New York City is looking more and more apocalyptic every day.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to claim lives in the U.S's coronavirus epicenter, every aspect of city's resources for managing the dead have been overloaded. So to deal with the influx of dead bodies that have overtaken morgues, funeral homes, and cemeteries, the city will soon begin using a park for temporary burials, New York City Councilmember Mark Levine announced Monday.

Levine, the chair of the council's health committee, explained in a Monday tweet thread how the city's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is "now dealing with the equivalent of an ongoing 9/11." Deaths in hospitals are dramatically rising, but so are the numbers of deaths in homes; 20–25 people are usually reported dead in their homes every day in New York City, but that's risen to 200–215. Overall daily death counts have also doubled.

So to avoid "scenes like those in Italy" where bodies have been found on the streets, New York City will likely soon use a park for "temporary interment" where "trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line," Levine wrote.

New York City's death toll from coronavirus was nearing 2,500 as of Sunday morning, though Levine noted that a lack of testing means that number is surely an undercount. Kathryn Krawczyk

After the Senate voted on Monday night to confirm Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court justice, she spoke at a White House event, saying she was "truly honored and humbled" to be selected for the position.

Before Barrett spoke, Justice Clarence Thomas administered the constitutional oath to her; on Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the judicial oath during a private ceremony. Several Republican senators attended the event, held outside on the White House's South Lawn.

During her remarks, Barrett said it is "the job of a senator to pursue her policy preferences" but "it is the job of a judge to resist her policy preferences," and "the oath that I have solemnly taken tonight means at its core that I will do my job without any fear or favor, and that I will do so independently of both the political branches and of my own preferences. I love the Constitution and the democratic republic that it establishes, and I will devote myself to preserving it." Catherine Garcia

The Supreme Court on Monday night refused to reinstate a Wisconsin court's order to extend the deadline for absentee ballots in the state.

The order was put on hold by a federal appeals court. The justices split 5-3, with the conservative justices opposing the extension, which would have let election officials count mail-in ballots as long as they are received up to six days after the Nov. 3 election.

Democrats have argued that because of the coronavirus pandemic, more mail-in ballots will be sent, and there needs to be additional time to count them all. Wisconsin is seeing a surge in coronavirus cases, and hospitalizations have reached a record high.

In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the Supreme Court "has failed to adequately protect the nation's voters," adding that in April, Wisconsin allowed a six-day extension during primary voting, and about 80,000 ballots were received on the day after the primary election. Justice Neil Gorsuch said while "no one doubts that conducting a national election amid a pandemic poses serious challenges," that does not mean "individual judges may improvise with their own election rules in place of those the people's representatives have adopted." Catherine Garcia

The Senate on Monday night confirmed Amy Coney Barrett as the 115th justice to the Supreme Court, succeeding the late liberal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

It was a 52-48 vote, with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine the only Republican to join Democrats in opposing Barrett's confirmation. Barrett, 48, was President Trump's third nominee to the Supreme Court, and increases the conservative majority on the court to 6-3.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) moved at lightning speed to ensure Barrett was confirmed ahead of the Nov. 3 election, despite refusing to allow a vote in 2016 when former President Barack Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February. At that time, McConnell said the next Supreme Court justice should be selected by the next president, elected in November. Catherine Garcia

Zeta, the earliest ever 27th named storm of the Atlantic season, strengthened to a hurricane Monday afternoon, and is centered about 90 miles southeast of Mexico's Cozumel island, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Zeta has maximum sustained winds of 80 mph and is moving northwest at 10 mph. Forecasters expect the storm to make its way over the Yucatan Peninsula late Monday before moving into the Gulf of Mexico. Zeta will likely approach the Gulf Coast by Wednesday, but could weaken by that point.

The storm could bring four to eight inches of rain to Mexico, parts of Cuba, and the Cayman Islands, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said, and could make landfall in the United States anywhere from Louisiana to Florida's Panhandle. Zeta is the 11th hurricane of the 2020 season; during an average season, there are six hurricanes and 12 named storms, The Associated Press reports. Catherine Garcia

Republican Voters Against Trump released a new ad on Monday afternoon featuring several former Trump administration officials who are backing Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

The three ex-staffers — Miles Taylor, Olivia Troye, and Elizabeth Neumann — have appeared in their own ads, but this is their first video together. In it, they share their insights into President Trump, with Troye, a former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, saying if he had taken the coronavirus "seriously, he would have saved lives," and Taylor, who once served as chief of staff to former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, revealing that whether it's a cyber attack or terrorism threat, Trump "wasn't interested in these things because they didn't benefit him personally."

Neumann, a former assistant secretary of counterterrorism and threat prevention at the Department of Homeland Security, says Trump's "divisive language is indirectly tied to some of the attacks that we have seen in the last two years," with his words giving "permission to white supremacists" to get violent. The ad's narrator intones that the three Republicans "saw Trump up close" and voters should "listen to their warnings," and the video ends with Taylor cautioning that inside the White House, "it is so much worse than it looks," and Troye stating "we will no longer be America after four more years of Trump." Watch the ad below. Catherine Garcia

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows seems to have developed a strong rapport with President Trump, who has mostly bestowed effusive praise on the former congressman. But those sentiments aren't shared by many Trump administration staffers and re-election campaign officials, The Washington Post reports.

Per the Post, Meadows' critics think he's been ineffective when it comes to executing his actual job requirements and instead serves more as a political adviser to and confidant of the president. One example of that apparent ineffectiveness occurred during Trump's hospitalization after he was diagnosed with COVID-19. Four anonymous administration officials told the Post Meadows failed to communicate anything to staff about the president's condition for several days.

He also reportedly failed to provide logistical details at the time, such as if the West Wing would partially close amid the outbreak and whether people should work from home, what precautions were in place to curb the spread, and even how many other staffers had contracted the virus themselves. Read more at The Washington Post. Tim O'Donnell