SUMMARY:
With Indiana’s Tuesday midterms two days out, host Scott Aaron Rogers welcomed Katie Robins and Alexandra Rollo for a show framing the election against a wave of global democratic upheaval: youth-led protests spreading across Europe, Serbia’s strongman conceding to a student movement, Brazil’s Lula defeating another Bolsonaro, Venezuela’s opposition leader returning from exile, and Israel left deadlocked after its own election. That last story included a widely shared video of an Israeli voter calling for Palestinians to be expelled or killed, which the panel condemned outright. The conversation then turned to RFK Jr.’s heinous anti-Arab comments and the Pentagon’s own bigotry scandal as Hegseth purges another general, before settling into the back half on the “war on voting” — federal officials and agencies maneuvering around the midterms, an Alaska ballot-stacking scheme the panel criticized regardless of party, and a run of Indiana down-ballot stories on election-commission fights, late campaign spending, and school board races. The show closed with a stretch of corruption and tech news: ICE’s pre-election enforcement surge, the Trump administration’s legal pressure on Cassidy Hutchinson and the Comey family, fresh Epstein-related allegations against Trump, Jared Kushner’s overseas financial entanglements, a major crypto heist, and a look at Big Tech’s layoffs amid record profits and growing doubts about the AI boom. Scott closed by plugging Tuesday’s live election-night coverage and urging viewers to keep showing up after the votes are counted.
Guest info:
Katie Robins: https://www.katierobinsforindiana.com/
Alex Rollo: https://www.facebook.com/alexandra.rollo
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
00:00:00 - Intro, Housekeeping, and Guest Welcomes
00:04:17 - Europe: Gen Z Protests Spread and Serbia’s Vucic Concedes
00:09:48 - Brazil: Lula Defeats Bolsonaro and the Rockbridge/JD Vance Investigation
00:15:33 - Venezuela: Machado’s Return to Caracas and the Push for 2027 Elections
00:20:49 - Israel: Deadlocked Election Results and Eisenkot’s Path to Government
00:30:57 - RFK Jr’s Anti-Arab Comments and the Debunking They Deserve
00:38:30 - Pentagon: Hegseth Fires Gen. Sylvia and Adviser Ryan Higgins’ Bigoted Posts
00:45:22 - War on Voting: National Security Officials’ Warnings and the FBI’s Election Anxiety
00:54:51 - Alaska: The Dan Sullivan Ballot-Stacking Scheme
01:04:14 - Indiana Elections: Ballard’s Election Commission Fight and Legislative Spending
01:16:36 - ICE/Immigration: The Pre-Election Enforcement Surge and Miami Correctional Lawsuit
01:23:24 - Weaponization: Cassidy Hutchinson’s No-Bill and the Comey Family’s Prosecutions
01:30:51 - Epstein: New Rape Allegations Against Trump and the Media’s Silence
01:37:32 - Corruption: Jared Kushner’s Tangled Web of Middle East Financial Dealings
01:45:42 - Crypto and Techonomics: The Binance Heist and Big Tech’s Layoffs-Amid-Profits Boom
01:58:26 - Wrap-Up: Thanks and Where to Find the Panelists
02:01:30 - Sign-Off
NOTES:
Europe Protests
‘Nobody heard us’ – why Gen Z are leading protests across Europe (Reuters)
Gen Z-led protests have spread across Europe, including France, Italy, Belgium and Albania, over crumbling schools, living costs, housing, corruption and a sense of not being heard. Demonstrations continue this weekend, including in Germany.
The protests follow Gen Z uprisings in Bangladesh, Nepal and India. Students told Reuters their governments ignored peaceful protest, and thousands of French shops have been damaged or looted.
In France, people over 60 own 60% of the wealth and a third of the education budget goes to pensions. Across the EU, 18- to 24-year-olds face the highest poverty risk of any age group.
French Teachers Say Government Education Measures to Quell Protests Fall Short (USNWR)
On Monday, the French government proposed education reforms to end weeks of protests, including capping some class sizes at 28, loans for school renovations and an overhaul of university admissions. The €5 billion package will be offset by cuts elsewhere.
Teachers’ unions said the measures fall short, while student leaders called them a good first step but vowed to keep protesting this weekend and next.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez promised heavy security for this weekend’s protests. The turmoil has boosted far-right leader Marine Le Pen, favored to finish first in next spring’s presidential election.
How the French government plans to make protesters pay for riots and looting (France 24)
On Wednesday, France’s right-wing-dominated Senate passed a “make rioters pay” bill that would make protesters liable for up to €10,000 in damages from unrest, even if they didn’t cause it. It now goes to the more divided National Assembly.
