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Oct 29, 2026
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. (Joshua Lott/Getty Images)
Federal investigators found evidence during the Obama administration suggesting that Rep. Ilhan Omar's 2009 marriage to a man suspected of being her brother was intended to help him obtain a green card, but the case stalled chiefly because prosecutors concluded the suspected offense fell outside a five-year statute of limitations, according to a new report.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security investigated the marriage in the summer of 2016, current and former officials told The New York Times in a report published Thursday.
The officials' account challenges Omar's characterization of the earlier inquiry as having debunked allegations that she married her brother to help him obtain a green card.
The newspaper said it remains unclear what evidence investigators had establishing that Omar and her former husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, are siblings.
Marrying a person to help them obtain a green card is illegal under federal law, while marrying a sibling is illegal under state law.
However, the newspaper noted that it remains unclear whether federal prosecutors could pursue charges against Omar despite the statute of limitations for marriage-based immigration fraud.
Omar has repeatedly denied the allegations about her and her ex-husband.
"Rep. Omar has repeatedly and unequivocally denied this baseless, disgusting conspiracy theory," spokeswoman Jackie Rogers said in a statement. "This is a desperate political smear designed to distract from Trump's failed presidency and two years of Republican failure in Congress."
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Oct 29, 2026
It was, for a while, considered one of those colorful quirks that crop up in the course of an election: the fact that not one but two candidates named Dan Sullivan will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot for U.S. senator from Alaska.
One Dan Sullivan — Dan S. Sullivan — is the state's incumbent Republican senator. He is trying to fend off a fierce challenge from former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola and secure a third term. The other Dan Sullivan — Dan J. Sullivan — is a retired teacher from a tiny fishing village along the Alaska Panhandle. He has never previously campaigned for public office, and he switched his registration from "unaffiliated" to "Republican" just before the deadline to run. (He has since switched back to unaffiliated.)
But now the situation seems to be getting more serious. At President Trump's direction, the Justice Department last week sued in federal court
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Oct 29, 2026
This summer, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked a Republican lawmaker what he thought the odds were that Congress would pass the Trump administration's record $1.5 trillion defense budget request.
The chances, the lawmaker responded, were about the same as Hegseth getting confirmed again by the Senate.
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"You have a problem, and you need to increase the amount and the quality of the communication" with Congress, the Republican lawmaker recounted in an interview, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the private exchange.
Months later, members of both parties said the Pentagon has not changed course.
For decades, defense issues have mostly remained insulated from Washington's toxic partisanship. But Republicans and Democrats say they increasingly fear that fire wall no longer exists.
With just over 20 legislative days left in the year - and next week's election likely to empower Democrats eager to confront Hegseth - lawmakers are deadlocked on their major defense policy and spending bills. Failure would leave the Pentagon with few options to replace the thousands of weapons spent during eight months of war with Iran and halt the administration's ambitious military agenda.
To understand how the consensus collapsed, The Washington Post spoke with 30 people at the center of national security in Congress, including 20 lawmakers who sit on the committees that oversee the Pentagon and its budget.
Republicans argued that Democrats are stalling critical military funding to placate voters incensed at President Donald Trump. Democrats framed their opposition as a necessary check on an administration tha
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Oct 29, 2026
Israeli election authorities were still counting votes from Tuesday's parliamentary election on Thursday morning.
But even with the vast majority of ballots counted, it remained unclear who will form the country's new government. Neither the bloc led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor that of his prime challenger Gadi Eisenkot has an obvious course to secure a majority of seats in the Knesset, according to exit polls and partial results released by electoral authorities.
As of Thursday, Israel's Central Election Committee said it had counted nearly 94% of votes. The partial results -- which are subject to some change as the rest of the votes are tallied -- indicated that Netanyahu's Likud party would win 26 seats, with Eisenkot's Yashar party on 21 seats.
The CEC projected that Netanyahu's coalition was on course to secure 53 seats, slightly ahead of Eisenkot's bloc on 48 seats. Neither coalition was on course to achieve a 61-seat majority.
Maya Levin,jewel Samad/AFP via Getty Images - PHOTO: This combination of pictures created on Oct. 28, 2026, shows Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot (L) addressing supporters at a rally in Tel Aviv and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing his supporters at an election night rally in Jerusalem.Israel awaits election results as exit polls suggest close race for NetanyahuThe Arab parties, meanwhile, were projected by the CEC to take 19 seats.
The last stage of vote counting is expected to end on Thursday afternoon or evening local time, the CEC said. The final results will not be published until Nov. 4.
If the CEC projections hold tr
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Oct 29, 2026
Alphabet (GOOGL) is on track for its worst day ever. The stock fell about 13% Thursday after its third quarter results, steeper than any session since it went public in 2004.
That puts nearly $500 billion of stock market value on the line, the second-biggest one-day loss ever for a US-listed company. Only Nvidia (NVDA) has lost more, about $593 billion on Jan. 27, 2025, the day China's DeepSeek rattled AI investors.
Biggest one-day drops in market value for US-listed stocks, US dollarsBloomberg, Yahoo FinanceAlphabet would need
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Oct 29, 2026
Should social media posts disqualify New York's attorney general from leading a criminal investigation into gang rape allegations at Cornell University?
That's the question before a state judge on Thursday as one of the accused men seeks to remove Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor overseeing the renewed criminal probe.
One of at least two cases against James contends she is biased because she posted messages expressing support for the accuser just days before she was appointed to the case.
The former Cornell student identified in court papers as Jane Doe filed a lawsuit last month alleging that several men raped her at a fraternity party in October 2024. The former student said some of the men pressured her into using ketamine and marijuana and that she drank alcohol that left her too intoxicated to consent.
"What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable," James posted to X and Facebook on Sept. 28, linking to a news article about the lawsuit. "I'm holding her in my heart and in my prayers. To her, and to all survivors: you're not alone. We stand with you."
On Oct. 1, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order taking the case away from the local prosecutor, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, who declined to bring charges in 2024, and naming James as special prosecutor.
Within days, lawyers for two of the men named as defendants in Jane Doe‘s lawsu
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Oct 29, 2026
Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
A Chinese executive suspected of helping Beijing obtain restricted American artificial intelligence chips also developed a close relationship with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, raising concerns that China could gain sensitive information through her access to the technology leader.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that the executive, Alice Huang, was gathering information for Beijing, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
President Donald Trump was briefed on the findings roughly a year ago but chose not to act, according to people familiar with the classified intelligence.
The discovery brought together two concerns for Washington: China's efforts to acquire advanced American chips and its potential access to the head of the company producing them.
Nvidia's chips power sophisticated AI systems, making the company central to the technology competition between the United States and China. Washington has restricted exports of advanced chips to prevent Beijing from acquiring computing power that could help it match or surpass U.S. capabilities.
Nvidia defended its chief executive's dealings with Alice Huang and said customers do not receive sensitive company information.
"Jensen's interactions with Ms. Huang are not unusual or unexpected. Meetings with customers are part of a C.E.O.'s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year," company spokesperson John Rizzo told the Times.
Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, is a Chinese citizen who became a senior executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-
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Oct 29, 2026
Israeli left-wing activists in Tel Aviv hold placards during a protest calling for a formation of a government together with Arab parties (Ilia YEFIMOVICH)Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc on Thursday piled pressure on Israeli Arab leaders over unproven accusations of foreign funding, in a push to neuter parties that could hold the key to forming a government after an inconclusive election.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog called for an investigation into allegations of fraud but cautioned against stigmatising the entire Arab Israeli community, who voted at unprecedented rates.
Israel was nearing the completion of ballot-counting from Tuesday's election, in which neither Netanyahu nor the opposition bloc led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot looked able to secure a majority in the parliament known as the Knesset.
The Netanyahu camp's accusations, which a key Arab party has rejected, could bring uncertainty to the electoral process at a time when the threat of a return to war with Iran looms over the region.
Israel's election saw soaring participation by Israeli Arabs, descendants of Palestinians who stayed after the country's creation in 1948, as outrage boiled at calls by officials such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to treat their community much as Israel has dealt with Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Following Netanyahu's accusations of impropriety, Ben Gvir went so far as to encourage Israel to "immediately" order the arrests of Arab party leaders.
Raam party leader Mansour Abbas said he welcomed an investigation into claims of wrongdoing, adding that his moderate Islamist party had "no connection" with the accusations.
The Arab parties together have enough votes to take the opposition bloc over the finis
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Oct 29, 2026
DoorDash (DASH) announced plans to acquire hyper-local grocery delivery provider Instacart (CART) on Thursday morning in a deal valued at $17 billion.
DoorDash, which is primarily known for its restaurant food delivery business, will pay $65 per Instacart share, a 26% premium over the stock's Oct. 22 closing price. The transaction includes 75% cash, with Instacart stockholders able to elect cash, DoorDash stock, or a combination of both. Instacart's board of directors unanimously approved the deal, according to a press release.
"Grocery is one of the hardest things to get right online," DoorDash CEO Tony Xu said in the release. "Instacart has spent years learning to do that well for grocers, while DoorDash has built a delivery network and technology that local stores rely on every day. Together, we could give stores of every size more of those tools and unlock the potential of grocery delivery."
DoorDash stock popped over 5% in premarket trading, while Instacart stock edged lower.
The acquisition comes as Walmart (WMT) and Amazon (
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Oct 29, 2026
Scientists from the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory have announced that they have spotted a possible new dwarf planet known (for now) as 2026 ED138 orbiting the sun, located just beyond Pluto.
— NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory (@VRubinObs) October 27, 2026The discovery comes just months after the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which is based in Chile and funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, began its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) in late June.
The project will "relentlessly" photograph the southern sky over the next 10 years, creating a time-lapse of the universe, allowing scientists to spot objects that move or change and potentially uncover previously unknown objects in the solar system.
What Do We Know About 2026 ED138?2026 ED138 was found by Matthew Holman, of the Center for Astrophysics (CfA), while he was examining observations collected by the Rubin observatory earlier this year. On October 13, Holman ran the observations through computer software designed to find distant objects moving across the s
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Oct 29, 2026
Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) recent hints that he intends to remain GOP leader even if Republicans lose the House have rattled the party's leadership outlook and raised fresh new questions about the GOP's future heading into the next Congress.
Most House Speakers in recent decades have stepped out of Congress after losing the gavel. And Reps. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the majority leader, and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a conservative icon, are both expected to launch bids to lead House Republicans if Democrats flip the chamber, according to GOP lawmakers, aides and strategists.
But Johnson recently muddled the leadership landscape by signaling his intention to keep his spot atop the party even if Republicans are knocked out of power. Then on Monday, President Trump offered a glowing endorsement of Johnson's leadership chops, sparking further speculation that Johnson might, in fact, buck historic trends and try to remain leader even from the minority.
"Mike Johnson is a true friend, fighter, and WINNER," Trump posted on social media, "and he has my Complete and Total endorsement for Re-Election."
"Thank you, President @realDonaldTrump!" Johnson responded. "The best is yet to come as we save America!"
Much about the leadership race is expected to come into sharper focus after next Tuesday's midterm elections. A Johnson spokesperson said the Speaker is "solely focused on protecting the majority," noting that he "will campaign in 21 districts across 13 states between now and Election Day."
But many Republicans are skeptical, predicting Johnson will follow the example of past GOP Speakers — including Ne
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Oct 29, 2026
The Federal Reserve left short-term interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, following September's first hike in more than three years. Based on 30-day fed funds futures prices, Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh and the Federal Open Market Committee are likely to raise the benchmark interest rate by a quarter-point in December.
"The Federal Reserve's interest rate decision takes center stage this week after a hotter-than-expected September CPI report showed price pressures broadening," Ehsan Khoman, economist with the BlackRock Investment Institute, said in an analysis. "We don't view recent tightening as the start of a sustained hiking cycle."
What will a higher rate environment mean for your money? The federal funds rate influences not only the stock market, but also savings rates, interest charges, and, to a lesser degree, mortgage rates. Here's how to prepare for the impact on your deposits, credit, and debt.
» Fed meeting live updates: Interest rates held steady in split vote ahead of midterm elections
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Oct 29, 2026
From left: Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., Mary Peltola and incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. - AP/Getty Images/Reuters
Alaska officials said new revelations in The New York Times about efforts by Democrats to recruit a Senate candidate with the same name as GOP incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan do not change the state's opposition to a Trump administration lawsuit seeking to potentially delay certification of the election.
The Times story, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Law told CNN in an email, confirms the "initial concerns" election officials had about the candidacy of Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher, but it has "no impact on the current litigation."
"Placing candidates on the ballot is a matter of state law, not federal law," said spokesperson Sam Curtis, noting that the Alaska Supreme Court has already decided that Daniel J. Sullivan would be on the ballot. The Justice Department, meanwhile, is citing a federal law in the case that "does not dictate what candidates can run in elections and does not authorize the relief the DOJ seeks," Curtis said.
"The Division is bound by the Alaska Supreme Court's order and is committed to running a fair election and assisting voters as needed," Curtis said.
The story published Wednesday rattled one of the country's most competitive Senate races with less than a week until Election Day.
Mary Peltola, the state's former at-large House member, is considered one of Senate Democrats' top recruits of the midterms and her campaign continues to deny any involvement i
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Oct 29, 2026
Page, Arizona — Doug Herrera still lives in the house his father built, though his dad died some time ago from cancer. Herrera wonders if that illness could have been linked to pollutants from nearby uranium mining. Now, he worries that a possible new neighbor — a proposed $10 billion mega data center — could imperil his health.
"I'm a patriot, but I'm highly against the data center," Herrera, 64, said from his front porch near a yard sign that reads "No Data Centers."
"There is light pollution, sound pollution. The temperature is going to rise," he said.
Page is a gateway to iconic Southwestern landscapes of arid desert studded with Joshua trees and towering red-rock formations. While the City Council approved the sale of land for a data center, the developer needs zoning and other approvals. Residents concerned about possible health effects have signed petitions and mobilized to oppose construction.
The boom in data centers is dividing communities such as Page and turning future construction into a flash point in the midterm elections. The leading candidates in the close race for Arizona's 1st Congressional District are at odds over any new centers there, and the state's attorney general has called for a pause on new approvals and building.
