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Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady in split vote ahead of midterm elections 28 Oct 2026, 9:51 pm

Federal Reserve officials voted 10-2 to keep interest rates unchanged, as elevated inflation continues to pose a problem for central bankers.

Fed Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack dissented, preferring a quarter-point rate hike.

The Fed’s benchmark rates remained in the 3.75% to 4% range, as widely expected. A rate hike in December, however, appears far more likely, according to the Fed's dot plot and fed funds futures.

Although recent inflation data came in hotter than expected, the Fed has positioned itself to continue assessing additional data. The proximity of the October meeting to the US midterm elections next Tuesday was also seen as a deterrent to bold monetary policy moves.

The focus now is on what Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh will say at his post-FOMC-meeting press conference. Warsh has deliberately avoided telegraphing future Fed policy moves, but hot inflation could elicit more insight from him into the path forward.

This article originally appeared on Yahoo Finance at https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/live/fed-meeting-live-updates-federal-reserve-october-meeting-kevin-warsh-161129201.html

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Federal judge who oversaw Trump, Maduro and 9/11 cases dies at 92 28 Oct 2026, 8:24 pm

NEW YORK (AP) — Alvin K. Hellerstein, a Manhattan federal judge who presided over cases involving President Donald Trump, former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the 9/11 attacks during nearly three decades on the bench, has died. He was 92.

Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain announced Hellerstein's death in a statement Wednesday, saying his “energetic and dedicated service to this Court continued until his death.”

“He is greatly appreciated and will be sorely missed,” she added.

Appointed to the federal bench in 1998 by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, Hellerstein kept a robust docket and worked until his death.

Just two weeks ago, he presided over the arraignment of Maduro and Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, on torture charges that were added to their ongoing narco-terrorism conspiracy case.

Maduro, who was captured alongside his wife earlier this year in a surprise U.S. military raid in Caracas, twice defied Hellerstein’s request that he enter a plea to the charges. Irked, Hellerstein took matters into his own hands, interjecting that “a plea of not guilty will be entered on behalf of Mr. Maduro.”

At Flores’ Oct. 8 bail hearing, Hellerstein coughed and struggled to speak at times, telling lawyers: “I have a voice problem. As long as you can understand — hear me, I’ll keep going.” Nevertheless, he was resolute that he’d preside over Maduro and Flores’ trial, which he’d scheduled for next June.

In August, in one of his last significant rulings, Hellerstein again spurned Trump’s effort to erase his hush money conviction, rejecting the president’s bid to move the state court case to federal court and have it dismissed on presidential immunity grounds.

It was the third time Hellerstein denied Trump’s requests to move the case. The first time was after Trump’s March 2023 indictment; the second followed Trump’s May 2024 conviction and a subsequent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that presidents and former presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts.

Hellerstein’s latest ruling against Trump came after an appeals court ordered him to reconsider his prior decision. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Hellerstein erred by failing to consider “important issues relevant” to the president’s request. However, the appeals court judges said they “express no view” on how Hellerstein should rule.

In 2020, Hellerstein ordered Trump’s estranged former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen released from prison after the Justice Department revoked his home confinement to thwart his efforts to publish a book or talk to the media. The government’s action, he ruled, was retaliatory and a First Amendment violation.

In the aftermath of the 2001 terror attack on the World Trade Center, Hellerstein presided over dozens of wrongful death, injury and property damage lawsuits — a two-decade-long effort that shaped his legacy on the bench.

Some of the judge’s former clients died in the attack and, lawyers say, he showed great empathy to victims and their families, meeting with them for hours in his chambers and rejecting what he felt were low-ball settlement offers.

In March 2010, Hellerstein rejected as insufficient a settlement that would have paid at least $575 million to thousands of people who fell ill working in the toxic ash of the trade center. He acknowledged he was breaking with tradition by getting so involved in the case.

“Most settlements are private. A plaintiff and defendant come together, shake hands, and it’s done with,” he explained. The judge usually has no part in saying yes or no.

“This is different,” Hellerstein said. “This is 9/11.”

Others were dismayed when, in 2008, Hellerstein ended an effort to force New York City government to keep searching for human remains in debris moved from ground zero to a Staten Island landfill.

His other notable recent cases included the criminal trials of Charlie Javice, who was convicted last year of defrauding JPMorgan Chase out of $175 million by exaggerating the customer base for her financial aid startup, and hedge fund founder Bill Hwang, who was convicted in 2024 of securities and market manipulation fraud in a scheme that cost banks billions of dollars.

He also presided over a 2025 civil trial at which a jury ordered French bank BNP Paribas to pay nearly $21 million for giving the Sudanese government access to the U.S. financial system as it engaged in atrocities two decades ago. Hellerstein also made headlines in 2015, when he ordered a New York City cable company to pay a Texas woman $229,500 for flooding her phone with 153 robocalls.

Hellerstein, known for a quirky independent streak and strict discipline in his courtroom, insisted spectators wear pandemic-era masks for more than two years after other judges stopped the practice.

He was a federal district judge until he moved to senior status in 2011. Before that, Hellerstein served in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps and was a Manhattan litigator.

This article originally appeared on Associated Press at https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/alvin-k-hellerstein-federal-judge-165439171.html

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At least 68 people killed in high-speed train collision in central Spain 28 Oct 2026, 8:16 pm

By David Latona, Guillermo Martinez and Michael Francis Gore

URDA, Spain, Oct 28 (Reuters) - At least 68 people died when two Spanish high-speed trains collided on Wednesday, with rescuers scouring the wreckage for more bodies after Spain's second fatal rail crash this year and Europe's deadliest since 2013.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a televised address from near the accident site south ‌of Madrid that "all of Spain" was in mourning, while the opposition People's Party said it had cancelled all campaign events for the day ahead of an election next month.

Sanchez said the "terrible tragedy" ‌would be investigated and vowed to address any failures that came to light, adding that the causes of the two crashes appeared to be unrelated.

"If we need to further strengthen safety in order to rebuild confidence in our high-speed rail system, we will do so, because ​what is unacceptable for a country like Spain is to suffer two high-speed rail accidents in the same year," Sanchez said.

RED SIGNAL

Spain's transport minister said the crash happened after a Renfe train was authorised to continue its journey despite an active red signal due to a stationary train ahead.

Oscar Puente told reporters in Madrid that the red signal was issued due to a computer communications failure, which automatically stopped traffic, and an erroneous decision had been made to restart the Renfe train.

At the scene, ambulances, funeral home vans and helicopters had parked next to one of the trains on an elevated track section, while twisted metal and wreckage were strewn across an embankment down which at least ‌three carriages had plunged.

The head of Castilla-La Mancha's regional government said the death ⁠toll had risen to 68, while rescue workers were still going carriage by carriage looking for other crash victims.

Passengers, some splattered with blood or bandaged, were evacuated along a nearby road in the aftermath of the accident, which Spain's health minister Monica Garcia said on social media had injured 80 people, 15 of them very seriously.

Salvador Arriza ⁠described the chaos in his carriage.

"I was very close to the door, but (other passengers) were breaking the windows to be able to get out. Some people practically couldn't move because they were trapped amongst the seats," said the 62-year-old.

INVESTIGATION UNDER WAY

The accident, the deadliest in Europe since a 2013 crash in Spain's Santiago de Compostela in which 80 people died, follows another in January between high-speed trains belonging to the same operators and on the same line that killed 46 people.

In that crash, ​a ​train derailed and smashed into an oncoming train near Adamuz, in Cordoba province, prompting a debate about the level of ​investment in railway maintenance.

Renfe said in a statement on Wednesday that after being authorised ‌to continue its journey, its train had crashed into the Iryo train that had remained stationary "for reasons we don't know".