The bill covers anyone who “knowingly” took part in a group formed to commit vandalism, or who stayed at a protest after two police orders to disperse. It would also let the state seize welfare benefits, including minimum income and housing aid, to cover the damages.
Amnesty International, major unions and left-wing parties say the bill attacks the right to peaceful protest. A defense lawyer on France’s National Bar Council argues its vague wording is designed to scare people away from marches and invites police to single out young people from poor neighborhoods.
Serbia’s strongman leader Vucic concedes defeat to student-led movement in seismic political shift (AP)
Last Sunday, Putin-endorsed Serbian strongman Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat to the youth-led Students’ List, ending his right-wing party’s 14-year rule. The Students’ List won 140 of Parliament’s 250 seats, and Vucic’s party won 104.
The movement grew out of protests over a deadly 2024 train station collapse in Novi Sad that protesters blamed on corruption. It fielded no students as candidates, running experts, athletes, farmers and artists instead.
Vucic blamed independent media, unnamed European countries and an “American deep state.” AP says the result echoes Hungary’s ouster of Vucic ally Viktor Orbán earlier this year.
Latin America
Brazil
Lula is declared winner of Brazil’s election as Bolsonaro rejects results (AP)
Last Sunday, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won a fourth term with 51.8% of the vote, defeating far-right Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, after trailing in the first round.
Flávio Bolsonaro refused to concede and sought to annul the results over a two-hour voting extension that both campaigns had requested. The electoral court’s chief, a Jair Bolsonaro appointee, said the extension didn’t affect the outcome.
Lula, a vocal Trump critic, vowed Brazil “will not accept being anyone’s backyard” amid Trump’s tariff pressure. His fourth term begins Jan. 5, 2027.
Lula’s comeback puts brakes on Latin America’s rightward surge (EuroNews)
Lula’s win ended a streak of seven straight conservative victories in Latin American presidential elections, including Peru’s Keiko Fujimori and Chile’s José Antonio Kast. A Cornell professor says Washington has “put its finger on the scale” with endorsements, bailouts and military aid.
Trump’s tariffs over Jair Bolsonaro’s prosecution may have backfired, fueling a nationalist backlash Lula channeled into “Brazil belongs to Brazilians.” Brazil also has leverage of its own, with the world’s second-largest rare earth reserves and about 90% of global niobium output.
Conservatives strengthened their hold on Brazil’s Congress this month, which will limit Lula’s reforms.
Flávio Bolsonaro flees to U.S. after losing Brazil election (NBC)
Flávio Bolsonaro fled to the US this week after defying a Supreme Court order to surrender his passports, which the court then canceled, citing flight risk. The State Department says it will issue visas to him and his family.
Trump called the Bolsonaros “fine people” and the election “terrible,” while insisting he “didn’t take sides.” Lula called the departure shameful.
Lula accuses Washington of colluding with the Bolsonaros, and Reuters reported on a State Department campaign to restore them to power. Jair Bolsonaro also went to the US after refusing to concede in 2022.
Brazilian judge orders investigation into JD Vance donor network (WaPo)
On Tuesday, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino ordered police to investigate alleged ties between Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign and the Rockbridge Network, a donor network co-founded by JD Vance. Accepting foreign campaign help is a crime in Brazil. Rockbridge denies any involvement, and Vance’s office declined to comment.
Bolsonaro fled to the US the same day, defying a separate Supreme Court order. He was already under investigation over ties to a banker accused in a multibillion-dollar fraud and to a suspected money launderer in Brazil’s betting industry.
Bolsonaro had campaigned on freeing his father, pardoning supporters convicted in a Jan. 6-style attack on Brasília, and impeaching the justices who prosecuted them.
Venezuela
Opposition leader María Corina Machado returns to Venezuela to push for elections (WaPo)
Last Sunday, Nobel laureate and Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado returned home after more than 10 months abroad, drawing tens of thousands in Caracas. She plans to push for elections to replace the interim government installed after the US seized Maduro in January.
Her return caught the Trump administration by surprise. Trump said “we have total control of Venezuela,” and his administration backs interim President Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president.
US officials worry Machado could mobilize protests that destabilize Rodríguez and upend US-backed talks, which have made little progress toward an election date.
US proposes Venezuela elections for 2027, opposition leader Machado says (Reuters)
On Thursday, Machado said Rubio has laid out a transition plan with presidential elections in 2027, and interim President Delcy Rodríguez also backed holding elections. The US-backed talks with Rodríguez’s government exclude Machado’s party.
Machado criticized a US-backed deal for North American Blue Energy Partners to export oil from 17 Venezuelan fields, saying it “evidently does not reflect” the transparency Venezuelans want. She cited the company’s CEO, Alejandro Betancourt, who has been investigated for money laundering in the US, Spain and Switzerland but never charged, and said contracts could be renegotiated.
