The Justice Department sued to block Alaska’s Senate certification if Sen. Dan Sullivan loses, citing a second candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan.
Certification would be held only if Sullivan, a Republican, narrowly loses to Democrat Mary Peltola and would have won had every vote for Daniel J. Sullivan gone to him under ranked-choice counting.
“I’m the one that said do it.”Trump, Friday, on ordering the filing
- 1st2ndDaniel J. SullivanDan SullivanMary Peltola
Alaska’s countThe senator
DOJ’s testThe senator
Already his once Daniel J. is dropped: nothing extra. - 1st2ndDaniel J. SullivanDan SullivanMary Peltola
Alaska’s countPeltola
DOJ’s testThe senator
- 1st2ndDaniel J. SullivanDan SullivanMary Peltola
Alaska’s countStops counting
DOJ’s testThe senator
Alaska drops the last-place finisher and moves those ballots to each voter’s next pick. Schematic ballots: only the three names at issue are drawn.
Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from Petersburg, took 2.5% of the primary vote, and the Alaska Supreme Court had already rejected efforts to remove him from the ballot. The federal suit asks a second court to act on the same ballot after the votes are in, citing the National Voter Registration Act, a voter-registration law. “One is Daniel S. One is Daniel J.,” Trump said; he doesn’t think the man “ever voted before.” Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller: “the legal claim is so absurdly thin, there’s essentially no likelihood of success.” Polls show Peltola narrowly ahead; voting ends Nov. 3.
Read the reporting
The U.S. is moving diplomats out of five Middle East countries and sending more warships, as Trump says another Iran operation may come.
Only Saudi Arabia is under a mandatory order: non-emergency staff and all family members must leave the Riyadh embassy and the Saudi consulates. Private Americans have not been told to leave.
Saudi ArabiaJordanLebanonQatarU.A.E.BahrainKuwait- Mandatory order
Saudi Arabia, the only one
- Cutting staff further, under limits already in place
Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, U.A.E.
- Nothing has changed, the State Department told CNN
Bahrain, Kuwait
Shading marks countries; no embassy, ship or target is placed.
Two U.S. officials told Fox News that the carrier Theodore Roosevelt and the Makin Island amphibious group, with about 2,200 Marines and sailors, are headed there. The Roosevelt, due by the end of November, is meant to replace the George Washington, not just add to the force; if it arrives before the Washington leaves, the region would hold three carriers at once, as in April and, before that, not since 2003. CNN reports renewed U.S. strikes are already being planned.
Read the reporting
The Justice Department charged two former FBI task force leaders with lying to Congress about the unit’s role in the Hunter Biden investigations.
Nikki Floris ran the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force from mid-2019 to mid-2022; Bradley Benavides was its section chief through the 2020 election. Both told Congress the unit was not involved. The Justice Department says emails and witnesses contradict them.
- Charged by
- Criminal complaint, signed Oct. 20, not grand jury indictment
- The count
- One each, under 18 U.S.C. §1001: prosecutors must prove each lie was deliberate and could have swayed Congress’s inquiry
- Surrendered
- Friday, Oct. 23, 11 days before the midterms
- Next
- Preliminary hearing, 11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27; an indictment before then would skip it
Why the unit matters: House Judiciary Republicans said in 2023 that its 2020 warnings about a Russian “hack and leak” operation “conditioned” social media companies to treat the New York Post’s laptop story as possible Russian disinformation. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said that when senior agents “lie to Congress believing they are above the law, it’s time to bring the hammer of justice down on them.” Floris’ lawyers call these “nonsense charges” filed “years later, on the eve of an election.” A 2024 Justice Department memo bars timing cases to help a party.
Read the reporting
The full Fifth Circuit ruled 10-7 that migrants never lawfully admitted have no constitutional right to bond hearings while their deportation cases proceed.
Detainees can still ask ICE itself for release, but no immigration judge will weigh whether they would flee or pose a danger.
107
With the administrationNine joined Judge Cory Wilson’s 159-page opinion; one agreed only with the result.
AgainstJudge Leslie Southwick wrote the main dissent, joined by every Democratic-appointed judge on the court.
The court said due process requires nothing beyond what Congress wrote into law. The policy, adopted last year, treats long-time residents as people still “seeking admission.” The Fifth Circuit hears appeals from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi; other appeals courts have split over the same policy, so the rule a detainee lives under depends on which circuit holds them, a split only the Supreme Court can resolve.
Read the reporting
Trump lifted 50% tariffs from nine categories of Canadian goods Maine farms use, a change Sen. Susan Collins announced before the White House did.
In their place, Trump put other Canadian goods under the same tariff. The swap takes effect Friday, Oct. 30, four days before Collins, a Maine Republican, faces Democrat Troy Jackson in a race the Cook Political Report rates a toss-up.
Plywood sheets, packing crates and boxes, some paper products, refrigeration and packing machinery, seaweed
Carpets, valves, shampoo, vinyl flooring, coffins, window air conditioners
$762.10 billion total U.S.-Canada goods trade in 2024, per the Census Bureau
$20 billion of Canadian imports under 50% tariffs over the summer, per PBS
One scale from $0. Different measures and periods, as reported; the swap’s own dollar value is not reported.
The tariffs run under Section 338 of the 1930 Tariff Act, which lets the president add duties of up to 50% on countries he finds treat U.S. trade unfairly. Collins says the change helps Maine’s blueberry, potato and apple growers. Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House tax-writing committee, called it a “desperate admission of failed trade policy.”
Read the reporting
Zelenskyy says Ukraine’s Starlink and Starshield service is still slowed, a day after Trump said Musk restored it.
Drone units told NBC they lost aircraft mid-mission. A commander called “Flint” said one drone lost contact “in an instant” because of the speed limit and called it “a knife in the back.”
“It works, but it’s still limited.”Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine
Zelenskyy says the same terminals ran at 180 km/h in EU tests but cut out near 161 km/h in Ukraine. Trump said he had not spoken to Musk. Asked who ordered the limits, he said, “I wouldn’t tell you if I did know,” and added, “Elon will never do anything wrong.” Who ordered them is not public. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, opened an inquiry, and lawmakers from both parties plan to hold up Trump’s nominees over the limits.