"The Renfe train continued on its way as instructed, and a collision occurred. The exact sequence of events, the traffic conditions and the circumstances of the impact will have to be established by the investigation," Renfe said.

Iryo and Adif did not respond to requests for comment.

PASSENGERS SENT FLYING

A Castilla-La Mancha regional spokesperson said 147 people were on board the Iryo train and 397 on the Renfe service, which crashed at around 9 a.m., causing two Iryo carriages to derail.

Passenger Rafael Barcelo said he felt lucky as he had stepped away from his seat for a coffee, adding there had been at least eight victims from his carriage.

"We were having breakfast, drinking a coffee when we felt a very strong impact and we were sent flying," he said.

Renfe said it had activated ‌a special line for families of victims and expressed its condolences. Iryo said it had activated emergency protocols.

At a school ​in Urda where relatives of those missing were being sent, a woman who gave her name as Ana fought back tears as ​she said there was no news of her husband Pepe and his name was not on the ​list of those identified, but police had found their dog, Trece.

MAINTENANCE SPENDING

The causes of the January accident are still under investigation. A preliminary report by Spain's Civil Guard in ‌February pointed to defects in the track, rail or weld between two sections of ​track as the main hypothesis for the accident, but ​kept seven other theories open.

Some 25 million passengers used a high-speed train in Spain in the first half of the year, a decline of roughly 14% compared with the same period last year, according to a Reuters analysis of data from Spain's competition authority.

Meanwhile, accidents, including derailments and collisions, increased from 45 in 2016 to 57 in 2024 and 69 last year, according to Spain's railway safety ​authority.

European Commission data shows Spain's maintenance investment in its roughly 4,000 km (2,485 miles) of ‌high-speed lines has lagged other large European countries.

Although Spain spent an average of about €1.5 billion a year from 2018 to 2022 on its high-speed network, more than any other country, most ​of this was to build new infrastructure with only around 16% earmarked for maintenance, renewal and upgrades.

(Reporting by David Latona, Emma Pinedo, Mireia Merino, Corina Pons, Victoria Waldersee, Benjamin Mejias, Joan ​Faus and Pietro Lombardi; Writing by Charlie Devereux and Alexander Smith; Editing by Toby Chopra and Alison Williams)

This article originally appeared on Reuters at https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/two-high-speed-trains-rear-083828936.html

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A record Arab vote brings a new dilemma for Israel's opposition 28 Oct 2026, 7:41 pm

TEL AVIV - Israel's opposition parties woke up Wednesday morning with a parliamentary majority within easy reach. They just have to be willing to use the votes of Palestinian citizens of Israel to claim it.

That's not going to be easy.

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The results of Tuesday's national election, with final results not expected until Thursday, stripped Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition of its majority but left the collection of opposition parties short as well.

In their case, standing by are two Arab-led parties that share their determination to oust Netanyahu and control more than enough seats to do it.

On paper, that makes them kingmakers. In the reality of Israeli politics and the deep ambivalence many feel about the place of Arab citizens in a Jewish state, the seats that could end Netanyahu's rule are the ones his main opponents are most reluctant to touch.

Tuesday's results were a historic high-water mark for Israel's 2 million Palestinian citizens, about a fifth of the population. Turnout in this demographic was estimated at nearly 80 percent, a surge driven by anger at Netanyahu and his cabinet in Arab towns and Bedouin encampments.

The turnout rewarded the two major Arab parties, Ra'am and the Joint List, with a total of 19 seats, nearly double the 10 they held in the outgoing Knesset and well above the previous record of 15, set in 2020 when all the major Arab parties ran on a single slate.

"Whoever proposes a substantive alternative to the Netanyahu government will have to talk to us," said Yousef Jabareen, head of the Joint List.

To some Jewish lawmakers, the math - and the morality - is simple. "We can no longer accept Netanyahu's racist distinction between Jewish and Arab votes," Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing Democrats party, said on X, hailing the "opportunity to form a change government in partnership with Israel's Arab citizens."

For the leaders of the larger opposition parties, it is less straightforward. Their voters lean further right, and many have long rejected any government propped up by Arab lawmakers, a hostility that deepened after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks. One poll found that a majority of Israelis supported barring the Arab parties from running.

Opposition leaders spent the campaign rejecting the idea or avoiding the question. Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who leads the Together alliance, and Avigdor Liberman, head of the nationalist Yisrael Beytenu party, both ruled it out.

The position of former military chief Gadi Eisenkot - Netanyahu's closest challenger - is harder to pin down. He declined to rule out the Arab parties explicitly. But he also set conditions for any party to join his coalition that many Palestinian lawmakers haven't met: recognizing Israel as a Jewish state and declaring Hamas a terrorist organization that must be dismantled.

The parties in the Joint List have long rejected Israel's definition as a Jewish state, calling instead for a "state of all its citizens."

Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas, a dentist from northern Israel, has gone further than any other Arab party leader in accepting Israel's Jewish character and condemned the Oct. 7 attack, positions that drew fierce criticism from Palestinian leaders and some of his own allies. But he has resisted Israeli demands to declare that Hamas must be destroyed, calling them loyalty tests.

A precedent for collaboration

For all the maneuvering around the issue, the long taboo over inviting Arab parties into a governing coalition has already been broken. In June 2021 Abbas joined an eight-party coalition, the first time an independent Arab party had joined an Israeli government.

That move allowed the group of parties opposing Netanyahu to take power, putting Bennett in the prime minister's office for about a year, and then his governing partner Yair Lapid for about six months more.

Many Israelis point out that not only did the plagues of Egypt fail to descend, but the government delivered record investment to Arab towns and a rare stretch of cooperation across Israel's deepest divide.

"When Mansour Abbas was part of the government, they made progress on addressing the issues affecting our community," said Atiyeh al-Asam, the head of an advocacy group for Bedouin villages and encampments in the Negev desert.

Several of those communities, which are often bulldozed for permit violations, gained official support and spending at the time, Asam said.

Abbas said then, as he does now, that crime, housing and budgets mattered more to his voters than grand questions of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The coalition partners agreed to set aside the most divisive issues, including Palestinian statehood and peace talks, and pledged not to disturb the status quo where they disagreed.

In return, the cabinet approved a $9.4 billion plan for Arab communities in October 2021, a level of investment with little precedent in Israel. The government collapsed after about a year, undone by defections from its right flank.

Netanyahu's coalition parties condemn any suggestions that Arab parties should get another chance to serve in government. His Likud party campaign slogans equated voting for any of his opponents with turning Israel into "Palestine." And Netanyahu flooded social media with dozens of Election Day posts warning of "emergency" rates of Arab citizens voting.

"If Eisenkot, Lieberman and Bennett try to form a government with the Arab parties, it will be the end of their political careers within a very short time," Netanyahu's culture minister, Miki Zohar, wrote on X Tuesday night as results came in.

But it was Netanyahu and his allies who were the first to explore it. In 2021, facing a fourth election in two years, Netanyahu courted Arab voters in their towns and boasted of being "Abu Yair," the traditional Arab honorific of calling a man by his eldest son's name.

Netanyahu opened a semipublic channel to Abbas, who had split from the Joint List to run independently. When the vote left Netanyahu short, Zohar, then coalition chairman, sounded a very different note on the possibility of an alliance with an Arab party.

"It is our duty to do everything we can to prevent a fifth election," Zohar told Ynet then. "All the existing political options must be exhausted."

Anger drives record turnout

Palestinian citizens of Israel are mostly the descendants of those who stayed in Israel after the 1948 war. Most live largely apart from Jewish populations, with both Muslim and Christian members of this community clustered in the Galilee, along the West Bank border and in the southern Negev. Mixed Jewish Arab cities such as Haifa, Jaffa and Lod are the exception.