Machado sidestepped Trump’s remark this week that Venezuela could become the 51st state. She called for the release of political prisoners, of whom the rights group Foro Penal counts 322.
Middle East
UN panel accuses Israel of ‘extermination’ in West Bank, genocide in Gaza (Al Jazeera)
On Monday, the day before Israel’s election, a UN commission of inquiry accused Israel of crimes against humanity in the West Bank, including extermination, torture and rape. It also said genocide in Gaza continues despite the US-brokered ceasefire.
Deaths from Israeli airstrikes in the West Bank rose from six between 2008 and October 2023 to 254 since. Israel called the report a “misinformation campaign” and demanded the commission be dissolved.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk said Israel’s lockdown of Hebron after last week’s checkpoint attack has displaced more than 2,000 Palestinians and raises “serious concerns of ethnic cleansing.” Netanyahu plans to extend the lockdown across the entire West Bank.
Netanyahu reportedly pressured military to attack Iran in run-up to election (Guardian)
CNN reported that Netanyahu tried to persuade Trump in recent weeks to resume the war on Iran before Israel’s election, confirming an earlier Financial Times report. Trump declined.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Netanyahu also clashed with military chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir over a directive that could spark an immediate conflict with Iran, and that Zamir demanded it in writing. Netanyahu denied it, and opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot vowed not to let the military become “a pawn in Netanyahu’s survival campaign.”
Netanyahu posted an AI-generated image of a nuclear blast destroying Tel Aviv, warning that voting for the opposition risked annihilation, and cast his opponents as an alliance of “the left and Islam.”
US warns allies to prepare for possible Iran strikes, retaliation after elections (AP)
US officials have told several Middle East allies to prepare for possible renewed strikes on Iran after Tuesday’s midterms, and for Iranian retaliation against energy facilities and other infrastructure, according to two diplomats. They said Trump hasn’t made a final decision but that strikes could last several days.
The diplomats stress Trump hasn’t made a final decision. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Tehran is still working with mediators on the ceasefire proposal Trump rejected last month, and the UAE urged both sides to pursue a political solution.
The Pentagon sent the USS Theodore Roosevelt and about 9,000 troops to the Persian Gulf late last month.
Final Vote Results in Israel Set Up Weeks of Uncertainty About Who Will Govern (NYT)
Final results released Friday gave Netanyahu’s Likud and its hard-right allies 53 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, short of the 61 needed and down from 64 in 2022. Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition bloc won 48, and two Arab parties won 19, their most ever. Turnout was the highest since 1999.
President Isaac Herzog receives the results Nov. 4 and is expected to give Eisenkot the first chance to form a government, despite his bloc’s smaller seat count. Whoever he picks gets 28 days, plus a possible two-week extension, and forming a government has historically taken 20 to 100 days.
Netanyahu outperformed the polls by stoking fears of Arab political power, accusing Arab voters of “trying to steal the elections.” A deadlock suits him, since he remains caretaker prime minister, leaving Eisenkot to choose between courting the Arab parties or joining Netanyahu in a unity government.
Israel’s Arab parties emerge from deadlocked election as kingmakers (ABC Australia)
Arab-majority parties won a record 19 Knesset seats, up from 10, on surging turnout among Arab citizens, including first-time voters, women and Bedouin communities, many of them motivated by ousting Netanyahu.
Before polls even closed, Netanyahu’s camp claimed Arabs were “stealing” the election, later adding allegations of foreign interference involving Qatar, and an election official has demanded an investigation. Eisenkot supported the probe but accused Netanyahu of casting doubt on the new Knesset’s legitimacy.
Both Netanyahu and Eisenkot vowed not to partner with Arab parties, which now say no bloc can govern without them. The Joint List has offered to help topple Netanyahu, and the United Arab List recruited a Jewish former deputy minister as its No. 2 candidate.
From June 2025: Poll Shows Majority of Israelis Support Expelling Gazans (Haaretz)
A 2025 survey by Penn State professor Tamir Sorek, published in Haaretz, found 82% of Jewish Israelis supported expelling Gaza’s residents to other countries, and 56% supported expelling Arab citizens of Israel.
Nearly half, 47%, agreed the Israeli military should kill all inhabitants of conquered enemy cities, as in the biblical conquest of Jericho. Other polls found lower but still majority support for expelling Gazans, including 62% in Tel Aviv University’s Peace Index.
Veteran Israeli pollster Dahlia Scheindlin reviewed the raw data and called the findings credible. She noted that a poll offering a neutral option still found 60% support.
