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Oct 26, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is attempting to prosecute James Comey for what it calls a decade-old leak of classified information, an effort the former FBI director's lawyers immediately dismissed as invalid and outside the legal time limit for when the Justice Department can file a criminal indictment.
The allegations from the Justice Department were revealed Monday in newly unsealed court documents that shed light on a closed-door fight that represents a clear escalation in the administration's targeting of Comey, a longtime critic and foe of President Donald Trump who has faced two other criminal cases since the Republican returned to the White House last year. The effort to prosecute Comey is also part of a series of politically charged investigative actions the department has undertaken in the run-up to next week's midterm elections.
"Well, they're back — again," Comey said in a video statement released after the documents dropped. "It would almost be funny if it weren't such an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice - one that we cannot become numb to. Nothing's changed with me; I'm still innocent, I'm still not afraid of these people — and I still believe in an independent federal judiciary."
The Justice Department, for its part, said it had filed what's known as a "criminal information" to extend the 10-year statute of limitations for bringing a case.
"Filing a criminal information to toll the statute of limitations is a widely recognized practice in federal court and has been approved by multiple Circuit Courts of Appeals. This is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we will not comment further," a department spokesperson said.
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Oct 26, 2026
President Donald Trump prays during a roundtable discussion at the Trump National Doral Miami resort in Miami, Florida, on Oct. 22, 2024. —Chandan Kanna—Getty ImagesA video of Catholic bishops praying around President Donald Trump during a meeting at the White House last week has sparked debate, with some bishops claiming their attendance was "exploited" for political purposes less than two weeks before the midterm elections.
The 12 clergymen joined Trump on Thursday in the Oval Office, for what Archbishop Jeffrey Grob of Milwaukee has said was intended to be a private meeting to discuss matters such as immigration enforcement, religious worker visas, and human dignity. But in a "public apology" issued Sunday, Grob expressed deep regret over the meeting that he suggested was used as a "political photo opportunity" after White House officials shared images and footage of a moment of prayer. The video, which Grob claims was posted without the bishops' consent, has been viewed over 1.8 million times on X alone.
Grob said he had received "many questions" over the encounter and wanted to emphasize that the meeting "was in no way an endorsement of the President, his policies, or his party." He said his invite to the meeting had been extended by Heritage Foundation, the think tank behind the conservative policy playbook
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Oct 26, 2026
By Jody Godoy
Oct 26 (Reuters) - Dollar General repeatedly charged more than advertised prices even after ?receiving tens of thousands of consumer complaints, ?the US Federal Trade Commission and 20 states alleged in a ?lawsuit filed on Monday.
Dollar General, which appeals to low-income consumers with bargain prices, made millions of dollars by failing to honor prices advertised on fliers and ?shelves at checkout, ?the FTC and states allege.
The discount retailer's stock was down more than 4% on ?Monday afternoon.
"Dollar General has, for years, repeatedly mislabeled prices, overcharged consumers and failed to correct the issue ?despite extensive ?corporate knowledge of the ?problem," the FTC and ?states said in a statement.
Representatives for Dollar General did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit cited numerous complaints from consumers, failed inspections conducted by state authorities, and undercover shopping sprees conducted ?by the FTC.
Portions of the ?lawsuit detailing the company's knowledge ?of the practices ?were largely redacted.
California joined the FTC ?lawsuit along with Florida, Illinois, ?Michigan, Ohio, North ?Carolina, Tennessee and 13 other states.
Since 2019, Dollar General has paid $6 million in settlements with ?six states over ?inaccurate pricing, according to the complaint.
(Reporting by ?Katharine Jackson and Susan Heavey; Editing by Doina ?Chiacu and Bill Berkrot)
This article originally appeared on Reuters at https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-20-states-sue-dollar-174735286.html
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Oct 26, 2026
Press freedom groups on Monday sued the Trump administration, alleging in federal court that attempting to bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House violates the First Amendment rights of ordinary citizens to access information about the U.S. government.
The three outlets already won a preliminary injunction halting the government from enforcing the bans while litigation plays out. But the new lawsuit, brought by Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute and Yale Law School's Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic, alleges that the harms of the bans reach far beyond the three named outlets and deprive American citizens of their constitutional rights to access information.
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"The White House cannot decide what information Americans receive by punishing critical reporting," said Katie Fallow, deputy litigation director at the Knight First Amendment Institute. "When the White House expels reporters because of their coverage and threatens others with expulsion, it isn't just the press that suffers - the public loses access to independent reporting and gets something closer to government propaganda."
The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Manhattan on behalf of six named plaintiffs: Yale law professor Kenneth Roth; Yale history professor Beverly Gage; Lawfare Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes; journalist Daniel Froomkin; University of Pennsylvania student Ethan Young, editor in chief of the Daily Pennsylvanian newspaper; and New York City high school teacher Peter Schmidt-Nowara.
"Media that pedal misinformation and defamation are completely capable of reporting their manufactured stories from directly outside," a White House
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Oct 26, 2026
What to know about the Iran war today:
President Trump said Sunday he was still deciding between reaching an agreement with Iran and taking action to "finish them off." Mr. Trump has kept open the possibility of a new round of major U.S. strikes against Iran. Iranian officials said Sunday that indirect negotiations with the U.S. continue but that Tehran will not change its positions even if Mr. Trump does order a resumption of American attacks on the Islamic Republic.The price of international benchmark Brent crude oil sat around $115 a barrel early Monday after surging last week over supply concerns, as the Middle East and Ukraine crises grind on and the Northern Hemisphere heads into winter, when demand for gas rises.
Saudi-led coalition says three more drones shot down over Riyadh
The Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's government in the escalating civil war with the Iran-backed Houthis claimed Monday to have shot down three more drones over the Saudi capital Riyadh, and in the south of the country.
In a post on X, coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki announced the "interception and destruction of 3 drones in the Riyadh region and the southern region."
He did not specify where the drones came from, but the Houthis have attacked Saudi Arabia with missiles and drones for weeks in retaliation for the kingdom's involvement in the Yemen war.
Earlier Monday, al-Maliki said Saudi ai
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Oct 26, 2026
Microsoft (MSFT) announced on Monday that it was offering voluntary buyouts to roughly 60,000 employees as it looks to reshape its organization for the AI era.
"The Voluntary Exit Offer reflects an important part of how we're evolving our approach to change: creating greater flexibility and, where possible, more ways for employees to shape their next chapter," Amy Coleman, Microsoft's executive vice president and chief people officer, wrote in a memo to employees.
The company is reportedly offering buyouts to employees in Canada, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States at level 70 and below, which includes some senior-level personnel.
The announcement follows Microsoft's first voluntary retirement program, which it announced in May. The retirement packages offered ranged from eight to 39 weeks of base pay, depending on employees' positions and tenure.
The offers to staff come as Microsoft plans to spend $190 billion on capital expenditur
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Oct 26, 2026
Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign for Ohio governor appears to be stumbling to the finish line after a series of setbacks — including the loss of a major endorsement and venue cancellations — amid mounting fallout from the MAGA Republican's controversial attack ad.
The 30-second ad, released last week, features Democratic candidate Dr. Amy Acton's mother calling her daughter a "liar" and urging Ohio residents not to vote for her.
The spot has drawn intense bipartisan backlash, with critics condemning the campaign's use of Acton's estranged mother, Donna Arthur. Acton has not spoken to Arthur in decades. Arthur lost custody of her children after her husband was indicted on a charge of raping Acton. He was never prosecuted on that charge before he died, after the couple fled the state.
Ramaswamy has defended the ad as "legitimate," and President Donald Trump has rallied to his defense. The controversy comes as polls show a tight race with less than two weeks until Election Day.
On Sunday, The Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, broke with its policy against endorsing candidates in major races to
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Oct 26, 2026
Republican Vivek Ramaswamy slammed opponent Democrat Amy Acton's campaign on Sunday, saying her campaign "defamed my mother" before he released a controversial attack ad earlier this month.
Appearing on Fox News, Ramaswamy was asked whether he regretted releasing an attack ad that featured Acton's estranged mother, Donna Arthur, calling her daughter a "liar."
"I'll tell you the advice I was raised in: You never start a fight, but if you find yourself in one, you finish it, and you have to stand for what is right and what is true," he said. "They've attacked me. They've defamed my mother to media silence. It's unbelievable. And yet, at the same time, they'll trot out anything to attack a Republican."
Ramaswamy did not mention a specific instance of alleged defamation. The Hill has reached out to his campaign for clarification and comment.
Acton has talked about experiencing physical and sexual abuse, along with neglect, during her childhood. Her mother stayed with her stepfather even after he was charged with sexually abusing Acton when she was 12 years old, according to court documents.
Acton's campaign in August
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Oct 26, 2026
Republican Vivek Ramaswamy slammed opponent Democrat Amy Acton's campaign on Sunday, saying her campaign "defamed my mother" before he released a controversial attack ad earlier this month.
Appearing on Fox News, Ramaswamy was asked whether he regretted releasing an attack ad that featured Acton's estranged mother, Donna Arthur, calling her daughter a "liar."
"I'll tell you the advice I was raised in: You never start a fight, but if you find yourself in one, you finish it, and you have to stand for what is right and what is true," he said. "They've attacked me. They've defamed my mother to media silence. It's unbelievable. And yet, at the same time, they'll trot out anything to attack a Republican."
Ramaswamy did not mention a specific instance of alleged defamation. The Hill has reached out to his campaign for clarification and comment.
Acton has talked about experiencing physical and sexual abuse, along with neglect, during her childhood. Her mother stayed with her stepfather even after he was charged with sexually abusing Acton when she was 12 years old, according to court documents.
Acton's campaign in August
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Oct 26, 2026
By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK, Oct 26 (Reuters) - The Trump administration's abrupt firing of former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey was unlawful, a US judge ruled on Monday, in a victory for ?the eldest daughter of former FBI director and longtime Donald Trump adversary James Comey.
Maurene Comey, who ?brought criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs during nearly a decade at the Manhattan ?US Attorney's office, was fired by the Justice Department in July 2025.
In a lawsuit against the Trump administration, she alleged that she was fired because of who her father was, in violation of federal laws prohibiting firing civil servants for political reasons and guaranteeing federal employees due process in employment disputes.
The case was seen ?as a test of whether the ?Trump administration can swiftly fire line prosecutors like Comey, who are not politically appointed and whose careers tend to span both Republican and Democratic administrations.
During his second ?term, Trump, a Republican, has sought to expand his authority over federal government entities that have historically enjoyed varying degrees of independence from the White House, including the Justice Department. His critics accuse him of using criminal ?prosecutions ?to punish political foes and reward allies.
In court papers, ?the Justice Department argued that prosecutors like Comey ?are subject to removal without cause by the president or the Attorney General because they are delegated a high degree of executive authority when they represent the federal government in court in criminal cases.
Trump fired James Comey during his first term and has attacked the former FBI director for his role in investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which Trump won.
The Justice Department last year charged James ?Comey with lying to Congress about authorizin
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Oct 26, 2026
By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK, Oct 26 (Reuters) - The Trump administration's abrupt firing of former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey was unlawful, a US judge ruled on Monday, in a victory for ?the eldest daughter of former FBI director and longtime Donald Trump adversary James Comey.
Maurene Comey, who ?brought criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs during nearly a decade at the Manhattan ?US Attorney's office, was fired by the Justice Department in July 2025.
In a lawsuit against the Trump administration, she alleged that she was fired because of who her father was, in violation of federal laws prohibiting firing civil servants for political reasons and guaranteeing federal employees due process in employment disputes.
The case was seen ?as a test of whether the ?Trump administration can swiftly fire line prosecutors like Comey, who are not politically appointed and whose careers tend to span both Republican and Democratic administrations.
During his second ?term, Trump, a Republican, has sought to expand his authority over federal government entities that have historically enjoyed varying degrees of independence from the White House, including the Justice Department. His critics accuse him of using criminal ?prosecutions ?to punish political foes and reward allies.
In court papers, ?the Justice Department argued that prosecutors like Comey ?are subject to removal without cause by the president or the Attorney General because they are delegated a high degree of executive authority when they represent the federal government in court in criminal cases.
Trump fired James Comey during his first term and has attacked the former FBI director for his role in investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which Trump won.
The Justice Department last year charged James ?Comey with lying to Congress about authorizin
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Oct 26, 2026
Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) publicly filed its S-1 investor prospectus on Monday, ahead of its planned initial public offering later this fall under the ticker symbol "ANT."
The AI lab, helmed by CEO Dario Amodei, has exploded in popularity thanks to its Claude Code AI coding tool and Claude Cowork enterprise offering.
As of May, Anthropic was valued at $965 billion, more than rival OpenAI's (OPAI.PVT) $852 billion valuation in March.
Anthropic's S-1 provides potential investors with their first look at the company's financials, including how much it's spending on capital expenditures related to AI chips and data center leases, as well as how much revenue it's bringing in and what its largest sources are.
The AI lab has faced a number of controversies this year, including a run-in with the Trump administration over how the government can use the company's AI models, and current and former employees warning about the potentia
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Oct 26, 2026
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D) on Sunday fired back at President Trump's anti-Muslim rhetoric toward him, telling supporters that the president will be referring to him as "Senator Mohamed" if he wins in November.
"I get that the president of the United States takes personal offense to my first name," El-Sayed said at a rally in Grand Rapids, Mich. "He doesn't mind as much when it's a shared name from the Saudis who are funding his son-in-law's private equity. Doesn't seem to mind as much when it's the Qataris who are giving him a $400 million private jet. He just seems to have trouble pronouncing it when it's my name."
"But y'all, I don't care how he pronounces my name," he continued. "I don't even care that he remembers my whole name. Because he can just go on and call me 'senator' after November. I will be Senator Mohamed to you, bro."
If elected, El-Sayed would be the first Muslim American to serve in the Senate.
Trump has frequently attacked El-Sayed's faith on the campaign trail, mocking his name and alleging the candidate has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group founded in Egypt that has influenced and supported fundamentalist movements across the region.
