10 things you need to know today: November 3, 2015

1. Carson tops Trump in new national poll

Ben Carson solidified his status as the new frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, surging past Donald Trump in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, received the support of 29 percent of the GOP primary voters surveyed, followed by Trump at 23 percent, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) at 10 percent, and Jeb Bush at 8 percent. A few weeks earlier, Trump led Carson by three points, but now Carson is "the man to beat for the Republicans," pollster Fred Yang said.

NBC News The Wall Street Journal

2. TransCanada asks for suspension of Keystone XL pipeline permit application

TransCanada has asked the U.S. government to suspend the review of the permit application for the Keystone XL oil pipeline. TransCanada has waited seven years for a decision, and is facing the possibility that President Obama will reject the $8 billion project before leaving office in 2017. Environmental activists said the company was stalling to avoid getting a "no" from Obama. TransCanada said it needed time to negotiate approval from Nebraska for the pipeline's route through the state.

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The Associated Press

3. U.S. satellite reportedly detected heat flash before Russian plane crashed

An American infrared satellite detected a heat flash at the same time and in the same area over Egypt's Sinai peninsula where a Russian plane crashed Saturday, killing all 224 passengers on board, an American defense official told NBC News. U.S. intelligence analysts reportedly believe the flash could have been an explosion on the aircraft, via either a fuel tank or bomb. A local Islamic State affiliate claimed responsibility for shooting the Metrojet Airbus A321 down, but the official said the infrared satellite would have been able to track the heat trail of a surface-to-air missile.

NBC News The New York Times

4. Call of Duty maker Activision buying Candy Crush owner King for $5.9 billion

Activision Blizzard, the top video game publisher in the U.S., announced Monday that it would buy Candy Crush Saga maker King Digital for $5.9 billion. Activision Blizzard, maker of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, will pay $18 in cash per share, which amounts to a 20 percent premium on King's closing price at the end of last week. Activision has the leading game franchises for consoles and PCs, while King's users are part of the fast-growing mobile-gaming audience.

USA Today

5. Ahmad Chalabi, key Iraqi advocate of U.S. invasion, dies at 71

Ahmad Chalabi, a once-exiled Iraqi political leader who helped persuade the U.S. to invade Iraq in 2003, died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack. He was 71. Chalabi pushed the administration of former president George W. Bush to topple Saddam Hussein by promoting later discredited evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. He also was accused of spying for Iran, which he denied. Despite his checkered reputation, Chalabi served in several influential post-invasion jobs for the Iraqi government.

CNN Reuters

6. EPA links more vehicle models to VW emissions scandal

The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday accused Volkswagen of evading emissions standards in more diesel car models than previously thought. VW has admitted installing software to defeat emissions tests in up to 11 million diesel cars worldwide, including Jettas, Passats, Golfs, and Beetles. The EPA's second Clean Air Act violation notice says the so-called defeat-device software was installed in thousands of more expensive vehicles with larger diesel engines, including Porsche and Audi sport-utility vehicles and luxury cars.

USA Today

7. Vatican insiders arrested over suspected leaks

Police have arrested two Vatican insiders on charges of leaking confidential internal documents to journalists, the Vatican said Monday. Msgr. Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and Francesca Chaouqui, a laywoman, were both part of a now-dissolved commission meant to review the Vatican's financial holdings. Balda is a high-ranking official in the Vatican's economic affairs prefecture. Chaouqui, a PR specialist, was released after saying she'd cooperate with the investigation.

The Washington Post

8. Investigators confirm deep-sea wreckage is missing cargo ship

Wreckage found in 15,000 feet of water east of the Bahamas is the sunken Florida-based cargo ship El Faro, the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed Monday. The 790-foot ship went down on Oct. 1 after it lost engine power during Hurricane Joaquin. All 33 crew members, most of them Americans, were lost. Relatives of at least two crew members have filed lawsuits against the company that owned the ship, saying it was not fit to be at sea during the storm.

NBC News

9. Education Department orders locker room access for transgender student

The U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights on Monday said that a Chicago suburban high school district had to give a transgender student full access to girls' locker rooms or lose federal funding. Township High School District 211 officials had said transgender students could use their gender-identified locker room, but had to shower and change privately. The government said that amounted to discrimination. Daniel Cates, the district superintendent, called the decision "a serious overreach."

Reuters

10. Larry Lessig ends bid for Democratic presidential nomination

Government reform activist Larry Lessig announced Monday that he was ending his long-shot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Lessig, a Harvard University professor, said the party had doomed his candidacy with debate rules that prevented him from ever getting onto the same stage as his better known rivals. "The party won't let me be a candidate," Lessig said in his final campaign video. "I can't ask people to support a campaign that I know can't get before the members of the Democratic Party."

The Washington Post