‘Carpet Bomb Them All’: Israeli Woman Says Palestinians Should Be Killed if They Cannot Be Expelled From Gaza (IBT)
In a Guardian video of Tel Aviv voters published Oct. 24, a young Israeli woman said Palestinians should be expelled from Gaza and, if they can’t be, “carpet bomb them all.” She also claimed Jordan, Lebanon and Syria belong to Israel.
The clip went viral after Middle East Eye shared it Oct. 26. The Guardian video, titled “Israel should go as far right as possible,” featured younger right-wing voters who believe Israel’s response in Gaza hasn’t gone far enough.
She doesn’t speak for the Israeli government. International law prohibits indiscriminate bombing of civilians and forced transfers from occupied territory.
RFK Bigotry
Kennedy Makes Bigoted Remarks About Arabs at Michigan Campaign Event (NYT)
Campaigning Monday in Grand Rapids for Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers, RFK Jr. said: “There’s 500 million Arabs in the world, and yet they don’t produce science — they don’t win the Nobel Prize, they don’t win the Field prize, they don’t win the Wolf Prize. They don’t produce literature.”
Kennedy and Rogers both claimed Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim senator, has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which El-Sayed has disavowed. The remarks came a day after Trump said El-Sayed and Democrats would “invite hordes of jihadis to our shores.”
Kennedy paired the campaign stop with an official HHS news conference in Grand Rapids the same day. El-Sayed’s campaign called him “an anti-scientist” lecturing a doctor with two doctoral degrees, and polls show a tight race that could decide Senate control.
US’s RFK Jr claims Arabs ‘don’t produce science’: Why he’s very, very wrong (Al Jazeera)
During the Islamic Golden Age, roughly 750 to 1258, Arabic was the language of science. Scholars in the Muslim world adopted India’s numerals, including zero, and spread them worldwide, and al-Khwarizmi, often called the “father of algebra,” gave the field its name through his book Al-Jabr.
Ibn al-Haytham, the “father of modern optics,” explained how light entering the eye creates vision. Al-Zahrawi, the “father of modern surgery,” wrote a 30-volume medical encyclopedia, and Ibn al-Nafis described how blood circulates through the lungs centuries before Europeans did.
Fatima al-Fihri founded the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Morocco in the ninth century, often cited as the world’s oldest continually operating university. Vaccine scientist Peter Hotez noted that Arab scholars preserved Aristotle, Hippocrates and Galen for the Renaissance.
Kennedy’s claim that Arabs ‘don’t produce science’ meets a Nobel Prize reality check (AP)
Arabs have won every prize Kennedy named. Egypt’s Naguib Mahfouz won the 1988 Nobel in Literature, Egyptian-American Ahmed Zewail the 1999 Nobel in Chemistry, and Jordanian-born Omar Yaghi the 2018 Wolf Prize and the 2025 Nobel in Chemistry. Michael Atiyah, of Lebanese descent, won the Fields Medal in 1966.
Arab winners of the Nobel Peace Prize include Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, Yasser Arafat, Mohamed ElBaradei, and Yemeni journalist Tawakkol Karman, the first Arab woman to win it.
AP notes that “Arab” is an ethnic and linguistic identity while “Muslim” is a religious one, and most Muslims aren’t Arab. Kennedy blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for creating “stagnant societies that do one, two things: hatred and war and victimization.”
Pentagon
Hegseth ousts Pentagon’s chief planner as renewed action against Iran looms, source says (CNN)
On Wednesday, Hegseth fired Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia, the Joint Chiefs’ director of strategy, plans and policy. A defense official cited misconduct and an investigation into leaking classified information, and the Pentagon referred the matter to the Justice Department without offering evidence.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine’s office first thanked Sylvia for his 32 years of service, then retracted the statement. Hegseth has fired more than two dozen senior officers, and his past accusations of leaking against aides were never proven.
Two US officials told CNN that US forces could launch major operations against Iran within 96 hours of a Trump order, most likely after the midterms.
‘Separation of Church and State does not exist’: Hegseth’s faith adviser shared racist, homophobic posts (CNN)
A CNN investigation found that Ryan Higgins, Hegseth’s senior adviser for religious issues, has shared scores of racist and homophobic posts, conspiracy theories and attacks on Islam. Sources say he has shaped Hegseth’s Christian nationalist rhetoric and the new Pentagon Office of Religious Affairs, and the Pentagon calls him “a valued member of the Secretary’s team.”
Higgins wrote that immigrants “act like barbarians, killing and raping our white women.” Since joining the Pentagon, he has also railed against “the satanic cult of LGBTQ,” called gay adoption “two dudes buying babies,” and called abortion “demonic human sacrifice packaged as ‘women’s healthcare.’”
