“Could you imagine if I lose?” For millions of Americans reflected in his double-digit polling deficits, that image conjured by President Donald Trump at a Georgia rally Friday seems tantalizingly close to reality. So much so that prominent Republicans are backing away from their party leader, whom Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse didn’t hold back in linking this week to corruption, white supremacists and dictators. Fellow GOP Sen. Ted Cruz echoed Sasse’s fear that Trump was precipitating a Republican “bloodbath,” leaving the president musing to supporters that after Nov. 3, “Maybe I’ll have to leave the country, I don’t know.”

Sources: NYT , FiveThirtyEight, The Hill

2. Teacher Beheaded in French Terror Attack

An 18-year-old Chechen immigrant reportedly decapitated a middle school teacher on the outskirts of Paris Friday, angered that he had displayed a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad during a recent lesson about free speech. The lesson was linked to an ongoing trial of suspects in the 2015 massacre of staff at Charlie Hebdo magazine after it published such images. Police fatally shot the knife-wielding suspect yesterday. President Emmanuel Macron, who’s urging passage of a law aimed at countering Islamic extremism, visited the school and said: “We must stand all together as citizens.”

Sources: AP, DW, AFP

3. Coming Up: Supremes Up the Confirmation Stakes

The timing couldn’t be better. Just as the Senate is speeding toward confirming a sixth conservative justice to the Supreme Court days before the election, President Trump is showing just how vital that decision is to realizing his agenda. On Friday he made an emergency request for the court to withhold his income tax returns from a New York prosecutor. Meanwhile, the justices are set to hear arguments on the administration’s aim to exclude undocumented immigrants from census counts — which could dramatically shift congressional representation. The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination Thursday.

Sources: CBS, CNBC, Fox News

4. Lighthizer Repealed World Trade. Can a Successor Replace It?

Dating back to the Reagan administration, U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer was perfect for leading President Trump’s campaign to make China play fair and bring manufacturing back to the U.S. After years of being second-guessed and blindsided by his boss, American is still “losing,” as Trump would say, with a growing international trade deficit and flat manufacturing growth. Now that U.S. trade commitments on things like the Trans-Pacific Partnership have been blown up, journalist Lydia DePillis asks, how will a potential new administration pick up the pieces?

Sources: ProPublica

5. Also Important …

Early results in today’s New Zealand parliamentary election indicate that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will win a second term after a successful effort to control COVID-19. The U.S. budget deficit has more than tripled over last year’s, topping $3.1 trillion. After rejecting it less than two days earlier, President Trump on Friday approved disaster aid for California areas devastated by wildfires.

In the week ahead: An international embargo on selling arms to Iran ends tomorrow, despite American efforts to renew it. The Organization of American States will hold its 50th General Assembly beginning Tuesday. And on Wednesday, career celebrity Kim Kardashian turns 40.

The Carlos Watson Show began out of the need for meaningful conversation during this tumultuous year, and to break out of our echo chambers. We've talked to superstars like John Legend and rising stars like Jamaal Bowman, we've debated with everyone from Terry Crews to Tomi Lahren and laughed our pants off (literally) with Tichina Arnold, Tan France, Chelsea Handler and more. On today's special 50th episode, see the best of The Carlos Watson Show with Carlos and friends reflecting on COVID-19, today's civil rights movement and the upcoming election.

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There won’t be a pharmaceutical October surprise, scientifically speaking. Pfizer, which seemed to have the most promising U.S. COVID-19 vaccine in trials, announced Friday that it’s not going to ask the Food and Drug Administration for emergency approval. At least not before the latter part of November — far too late to affect the election or realize President Donald Trump’s repeated claims. Meanwhile, one of the illness’ most prescribed treatments, remdesivir, did not significantly reduce deaths or hospital stays in a large international trial. Even so, European doctors plan to keep using it and fear shortages.

Sources: Politico, Live Science, NBC

2. Lebanon’s Cruel Do-Nothing Refugee Policy

What if Mexico moved to the U.S.? That’s the per capita magnitude of 1.5 million Syrian refugees settling among 5 million Lebanese. That’s exactly what the “displaced,” as they’re known, do because they aren’t provided camps to live in or legal residency, writes journalist Alexander Dziadosz. So they’ve resorted to living in makeshift camps, hounded from place to place by authorities and citizenry alike. And without allowing U.N. refugee help, a ragtag collection of aid organizations do what they can, while residents may face further indignities at the hands of informal camp leaders.

Source: Harper’s

3. Could We Be Crossing the Atlantic in 3 Hours Again?

Boom! That’s the sound of the XB-1 breaking the sound barrier this month, becoming the first civilian supersonic aircraft built in a half-century. It’s a small jet, but it’s part of an ambitious project: To revive supersonic air travel. It has a clever name too: Boom Supersonic, which aims to design a plane to carry up to 88 passengers across oceans (so the sonic booms don’t disturb communities below) at 2.2 times the speed of sound. Meanwhile NASA is trying to fix, or at least reduce, the booms while another firm, Aerion, aims to build a supersonic business jet within a decade.

Source: BBC

4. Meet, Fall in Love, Get Hitched at the Same Fest

When festivals and weddings return, why not combine them? Many couples met at these musical and culinary experiences, or shared a festival weekend that made everything click, so it’s logical to seal the deal at the next one, OZY reports. Events like Michigan’s Electric Forest and Texas’ Euphoria have been hosting “I do” do’s for several years, and with marriage license in hand, couples can rage, say vows, dance on the big stage and sign their names on the same walls their favorite performers have autographed — all for a day to remember, if not necessarily the next morning.

Sources: OZY

5. Astros, Dodgers Survive for Shot at World Series

The Rays have had better days. After leading the American League Championship Series 3-0, Tampa Bay’s Rays seemingly became paralyzed, last night losing Game 6 of the series to the Houston Astros, 7-4. Now the teams go into Game 7 tonight with three wins apiece. Like Houston, the L.A. Dodgers avoided elimination yesterday with a 7-3 win over the Atlanta Braves, who enter Game 6 of the National League Championship Series today leading 3-2. Whatever happens, Major League Baseball will need two winners by Tuesday, so the World Series can commence in Arlington, Texas.

Sources: SI, CBS, Bleacher Report