other polls have shown the race tightening in key battleground states, although a new CBS tracking poll of likely voters in 13 swing states found that 71 percent said Comey's letter either wouldn't change their minds, or they had already voted.

The Chicago Cubs kept their World Series hopes alive with a 3-2 win over the Cleveland Indians in a tense, must-win Game 5 at Wrigley Field on Sunday night. The Indians now lead the best-of-seven series 3-2. The Indians have another chance to win the championship on Tuesday when they return to Cleveland from Chicago for Game 6. On Sunday, the Cubs' quest for their first World Series championship in 108 years got a boost from strong performances by ace pitcher Jon Lester and reliever Aroldis Chapman, and a Kris Bryant home run that sparked a three-run fourth inning.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

The FBI has obtained a search warrant to allow agents to review emails found on a computer used by former Congressman Anthony Weiner that could be relevant to the investigation into the private email server Hillary Clinton, now the Democratic presidential nominee, used when she was secretary of state, law enforcement officials said Sunday. Going over the emails could take weeks. Nearly 650,000 emails were collected in the sexting investigation of Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton's top aide Huma Abedin. Agents investigating Clinton's emails knew for weeks that some of the emails recovered in the Weiner case could be linked to Clinton's server, but FBI Director James Comey said that he was only informed about them last Thursday, and promptly wrote lawmakers to update them.

Jury selection begins Monday in the trial of Michael Slager, a white former North Charleston, South Carolina, police officer charged with murder after fatally shooting unarmed black motorist Walter Scott during a tense April 2015 traffic stop. A week later, the federal death penalty trial is to start for self-proclaimed white supremacist Dylann Roof, who is accused of gunning down nine black parishioners and the pastor of Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 2015. "The community is, for lack of better words, on eggshells," said Justin Bamberg, a state lawmaker and lawyer representing Scott's family.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton leads her Republican rival, Donald Trump, by 15 percentage points among early voters surveyed in the last two weeks, according to Reuters/Ipsos State of the Nation polling data released on Sunday. About 19 million voters — 20 percent of the electorate — have already voted. Survey data was not available for all states, but Clinton had the edge in such swing states as Ohio and Arizona, as well as traditional Republican strongholds such as Georgia and Texas with just 11 days to go before the Nov. 8 election. Democrats also hold an edge in turnout in North Carolina, which is widely viewed as one of the key battlegrounds this year for the White House and control of the Senate.

The Obama administration ordered family members of U.S. Consulate workers in Istanbul, Turkey, to leave the country due to security concerns, although the Consulate will remain open. The State Department updated its travel advisory on Turkey following the decision, urging citizens not to travel to Turkey because of "increased threats from terrorist groups." The revised warning came after another advisory last week urged Americans to avoid travel to the southeast part of the country. Turkey on Sunday continued a post-coup-attempt crackdown on opponents, dismissing more than 10,000 civil servants and closing 15 mostly pro-Kurdish media outlets.

Iceland's prime minister, Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, announced Sunday that he would resign after his center-right Progressive Party lost more than half its seats in Iceland's ancient parliament, the 63-seat Althing. Meanwhile, the 4-year-old Pirate Party — described as "a collection of anarchists, hackers, libertarians, and Web geeks" — more than tripled its parliamentary presence from three seats to 10. But the new prime minister will likely come from the conservative Independence Party, which now holds the largest block in the Althing at 21 seats. Johannsson had only been in office since the Panama Papers scandal forced out his predecessor in April.

Republicans and Democrats intensified their rhetoric surrounding FBI Director James Comey's revelation that agents were investigating newly discovered emails that could be related to Hillary Clinton's private email server. Donald Trump, Clinton's Republican rival in the Nov. 8 presidential election, on Sunday accused Clinton of "willful and deliberate criminal conduct." Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said it was Comey who might have broken the law, by disclosing the murky issue just 11 days before the election, a potential violation of the Hatch Act's prohibition against partisan politicking by government employees. "Your actions in recent months have demonstrated a disturbing double standard for the treatment of sensitive information, with what appears to be a clear intent to aid one political party over another," Reid wrote in a letter to Comey.

Oklahoma state troopers shot and killed murder suspect Michael Dale Vance Jr. on Sunday, ending a week-long manhunt. "It was pretty dramatic," Oklahoma Highway Patrol Chief Ricky Adams said. The shootout occurred after troopers set up roadblocks on a country road after Vance allegedly shot Dewey County Sheriff Clay Sander, who was being treated in a hospital for non-life-threatening gunshot wounds to the arm and shoulder. Vance, 38, had been on the run since allegedly shooting and injuring two police officers, then driving to a home and killing two relatives, Ronald Wilkson and Valerie Kay Wilkson.

The powerful earthquake that hit Central Italy on Sunday injured at least 20 people and devastated numerous historic churches and other landmark buildings dating as far back as the Middle Ages. In Preci, cemetery walls fell and crushed the Abbey of St. Euticius, founded in the 5th century. The old town of Arquata del Tronto, including its 13th century church, was mostly destroyed. No deaths were immediately reported, but authorities said Monday that 15,000 people had been displaced and the number was expected to rise. The 6.6 magnitude quake, the strongest to hit the country in 36 years, struck the same region shaken by back-to-back temblors last week, and many of the hardest hit towns had been evacuated following the earlier quakes. The region was still recovering from an August quake that killed more than 300 people.

Explore More

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.