| All eyes on battleground states, remnants of Zeta to wallop eastern U.S. and more things to start your Thursday. |  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Good morning, Daily Briefing readers! It's Jane here with Thursday' top stories. | | President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden are heading to the Sunshine State, with Election Day five days away. Grim statistics reveal that an American is testing positive for COVID-19 every 1.2 seconds. And, taking big bird to a whole new level? A new study sheds light on what may have been the largest flying birds ever. | | Here's today's news: | Trump and Biden head to Florida in pre-election push | | President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden are both showing up in Florida on Thursday during a busy campaign schedule, just five days away from Election Day. Trump is scheduled to speak at a rally in Tampa in the afternoon before jetting off to Fayetteville, North Carolina, for another appearance. Meanwhile, Biden will appear in Broward County before heading to Tampa to speak at a drive-in rally. He is expected in Iowa on Friday, underscoring how competitive the state has become in the closing days of the 2020 presidential race. Approximately 75 million people have already voted, according to numbers compiled by the U.S. Elections Project. | | | More election news: | | | 'There's no way to sugarcoat it': COVID-19 cases surge; one American dies every 107 seconds | | The U.S. set a record this week for new coronavirus cases over a seven-day period with more than 500,000 infections. An American is testing positive every 1.2 seconds. Daily deaths are also climbing – one of us is dying every 107 seconds, according to Johns Hopkins data. And daily hospitalizations have been rising steadily for more than a month, from 28,608 on Sept. 20 to more than 44,000 on Tuesday. "There's no way to sugarcoat it: We are facing an urgent crisis, and there is an imminent risk to you, your family members, your friends, your neighbors and the people you care about," said Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, whose state is seeing one of the nation's worst outbreaks. As winter approaches, America is facing a crucial fork in the road, said Melissa Nolan, an infectious disease expert and professor at the University of South Carolina. She repeated the familiar plea of public health experts: Masks. Social distancing. Hand washing. Risk mitigation strategies until a vaccine is developed. | | | Remnants of Zeta to wallop eastern US with rain, wind | | Hurricane Zeta made landfall Wednesday near Cocodrie, Louisiana, with winds estimated at 110 mph, before weakening to a tropical storm early Thursday over central Alabama . Louisiana has had the worst of it this year, hit by two tropical storms and now three hurricanes. New Orleans has been in the warning area for potential tropical cyclones seven times this year, with each one veering to the east or west. At least one person was reported dead from Zeta, a 55-year-old man who a Louisiana coroner said was electrocuted by a downed power line in New Orleans. Zeta is the 11th tropical storm or hurricane to hit the U.S. this year, an all-time record high for the nation. It's also the fifth tropical storm or hurricane to hit Louisiana this year, an all-time record for the state. | | | California wildfires: Progress but work remains to control blazes | | Firefighters are working to contain blazes in California on Thursday as fires threaten upscale neighborhoods. The Silverado Fire, which prompted the evacuation orders of tens of thousands in California's Orange County, has charred over 13,000 acres, or 20 square miles, and injured five firefighters — two critically — since it broke out Monday. To the east, the Blue Ridge Fire has blackened more than 22 square miles — including 56% of Chino Hills State Park at the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains, Assemblyman Philip Chen reported in his email newsletter to constituents. High winds, which grounded firefighting aircraft on Monday, were much less of a factor on Wednesday. | | | More news you need to know: | | | Fossils recovered from Antarctica may belong to the largest flying bird ever, study finds | | Fossils recovered from Antarctica in the 1980s may belong to the largest flying bird ever, a new study has found. Called pelagornithids, the now-extinct group of birds had wingspans of almost double today's largest, according to the research. "Our fossil discovery, with its estimate of a 5-to-6-meter wingspan — nearly 20 feet — shows that birds evolved to a truly gigantic size relatively quickly after the extinction of the dinosaurs and ruled over the oceans for millions of years," said Peter Kloess, the study's lead author, from the University of California, Berkeley. The fossils range in age from 62 million years old to 2.5 million years old. | | | | | | | |
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