New clues emerge from the Russian plane crash. Election Day is over. And Antarctica is gaining ice.
It’s Wednesday, and here are five things to know for your new day.
PLANE CRASH
More questions: Four days after Metrojet Flight 9268 crashed and killed 224 people, a clear picture of what happened remains elusive, and there’s a wide range of theories on the cause of the crash. The latest theory: a botched repair of the plane’s tail section led to the tail being violently ripped apart from the rest of the plane in midair. The plane’s tail was found some 3 miles away from the wreckage, and it showed no signs of burning from a fire. Another development: Victims’ bodies are being categorized into the types of trauma suffered: injuries from the fall and injuries that align with an explosion — such as metal pieces in bodies.
ELECTION 2015
Ballot breakdown: Kentucky has a new, Republican governor; Ohio rejects legalized pot; Houston takes down an LGBT law and Virginia still has a Republican state senate. Those are the big results from last night’s elections. Now let the probing, dissecting and spinning of the results — and what they could mean for the 2016 presidential race — begin.
CAMPAIGN 2016
Head-to-head: The presidential election is still a year away, but a new poll suggest it’ll be a close one. Hillary Clinton and Ben Carson are all tied up in a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released yesterday. They’re both at 47%, and Carson fares better against Clinton than any other GOP challenger. But of course this will all probably change over the next year.
ANTARCTICA
Icy increase: Antarctica is gaining ice. So global warming’s over? Well, NASA’s not going that far, but in a new study the space agency said the icy continent is gaining more ice than it’s losing. Apparently the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica are losing ice, but those losses are offset by ice gains in the eastern part of the continent and the interior. Scientists think increased snowfall, which started 10,000 years ago, is the reason for the ice gains.
‘STAR WARS’
Force awakened: Support is building to let a terminally ill “Star Wars” fan see the latest movie before it comes out in December. That effort got big-time backing recently when two stars from the movie — Mark Hamill and John Boyega — retweeted the hashtag #ForceForDaniel, which is being used to gain the attention of “Star Wars” honchos at Disney. Daniel Fleetwood, 32, has a rare form of connective tissue cancer. Doctors told him in July he had just a couple of months to live.