The president has accused the Detroit-area physician of being a "terrorist sympathizer" and a "jihadist," calling the Michigan Democrat "Mohamed El-Sayed."
While rallying in Michigan on Sunday for El-Sayed's opponent, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.),
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Oct 26, 2026
The Tallahassee Police Department arrested a 15-year-old boy in connection with the Oct. 24 mass shooting that left 11 people injured outside Bragg Stadium after Florida A&M University's homecoming football game.
Anthony Rivers III was arrested Sunday, Oct. 25 in the mass shooting, which was one of the worst in Tallahassee history.
Rivers was arrested on 11 counts of attempted homicide and one count of possession of a firearm by a delinquent, said Alicia Hill, a TPD spokeswoman. The Tallahassee Democrat names minors when they are charged with violent offenses.
"Our investigation indicates that a physical altercation occurred before shots were fired," TPD Police Chief Lawrence Revell said in a hastily arranged Oct. 26 press conference. "At this stage of the investigation, none of the victims appear to have been the intended targets."
Detectives believe the incident stemmed from a dispute between individuals known to one another. While at an earlier press conference hours after the shooting Revell said detective believed there was only a single shooter, he said additional arrests are possible.
At least 12 people were injured, including 11 who were shot. Six of the victims were children, including the youngest victim who is 11, according to TPD Chief Lawrence Revell. A grandmother of one of the victims was also injured in the ensuing panic.
Six of the victims were male and six were female. Six victims remain hospitalized, with one of the victims in critical condition.
"What should have been a weekend of celebration in our
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Oct 26, 2026
NEW YORK (AP) — Democrats and outside watchdogs are planning a massive presence at the polls on Election Day driven by concerns that President Donald Trump will further leverage the vast resources of the federal government to interfere with a midterm that could hobble his final two years in office.
They won't be the only ones there. A sprawling election protection effort on the left that is expected to deploy tens of thousands of monitors will be met by the largest-ever monitoring program by the Justice Department and still more observers from Republican-aligned groups. The result could be unlike anything seen at the polls in modern times.
The effort among Democratic and nonprofit groups includes training volunteers to stand watch outside polling places and report activities they consider concerning. The network includes traditional government watchdogs such as Common Cause and the American Civil Liberties Union plus a flood of volunteers assembled by state Democratic parties, congressional leaders, national activist groups and organizations focused on protecting democracy.
The Democratic National Committee's Association of State Democratic Committees created a first-of-its-kind cybersecurity unit staffed by former CIA and FBI officials to monitor and report online misinformation, including artificial intelligence deepfakes, said Jane Kleeb, vice chair of the DNC.
That's as Democrati
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Oct 26, 2026
Thirty-five Senate seats are up for grabs when Americans head to the polls on Nov. 3. A key handful of them will be critical in determining whether Democrats or Republicans control the chamber next year.
Republicans currently control the Senate with 53 seats. Democrats and two independents make up the Senate minority with 47 seats.
In order for Democrats to take the chamber back, they'll have to net four seats in the upcoming election. Republicans can afford to lose up to three and still be considered the Senate majority with the tie-breaking vote of Vice President JD Vance.
Some of the races that were closely watched earlier this year have slid from the spotlight as the election grew near. Republicans seem to have abandoned efforts to unseat incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia and have pulled out of spending in North Carolina, where former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper now seems poised to best former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley to fill retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis' seat.
As both parties prepare for the final leg of the campaign, here are some of the most closely watched Senate races.
Reuters/Getty Images - PHOTO: Democratic candidate for US Senate Abdul El-Sayed in Warren, Michigan, October 3, 2026 and Michigan Republican Senate candidate, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, October 9, 2026 in Highland Township, Michigan. Michigan: A bitter fight against a progressive newcomerABC News rating: Lean Democrat
Republican nominee Mike Rogers is no stranger to Senate races -- the former congressmen lost his 2024 bid to now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin by less than 20,000 votes.
Rogers is squaring off this time against progressive Abdul El-Sayed, a former health
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Oct 26, 2026
Snapshots of the economy: Relentless inflation and a stagnant job market have thrust the economy to the forefront of the November midterms. In the run-up to election day, USA TODAY Money reporters fanned out across the country to examine how Americans are coping with the financial squeeze, from the gut-punch of sudden layoffs and endless job searches to the daily grind of making ends meet. This is the second piece in a six-part series.
After their regular paycheck covers rent, groceries and other bills, some Americans are clocking in for a shift at a second job or picking up work on the side.
Their day jobs keep them afloat, but side hustles create financial wiggle room in their budgets to help them save money or enjoy life at a time when, according to research from Ally Bank, inflation and the cost of living has Americans feeling "joy pressured" and guilty for spending on things that make them happy.
Side hustles also serve as a layer of protection. Workers say they have become a financial strategy - not only to support discretionary spending and their ability to save, but also as a safeguard against economic uncertainty as they fear layoffs and long, full-time job searches. For some, side hustles provide a reliable "plan B" after a job loss as economists say the U.S. labor market remains in
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Oct 26, 2026
Republicans spurned by President Donald Trump aren't interested in rescuing their would-be replacements.
Instead, a growing number of retiring or ousted GOP incumbents from Nevada to North Carolina are sitting those races out, and in some cases, openly bucking their own party.
Outgoing Sen. John Cornyn has raised money for various Republican Senate candidates — just not for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who ousted him in the primary with support from Trump. He's been vocal for months about what he sees as Paxton's vulnerabilities and how Democrats could flip Texas blue for the first time in decades.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis — who has frequently criticized some of Trump's Cabinet and broken with the White House on policy — has played little role in the campaign of former RNC Chair Michael Whatley, Trump's hand-picked Senate candidate. The distance between the two Republicans is particularly notable as Whatley struggles to close the gap against Democrat Roy Cooper.
Rep. Mark Amodei has repeatedly criticized, and now openly rejected voting for, the GOP nominee to replace him, David Flippo.
"The bedwetting from outgoing moderate Republicans will define their legacy and only help socialists get elected," said David McIntosh, president of the Trump-aligned Club for Growth, which has endorsed Flippo and Paxton. "People like John Cornyn and Mark Amodei need to get on board and support Republican nominees and stop posturing for an MSNOW contract."
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Oct 26, 2026
Ukrainian troops deploy a Starlink terminal on the battlefield. Kyiv is allowed to use the civilian service for communications needs, but not for drone strikes, for which it relies on Starshield.Dmytro Smolienko/ Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty ImagesElon Musk has accused Ukrainian forces of using commercial Starlink in drone strikes.But two Ukrainian drone figures say the claim is impossible because of limits imposed on the terminals.It comes after Ukraine was hit by a 10-day slowdown on Starshield, the military version of Starlink.Ukraine said its access to Starshield was restored this weekend, but Elon Musk isn't finished with Kyiv yet.
In an X post on Sunday, Musk accused Ukrainian forces of breaching Starlink's terms of service by using the civilian platform in drone attacks.
"Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week," wrote the SpaceX owner.
"Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be," he added.
Musk made it
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Oct 26, 2026
Rapper Nicki Minaj doubled down on her support for President Donald Trump during a Republican campaign rally in Michigan on Sunday, telling the president she would back him again if he ever sought another term.
Minaj was invited onstage at the Port Huron rally by Trump, who was campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers and gubernatorial candidate John James.
"President Trump, it is an honor to stand with you every single time," Minaj said. "And I will continue to support you forever and ever. If you run again, I will support you again."
Trump, who is serving his second term, is barred by the 22nd Amendment from being elected president to a third term.
Trump Brushes Off Reporter Question About Running For Third Term In 2028: 'The Law Is Very Strong'
Rapper Nicki Minaj joined President Donald Trump onstage during a Republican campaign rally in Port Huron, Michigan, on Sunday.The Grammy-nominated hip-hop star has increasingly voiced support for the president and recently served as a celebrity judge for the Small Business Administration on the Small Business Administration's Million Dollar Pitch Competition, serving as one of the celebrity judges.
Read On The Fox News App
"I am so honored to be working with this president. He represents resilience," Minaj told the crowd. "Since he's come back, he's changed the energy of our country. And he's given us a futur
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Oct 26, 2026
By Lisandra Paraguassu, Brendan O'Boyle and Luciana Magalhaes
SAO PAULO, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won a historic fourth term on Sunday, the country's electoral court said, in a shock result that defied polls, precedent and global anti-incumbent sentiment to put the brakes on a wave of right-wing election victories across Latin America.
However, his opponent Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former President Jair ?Bolsonaro, refused to accept defeat and said he would ask for the result to be annulled due to a Sunday ruling from a Supreme Court justice that extended voting for two hours.
Bolsonaro led the election's first ?round but lost in the runoff by over 4 million votes, rattling Brazilian financial markets which had bet on his victory. His refusal to concede defeat has echoes of his father's reaction after losing to Lula in 2022. Jair Bolsonaro never accepted his loss and was later sentenced by the Supreme ?Court to 27-years in prison for plotting a coup to remain in power.
The scale of Flavio Bolsonaro's loss to Lula — by more than twice his father's losing margin — and the fact his campaign also asked for an extension due to rains in the conservative-leaning south make any annulment unlikely, analysts said.
Mario Braga, a Latin America analyst at the risk consultancy RANE, said there could be right-wing protests in coming days, but "it's very improbable that it will lead to the reversal of the result."
COMEBACK KING
Investors expect recent bets on a change of government to unwind in a volatile week ahead on financial markets. A Tokyo-listed exchange-traded fund tracking Brazil's Bovespa index dived nearly 15% in Asia trade on news of Lula's victory, while the Brazilian real was set to fall sharply ?against the US dollar.
The victory marks another comeback in a career full of them ?for Lula, an icon of the global left and the most
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Oct 26, 2026
US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in Sparrows Point, Maryland, on October 6. - Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
US forces in the Middle East are prepared to launch new, potentially major, military operations against Iran "within 96 hours of receiving" an order from President Donald Trump, according to two US officials.
Sufficient forces are now deployed in the region to carry out the potential attacks, the sources said. The scope of new US military operations would likely go beyond efforts to simply "mow the lawn" or maintain the status quo by striking radars, launchers and other Iranian assets that can be quickly reconstituted — as has been the case since Trump halted full combat operations earlier this year, the sources added.
"It will be a big effort," one of the officials told CNN. That view has been echoed by other current and former US officials familiar with internal military planning discussions — some of whom say it is a question of when, not if, Trump will issue a go-order. They believe it could come any time before the end of the year, though most likely after the US midterm elections.
US officials acknowledge challenges, cite potential threat
Iranian forces are now more familiar with US tactics, and it would therefore be harder for the American military to effectively destroy all potential intended targets. However, le
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Oct 25, 2026
(NewsNation) — With nine days until midterm election polls close, candidates are working overtime to ensure their messages reach potential voters.
In Michigan, that has meant high-profile political figures stumping across the state as early voting gets underway.
President Donald Trump arrived in Port Huron, Michigan, on Sunday to campaign for Republican candidate Mike Rogers. Meanwhile, in Detroit, Former President Barack Obama appeared Saturday to support Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Each made the case for why their party's Senate candidate is best suited to represent Michigan.
In final Michigan Senate debate, El-Sayed and Rogers question each other's loyalties
Thousands turned out for both events. While Trump and Obama never campaigned against each other directly, the atmosphere was energized as two of the nation's most prominent political figures rallied supporters in the state. Hundreds lined up to see Trump.
The president, joined onstage by music star Nicki Minaj, pointed to his economic policies, saying they had benefited Michiganders.
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Oct 25, 2026
From thousands of miles away, a Texas dad, hiding in a country he doesn't know, reminded his son to vacuum the carpet each week.
Moussa Diawara is from Mali, but spent nearly half his life living in the United States, where he married, had two U.S. citizen children, worked and paid taxes. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported him to Ghana over the summer. Diawara has no connection to Ghana, but a judge had issued an order that he couldn't be deported to Mali, because it was likely he'd be persecuted there. Diawara said that within days of his arrival in Ghana, local officials forced him onto a flight to Mali.
"I still say to myself, 'This isn't real,'" Diawara said.
Third-country deportations are a reality for many as President Trump's administration seeks to carry out the largest deportation in U.S. history. When the U.S. government decides an immigrant can't stay in the U.S., and can't be sent to their home country, it can send them to a third country. A 60 Minutes investigation found that some of the third countries accepting deportees from the U.S. are routinely sending them back to the very countries they fled — locations where U.S. immigration judges ruled they would likely be persecuted or tortured.
What happened to Moussa DiawaraDiawara, 57, came to the U.S. on a tourist visa when he was 32. He overstayed that visa, and later applied for refugee protection, arguing he would be persecuted if he were to return to Mali. Diawara had converted to Christianity, and Mali's a Muslim-majority nation with an Islamist insurgency. He has no criminal record.
In
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Oct 25, 2026
A voter casts her ballot in Boyle Heights on Saturday, the first day of early voting in Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)In a rare Sunday hearing, a federal appeals court judge appointed by President Trump questioned how the Trump administration's request to intervene in California's ongoing midterm election in order to force state officials to set aside 20,000 ballots from voters whose citizenship it questions squares with the U.S. Constitution.
Judge Mark J. Bennett said that while the executive branch is "unhappy" with what California law requires for ensuring voters are citizens, the state has the right to determine the manner of its elections under the Elections Clause of the Constitution and Congress has not challenged that process, despite having the ability to do so.
"It seems to me that you want us to issue an injunction that is entirely inconsistent with the law the California Legislature has adopted pursuant to the Elections Clause," Bennett said. "How can we do that?"
Matthew Donnelly, a Justice Department attorney, said the Trump administration has good reason to believe those ballots are from ineligible noncitizen voters, and has the legal right under separate federal criminal law to challenge their tabulation until state officials can prove otherwise.
Donnelly said both federal criminal law and state election law bar noncitizen voters from casting ballots, but "the problem is that California isn't interested in enforcing that provision."