The minority population's participation in politics has ebbed and flowed. But a poll this year showed voter motivation was on the rise, with three-quarters of Arab citizens hoping to see an Arab party in the next government.

They came out at record levels to make that happen, said Mohammad Darawshe, director of strategy at Givat Haviva, a Jewish-Arab partnership organization in northern Israel.

"The challenge now lies with other political actors and whether they are prepared to recognize Arab citizens as legitimate and equal partners," Darawshe said.

What drove them to the polls this year was anger, he said.

Much of it was aimed at Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right national security minister who oversees the police. Under Ben Gvir, police have restricted displays of the Palestinian flag and arrested hundreds of people over social media posts, according to the Israeli rights group Adalah.

At the same time, critics accuse police of failing to stop violent crime soaring inside Arab communities. And Arab leaders point to a wave of home demolitions in Arab towns and Negev villages over permitting failures, which Ben Gvir has championed.

Issa Fayed, 49, who owns a garage in Yafa an-Naseriyye, near Nazareth, said that he had little faith his vote would change anything but that he felt compelled to cast a ballot for the Joint List.

"My vote," he said, "is revenge against the current fascist government."

It may take weeks, as Israeli parties of all kinds seek to control Israel's next government, for him to learn if it was anything more than that.

Hashimeh reported from Jerusalem.

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This article originally appeared on Washington Post at https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/record-arab-vote-brings-painful-161135497.html

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Operatives linked to Mary Peltola's campaign sought GOP spoilers, report shows 28 Oct 2026, 7:34 pm

Operatives working with Democrat Mary Peltola's Senate campaign sought to recruit candidates who could draw votes from Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska, according to an investigation published Wednesday.

The effort included finding another Alaskan named Dan Sullivan to run against the incumbent, recruiting other potential candidates, and discussing the creation of a conservative political party, The New York Times reports, citing interviews, text messages, and documents prepared for a potential lawsuit.

Peltola's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee denied recruiting candidates.

"The Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign and did not recruit any candidates into the race," the campaign said in a statement to the Times.

The operation, internally called the ballot composition project, began in summer 2025, according to Elisa Rios, Peltola's former campaign manager. Rios said campaign aides directed a staff member to search voter records for Alaskans named Dan Sullivan.

Dan J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher in Petersburg, subsequently entered the race. He has maintained that he decided to run independently and did not respond to the Times' latest requests for comment.

The general election ballot includes Peltola, incumbent Dan S. Sullivan, Dan J. Sullivan, and Republican Gerald Heikes. The race could help determine control of the Senate.

Sullivan Jr. changed his voter registration from Republican to undeclared, a type of independent, when he requested an absentee ballot for the August primary, according to state election records, reports The Alaska Beacon.

He appears on the general election ballot as "Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.," without a party label. Incumbent Sen. Sullivan is identified by his party and incumbency.

Dan J. Sullivan initially denied requesting the registration change but acknowledged it after election officials provided his application.

He maintains that he is running to offer voters an alternative, while President Donald Trump and other Republicans accuse him of trying to undermine the incumbent.

The Justice Department has sued to pause certification unless the incumbent wins, arguing that the similar names could confuse voters. Polling shows the incumbent and Democrat Mary Peltola well ahead of Dan J. Sullivan and Republican Gerald Heikes.

Rios, who was fired during an August staff shake-up, told the Times that Peltola knew about the project but was not directly involved.

"Alaskan voters need to know," Rios said. "There was a lot of speculation, and voters should get the full picture when making their decisions."

Rios later sought to retract her statements as the newspaper prepared to publish. She had been considering a wrongful termination lawsuit against the campaign but had not filed one.

"As discussed on our call earlier today, I am confirming that I have retracted all statements made regarding the 2026 Alaska Senate Race in connection with any article you may or may not be writing," Rios wrote. "I am not willing to be a source for any story in any capacity."

The Times said her interviews were on the record and consistent with other reporting. Its investigation included interviews with 12 people and dozens of text messages.

Rios identified Democratic operative Jerid Kurtz as a central participant. She said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee aides introduced him to campaign officials and that he later reported contacting the Sullivan who lives in Petersburg.

Kurtz did not respond to the newspaper's requests for comment.

Matthew Salisbury, a former House candidate, told the Times that a man identifying himself only as Zane repeatedly encouraged him to run for Senate and offered support through outside spending. Salisbury identified Kurtz from a photograph as the man he met.

"I'm not naive," Salisbury said. "I had to have that general idea that they're not in it for me."

Salisbury did not enter the race.

The Times also reported that Kurtz encouraged Democrat David Leslie to withdraw after Leslie advanced from the August primary. His departure allowed Heikes to take the fourth general election ballot position.

Heikes said a man from the Midwest recruited him but did not think the man resembled Kurtz's photograph.

The newspaper also obtained messages discussing a proposed MAGA party that could attract conservative candidates. That plan was abandoned in May.

Questions about financial support remain disputed. Federal records showed that the pro-Peltola 49th State PAC paid Wingspan Strategies, a firm Kurtz co-owns, about $87,000 this fall, the Times reported. The PAC said it had never hired or paid Kurtz to perform services.

Political consultant Jim Lottsfeldt denied Rios' account that he agreed during a dinner with campaign employees to help support long-shot candidates through outside spending. He also denied an association with Alaska Values, a super PAC supporting Heikes, despite his name appearing on advertising paperwork.

Alaska's nonpartisan primary system allows candidates to select a party affiliation without party approval, with four candidates advancing to a ranked-choice general election.

Republicans unsuccessfully challenged Dan J. Sullivan's candidacy, arguing he was not a good-faith candidate. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in June that neither state law nor the U.S. Constitution provided grounds to remove him.

The Justice Department sued last week at President Donald Trump's urging, seeking to block certification if votes for Dan J. Sullivan cost the incumbent victory.

Both parties have used tactics to influence Alaska's ballot. In 2024, the state Republican Party supported an effort to keep a Democratic candidate who was incarcerated in New York on the ballot against Peltola.

© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.This article originally appeared on Newsmax at https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/alaska-peltola-senate/2026/10/28/id/1274310

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4 investigations Democrats could launch if they win control of Congress 28 Oct 2026, 4:37 pm

Democrats in the US Congress are already planning how they would use their power if they win a majority in the House or Senate in next week's midterm elections.

Success is by no means guaranteed, even if midterms can sometimes be brutal for the incumbent party that holds the White House.

Control of the chamber, however, would give the party power to issue subpoenas - summons to testify or produce documents - as well as additional funding to launch investigations early next year.

Democrats are weighing whether to investigate senior figures in the Trump administration - and possibly the president himself. Staffers have begun assembling a list of possible investigations and witnesses, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Here are a few potential Democratic targets if the party emerges victorious on 3 November.

1. Trump's family and finances

Democrats have made it clear that lucrative deals brokered by the Trump family's vast business empire will be primary targets of any initial investigations.

"We want to make sure that [American] taxpayer dollars are being used wisely and not being stolen or pocketed because of corruption," Virginia Democratic Representative Suhas Subramanyam, a member of the House Oversight Committee, told the BBC.

Items under consideration for investigation include ties between the administration and corporate entities - particularly cryptocurrency firms - as well as the international business dealings of the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Other topics could include the $400m (£301m) aircraft gifted by Qatar to serve as Air Force One and multimillion-dollar defence contracts awarded to firms linked to the Trump family.

"What's shocking to me is not only that this administration, cabinet officials and even the president and his family have been corrupt and self-dealing, but they've been so brazen and open about it," Subramanyam said.

