Strong storms continued battering the South on Friday, leaving three dead in the region. More than 100,000 people were without power Friday across Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. A Mississippi man was killed Thursday afternoon when his car hit a tree south of Philadelphia, Miss., Neshoba County Coroner John Stephens told local news outlets. Kenderick Magee, 24, was also killed while driving in the storm near Gillsburg, Miss., WLBT-TV reported. Alabama authorities said a woman died Thursday night after the storms knocked a tree onto her home in St. Clair County.

As expected, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, vetoed protections for abortion survivors on Thursday. The North Carolina General Assembly two days earlier passed the measure, which would have required doctors to offer the same care to babies born alive after botched abortions as they would to other patients.

Police on Wednesday arrested a New Jersey man who entered St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City with two cans of gasoline, lighter fluid, and butane lighters, according to the New York Police Department. The unidentified 37-year-old man drove up to the landmark structure in downtown Manhattan in a minivan, walked around the area, then returned to his vehicle at 7:55 p.m. to retrieve the gasoline and lighter fluid, said John Miller, the NYPD deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism. The man said he was cutting through the cathedral and his car was out of gas.

Following Monday’s fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron told the country on Tuesday that he wants to rebuild the iconic structure in five years. He said restoration of the 19th-century spire, vaulting, and two-thirds of the building’s roof would be done in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. The government plans to hold an international architecture competition to redesign a spire to replace the one destroyed in the blaze.

UPDATE: Paris Fire Chief Jean-Claude Gallet said Monday night that firefighters had stopped the fire from spreading to Notre Dame Cathedral’s north tower belfry and had saved both of the structure’s iconic towers. He said one firefighter was injured and crews would continue working overnight to cool down the structure. The Paris prosecutors’ office does not believe arson or terrorism caused the blaze and is treating it as an accident.

Pro-life groups across the country hope a wave of new “heartbeat laws” adopted by states will not only protect babies from abortion in the early stages of pregnancy but also give the Supreme Court an opportunity to reverse its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that led to the legalization of abortion nationwide.

Goodnight Mr. Darcy

Kate Coombs