Emerging rese
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Oct 28, 2026
By Bo Erickson and Nandita Bose
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio/MORROW, Georgia, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Neither man is on the ballot but Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic former President Barack Obama took prominent roles on the campaign trail on Wednesday, with less than a week to go before congressional races that could shift the balance of power in Washington.
While Trump has been on a weeks-long campaign blitz that ?has underlined Republican concerns about losing control of Congress for the final two years of his presidency, Obama had kept a relatively low public profile until the past week, during which he has delivered blistering ?speeches criticizing Trump.
Thirty-five of the 100 Senate seats and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives are being contested next Tuesday. Nonpartisan analysts generally favor Democrats' chances of capturing a majority in the House, with the contest for the Senate seen as very close.
On Wednesday, Obama appeared ?in Morrow, Georgia, near Atlanta, where he urged voters to support Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff, who faces a challenge from Representative Mike Collins, a Republican.
While delivering the standard Democratic critique of Trump for imposing tariffs and going to war in Iran, Obama also said America's values were on the ballot, as he recalled the vision of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who is buried in Atlanta.
"There is a moral component to the choices we face right now," Obama said.
"We are not going to fix the system that's broken, we're not going to unrig our economy, so long as we've got a culture where anything goes, where people in the highest offices of the land think it's OK to lie and cheat and bully, ?if we continue to have a culture where money is deemed the only measure ?of our worth," Obama said.
Trump's public approval rating has fallen to a near record low, with Americans increasingly sour on the high cos
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Oct 28, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired the Pentagon's top military planner, a defense official said Wednesday, the latest in a series of generals to be ousted and one that comes even as President Donald Trump is weighing renewed strikes on Iran in the eight-month-long war.
Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia was removed as head of strategy, plans and policy on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is the second general to be ousted from the post, known in military circles as the "J5," under Hegseth. His predecessor, Lt. Gen. Joseph McGee, was forced to retire last October.
The defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters, said there is no immediate replacement for Sylvia and no reason has been given for the firing. The move was reported earlier by The Atlantic.
A spokesperson for the Joint Staff said "the Chairman, the Joint Staff, and the Joint Force extend our deepest gratitude to Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia and his family for their 32 years of distinguished service to our nation" and they "wish him and his family the best."
Typically, the J5 director and their staff are responsible for generating and coordinating military plans with both the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the president. Sylvia's firing comes as Trump has repeatedly floated starting new military operations against Iran.
Trump has vowed to "finish the job" in Iran after launching the war with Israel eight months ago and said new strikes are an option after the midterm elections next week.
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Oct 28, 2026
Photos of Noah's proposal to Joanne in ‘Nobody Wants This' and Simon Tikhman's proposal to Erin Foster.
The writer, producer and podcaster, 44, revealed on Instagram Wednesday, Oct. 28, that Noah's (Adam Brody) proposal to Joanne (Kristen Bell) mirrored her own engagement to husband Simon Tikhman in August 2019.
"So about a month before he proposed, we got this invitation to a wedding vow renewal," she said over footage of her flipping through the invite. "It had attire and a schedule for the whole weekend. He never really drew attention to it."
"He said, ‘This is kind of a work thing. You're welcome to com
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Oct 28, 2026
Jacob Morley, a convicted killer on the loose since Sunday, has no known connection to the small Illinois town where the truck he is accused of stealing was found, the police chief said Wednesday.
"What we have seen kind of leads us in the direction that he's not still here. But that doesn't mean that we've stopped looking," Marion Police Chief David Fitts said.
Morley, 28, convicted of killing a co-worker in 2022, was serving a life sentence when he escaped from Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee, sometime before 11:30 p.m. Sunday, officials there said.
Morley had stolen a work truck, and early Tuesday that truck was found behind a business in Marion, a town of around 16,000 that is around 100 miles north of Tiptonville, authorities in Marion and Tennessee said.
Security video captured Morley driving away in a flatbed truck.There have been no reports in Marion of any other stolen vehicles, and there was no evidence around the truck that was found, Fitts said.
There have also been no confirmed sightings, he said.
"There's really nowhere for him to go here where he wouldn't be recognized. His face is all over the news," Fitts said.
Morley has no known connection to Marion or southern Illinois, he said.
"Have no idea why he would come here, other than I-57 is a major interstate and it runs right through the middle of our town," Fitts said. "And I don't know, maybe he was low on gas and just pulled off. I don'
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Oct 28, 2026
A sign points toward voting stations inside the Arroyo Seco Regional Branch Library in Los Angeles. (Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)A federal judge in a blistering opinion Wednesday denied a Trump administration request to immediately block California elections officials from counting the ballots of 20,000 voters whose citizenship the administration questions. The administration swiftly said it would appeal.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter ruled that the administration's allegations were "not credible" and that the intervention it sought would violate a host of federal laws, sow chaos in the ongoing midterm election, likely lead to the disenfranchisement of legitimate voters and foster future political meddling in elections.
"This request violates longstanding constitutional principles mandating that states have control over their elections," Carter wrote. "If [the Trump administration's] last-minute request for relief were granted, either party could create chaos for their own political purposes to disrupt the election process."
Carter, an appointee of President Clinton, wrote that never in American history "has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch," and that, in bringing its suit, the Trump administration was asking the court to "believe that it reigns as a sole sovereign."
"But California and its people are sovereign, too," Carter wrote.
Carter's ruling was the second to deny the Trump administration a temporary restra
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Oct 28, 2026
US immigration agents often work with their faces covered and do not wear identification. [Reuters]
Details of more than 41,000 personnel working for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including thousands involved in immigration enforcement, have been leaked to the public.
The leak includes names, work addresses and phone numbers of DHS staff, including agents working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection, along with descriptions of the work they do for each agency.
Wednesday's leak marks the third time in recent weeks a government agency has been targeted by leaks or hacks.
A representative of the DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The seemingly unprecedented breach of employee information was put online on Wednesday by a group called the Department of Peace alongside cybersecurity researcher and hacker maia crimew.
The information was put in a database named Icepick and shared through a website hosted by Distributed Denial of Secrets.
Most of the agents included, more than 21,000 of them, work for CBP, according to the data. Nearly 6,600 work for ICE.
Other records show agents with Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Protective Service and even people working for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
The leaked information also included dozens of previously unknown operation names, the agents that led and worked on those operations, and some of the technology they used in their work, including tech provide
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Oct 28, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials have told several Middle East countries and regional allies to be prepared for potential renewed military action against Iran after next week's midterm elections in the United States — as well as the possibility that Iran will attempt to retaliate against them, according to two diplomats briefed on the matter.
Both of the diplomats spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment about the sensitive warnings conveyed by U.S. diplomats and defense officials.
President Donald Trump has not made a final decision on whether to carry out new strikes against Iran, the diplomats stressed. The president, however, has repeatedly said that he is weighing ordering new military action once the critical Nov. 3 elections in the United States are over.
Those threats and the fresh U.S. urgings for allies to prepare for potential retaliation are putting the region on alert that a return to major operations could now be on the horizon.
The White House and U.S. officials declined to comment.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday in a post on X that Tehran "continues to give diplomacy a chance to succeed" and is working with mediators to review ideas that Tehran included in a proposal floated last month — summarily re
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Oct 28, 2026
Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh pushed back Wednesday on any suggestion that next week's midterm elections had a role in the Fed's decision to keep interest rates steady. He also dodged multiple questions on political topics and pressure coming his way from the Oval Office.
But it wasn't for a lack of trying from the assembled reporters.
"I appreciate the question, but I'm not going to be responding to quotes from public officials," Warsh said during a press conference when presented with criticisms from President Trump that interest rates should be lower and that his colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee were "political."
When the subject turned to the midterm elections, Warsh was similarly curt.
"Politics played no role in the decision," the chair said, adding, "I just spent two days with my colleagues upstairs. I didn't hear an utterance about politics."
He had another political topic to address before it was over when he was asked about a hearing planned for next week of a White House committee investigating allegations against Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook.
Read more:
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Oct 28, 2026
It was, for a while, considered one of those colorful quirks that crop up in the course of an election: the fact that not one but two candidates named Dan Sullivan will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot for U.S. senator from Alaska.
One Dan Sullivan — Dan S. Sullivan — is the state's incumbent Republican senator. He is trying to fend off a fierce challenge from former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola and secure a third term. The other Dan Sullivan — Dan J. Sullivan — is a retired teacher from a tiny fishing village along the Alaska Panhandle. He has never previously campaigned for public office, and he switched his registration from "unaffiliated" to "Republican" just before the deadline to run. (He has since switched back to unaffiliated.)
But now the situation seems to be getting more serious. At President Trump's direction, the Justice Department last week sued in federal court to block certification of the election if Sen. Dan S. Sullivan loses,
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Oct 28, 2026
The death of Hayden Panettiere has been ruled accidental, South Caroline police announced Wednesday.
Greenville Police Department said the investigation into Panettiere's death has been concluded "based on the Medical Examiner's determination and the findings of the investigation," and the actor's death was officially ruled accidental.
Last month, a South Carolina coroner confirmed Panettiere died from an accidental drug overdose that included fentanyl. There were no signs of trauma, the coroner's office said.
Emergency responders were called to a residence where Panettiere, 36, had been staying in Greenville, South Carolina, on the afternoon of Aug. 16. Despite "advanced cardiac life support measures," she was pronounced dead there, the Greenville County Coroner's Office said.'
Panettiere's on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson and his brother Zach were at the scene of her death, according to a police report obtained by CBS News. The Hickersons made the 911 call that brought first responders to the apartment.
Authorities, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, were investigating the circumstances of Panettiere's death. Police previously said that a preliminary investigation "has not indicated a
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Oct 28, 2026
The Warsh Fed's taciturn nature has already raised the stakes for each FOMC meeting. With fewer hints or forward guidance about what the Fed is thinking and planning comes more suspense.
And next year, those stakes will be even higher as the Fed removes a rate decision from its calendar, making each meeting even more important and potentially adding another layer of uncertainty and volatility to markets.
At the October policy meeting on Wednesday, Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh announced this major change to the Fed's calendar and added that 2028 might feature only six rate decisions. The meetings themselves will remain on the calendar, but instead of the Fed debating rates, broader monetary policy topics will be on the agenda.
The Wednesday meeting saw the Fed hold rates steady, but two dissenting governors wanted a hike.
Warsh said the reasoning behind the schedule change is to "reserve the time and space as an intellectually diverse group for strategic deliberations, for thinking anew about big questions, looking out over longer time horizons."
We've all been wondering how the newly installed chair would reshape the Fed. Already, he's been doing that by changing the nature of the
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Oct 28, 2026
Federal Reserve officials voted 10-2 to keep interest rates unchanged, as elevated inflation continues to pose a problem for central bankers.
Fed Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack dissented, preferring a quarter-point rate hike.
The Fed's benchmark rates remained in the 3.75% to 4% range, as widely expected. A rate hike in December, however, appears far more likely, according to the Fed's dot plot and fed funds futures.
Although recent inflation data came in hotter than expected, the Fed has positioned itself to continue assessing additional data. The proximity of the October meeting to the US midterm elections next Tuesday was also seen as a deterrent to bold monetary policy moves.
At the post-FOMC-meeting press conference, Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh reiterated his commitment to bringing down inflation, stated that the Fed's "monetary medicine"
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Oct 28, 2026
By David Latona, Guillermo Martinez and Michael Francis Gore
URDA, Spain, Oct 28 (Reuters) - At least 68 people died when a Spanish high-speed express slammed into a stationary train on Wednesday, with rescuers scouring mangled carriages for more bodies after Spain's second fatal rail crash this year and Europe's deadliest since 2013.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said "all of Spain" was in mourning after the ?collision, which the transport minister said happened after a Renfe service was authorised to proceed despite an active red signal due to a stationary train ahead.
Oscar Puente told reporters in Madrid that ?the red signal was issued due to a computer communications failure, which automatically stopped traffic, but an erroneous decision was then taken to restart the Renfe train.
Sanchez said in a televised address from near the site south of Madrid that the "terrible tragedy" would be investigated and ?vowed to address any failures that came to light, adding that the causes of the two crashes appeared to be unrelated.
"If we need to further strengthen safety in order to rebuild confidence in our high-speed rail system, we will do so, because what is unacceptable for a country like Spain is to suffer two high-speed rail accidents in the same year," Sanchez said.
Spain's opposition People's Party said it had cancelled all campaign events for the day, ahead of elections next month.
TRAPPED AMONG SEATS
At the scene in rural Castilla-La Mancha, ambulances, funeral home vans and helicopters assembled beside one of the trains on an elevated stretch of track, while twisted metal and wreckage lay scattered down an embankment where at ?least three carriages had plunged.
The head of the regional government, Emiliano García-Page, ?said the death toll had risen to 68, while rescuers searching for other victims as darkness fell did not know if other fatalities would be discovered onc
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Oct 28, 2026
Two right-wing provocateurs, James O'Keefe and Cam Higby, are facing election-related charges in Minnesota after posting videos of an undercover stunt intended to expose alleged deficiencies in election security.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said each man faces a count of unlawful voting and identity theft.
"Elections are the bedrock of democracy and their protection is one of our highest priorities," Moriarty said in a statement. "Individuals engaging in unlawful conduct related to our elections will be held accountable."
Hegseth directs military cyber forces to use 'every authorized asset' to defend midterm elections from foreign interference amid Trump's funding cuts to election security agenciesO'Keefe, a self-proclaimed "guerilla journalist" infamous for his undercover videos, and Higby, a social media influencer, posted the video at the heart of the charges in August. It shows the two men approaching election judges at multiple voting precincts in Minneapolis wearing burqas, speaking in fake accents, and allegedly misrepresenting their identities, in an effort to expose what O'Keefe and Higby say are gaps in the rules that allow residents to vouch for the identity of other voters.
The video, which remains pinned on Higby's X account, is called "I Wore Burqa To EXPOSE Election FRAUD In Minneapolis."
No ballots were cast in the course of their efforts.
Tim Evans/AFP via Getty Images - PHOTO: People fill their ballots during the first day
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Oct 28, 2026
NEW YORK (AP) — Alvin K. Hellerstein, a Manhattan federal judge who presided over cases involving President Donald Trump, former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the 9/11 attacks during nearly three decades on the bench, has died. He was 92.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain announced Hellerstein's death in a statement Wednesday, saying his "energetic and dedicated service to this Court continued until his death."
