The Justice Department gave California counties 48 hours to help check the citizenship of roughly 20,000 listed voters and asked them to set aside those mail ballots.
The letters, sent Friday, Oct. 23, ask counties to “segregate — not cancel” mail ballots whose citizenship can’t be confirmed, and warn of legal action against any official who knowingly counts a noncitizen’s vote.
Each square is about 20,000 registered voters, so the list is one square: under 0.1%, roughly one in 1,150. A name on the list is DOJ’s flag, not a finding; the state attorney general says the lists contain errors.
DOJ also wants Social Security numbers, ID information and a copy of each listed voter’s registration. San Bernardino County’s list alone has 1,133 names. Reports differ on reach: the Los Angeles County registrar says at least 18 counties got letters, NBC News reports 57 of 58, The Hill every county. Registrars say they are counting as normal. “We’re not changing anything we’re doing,” said Napa County registrar John Tuteur. California checks citizenship by sworn statement, not by documents, and its filings say a ballot already separated from its envelope can’t be pulled back out. Judge David Carter hears DOJ’s lawsuit Tuesday, Oct. 27; a separate emergency request to the Ninth Circuit is pending.
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The U.S. is cutting staff at embassies in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the UAE after the intelligence chief said Iranian plots to kill Americans are at “advanced stages.”
All four stay open with fewer people. The order to leave still covers only Saudi Arabia, where nonessential staff and families were sent out of the Riyadh embassy and the Jeddah and Dhahran consulates on Oct. 21.
Memorandum · Unclassified · One page
- From
- Jay Clayton, Director of National Intelligence
- To
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio; CIA Director John Ratcliffe copied
- Dated
- Friday, Oct. 23
- Says
- Iran has sharply stepped up efforts to target U.S. personnel, with lethal plots at “advanced stages” in the Middle East and other countries
- Doesn’t say
- Who the targets are, or that an attack is imminent
Houthi attacks on Saudi airports have killed at least 21 people since the start of October, per the BBC. A State Department spokesperson called reports of a Gulf-wide departure order “inaccurate.” Clayton wrote that the risk reaches “more individuals than are currently cleared” to see it.
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Peltola’s campaign and Senate Democrats filed to defeat the Justice Department’s suit to block Alaska’s Senate certification if Sen. Dan Sullivan loses.
The suit wants the ranked-choice count redone as if every vote for a second candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan, had gone to the senator, a Republican. Peltola, the Democrat, called it “a very desperate attempt to cling to power.”
Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr.no party
Sullivan, Dan S. (Registered Republican) Incumbent
- What the complaint lacks
- Any voter statement, survey or count of anyone who marked one Sullivan while meaning the other
- What it concedes
- State courts overturned the elections director’s June decision to keep Daniel J. Sullivan off the ballot
The two lines as DOJ’s complaint describes them; the ballot’s order and layout are not shown.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, said DOJ “should never have filed this lawsuit.” Ben Ginsberg, the election lawyer for George W. Bush’s 2000 and 2004 campaigns, said it has “zero basis in the law.” October polls show Peltola ahead. State review starts Nov. 19, with certification targeted for Nov. 25.
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White House lawyers are weighing preemptive pardons for junior staff, a report says, and Trump says “certainly I’d be allowed to.”
The idea would cover everyone in certain policy areas, such as deportation, to shield them from investigations Democrats have promised if they win Congress. It does not seem imminent, according to the report.
“They’re going to drag her into a grand jury Margot, you’re not going to have to worry about it, okay?”Trump, pointing to aide Margot Martin in the press pool after voting early in Palm Beach, Saturday, Oct. 24
| Grant | Who | The offense | The dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ford, 1974 | Nixon | “All federal offenses,” no crime listed | Jan. 20, 1969, to Aug. 9, 1974 |
| Carter, 1977 | Unnamed draft evaders | Named | Aug. 4, 1964, to March 28, 1973 |
| Biden, January 2025 | Named people, among them Fauci and Milley | None named | Date ranges |
| Under discussion | Unnamed staff, by policy area | None reported | None reported |
Trump’s answer began, “I haven’t thought about it.” No list of recipients, offenses or covered dates has been reported. A pardon can’t reach crimes committed after it is granted (Ex parte Garland, 1866), and a pardoned staffer can lose the Fifth Amendment ground for refusing to answer about covered federal crimes.
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Ukraine says its Starlink and Starshield links work again above 400 km/h, and Musk says Kyiv broke the terms with offensive drone strikes.
While the limits were in place, service failed above 160 km/h (about 100 mph), for about 10 days, or two weeks by Axios’s count. Starshield is SpaceX’s military service. Kyiv credits Zelensky’s diplomacy.
“Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week.”
Elon Musk, hours after Kyiv’s announcement
Civilian Starlink could not run drone missions at all; every drone mission that needed a satellite link ran on Starshield.
Serhii Sternenko’s account; he is a former defense ministry insiderIf civilian Starlink could not run drone missions, Musk’s terms-of-service complaint would not explain cutting Starshield.
On Oct. 16, Trump said neither he nor Musk ordered the caps. Musk’s post comes closest to owning them, but it names no one; Rubio and Hegseth have cast the limits as SpaceX’s call.
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Industry insiders at the EPA helped Trump waive toxic air pollution limits for chemical, oil and steel plants, a New York Times investigation finds.
About 200 plants held presidential exemptions as of Oct. 7, per Harvest Public Media, including 70 of the 218 chemical plants covered by a 2024 EPA rule. No president used the power before 2025.
Iron and steel plants
$200–420 million in health benefits$5.3 million in compliance costsChemical plants
$150 million in costs$6.5–58 million in priced ozone benefitsCancer-risk cuts from ethylene oxide and chloroprene: never priced; no bar
Coke ovens
About $3.9 million in costsHealth benefits: EPA did not put a number on them; no bar
One scale from $0. A range is solid to its low end and hatched to its high end. Only the steel figures are given in 2022 dollars.
The Clean Air Act’s Section 112(i)(4) lets a president excuse a plant from a new rule for two years at a time, renewable, but only if the needed control technology is not available and the exemption serves national security. The chemical plants’ limits on ethylene oxide, a gas tied to cancer risk, and their fenceline monitoring were due July 15, 2026; they now come due July 15, 2028. Eric Lipton’s reporting centers on Port Neches, a Gulf Coast town ringed by petrochemical plants.