The White House has repeatedly denied any allegations of wrongdoing.

"President Trump is focused on retaining Republican majorities in Congress and doubling down on the progress he has made to lower costs for families," White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said.

"Democrats have no agenda to improve the lives of the American people, just plans to obstruct and baselessly target President Trump's commonsense agenda," she added.

A White House official said the administration is "always prepared" to respond to oversight requests regardless of who is in Congress.

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2. Hegseth and the Pentagon

Democratic lawmakers have vowed to look into Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's handling of the war with Iran that began in February - including the number of civilian casualties, munitions shortfalls, spending and claims of poorly prepared troops and facilities.

Other topics, according to a source familiar with the discussions, could include boat strikes in the Caribbean that the administration says are aimed at stopping the flow of drugs into the US.

In April, a group of House Democrats filed rare articles of impeachment against Hegseth. They cited the war in Iran and accused him of "high crimes and misdemeanours".

Impeachment requires only a simple majority in the House, but conviction - and removal from office - would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate. No cabinet official has ever been removed this way.

Some experts believe that the negative publicity that would come from congressional hearings could ultimately lead to Hegseth being fired or resigning from the position.

"[If] it looks bad for the White House, and it's a drag on their media attention, President Trump might be likely to cut loose those officials, because he doesn't want that bad press," said David Miller, a political science professor and expert on the presidency at American University in Washington DC. "In a sense that could be a win for the Democrats."

Richard Painter, the former chief White House ethics lawyer under George W Bush, told the BBC that the decision to launch the war should come under scrutiny.

"The bigger issue is this: this war was never authorised by the United States Congress, and I don't care who the secretary of defence is," he said.

"The constitution says that Congress declares war," he said, and lawmakers should "haul these folks in" to answer questions.

In a statement, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson defended Hegseth's record, calling him a "transformative leader" who has "slashed bureaucracy, unleashed innovation, and delivered for our warfighters".

"By every measurable metric, the Department of War is better under Secretary Hegseth's leadership than before," she said, using the administration's preferred name for the defence department.

3. Immigration and ICE raids

Senior Democrats - including Robert Garcia, the California Democrat tapped to lead the House Oversight Committee should the party take back the chamber - have identified immigration enforcement as a key priority for potential congressional investigations.

These could examine allegations of misconduct by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during immigration raids across the country.

But these investigations may prove difficult and politically tricky.

In 2024, Trump campaigned on a promise of mass deportations of undocumented migrants - a message that resonated with many of his supporters.

But recent polls suggest many Americans, including those who backed Trump in that election, are uncomfortable with some of the tactics used by ICE in American cities so far this year.

It means Democrats will have to walk a fine line between opposing ICE tactics and appearing to dismiss broader immigration concerns, Painter told the BBC.

4. A third Trump impeachment

Democrats are split on the possibility of attempting to impeach Trump for a third time.

Some, such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have expressed support for an impeachment, citing what they view as an unauthorised war with Iran and other alleged impeachable offences.

Others have called for a more cautious approach, arguing that any impeachment is unlikely to end in the Senate voting to remove Trump - who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing - from office.

It is also unclear whether the party could agree on a reason to launch impeachment proceedings.

"I can do whatever I want, if I want," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in October, adding that he sees the impeachment efforts in his first term and the later criminal cases brought against him as "very illegal things".

James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told the Washington Sun news outlet in June that Democrats were "one-trick ponies" who were "going to go after Trump".

There is no guarantee for Democrats that any potential investigation would end with a meaningful outcome.

But Subramanyam said their efforts would send a message.

"If we do not do something because we are scared of the optics, or we don't think it will be successful, or they stonewall us, that will be bad," he said. "Not just for the next two years, but for the next 20 years."

Follow the twists and turns of Trump's second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher's US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

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This article originally appeared on BBC at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvglwg033027o?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Bheadline%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D

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Trump floats Ted Cruz for Supreme Court and jokes about why he'd get every vote 28 Oct 2026, 4:30 pm

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump floated nominating Ted Cruz to the Supreme Court for a future vacancy on the nation's high court, joking that the Texas Republican senator's confirmation would earn unanimous Senate support because senators from both parties would like to see him gone.

Trump, who has mentioned Cruz previously for the Supreme Court, suggested the third-term senator again at an Oct. 27 midterm campaign rally in Lubbock, Texas as the president discussed what he might do if he gets to nominate a Supreme Court justice for a fourth time over his two White House terms.

"I said, 'I have an answer to not being able to get it past the Democrats or the Republicans together,'" Trump said, referring to the confirmation fight in the Senate. "I would pick Ted Cruz to be the next Supreme Court justice, and I wouldn't have to worry about it. I wouldn't have to make a phone call.

"The Democrats will 100% vote for it because they hate the guy and the want to get rid of him," Trump continued. "And the Republicans would 100% vote for it because they can't stand him, they would like to get rid of him. So I'd get 100% of the vote, and he would be a Supreme Court justice and he'd do a great job."

More: Trump, Talarico hit different notes in dueling Texas rallies as Senate fight rages

Cruz, who was in attendance at the rally for Texas Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton, laughed and smiled from his front-row seat as Trump made the pitch.

A conservative firebrand in the Senate, Cruz has repeatedly said he's not interested in serving on the Supreme Court. ​“I don't want to be a judge,” Cruz told the Houston Chronicle in September.

More: Trump says he regrets nominating Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett to SCOTUS

Trump has openly expressed regret for nominating each of his three Supreme Court picks from his first term ‒ Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett ‒ after they sided against his administration in a series of high-profile rulings.

Trump called Cruz "a brilliant guy, brilliant lawyer, brilliant all that." As solicitor general of Texas from 2008 to 2013, Cruz argued multiple cases before the Supreme Court. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Cruz clerked for then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

Cruz, 55, has turned into one of Trump's strongest allies on the Senate after running against Trump for the Republican nomination for president in 2016.

Cruz has also made no secret about his interest in running for president in 2028. Other Trump allies Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are also considered likely contenders to seek the Republican nomination. Were Trump to appoint Cruz to the Supreme Court, however, the field would start to narrow.

It is unclear whether Trump will have an opportunity to nominate a fourth justice to the Supreme Court. Justice Samuel Alito in August said he plans to remain on the bench through at least the next session, batting down speculation the conservative justice could step down to allow Trump to choose his replacement.

Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump floats nominating Ted Cruz to Supreme Court for future vacancy

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY at https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/10/28/trump-floats-senator-ted-cruz-supreme-court-vacancy/92474646007/

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Billionaire investor Nelson Peltz makes move to buy struggling Wendy's 28 Oct 2026, 4:25 pm

Wendy's (WEN) may be cooking up burgers for a billionaire soon.

Longtime Wendy's investor and former chairman Nelson Peltz of Trian Partners has reportedly offered $1.4 billion to buy the struggling fast food giant, according to an SEC filing.

Wendy's shares rose 15% in early trading. The company's market cap was $1.17 billion prior to the deal.

A Wendy's spokesperson didn't return a request for comment. A spokesperson for Trian Partners didn't return a request for comment.

Billionaire Peltz — while familiar with the operations — would essentially be buying a dumpster fire.

After nearly two years of struggles competing with the likes of behemoths McDonald's (MCD) and Yum! Brands' (YUM) Taco Bell, plus upstarts such as Shake Shack (SHAK), Wendy's is on the cusp of a large number of restaurant closures.

"With one of its largest franchisees filing bankruptcy in September (although contested by WEN given prior termination of franchise agreement), we think investors likely expect closures to tick higher than expected, but we admit visibility on our side remains somewhat limited and there could still be a range of outcomes," veteran restaurant analyst Andy Barish warned in a recent note.