"He is greatly appreciated and will be sorely missed," she added.
Appointed to the federal bench in 1998 by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, Hellerstein kept a robust docket and worked until his death.
Just two weeks ago, he presided over the arraignment of Maduro and Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, on torture charges that were added to their ongoing narco-terrorism conspiracy case.
Maduro, who was captured alongside his wife earlier this year in a surprise U.S. military raid in Caracas, twice defied Hellerstein's request that he enter a plea to the charges. Irked, Hellerstein took matters into his own hands, interjecting that "a plea of not guilty will be entered on behalf of Mr. Maduro."
At Flores' Oct. 8 bail hearing, Hellerstein coughed and struggled to speak at times, telling lawyers: "I have a voice problem. As long as you can understand — hear me, I'll keep going." Nevertheless, he was resolute that he'd preside over Maduro and Flores' trial, which he'd scheduled for next June.
In August, in one of his last significant rulings, Hellerstein again spurned Trump's effort to erase his
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Oct 28, 2026
Mary Peltola (AP)
Operatives working with Democrat Mary Peltola's Senate campaign sought to recruit candidates who could draw votes from Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska, according to an investigation published Wednesday.
The effort included finding another Alaskan named Dan Sullivan to run against the incumbent, recruiting other potential candidates, and discussing the creation of a conservative political party, The New York Times reports, citing interviews, text messages, and documents prepared for a potential lawsuit.
Peltola's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee denied recruiting candidates.
"The Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign and did not recruit any candidates into the race," the campaign said in a statement to the Times.
The operation, internally called the ballot composition project, began in summer 2025, according to Elisa Rios, Peltola's former campaign manager. Rios said campaign aides directed a staff member to search voter records for Alaskans named Dan Sullivan.
Dan J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher in Petersburg, subsequently entered the race. He has maintained that he decided to run independently and did not respond to the Times' latest requests for comment.
The general election ballot includes Peltola, incumbent Dan S. Sullivan, Dan J. Sullivan, and Republican Gerald Heikes. The race could help determine control of the Senate.
Sullivan Jr. changed his voter registration from Republican to undeclared, a type of independent, when he requested an absentee ballot for the August primary, according to state elec
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Oct 28, 2026
Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union to improve working conditions in the nation's fruit and vegetable fields and coined the phrase "Sí, se puede!" that became a widespread rallying cry, has died. She was 96.
Huerta's died of cancer Wednesday at her home in Bakersfield, California, surrounded by family, said Erik Olvera, a family spokesperson.
"We know that many of you around the world share in our mourning, and we will be following up on plans to recognize and celebrate her incredible life and legacy," the family said in a statement shared by her foundation.
Huerta kept a busy schedule well into her 90s, marching in protests and speaking across the country about race, poverty, LGBTQ and women's rights on behalf of her Bakersfield-based foundation.
Huerta's resolve cemented her place in history as one of the nation's most influential labor leaders, civil rights icons and feminist activists. Her three-word Spanish-language slogan — which translates to "Yes, it can be done" — was grounded in the belief that people who take action can affect change.
Her work over the decades earned her accolades including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. When President Barack Obama presented the award in 2012, he praised Huerta as a tenacious leader and noted that he had stolen her slogan for his 2008 campaign.
"Her life's work was to empower her community to face and overcome injustices, and she has left farm workers and the entire Latino community stronger and more organized than she found it," United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero said in a statement Wednesday.
This year, Huerta sent shock waves through the Latino community when she revealed that
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Oct 28, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday acted to ease access to unproven peptide drugs favored by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Food and Drug Administration scientific staffers had little input on the decision and opposed the changes, according to six people familiar with its development.
The draft policy posted online by Kennedy's Department of Health and Human Services covers a handful of injectable peptides promoted within the wellness industry for uses such as building muscle, healing injuries and boosting energy. The government will take comments for two weeks before finalizing the measure.
The document, primarily written by officials at HHS, faced overwhelming pushback among FDA drug staffers who warned it could undermine the agency's long-standing mission of keeping unsafe health products off the U.S. market, according to the people familiar with its development.
The people spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential government deliberations.
The policy directs the FDA not to take action against specialty pharmacies that sell a half-dozen wellness peptides, including BPC-157, TB-500 and KPV. Under normal FDA rules, those chemicals would be considered illegal drugs because they have not gone through the agency's rigorous review process for safety and effectiveness.
According to the document posted online, Kennedy determined the change "advances patient choice and freedom" while protecting people in the United States from peptides sold online that are often
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Oct 28, 2026
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A photograph of China's reusable Shenlong space plane docked to another spacecraft, taken by Vantor's WorldView 3 satellite from a distance of 56 miles (90 kilometers). | Credit: Satellite image ©2026 VantorA U.S. military intelligence agency has released an incredible new photograph of China's secretive space plane, showing it docked to another spacecraft in orbit.
The photograph was taken in 2024 by Vantor's WorldView 3 satellite, from a distance of 56 miles (90 kilometers). Ground-based observers have previously photographed Shenlong in orbit, but this new photo from Vantor, taken from space, reveals new details about the mysterious spacecraft in stunning clarity, with a resolution of 4.5 centimeters (1.8 inches) per pixel. The image was included in a new report released by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessing the scope and breadth of adversary threats in space.
In the image, the robotic Shenlong space plane can be seen docked to another satellite that has its solar panels deployed. It's not yet known which satellite that may have been. Shenlong's payload bay doors can also be seen in the photograph, in an open position.
Those payload doors may offer clues about what Shenlong is doing on its fourt
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Oct 28, 2026
Israel's Arab-led parties are projected to win a record number of seats in the Israeli parliament, exit polls indicate, making them increasingly hard to ignore by the leading blocs.
"Probably the most important phenomenon of this election is the rise and the revival of the Arab vote," Daniel Shek, a former Israeli ambassador, said. "The statement is clear: You cannot disregard such a large portion of the electorate in the calculations for Israeli politics."
The latest projections from Tuesday's voting showed that the Arab parties - the Joint List and Ra'am - could hold a record combined 17 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
So far, no clear winner has emerged as partial results give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc 54 seats and the opposition alliance led by Gadi Eisenkot 49.
While Arab parties might theoretically wield influence as the two main blocs fail to win majorities in the Knesset, they are not "kingmakers", observers said, pointing to what amounts to a political veto that limits Arab parties' ability to turn electoral gains into influence.
"This veto is rooted in a racist structure that regards the Arab citizen as illegitimate and as an unwanted partner," Honaida Ghanam, director general of the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, told Al Jazeera, alluding to the resistance by the majority of Israeli parties to form any government with Arab-led lists.
Both Netanyahu and Eisenkot have rejected the idea of partnering with them, citing a lack of shared values.
What do the numbers say?
The numbers from exit poll projections thus far are looking cl
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Oct 28, 2026
By David Latona, Guillermo Martinez and Michael Francis Gore
URDA, Spain, Oct 28 (Reuters) - At least 64 people died when two Spanish high-speed trains collided on Wednesday, with rescue workers scouring the wreckage for more bodies after Spain's second deadly rail accident this year.
Hundreds of ambulances, funeral home vans and helicopters were parked next to one of the trains, with several carriages ?on an elevated section of track while twisted metal, broken panels and wreckage could be seen strewn across an embankment beneath the line where at least three carriages had plunged down.
Evacuated passengers ?streamed along a road near the scene, some splattered with blood or with their wounds bandaged, others wheeling suitcases and being given water by volunteers who said it had been donated from neighbouring towns.
Miguel, a passenger travelling with several colleagues in the rear car of ?one of the trains, described to COPE radio the moment of the accident.
"We heard a massive roar, a truly enormous thud that went on for 10 seconds, as if the train were about to derail. Through the right-hand window, we could see a wrecked train," he said.
OPERATOR RENFE SAYS CIRCUMSTANCES BEING INVESTIGATED
The collision comes nine months after an accident between high-speed trains belonging to the same operators and on the same line that killed 46 people.
That crash in January, which occurred after a train derailed and smashed into an oncoming train near Adamuz, in Cordoba province, triggered a debate about the level of investment in railway maintenance in recent years.
A person briefed on Wednesday's disaster said ?a train operated by private consortium Iryo stopped near Toledo on orders from ?infrastructure manager ADIF due to a signal fault.
A train operated by Renfe then struck the stationary train at high speed, causing several carriages of both trains to derail, the pers
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Oct 28, 2026
Democrats have signalled a willingness to launch probes into both Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth's handling of the Iran war [Getty Images]
Democrats in the US Congress are already planning how they would use their power if they win a majority in the House or Senate in next week's midterm elections.
Success is by no means guaranteed, even if midterms can sometimes be brutal for the incumbent party that holds the White House.
Control of the chamber, however, would give the party power to issue subpoenas - summons to testify or produce documents - as well as additional funding to launch investigations early next year.
Democrats are weighing whether to investigate senior figures in the Trump administration - and possibly the president himself. Staffers have begun assembling a list of possible investigations and witnesses, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Here are a few potential Democratic targets if the party emerges victorious on 3 November.
1. Trump's family and financesDemocrats have made it clear that lucrative deals brokered by the Trump family's vast business empire will be primary targets of any initial investigations.
"We want to make sure that [American] taxpayer dollars are being used wisely and not being stolen or pocketed because of corruption," Virginia Democratic Representative Suhas Subramanyam, a member of the House Oversight Committee, told the BBC.
Items under consideration for investigation include ties between the administration and corporate entities - particularly cryptocurrency firms - as well as the international business dealings of the president's son-in-law, Jared
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Oct 28, 2026
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump floated nominating Ted Cruz to the Supreme Court for a future vacancy on the nation's high court, joking that the Texas Republican senator's confirmation would earn unanimous Senate support because senators from both parties would like to see him gone.
Trump, who has mentioned Cruz previously for the Supreme Court, suggested the third-term senator again at an Oct. 27 midterm campaign rally in Lubbock, Texas as the president discussed what he might do if he gets to nominate a Supreme Court justice for a fourth time over his two White House terms.
"I said, 'I have an answer to not being able to get it past the Democrats or the Republicans together,'" Trump said, referring to the confirmation fight in the Senate. "I would pick Ted Cruz to be the next Supreme Court justice, and I wouldn't have to worry about it. I wouldn't have to make a phone call.
"The Democrats will 100% vote for it because they hate the guy and the want to get rid of him," Trump continued. "And the Republicans would 100% vote for it because they ca
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Oct 28, 2026
Credit: Chris Smith/TheWrap
In front of the recently refurbished Alex Theatre in Glendale, Calif., flanked by Sen. Adam Schiff and a half-dozen fellow California House Democrats, Rep. Laura Friedman spoke of the urgent need to pass a federal film tax credit to provide a lifeline to hundreds of thousands of film and TV crew members who have struggled as Hollywood production has fled the country.
"Sixty-five countries offer incentives we don't match, and no single state can outbid a foreign government on its own," the freshman Congresswoman said earlier this month. "Our bipartisan bill is built on labor costs, which means it only pays off when American workers get hired. These are good paying union jobs with benefits and pensions, and I won't stop fighting until they come home."
Though the politicians at Friedman's event were all deep blue, the Motion Picture, Television and Entertainment Revitalization Act is far from a partisan bill. With Republicans also lining up to support the bill, there is high optimism on Capitol Hill and among Hollywood lobbyists and producers that Congress will pass the federal incentive during the lame duck session set to begin in early November following the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The highly anticipated bill — which received new life when President Trump endorsed the idea in early September — would provide a much-needed stimulus in American film production, which has been in decline over the last quarter century.
If the federal film tax credit passes - and
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Oct 28, 2026
Wendy's (WEN) may be cooking up burgers for a billionaire soon.
Longtime Wendy's investor and former chairman Nelson Peltz of Trian Partners has reportedly offered $1.4 billion to buy the struggling fast food giant, according to an SEC filing.
Wendy's shares rose 15% in premarket trading. The company's market cap was $1.17 billion prior to the deal.
A Wendy's spokesperson didn't return a request for comment. A spokesperson for Trian Partners didn't return a request for comment.
Billionaire Peltz — while familiar with the operations — would essentially be buying a dumpster fire.
After nearly two years of struggles competing with the likes of behemoths McDonald's (MCD) and Yum! Brands' (YUM) Taco Bell, plus upstarts such as Shake Shack (SHAK), Wendy's is on the cusp of a large number of restaurant closures.
"With one of its largest franchisees filing bankruptcy in September (although contested by WEN given prior termination of franchise agreement), we think investors likely expect closures to tick higher than expected, but we admit visibility on our side remains somewhat limited and there could still be a rang
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Oct 28, 2026
Flávio Bolsonaro has not conceded defeat and has called for the election to be annulled [Getty Images]
There is confusion about the whereabouts of defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, after Brazil cancelled his passports and Argentine officials say he boarded a flight to Ecuador.
Sources had told the BBC earlier on Tuesday that Bolsonaro had arrived in the US.
But Argentine migration authorities later said he had crossed Brazil's land border with Argentina late on Tuesday night local time.
In a tweet, the migration authorities said that he, his wife and two daughters had boarded a private flight headed towards the city of Guayaquil in Ecuador shortly after crossing the border.
The Argentine migration authorities did not provide many details but they did specify that the family had boarded a plane "dispatched by the company Baires Fly S.A." which they said was headed to Guayaquil.
Flight tracking data analysed by BBC Verify suggests a plane with matching ownership details is now on its way to the US after a stop in Guayaquil.
The twin engine Gulfstream jet took off from Puerto Iguazú near the Brazil-Argentina border at 03:18 GMT on Wednesday and landed in Guayaquil at 08:47 GMT, according to Flightradar24.
The same plane then departed from Guayaquil at 09:15 GMT. Its destination is listed as the Opa Locka executive airport north of Miami, Florida
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Oct 28, 2026
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, endorsed Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins for governor Tuesday, passing over three Republican candidates, including President Donald Trump's pick, Bernadette Wilson.
Murkowski told Anchorage NBC affiliate KTUU that Alaska needs a governor who can work across party lines, according to NBC News.