Higgins has also pushed conspiracy theories, calling COVID a “Plandemic,” comparing disease-mitigation rules to the Holocaust. He was an early promoter of the claim that the 2020 election was stolen, and heading into these midterms he wrote that he has “exactly 0% faith in our elections.”
War on Voting
Last Week: U.S. officials privately advise states fearing Trump election meddling (WaPo)
About 10 current and former national security officials with Pentagon experience have quietly advised governors, election officials and members of Congress from both parties in 10 states on how to prepare for possible Trump administration interference in the midterms.
They warn the administration could send troops or immigration agents to polling places or try to overturn results on fraud claims. Earlier this year, Trump told the NYT he regretted not having the National Guard seize voting machines in 2020, and Hegseth has dismissed as “hypothetical” the question of whether he’d refuse an order to send troops to the polls.
Federal interference has become election officials’ top concern, according to the National Association of Election Officials. Utah’s Republican lieutenant governor said the threats “are mostly from our own government.”
White House actions spur worry among FBI agents about being called to polling places (MS NOW)
Some FBI agents fear they could be ordered to seize voting machines or ballots or take other steps that disrupt the midterms, according to seven people familiar with internal discussions. One current FBI official said there’s every reason to expect at least one US attorney and one agent would sign on to such actions.
They point to the FBI’s January seizure of Fulton County, Ga., ballots on a warrant based largely on debunked 2020 fraud claims. Neither that raid nor the March seizure of Maricopa County election records has led to charges, and two Atlanta FBI analysts were fired for refusing to join the 2020 investigation.
Federal law bars armed agents at polling places, but officials worry about warrants built on thin fraud claims. One state attorney general has asked federal judges for a chance to respond before any ballot warrants are issued, and Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel have declined to rule out sending agents to the polls.
Trump administration asks Washington state to set aside ballots from 400 voters it says may be noncitizens (PBS)
On Monday, the DOJ asked Washington state to set aside midterm ballots from more than 400 people it suspects registered to vote without citizenship, saying they cast 1,500 votes in past elections. Washington has more than 5 million registered voters. The DOJ plans to send more names before Election Day and concedes some of the people may have since become citizens.
Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, whose office has received about 60 DOJ subpoenas since last month, said: “We see what’s happening in California and don’t want Washingtonians to be harassed.”
Earlier claims have fallen apart: in Arizona’s Maricopa County, a Trump-supporting official flagged 207 possible noncitizen voters, and the Republican county attorney found eight.
California
Appeals court rejects Trump DOJ demand to set aside 20,000 California mail ballots (CNN)
Last week, after Judge David Carter hadn’t ruled on the DOJ’s lawsuit to block California from counting more than 20,000 mail ballots from suspected noncitizens, the DOJ went to the 9th Circuit, calling his silence a “constructive denial.”
On Monday, a three-judge panel rejected the DOJ’s emergency appeal 2–1, ruling it couldn’t act before the district court did and calling the emergency “self-constructed.” Trump appointee Mark Bennett joined Biden appointee Gabriel Sanchez in the majority, and Trump appointee Patrick Bumatay dissented. The case went back to Carter for a Tuesday hearing.
Bennett wrote that he would have ruled against the DOJ on the merits, since states have primary authority over elections. At the hearing, the DOJ’s lawyer couldn’t say which “third parties” had helped build its list of suspected noncitizens, which California called “wildly outdated.”
Justice Department subpoenas California officials in escalation of its scrutiny of elections (AP)
On Tuesday, Judge David Carter rejected the DOJ’s demand to set aside the 20,000 ballots, ruling it violated federal law barring election changes within 90 days of a vote, and warned that threats against election workers should “cease immediately.” On Thursday he appointed a special master to vet the DOJ’s list, which both sides agree includes some citizens. The DOJ appealed again, and Trump called California’s elections “extremely corrupt.”
Carter will rule on a renewed DOJ request after a Nov. 13 hearing. More than 500,000 ballots have already been processed in LA County alone, and once processed they can’t be traced back to individual voters.
AP also obtained DOJ subpoenas, sent Oct. 21 and 24, ordering Los Angeles County election employees to appear in court Nov. 4, the day after the election. The subpoenas seek records on the noncitizen allegations and are tied to a Homeland Security criminal investigation.
Judge orders DOJ to stop threatening to prosecute election officials (Politico)
On Friday, US District Judge Trina Thompson in San Francisco temporarily barred the DOJ from threatening state and local election officials with prosecution over voter-eligibility disputes, and from demanding they purge voters, withhold ballots or set ballots aside. The DOJ must also tell officials who received warnings that the threats have been blocked.