"That said," he added, "given our view that there are likely additional franchise operators in the system facing challenges with leveraged balance sheets, higher interest rates and profitability pressures from higher beef, labor & build costs (like many others in QSR), we think it is prudent to moderate our development estimates and bake in more potential closures over the next 6-12 months, as the company works to strengthen its system."

Meritage Hospitality Group, one of Wendy's largest franchise operators, with more than 300 locations, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September following severe margin pressures and an escalating dispute with corporate headquarters. The company reportedly initiated plans to shutter at least 41 locations. Reports emerged this week that it could close up to 60.

The high-profile bankruptcy only added grease to the smoldering fire that is the Wendy's restaurant base.

Franchisees had already been closing their locations and heading for the hills.

Buried inside Wendy's brutal second quarter earnings call was a mention that 289 locations closed in the US during the first half of the year.

There are about 5,700 Wendy's in the US, and Barish estimated the Wendy's US store base will be around 5,600 by the end of 2027.

The decision on how many more locations will be closed falls on new CEO Bob Wright, who hasn't hidden his view that Wendy's needs to focus on more profitable locations.

Wright officially took over as CEO on May 21, adding to the yawning list of executive turnover at the fast food chain over the past two years. He is a seasoned fast food exec who spent the previous five years fixing Potbelly as CEO. Wright's appointment marked a return to Wendy's, where he previously served in several senior leadership roles, including COO.

Wright has his work cut out for him in saving Wendy's beyond tightening up the store base count.

Wendy's has posted six straight quarters of same-store sales declines, per Yahoo Finance AlphaSpace analysis.

Follow Brian Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email him at brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.

This article originally appeared on Yahoo Finance at https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/article/billionaire-investor-nelson-peltz-makes-move-to-buy-struggling-wendys-121633943.html

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GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski backs Democrat in Alaska governor's race 28 Oct 2026, 3:18 pm

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, endorsed Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins for governor Tuesday, passing over three Republican candidates, including President Donald Trump's pick, Bernadette Wilson.

Murkowski told Anchorage NBC affiliate KTUU that Alaska needs a governor who can work across party lines, according to NBC News.

Her endorsement came one week before Election Day in the race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

"We need a governor who's going to work with the Legislature," Murkowski said. "That has got to happen for the delegation to be successful back in Washington, D.C."

Murkowski said she considered the three Republicans on Alaska's ranked-choice ballot too partisan and expressed concern that Wilson would be unwilling to work with Democrats.

Kreiss-Tomkins, a former Alaska state lawmaker, welcomed Murkowski's endorsement.

"I have a lot of respect for Lisa, her integrity. I think she's worked across the aisle in Congress, which is a quality I really admire and hope to live up to if I'm elected governor," he told KTUU. "And I'm very grateful that she wanted to step up and be a part of the coalition that we're building."

The Republican candidates are Wilson, former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, and former Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor. Trump endorsed Wilson earlier in October.

Wilson dismissed Murkowski's endorsement of Kreiss-Tomkins.

"Given that Senator Lisa Murkowski abandoned Alaska values a long time ago, I am not surprised that she has endorsed 'Just Keep Taxing' JKT," Wilson said in a statement.

The NBC News Decision Desk rates the gubernatorial race as leaning Democratic, although Trump carried Alaska in the 2016, 2020, and 2024 presidential elections.

Murkowski, whose Senate term runs through 2028, has endorsed Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan's reelection bid. His opponents include Democrat candidate Mary Peltola and Dan J. Sullivan Jr.

The Trump administration sued Alaska election officials last week, arguing that Dan J. Sullivan Jr.'s appearance on the ballot could confuse voters intending to support the incumbent senator.

Murkowski criticized the lawsuit on X.

"Alaskans don't need any help voting for their preferred candidates, and the State of Alaska has already handled this by clearly distinguishing the candidates on this year's ballot," she wrote.

Trump slammed Murkowski the following day, calling her the "Republicans' Worst Senator, by far" and describing her as a "DISGRACE to Alaska and our Country."

© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.This article originally appeared on Newsmax at https://www.newsmax.com/politics/murkowski-alaska-endorsement/2026/10/28/id/1274265

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Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and family land in Miami 28 Oct 2026, 12:35 pm

MIAMI (AP) — Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his family arrived in Miami on Wednesday after he refused to concede the election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and fled the country.

In a circuitous journey, Bolsonaro left for Argentina on Tuesday with his wife and two daughters, then traveled to Ecuador, according to Argentina officials and flight data. The 45-year-old senator, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, visited the White House in May, and the Trump administration approved U.S. visas for him and his family this week.

Bolsonaro’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, also fled to Florida after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula before returning to Brazil three months later.

Flávio Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court, accused of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion. The court ordered him to hand over his regular and diplomatic passports by noon Tuesday. It remained unclear whether he complied, but allies said late Tuesday he also has an Italian passport.

Bolsonaro lands in Miami

Dressed casually in a dark polo shirt and flanked by his wife and two daughters, Bolsonaro stepped out of the plane shortly after it landed in Miami about 9:30 a.m. EDT. Florida is home to the largest population of Brazilians in the U.S.

The family fled Brazil late Tuesday, entered Argentina via a border checkpoint and quickly boarded a private charter plane, Argentinian immigration officials said.

Flightradar24 showed the plane believed to be carrying Bolsonaro landed in Guayaquil, Ecuador, about 4 a.m. local time, then took off minutes later for Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport.

Before the family landed in Florida, Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, spoke to dozens of supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia.

“I regret that he left Brazil, because he could have stayed here and proven that the accusations are not true,” Lula said. “This act of leaving Brazil is shameful.”

Bolsonaro’s route through Argentina could deepen diplomatic tensions between Lula’s government and Argentine President Javier Milei, another Trump ally who traveled to Brazil to assist in Bolsonaro’s campaign.

Milei has not commented directly about Bolsonaro's defeat but Juan Pablo Carreira, a presidential spokesperson, said on social media that Milei's administration rescued Bolsonaro “from the claws of communism, which seeks to imprison all opposition figures.”

Representatives of Brazil's government have not responded to requests for comment.

Trump questions Brazilian election results

Trump has said Bolsonaro is welcome in the U.S., calling him and his family “fine people.”

“The election was really strange, and I thought it was terrible,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Tuesday. Earlier, Trump also said, without evidence, that the election was “rigged.”

Leaders around the world and the Organization of American States have endorsed the result and congratulated Lula, who was reelected by a margin of about 4.4 million votes in the second and final round.

The U.S. has imposed double-digit sanctions on Brazil, which boasts Latin America’s largest economy. Lula has championed Brazil’s long tradition of nonalignment, cultivating ties with competing powers. His government has deepened trade ties with China and sought greater global influence through BRICS, a group of emerging economies.

Bolsonaro visited his father, who is under house arrest, before leaving Brazil

Brazil's Supreme Court ordered the defeated candidate to surrender his Brazilian passports Monday. In a video, he said he received the order outside the home where his father is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for his attempted coup following his 2022 election loss to Lula.

A Brazilian diplomat who was not authorized to speak about the matter publicly told The Associated Press that Bolsonaro used an Italian passport to enter Argentina and that Brazilians leaving the country via a land border are not scrutinized by Brazilian authorities.

The diplomat said Brazil’s federal police were not monitoring Bolsonaro when he left his home in Brasilia because the Supreme Court had not issued a warrant for his arrest.

Flávio Bolsonaro said in a video Monday that he was attempting to organize opposition to the election results among his congressional colleagues. His eight-year term as a senator expires Jan. 31, 2027. His Liberal Party released a statement saying it accepted the election results.