The exchange came during an hour-long hearing before a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, over the
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Oct 25, 2026
Data centers have emerged as a national issue during this midterm election cycle, and candidates for the House and Senate have seized on it in their campaigns.
But state and local officials actually have more sway over data center construction and energy infrastructure, so the winners of lower-profile races may hold the economy's future in their hands.
Hyperscalers have been spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year, with forecasts for 2027 topping $1 trillion. JPMorgan has estimated AI-related investment was responsible for about one-fifth of GDP growth over the past year. Analysts at ING believe AI will account for a third of growth in 2026.
With Election Day just over a week away and early voting already in full swing in many states, expectations for big Democratic gains could weigh on the stock market, which has sold off in recent days on fears the AI boom will go bust.
If there is a further stock slump, it will be because a "blue wave" at the state and local levels will usher in lawmakers opposed to data centers, Thierry Wizman, global FX and rates strategist at Macquarie, said in a note on Monday.
"For the direction of the U.S. economy, the composition and direction of governance at the state level may matter more than whether the Democrats ‘win' the House or the Senate," he added.
That dynamic was on display on Tuesday, when Amazon canceled a plan to build data cente
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Oct 25, 2026
Momentum is building in Illinois to form a new state, with more counties ready to vote on leaving because of Chicago's influence.
Eleven counties are set to vote on non-binding referenda this year to secede from Cook County. If all 11 vote to leave they would join 33 counties that have already approved similar measures.
Cook County is home to Chicago, but people in the state and nation have criticized it for its crime rate, cost of living, Democratic leadership and oversized influence on state politics.
Loret Newlin, director of Illinois Separation, said Illinois leadership does not take concerns from other parts of the state into consideration.
"This is our lived experience. We are ignored. We are not taken into consideration when they're making a lot of the laws that hurt us," she told NBC Chicago.
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Oct 25, 2026
Vucic is a relentless campaigner (SASA DJORDJEVIC)The dominant force in Serbian politics for over 14 years, Aleksandar Vucic, who conceded defeat in a snap parliamentary poll on Sunday, rose from the wreckage of strongman Slobodan Milosevic's cabinet to the centre of power using his brand of populist nationalism.
For supporters, the 56-year-old represented stability, development and patriotism in a country scarred by the bloody wars of the 1990s and ensuing international isolation.
But opponents saw him as an increasingly authoritarian figure, twisting between the Kremlin and Brussels and leading a government accused of endemic corruption.
Vucic conceded his party had lost after voters cast ballots in record numbers in Sunday's vote, defeated by a new political force that emerged from a years-long protest movement.
"Based on a stratified sample, it is clear that we lost these elections," Vucic told supporters at his party headquarters in Belgrade.
- Political turnaround -
Vucic rose to prominence in the 1990s as an ultra-nationalist ally of Milosevic, serving as his information minister in 1998.
After protests ousted the Yugoslav strongman in 2000, Vucic became a senior figure in the far-right Serbian Radical Party.
He was then a vocal supporter of Bosnian Serb political and military leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, both later sentenced to life for genocide and other crimes committed during the Bosnian war.
But Vucic underwent a dramatic rebrand in 2008, co-founding the conservative, pro-European Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which won parliamentary elections in 2012 and has dominated Serbian politics since.
He served as deputy prime minister, defence minister and prime minister before becoming p
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Oct 25, 2026
Senate candidate Mary Peltola's campaign said she and her family sustained "minor injuries" Saturday when a vehicle they were in was struck on the way to banquet. ( Nathaniel Wilder / Bloomberg via Getty )Former Rep. Mary Peltola is rescheduling several upcoming campaign events after she and her family sustained "minor" injuries in a car crash, her campaign announced Sunday.
"Mary and her family sustained minor injuries but are in good spirits. Unfortunately, per the advice of medical professionals, Mary's upcoming events in Fairbanks and Bethel will be rescheduled for later in the week as she takes time to recover," Peltola campaign manager Cheryl Bruce said in a statement.
"Mary is disappointed that the accident is delaying the start of her Alaska Always Tour, and she is eager to get back on the campaign trail to speak directly with Alaskans about her plan to take on the rigged system and lower costs for working families," Bruce added.
Peltola was en route to the Alaska Federation of Natives' annual banquet Saturday when a vehicle transporting the candidate and her family was struck by another driver, according to the campaign. A spokesperson for the campaign said they had no reason to believe the accident had been politically motivated.
The police department in Anchorage confirmed Sunday that a collision involving three vehicles occurred on evening and those involved sustained "non-life threatening injuries."
Police added that the incident is under investigation.
Peltola, a Democrat, is locked in a competitive Senate race against GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan. She was elected to the House in 2022 but narrowly lost her re-election bid in 2024, the
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Oct 25, 2026
Senate candidate Mary Peltola's campaign said she and her family sustained "minor injuries" Saturday when a vehicle they were in was struck on the way to banquet. ( Nathaniel Wilder / Bloomberg via Getty )Former Rep. Mary Peltola is rescheduling several upcoming campaign events after she and her family sustained "minor" injuries in a car crash, her campaign announced Sunday.
"Mary and her family sustained minor injuries but are in good spirits. Unfortunately, per the advice of medical professionals, Mary's upcoming events in Fairbanks and Bethel will be rescheduled for later in the week as she takes time to recover," Peltola campaign manager Cheryl Bruce said in a statement.
"Mary is disappointed that the accident is delaying the start of her Alaska Always Tour, and she is eager to get back on the campaign trail to speak directly with Alaskans about her plan to take on the rigged system and lower costs for working families," Bruce added.
Peltola was en route to the Alaska Federation of Natives' annual banquet Saturday when a vehicle transporting the candidate and her family was struck by another driver, according to the campaign. A spokesperson for the campaign said they had no reason to believe the accident had been politically motivated.
The police department in Anchorage confirmed Sunday that a collision involving three vehicles occurred on evening and those involved sustained "non-life threatening injuries."
Police added that the incident is under investigation.
Peltola, a Democrat, is locked in a competitive Senate race against GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan. She was elected to the House in 2022 but narrowly lost her re-election bid in 2024, the
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Oct 25, 2026
Images by the Press Team of Maria Corina Machado team on Sunday shows the opposition leader arriving at Santa Rosa church in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. After more than 10 months in exile, Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel laureate returned home to a political landscape that has been reshaped by her ally the United States without her involvement. - Maria Corina Machado Press Team
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After more than 10 months in exile, Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado has returned home to a political landscape that has been reshaped by her ally the United States without her involvement.
"I am here. With you," Machado announced on X Sunday morning shortly before other members of the opposition confirmed her arrival without providing details.
Former opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who is currently in exile, celebrated her return, saying, "Today is a very important day for Venezuelans. Our sovereign voice returns with her to lead and guide this process!" He added that he will soon join her in returning to the country.
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Oct 25, 2026
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado made returned to her home country on Sunday after nearly a year abroad, re-entering a political landscape transformed by the U.S. ouster of Nicolás Maduro.
"I'm here. With you all," Machado wrote on social media, announcing her return for the first time since December. Her homecoming comes as Venezuela remains under the leadership of acting President Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime Maduro ally backed by the Trump administration, with no presidential election scheduled.
President Donald Trump, asked about Machado's return by reporters in Port Huron, Michigan, said he was unaware of the development but expressed hope for her safety.
Trump Touts Access To 65 Billion Barrels Of Venezuelan Oil In Deal He Says Will Slash Gas Prices
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado arrives at a church after returning to the country following nearly a year abroad, in Lara, Venezuela, Oct. 25, 2026."I don't know anything about it, but I think she's a very nice woman," Trump said. "She gave me her Nobel Prize. So how can I say anything else? And I hope she's safe. She's a very nice woman. But we're doing really well in Venezuela."
Machado, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025 for her peaceful opposition to Maduro's government, did not disclose her exact location or provide details about how she returned.
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Oct 25, 2026
Dustin Johnson and other players are considering whether to continue with LIV Golf.ASSOCIATED PRESSOne way or another, LIV Golf is in its final days as originally created. The tour began life as a PGA Tour breakaway funded by Saudi Arabia's virtually limitless Public Investment Fund, but now is working to both line up financing and hold onto players in preparation for what league officials have termed "LIV 2.0." With a self-imposed go/no-go deadline nearing, several recent developments have complicated plans for a new version of the league.
For players, LIV's chief drawing card was the paychecks with astounding numbers of zeroes. Stars, former stars and non-stars alike all cashed in during LIV's run, earning many millions more than they would have been able to on the PGA Tour or the Europe-based DP World Tour. But when Saudi Arabia cut off funding for LIV in April, the pipeline for those paychecks dried up, and now player after player has decided to take their chances elsewhere.
The most notable defection came several weeks ago, when Jon Rahm decided he'd had enough of LIV. Rahm's jump to LIV in late 2023 was a seismic moment in golf history, a declaration that the league was capable of enticing even one of the world's best players. But after three years of absolute domination on LIV and underperformance in majors,
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Oct 25, 2026
The Chi Phi fraternity house in Ithaca, N.Y. (Heather Ainsworth for NBC News)One of the men sued by a former Cornell University student identified as Jane Doe has asked a judge to dismiss the claims against him, arguing that her allegations do not support her broader accusations of rape and sexual assault.
Diego Sarabia filed the motion Friday seeking dismissal of all claims against him in the lawsuit Doe filed Sept. 16 in New York state court. Sarabia, who was a member of the Chi Phi fraternity, was one of seven men originally sued by Doe for allegedly participating in a gang rape at the Chi Phi house from Oct. 19 to 20, 2024.
Sarabia denies the allegations against him, according to the filing. His attorneys argue that even if the complaint's factual allegations are accepted as true for the purposes of the motion, the claims against him were filed too late, are legally insufficient, or both.
James C. Knox, an attorney for Sarabia, wrote in the motion that as far as the allegations against his client, "this is essentially a lawsuit about a forced kiss." Knox argued that the conduct Doe attributed to Sarabia did not qualify for the extended statute of limitations she cited for certain sexual offenses.
Doe accused Sarabia of grabbing her face, kissing her and snorting ketamine off her body with other fraternity members during a drug- and alcohol-fueled encounter in what was known as the "alumni room" of the fraternity house.
"Throughout a sprawling complaint approaching 600 paragraphs, plaintiff repeatedly, collectively and without differentiation accuses seven student defendants of ‘sexual assault and
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Oct 25, 2026
A 20-year-old U.S. Marine stationed in Okinawa, Japan, has been indicted on charges stemming from the death last month of a woman found strangled in a hotel, authorities said on Sunday.
LCpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, who is stationed at the Futenma Air Base in Okinawa, was indicted on charges of robbery and murder, according to NHK, Japan's public broadcaster, citing the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office and other sources,
Kyodo via Reuters - PHOTO: Marine Lance Corporal Devin Jacob Ballard leaves a police station to be sent to prosecutors over the killing of a Japanese woman in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, October 5, 2026 in this photo taken by Kyodo.Ballard is accused of strangling a 39-year-old resident of Naha City by wrapping a telephone receiver cord around her neck at a hotel in Naha City on Oct. 3 and also allegedly stealing a backpack containing her wallet and other belongings, according to NHK.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
This article originally appeared on ABC News at https://abcnews.com/International/us-marine-indicted-alleged-okinawa-robbery-homicide/story?id=137553792
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Oct 25, 2026
Election campaign posters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu beside a billboard featuring opposition rival Gadi Eisenkot ahead of Israel's general election in Dimona, Israel, on Wednesday. - Ohad Zwigenberg/AP
When Israelis go the polls on October 27, they will face a familiar question: Should Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's longest-serving prime minister, stay in power?
Nearly every recent election has been a referendum on Netanyahu. This time, many Israelis say the choice is more consequential than ever: not only about who will lead the country, but about where it is heading.
It is the first national vote since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, the deadliest security failure in Israel's history, and the wars that followed in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, which have mobilized much of the country and subsequently deepened Israel's international isolation.
For many voters, this is the first chance to pass judgment on the leadership that presided over October 7 failures, to decide who should lead the country in conflict and who should carry the burden of increased military service.
Netanyahu's outgoing government - the first in decades to conclude a full four-year term - relied on far-right and ultra-Orthodox partners, who pushed Israel in a more nationalist and religious direction than ever before. He became the first sitting Israeli prime minister to stand trial on corruption charges as his government pursued a judicial overhaul aimed at weakening the supreme court and other checks on power. The
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Oct 25, 2026
Demonstrators hold signs in support of minority voting rights outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on October 15, 2025. - Celal Gunes/Anadolu/Getty Images
Voters will pick the winners of next month's midterm elections, but it is the conservative Supreme Court that has set the rules.
Long before early voting got underway to decide control of Congress, the court exerted an unusually profound impact on the election with a series of decisions that have reshaped redistricting, campaign finance regulations, efforts to identify noncitizen voters and mail voting - frequently in a way that has benefited Republicans.
Some of those decisions received little attention, like the court's ruling this month that cleared the way for political parties - and particularly, Republicans - to pour millions more into television advertising in tight races. Others were more notable, like the 6-3 ruling in April that effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act's power to protect minority voters, and prompted a new round of redistricting in Republican-led states.
Various rulings have exposed tensions among the justices that
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Oct 25, 2026
Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday defended the Justice Department's newly filed lawsuit to prevent Alaska state officials from certifying election results if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses in November.
In an at-times contentious interview with CNN's "State of the Union," Blanche pointed out that according to the Constitution, Congress can create laws at any time to regulate elections. But when host Dana Bash asked what crime the administration was arguing was being committed, Blanche replied, "It depends."
"There could be a crime," said Blanche. "But the real wrong here is that Alaskans are going to be confused and will not have their vote heard. So an Alaskan intends to vote for one candidate, but is confused because of a second candidate with exactly the same name who has voted Democrat his entire life, who donated money to the other Democrat opponent, is running."
Bash pressed Blanche on how it is illegal for two candidates with the same name to be on a ballot at the same time.