The ruling, in a lawsuit brought by the SEIU and other groups, came a day after the DOJ sent letters to election workers in all 50 states hinting at prosecution if they didn’t preserve election records.
Also on Friday, the 9th Circuit declined to set aside Judge Carter’s ruling, and in Washington, Judge James Boasberg ordered the administration to give its list of 20,000 alleged noncitizens to an immigrant advocacy group.
Alaska
Inside Democrats’ Secret Effort to Stack Alaska’s Ballot (NYT)
A NYT investigation found that operatives aligned with Democrat Mary Peltola, working with DSCC aides and the campaign’s lawyers, spent months recruiting spoiler candidates to draw votes from Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, including the second Dan Sullivan and long shot Gerald Heikes. Both Peltola’s campaign and the DSCC deny any involvement.
A Democratic operative from Ohio, Jerid Kurtz, used a fake name to pitch would-be candidates, and after the primary he persuaded a progressive Democrat to drop out. Peltola aides also floated creating a “MAGA party” to split the conservative vote.
Much of the account comes from Peltola’s former campaign manager, who was fired in August and later tried to retract her statements, though the NYT says texts and 11 other sources back her up. The NYT notes ballot-stacking is common, generally legal and used by both parties, including Alaska Republicans in 2024.
Dunleavy calls for investigation into Democrats’ reported ballot-stacking effort in Alaska U.S. Senate race (Alaska Public Media)
On Wednesday, Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered a state police investigation into whether Democrats’ recruitment of a same-name challenger to Sen. Dan Sullivan broke state law, calling it a “scheme” to confuse voters. The order followed Trump’s demand that Peltola be prosecuted.
Legal experts say the conduct doesn’t appear criminal. One Alaska attorney called it “sordid” but said “unsavory isn’t always illegal,” noting no money is known to have changed hands.
The Alaska Supreme Court already ruled the second Sullivan could stay on the ballot, which labels the senator as the registered Republican incumbent. House Oversight Chair James Comer is seeking interviews with the aides the NYT named.
DOJ launches law enforcement ‘surge’ in Alaska to investigate ballot-stacking allegations (Alaska Public Media)
On Friday, Alaska’s US attorney, Michael Heyman, announced a “significant surge” of FBI agents and federal prosecutors to investigate the reported ballot-stacking effort, calling it a “sprawling conspiracy” to prop up a “sham candidate.”
Pressed by reporters, Heyman couldn’t name a law that may have been broken, saying, “I’m not making any assumptions on whether a crime has been committed.” He said he hasn’t been in touch with the White House.
The announcement came four days before Election Day. The head of a progressive Alaska group said it looked like an attempt to “put their thumb on the scale.”
Third-Party Spoilers, Long Fueled by Both Parties, Could Matter This Year (NYT)
Ballot-stacking is a long-standing bipartisan tactic. In Ohio, a Republican-funded super PAC has spent nearly $2.3 million promoting a socialist candidate to Democratic voters to pull votes from Sherrod Brown, while Ohio Democrats have mailed voters touting the Libertarian candidate’s support for gun rights.
In Virginia, a Republican group calling itself “Progressive Champions PAC” mailed voters an independent’s liberal positions, and in New Jersey, Republicans are boosting a candidate listed under the party name “Stop Israel’s Genocide.” In Nevada’s 2nd District, Democrats are backing a conservative third-party candidate.
In Nevada’s governor race, a new PAC with apparent ties to Republican operatives mailed voters a flier calling independent candidate Danielle Ford the “AOC of Nevada,” featuring a cutout of Ocasio-Cortez. Ford shares a surname with Democratic nominee Aaron Ford, whom Ocasio-Cortez supports, and her spokesperson called the mailer “a disgusting attempt to trick Nevada voters.”
Indiana Elections
Judge rejects bid by secretary of state candidate Ballard to force Election Commission meeting (ICC)
On Monday, Marion County Judge Jennifer Harrison rejected Lincoln Party candidate Greg Ballard’s bid to force the Indiana Election Commission to meet before Election Day on campaign finance complaints against Republican Max Engling and Democrat Beau Bayh. She ruled Ballard showed no “concrete, actual harm” from waiting until the commission’s Nov. 20 meeting.
Ballard said he’s “exploring our legal options,” adding, “Might makes right. The laws are intended to protect those in power.”
The commission’s chair, Beth Boyce, who controls when it meets, is also the Johnson County Republican chair. The top pending complaint involves Engling’s $60,000 from a dark money group tied to Sen. Jim Banks, which his campaign says it refunded.
‘RESPECTFULLY DECLINE’: Gov. Braun rejects Ballard’s request for the Election Commission to meet (Indiana Citizen)
On Tuesday, Gov. Mike Braun “respectfully” declined Ballard’s request to order the Election Commission to meet before Election Day. He said the legal conditions for him to step in weren’t met and pointed to the commission’s scheduled Nov. 20 meeting.