Brazil's Supreme Court is investigating Bolsonaro for allegedly using a sports betting company to launder fraudulent deductions from government pensions paid to senior citizens. In a separate case, he is accused of accepting millions of dollars from a disgraced banker. Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing.

___

Mauricio Savarese reported from Sao Paulo. Associated Press reporters Eléonore Hughes in Rio de Janeiro and Debora Rey in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

This article originally appeared on Associated Press at https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/fl-vio-bolsonaro-flees-brazil-090538347.html

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Trump scraps methane rules days after satellite spots plume near his Texas rally 28 Oct 2026, 12:30 pm

President Donald Trump on Tuesday pulled back regulations on a major global warming pollutant — just days after a satellite discovered a large plume of methane pouring out of oil and gas wells near the Lubbock, Texas, campaign rally where Trump made his announcement.

Governments and the private sector are deploying a wave of new technology to pinpoint methane leaks like never before. But that technological revolution is colliding with political decisions in the U.S. and Europe to weaken regulations that are designed to curb the powerful driver of climate change.

“The methane problem,” Trump said Tuesday night. “I'm officially terminating Biden's expensive and unnecessary methane regulations to save consumers and energy producers $45 billion in costs, unlock vast quantities of Texas natural gas and produce 210 million barrels of oil.”

American and European regulators alike have argued that the methane rules should be ditched or delayed because they threaten to increase the price and availability of energy, even as new technology identifies gas leaks — and bad actors — with remarkable accuracy.

The backtracking could result in more methane emissions as nations around the world are failing to meet their commitments to contain climate change.

“You can't reduce what you don't monitor,” said center-left European Parliament lawmaker Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, who opposes steps to delay the bloc’s rules.

Methane has 80 times the warming impact of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Climate scientists say controlling methane, a byproduct of producing oil, gas and coal, along with agriculture and decomposing waste, is the fastest way to arrest rising temperatures.

But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed weakening methane standards for oil and gas operators and is poised to eliminate penalties for so-called “super-emitters.” Meanwhile, the European Union is preparing to delay methane rules designed to prioritize energy imports with lower emissions.

The backsliding comes as a wave of new technologies has pinpointed the world’s largest sources of methane, making it easier than ever before to prevent the gas from escaping into the atmosphere. A sweeping study published in the journal Nature found that methane-sensing equipment on satellites detected leaks with 92% to 100% accuracy on clear days, underscoring leaps in progress.

Satellites are not the only improvement. Heat cameras can now spot leaks. Companies like Google are using artificial intelligence tools to map plumes from space. And firms are flying airplanes with a remote sensing technology that uses laser pulses, called LIDAR, to track methane.

“Ten years ago, the tools were not there. You couldn’t detect these things,” said Riley Duren, CEO of the environmental nonprofit Carbon Mapper, which uses satellites and other technologies to detect methane leaks worldwide. “Today we have more tools at our disposal than ever. It’s not a visibility challenge anymore.”

The group’s Tanager-1 satellite spotted methane leaks in a slice of the Texas Permian Basin on Oct. 10. Two days later, a new satellite named Tanager-2, which rode a SpaceX rocket into orbit this month, confirmed the Texas plume.

The bigger test is getting companies to take action.

Carbon Mapper this year has issued 460 notices to companies operating super-emitting sites in 13 U.S. states. It also works with California’s environmental regulator, the California Air Resources Board, on the only U.S. methane enforcement regime that uses satellite technology.

Only about half of the recipients responded, Duren said. When asked why, he said states have differing levels of incentives — or punishments — to fix leaks. Many lack personnel. The absence of national policy doesn’t help.

The story is similar across the world.

The United Nations Environment Programme’s Methane Alert and Response System, which issues alerts from 35 satellites to 24 nations and nine subnational governments, registered a 12% response rate in 2025.

The 141 governments that crafted methane reduction goals as part of the Paris climate agreement have done little to meet their targets: Just 20 countries have outlined steps to slash fossil fuel methane emissions, and only five have submitted quantified targets.

“It’s clear that there’s a gap between what is being committed and what is being implemented,” said Marcelo Mena-Carrasco, the executive director of the Global Methane Hub, a philanthropy-backed organization working to reduce emissions. “We know this in a much better way — we know who and which companies are doing so, and so we have all the elements to maintain accountability.”

Except for enforcement regulations.

Shifting geopolitics and a growing focus on securing energy supplies have pushed climate action down many countries’ priority lists. Industry has argued that many methane policies were ill-designed, and there has been pushback to what some companies viewed as a naming and shaming approach when emissions around their operations were identified, said Antoine Halff, who co-founded Kayrros, a firm that tracks methane emissions.

The American Petroleum Institute, which represents U.S. oil and gas producers, praised Trump’s proposed rollback of the Biden-era methane limits.

“We look forward to working with the Trump administration on a more workable approach that supports American energy production, provides greater regulatory certainty and advances continued emissions reductions,” Dustin Meyer, the group’s senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs, wrote in a statement.

The current energy crisis resulting from the war in Iran has made governments anxious about taking any measures that could push up prices or curtail supply. Even though experts and the European Commission have said that the bloc’s incoming methane rules pose no risks to affordability or energy security, the fossil fuel industry, with the backing of the Trump administration, has seized on these worries to campaign for a delay — successfully.

The Commission earlier this month proposed a one-year delay to rules meant to ensure oil and gas companies monitor and report their emissions. The requirement was supposed to inform a subsequent move toward curbing imports from the most polluting gas fields. The Commission also allowed countries to suspend penalties under the regulation.

Then last week the European Parliament voted for a three-year postponement of the rules, and some EU governments are pushing for national capitals to adopt a similar delay, citing the energy crisis.

Proponents of regulation have pointed out that by patching leaks, companies retain more gas to sell on the market.

"We have independent scientific studies that show there is enough regulation-compliant gas on the market to supply the EU twice over. That means giving in to the lobbying right now is just a gift to the fossil fuel industry,” said German Green lawmaker Jutta Paulus. “After all, the gas that escapes unused is precisely what won’t end up on the market. In other words, we’re actually making the supply even scarcer rather than increasing it.”

Smaller gas producers have long argued that measures to curb methane are costly. In the current environment, even bigger players who put in place measures to address their methane footprint are less interested in pushing forward.

“The impetus toward certification of good methane and responsible gas and so on seems to be fading a bit,” said Halff. “I think this has to do with the extreme uncertainty in the market and concerns about energy security. … I think people are very comfortable pushing this discussion in the background to keep their options open in the future.”

Methane measures haven’t completely halted.

“There are definitely rollbacks in the U.S. In the EU, I would call it more of a delay than a rollback, but politically it is not the momentum that we would like to see. But I do think that in many other countries … we do have more positive success stories,” said Brandon Locke, director for global methane policy at the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit.

China, the world’s largest methane producer, has included methane emissions in its latest national climate plan and created standards, rules and measuring and verification systems to curb coal mine methane, its biggest source of emissions.

Japan and South Korea established a transparency initiative that asks liquefied natural gas suppliers to disclose their efforts to monitor and address methane leaks — though it’s based on self-reporting.

And Kazakhstan, one of the world’s super-emitters due to its aging Soviet-era equipment, has dramatically reduced its methane emissions and is creating national rules to monitor them. That program is based on the EPA super-emitter program, which was enabled by advancements that allowed satellites to track performance across wider basins, said Duren, of Carbon Mapper.

Canada’s enhanced methane regulations, which will take effect in 2028, prohibit flaring, put strict limits on venting and call for regular leak detection and repair. But they also allow oil and gas producers to determine how they’ll reduce their emissions, as long as they meet certain standards. The rules are weaker than those that were proposed during the Trudeau administration.