"It is an obligation of the states to avoid confusion, among other things, confusion in the minds of voters in the election process," Blanche replied. "So the question is whether Alaska, by allowing this to happen, is violating the law and the federal law and the constitution by allowing confusion in the ballot."
The Alaskan Supreme Court in June ruled that both Sullivans may remain on the ballot as the incumbent faces off in a tight reelection battle with former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola. The four-person Senate ranked-choice ballot for the general election specifies that Dan S. Sullivan is a "Registered Republican" and the "incumbent" — no information is listed after Dan J. Sullivan Jr's name.
Regardless, in the suit filed Thursday, DOJ argued that Dan J. Sullivan Jr.'s name on the ballot constitutes a purposeful effo
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Oct 25, 2026
A Northern California man was responding to a call about ICE activity in his city when surveillance footage showed he was hit by an agent in an SUV on Tuesday, October 20, 2026. - Obtained by CNN
When footage of a man being hit by federal immigration officers' SUV in Northern California became public, the Department of Homeland Security responded by saying the man had jumped on the vehicle's hood.
Local police raised doubts about federal officials' account as they announced a criminal investigation into Tuesday morning's incident involving the pedestrian, 37-year-old Antonio Moreida, citing video footage that contradicted DHS' statement.
Footage from a nearby surveillance camera, a bystander's cellphone recording and Moreida's GoPro, which had already been made public at the time of the agency's statement, told a different story of what happened on a residential street in Woodland, an agricultural city just outside of Sacramento. The incident is the latest in which DHS' account has been contradicted by officials and video evidence amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
Police contradict ICE account
In a statement Wednesday morning, DHS said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers didn't hit a pedestrian.
"An agitator jumped onto the hood of an ICE vehicle and the officer driving applied the brakes," a DHS spokesperson said in a st
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Oct 25, 2026
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said it's "getting to be decision time" on whether he will make a deal with Tehran or resume attacks as Iranian and Houthi threats against Americans in the Middle East continue to grow.
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Trump has suggested that US strikes on Iran could resume after the Nov. 3 midterm elections and he has sent additional forces, including a third aircraft carrier group, toward the Persian Gulf.
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Oct 25, 2026
"Listen, I have got a lot of colleagues who I think are probably interested in running for president, and I've heard everyone say, ‘You can't have this person or that person,'" the governor told NBC News' "Meet the Press."
"I would put my money on any Democratic governor in the country against [Vice President] JD Vance or [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio in 2028," she added, pointing to two Republicans widely expected to run for president in two years.
Asked directly whether a woman could be the best choice to beat a potential GOP presidential nominee in 2028, Whitmer simply said, "I do."
In 2025, Obama said in public remarks: "As we saw in this past election, sadly, we ain't ready. That's why I'm like, don't even look at me about running, because you all are lying. You're not ready for a woman. You are not."
Several women, including Whitmer and former Vice President Kamala Harris, are widely speculated to be potential candidates in the 2028 Democratic presidential primary.
On Sunday, Whitmer did not deny that she's exploring a potential run for president in 2028, saying that she'll decide on her next steps after she departs from her post as governor in January.
"When I exit office … I'm going to take a little time off and figure out what I want to do next, so I've got nothing new to share with you, unfortunately," Whitmer told "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker.
Earlier this year, Whitmer denied that she planned to run for president but quickly walked back the comments.
"There will be a robust group of people running for president," she said at the time, adding, "I will not be one of them
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Oct 25, 2026
Call it the "avoidance" election, with many on each side more motivated by trying to prevent or stop things than by what they'll gain.
Against a backdrop of continued concern about inflation and the economy, Democrats maintain their lead in a bid for a House majority. They're currently on pace for 229 seats in our CBS News House model estimate, which translates voters' congressional preferences into seats.
The potential range of outcomes could reach into the 230s in our model, but Republicans do still have a very narrow path to hold the majority, too.
While that Democratic lead has been durable over recent weeks, it hasn't expanded, either.
In other words, there isn't a growing wave, at least not as of today.
If anything, the still undecided or uncertain voters tend to profile as more Republican.
Whether they decide to show up is perhaps the key question of 2026.
Either way, voters describe a dynamic in which they're more motivated in opposition to things they think might happen. For instance:
More think gas prices will go up if Republicans win than if Democrats do.
(Though they don't think Democrats will make gas prices go down.)
Most voters don't think Democrats have a plan and won't make people financially better off, either...But more voters think they'll be worse off if Republicans win.
The president remains a central factor. It would be a high number voting either to support or oppose a president in a midterm if this sentiment holds through Election Day.
Most of the Democra
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Oct 25, 2026
Nearly one in three veterans who relies on the government for health care could benefit from taking psychedelic drugs like magic mushrooms or MDMA.
That's not the assessment of some hippie or fading 1960s rock star. It came from Andrew Gradison, a senior adviser at President Donald Trump's Veterans Health Administration. Gradison told a conference for psychedelics enthusiasts this month that he is eager to ramp up the VA's capacity to give the drugs to as many as 2.1 million veterans with mental illnesses like post-traumatic stress disorder or depression. Gradison said 6.4 million veterans regularly rely on the VA for care.
No government regulator has deemed psychedelics safe or effective for mental illness. Under former President Joe Biden, the Food and Drug Administration in 2024 resoundingly rejected a proposal to authorize MDMA — also known as ecstasy — combined with talk therapy, to treat people with PTSD.
But psychedelics are getting a second chance in the Trump administration. Trump in April issued an executive order to accelerate research, clinical trials and patient access to the drugs. Republicans in Congress are among psychedelics' biggest backers. And the constituency they are seeking to please, veterans, are disproportionately Republicans.
Veterans, frustrated with high suicide rates among their fellow ex-service members, are lobbying aggressively to see Trump follow through.
"We were able to roll out a vaccine for Covid because of President Trump's Warp Speed initiative," said Juliana Mercer, a Marine Corps vet who also spoke at the Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics conference in New York City. "Why aren't we warp-speeding this treatment to save our veteran lives? What's keeping us from doing that?"
Gradison said practical challenges, an
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Oct 25, 2026
Why are major Democrats and Republicans flocking to Mississippi in recent weeks?
In a climate where polls show President Donald Trump's approval ratings cratering, Democrats are unusually optimistic about Scott Colom's chances of flipping the Senate seat held by incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith -- even in deep-red Mississippi.
"We got to have a senator that looks out for Mississippi, that puts Mississippi farmers first, Mississippi small businesses first, represent our values by not allowing corruption to ruin our country and actually delivers on the commitments to put America first," Colom told ABC News in an interview earlier this week.
Sarah Warnock/AP Photo - PHOTO: Mississippi Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Scott Colom speaks during a voting rights town hall at the historic Farish Street Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss., Aug. 1, 2026.The incumbent's campaign dismisses the Democratic push as the last-ditch effort of a campaign that will fall short.
Gov. Wes Moore says key races in South 'in play,' Democrats 'made mistakes' not investing earlierColom is a district attorney for four counties along the Mississippi-Alabama border and a former nominee to become a U.S. district judge. He would be Mississippi's first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction.
Democrats have argued that Colom's prominent credentials, as well as voter pushback against Republican incumbents and motivation among Democratic-leaning Black voters, could help boost him. Mississ
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Oct 25, 2026
The midterm campaign is being fought in areas President Donald Trump carried in the last election, and largely among voters who have supported him in the past but have soured on his presidency.
Rick Sebring, a resident of rural Black Creek, Georgia, is one of them. He was among the Americans drawn to Trump when he emerged as a political outsider running for president in 2015, and supported him in each election since.
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Now, he says, he jokes with his son and daughter, 25 and 18, that he needs a hat that reads: "I fell for it three times."
Trump is "not the same guy he was before," said Sebring, 66, who explained that he no longer believes the president is acting with ordinary Americans' best interests at heart.
"It's kind of like if your wife is screwing the guy next door," Sebring said. "You know, you're kind of butt hurt about it."
He is furious about the war against Iran that Trump started after pledging to avoid new wars in the Middle East. Trump should tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the president endorsed for reelection last week, to "go to hell," Sebring said, and "cut off all aid" to Israel and Ukraine.
He is bothered that Trump tried to stop the release of the Epstein files. He is disappointed that the government-slashing DOGE program, which Trump appointed Elon Musk to run, was ultimately brought to a halt.
Sebring, who responded to the most recent Washington Post-ABC News-Ip
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Oct 25, 2026
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Ford Expedition rumbled to a stop and Cindy Banda's bedazzled flip-flops landed on the asphalt of the Houston cancer center's vast parking lot. She threaded through the rows of cars, a tally of patients who gather here to sit with chemotherapy needles or lie on radiation machines.
The elevator dinged open. A year ago in this building, surgeons removed Banda's right breast, and she still didn't know whether treatment had expunged the cancer from her body. Doctors had told her it would be tough to beat.
"I'm more of a positive person myself," Banda said, now sitting with a white wristband in a dim waiting room. But the bills are harder to dismiss, and the single mother with six children in her care repeated something like a mantra. "Keep the house. Keep the cars. And just keep the kids stable."
That's true for many Americans, as rising healthcare costs leave more families with a sinking feeling after seeing the bill for surgery or medication. Heading into the Nov. 3 midterm elections, about half of registered voters said healthcare costs are a major problem for them and their families, up from a little more than one-third four years ago, according to a Fox News poll from September.
With party control of Congress at stake, registered voters are nearly twice as likely to say they trust Democrats over Republicans to handle healthcare, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll from the same month. Thos
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Oct 25, 2026
PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) — President Donald Trump intensified his anti-Muslim rhetoric against Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday, portraying him as a threat to national security and questioning his loyalty to the United States in remarks that drew a sharp rebuke from a former top Arab American ally.
Trump called El-Sayed, a former Detroit health official, a "jihadist" who was "on the side of the terrorists" and would "have to go through a metal detector before he's allowed to go into the Senate." He also repeatedly invoked the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, drawing a comparison between stopping El-Sayed from entering the Senate chamber and the passengers who fought back against the hijackers aboard United Flight 93.
El-Sayed, who would become the nation's first Muslim senator if elected, has called attacks on his loyalty to the country "shameful" and repeatedly denied any ties to extremist groups. The Republican president's remarks were condemned by Bishara Bahbah, a founder of Arab Americans for Trump, the group that helped lead the president's outreach to Arab American voters in 2024.
"The president's statements are out of line," he said in a phone interview. "They are crossing a red line. They are racist."
With Republicans on the defensive over inflation, soaring fuel prices and the Iran war, the president has been trying to generat
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Oct 25, 2026
PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) — President Donald Trump intensified his anti-Muslim rhetoric against Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday, portraying him as a threat to national security and questioning his loyalty to the United States in remarks that drew a sharp rebuke from a former top Arab American ally.
Trump called El-Sayed, a former Detroit health official, a "jihadist" who was "on the side of the terrorists" and would "have to go through a metal detector before he's allowed to go into the Senate." He also repeatedly invoked the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, drawing a comparison between stopping El-Sayed from entering the Senate chamber and the passengers who fought back against the hijackers aboard United Flight 93.
El-Sayed, who would become the nation's first Muslim senator if elected, has called attacks on his loyalty to the country "shameful" and repeatedly denied any ties to extremist groups. The Republican president's remarks were condemned by Bishara Bahbah, a founder of Arab Americans for Trump, the group that helped lead the president's outreach to Arab American voters in 2024.
"The president's statements are out of line," he said in a phone interview. "They are crossing a red line. They are racist."
With Republicans on the defensive over inflation, soaring fuel prices and the Iran war, the president has been trying to generat
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Oct 25, 2026
on that winter morning, and already, a dozen attorneys waited on her TV screen, each with an urgent request. Their clients, all locked up and facing deportation, needed hearing dates scheduled or bond requests considered. As always, the judge had prepared for every case days earlier, because almost nothing happened in Courtroom 15 that she didn't anticipate.
Then the door behind her swung open, thudding against the wall. In walked her supervisor.
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"Are you on the record?" he asked, questioning whether she was in session.
Karen Donoso Stevens was in session, and she was certain he knew it. The judge held up a finger - wait - as she announced a recess inside the Annandale Immigration Court.
A Homeland Security attorney at the prosecution table watched in silence, as did her legal assistant.
She drew a long breath, then stood in the black robe she'd worn for nearly a decade, its cloth fraying at the elbow.
Here we go, the judge thought, certain she was about to be fired.
In the hallway, she recalled, her supervisor said he'd been instructed to pull her from court.
"Why?" she asked.
"I don't know," he replied.
It was Jan. 14, one year into the most tumultuous period in the U.S. immigration court's history. President Donald Trump had inherited what was widely seen as a broken system. Exacerbated by an influx of migrants under President Joe Biden, its backlog exceeded 4 million unresolved cases, and Trump's administration had vowed to address it.
The public broadly
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Oct 25, 2026
So far in President Trump's second term, prices in the US have risen only about half as quickly compared to his predecessor's four years in office. Yet Trump has a 72% disapproval rating on the issue and risks paying a steep political price — just as former President Joe Biden did — with voters drawing a direct connection between rising prices and the president's policies.
In the last election cycle, prices of all items rose more than 20% during Biden's term, sparking widespread voter angst. This time around, price growth is notably slower, rising 5.4% in a little less than two years since Inauguration Day.
But a Yahoo Finance analysis of price data shows that a few major outliers have hit Americans' wallets in an outsized way, largely due to increases in goods affected by the war in Iran and tariffs.
Fuel oil and gasoline are perhaps the most dramatic examples, spiking over 30% beginning in March in response to the war in Iran and the closing of the Strait of Hormuz.
And voters have noticed, as evidenced in poll after poll. A
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Oct 25, 2026
A US marine has been indicted in Okinawa prefecture in Japan on charges of robbing and murdering a Japanese woman.
Lance corporal Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, was accused of killing Anna Yagi, 39, in a hotel in the prefecture's capital Naha and taking her wallet and backpack earlier this month. Ballard denied the allegations.
