Thursday morning news - October 28, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Nor'easter pounds New England, cuts power to thousands » AUDIO: [Sound of storm]

That’s the sound of heavy rain and sleet pounding New England on Wednesday.

The powerful nor’easter packed hurricane-force wind gusts, knocking out power to a half-million homes and businesses. It also forced the closure of bridges, ferries and schools.

The highest gust of the storm was recorded at 94 mph on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. And David Roth with the National Weather Service said monster waves swelled off the coast of Cape Cod.

ROTH: The maximum that was analyzed was 26 feet not that far off (the coast of) Massachusetts.

Utility workers are still working to restore power in the hardest-hit areas in southeastern Massachusetts. But they said it could take days.

Officials advised against travel in the area because of wind, toppled trees and downed power lines.

The storm also knocked out power to thousands in Rhode Island, Maine, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.

At least one person died when a tree limb fell on two passing vehicles in New Jersey. And officials say they have recovered the body of a kayaker who disappeared off New York's Long Island.

Sheriff: Movie set showed 'some complacency' with weapons » Officials in New Mexico briefed reporters on the investigation into a fatal shooting on a movie set where actor Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a cinematographer.

Authorities said there was—quote—“some complacency” in how weapons were handled on the set, but it’s too soon to say whether anyone will face criminal charges.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said officers served a search warrant and collected about 600 pieces of evidence from the film set.

MENDOZA: These include but are not limited to three firearms, approximately 500 rounds of ammunition, and several pieces of clothing and accessories.

Some of those 500 rounds of ammunition collected were live rounds. It’s not clear why anything other than blanks were present on the set.

The accident occurred during filming of the Western “Rust.”

A Colt revolver discharged in Baldwin’s hand, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

Investigators said they planned to follow up on reports of other incidents involving misfires with guns on the set.

U.S. issues first ‘X’ gender passport » The United States has issued its first passport with an “X” gender designation. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has that story.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: A State Department official speaking to the Associated Press said the department expects to offer the ‘X’ gender designation option more broadly next year.

The official declined to say whether the first ‘X’ gender passport was issued to Dana Zzyym. Zzyym is a Colorado resident who has been in a legal battle with the department since 2015 over gender designations on passports.

The State Department does not usually discuss individual passport applications due to privacy concerns.

Zzyym was reportedly born with ambiguous physical sexual characteristics. According to court documents, Zzyym wrote “intersex” above the boxes for male or female on a passport application and was denied a passport. Zzyym later sued the federal government over that denial.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Sudan’s ousted prime minister released but under guard » The general who oversaw a military coup in Sudan this week released Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and his wife to their home on Tuesday. But the deposed leader remains under heavy military security.

The military is holding several senior officials of the dissolved government in undisclosed locations.

Gen. Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan claimed that he had to detain the prime minister for his own safety as anti-military protests turned deadly in the capital of Khartoum.

Doctors on the ground have reported six protest-related deaths and more than 80 injured so far.

Burhan was supposed to hand over leadership to a civilian-led government in less than a month. Now he says the military will run the country until elections in 2023.

I'm Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org. 

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