“Where there has been sustained long-term efforts by governments to work with industry to systematically reduce emissions, there has been significant reductions and there's lower emissions,” said Stephane Germain, president of GHGSat Inc., which operates 20 satellites that continuously monitor and orbit the Earth. “I'll point to my own backyard here — British Columbia [and] Alberta — two jurisdictions where we rarely see anything with our satellites.”

Those measures are all occurring at a time when energy demands are growing rapidly, and countries are using more coal and drilling for more oil to meet them.

The U.N.’s latest assessment of the gap between what countries have committed to do on climate and what their policies will actually deliver shows that methane emissions haven’t fallen in the five years since countries pledged to drive them down 30% by 2030.

That pledge, launched by the U.S. and EU, put methane on the map globally and mobilized billions of dollars in investment and a major new push on policy, including in China, said Rick Duke, a former deputy climate envoy at the State Department during the Biden administration.

But the results of all that attention and money have been underwhelming, said Paulus, the German member of the European Parliament who negotiated the methane law.

“We don’t need a Global Methane Pledge if no one's willing to do anything,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Politico at https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/28/methane-trump-climate-oil-gas-01137313

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Trump and Talarico draw competing crowds in an unlikely Texas battleground 28 Oct 2026, 6:42 am

President Trump and Texas Senate candidate James Talarico (D) shared their competing visions Tuesday as the two held dueling rallies in the Lone Star State one week before the midterm elections.

Trump did two rallies in Texas — the first in Corpus Christi and another in Lubbock. It’s his fourth trip to Texas to support Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton.

Talarico held his own rally in Lubbock on Tuesday. He was in Corpus Christi on Saturday.

The Texas race is one of the most contested and watched Senate races in the country. Talarico and Paxton remain close in the polls — RealClearPolling calls the race a toss-up, with Talarico holding a slight lead.

A Democrat winning the Senate seat would be a shock — a Democrat has not won a U.S. Senate race in Texas since 1988, and Trump won the state by nearly 14 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.

Democrats are vying to take control of the House and the Senate. The party would need to win four seats to win control of the Senate.

The president started off his rally in Corpus Christi saying that Texans would defeat “Democrat Communist James Talafreako,” using the nickname he’s given to the candidate.

At both rallies, Trump criticized Talarico on a range of issues like immigration, the Second Amendment and barbecue.

“If you’re running in Texas and if you don’t like guns, and if you don’t like meat and if you don’t like oil, I think you should be losing by a lot,” Trump said at the first rally about Talarico. “Where the hell did they get this guy?” 

Trump spoke heavily about a Venezuelan oil tanker that arrived in Texas on Tuesday and is carrying oil to be refined in the state. He said Talarico would try to take it away.

“Talafreako stated that he wants to dismantle Texas oil and gas and capitalism itself. He wants to take it apart,” Trump continued, adding that Talarico will “kill millions of Texas jobs.”

In Lubbock, Trump said Talarico “wants to get rid of your guns. He wants to get rid of your oil. Wants to get rid of your meat. He can't stand the stuff.”

Talarico has denied being vegan and said he supports the Second Amendment, but he advocates for gun control.

Talarico, for his part, thanked Texans for showing up for his rally in Lubbock, just 3 miles away from Trump’s, invoking Trump’s nickname for him.

“That’s a lot of Talafreakos in one room,” he said.

He said Texans are “ready for change” and hit the Trump administration over the Iran war and tariffs.

“Change that will roll back these corrupt tariffs that are raising grocery prices. Change that will end this corrupt war in the Middle East, driving up gas prices,” he said. “We are done with the extremism and the corruption. We're done with the politics of division, and we are ready for something new.”

The Democratic Texan hit on Paxton, calling him the “most corrupt politician in Texas.”

“Ken Paxton is everything that's wrong with our politics,” he said. “He doesn't serve us. He serves himself.”

“Ken has spent his entire career enriching himself and his donors. I've spent my career working with both parties to cut your property taxes, lower your housing costs, and capping your insulin copays,” Talarico continued. “I have a legislative record. Ken Paxton has a criminal record.”

Paxton has never been convicted of a crime, though he has faced criminal indictments, federal investigations and impeachment while serving as the state's attorney general; the state Senate acquitted Paxton of his impeachment charges.

Talarico compared Paxton to “that one guy” at a Texas bar.

“He's loud. He's obnoxious. He makes everybody feel uncomfortable. He hears you say your name to the bartender and then adds his drink to your tab when you're not looking,” he said. “That's Ken Paxton. And I don't know about y'all, but I am done picking up his tab.”

“This isn't a partisan thing,” he continued. “Republicans know just as well as Democrats that there is no place for guys like Ken Paxton in Texas.”

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.This article originally appeared on The Hill at https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6176856-trump-talarico-texas-senate-rallies/

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Hasan Piker sues CNN's Scott Jennings for defamation 28 Oct 2026, 2:42 am

Progressive Twitch streamer Hasan Piker filed a defamation lawsuit against conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings on Tuesday, accusing him of falsely claiming Piker advocated for lynching Black Americans after airing an edited video of his remarks.

The 38-page lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., centers on an Aug. 11 episode of “The Scott Jennings Show,” in which Jennings shared clips of Piker claiming he had said, “the USA should resume lynchings against Black people.”

Piker, who threatened legal action in August over the claim and shared further context to the clips, alleges Jennings knowingly misrepresented sarcastic comments he made during his livestreams by turning it into an apparent endorsement of racial violence.

“Mr. Jennings did not merely mischaracterize something Mr. Piker said,” the complaint reads. “He took a false, fabricated, and manipulated video of Mr. Piker, added a made-up quotation that Mr. Piker never uttered, and then made accusations that went beyond even what the manipulated footage purported to show.”

During the August broadcast, Jennings warned Black voters to pay close attention before playing the clip, which included an on-screen caption attributing a statement, “Let’s go back to a better time when lynchings were happening,” to Piker.

Jennings later accused Piker of “calling for Black voters to be lynched” and referred to what he called “the Piker plan of returning our country to lynchings.”

The original footage came from an October 2024 Twitch broadcast in which Piker was reacting to a debate between two Black political commentators — one liberal and one conservative. After the conservative participant criticized “woke DAs,” Piker sarcastically suggested the commentator wanted to return to an era of racial discrimination and lynchings, according to the complaint.

“He said, ‘We need more Klansmen, OK? Can we go back to a better time when lynchings were happening?’” Piker said during the stream in reaction to the commentator’s argument.

Piker’s attorneys argue that the edited video removed the words “He said,” along with his laughter and surrounding commentary, to intentionally make it appear as though Piker was expressing his own beliefs rather than mocking someone else’s.

The dispute emerged amid the Michigan Senate race, where the edited video was circulated to criticize progressive Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed over his association with Piker.

When Jennings posted the segment on the social platform X, he referred to Piker as El-Sayed’s “best pal and campaign partner,” before accusing him of supporting racial violence.

The post has received roughly 2.5 million views as of Tuesday, according to the lawsuit, and Jennings allegedly refused to retract his statements despite receiving a written demand from Piker’s attorneys on Aug. 31.

Piker’s legal team also says the accusations damaged his reputation and threatened his ability to earn money through streaming, advertising and sponsorships.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.This article originally appeared on The Hill at https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/6176566-piker-defamation-lawsuit-jennings/

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Democrats have a big early voting lead, but another trend may matter more 28 Oct 2026, 1:45 am

Election Day is still a week away. But with early voting for the midterms underway in nearly every state, tens of millions of Americans have already cast their ballots, offering an initial glimpse into how the pivotal elections may play out. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, nearly 33 million people have voted since early voting windows opened in some states over a month ago, according to tracking by the University of Florida’s Election Lab. Around half of those votes have been cast in person, while the other half were submitted by mail. 