Ballard, who was stationed at Futenma Air Base, was found walking alone in Okinawa city later that day and was arrested the following day on suspicion of robbery and murder.
He was indicted on Sunday amid growing anger among Okinawa residents over the incident and the presence of US military installations.
He allegedly strangled the woman with the cord of a telephone in a hotel room between 2.10 and 4.15am on 3 October and stole her backpack that contained her wallet and other belongings, according to the indictment.
The woman had checked into the hotel with a man around 2.10am that day. Hotel employees entered the room at 4.15am after she did not check out on time. The staff found her body and alerted the police, investigative sources told the Japan Times.
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Oct 25, 2026
Twist Robotics' drones can be used as signal repeaters to help the connection between a drone operator and their mission drone.Twist RoboticsDrones in Ukraine act as flying communications bridges between operators and mission drones.They repeat the operators' signal to allow drones to fly farther while staying connected.The signal-repeating drones make other drones more resistant to Russia's electronic warfare.Ukraine has created drones that act as flying relay towers, allowing its drones conducting missions to fly farther while making them harder for Russia to jam.
In a war where drones gather intel and account for more than 95% of Russia's front-line losses, Ukraine wants its operators to keep control of their drones over longer distances with stronger signals that are harder for Russia to break.
One solution is the signal repeater drone, a flying signal booster that operates between
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Oct 25, 2026
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a vocal critic of U.S. President Donald Trump, was reelected Sunday in a result that provides relief to critics of widening U.S. influence in Latin America.
With 100% of the vote counted, Brazil's electoral court announced that the soon to be 81-year-old Lula had a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes over opponent Flávio Bolsonaro, giving him 51.8% of the total vote. Bolsonaro quickly refused to concede defeat and asked for the election results to be annulled after an evening of chaos at some polling places that followed a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours.
Bolsonaro is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, whom Lula defeated to take the presidency in 2022.
Lula's triumph bucks a regional trend of victories for right-of-center presidential candidates allied with Trump. It also means Latin America's largest economy, with a GDP of $2.6 trillion per year, will likely continue defying Trump's demands, despite the pressure of increased tariffs.
Lula says Brazil is ‘not anyone's backyard'
A video published by Lula's campaign shows the veteran leader celebrating with First Lady Rosângela da Silva and allies after his runoff victory was confirmed by Brazil's electoral court. Wearing star-shaped red glasses, he kissed his wife.
Speaking to his supporters, thousands of whom gathered on Sao Paulo's main artery and in Rio de Janeiro's Cinelandia Square, Lula expressed his gratitude to the Brazilian people, and pledged to resp
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Oct 25, 2026
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, was reelected Sunday in a result that provides relief to critics of widening U.S. influence in Latin America.
With 100% of the vote counted, Brazil's electoral court announced that the soon to be 81-year-old Lula held an unassailable lead of nearly 4.4 million votes over opponent Flávio Bolsonaro. The announcement capped an evening of chaos at polling places across Brazil, following a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours. That decision by a Supreme Court justice may trigger legal action by Bolsonaro.
His triumph bucks a trend in Latin America where increasing numbers of right-of-center presidential candidates allied with Trump have been winning. Lula's victory leaves Mexico and Brazil, Latin America's two most populous nations, with left-of-center leaders. It also positions Latin America's largest economy, with a GDP of $2.6 trillion per year, to remain independent of the U.S., despite the pressure of increased tariffs imposed by Trump.
The announcement kicked off celebration by supporters inside and outside of the Sao Paulo hotel where Lula watched the count with First Lady Rosângela da Silva.
Lula's victory, if confirmed by electoral authorities, will give him his non-consecutive fourth term as president. The next term begins on Jan. 5, 2027.
It is the first time since Brazil's military dictatorship ended in 1985 that the second-highest vote-getter in the first-round elections won the presidency. Bolsonaro had 47% of the vote in the first round to Lula's 45%, a difference of 2.2 million votes.
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Oct 25, 2026
Supporters listen as Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks at a rally at Wayne State University in Detroit on October 22. - Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images
Democrats could be poised for a revival in the heartland, as furor over high costs and doubt about President Donald Trump's willingness to change the nation's trajectory threaten to loosen the GOP's grip on working-class voters.
A decade after the Trump era began, when he first turned Midwestern political battlegrounds into reliably Republican states, the fallout from policies of his second term have rippled through the agriculture sector and broader economies across the Great Plains and the Rust Belt.
Iowa and Ohio, which have not been competitive since former President Barack Obama was on the ballot, are in play. And ruby-red states like Kansas, Nebraska and Indiana are not exempt. The shift is happening up and down the ballot, with tight contests for the House, Senate and governor blanketing the middle of the country.
From spring planting to fall harvest, anxiety over Trump's war with Iran and the fallout from his trade battles has turned into alarm.
In conversations across the region, voters point to the soaring cost of gas and diesel, as well as high grocery prices and interest rates. A whipsaw tariff policy has
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Oct 24, 2026
Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton told ABC News in an interview Saturday that she hopes President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance will "look at the facts" of the abuse she says she endured as a child after they defended an attack ad made by GOP nominee Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign.
Bipartisan backlash has hit Ramaswamy's campaign, after the release of the ad featuring Acton's estranged mother who Acton says stood by the man who was criminally charged with sexually abusing her as a child. Acton said she hasn't seen her mother since she was 12 years old.
In the ad, Acton's mother, Donna Arthur, said Acton has lied about her past, though it doesn't mention the allegations of sexual abuse.
Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo - PHOTO: Amy ActonIn response to Trump and Vance who have doubled down on and defended the ad, Acton told ABC News, "My job is to work with anyone on any side of the aisle to solve problems instead of making them, and I would say I do hope they would look at the facts."
Acton spoke to ABC News after a rally in Cleveland with former President Barack Obama.
Trump doubles down on Amy Acton criticism as Ramaswamy ad controversy swirlsActon has alleged her mother's second husband molested her between the ages of 9 and 12. Charges were filed against her stepfather, and Acton testified against him. He pleaded not guilty, but fled the state before trial and never appeared before a judge. He died in 2004.
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Oct 24, 2026
By Bo Erickson and David Shepardson
PERRY, Georgia, Oct 24 (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that Audi plans to build a $4 billion assembly plant in Georgia that will produce 200,000 SUVs annually, as he seeks to convince ?Americans to back Republicans in the November 3 midterm elections.
Trump, who has pressured automakers to move production to the United States ?and has raised tariffs on autos, steel, aluminum and parts, made the announcement at a rally in Perry, near Macon in central Georgia, where Volkswagen's premium subsidiary intends ?to build its first US assembly plant.
Last year, Trump's tariffs dealt Audi a €1.2-billion-euro ($1.4-billion) blow as it imports all its vehicles for the US market from Europe or Mexico.
Georgia has competitive election races for US Senate and governor. Trump is eager to make the case that his auto tariffs are helping the US economy. Critics say they have boosted vehicle prices and that the trade uncertainty has delayed some automaker investments.
"We are planning to bring ?our biggest and most premium SUVs, and produce ?them here in Macon, Georgia," Audi CEO Gernot Doellner said at the event. "This is a this is a long-term investment because we believe in the American market."
REPUBLICAN SAYS TARIFFS BROUGHT AUDI PLANT TO UNITED STATES
Audi said the ?investment will create approximately 4,500 jobs. Construction is scheduled to begin next year, with production starting in the early 2030s, Audi said.
The plant is expected to assemble the Audi Q7, Q8 and Q9 SUVs, a US official told Reuters.
Audi also plans to build 25,000 vehicles a year in neighboring South Carolina, ?the ?official said. Some of the vehicles, now built in Europe, would be exported, ?the official added. Those vehicles will be assembled at ?a $2 billion plant of VW's off-road brand Scout Motors that is under construction in Blythewood, near the st
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Oct 24, 2026
At least 12 people, half of them juveniles and the youngest just 11 years old, were injured in a mass shooting near FAMU's Bragg Memorial Stadium Saturday night amid homecoming weekend.
Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell said 11 people suffered gunshot wounds. Three victims were seriously injured, including one in critical condition, while eight were stable. A FAMU student was among the injured.
Police said preliminary information indicates an altercation occurred between individuals before the shooting, which Revell called an "isolated incident."
Midnight update: At least 12 injured in Perry Street shooting; youngest victim is 11At least 12 people were injured, including six juveniles, in the shooting near FAMU's Bragg Memorial Stadium Saturday night, Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell said at a late-night press conference.
"I stand before you tonight devastated," Revell said.
Eleven of the victims suffered gunshot wounds. Six victims are adults and six are juveniles, with the youngest just 11 years old, Revell said. A twelfth victim is the grandmother of one of the victims who was injured fleeing from the scene. He said one of the victims is a FAMU student.
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Oct 24, 2026
People cast their ballots at St Mary's Episcopal church during the first day of early voting in Los Angeles, California, on Saturday.Photograph: Chris Torres/EPA
California's attorney general on Saturday rebuked the Trump administration's efforts to quash alleged noncitizen voting, calling it "politicizing and weaponizing the law".
Rob Bonta, the state's attorney general, said the justice department acted at Donald Trump's direction.
"It is once again the United States Department of Justice politicizing and weaponizing the law to attack its enemies, and it is completely improper," he told MS Now.
Less than two weeks before the midterms, federal prosecutors called upon California election officials to verify within 48 hours a list of about 20,000 ballots belonging to suspected noncitizens. Noncitizen voting is extremely rare, but in the run-up to the midterm elections, the justice department has ramped up prosecutions of people accused of illegally voting while not holding US citizenship.
California's election personnel have raised concern that the administration's directive could disenfranchise citizens. Los Angeles officials said this week a "high percentage" of the individuals on the list were born in the United States.
"Trump's DOJ is so desperate to invent ‘widespread voter fraud,' it sent California counties lists of people who NEVER voted - and voters from the WRONG COUNTY. Absolute clown show!" California's governor Gavin Newsom posted on social media.
"Voter intimidation has no place in our democracy," Pete Aguilar, a congressman representing s
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Oct 24, 2026
The Archdiocese of New York and attorneys for about 1,300 parishioners who said they were sexually abused by clergy have agreed to an $800 million settlement of their legal claims, the second-largest involving a Catholic archdiocese in the U.S.
Archbishop Ronald Hicks sent an email Saturday to clergy confirming the settlement after attorneys for the survivors of alleged abuse announced it. Hicks said the agreement will not be final until the parties sign it, an action scheduled for the week of Nov. 6.
The only larger settlement over sexual abuse claims in the U.S. was by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which agreed in 2024 to pay $880 million to 1,000 abuse victims, in addition to $740 million in claims it had paid previously. In June, the Archdiocese of San Francisco agreed to a $395 million settlement over about 500 lawsuits filed over clergy abuse, and in December 2025, a federal judge approved a settlement in which the Archdiocese of New Orleans agreed to pay at least $230 million to abuse victims.
The agreement with the New York archdiocese would end more than seven years of lawsuits. The parties agreed to a framework for an agreement in May that required everyone who filed a claim to sign off.
"The unanimous agreement of survivors who filed claims against the Archdiocese of New York marks a powerful moment in the pursuit of justice," Jeff Anderson, an attorney representing people who filed
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Oct 24, 2026
By Gabriel Stargardter
SAO PAULO, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Two US State Department officials led a campaign to restore the right-wing Bolsonaro clan to power in Brazil and successfully pushed for sanctions aimed at tilting the election in their favor, according to 10 current and former US officials with direct knowledge of the matter.
Their plan faces a reckoning on Sunday, when Senator Flavio Bolsonaro faces leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a tight run-off. Lula has warned Washington against encroaching on Brazil's sovereignty and accused his opponent of plotting with the Trump administration.
The two officials were Darren Beattie, a Senior Advisor ?for Western Hemisphere Affairs who oversees Brazil policy, and Ricardo Pita, another senior advisor promoted this year to Deputy Assistant Secretary for North America. The details of their campaign to return the Bolsonaros to power haven't been previously reported.
Beattie and Pita, both political appointees, operated with wide latitude to manage Washington's relationship with the ?second most-populous country in the Americas, the people said.
In the months before election campaigning began, they instructed US diplomats in Brazil that it was US policy to restore former President Jair Bolsonaro as Brazil's leader - even though he had been disqualified from office for plotting a coup in 2022, when he lost the presidential election to Lula, three of the people said.
After Bolsonaro received a 27-year sentence in September 2025, the two men pivoted to ?supporting the candidacy of his son, right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the three sources said. Beattie and Pita told embassy staff not to interact with other conservative presidential contenders who could challenge the younger Bolsonaro, they said.
Since last year, the two men have successfully advocated for punitive US government measures on Brazil designed to weaken Lula and boost the Bolson
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Oct 24, 2026
In his first rally of the 2026 midterm cycle, former President Barack Obama slammed President Donald Trump and Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, calling out the latter's much-maligned campaign ad centering on Democrat Amy Acton's mother.
"There's gotta be something inside you where you just say no office is worth stooping that low," Obama said of Ramaswamy's choice to run the ad.
With the midterms just over a week away, Obama was rallying in Cleveland in support of Acton and Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown.
Trump, Obama said, had broken a slew of promises he made on the campaign trail in 2024, ensnaring the country in an ongoing war in Iran and failing to bring down costs. Instead, "he's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory," the former president said, taking aim at Trump's renovations to the executive mansion.
"We got two more years of this administration," he said. "That's how our system of government works. But you know what we're not stuck with? We're not stuck with a spineless Congress and Republican governors who are enabling lawlessness and carelessness and cruelty and indifference for working people."
Long one of Democrats' top surrogates, Obama is again stepping off the sidelines in the closing stretch of an election. He'll appear in Detroit alongside Democrats Abdul El-Sayed and Jocelyn Benson on Sunday, after which he'll travel to Georgia for a rally with Sen. Jon Ossoff and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Oct. 28.
The former president, who captured Ohio's electoral votes in 2008 and 2012, also called out Ramaswamy for his controversial campaign ad featuring
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Oct 24, 2026
Nearly 1,000 people were arrested in nationwide protests in France, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said Saturday, after demonstrations over the high cost of living and the country's education system earlier in the day remained largely peaceful.