Her endorsement came one week before Election Day in the race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
"We need a governor who's going to work with the Legislature," Murkowski said. "That has got to happen for the delegation to be successful back in Washington, D.C."
Murkowski said she considered the three Republicans on Alaska's ranked-choice ballot too partisan and expressed concern that Wilson would be unwilling to work with Democrats.
Kreiss-Tomkins, a former Alaska state lawmaker, welcomed Murkowski's endorsement.
"I have a lot of respect for Lisa, her integrity. I think she's worked across the aisle in Congress, which is a quality I really admire and hope to live up to if I'm elected governor," he told KTUU. "And I'm very grateful that she wanted to step up and be a part of the coalition that we're building."
The Republican candidates are Wilson, former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, and former Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor. Trump endorsed Wilson earlier in October.
Wilson dismissed Murkowski's endorsement of Kreiss-Tomkins.
"Given that Senator Lisa Murkowski abandoned Alaska values a long time ago, I am not surpr
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Oct 28, 2026
By Emma Pinedo and Victoria Waldersee
MADRID, Oct 28 (Reuters) - At least 30 people were killed when two high-speed trains ?collided in Spain on Wednesday, the second deadly accident ?in less than a year on the line connecting Madrid to the southern ?Andalusia region, regional authorities said.
Footage from regional Castilla-La Mancha Television showed a derailed train with at least one carriage remaining on an elevated section of track while twisted metal, broken panels and wreckage could ?be seen strewn across ?an embankment beneath the line.
Miguel, a passenger travelling with several colleagues in the rear car of one ?of the trains, described to COPE radio the moment of the accident.
"We heard a massive roar, a truly enormous thud that went ?on for ?10 seconds, as if the ?train were about to derail. ?Through the right-hand window, we could see a wrecked train - I imagine it must have been the other one," he said.
Castilla-la Mancha regional government said the death toll had risen to 30 from 10 after earlier warning it could rise.
The collision comes nine ?months after an accident between high-speed ?trains belonging to the same operators on ?the same line that ?killed 46 people.
That crash in January, which occurred ?after a train derailed and smashed ?into an oncoming ?train near Adamuz, in Cordoba province, triggered a debate about the level of investment in railway maintenance in recent years.
(Reporting ?by David Latona, ?Emma Pinedo, Mireia Merino, Corina Pons, Victoria Waldersee, Benjamin ?Mejias and Joan Faus; Writing by Charlie Devereux; Editing ?by Toby Chopra and Alison Williams)
This article originally appeared on Reuters at https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/two-high-speed-trains-rear-083828936.html
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Oct 28, 2026
The stock market's favorite season starts Monday. For decades, November through April has beaten the rest of the year by a mile.
That's the Halloween indicator, also called the "best six months" or "sell in May." Buy stocks at the end of October, hold them through April, then step aside for the summer.
Yale Hirsch found the pattern in 1986. "You can divide the year into two sections and have practically all the gains in one six-month section and very little in the other," his son Jeffrey Hirsch, editor in chief of the Stock Trader's Almanac, wrote in the 2026 edition.
Since 1950, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) has gained an average of about 7% from November through April, versus less than 1% from May through October, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac. Put $10,000 into only the good half each year, and it grew to about $1.3 million. Put it into only the bad half, and it shrank to about $4,300.
This has held up since its discovery. In the 39 years after 1986, the good half turned $10,000 into about $1.2 million, versus about $5,800 for the bad half, by the Stock Trader Almanac's count.
The 'worst 6 months' aren't so bad anymoreBy Yahoo Finance calculations, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) gained an average of about 7% from November through April between 1950 and 1987, versus about 1% from May through October.
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Oct 28, 2026
Attorney General Todd Blanche has long maintained that the so-called Epstein files, even those kept from the public, contain no secret information related to national security.
When the document releases began last winter, Blanche noted that the Epstein Files Transparency Act authorized withholding information in the interest of national security or foreign policy, but said, "no files are being withheld or redacted on that basis."
"There's not some tranche of super-secret documents about Jeffrey Epstein that we're withholding, we're actually not withholding anything based upon [national defense information]," said Blanche, who was deputy attorney general at the time.
But the contents of at least three documents in the massive tranche of files indicate classified information was included in files collected by the DOJ.
One of the documents shows Blanche's Office of the Deputy Attorney General itself received classified material related to Epstein in March 2025. By law, material can only be classified for national security purposes.
What exactly was classified and why remains a mystery.
The Department of Justice says it collected 6 million pages of material and ultimately released over 3 million of those pages after reviewing for duplication, attorney-client privilege and relevance to Jeffrey Epstein.
Congressional challenges and a lawsuit are casting doubts on the DOJ's claims and demanding the release of more documents that were held
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Oct 28, 2026
Attorney General Todd Blanche has been busy.
In the run up to the Nov. 3 midterm elections, the nation's most powerful law enforcement official has hit the campaign trail, stumping at the Republican convention in Texas and at rallies for candidates aligned with President Donald Trump in New York and North Carolina.
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The Justice Department, under Blanche's leadership, has filed broad and controversial election-related lawsuits, including suing the state of Alaska last week to preemptively block certification of the results of the state's tight Senate race if the Republican candidate loses.
The Justice Department has also executed search warrants and filed criminal charges against some of Trump's political foes, delivering on promises to the president's conservative base that current and former officials viewed as corrupt or undermining the president would face legal consequences.
The Justice Department has traditionally stayed quiet in the months before an election, fearful of being perceived of using its law enforcement weight to influence elections. But Blanche has had some of his busiest weeks as attorney general ahead of next week's midterms, cannonballing into politically fraught cases as the president cheers him on.
The agency's recent targets include James B. Comey, a former director of the FBI and staunch Trump critic who this month was hit with a third federal case in 13 months.
The Justice Department also this week tried and f
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Oct 28, 2026
MIAMI (AP) — Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his family arrived in Miami on Wednesday, after he refused to concede to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva then fled the country.
In a circuitous journey, Bolsonaro left for Argentina on Tuesday with his wife and two daughters, then traveled to Ecuador, according to Argentina officials and flight data. The 45-year-old senator and his family arrived in Florida a day after the Trump administration granted them United States visas. Bolsonaro, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, visited the White House in May.
Bolsonaro's father, Jair Bolsonaro, also fled to Florida after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula before returning to Brazil three months later.
Flávio Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil's Supreme Court, accused of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion. The court had ordered him to hand over his regular and diplomatic passports by noon Tuesday. It remained unclear whether he had complied, but allies said late Tuesday he also has an Italian passport.
Bolsonaro lands in Miami
Argentina's migration authority said Bolsonaro, his wife Fernanda Antunes Figueira Bolsonaro, and his daughters Carolina Figueira Bolsonaro and Luiza Figueira Bolsonaro crossed into the country at 10:50 p.m. Tuesday. They entered via the Tancredo Neves International Bridge, a primary border checkpoint linking Brazil to Argentina's northeastern province of Misiones.
"Those who did so possessed valid tra
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Oct 28, 2026
EAU CLAIRE, Wisconsin — In this rural-heavy stretch of the upper Midwest, Democrats are trying to claw back districts where their party brand is still deeply toxic.
It won't be easy, even in a midterm environment that heavily favors their party. Local Democratic organizers in western Wisconsin, where Rebecca Cooke is trying to oust GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden, know that elections here are decided by the slimmest of margins. They have no room for error.
"Everything's on a razor's edge," Clara Serrano, who volunteers for the local Democratic Party, said as she drove along farms and cornfields outside Eau Claire.
But a decade after President Donald Trump's populism and culture wars swung the formerly Democratic-leaning region right, many voters from western Wisconsin over to southern Minnesota and down to eastern Iowa are hurting — and blame the president's policies. Family farms are reeling from his tariffs. Diesel is over $6 a gallon. The cost of fertilizer has shot up more than 30 percent since the war in Iran began earlier this year.
"[Rural voters are] mad when we get to the door — and not at us," said William Garcia, co-chair of the La Crosse County Democratic Party who has been out canvassing. "They're mad about gas prices. They're mad about fertilizer. They're mad about the tariffs. And so all we do as Democrats is say, ‘Hey, we agree. We rejected all of these things. We've been fighting all of these things.' So it's much more receptive now than really it's ever been."
Local Democrats have pulled out all the stops to propel Cooke in Wisconsin's 3rd District, knocking endless doors in redder areasThere have been national reinforcements as well: Populist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
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Oct 28, 2026
President Donald Trump on Tuesday pulled back regulations on a major global warming pollutant — just days after a satellite discovered a large plume of methane pouring out of oil and gas wells near the Lubbock, Texas, campaign rally where Trump made his announcement.
Governments and the private sector are deploying a wave of new technology to pinpoint methane leaks like never before. But that technological revolution is colliding with political decisions in the U.S. and Europe to weaken regulations that are designed to curb the powerful driver of climate change.
"The methane problem," Trump said Tuesday night. "I'm officially terminating Biden's expensive and unnecessary methane regulations to save consumers and energy producers $45 billion in costs, unlock vast quantities of Texas natural gas and produce 210 million barrels of oil."
American and European regulators alike have argued that the methane rules should be ditched or delayed because they threaten to increase the price and availability of energy, even as new technology identifies gas leaks — and bad actors — with remarkable accuracy.
The backtracking could result in more methane emissions as nations around the world are failing to meet their commitments to contain climate change.
"You can't reduce what you don't monitor," said center-left European Parliament lawmaker Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, who opposes steps to delay the bloc's rules.
Methane has 80 times the warming impact of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Climate scientists say controlling methane, a byproduct of producing oil, gas and coal, along with agriculture and decomposing waste, is the fastest way to arrest rising temperatures.
But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed weakening methane standards for oil and gas operators and is poised to eliminate penalties for so-called "super-emitters." Meanwhile, the European Union is preparing to delay methane rules designed to prioritize ene
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Oct 28, 2026
Shane Ostrander looks for items at his home after a tornado spawned by Hurricane Milton swept through Fort Pierce, Florida, in October 2024. - (Kathleen Flynn/For the Washington Post)A second season of severe weather is about to ramp up across parts of the Plains, Mid-South and Gulf Coast. While tornado activity is most prominent in the springtime, autumn can bring a secondary peak. These cool-season tornadoes skew faster, stronger and more likely to happen at night — and they can hit a more vulnerable part of the country.
There are signs November may start busy, ahead of a winter that could bring above-average tornado risk due, in large part, to a strong El Niño pattern.
Why do cool-season tornadoes happen?Tornadoes come from thunderstorms that form when air masses clash. In the springtime, the coming summer warmth collides with the retreat of winter. There's plenty of heat and humidity to brew tall thunderclouds.
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But in the autumn, cold air encroaches more forcefully. Warmth is shunted south, and moisture is scant. Thunderstorms are more scarce, and when they do bubble up, they tend to be shallower — i.e., not as tall.
Typically, a shorter thunderstorm would be weaker. In the wintertime, however, the atmosphere compensates.
That's because the jet stream — the river of winds in the upp
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Oct 28, 2026
A raise is supposed to help your finances, but for some Americans with Affordable Care Act plans, it could backfire this year.
Subsidies are what make these plans affordable for millions of Americans - but there's a catch. Once your earnings top 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or $84,600 for married couples for 2026 coverage, those federal assistance payments vanish. And if you've received advance payments throughout the year to cut your monthly bill, you may have to pay those back.
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In most states, married couples earning more than $84,600 this year generally won't receive any federal premium assistance. That could be a surprise for many people, since the enhanced premium tax credits for this coverage expired at the end of 2025.
Older adults not yet eligible for Medicare could be the most affected, particularly if they are self-employed or ineligible for workplace plans. Some in this group could face annual premiums of more than $20,000.
That puts a lot of taxpayers in a tight spot, particularly at a time of higher interest rates and high inflation.
How to avoid a financial cliffThe changes to the ACA law at the end of 2025 turn the income limit of 400 percent of the federal policy level into a cliff. Earn $1 over that amount and you lose all federal subsidies.
Carson Hornish, owner of Carson Health Advising, said the first thing he looks at is a
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Oct 28, 2026
By Ricardo Brito, Gram Slattery and Luciana Magalhaes
SAO PAULO, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has left the country for the United States after losing Sunday's presidential election, three sources said, with the US State Department due to grant him and his family entry visas.
Bolsonaro, who has yet to concede to leftist ?incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left Brazil after refusing to comply with a Supreme Court order to surrender his passports.
The ruling relates to a money laundering probe ?in which he denies wrongdoing.
Argentina's migration department said on Wednesday that Bolsonaro and his family had briefly entered the country's Misiones province on Tuesday night through a road crossing, with valid travel documents, before boarding a private plane bound for Guayaquil, ?Ecuador at 11:30 pm local time (0230 GMT).
Argentina cited the flight plan, for the plane operated by air charter company Baires Fly, as the source for the aircraft's destination. The Ecuadorian foreign ministry did not respond to an emailed request for comment outside regular hours.
The current location of Bolsonaro, his wife and two daughters was not immediately clear.
Speaking to reporters late on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump had said that he had heard Bolsonaro was in Argentina.
"The State Department will issue visas to Flavio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States," a senior State Department official said.
BRAZIL-US RIFT GROWS
Bolsonaro's departure ?threatens to deepen a rift between the two most populous nations ?in the Americas. Lula has accused Washington of colluding with the Bolsonaros to put them back in power, and Reuters reported ahead of Sunday's election on a US State Department campaign to restore them to office.
Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he would approve of Bolsonaro coming to the United Stat
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Oct 28, 2026
JERUSALEM (AP) — Anxious Israelis watched election results take shape Wednesday after the highest turnout in over a quarter-century, as no clear winner emerged and weeks of negotiating could lie ahead for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an array of opposition parties trying to unseat him.
Arab-led parties made a historic showing, but it's not clear if other opponents of Netanyahu's far-right government would form a coalition with them for a majority in the next parliament. Issues around the Palestinians and their descendants remain incredibly sensitive in Israel.
Netanyahu was defiant early Wednesday as he seeks to remain the country's longest-serving prime minister. He dismissed the idea of partnering with Arab parties — whose constituents make up 20% of Israel's population — as treasonous.