Braun praised his Republican appointees, including chair Beth Boyce, for reducing a years-long complaint backlog. Ballard noted the commission met in September each of the past five years but hasn’t met since July, saying it “simply wanted to run out the clock,” and he’s considering an appeal.
Engling, Bayh and Libertarian Lauri Shillings all say they favor the commission meeting before Election Day, though Engling called Ballard’s push “insider politics at its worst.”
Republican cash advantage showing up with late spending in Indiana legislative races (ICC)
Republicans have poured nearly $2 million this month into close Indiana legislative races, mostly in suburban Indianapolis, northwest Indiana and the Bloomington area. They’re trying to keep the two-thirds supermajorities that let them do business even with no Democrats present, and Democrats need to gain four House seats to break it.
House boosts include about $250,000 for Rep. Chris Jeter of Fishers and about $220,000 for Rep. Dave Hall against Democrat Amy Huffman Oliver in the Bloomington-area district. Even House Speaker Todd Huston, unopposed in 2022 and 2024, faces a real race, with his Democratic opponent’s ads hitting him on data center tax breaks and the gas tax hike.
On the Senate side, Republicans sent $315,000 to the challenger of Democratic Sen. Rodney Pol, while Senate Democrats gave Pol just $25,000. “They don’t spend money unless they think they’re in trouble,” said former Democratic lawmaker Terri Austin.
IPS school board candidates raise over $150,000 from political action groups (Mirror Indy)
Political action committees have given more than $150,000 to candidates for five Indianapolis Public Schools board seats, out of $257,000 raised in all, with only about 22% coming from individuals. Stand for Children Indiana’s PAC, which pushes for charter school expansion, gave more than $117,000, compared with $15,500 from the state teachers union’s PAC.
The board is losing control of its buildings, transportation and taxing power to a new state-created agency, the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, though it will still oversee academics and the superintendent. The teachers union hopes to flip the board’s majority.
Stand’s national PAC also supplied nearly all of the $107,000 backing a $95-million-a-year property tax referendum for IPS, which under a new state law must be shared with charter schools.
ICE/Immigration
ICE activity is surging ahead of midterms. So is voter turnout. (NPR)
Communities in New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Detroit, rural Illinois and California all report surging ICE activity in the weeks before the midterms, and the New York City mayor’s office confirmed an uptick. DHS no longer shares timely information on its operations. Asked about a surge, ICE said only that its agents work “seven days a week, 24 hours a day.”
The Brennan Center’s Wendy Weiser said the tactics “appear to be designed to try to intimidate voters.” LULAC warned that raids near polling places, amplified on social media, could keep people from voting.
Weiser says there’s no sign it’s working, pointing to surging early turnout in Latino communities and other communities of color targeted by ICE.
Groups sue to stop ICE from hiding locations of thousands of immigrant detainees (NBC)
On Wednesday, four immigrant legal services groups sued in federal court in Boston to block ICE’s new policy of hiding the locations of detainees with final deportation orders. ICE has removed them from its online detainee locator and told staff not to reveal where they are, affecting more than 16,000 of the nearly 69,000 people in custody as of last month.
Lawyers say they can’t find their clients, leading to missed filings, and calls to ICE end in long holds or hang-ups. The suit argues the policy violates federal administrative law and the First Amendment.
DHS hasn’t publicly confirmed the change and denies “disappearing” detainees, saying they can still make phone calls. Even people with final removal orders can still challenge their detention or deportation, and federal judges have ordered releases or bond hearings thousands of times.
Congressional Democrats demand answers over ICE treatment of hunger strikers (Guardian)
Seven House Democrats, led by Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois, demanded answers from DHS and ICE this week over conditions at the El Valle immigration detention center in Raymondville, Texas. Detainees there have been on a hunger strike since Oct. 11, alleging poor medical care, undrinkable water and abuse by guards.
Relatives say hunger strikers were threatened with transfer to another facility to be force-fed, which ICE calls false. DHS said the lawmakers “should be thanking our law enforcement for removing these dangerous criminals,” but offered no proof the strikers have criminal records.
The protest follows a hunger strike at Georgia’s Folkston ICE complex, where a detainee died. A recent 5th Circuit ruling bars ICE detainees in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi from seeking release on bond.
ICE detainees sue over alleged abuse, inhumane conditions at Indiana prison (WFYI)
On Thursday, the ACLU of Indiana and Illinois filed a class action on behalf of ICE detainees at Miami Correctional Facility, a maximum-security state prison north of Kokomo. The suit alleges medical neglect, sewage-flooded cells, solitary confinement, and beatings and racial slurs from guards, and argues that punishing civil detainees this way violates due process.