Nuñez said the number of arrests is expected to rise significantly. He said marches "passed off well" in cities, but police officers found themselves confronted with "an extremely elevated level of violence" from "ultra-left" groups later in the day. Nuñez said some shops and businesses had been looted, but "the scale was far smaller" than a week earlier, when some 3,000 businesses were damaged or looted.
He said police acted more rapidly and conducted more pre-demonstration checks. Businesses and shopping centers had also been better protected. Earlier Saturday, the interior minister said police had confiscated weapons including metal balls, lead pellets, fireworks, slingshots, steel balls, improvised weapons, a katana and airsoft weapons, he said.
The French Interior Ministry said about 410,000 people participated in about 298 protests around the country. Union organizers from the General Confederation of Labor put the number at around 800,000. An explanation for the discrepancy was not immediately available.
Some confrontations were reported between authorities and demonstrators in several cities, but as of Saturday evening there had been no repeat of the major street violence and rioting that erupted amid similar protests last week.
Nuñez previously said th
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Oct 24, 2026
The interior minister said police had been confronted with 'an extremely elevated level of violence' (Sameer AL-DOUMY)French police arrested "nearly 1,000" people Saturday in nationwide protests in which officers were confronted with "an extremely elevated level of violence" from black-clad extremists, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said.
Although marches over the cost of living "passed off well" in cities, "ultra-left" groups took to throwing projectiles and aiming fireworks at police to provoke clashes, he told journalists.
Two people were "seriously injured", he said: one in the city of Toulouse, where a 20-year-old man reportedly had fingers blown off, and the other in Clermont-Ferrand. He did not give details of either case.
Nunez compared Saturday's figures with those from a week ago, when a first round of national demonstrations over the cost of living degenerated into street violence, with hundreds of shops looted and 2,700 people ending up being arrested.
He said that the nearly 1,000 arrests recorded on Saturday compared with the same time a week ago, when authorities had recorded 385 arrests.
He also said that, while some shops and businesses had been vandalised and looted on Saturday, "the scale was far smaller" than a week earlier, and he stressed that shopping centres had been well protected this time.
In Paris, where the main demonstration passed off largely peacefully but clashes broke out with police as the crowd dispersed, Nunez said "several thousand radical activists gathered at the rear of the march, including around 500 individuals identified as rioters".
Ensuing clashes in the capital lasted for around two hours, he said.
The minister said that in the southern cities of Cannes and Montpellier, authorities "for the first
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Oct 24, 2026
The Justice Department is pressing California election officials to set aside mail-in ballots from people it believes are noncitizens. It is warning that officials who count those ballots could face criminal charges.
Federal prosecutors sent letters Friday to county election offices across the state, giving them 48 hours to work with federal agencies to determine who on a government list is a citizen. NBC News reported that the letters went to 57 of California's 58 counties. Los Angeles County received a similar letter last week.
The secretary of state and Los Angeles County have refused the demand, and other counties are weighing their response. The fight is now before a federal appeals court, 10 days before Election Day.
Here's what to know.
What is the Justice Department asking for?The department wants counties to "segregate — not cancel" the mail-in ballots of people on its list until their citizenship can be confirmed, according to a letter to San Bernardino County obtained by NBC News. That county's list included 1,133 names.
It also asked counties to send identifying information about the voters on the list, including Social Security numbers and copies of their registrations,
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Oct 24, 2026
President Donald Trump dismissed polls showing his approval rating falling ahead of November's midterm elections, insisting Americans should trust his claim that his support is closer to 60 percent.
In an interview with The Washington Examiner's Byron York, published Saturday, Trump called the polling figures "fake" when asked about a RealClearPolitics average showing 38.8 percent of Americans approved of his job performance, while 60.4 percent disapproved.
"It's fake," Trump said.
When York pressed him on what he believed his actual approval rating was, Trump rejected the figures and insisted his support was much higher.
"The job approval, they said it's 37, 38?" Trump asked. "I'm not at 38."
President Donald Trump dismissed polls showing his approval rating slipping ahead of November's midterms as ‘fake,' claiming his support is closer to 60 percent (AFP/Getty) Trump continued: "I don't believe I could be beaten by anybody. I think that if I needed
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Oct 24, 2026
By Daniel Trotta
Oct 23 (Reuters) - The US Justice Department accused a government contractor on Friday of leaking national defense information to his girlfriend, the publisher of a Substack newsletter.
The FBI arrested Ian Brinksman, ?42, on Friday following a search of his Washington home, a Justice Department statement said. Prosecutors charged ?him with unlawfully transmitting national defense information.
A federal public defender representing Brinksman declined to comment.
"As alleged, Brinksman reached far outside his own duties ?to obtain some of our Nation's most closely held secrets and handed them to a romantic partner he knew intended to publish them," John Eisenberg, assistant attorney general for national security, said in the statement.
"That is not carelessness. It is a betrayal of his oath and the American people who entrusted him to fulfill his duties honorably," Eisenberg ?said.
Brinksman held a top secret security clearance ?while working as an employee of a US government agency and later as a developer for systems integration for a private contractor working for the same agency, prosecutors said.
According ?to the sworn affidavit of an FBI agent investigating the case, Brinksman repeatedly accessed classified intelligence reports and then communicated with the journalist. The affidavit also cites phone records, database access logs, badge-swipe records, emails and other evidence.
The affidavit only ?identifies ?the journalist as "Individual 1," but it cites excerpts from articles ?she published.
"A fundraising article reportedly published by ?Individual 1 in September 2026 stated 'over the past year (Individual 1 has) published reporting based on classified (relevant U.S. government agency) assessments that I believe the public deserves to know about,'" the affidavit reads.
That quote appears in a September 28 piece published on the Capital &am
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Oct 24, 2026
ATLANTA (AP) — He's hardly the first billionaire to promise working-class voters he'll fight for them in public office. Rick Jackson, the Republican candidate for Georgia governor, has even compared himself to the real estate mogul who reached the Oval Office.
But Jackson's path differs from Donald Trump's, and the 72-year-old healthcare magnate and investor brings a vastly different persona to his first campaign. Unlike Trump, who was born to wealth, Jackson spent his early years bouncing through foster homes before launching his first company as a young man.
Now, he wants to leverage both his similarities and contrasts with the president, a challenge he's tackling with buckets of his own campaign cash and a personal story that anchors his appeal to voters.
"I have lived in poverty," Jackson says. "When you have not eaten, you never forget that, and you don't forget the people that are struggling."
Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms, a former Atlanta mayor, disputes Jackson's altruistic pitch, setting up the Nov. 3 election as a test of whether an alternate, softer version of conservative billionaire politics can complement or even counter Trump's pugilistic populism in a key swing state.
Jackson planned to join Trump at a rally Saturday in Perry, in what would be his second appearance with the president in the closing stretch of the campaign.
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Oct 24, 2026
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, said she is "deeply distressed" by the news that her father, Thomas Markle, is under investigation over claims he possessed images containing child sexual abuse in his home.
The images were reportedly found in his home in the Philippines after he returned to the U.S. in May, Philippine officials said.
Thomas Markle denied the allegations, calling them "sick lies" and "the worst thing anyone could accuse me of."
London's Metropolitan Police confirmed Saturday that it received a letter in January 2019 containing "a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom," the BBC reported. The letter was sent to the force's protection command because of concerns about the duchess's security.
The Met said it passed the letter to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex "for their awareness," but did not share the details with other law enforcement agencies. The force said it is reviewing how it handled the matter and considering whether to refer itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the police watchdog.
In a statement through her spokesperson, Meghan Markle said that she is "deeply distressed" by the news, and that she was first made aware of the claims by the Met Police in 2018.
"I am deeply distressed at the news that has come to light in the last 24 hours, and my thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed," Meghan's statement said. "In 2018, a letter was sent to the Metropolitan police and Royalty and Specialist Protection. That letter was subsequently shared with me. It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father, and I was given assurances that these we
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Oct 24, 2026
Dozens of medical professionals are running for Congress and top state offices this midterm season, a direct Democrat-led counteraction to the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda's outsized influence on national health policy.
There are seven physicians running for congressional office in this election, including Democrats Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, Annie Andrews of South Carolina, Amish Shah in Arizona and Richard Pan in California. There are even more nurses — 14 non-incumbent candidates — running for Congress, according to Nurse.org's Nurses on the Ballot research series.
Among Republican non-incumbents, neurosurgeon John Cowan of Georgia and internist Ralph Alvarado of Kentucky are both running for the House.
With four nurses and 20 physicians in Congress — four in the Senate and 16 in the House — the number of doctors and nurses currently running outnumbers those in office.
On the campaign trail, physician candidates have leaned on their medical backgrounds, including their work responding to recent public health emergencies, when making their case as to why they are suited for federal office.
Physicians consistently rank high among Americans when it comes to trustworthiness. And the Democratic Party seems intent on tapping into this.
A KFF Tracking Poll released in June found that more participants said they trusted their "own docto
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Oct 24, 2026
President Donald Trump has suggested he may boot the journalists and media who cover the president from their longtime press briefing room inside the White House.
In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump said he "may move the Fake News to a less obnoxious location."
His comment comes after The New York Times reported Oct. 20 that Trump had told then-White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in August to move reporters out of the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, which has been the home of the White House press corps for more than five decades.
More: One key midterms race in all 50 states and why they matter
That idea wasn't put into action, and Leavitt departed later in the month. There's no current press secretary after the departure of
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Oct 24, 2026
In this aerial view, the train of the Goliath roller coaster is seen on the track where it was evacuated at Six Flags Over Georgia on October 14 in Austell, Georgia. - Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images
Six Flags will add seat belts to Goliath and other roller coasters with similar restraints following the death of a man who fell from the ride at Six Flags Over Georgia earlier this month.
The company's CEO said in a statement Friday that Goliath remains closed pending safety reviews and clearances following the death of Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, a 42-year-old Atlanta resident and "cherished member" of a public charter school, who fell from the coaster on October 12. Several other parkgoers were injured, including four minors, police said.
In a statement addressed to guests and passholders, Six Flags President and CEO John Reilly said the company is reinforcing safety precautions across its parks, including installing seat belts on the Goliath, and has engaged independent engineers and ride inspection specialists to review safety procedures across its attractions.
Goliath, a 3.5-minute ride reaching 70 mph and a height of 200 feet, features a waist restraint but does not have an over-the-shoulder harness. The addition of seat belts m
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Oct 24, 2026
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — In 2022, Democrat Wiley Nickel ran as a moderate and narrowly won North Carolina's 13th Congressional District by about 9,000 votes. Two years later, the current congressman, Republican Brad Knott, ran as a conservative and coasted into the U.S. House by more than 70,000 votes.
Voters didn't change their minds. Politicians changed their voters.
North Carolina's Republican-controlled legislature redrew its congressional map to transform what was one of the last remaining swing districts in the South to a safe GOP seat. Lawmakers split the rectangular district into an hourglass shape that carved out Democratic voters in Raleigh and replaced them with a swath of rural counties reaching to the Virginia border.
Swing seats, meaning a district a presidential candidate won by 5 percentage points or fewer in the previous election, are disappearing from the national map. For decades after World War II, the number of competitive seats in the House slowly eroded as the nation grew more polarized, voters were less likely to split their ticket and people moved closer to like-minded neighbors, creating Democratic strongholds in urban areas and Republicans ones across rural America.
That decline accelerated the past year since President Donald Trump sparked a partisan redistricting battle. The number of swing districts fell from 45 to 37. There were 96 House seats that fit the modern definition of a swing seat in 1964,
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Oct 24, 2026
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick speaks during a news conference at the US Capitol in March 2024. - Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg/Getty Images
GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick was weaving through the crowd of a fall street festival when he was confronted by a man enraged by the skyrocketing costs he's experiencing.
Dave Woods, a contractor and registered Democrat, held up red signs with big white letters in Fitzpatrick's face to show how his heating oil and diesel fuel costs have shot up in the last year. But Fitzpatrick walked away to head to his speech.
"Where's Mr. Fitzpatrick to get in the photo shot here?" Woods told CNN after the exchange. "I'm against the party that caused this."
Farther down the street, Ted Wassmer, a registered Republican who has supported the congressman in the past, was weighing his vote in the November election. Wassmer's woodworking business has been hit hard by the Trump administration's tariffs and rising inflation. A combat veteran who has never supported President Donald Trump, Wassmer called the Iran war an "absolute joke."
"It's a clown show in DC right now," Wassmer said. "I may vote against Republicans having dominance of the Congress, that may be my decision to get the administration in check. And I'm not very happy with Democrats either. I kind of think the left and the right are running rampant right now, so I have to kind of really look at it."
Fitzpatrick is one of the only Republicans in Congress fighting for reelection in a district Kamala Harris won in 2024 — and Democrats see this as their best chance in a decade to win the seat.
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Oct 24, 2026
Ukraine said its access to the Starlink and Starshield communications network had resumed Saturday after days of limited access and questions over who had ordered the restrictions.
Ukraine's Defense Minister Yevhen Khmara said a high-speed, stable connection to the satellite network had returned, with the restoration "particularly important for our front line, for the military, drone operations, logistics and communications."
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement that access had been restored to previous levels, and thanked "all Americans," including lawmakers, the State Department and President Donald Trump.
Ukraine's access to Starshield, the militarized version of SpaceX-operated Starlink, had been disrupted since last week, impeding Ukraine's strike campaign on Russian-occupied territory. It was not clear who had ordered the interruptions: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Starshield systems were controlled by the U.S. government, while Trump administration officials denied any involvement.
On Thursday, Trump described his relationship with Musk as "a very good one" and said that Musk had reinstated full access to Starshield. On Friday, after Ukrainian commanders reported that access was still throttled, Trump told reporters he had heard the restrictions were lifted, "but if it's not, I'll fix it."