"We must establish a strong, right-wing, nationalist government," Netanyahu said. "We must not endanger Israel and establish a government that relies on anti-Zionist Arab parties."
His top challenger, centrist former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, has left the door open to partnering with Arab parties under certain conditions, including their recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and of Hamas as an extremist group.
But whether some of Eisenkot's likely partners who have ruled out such an alliance will change their minds to force Netanyahu from office remains to be seen.
With 70% of votes counted, Netanyahu's Likud party has 20.6% and Eisenkot's Yashar party has 15.9%. The co
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Oct 28, 2026
The federal district judge overseeing the Justice Department's lawsuit asking California to segregate roughly 20,000 ballot belonging to individuals it claims are "likely" noncitizens appeared skeptical of the DOJ's efforts to seek emergency action just a week from the state's election.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter said in court Tuesday he intends to appoint a special master to probe DOJ's process that led it to compile the list of alleged 20,000 likely non-citizens, dealing a setback to the Trump administration's attempt to quickly intervene in the election.
Judge Carter did not rule by the conclusion of the hearing on the DOJ request for a temporary restraining order against the state, though he appeared skeptical of the department's late-stage attempt to force what he described as a "monumental change" in California's ongoing administration of its election.
Daniel Cole/Reuters - PHOTO: California election fraud hearingDOJ sues California over alleged non-citizens on voter rolls
Carter told the parties he intends to issue some kind of ruling governing proceedings on the case moving forward by tomorrow.
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Oct 27, 2026
President Trump and Texas Senate candidate James Talarico (D) shared their competing visions Tuesday as the two held dueling rallies in the Lone Star State one week before the midterm elections.
Trump did two rallies in Texas — the first in Corpus Christi and another in Lubbock. It's his fourth trip to Texas to support Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton.
Talarico held his own rally in Lubbock on Tuesday. He was in Corpus Christi on Saturday.
The Texas race is one of the most contested and watched Senate races in the country. Talarico and Paxton remain close in the polls — Real Clear Polling calls the race a toss-up, with Talarico holding a slight lead.
A Democrat winning the Senate seat would be a shock — none have won a U.S. Senate race in Texas since 1988, and Trump won the state by nearly 14 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.
Democrats are vying to take control of the House and the Senate. The party would need to win four seats to win control of the Senate.
The president started off his rally in Corpus Christi saying that Texans would defeat "Democrat Communist James Talafreako," using the nickname he's given to the candidate.
At both rallies, Trump criticized Talarico on a range of issues like immigration, the Second Amendment and barbecue.
"If you're running in Texas and if you don't like guns, and if you don't like meat and if you don't
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Oct 27, 2026
First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli in June 2025. (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Bill Essayli is unlawfully serving as Los Angeles' top federal prosecutor and ordered him disqualified from overseeing two criminal cases, rejecting the Justice Department's latest effort to preserve his authority.
Senior U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright, however, delayed the disqualifications from taking effect while he considers an anticipated government request for a stay pending appeal.
Although the order applies to two prosecutions, Seabright rejected the legal arrangement that has allowed Essayli to continue leading the office under the title of first assistant U.S. attorney. He concluded that the Justice Department had unlawfully delegated powers so sweeping that Essayli in effect occupied the U.S. attorney's position.
"In sum, Essayli is unlawfully serving as a ‘de facto' United States Attorney," Seabright wrote.
After learning about Seabright's ruling from The Times, Essayli on Tuesday afternoon said that his office expected it and that the case "will be decided by the Supreme Court." In a follow-up email, he said, "I look forward to serving in my current role until then."
H. Dean Steward, a defense attorney who filed a renewed motion in August challenging Essayli's authority, called the decision "a victory for the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution."
"The Trump administration ignored the laws governing the appointment of U.S. Attorneys and got caught in Los Angeles," he said in an emailed statement. "Trump and his Department of Justice violated the law again and again in an effort to install minions a
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Oct 27, 2026
By Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - The US military has spent over $47 billion so far to prosecute the war in Iran, more than 25% higher than the Defense ?Department's estimate in July, according to Pentagon data obtained by Reuters.
The Pentagon did not ?immediately respond to a request for comment on its estimate, which has not been shared publicly.
The disclosure about the rising ?cost of the Iran war comes as Republicans wrestle with the political fallout of the unpopular conflict ahead of the November 3 election that will determine control of Congress for the next two years.
The war's impact on global energy costs has weighed on support for Republican candidates and hurt President Donald Trump's ?approval ratings. Trump's Republican Party holds ?a narrow majority in both chambers of Congress.
The Pentagon's latest estimate was tied to the operational costs of carrying out the war, with a projected ?cost of more than $29 billion to replace expended munitions used in the conflict.
More than $6 billion would be needed to replace military equipment and so-called "platform losses," which include the loss of aircraft including many drones lost during ?the ?war.
Trump launched the Iran war jointly with Israel in ?February, predicting that the conflict would last ?a short time.
Trump's initial strategy in the Iran war focused on first using expensive, high-end precision missiles to bomb Iran's defenses so it could later use less expensive munitions, including gravity bombs like the air-launched JDAMs, which are plentiful.
But an April ceasefire gave time for Iran to dig out underground storage facilities, bringing back online some Iranian defenses, as well as missiles and drones that had ?been inaccessible.
Trump has since imposed a naval blockade on ?Iran to starve it of oil export revenue and held ?out the possibility of restarting combat operations ?afte
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Oct 27, 2026
The Trump administration is moving to weaken a regulation that requires oil and gas companies to limit leaks of methane, a more potent driver of climate change than carbon dioxide.
President Donald Trump announced the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed regulation at an event in Lubbock, Texas, on Tuesday evening. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said earlier this month that the agency was "days not weeks" away from issuing the proposal, roughly outlining its contents.
"We've been working on this for a long time," Trump said at the rally. "We were working on this before the war broke out," he added, referring to the Feb. 28 attack on Iran.
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The move comes even as several major oil companies, including Chevron and ExxonMobil, have long supported direct federal regulation of methane, arguing that industry-wide rules are needed to curb leaks. But that support has not always extended to every provision: The companies have at times pressed regulators to narrow monitoring and reporting requirements.
Smaller independent producers and their trade groups have more aggressively fought methane rules as burdensome and costly. Executives at some of those firms — including several major donors to Trump — have push
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Oct 27, 2026
Flavio Bolsonaro lost elections to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and refused to concede defeat (Evaristo Sa)Defeated right-wing presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro left Brazil for the United States despite a court order banning him from exiting the country, US media reported Tuesday.
The son of jailed ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro lost the presidential election Sunday to incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and refused to concede defeat.
The right-wing senator on Monday said a Supreme Court justice had ordered him to hand over his passports. Bolsonaro is under investigation for alleged corruption and money laundering, and with his election loss is also set to lose parliamentary immunity.
The 45-year-old arrived in the United States, CNN and the Washington Post reported, each citing an anonymous source. Where he landed remains unknown.
The US State Department said Tuesday it would issue visas to Bolsonaro and his family, without confirming his travel plans.
A police source told AFP that the senator's Brazilian and diplomatic passports had been canceled, adding that "there is no formal record of Flavio Bolsonaro leaving the country."
But he has held Italian nationality since 2023, according to an Italian parliamentary document seen by AFP.
Bolsonaro's campaign manager Rogerio Marinho expressed shock over reports that the defeated candidate had fled Brazil.
"We still don't have any news about his whereabouts," he told reporters Tuesday in Brasilia.
"I received a text message from him this morning, where he said he would let some time pass today and then would talk with us, and that was it," Marinho said.
"That was the only communication we had."
- 'Shameful' -
Lula called fleeing the country a "shameful" act.
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Oct 27, 2026
Progressive Twitch streamer Hasan Piker filed a defamation lawsuit against conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings on Tuesday, accusing him of falsely claiming Piker advocated lynching Black Americans after airing an edited video of his remarks.
The 38-page lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., centers on an Aug. 11 episode of "The Scott Jennings Show," in which Jennings shared clips of Piker claiming he had said, "the USA should resume lynchings against Black people."
Piker, who threatened legal action in August over the claim and shared further context to the clips, alleges Jennings knowingly misrepresented sarcastic comments he made during his livestreams by turning it into an apparent endorsement of racial violence.
"Mr. Jennings did not merely mischaracterize something Mr. Piker said," the complaint reads. "He took a false, fabricated, and manipulated video of Mr. Piker, added a made-up quotation that Mr. Piker never uttered, and then made accusations that went beyond even what the manipulated footage purported to show."
During the August broadcast, Jennings warned Black voters to play close attention before playing the clip, which included an on-screen caption attributing the statement, "Let's go back to a better time when lynchings were happening," to Piker.
Jennings later accused Piker of "calling for Black voters to be lynched" and referred to what he called "the Piker plan of returning our country to lynchings."
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Oct 27, 2026
The words "competitive" and "Texas" don't often show up side by side when it comes to big elections. No Democrat has won a statewide race in the Lone Star State since 1994, and most of the races within that timespan haven't been particularly close.
But now, Democrats are pinning their hopes of ending their three-decade losing streak in Texas on James Talarico, a 37-year-old state lawmaker who has become one of the party's breakout stars of the midterms.
Talarico first gained national attention in March, when he defeated U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett in a high-profile intraparty primary battle. His Republican opponent is Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who bested longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in an often contentious Republican primary runoff.
By fusing progressive politics, a soft-spoken demeanor and unapologetic Christian faith, Talarico has built a broad base of support among Texas voters that has allowed him to maintain a steady — yet small — lead in the polls in the months leading up to Election Day. Forecasters list the race as a toss-up.
The outcome could have huge implications for American politics. Democrats' hopes of seizing control of the Senate for the final two years of Trump's presidency hinge on winning at least a couple of seats in historically deep red states like Texas. A victory for Talarico could also cement his position as a key figure in the Democratic Party's next generation of leaders.
With all that in mind, here's what to know about where Talarico came from, what he stands for and how strong his chances are of turning the Lone Star State blue.
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Oct 27, 2026
Federal prosecutors were rebuffed in their effort to secure an indictment against former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson over her testimony related to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to four sources briefed on the grand jury proceedings.
The Justice Department has not yet responded to a request for comment.
The Washington Post first reported that the grand jury declined to indict Hutchinson.
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has been handling the Hutchinson investigation, CBS News previously reported, and during a hearing on another matter Tuesday, a litigator with the division, Neville Hedley, told U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui that the grand jury had not concurred on the proposed indictment. Hedley did not say who the defendant was, but multiple sources confirmed it was Hutchinson.
Hutchinson, who was a top aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, angered President Trump's allies and his base when she testified in 2022 before the House select committee investigating the 2021 Capitol attack.
In depositions and congressional testimony, Hutchinson said that Mr. Trump and Meadows were warned on Jan. 6 that some of his supporters were carrying weapons to the Capitol, but Mr. Trump said he didn't care — and he tried to order officials to remove the magnetometers at the rally where he spoke that morning.
She also relayed a story she said had been told to her by then-White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato, in which Mr. Trump grew incensed after his lead Secret Service agent would not drive him to the Capitol after the president's speech to supporters. During that address on the White House Ellipse, he had encouraged them to go to the Capitol, where Congress was confirming the Elec
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Oct 27, 2026
People wait in line to participate in early voting for the midterm elections in Cary, North Carolina, on October 25, 2026. —Allison Joyce—AFP/Getty ImagesElection Day is still a week away. But with early voting for the midterms underway in nearly every state, tens of millions of Americans have already cast their ballots, offering an initial glimpse into how the pivotal elections may play out.
As of Tuesday afternoon, nearly 33 million people have voted since early voting windows opened in some states over a month ago, according to tracking by the University of Florida's Election Lab. Around half of those votes have been cast in person, while the other half were submitted by mail.
With days of early voting left to go before Election Day on Nov. 3, that figure already represents more than a quarter of the roughly 122 million Americans who voted in the 2022 midterms.
Michael McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida who runs the Election Lab, stresses to TIME that early voting data cannot in and of itself be relied on to predict the outcome of the elections. But he says it can reveal other informative a
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Oct 27, 2026
People wait in line to participate in early voting for the midterm elections in Cary, North Carolina, on October 25, 2026. —Allison Joyce—AFP/Getty ImagesElection Day is still a week away. But with early voting for the midterms underway in nearly every state, tens of millions of Americans have already cast their ballots, offering an initial glimpse into how the pivotal elections may play out.
As of Tuesday afternoon, nearly 33 million people have voted since early voting windows opened in some states over a month ago, according to tracking by the University of Florida's Election Lab. Around half of those votes have been cast in person, while the other half were submitted by mail.
With days of early voting left to go before Election Day on Nov. 3, that figure already represents more than a quarter of the roughly 122 million Americans who voted in the 2022 midterms.
Michael McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida who runs the Election Lab, stresses to TIME that early voting data cannot in and of itself be relied on to predict the outcome of the elections. But he says it can reveal other informative a
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Oct 27, 2026
Israel's Channel 13 news initially projected the opposition bloc would have the edge with 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, with Netanyahu's bloc set to win around 50. It later dropped the Eisenkot bloc to 52. Netanyahu's Likud party would be the largest single party, with 25 seats, per the broadcaster.
Channel 12, another major pollster, also put the opposition bloc at 52 seats and Netanyahu's at 50. It had the Likud party winning 24 seats.
Arab parties are projected to win a record 18 seats, according to the outlets.
In a post on X, Eisenkot said the exit poll results showed a "complete lack of confidence in Netanyahu and the October 7 government."
Yair Golan, the leader of Israel's left-wing Democrats party, added that the public had "spoken" and "ousted the Netanyahu government."
But Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar warned that celebrations from the left were "premature."
"One thing seems quite clear: The Likud is the largest party in Israel," he wrote on social media.
Turnout for the election - Israel's first since Hamas' 7 October 2023 attacks - hit over 77%, according to Israel's Central Elections Committee.
Netanyahu had spent much of the day calling on supporters to get out and vote, painting the election as a "matter of life and death."
The vote is widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu's leadership.
This is a developing story. Check back here for further details.