With days of early voting left to go before Election Day on Nov. 3, that figure already represents more than a quarter of the roughly 122 million Americans who voted in the 2022 midterms.

Michael McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida who runs the Election Lab, stresses to TIME that early voting data cannot in and of itself be relied on to predict the outcome of the elections. But he says it can reveal other informative aspects of voting behavior.

“Once you start seeing consistency across multiple days of voting and across multiple states, it starts giving us more confidence that whatever we're seeing in terms of relative engagement, that's likely going to carry through to election day,” McDonald says.

Here are some of the notable trends emerging in the early voting data as Election Day nears.

Democrats are outpacing Republicans in early ballots

Registered Democrats so far represent a larger share of early voters in the midterms than Republicans, having cast roughly 45% of early ballots compared to 31% cast by GOP voters, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab data. Another 24% of Americans who have voted early are not registered with either party.

This data is only available for the 27 states that have a formal party registration system, and signifies only the party with which a voter is registered, not the candidates selected on their ballot. 

Experts caution that Democrats’ higher turnout in the early vote does not guarantee they’ll maintain that edge, with tens of millions more Americans still expected to show up at the polls.

Republicans are anticipated to make up ground on Election Day, as they have in recent years. A Pew Research survey conducted following the 2024 elections showed that nearly 40% of registered Republican voters cast their ballot in person on Election Day, compared to 28% of registered Democratic voters.

“We expect the Democrats to build up a lead in the early vote, and Election Day tends to be a Republican day, so you can't just look at the early vote as it is now,” McDonald tells TIME.

Polling has shown, however, that Democratic engagement and enthusiasm is higher than it is for Republicans in the lead-up to the elections. According to a PBS News/NPR/Marist poll released on Tuesday, 52% of likely voters said they would back the Democratic candidate in their House district, while 44% would back the Republican candidate. Independent likely voters favored Democratic candidates by 13 points. 

More Democrats than Republicans also said in the survey they were very enthusiastic about voting, at 71% and 61% respectively. Another poll from the Pew Research Center earlier this month similarly showed greater engagement and stated motivation from voters backing Democrats: 78% of voters who voiced support for the Democratic candidate in their House district said who controls Congress “really matters,” compared to 69% of voters who backed Republican candidates who said the same. Such polls have suggested a “blue wave” of Democratic support might determine the midterms, but Republicans have pushed back against the numbers. 

Read More: Polls Point to a Blue Wave. Here's Why Republicans Say They're Wrong

Bernard Fraga, a political science professor at Emory University, tells TIME that the relative lack of Republican enthusiasm in polls and trailing GOP turnout in early voting shows that support within the party, and for President Donald Trump, has waned. 

“This is a story about Democrats who voted in 2024 persisting, and Republicans who voted in 2024 so far at least staying home,” he says. 

The midterms come as Trump’s approval rating has hit near record lows amid widespread dissatisfaction with his handling of the war in Iran and the economy. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday put Trump’s approval rating at 32%, up one percentage point from last week, when the same poll recorded the lowest approval rating of his second term.  

Fraga says that Republicans are frustrated with what he describes as “failures” of the Trump Administration, which he asserts have decreased GOP voters’ support for their party and led them to stay home rather than casting ballots early. 

“Even for steadfast Republican voters, they look at the state of the economy, for example, and say that they're not too enthusiastic about voting,” he says. “Reading the trends, it's clear that Democrats are enthusiastic and mobilized to a much greater degree than even the Republican voters.”

Simon Rosenberg, a long-time Democratic strategist, contends that independents are also more likely to be voting in favor of Democrats, given recent polling, which has shown that more independent likely voters support Democratic candidates. One YouGov poll found that 54% of independents said they’d vote for Democratic candidates, versus 27% who said they’d vote for Republican candidates. Another PBS/NPR/Marist poll showed that independents favored Democrats by a margin of 25 points. 

Given such polling, Rosenberg believes that the number of people voting for Democratic candidates is actually higher than the partisan breakdown in early voting data explicitly indicates. 

Hispanic voters are turning out early in higher numbers than other recent elections

Rosenberg says that the most significant data coming out of early voting is the number of Hispanic people voting early. 

So far, Hispanic early voting participation is outpacing its levels at the same point in the election cycle in 2022 and 2024. Presidential election years such as 2024 typically yield higher voter turnout, which Rosenberg says makes the 2026 figures to date all the more notable and surprising. 

“It's almost certain that this heightened performance will carry over through Election Day, and that this will become one of the big storylines of the election,” he says. “It's a universal trend that we're seeing all across the country.”

This trend is most noticeable in states with high Hispanic populations, like Texas. 

In one of the most closely watched—and expensive—Senate races this year, James Talarico is vying to become the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Texas since 1988 in a tightly contested battle against the state’s Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. 

Over 4 million votes have been cast early, or an estimated 41% of the total votes expected in the race, according to tracking by VoteHub. As of Monday, Talarico was forecast to hold a narrow two-point lead in the early vote. 

The state's Hispanic population, one of the highest in the U.S. per capita, represents 24% of the vote as of Monday, according to VoteHub, a percentage point higher than the share it made up in the final vote tally in the 2024 election. Another analysis reported by The Texas Tribune showed that the Hispanic early vote in Texas has already surpassed the early vote numbers from 2024 and 2022.

“What we can see here is just eye-popping numbers for Hispanics,” McDonald said about the group’s early voter turnout not only in Texas, but around the U.S. “If Hispanics are showing up in force now, it's almost with certainty going to change the overall … diversity of the electorate in this election cycle.” 

As a result, McDonald contends that “we're going to see larger swings to the Democrats in more diverse states.” 

Polling has indicated that Hispanic and Latino voters, a demographic that helped propel Trump back to the White House two years ago, widely disapprove of the President and the Republican Party heading into midterms. Sixty-six percent of Latino voters surveyed in late September by an NBC News/Telemundo poll said that Trump’s deportation policies have gone too far, while 75% disapprove of his handling of the economy and the cost of living. The poll also found that more Latino voters hold a negative view of the GOP than at any point since 2016. 

Another Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Oct. 5 showed that just 24% of Hispanic Americans approved of Trump’s performance in the White House, the lowest such rating the President has received across both of his presidential terms. And just 52% of Hispanic voters who responded to the poll planned to vote Democratic, double the level of support for Republicans among the demographic.

How predictive is early voting data?

Rosenberg cautions that early voting “can tell you a lot, but it can't tell you everything,” and that voter turnout can shift from day to day. 

He notes that early voting returns showed Kamala Harris leading in the 2024 presidential election, and that she still lost after a strong gain in Republican turnout for Trump. 

But he contends that “the lack of intensity that we're seeing in many rural and Republican counties around the country does not bode well for them for Election Day.”

Fraga says that in general, political scientists are skeptical of using early voting data to predict election outcomes. This has been especially true, he notes, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw Democrats cast early votes by mail at a significantly higher rate than Republicans, who were more likely to vote early at polls, a dynamic that made it harder to draw on the early vote to confidently predict outcomes on Election Day. 

Now, though, “the partisan distribution of voters has become somewhat more stable,” he says. “So we can use that information to now have a better comparison, and as a result, early voting data sheds a lot more light on what's likely to happen in November.”

“It's not determinative. It's not going to predict what's going to happen,” Rosenberg says. “But every campaign in the country right now is living and dying on this early vote data.”

Richard Hall contributed reporting.

This article originally appeared on Time at https://time.com/article/2026/10/27/midterm-elections-early-voting-data-democrats-republicans-hispanic-voters/

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