He also said he had not spoken to Musk about the satellite system, contradicting media reports that he had called Musk and asked for access to be reinst
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Oct 24, 2026
Meghan says she was informed of "disturbing allegations" about her father via a letter [PA Media]
A letter making a "number of claims" relating to the Duchess of Sussex's father was received by the Metropolitan Police in 2019, Scotland Yard has confirmed.
The Met said it passed the information relating to allegations outside the UK to the office of the Duke and Duchess but did not share it with other law enforcement agencies.
It was reported on Friday that images of child sexual abuse allegedly belonging to Thomas Markle, 82, had been found in his former home in the Philippines. Markle, who is based in the US, denies possessing any such images.
On Friday, Meghan said she was informed about "disturbing allegations" about her estranged father in 2018. The Met said it was reviewing the matter and deciding whether to refer itself to the police watchdog.
Meghan statement offers answers after years of questions about her relationship with father
Responding to Saturday's developments dating the letter to 2019, a spokesman for the duchess said "any discrepancy of a few months" was "an understandable consequence of that passage of time".
The c
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Oct 24, 2026
By Juliette Jabkhiro and Alessandro Parodi
PARIS, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Demonstrators gathered in Paris and cities across France on Saturday under the watch of 70,000 police officers, as the government sought to prevent a repeat of the riots and looting that ?rocked the country last weekend.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 135 people had been arrested nationwide by early afternoon, many following pre-emptive ?searches that uncovered fireworks, ball bearings and other items that could be used as weapons.
"We have to be ultra, ultra responsive. We have significant calls for disruption from political ?groups and quite simply from criminals," he told reporters. "It is going to be a long day."
While the start of the main Paris march was peaceful, police fired tear gas at crowds in Lyon, France's third-largest city.
The government has deployed 10,000 more police and gendarmes than on October 17, when protests over the cost of living and deteriorating public services descended into some of the worst unrest France has seen in years.
SHOPS, MUSEUMS SHUT
Much of central Paris ?took on the appearance of a city under ?lockdown, with shopkeepers boarding up storefronts, museums closing their doors and more than 20 metro stations shut.
Business groups urged retailers to remain closed after thousands of shops and businesses were damaged or looted across France last weekend.
"There are ?hardly any customers, so it's not really worth staying open," said Oskar, manager of a Kiton boutique in Paris.
Several of the capital's best-known cultural institutions, including the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay and the Paris Opera, closed for the day as a precaution, leaving tourists frustrated.
"Everything's boarded up and we're not quite sure ?where ?we should be," said Xavier Dolliole, a tourist from the US city of New ?Orleans.
The route for Paris' main demonstration was s
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Oct 24, 2026
A school bus carrying the Salem High School football team overturned after Georgia State Patrol says the driver lost control getting off Interstate 20.
Multiple students were taken to the hospital, including one who had to be Life Flighted.
The crash happened around 10:48 p.m. where Georgia Highway 138 and Interstate 20 meet.
The Salem High School football team was coming back from their Friday night game against Greater Atlanta Christian in Gwinnett County.
Troopers said the 74-year-old school bus driver lost control and went across all lanes of Ga. 138. When the bus went into the northbound lanes, it hit a Black Kia Soul. Both drivers were taken to the hospital.
Rockdale County School District told that 22 students and three staff members were taken to the hospital.
GSP says some parents took their students to the hospital, others were taken by ambulance and one was airlifted.
"Our Troopers, officials from the school and officials from National EMS are all working together to compile a complete list of students, injuries and which hospital each student went to and how they were transported," Georgia State Patrol said.
A witness told that she was at the gas station near the impact. She heard a loud boom and turned around to see the Rockdale County school bus overturned.
This article originally appeared on WSB Cox at https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/multipl
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Oct 24, 2026
Election workers sort ballots during early voting ahead of the midterm election at San Francisco County's election operations facility at City Hall in San Francisco, California, on October 21, 2026. - David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The Justice Department on Friday ordered California election officials to identify suspected noncitizens on voter rolls and set aside their mail-in ballot — warning that officials who knowingly count ballots cast by noncitizens could face criminal liability.
The action marks an escalation in the Trump administration's efforts to scrutinize voter rolls ahead of the midterm elections as it continues to double down on claims of voter fraud, fueled by President Donald Trump's baseless allegations of widespread election cheating.
Letters sent to California county election officials asked them to work with the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security to "identify who on the accompanying list is a citizen and who is not."
"If persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime," First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli wrote in a letter to San Bernardino County officials, which was seen by CNN.
The letters follow a demand earlier this month from Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter, who
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Oct 24, 2026
Elon Musk wants SpaceX (SPCX) to take on America's largest cell service providers, but matching the telecom giants' vast wireless networks could take years and billions of dollars, executives and analysts warned this week.
SpaceX, which already operates the world's largest commercial satellite network with Starlink, is in talks with major telecommunications infrastructure companies to secure access to at least 80,000 cell sites across the United States, Bloomberg reported. The move would advance Musk's ambitions to establish a fourth nationwide wireless carrier alongside the three traditional telecom and mobile service incumbents: Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T), and T-Mobile (TMUS).
The announcement sent stock in AT&T and T-Mobile falling by as much as 6% on Friday, while Verizon declined by a thinner 1.5%.
Satellite launches through Starlink and spectrum acquisitions "will pave the way for Starlink Mobile to become a major mobile carrier in the US," Musk said on SpaceX's earnings call.
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Oct 24, 2026
Your parents' nest egg was mostly bonds and savings accounts. Yours is mostly stocks.
Stocks made up 48.2% of Americans' financial assets in the second quarter, counting everything from brokerage accounts to 401(k)s, according to the Federal Reserve's latest Financial Accounts data. That's the highest share in records going back to 1945. It tops the 38.7% reached at the height of the dot-com mania and the 41% hit after the 2021 meme-stock frenzy.
Federal Reserve, Yahoo FinanceThe cash pile looks small by comparison. Households hold about $74 trillion in stocks against roughly $20 trillion in bank deposits and money market funds — a record $3.65 in stocks for every dollar of cash.
So much for all that money waiting on the sidelines.
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Oct 24, 2026
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Elon Musk said on Saturday that his company SpaceX had throttled the Starlink satellite internet service in Ukraine, disrupting operations that the country relies on to defend itself against Russia.
Musk's admission on social media came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine's access to Starlink and Starshield satellite links has been restored to the speeds it had before restrictions that disrupted front-line operations for more than a week.
Questions have persisted since last week about who ordered the interruptions to the Musk-made satellite internet system that Kyiv has relied on for years to counter Moscow's attacks.
"The speeds are now where they need to be," Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that restoration began overnight and were sufficient by Saturday morning, improving front-line logistics and defense against Russian jet-powered Shahed drones.
Musk admits he was behind Starlink's speed restriction
After Ukraine said the services had been restored, Elon Musk spoke out on the speed restrictions that began last week. In a post Saturday on X, Musk acknowledged that his company SpaceX throttled the Starlink satellite internet service.
"Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be," Musk wrote. "Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week."
But he maintained that the U.S. government controlled whatever changes happened with Starshield, the military-grade version of Starlink that is the
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Oct 24, 2026
By Crispian Balmer and Elizabeth Pineau
PARIS, Oct 24 (Reuters) - French security forces fanned out across Paris on Saturday ahead of protests that authorities fear could turn violent, with Interior Minister Laurent Nunez urging police to be "hyper-reactive" against troublemakers and looters.
Soldiers from ?an anti-terrorism military unit patrolled the Champs-Elysees avenue while police vans circled the Arc de Triomphe, looking to protect some of ?the capital's most famous sites from any repeat of the unrest that shook France last week.
Nunez has mobilised 70,000 police nationwide for Saturday's demonstrations, 10,000 more than on October 17, when ?a wave of vandalism and looting raised questions about the government's ability to maintain order.
Anger over living costs and strained public services has drawn students, workers and unions onto the streets in recent weeks, but authorities say radical militants and bands of young looters have exploited the protests to sow chaos.
Speaking to police in Paris, Nunez warned officers that they would face attempts to target shops, public institutions and security forces.
"We have to be ultra, ultra responsive. ?We have significant calls for disruption from political groups ?and quite simply from criminals," he said. "It is going to be a long day."
SHOPS, MUSEUMS, OPERA SHUT
Many shopkeepers in Paris boarded up storefronts, while luxury retailers beefed up security.
Business groups have urged stores to remain closed after thousands ?of shops and businesses were damaged or looted across France last weekend.
Lidiya Shevchenko, a sales assistant at a Graziella Braccialini store in Paris, said she doubted many customers would venture out to browse luxury boutiques during the day.
"I suppose the mood is just as important when it comes to shopping," she said.
Several of Paris' ?best-known ?cultural institutions,
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Oct 24, 2026
FILE PHOTO - Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, meets volunteer first responders from the Bondi Surf Bathers' Life Saving Club during a visit to Sydney's Bondi Beach. (is associated with: «Philippines investigating allegations against Meghan's father») Jonathan Brady/PA Wire/dpaAuthorities in the Philippines said they are investigating allegations that Thomas Markle Sr, the father of Meghan Markle, wife of Britain's Prince Harry, had a hoard of child sex abuse images.
According to The Sun, Meghan's half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr, alleged that he found a stash of images belonging to their father at his former home in the Philippines.
He reportedly told police in the country that he discovered the child abuse pictures and videos mixed up with innocent family mementos.
The newspaper said he also contacted FBI investigators in the US in July.
Nicholas Ty, undersecretary for the Philippines Department of Justice, told ITV News: "Our Anti-Trafficking and Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children taskforce in Cebu is currently investigating the matter."
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Thomas Sr denied possessing child sex images, calling the accusations "sick lies."
On Friday, Meghan said she was made aware of "disturbing allegations" about her father in 2018.
She said she was shown a letter sent to Scotland Yard eight years ago making "troubling" allegations against Thomas Markle Sr and she was assured that these were being investigated.
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Oct 23, 2026
More than 200 firefighters are at the scene in Bavaria - Getty ImagesPolice have detained a suspect after a fire destroyed Adolf Hitler's German mountain retreat.
Around 200 firefighters were deployed to tackle the fire engulfing the Eagle's Nest, a remote residence at the top of Obersalzberg mountain in Bavaria built in the 1930s for the Nazi leader.
Authorities on Saturday said the building had been almost completely destroyed and that it was unclear whether parts could be salvaged.
Police said firefighters had found the building "completely ablaze" as they approached the Kehlsteinhaus residence.
Emergency services arrived on site at 9.52pm (8.52pm UK time) after a smoke detector triggered a fire alarm.
Flames engulfed the Kehlsteinhaus, known as the Eagle's Nest, on Friday night - Getty/Ferdinand Dorfler-FarthoferSeveral hours later, firefighters were struggling to extinguish the fire because of the house's remote location, police said.
A police spokesman said a "suspicious person" had been "taken into temporary custody" but that the criminal investigation was ongoing and that no one had been injured.
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Oct 23, 2026
Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton warned Friday that Iran has "substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel" abroad, with plots to kill Americans reaching "advanced stages" in the Middle East and other countries.
The warning, contained in an unclassified memo that was sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and obtained by CBS News, comes as the State Department adjusts staffing at diplomatic posts across the Middle East, and the U.S. military pares back its footprint in the region, amid concerns about direct threats from Iran and threats from the Iranian-backed Houthi movement in Yemen.
"The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against U.S. citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries," Clayton wrote.
The memo, which was issued as the Trump administration weighs resuming military strikes against Iran, does not identify specific targets or countries where the alleged plots are underway, or indicate whether attacks may be imminent.
Clayton said the U.S. intelligence community is working to downgrade sensitive intelligence — received through various channels — so it can be shared more broadly with State Department personnel. CIA Director John Ratcliffe was copied on the memo.
Axios was first to report on the memo.
The warning follows a series of precautions at U.S. diplomatic facilities across the region. Earlier this week, the State Department ordered non-essential U.S. embassy personnel and their families to depart Saudi Arabia. Several other American embassies in the region adjusted their staffing under "restricted operations" status, which allows them to reduce the number of personnel without formally going on ordered
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Oct 23, 2026
Los Angeles (AP) — Federal prosecutors sent letters to county registrars across California on Friday demanding that local officials set aside and verify ballots that the Department of Justice said may belong to noncitizens, according to the Los Angeles County registrar and a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
The letters are the latest escalation in a legal battle between California and President Donald Trump's Department of Justice, which has recently focused on the state in its efforts to root out noncitizen voting ahead of the midterm elections. Data shows illegal voting by people who aren't U.S. citizens is incredibly rare, difficult to prove and has not been shown to change the outcome of races.
Earlier this month, the federal government targeted Los Angeles County and the California Secretary of State's office in a lawsuit that aimed to block them from counting the votes of roughly 20,000 people who are "likely" noncitizen voters. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Tuesday.
The Trump administration asked the 9th Circuit court of appeals to rule on the lawsuit barring a decision from the district judge assigned to the case. They set a deadline for Saturday.
Now, according to the LA County registrar's office, at least 18 counties across the state have received simila
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Oct 23, 2026
By Erin Banco and Joey Roulette
WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Well before the throttling this month of Ukraine's military access to Elon Musk's satellite communications system, the Biden and Trump administrations had several times asked SpaceX to turn its Starlink service on or off in various countries, according to six former senior US officials familiar with the matter.
During the presidency of Joe Biden, the requests included switching off the service to prevent Iranian proxy militias in Yemen and Lebanon from using Starlink to communicate, and ?activating the service to provide internet access inside Iran and in Ukraine to support its military, said four of the former officials.
Similarly, President Donald Trump's administration asked Musk, who is CEO of SpaceX, to make the service available in Iran following US-Israeli strikes in ?2025 and 2026, in hopes it would bolster internet access and communications for anti-government protesters, a former senior Trump official and a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
All of the people spoke on condition of anonymity. The previous US requests about Starlink access are being reported here for the first time.
The recent blowup over restrictions to Ukraine's use of SpaceX satellite services ?has raised questions about the ties between the US government and Musk, whose company owns systems vital to the US military and to US allies.