This article originally appeared on Euronews at https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/27/exit-polls-suggest-no-clear-victor-in-israeli-election
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Oct 27, 2026
With a week to go until the 2026 midterm elections, you'd be forgiven for thinking that President Trump and former President Barack Obama were running against each other this year.
While campaigning for Democrats in Ohio over the weekend, Obama mocked the various renovation projects that Trump has been overseeing at the White House, prompting a pointed response from the president and his administration.
"I don't know if you've noticed, but he seems very focused on home renovations," Obama told the crowd in Cleveland. "He should be on HGTV. Guy's building a ballroom that's bigger than the White House. He's paved over the Rose Garden. He's put a helicopter pad on the South Lawn. And there's gold everywhere — what's up with the gold? Everything, more gold. He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory."
What else did Obama say?Obama also skewered the Trump administration for the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool controversy.
"Remember that whole thing about 'drain the swamp'?" he said. "The only thing that got drained was the reflecting pool in the National Mall after some no-bid contract got it all messed up, and then they tried to blame a three-time Olympian and say he vandalized it."
Obama also taunted Trump for starting a trade war with "that well-known evil empire, Canada."
"I mean, these are the people who gave us maple syrup and Martin Short," Obama said.
But it was the Cheesecake Factory line that
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Oct 27, 2026
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump returned to Texas on Tuesday in a final attempt to boost Senate candidate Ken Paxton, whose close race in a normally reliable conservative-leaning state has Republicans worried about losing control of the chamber.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Apple's Foldable iPhone Duo Draws Early Complaints of the Screen CrackingLula Wins Record Fourth Term in Surprise Brazil ComebackFinland and Norway Hold ‘Frank' Call With Putin on UkraineAnthropic Files for IPO in Global Race to Raise Cash for AIMbappé Apologizes for Perceived Mao Insult After China BacklashTrump sought to cast Democratic challenger James Talarico as too far left for voters and at the same time pleaded for patience over high energy prices, fueled in part by the war in Iran.
High prices that have strained household budgets have become the dominant issue in the election, weighing down Republican candidates in red states such as Texas.
Trump on T
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Oct 27, 2026
By Ricardo Brito and Gram Slattery
SAO PAULO, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has left the country for the United States after losing Sunday's presidential election and refusing to comply with a Supreme Court order to hand over ?his passports, three sources said.
The US Embassy in Brazil did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bolsonaro's lawyer also ?did not respond.
Bolsonaro's location was not immediately clear. One source who is close to the Bolsonaro family said Flavio had arrived in the United States, but declined to say ?where.
The source said US President Donald Trump's administration had granted asylum to Flavio and his immediate family. Trump has previously alleged Flavio's father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was a victim of judicial persecution in Brazil.
Flavio's departure threatens to deepen a rift between the two most populous nations in the Americas. Leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused Washington of colluding with the Bolsonaros to put them back in power, and Reuters reported ?ahead of Sunday's election on a US State ?Department campaign to restore them to office.
The elder Jair Bolsonaro also went to the United States after refusing to concede to Lula in 2022, when former US President Joe Biden was in office. He eventually returned to ?Brazil but was later given a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after his supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia.
Trump made no mention of Flavio Bolsonaro's departure in comments to the press on Monday, but said the Brazilian vote "looked like another rigged election."
Lula's office did not respond to a request for ?comment.
Bolsonaro ?was favored to win Sunday's presidential election but ended up losing in a ?shock result to Lula.
On Monday, he was given 24 hours ?to surrender his passports as part of a money laundering probe in which he den
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Oct 27, 2026
Washington — A federal magistrate judge on Tuesday rejected the Justice Department's 11th-hour attempt to file new criminal charges against two former FBI counterintelligence officials, saying prosecutors could not take that step without judicial review first.
In a tense exchange, Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia expressed shock and anger at the Justice Department for filing an unsworn and unsigned superseding complaint against the two FBI officials after midnight on Tuesday on the public court docket, noting it was never reviewed by him to establish whether there was probable cause a crime was committed.
Filing an unsworn complaint on the public docket and bypassing judicial review, he said, is unheard of and raises questions about the DOJ's motivations. He said he would be ordering that the new version of the charging documents be "struck from the record," though the Justice Department could try to add new charges the proper way.
The docket was later updated to say that the Justice Department's filings were entered "in error."
"We have never had complaints filed that are unsigned," Faruqui said. "It is inappropriate. It harms the defendants."
"I am unaware of that ever happening before in this court," he added. "I am frustrated that I got it in the middle of the night. But I am much more concerned that it is filed on the public record."
John Borchert, a prosecutor from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., conceded that the effort by the government to add fresh charges without judicial review in a criminal complaint was a first for him as well.
He asked if Faruqui would agree to let the FBI agent who filed the affidavit in support of the new complaint swear and attest to his filing and then proceed with a hearing to determine if probable cause was met.
Defense attorneys for the two ex-officials balked, with one calling such a move "
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Oct 27, 2026
Dr. Jennifer Shuford, the CDC's deputy director and chief medical officer, will leave the agency next month. (CDC)Less than five months into her tenure as the deputy director and chief medical officer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Jennifer Shuford will leave the agency next month, a spokesperson said.
Her exit is the latest example of the leadership churn that has roiled the country's top health agencies under the Trump administration.
Shuford's last day will be Nov. 12, the CDC spokesperson said. In a statement provided on Shuford's behalf, she said she was leaving to spend more time with her family.
"I am so thankful to President Trump and Secretary Kennedy for giving me the opportunity to help lead CDC. It has been an amazing experience and I will be forever grateful for it," she said.
The spokesperson said Satish Pillai, who leads the agency's Ebola response, will serve as acting deputy director and chief medical officer while the CDC looks for a permanent successor.
President Donald Trump announced in April that Shuford had been appointed to CDC leadership, and she started her dual roles in June. Previously, she was Texas' chief state epidemiologist during the Covid pandemic, then was appointed in 2022 to be commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services. In that role, she oversaw the response to the measles outbreak centered in West Texas last year, which led to more than 750 cases and the deaths of two school-age children.
The CDC has lost several top leaders over the last year and a
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Oct 27, 2026
Michael Pretti and Susan Pretti, parents of Alex Pretti, who was killed by federal immigration agents in January, listen during a news conference, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt) - Ellen Schmidt/AP
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Susan and Michael Pretti join CNN's Jake Tapper on The Lead at 5 p.m. Eastern
The parents of Alex Pretti, a US citizen shot and killed by immigration agents in Minneapolis in January, are accusing the Department of Justice of violating their rights under a federal victims' rights law, as they demand transparency and justice in their son's death.
In a July letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche — obtained exclusively by CNN — an attorney representing Michael and Susan Pretti wrote they have not received any substantive updates from the DOJ regarding an investigation into their son's death, and called the department's attitude toward the case "cruel."
"The government's pattern of conduct is not only unconscionable, but unlawful," the letter states.
Pretti's parents on Tuesday accused the federal government of "shielding Alex's killers" by not turning over the entire federal case file to state investigators.
"We will no longer stay silent about the actions of the Department of Justice in the 275 days since Alex's murder," Pretti's father, Michael, said
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Oct 27, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior State Department official said Tuesday that Flávio Bolsonaro and his family will be granted U.S. visas after his weekend loss to incumbent Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a hotly contested race that bucked a trend of conservative electoral results in Latin America.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to visa privacy laws, said "the State Department will issue visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States."
Bolsonaro, who had President Donald Trump's tacit support, had been under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in Brazil and had been ordered to surrender his passport.
The State Department official did not say if Bolsonaro had already left Brazil or if he and his family were en route to the U.S.
Bolsonaro's campaign manager, Rogério Marinho, said he hadn't spoken to the defeated candidate since early Tuesday morning.
"We had no news from Flávio or his lawyers about what happened," Marinho said. "I received a text message from him, he said he wanted to take a break and then he would talk to us. That's the only message I had from him."
Bolsonaro's brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who lives in Texas, had publicly encouraged him to leave Brazil if he lost the election.
Bolsonaro has touted his relationship with Trump and visited the White House in May. The family connections go deeper: Brother Eduardo Bolsonaro was convicted in absentia in June of illegally lobbying the Trump administration and sentenced to four years in prison. A warrant was recently issued for his arrest.
Trump did not offer a full-throated endorsement of Bolsonaro in the runoff against Lula, as he has with some other right-of-center candidates in Latin Americ
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Oct 27, 2026
The 2026 midterm elections are just 7 days away. So where do things stand — nationwide — in the race to control Congress? Which party has a better chance of, you know, winning? To get a sense of that, it helps to geek out over some cold, hard data.
The usual caveats apply, of course. Polls aren't predictions; they're momentary snapshots of public opinion. And they have been wrong before.
Yet time is running out — and the stakes in November couldn't be higher, especially for President Trump, who has enjoyed complete Republican control of Congress for the first half of his second term. Flipping the House would give Democrats the power to block the president's agenda, investigate his administration and even impeach him (again); flipping the Senate would allow them to stymie his Supreme Court nominees too.
The state-by-state midterm landscape is reaching its final form — and some clear polling trends have emerged. Here are the numbers to watch as Election Day nears.
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Oct 27, 2026
By Andrew Chung
Oct 27 (Reuters) - The US Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to reinstate the authority of immigration judges to temporarily postpone deportation cases, keeping in place an agreement between President Donald Trump's administration and Republican-governed Texas ?that bars the once-common practice.
The justices denied an emergency request by three US cities including Baltimore and an immigrant legal ?advocacy group to halt for now the deal ending the practice, known as "administrative closure," while litigation continues in the dispute.
The Supreme Court's decision, issued as a brief, ?one-sentence order, did not offer any explanation, as is common when it handles emergency requests. None of the justices publicly dissented from decision.
The administration and Texas filed the agreement in a federal court in Texas on June 22, the same day that the state sued to challenge the immigration court procedure. A federal judge swiftly approved the agreement on the same day. Baltimore and the other litigants said the federal ?government improperly colluded with Texas to secure the ?rule's invalidation.
Immigration judges relied on administrative closure for decades to clear certain deportation cases off their busy dockets, including when separate proceedings involving the same person are pending that could prevent removal, such as ?on a visa petition or an appeal of a criminal conviction.
Critics including Texas and the Trump administration have said administrative closure has allowed immigrants who lack legal status to remain indefinitely in the United States, acting in effect like an amnesty.
Administrative closure has been applied over the years in ?hundreds ?of thousands of deportation cases. Ending the practice is part of Trump's ?hardline approach toward immigrants.
In 2024, Biden's administration adopted a ?regulation that formally codified administrative closure procedures,
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Oct 27, 2026
Benjamin Netanyahu casts his ballot next to his wife Sara at a polling station in Jerusalem - Pool via Reuters/Yonatan SindelIsrael attracted a record turnout for Tuesday's crucial election, as Benjamin Netanyahu and Gadi Eisenkot accused each other of dirty tricks.
At 4pm in Israel (2pm UK time), voter turnout stood at 55.7 per cent, according to the country's central elections committee - 8 per cent higher than at the same time of day during the 2022 election.
It was the highest turnout at that hour since hourly numbers were first recorded in 1973, with more than four million people having voted.
"We have surpassed all the records kept by the central elections committee. There hasn't been such a nationwide voter turnout since 1973," said Dean Livne, the acting director-general of the committee.
As voters went to the polls, Mr Netanyahu accused Arab parties of trying to steal the election after reports that people with envelopes of cash were allegedly trying to bribe voters.
The Israeli prime minister claimed that three senior officials from the Raam party had been arrested with envelopes full of money in the South.
However, Israeli police confirmed that while three local residents had been detained in the Negev on suspicion of distributing cash in Raam envelopes, they
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Oct 27, 2026
DNA connects serial killer Ted Bundy to the death of another Utah teenager, authorities announced Tuesday, exactly 52 years after her body was discovered in the woods by a hunter.
Bundy has been dead since 1989, but the tally of his confirmed victims continues to grow due to advances in DNA testing. He killed at least 30 women and girls in multiple states in the 1970s, and many more escaped or survived with injuries.
Investigators are satisfied that Bundy was responsible for killing 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith in 1974, a death that had long been listed as a cold case, Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said at a news conference.
They were able to close the case by making crucial connections with DNA found on Smith and Laura Aime, another Bundy victim whose case was resolved last April in Utah County. Bundy's DNA was on file in Florida, where he was convicted and ultimately executed.
Besides that evidence, Smith's death showed hallmarks of Bundy's "pattern, motive, means and opportunity," Olson said.
Utah's state crime lab got new technology in 2023 that extracts DNA from samples even if they are small, degraded from age or contain DNA from multiple people.
"This case demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence," said Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera, whose department has also investigated homicides linked to Bundy.
"We have to solve these cases to the best of our ability," she said, explaining the importance of tapping science, even so many years later. "Nobody is just going to walk away and just blame everything on Ted Bundy, even though many cases have been that way. Here in the state of Utah, we take it very seriously."
Smith's relatives were contacted about the findin
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Oct 27, 2026
April 2026 photo of former Rep. Eric Swalwell at a town hall meeting in Sacramento. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)The FBI Tuesday morning raided a mansion in Beverly Hills in connection with an investigation into former Congressman Eric Swalwell, sources told The Times.
Swalwell, a Democrat from Dublin, dropped out of the California governor's race and resigned from Congress in April after allegations that he sexually assaulted a former staffer and acted inappropriately with other young women, which he denied at the time. Before he dropped out of the race, polls indicated that Swalwell was among the front-runners.
On Tuesday, FBI agents were in Beverly Hills executing a search warrant on North Roxbury Drive in connection with the probe.
"We are executing a search warrant. Court documents are sealed. No arrests are planned," said FBI spokesperson Lourdes Arocho.
The raid is taking place at the home of billionaire Stephen Cloobeck, sources confirmed to The Times.
Swalwell stayed at the home several times while campaigning and used it for political events before he was kicked out in April after the allegations against him became public. In one of his last acts there, Swalwell filmed a video denying the rape and sexual assault.
Cloobeck, 64, is a one-time California gubernatorial candidate and a well-known figure in Democratic politics. He got rich in the timeshare industry, eventually selling his Las Vegas-based Diamond Resorts company to a private equ
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Oct 27, 2026
New data from the Energy Information Administration showed that gas prices since Jan. 20, 2025 have averaged $3.458 per gallon — the first time in President Trump's second term that overall average gas prices have surpassed the average seen during President Biden's four years in office.
