Hurricane Ernesto reached sustained top speeds of 80 mph last night. New polls suggest Kamala Harris is ahead of Donald Trump in five of seven swing states. USA TODAY examines how PFAs got into our drinking water.

🙋🏼‍♀️ I am Nicole Fallert, Author of the Daily Briefing. Meet the dinosaur skeleton “Gnatalie”.

Hurricane Ernesto lurks off the US coast

Large parts of Puerto Rico remain underwater Thursday after Hurricane Ernesto brought torrential rains and damaging winds that triggered flash flood warnings and knocked out power to thousands of people.

Although Ernesto is expected to remain off the US east coast, According to authorities, waves are expected in the region until the weekend, increasing the risk of life-threatening surf and current conditions.

Harris is ahead of Trump in five swing states

Kamala Harris is leading Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Arizona, while the candidates are tied in Georgia, according to a poll released Wednesday. The results suggest that multiple paths have opened up for Harris to the 270 electoral votes she needs to win the election. Read more

The most important news from Thursday

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Hamas will not participate in ceasefire talks in Gaza

Hamas said it would not attend a new round of Gaza ceasefire talks planned for Thursday in Qatar, but an official briefed on the talks said mediators would consult with the militant group afterward. The United States has said it expects indirect talks to take place as planned on Thursday and that a ceasefire agreement is still possible, while warning that progress is urgently needed to avert a wider war. Read more

Now Parvovirus B19 is a thing

More people in the U.S. have been infected with parvovirus B19, a highly contagious seasonal respiratory virus that can pose serious risks to pregnant women and people with blood disorders, health officials say. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a sweeping alert to health care providers, health authorities and the public on Tuesday. For most people, the highly contagious infection is mild.

More stories we read

Wondering who (or what) is adding chemicals to your drinking water forever? USA TODAY got to the bottom of it.

How a gymnastics saga and not gymnastics became a story

Jordan Chile’s and two Romanian gymnasts would all receive bronze medals if an arbitration panel could award them to them. They said “a lot of heartache” could have been avoided if there had simply been a way to check in the moment whether an appeal against the score was submitted in time. The International Gymnastics Federation must put in place a mechanism to ensure a similar situation “never happens again,” the ad hoc panel of the Court of Arbitration for Sport wrote this week. Read more

Photo of the day: Nice to meet you, Baby Toni

The pygmy hippopotamus baby Toni made his first public appearance on Thursday at the Berlin Zoo. Toni’s mother Debbie has already raised several hippos. The first of this critically endangered species came to Europe from Sierra Leone in 1873.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hurricane Ernesto, Harris, Trump, Israel, Gaza, Hamas, Jordan, Chiles: Daily Briefing