President Donald Trump sought to shore up support Wednesday from constituencies that not so long ago he thought he had in the bag: big business and voters in the red state of Iowa.

The president held his third campaign rally in three nights, this time in Iowa, a state he won handily in 2016, but where Biden is making a late push. In a morning address to business leaders, he expressed puzzlement that they would even consider supporting his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, arguing that his own leadership was a better bet for a strong economy.

Trump claimed to be leading in the most recent poll he saw.

“For me to only be up six, I’m a little bit concerned,” he asserted. Multiple polls have shown a much closer race.

Minnesota health officials reported 29 new COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, the state’s highest one-day death toll since early June, as the coronavirus spreads at high levels across the state.

The Minnesota Department of Health is also starting to report probable cases, as determined by newer technology antigen tests, in addition to confirmed cases identified by the more common and more accurate but slower PCR tests.

This raises Minnesota’s total case count to 115,943 with 180 total probable cases. The current death toll is 2,180 with six deaths from probable cases.

The European-Japanese probe BepiColombo bound for Mercury swung by Venus on Thursday morning, using Earth’s neighbor to adjust its course on the way to the solar system’s smallest and innermost planet.

The fly-by is the second of nine so-called planetary gravity assists that the spacecraft needs for its seven-year trip to Mercury for scientists to learn more about the planet. The first fly-by, around Earth, took place in April.

The European Space Agency has described the 1.3 billion-euro ($1.5 billion) mission as one of its most challenging yet.

Casey Eakins can be reached at casey.eakins@stthomas.edu.