U.S. and world news for Oct. 29

Harris speech: Vice President Harris is scheduled to deliver a speech on the Elipse, the park south of the White House, at 7:30 tonight. It’s described as her closing argument in the campaign. She’s expected to emphasize the contrasts between herself and Donald Trump. Harris is expected to underscore that she is bing positive and hopeful about the future of the country while Trump has been negative about the U.S. and has run a campaign based on hate, division and denigrating people. She also is expected to emphasize that the Elipse is where Trump spoke and incited the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Washington Post: Billionaire Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, has defended his decision to block the newspaper from publishing an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris for president. Bezos said that presidential endorsements by newspapers do not influence voters. Critics say Bezos is trying to appease Donald Trump by killing the Harris endorsement. It’s reported that more than 200,000 Washington Post subscribers have cancelled their subscriptions to protest what Bezos did.

ABC poll: New ABC News/Ipsos polling finds that 83% of Americans and 86% of registered voters will accept the outcome of the presidential election as legitimate, regardless of who they support. Fifteen percent of Americans and 12% of registered voters say they are not prepared to accept the outcome of the presidential election as legitimate, according to the poll. Sixty-five percent of Americans are very or somewhat confident that votes in the presidential election will be counted accurately, while 35% are not. Sixty-six percent say they believe that Donald Trump is not prepared to accept the outcome of the election as legitimate. Among Trump supporters, 63% say they believe he’ll accept the election results as legitimate.

Bannon released: Steve Bannon, who worked for Donald Trump in the White House and for a time led his 2016 presidential campaign was released from federal prison in Danbury this morning. He was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify after having been subpoenaed. Bannon served four months in prison. Bannon continued to repeat Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump but, like Trump, has provided no evidence to support the claim.

U.N aid: Israel’s Parliament has passed legislation that blocks the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees from continuing humanitarian relief efforts. One of the bills bans Israeli officials from dealing with the U.N.’s agency. The other prohibits the U.N. from using Israeli territory for originating humanitarian aid to Gaza. Western nations had tried to convince the Israelis not to go ahead with the move. The head of the U.N.’s Palestinian Refugee program said what Israel did was designed to hurt Palestinian civilians and also to discredit the U.N.

Combs: Two new lawsuits have been filed against music performer and producer Sean “Diddy” Combs. The lawsuits accuse Combs of feeding drugs to a 10-year-old boy and a 17-year-old male and then sexually assaulting them. Lawyers for Combs issued a statement denying the allegations and saying that Combs has faith in the integrity of the judicial system. Combs is in federal prison in New York City. He pleaded not guilty to federal charges of sex trafficking.