A federal judge has refused to block Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s order limiting worship to as few as 10 congregants in communities seeing spikes in coronavirus infections. Ruling in a lawsuit brought by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis said in an order Friday that even though the rules harm religious groups, it is not in the public interest to block them if they are helping prevent a wave of new infections. “In fact, if the court issues an injunction and the state is correct about the acuteness of the threat currently posed by hotspot neighborhoods, the result could be avoidable death on a massive scale like New Yorkers experienced in the spring,” Garaufis wrote.

Health officials in New York delivered a ban days before a scheduled wedding after receiving reports that “upwards of 10,000 individuals” were scheduled to attend the ceremony in Brooklyn, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. At his briefing Saturday, the governor explained that state officials received word of a the wedding after the NYC Sheriff’s Office issued a warning against attending an event in clear violation of gathering limits. New York Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Ducker signed a Section 16 order prohibiting the wedding scheduled for Monday in Williamsburg. The order was served Friday evening by the New York City Sheriff’s Department, officials said.

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to take up President Donald Trump’s policy, blocked by a lower court, to exclude people living in the U.S. illegally from the census count that will be used to allocate seats in the House of Representatives. Never in U.S. history have immigrants been excluded from the population count that determines how House seats, and by extension Electoral College votes, are divided among the states, a three-judge federal count said in September when it held Trump’s policy illegal. The justices put the case on a fast track, setting arguments for Nov. 30. A decision is expected by the end of the year or early in January, when Trump has to report census numbers to the House.

Iran announced Saturday that its death toll from the coronavirus has passed the milestone of 30,000, in what has been the Mideast region’s worst outbreak. Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari announced that the total death toll from the outbreak had reached at least 30,123. She said that 4,721 virus patients are in critical condition. Iran has been struggling with the coronavirus since announcing its first cases in February, with more than 526,000 confirmed cases to date. In recent weeks, Iran has seen daily death tolls spike to their highest-ever levels, sparking increasing concern even as government officials continue to resist a total lockdown for fear of cratering the economy, which has been hard-hit by U.S. sanctions.

With the clock ticking down to Election Day, officials are cautiously optimistic New York has fixed problems with mail-in voting that led to delays and disenfranchisement in a rocky June primary. As many as 4 to 5 million New Yorkers are expected to cast absentee ballots after Gov. Andrew Cuomo authorized their widespread use because of the coronavirus pandemic. In the primary, two out of five votes were cast by mail, an unprecedented ratio that strained a system that normally handles fewer than 1 in 20 votes. Local election boards struggled to get ballots into voters’ hands on time. There was confusion about ballots arriving without a postmark to indicate whether they had been mailed by Election Day.

The email from a political action committee seemed harmless: if you support Joe Biden, it urged, click here to make sure you’re registered to vote. But Harvard University graduate student Maya James did not click. Instead, she Googled the name of the soliciting PAC. It didn’t exist — a clue the email was a phishing scam from swindlers trying to exploit the U.S. presidential election as a way to steal peoples’ personal information. “There was not a trace of them,” James, 22, said. “It was a very inconspicuous email, but I noticed it used very emotional language, and that set off alarm bells.” She deleted the message, but related her experience on social media to warn others.

A suspect shot dead by police after the beheading of a history teacher near Paris was an 18-year-old Chechen refugee unknown to intelligence services who posted a grisly claim of responsibility on social media minutes after the attack, officials said Saturday. France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said authorities investigating the killing of Samuel Paty in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine on Friday arrested nine suspects, including the teen’s grandfather, parents and 17-year-old brother. Paty had discussed caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad with his class, leading to threats, police officials said. Islam prohibits images of the prophet, asserting that they lead to idolatry. The officials could not be named because they were not authorized to discuss ongoing investigations.

President Donald Trump is making a late reelection pitch to voters Saturday in Michigan and Wisconsin, states in the Upper Midwest that were instrumental to his 2016 victory but may now be slipping from his grasp. He’s facing headwinds not only in national polling, which shows Democrat Joe Biden leading, but also in battleground surveys. The Trump campaign has largely retreated from the TV advertising in the Midwest, shifting much of its money to Sun Belt states such as Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia, as well as Pennsylvania. Trump scheduled events in Muskegon, Michigan, and Janesville, Wisconsin, and stops Sunday in Nevada and Monday in Arizona as the Nov. 3 election nears. The president continues to be dogged by his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Thousands of Israelis demonstrated outside the official residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night, resuming the weekly protest against the Israeli leader after emergency restrictions imposed as part of a coronavirus lockdown were lifted. The protests were curtailed last month after Israel imposed new lockdown measures in response to a new virus outbreak. The emergency regulations blocked Israelis from traveling to Jerusalem to protest and allowed people only to attend smaller demonstrations within one kilometer (half a mile) of their home.

Movie theaters in New York state can reopen beginning Oct. 23 with restrictions on audience size and other precautions in place, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday. Theaters in New York City aren’t included, and counties must have a positivity rate below 2% on a 14-day average and have no “cluster zones.” Audiences will be restricted to 25% of capacity with a maximum of 50 people per screen, Cuomo said at his briefing. Masks will be required and there will be assigned seating to ensure social distancing. This week, the Global Cinema Federation sent an open letter to Cuomo urging him to let theaters reopen, saying Hollywood studios may continue delaying their remaining 2020 releases if theaters remain closed.

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