The Biden-era and Trump requests to Musk show a close relationship in which US administrations rely to an unprecedented degree on a private-sector company to help implement foreign policy.
The recent limits on Ukraine, despite being a US ally, have also rattled officials in Europe, some of whom argue that Europe must develop its own military satellite communications capabilities because no viable short-term alternative currently exists.
STARSHIELD RESTRICTIONS HOBBLE UKRAINE MILITARY
Ukrainian P
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Oct 23, 2026
Former ESPN reporter Britt McHenry resigned Friday from her position as a State Department press adviser following an altercation at a basketball game this week, ABC News has learned.
McHenry was captured on camera appearing to throw a drink on someone during a Washington Wizards vs. Milwaukee Bucks NBA game on Wednesday.
Video obtained by TMZ appears to show McHenry being escorted from the stands at Capital One Arena following the incident.
Alex Brandon/AP - PHOTO: Britt McHenryMcHenry was appointed to her role at the State Department last month. A Department official declined to comment on McHenry's exit, saying it was an internal personnel matter.
ABC News was not immediately able to contact McHenry.
McHenry formerly worked as a reporter for ESPN. In 2015, she was suspended by the network for one week after a video showing her berating a clerk at a towing company went viral.
Her departure from the State Department was first reported by Page Six.
This article originally appeared on ABC News at https://abcnews.com/Politics/britt-mchenry-resigns-state-department-job-after-basketball/story?id=137526303
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Oct 23, 2026
Kaylub Giamanco, the man praised as a hero for fatally shooting a gunman at a school in Bend, Oregon, last week, is speaking out for the first time about the moments leading up to the shooting and how he is grappling with the aftermath.
The 36-year-old carpenter, whose two daughters attend Silver Rail Elementary School, told Oregon Public Broadcasting that it was happenstance that he was passing by the school at that moment. He said he had decided to go home for lunch that day instead of eating the food he had packed.
As he drove by the elementary school, he saw a "man in black" holding a long gun and shooting at a vehicle. At first, he thought it was a prank, but then the shooter threw the gun over the school fence before climbing it.
"That's when panic fled into my brain and that's when I opened my center console and said, 'No. No. No. No,'" Giamanco said in the interview. In the console of his truck was a .40-caliber handgun he rarely used.
He said he grabbed the weapon's magazine from another compartment, drove into the school parking lot and saw the shooter walk across school grounds.
"I just was in full panic, like, 'No, there's children, there's babies in there,'" he recalled. "I told my Siri to call 911." He said the dispatcher had questions for him, but he didn't stay on the call.
"I said, 'I'm sorry, I have to go in. People are going to die,'" Giamanco said.
He described trying to stay out of sight as he followed the gunman.
"I heard him fire two shots into the doors," Giamanco said. "That's when I started hea
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Oct 23, 2026
A judge in New York on Friday decided the former Cornell University student known as Jane Doe can pursue her sexual assault claim against the university and seven fraternity members while remaining anonymous.
Permission to proceed in litigation under a pseudonym is not automatic, but the judge said "the notoriety of the allegations and widespread reports of certain malicious actors' behavior" warranted anonymity.
Jane Doe says she felt 'unsupported and disbelieved' by Cornell presidentThe judge's decision came with a warning to those who have threatened Jane Doe and others connected to the case.
"While the Court is cognizant that some members of the public have made it their mission to try and identify Jane Doe, and have likewise tried to use what they believe to be Jane Doe's identity to harass and threaten certain individuals allegedly tied to her, the Court issues the following words of caution: cyberstalking and engaging in or encouraging threats across state lines, whether it be of Jane Doe, any of the named defendants, or their attorneys, can be considered a federal crime and perpetrators of those acts may be subjecting themselves to prosecution," Judge Phaedra Perry-Bond wrote in her opinion.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images - PHOTO: A hand written sign is seen before a rally in support of a former Cornell University student known as Jane Doe at the Ithaca Commons, October 13, 2026 in Ithaca, New York. Former Cornell fraternity president dropped from Jane Doe l
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Oct 23, 2026
Watch: Who controls Ukraine's access to Starlink?
Ukraine is still recording issues with the Starlink internet network, sources within the defence ministry say, after Donald Trump said limits had been reversed by Elon Musk who owns the satellite system.
The sources told the BBC that instances of drones experiencing connection loss at speeds of 161km/h (100mph) were being recorded, hampering military operations.
The US president had denied instructing the tech billionaire to restrict connectivity to Starlink's military-grade counterpart, Starshield, before saying on Thursday that Musk had "put it back".
Asked on Friday, Trump said: "If there is a problem, I will get it straightened out."
Trump added: "I have not spoken to him. I might have to, but I have not. I've heard it was fixed, but if it's not, I'll speak to him."
Musk previously said he was not behind the slowdown, which affected Ukraine's ability to use attack drones and co-ordinate defensive operations.
Trump told reporters he did not think the tech billionaire had too much power.
The Ukrainian defence ministry sources said the military was constantly monitoring the performance of both the Starlink and Starshield networks.
They added that there was "currently no confirmation that these restrictions have been lifted".
Last week, Kyiv said uplink speeds to the low Earth orbit satellites had been restricted, affecting the speed at which drones could travel. Any drone travelling faster than 100mph lost its connection, officials said.
Shortly after, Musk said that Starshield, which Ukraine uses for some of its operation, was controlled by the US militar
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Oct 23, 2026
An upstate New York woman who says she only recently learned she wasn't born in the U.S. has been charged with voting illegally, one of the latest arrests touted by the Trump administration as it hunts for noncitizen voters ahead of the midterm elections.
Marva Cook was adopted as a toddler and had always assumed she was a U.S. citizen, she told Homeland Security investigators earlier this month, according to the criminal complaint.
But in searching for her biological mother, the 66-year-old Syracuse resident, who starred on Syracuse University's women's basketball team decades ago, said she discovered she had a German birth certificate.
Federal prosecutors say Cook has had a green card for several years now, but she still cast ballots in recent elections despite not having citizenship.
She faces a single federal charge of voting by an alien stemming from her vote in the 2022 midterms.
The misdemeanor offense carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a fine up to $100,000, if convicted. Cook can also face deportation, under federal law.
Cook says she has faith in God and support from community
Reached by phone Friday, Cook declined to discuss the criminal case, her voting record or her past efforts at becoming a citizen.
But she said she was "not thrilled" by her court appearance Wednesday as she was placed in shackles despite having voluntarily turned herself in just hours earlier.
"It was a difficult time," Cook said. "I'm about kindness and service and doing for others as I want to be treated."
She also said she appreciated the outpouring of support of
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Oct 23, 2026
A photo released by the US Navy shows an F/A-18 Super Hornet launching from the flight deck of the USS George Washington as it operates in the Middle East on September 9, 2026 (-)The United States appears to be preparing to resume large-scale strikes against Iran, but there is unlikely to be a military solution for either side in the devastating conflict, experts say.
Washington and Tehran's forces have settled into a pattern of strikes on commercial ships, with the United States seeking to enforce a blockade of Iran's ports and the Islamic republic trying to exert control over the key Strait of Hormuz waterway.
Neither country has engaged in major attacks on land-based targets since early September, but that may soon change.
"I'm banking now on the likelihood of strikes shortly after the midterms," said Suzanne Maloney, director of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution, referring to November 3 elections in the United States.
She pointed to potential signs including the movement of additional US military assets and troops to the Middle East, warnings issued to Americans in the region, and a high alert status for Israeli forces.
Additionally, President Donald Trump "came out publicly and said that he wouldn't strike before the midterms," and "it wouldn't seem to help him at the polls to do so," Maloney said.
The US-Israeli war against Iran is largely unpopular in the United States, especially because it has sharply driven up fuel prices, and is likely to be a drag on Trump's Republican Party in the key vote.
"Fundamentally, the situation isn't sustainable in its current state," Maloney said, noting that the US blockade is "creating greater pain for the Iranians," while Washington has a large number of naval assets tied up in enforcin
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Oct 23, 2026
A chemical leak that sent 60 people to the hospital and forced hundreds of people to flee their homes has been blamed on an employee error.
Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz announced the cause of the tank leak at a news conference on Friday and said that all remaining evacuation orders in Toledo, Ohio.
The chemical leak happened Tuesday night when an employee of MC Tank Transport "introduced a temperature level to the tank in the process of trying to transfer the liquid" that caused a chemical reaction, the mayor said.
MC Tank Transport said the tank contained glycidyl methacrylate, which it described as "an industrial chemical used to make certain plastics, paints and coatings perform better."
A plume of smokes rises from MC Tank Transport Inc., where a chemical tank exploded overnight, prompting hundreds of residents to evacuate or shelter in place amid concerns about a potential toxic release, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026 (AP) The e
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Oct 23, 2026
Citi Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have taken steps to limit third-party AI agents from accessing their platforms and services, and others are following suit.
The banks' decisions, first reported by Axios, come amid mounting concern over AI agents taking unwanted actions on behalf of users. Two-thirds of chief information security officers surveyed in financial services and software ranked agentic AI among their top three cybersecurity risks, and more than one-third named it as their top concern, according to a 2026 study by Palo Alto Networks.
"We do not permit third-party AI agents or assistants to log into a customer's account or transact directly within our digital banking platforms," a Citi spokesperson wrote to USA TODAY.
Citi customers can authorize agents to "limited, read-only access to their account information with certain Citi-approved open banking providers," the statement continued. Citi has not seen reports of agents accessing client accounts.
"There's a window of vulnerability where the systems, the banks, the users are all vulnerable to the speed with which AI is being weaponized," said Andre Durand, founder and CEO of Ping Identity, which sells identity security infrastructure to financial institutions.
He cited concern over AI being used to perpetrate fraud and scams at higher levels as well as fear that agents could be compromised or decide to take malicious action on their own.
In an October report
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Oct 23, 2026
Oil prices climbed to a 6-month high on Friday as traders priced the odds of escalating fighting in the Middle East. Attacks near the Red Sea also stoked worries of further constraints on oil supplies from the region.
Brent crude (BZ=F) futures for December delivery settled at $116.72 per barrel. The international benchmark posted its third consecutive week of gains. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate crude (CL=F) closed just above $103 a barrel.
President Trump telegraphed an escalation in Iran after the midterm elections and an extended stand-off, with the Strait of Hormuz remaining at the center of the conflict.
This week, the New York Times reported that the US and Israel have reportedly drawn up plans for renewed attacks on Iran after the Nov. 3 elections. The US has ordered nonessential embassy personnel to depart Saudi Arabia after a series of attacks at the country's airports and oil fields.
President Trump has said he will
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Oct 23, 2026
It's crunch time. With less than two weeks to go until the 2026 midterm elections, Democratic and Republican candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives nationwide are making one last push to persuade voters in their districts — and help their party win or retain control of the chamber on Nov. 3.
The stakes are high. President Trump 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 parts of the president's agenda, investigate his administration and even impeach him (again).
Historically speaking, a president's party almost always loses seats when voters return to the polls to judge his first two years in office. (The average number lost since World War II? Twenty-six.) Sometimes, the backlash is so pervasive that the president's party loses seats across a wide range of competitive districts — a phenomenon known as a "wave" election.
But the past doesn't necessarily predict the future, and Republicans have certain advantages today that they didn't have before. Here's what needs to happen for each party to come out on top.
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Oct 23, 2026
Republican Vivek Ramaswamy on Friday defended his campaign's ad featuring the estranged mother of Democratic rival Dr. Amy Acton in the closely watched race for Ohio governor.
Speaking at a campaign stop in northeast Ohio, he said the advertisement, which features Acton's mother calling her "a liar," had nothing to do with childhood abuse.
"The irony is they're lying about an ad that is about lying," Ramaswamy said. "They're changing the subject because they don't want to answer for their own failures."
The advertisement features Acton's birth mother, Donna Arthur, criticizing her and insinuating she has mental health issues. Arthur lost custody of her children after her husband, the children's stepfather, was indicted for raping Acton.
Acton is Ohio's former public health director and has made no secret of facing homelessness and abuse as a child. She has condemned Ramaswamy for the ad.
"I won't normalize somebody who has said that my childhood is just something I'm complaining about." she told Spectrum News, a cable news outlet in Ohio.
A message seeking comment was sent Friday to her campaign
The ad has stirred significant reaction, including from President Donald Trump, who said it was like "hitting pay dirt."
At a campaign rally in Iowa on Thursday, Trump told the crowd Ramaswamy called him to ask for advice.
"You've got to ride with it," Trump recalled telling Ramaswamy, a biotech billionaire and former presi
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Oct 23, 2026
Washington — Two former senior FBI officials are facing criminal charges for allegedly making false statements to Congress during testimony in 2023 about the bureau's investigation involving Hunter Biden's laptop.
Nikki Floris, 46, a former intelligence analyst in charge in the bureau's Washington Field Office, and Bradley Benavides, 56, the former deputy assistant director at the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, each appeared in court on Friday in Washington, D.C., where they were presented with a copy of a criminal complaint charging them with one count each of lying to Congress about their roles on the Foreign Influence Task Force during the 2020 election, specifically the FBI's Hunter Biden investigations.
A statement of facts prepared by the FBI and filed with the complaint alleges that Floris made false statements to Congress on July 19, 2023, and Benavides allegedly did the same that September. Their alleged false statements pertained to "their awareness of involvement in the FBI's investigations into Hunter Biden," it said.
"The evidence further establishes probable cause to believe that Floris and Benavides made these statements for the purpose of concealing [the Foreign Influence Task Force's] engagement with and communications about the Hunter Biden investigations and impeding the congressional investigation," it said.
The decision by the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. to charge the pair in a criminal complaint stemming from three-year-old allegations is highly unusual, and both their defense attorneys and the magistrate judge who presided over Friday's hearing and unsealing raised questions about the decision.
"The alleged conduct happened years ago. The government has had the information about this for years," said Ron Safer, an attorney for Benavides. He ask
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