The weekly government data, released Tuesday, shows a reading of $4.269 per gallon for Oct. 26, which nudged up the average price under Trump — from Jan. 27, 2025 to this week. It has now surpassed the $3.455-per-gallon average seen from Jan. 25, 2021, to Jan. 20, 2025.
Trump's gas price record is narrowly favorable to Biden's when comparing the first 91 weekly readings of both men's presidencies. "US Regular Gasoline Prices" from Jan. 25, 2021 to Oct. 24, 2022 averaged $3.517 per gallon.
Biden oversaw a spike in prices — including the highest gas prices on record of $5.006 per gallon the week of June 13, 2022 — as the US confronted oil shocks that followed Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.The new numbers come exactly one week before the midterm elections and underline a clear political challenge for Trump and his party as polling shows that voters blame the president for gas price increases, which spiked immediately following the invasion of Iran earlier this yea
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Oct 27, 2026
Kharkiv, Ukraine - Yulia Spichak, a 34 year-old makeup artist in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region, dropped her son off at an English-language lesson on Oct. 19 and sat down in a nearby park to send a selfie to her sister, Alina. Seconds later, a Russian drone slammed into the park, killing Spichak and four others, including a 1-year-old girl.
The attack came six days after Elon Musk's SpaceX throttled Ukraine's access to Starlink, which Ukraine has been using to coordinate its defenses against Russian attacks and for some of its offensive operations. In a post on X, Musk accused Ukraine of violating Starlink's terms of service by also using it for attacks on Russia.
Ukrainian officials told CBS News that the restrictions imposed without advance notice affected ground-based air defense radars and drone interceptors, hindering the military's ability to stop incoming Russian strikes.
"It's an essential part of the air defense infrastructure," Vadym Ivchenko, a Ukrainian member of parliament on the National Security, Defense and Intelligence Committee, told CBS News Monday. "I couldn't say that all other air defenses stopped working, no. But this part is quite essential for the defense of civilians in Ukraine."
CBS News obtained photographs that show Ukraine's ground-based air defense radars' Starlink connectivity dropping to .1 megabytes per second on Oct. 19, the day of the Kharkiv drone attack. That would not be enough to load a webpage, let alone power air defense radars, according to a source familiar with the technology who requested anonymity because he was not permitted to comment on the matter.
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Oct 27, 2026
Federal prosecutors filed new criminal charges on Tuesday against two ex-FBI counterintelligence officials, accusing them of obstructing a congressional proceeding and lying to lawmakers about their roles in the bureau's investigations of Hunter Biden.
The unsigned and unsworn superseding complaint, filed early Tuesday morning, comes just hours before the defendants Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides are due to appear in federal court in Washington, D.C. for a preliminary hearing.
At that hearing, attorneys for Floris and Benavides are expected to grill one of the government's witnesses to test the strength of the complaint and whether the Justice Department can demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe a crime was committed.
The decision by the Justice Department to file a criminal complaint against two former senior FBI officials over testimony they gave three years ago so close to the midterm elections has raised eyebrows among former prosecutors and other federal officials.
Criminal complaints in felony cases are typically reserved for more exigent circumstances, such as ongoing threats to public safety or national security. And Justice Department guidelines and norms have typically urged prosecutors to avoid taking overt investigative steps on politically sensitive cases so close to a national election.
Prosecutors filing an unsworn and unsigned superseding complaint overnight is likely to raise further questions about whether the case is politically motivated.
"What is going on at the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office? In the middle of the night, the government filed an unsigned and unsworn complaint attempting to fix the issues with their original charge against Ms. Floris and adding a new charge just as meritless as the first one," said Floris' legal team in a statement provid
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Oct 27, 2026
Real estate brokers Oren and Tal Alexander and their brother, Alon, listen as their lawyers argue for lesser sentences at a New York courtroom Tuesday. (Jane Rosenberg / Reuters)Two former luxury real estate brokers and their brother were each sentenced to 30 years in federal prison, seven months after they were convicted of drugging and raping women in a sex trafficking ring.
Federal prosecutors sought life sentences for Oren and Alon Alexander, a pair of former powerful real estate brokers, and their brother, Tal, in a New York City courtroom Tuesday afternoon. Attorneys for the brothers, who have asserted their innocence, asked the judge to give the men the mandatory minimum, instead.
U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni characterized the brothers as "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." On one side, they were described as gentlemen who loved their children, she said, and on the other, they were described as "sadistic, misogynistic, sexual predators."
"Your conduct was monstrous," Caproni said in her sentencing.
But Caproni added that she did not believe the Alexander brothers were beyond redemption, declining the request to give them life sentences.
In addition to 30 years of incarceration, she ordered 10 years of supervised release and sex offender treatment approved by the probation office. They are not to have contact with any child under age 18 unless it is approved by the probation office.
Twins Alon and Oren Alexander, 39, were ordered to pay $300,000 each in fines. Tal Alexander,
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Oct 27, 2026
By Steven Scheer and Pesha Magid
JERUSALEM, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Israelis surged to the polls at the fastest rate in nearly half a century on Tuesday to pass wartime judgment on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in what voters described as the most consequential election in the nation's history.
Long lines formed outside polling stations for the first election since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks, with ?voters passionately engaged over the trauma of the country's deadliest day and the ensuing wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
Policies of Netanyahu's right-wing coalition have been divisive at home and have deepened Israel's international isolation, ?while he has defended his record, calling himself the only leader with the mettle to face down Israel's foes.
Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader with 19 years in office, is an unmatched political survivor, and his nationalist politics are increasingly entrenched. Israel's fragmented system makes it difficult for an ?array of opponents to force out his coalition of right-wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties.
His main rival Gadi Eisenkot, a military ex-chief of staff and security hawk, aims to unseat him with the support of parties on the right and centre, as well as the rump of an increasingly marginalised left. Opinion polls show a close race, with neither leader facing an easy path to power.
In a message to supporters more than five hours after polls opened, Netanyahu urged them to vote, saying turnout was high among his opponents on the left and among Israelis of Arab heritage, around a fifth of the country.
"We need it to be high too. You all need to stream to the polls," he said. "This is a fateful moment."
VOTER SEES ?ELECTION AS MOST IMPORTANT SHE'S KNOWN
Voters began casting ballots after polling stations opened at ?7 a.m. (0500 GMT). The polls close at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT).
The Central Elections
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Oct 27, 2026
Someone could win an estimated $716 million in Wednesday's Powerball drawing after no ticket matched all six numbers on Monday.
The jackpot has gone for more than 30 drawings without a winner, since Aug. 12, when a single ticket sold in Illinois won $1.04 billion.
Monday still produced a couple of big winners. Two tickets, one sold in Florida and one in Georgia, matched all five white balls and won $1 million each.
What are the odds of winning Powerball?The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.
To put that into perspective, the National Weather Service estimates the odds of being struck by lightning in a given year at about 1 in 1.2 million. That means you're roughly 240 times more likely to be struck than to win the jackpot with a single ticket.
A ticket is far more likely to win a smaller prize. The overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 24.9.
What are the biggest Powerball wins?The most recent jackpot winner, who chose to remain anonymous, won $1.04 billion on Aug. 12, the eighth-largest Powerball prize since the game began in 1992. Illinois law allows lottery winners of over $250,000 to keep their identities hidden.
The largest jackpot ever won, $2.04 billion, went to Edwin Castro, who bought the winning ticket a
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Oct 27, 2026
With one week until the midterm elections, the majorities of both houses of Congress are in play as voters weigh a midterm check on unified control of government in Washington -- President Donald Trump's hold on the White House and Republican majorities in the House and Senate the past two years.
Republicans hold slim majorities in both the House and Senate and are rallying to preserve them with just days until Election Day.
Democrats on the other hand are trying to make inroads into some traditionally red areas in hopes of picking up crucial seats.
AP - PHOTO: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson in Washington, July 21, 2026 and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in Washington, July 13, 2026.HouseIn the House, all 435 seats are on the ballot on Nov. 3 for two-year terms in the 120th Congress. Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana currently holds a historically narrow majority: 218 Republicans alongside a single independent, Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, who filed for reelection without party affiliation but continues to generally support the speaker on the floor. Democrats hold 214 seats.
There are also two vacancies in the House following the April resignations of lawmakers with ethics issues -- former Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales and former Florida Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who attempted a comeback but was rejected by voters in an August primary.
That's a lengthy way to explain that on Election Night, Johnson effectively begins with a 220-215 edge over Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Midterm elections voting: SlideshowWhile Johnson and Republicans defend their legislati
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Oct 27, 2026
Senators are bracing for a potential floor fight over accepting the results of the Alaska Senate race between incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) and former Rep. Mary Peltola (D) — and perhaps other battleground contests — if President Trump urges allies to dispute what he might view as unfair or "rigged" results.
Democratic senators generally view Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) as a straight shooter who would be averse to rejecting an election result in an Alaska Senate race certified by the governor and lieutenant governor.
But they aren't ruling out the possibility that the president will prod his MAGA allies in the Senate to contest the election results if Sen. Dan Sullivan loses by a narrow margin and blames his loss on voter confusion leading to a significant number of votes for his opponent with a similar name, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.
If Alaska's top officials certify Peltola as the winner, and Trump calls on Senate allies to reject that finding, it puts Thune in a tough spot and potentially sets up a messy floor fight.
"Everybody is gaming everything out, and everybody is preparing for everything," a Senate Democratic aide said of the preparations for potential Republican objections if Peltola narrowly beats the incumbent Republican senator.
Sarah Binder, a professor of political science at George Washington University and a Senate rules expert, said Trump's aggressive threat to challenge a Democratic win in Alaska could lead to a nasty Senate floor fight.
"We can't rule anything out at this stage just given the president's single-minded persistence that there's a lot of electora
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Oct 27, 2026
LONDON (AP) — Two men were charged Tuesday with national security offenses over a suspected plot against RAF Fairford, a U.S.-run military air base in England, police and prosecutors said.
British nationals Mohmed Ahmad Abdulkarim and Nouman Essghir, both aged 24 and from London, were charged under the National Security Act, the Crown Prosecution Service said. They are due to appear in court later Tuesday.
Abdulkarim is charged with assisting Iran's intelligence service and Essghir with entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the U.K.
RAF Fairford, in western England, has been used by American bombers to strike Iran during this year's war.
Essghir was arrested outside the base on Sept. 27, when armed police officers and army bomb-disposal experts swarmed the rural area. Scores of residents were evacuated from their homes as police and army bomb-disposal experts searched for explosives.
Police later said they had found a quantity of an accelerant — gasoline — in vans at the scene, but no explosives.
Essghir was initially released on bail before being re-arrested last week. Abdulkarim was arrested in the past week. Six other men have been arrested and released on bail as investigations continue.
British authorities have linked Tehran to the incident, which led the U.S. to pull its bombers from RAF Fairford. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that the apparent plot was "almos
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Oct 27, 2026
Just two years after Missouri voters approved an amendment enshrining the right to reproductive freedom in the state constitution, abortion, which was also protected by the measure, is on the ballot there again.
On Nov. 3, Missouri residents will be voting on Amendment 3, only this time it would prohibit abortion, except in cases of medical emergencies, fetal anomalies, rape or incest. If the abortion is due to rape or incest, the procedure must occur no later than 12 weeks' gestation.
Since Roe v. Wade was overruled by the Supreme Court in June 2022, 13 states have ceased nearly all abortion services while four states have a six-week ban on books, according to an ABC News tally.
Missouri lawmakers move to repeal abortion protections enacted by votersFollowing the Supreme Court decision, Missouri enacted a trigger ban, prohibiting most abortions in the state.
However, in November 2024, Missouri became the first state to overturn a near-total abortion ban through a direct vote of the people by passing Amendment 3 -- the same name as the upcoming ballot measure -- with about 52% of the vote.
"Missourians have access to abortion care because the people made it possible," Mallory Schwarz, executive director of the nonprofit Abortion Action Missouri, told ABC News. "But not even months after our 2024 vote, politicians started plotting to overturn the will of the people and now, in a couple of weeks, voters will have to vote again to protect the right to abortion that we enshrined in the constitution previously."
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Oct 27, 2026
Polling stations in Israel will close on Tuesday evening, but it could be weeks before Benjamin Netanyahu or one of his opponents will be declared the next prime minister.
It might even require another election.
That's because Israelis vote for parties and not candidates. None of the several main parties is expected to win anywhere close to a 61-seat majority in Israel's parliament, known as the Knesset. So the next prime minister will have to cobble together a coalition.
Polls show a tight race between coalitions supporting Netanyahu and his main opponent, retired Gen. Gadi Eisenkot. In the end, both could fall short of a 61-seat majority, meaning another election would be held in the coming months with Netanyahu's government staying on as a caretaker.
Here's a look at the process.
Israeli broadcasters release exit polls
Shortly after polls close at 10 p.m. local time (2000 GMT), Israel's three main television broadcasters will release exit polls estimating how many seats were won by each party.
The exit polls usually provide a good indication of how people have voted. But they also could vary and may not be borne out by the official results, which will be released in the coming days.
The Associated Press calls thousands of elections in the United States, but doesn't declare winners in foreign elections.
Party leaders neg
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Oct 27, 2026
WICHITA, Kan. — Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., knows that he's running for his political life, even in deep-red Kansas, where a Democrat hasn't won since the Great Depression.
It's a Senate race that, until just a few months ago, was not on national Republicans' radar. But Adam Hamilton, a well-known megachurch pastor styling himself as a moderate, has made the race uncomfortably close for Marshall and the GOP and pushed what was once a safe bet into toss-up territory.
In an interview with Fox News Digital in Wichita, Kan., hours before President Donald Trump was set to rally behind the embattled incumbent, Marshall acknowledged that if he falls, Democrats may very well gain control of the Senate.
Sleeper Senate Race Emerges As Unexpected Headache For Republicans Ahead Of Midterms
President Donald Trump and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., attend a campaign event in Park City, Kansas, on Oct. 19, 2026."I think that, you know, I'm not a political expert, I'm a physician, but if we lose Kansas, I don't see how we keep control of the Senate," Marshall said. "And that's why a vote for Adam Hamilton is a vote for Chuck Schumer and Democrat control of the Senate. It's that simple."
