Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.
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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. At least eight people were killed in what the authorities called a lone-wolf terror attack near the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.
The attacker struck more than a dozen people as he careened along a Hudson River bike path for nearly 20 blocks in a rented Home Depot pickup. He jumped out with pellet guns, was shot by the police and is in custody.
Two law enforcement officials said the 29-year-old assailant was heard yelling “God is great” in Arabic. The police were adding additional security around the city and at the Village Halloween Parade, which takes place nearby. Check back for updates on this developing story.
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2. Our White House correspondent writes that yesterday’s indictments of Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign manager, and his business associate, Rick Gates, amounted to a political body blow to Mr. Trump, even if they did not implicate him.
On Twitter, President Trump belittled George Papadopoulos, the campaign adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the F. B. I. about how he sought to meet with Russians offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. (Turns out there are many men named George Papadopoulos, some of whom spent the day fielding calls from reporters.)
We collected the best writing from the right and left about the cases, and we discussed them on our podcast, “The Daily.”
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3. Lawyers for Facebook, Google and Twitter went to Capitol Hill for marathon hearings with a Senate Judiciary subcommittee about how Russia used their platforms to spread misinformation and propaganda during last year’s presidential election.
All three companies revealed far more Russia-linked activity than previously disclosed. Russian agents disseminated posts that reached 126 million users on Facebook and published more than 131,000 messages on Twitter and over 1,000 videos on YouTube.
Our behavioral science reporter recently explained the psychological factors that make us so vulnerable to misinformation on social media.
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4. Elsewhere in Washington, House Republicans were busy with last-minute negotiations on their tax plan. They’re supposed to unveil it tomorrow.
And uproar surged over comments by John Kelly, above, the White House chief of staff, that “the lack of an ability to compromise” led to the Civil War in an interview on Fox News.
Historians have spent decades documenting the central role of slavery in causing the conflict — and preceding it, the decades of compromises over African-Americans’ freedom.
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5.California is exporting some of the loudest new voices on the right .
The state as a whole is a bright blue bulwark of the liberal resistance. Yet it gave us Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon, above, and Andrew Breitbart, among others.
“There’s a rebellious tone to conservatism in California that doesn’t exist in places where conservatism is actually a governing force,” said Ben Shapiro, who runs a right-leaning website from Sherman Oaks.
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6. Three Dartmouth College professors are under criminal investigation for alleged sexual misconduct. All three work in the college’s department of psychological and brain sciences, and their research included studies of sexual desire and attractiveness.
Netflix suspended production on “House of Cards,” after Kevin Spacey was accused of making an unwanted sexual advance toward a 14-year-old in the ’80s.
Our journalists and lawyers explained how we choose the terminology to describe sexual assault in our coverage.
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7. In Germany, controversy broke out over plans to honor Anne Frank, the teenage diarist who died in the Holocaust, by naming a high-speed train after her.
“Historical amnesia,” charged the director of the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt. After being discovered in their Amsterdam canal house hide-out, the Franks were sent by train to Auschwitz.
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8. We debuted a new video series, “Internetting With Amanda Hess,” which examines online culture in all its strangeness. Episode 1 is “The Dark Art of Political Memes.”
To hear about future episodes, sign up here .
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9. The Houston Astros are on the verge of the franchise’s first World Series title, but they’ll have to beat the Dodgers at home in Los Angeles to realize that dream. (8 p.m. Eastern, Fox)
Above, the Astros celebrating after Game 5. We’ll have live updates and analysis from Game 6 here.
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10. Finally, happy Halloween.
Here’s a collection of our spookiest science stories to entertain you in between trick-or-treaters, including some videos of undead arachnids and boa constrictors. It’s just a little bit of science. You’re not afraid, are you?
And we investigated the thrill of being scared. The love of haunted houses, horror movies and maybe those arachnids, it turns out, is linked to your dopamine levels.
Have a great night.
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