Republicans are trying to maintain, and even grow, their slim, 53-seat majority in the upper chamber. Kansas, which hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate in nearly a century, wasn't supposed to be a problem.
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Oct 27, 2026
Election officials from coast to coast are facing a slew of challenges ahead of the high-stakes midterms, from the Trump administration's bid to impose itself on state-run elections to last-minute court challenges and threats faced by election workers -- all under a persistent sense of distrust in the voting process itself, some experts told ABC News.
"Usually the temperature is much higher -- and emotions run much hotter -- in a presidential election year than in a midterm election year," said Wendy Weiser, vice president of the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. "This year, though, the temperature is staying up at a high level."
Election experts broadly lay blame for the elevated sense of distrust in elections this year at the feet of President Donald Trump, whose administration has taken unprecedented steps to question the outcome by levelling unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud.
About 6 in 10 Americans are confident the election will be conducted fairly and accurately: ABC/Post/Ipsos pollTrump administration officials say steps they've taken in recent weeks -- including lawsuits in California and Alaska and threats to prosecute election workers -- are meant to ensure the integrity of the election.
But under the weight of those allegations, state officials say the once-collaborative rapport between the federal government and state leaders has in some cases given way to a deep sense of suspicion.
"There's no trust in that relationship," N
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Oct 27, 2026
Republicans' small-dollar donor base has contracted in recent years, leaving the party more dependent on a tiny group of wealthy megadonors for support.
The GOP has had a cash advantage all year thanks to a relatively small group of large donors who have funded super PACs — Elon Musk alone has given nearly half a billion dollars this cycle. But the campaigns themselves have raised relatively little, and there's one major reason: Other than President Donald Trump, who is still the party's biggest fundraiser, Republicans still haven't figured out how to raise money online.
New campaign finance filings reveal just how deep the problem goes. While Republicans have long struggled to grow their grassroots donor base, they've moved in the wrong direction in recent years. The number of federal donors giving through WinRed, the major GOP online fundraising platform, is down, with roughly 1.5 million donors so far this cycle compared to 2.2 million at this time in 2022. Meanwhile the number of donors has increased by about one third on ActBlue, from 4.9 million to roughly 6.6 million.
The contrast is stark: A single Democratic candidate, James Talarico in Texas, has had roughly the same number of donors on ActBlue this cycle as all Republican candidates and committees combined had on WinRed, according to a POLITICO analysis of reports ActBlue and WinRed submitted to the Federal Election Commission.
Republican digital strategists who have been sounding the alarm for years say lagging donations are a product of fatigue, driven by years of urgent messages to the same set of potential donors.
"We beat the absolute hell out of low-dollar donors with texts and emails without expanding our [donor lists], and now no one pays attention," said Wesley Donehue, a South Carolina-based GOP digital strategist.
Republicans' online
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Oct 27, 2026
By Steven Scheer and Pesha Magid
JERUSALEM, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a fight for political survival in Israel's election on Tuesday, with voters weighing his leadership after the 2023 Hamas-led attacks, wars in Gaza and with Iran, and Israel's deepening international isolation.
Yet Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader with 19 years in ?office, remains a formidable survivor, with nationalist politics increasingly entrenched and Israel's fragmented system potentially leaving him best placed to form a government.
Opinion polls show a close race between ?Netanyahu's Likud party and its right-wing allies and a rival alliance led by Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff and security hawk with backers on the right and in the centre.
Voters began casting ballots after polling stations ?opened at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT). The polls close at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT). Netanyahu has campaigned on his wartime leadership and his alliance with US President Donald Trump, who has endorsed him and joined Israel in waging war on Iran. Netanyahu said on Sunday that Trump was prepared to act again to "finally" remove the Iranian threat, but only if Netanyahu remained in power.
Eisenkot has accused Netanyahu of "relying on a campaign of fear-mongering, lies and threats," and said he was confident Trump would work "in full cooperation with any leader chosen by the people."
Netanyahu may again depend on far-right leaders Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich to ?form a government. Both have faced sanctions from some Western countries ?that accuse them of inciting violence against Palestinians, while Ben-Gvir's Jewish Power party has gained support in opinion polls.
Neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot has a clear path to power. If neither can form a governing coalition in the 120-seat parliament, Netanyahu could stay on as caretaker until another election is held next ?year.
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Oct 27, 2026
The Justice Department took steps to charge James Comey with leaking classified information earlier this month, court records show, in its third attempt to bring criminal charges against the former FBI director and Trump foe.
Prosecutors are seeking to charge Comey with two counts of violating the Espionage Act by transmitting national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it. He has not been indicted by a grand jury or charged by criminal complaint, and was instead targeted through a criminal information filing.
In this case, the information was filed in order to preserve the statute of limitations before it expires, according to a Justice Department spokesperson. The official added that "this is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we will not comment further."
A criminal information does not require approval by a grand jury, or a finding by a magistrate judge of probable cause that there is evidence to establish that a crime was committed.
Comey's attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, said Comey "steadfastly maintains his innocence."
The latest effort by the Justice Department stems from allegations that Comey gave national defense information to an unnamed individual for disclosure in a newspaper in October 2016.
According to court filings in the case, The New York Times published an article on Oct. 5, 2016, titled, "Yahoo Said to Have Aided U.S. Email Surveillance By Adapting Spam Filter." The article cited two unnamed government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The Justice Department alleges that it has uncovered evidence that Comey sought to "correct misinformation which had appeared in the press by way of Reuters the day before" and that Comey "directed staff" to speak with the Times reporter about the accuracy of the Reuters
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Oct 27, 2026
The Justice Department took steps to charge James Comey with leaking classified information earlier this month, court records show, in its third attempt to bring criminal charges against the former FBI director and Trump foe.
Prosecutors are seeking to charge Comey with two counts of violating the Espionage Act by transmitting national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it. He has not been indicted by a grand jury or charged by criminal complaint, and was instead targeted through a criminal information filing.
In this case, the information was filed in order to preserve the statute of limitations before it expires, according to a Justice Department spokesperson. The official added that "this is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we will not comment further."
A criminal information does not require approval by a grand jury, or a finding by a magistrate judge of probable cause that there is evidence to establish that a crime was committed.
Comey's attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, said Comey "steadfastly maintains his innocence."
The latest effort by the Justice Department stems from allegations that Comey gave national defense information to an unnamed individual for disclosure in a newspaper in October 2016.
According to court filings in the case, The New York Times published an article on Oct. 5, 2016, titled, "Yahoo Said to Have Aided U.S. Email Surveillance By Adapting Spam Filter." The article cited two unnamed government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The Justice Department alleges that it has uncovered evidence that Comey sought to "correct misinformation which had appeared in the press by way of Reuters the day before" and that Comey "directed staff" to speak with the Times reporter about the accuracy of the Reuters
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Oct 27, 2026
A golfer walks in front of cut down trees at East Potomac Golf Links near Hains Point in Washington, DC, October 19, 2026. - Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
A federal judge extended an order blocking tree removal from a Washington, DC golf course President Donald Trump is seeking to renovate, while imposing new notice requirements on any other major changes the administration seeks to make on the golf course grounds.
The new 70-page opinion from US District Judge Ana Reyes cited Trump's own statements about his plans for East Potomac Golf Course.
The judge said she was forced to act now in the long-simmering dispute - which came to a head in recent weeks because the administration cut down 400-plus trees on the grounds with little notice - "because the Government did what it assured all it would not do."
The ruling is a major setback for Trump's efforts to turn the beloved but modest public golf course into a championship level course. It also sets the stage for an appeals court battle in a case that had produced sharp confrontations between the administration and the judiciary.
The new ruling comes after a showdown between the Trump administration and the federal bench in DC during a marathon hearing last week over the president's efforts to overhaul the course.
Tensions were ratcheted up for those proceedings when Trump posted to social media that construction would begin at the course "immediately," while calling Reyes a "crazed lunatic."
"The event
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Oct 26, 2026
This booking photo released by the Tennessee Department of Correction on July 24, 2025, shows Jacob Morley. - Tennessee Department of Correction/AP
A 28-year-old convicted murderer serving a life sentence escaped through a Tennessee prison's fence Sunday evening before stealing a truck and driving off — and has not yet been located, according to Tennessee authorities.
Around 11:30 p.m. on October 25, staff at the Northwest Correctional Complex learned Jacob Morley was missing, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction. He had been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, evading arrest and vandalism.
Security camera footage later revealed Morley "breached the perimeter fence" and left the facility wearing his prison uniform, the department said. It remains unclear how he escaped through the fence.
Video obtained by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation shows Morley stealing a white 2008 Ford F-350 with Tennessee plates around 1 a.m. on October 26, the agency said.
unknown content item
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The Hornbeak Fire Department, which is about 15 miles from the Northwest Correctional Complex, said it captured video of Morley passing in front of the fire department building in the stolen truck around 1:18 a.m.
Morley is the second inmate to escape from the Tenness
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Oct 26, 2026
This booking photo released by the Tennessee Department of Correction on July 24, 2025, shows Jacob Morley. - Tennessee Department of Correction/AP
A 28-year-old convicted murderer serving a life sentence escaped through a Tennessee prison's fence Sunday evening before stealing a truck and driving off — and has not yet been located, according to Tennessee authorities.
Around 11:30 p.m. on October 25, staff at the Northwest Correctional Complex learned Jacob Morley was missing, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction. He had been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, evading arrest and vandalism.
Security camera footage later revealed Morley "breached the perimeter fence" and left the facility wearing his prison uniform, the department said. It remains unclear how he escaped through the fence.
Video obtained by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation shows Morley stealing a white 2008 Ford F-350 with Tennessee plates around 1 a.m. on October 26, the agency said.
unknown content item
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The Hornbeak Fire Department, which is about 15 miles from the Northwest Correctional Complex, said it captured video of Morley passing in front of the fire department building in the stolen truck around 1:18 a.m.
Morley is the second inmate to escape from the Tenness
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Oct 26, 2026
Smoke rises from a residential neighborhood in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in the Kherson region of Ukraine in a video the Ukrainian 34th Separate Marine Brigade released Sept. 22. (Ukrainian 34th Separate Marine Brigade / via AP)A rare humanitarian ceasefire brokered by first lady Melania Trump to save people trapped in a Russian-occupied Ukrainian town went into effect early Tuesday.
After months of warnings from Ukrainian officials about an unraveling humanitarian catastrophe in the front-line town of Oleshky, in the southern Kherson region, the White House announced last week that the first lady had secured a pause in the fighting.
The agreement between Ukraine and Russia would "temporarily stop all military action in Oleshky to allow for humanitarian aid to enter and to prepare a civilian evacuation through a designated safe passageway," according to a statement released Friday.
Both the Ukrainian and Russian militaries have confirmed that the ceasefire will start at 3 a.m. local time (9 p.m. ET) to ensure what they have both called a "humanitarian operation." Neither side has indicated when the temporary truce would end.
The ceasefire announcement came amid renewed pressure from President Donald Trump on his Ukrainian counterpart,
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Oct 26, 2026
President Donald Trump took seven minutes out of his Monday night rally in Corinth, Mississippi, to defend his focus on White House renovation projects after one of his predecessors, Barack Obama, compared the redecorated Oval Office to an over-the-top Cheesecake Factory.
Trump denied spending excessive time on the projects, then went on to detail repairs to exterior plaster, as well as construction of a heliport and ballroom. He described the executive mansion's previous condition in dire terms, including a cracked column, missing ornamentation and broken tile.
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"I fix things very good, very beautifully," he said. "It's a natural thing. It actually relaxes me."
Obama, campaigning for Democrats in Ohio on Saturday, joked that the proliferation of gold-colored appliqués in Trump's Oval Office looked "like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory." With his focus on home renovations, Obama added, Trump "should be on HGTV."
The slight played on a broader vulnerability for Trump, a real estate developer by profession, who has devoted considerable attention to remaking the White House and Washington even as most Americans disapprove of the projects. Fifty-nine percent of respondents to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted this month said Trump was spending "too much" time on the projects, compared with 27 percent of adults who said he is spending the right amount of time on the projects and 11 percent who said not enough.
Obama's criticism appeared to partic
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Oct 26, 2026
A federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration's late-breaking effort to force California to separate mail-in ballots from 20,000 purported noncitizens.
A 2-1 ruling from a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the Justice Department improperly circumvented a lower-court judge who had scheduled a hearing on the matter on Tuesday and moved too slowly to seek emergency relief.
"[T]he United States failed to allow the district court adequate opportunity to consider its application for a Temporary Restraining Order," the majority wrote. "The United States's claimed emergency, at least in part, is a self-constructed one."
Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, joined Judge Gabriel Sanchez, a Biden appointee, in turning down the administration's emergency appeal. Judge Patrick Bumatay, another Trump appointee, dissented and said he would have granted the request.
Though the outcome was foreshadowed in a hearing Sunday in which the judges appeared skeptical of their power to take up the Trump administration's case, the dissent by Bumatay created a surprising split.
Bumatay said the Trump administration's view — that a federal criminal law barring voting by noncitizens superseded California's election procedures — would likely prevail in the end, and that every day without relief from the courts increased the likelihood that noncitizens' votes would be improperly counted in the midte
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Oct 26, 2026
Politics can be a lot. Keeping track of what's going on can be confusing, frustrating, unsettling and, often, pretty boring. It's no surprise that a large share of Americans feel compelled to step back from following politics or give up on it entirely.
As understandable as it is to give yourself some distance, that does mean it can be hard to get caught up when something important — like next week's big midterm election — comes up. That's exactly what this story is meant to help with.
There's no need to bombard you with every single twist and turn in U.S. politics since President Trump was elected to a second term two years ago. Instead, consider this a zoomed-out, stripped-down cheat sheet of the things you really do need to know to understand what's happening, why it matters and how you can take part yourself on Nov. 3.
YahooWhat's happening?The midterms happen in even years when there's not a presidential election (they're called that because they happen in the middle of a president's term).
This year, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, as well as 35 of 100 Senate seats and the governorship of 36 states, are on the ballot. That means every eligible voter in all 50 states
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