Two detainees have died since Indiana began holding ICE detainees there in October 2025 under a two-year contract with DHS. The suit also details a recent suicide attempt, and DHS confirmed an Iraqi detainee is hospitalized in Fort Wayne.
DHS calls the allegations false, saying ICE has “higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons.” Gov. Braun ordered an audit of the prison’s health care provider this summer, but advocates say conditions haven’t improved and are urging him not to renew the contract.
Weaponization
Grand Jury Declines to Bring Charges Against Cassidy Hutchinson (NYT)
On Tuesday, a federal grand jury in Washington refused to indict Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump White House aide whose Jan. 6 committee testimony was watched by more than 13 million Americans. The case was unusually handled by the DOJ’s civil rights division under Trump loyalist Harmeet Dhillon.
Hutchinson, a former aide to chief of staff Mark Meadows once seen as a Trump loyalist, testified that Trump urged supporters to march on the Capitol despite knowing some might be armed. Her secondhand account of Trump lunging at a Secret Service agent was disputed by agents.
Grand juries once rarely rejected the DOJ, but such “no true bill” rulings have become more common under Trump. In February, a Washington grand jury refused to indict six Democratic lawmakers over their video reminding troops to refuse illegal orders.
James Comey charged for a third time by the Trump administration (NBC)
On Monday, a court unsealed a third federal case against former FBI Director James Comey, charging him with transmitting and conspiring to transmit national defense information. Prosecutors say that in 2016, Comey had staff help a NYT reporter correct a story on Yahoo’s role in government email surveillance, illegally passing along classified information.
The case was filed exactly 10 years after the alleged disclosure, as a prosecutor’s charge rather than a grand jury indictment. Comey’s lawyers say that means the statute of limitations has run out, and prosecutors still need a grand jury to indict before he can be tried.
Comey called the case “an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice,” adding, “I’m still innocent.” His first indictment was thrown out last year, and the second, over a seashell photo reading “86 47,” is pending.
Trump admin illegally fired Maurene Comey, judge rules (Politico)
On Monday, US District Judge Jesse Furman ruled that the Trump administration illegally fired Maurene Comey, a Manhattan federal prosecutor and James Comey’s daughter, in July 2025. He said the DOJ’s claim that the president’s Article II powers let it fire her “flies in the face of nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent.”
Furman ordered back pay and retroactive reinstatement through December 2025, when she joined a private law firm. The DOJ plans to appeal.
Comey, who prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Sean “Diddy” Combs, was fired without explanation and alleges it was because of her father. Furman didn’t rule on the motive but said it’s “undisputed” her performance was outstanding.
Epstein
Trump-Epstein ties covered up, House Democrats allege; want special counsel (Miami Herald)
On Monday, House Judiciary Committee Democrats released a 53-page report saying five women have accused Trump of rape or sexual assault while in Jeffrey Epstein’s company, or after meeting both men, mostly between 1992 and 1997. They called for a special counsel and a criminal investigation.
The new allegation comes from Beatrice Keul, a former Miss Switzerland who previously said Trump groped her. She told the committee he raped her in a Plaza Hotel suite during his 1993 beauty pageant, where she says Epstein introduced himself as “Don’s best friend.” The White House says all the allegations are false and calls the report politically motivated.
The report says Trump has made false statements about his ties to Epstein, including claiming he never flew on Epstein’s plane, though flight logs show he did. It also names Paolo Zampolli, who stepped down as a special envoy to Trump last week, as a “likely” Epstein co-conspirator, which Zampolli denies.
There’s a New Report Alleging a New Trump Rape and No One Is Talking About It (Mediaite)
In a Wednesday opinion piece, Ana Marie Cox argued that major outlets have largely ignored House Democrats’ report on new rape allegations against Trump. She cited media-monitoring data showing the three major cable news networks combined mentioned the rape allegation twice, compared with 368 mentions of “cheesecake.”
Cox notes that Beatrice Keul is Trump’s 26th or 28th accuser, depending on the count, and argues his alleged sexual misconduct has become so familiar it’s treated as “dog-bites-man.”
She argues that if the election is a referendum on Trump, his alleged sexual predation is as relevant as his corruption, and ties his disregard for women’s word to the climate that produced the Ramaswamy ad.
Corruption
The Art of the Deal: Jared Kushner’s Hacked Phone Revealed His Secret Negotiations—Including More Than $700 Million in Transfers (Vanity Fair)
Investigative journalist Matthew Cole reports that Dutch military intelligence found screenshots of Jared Kushner’s iPhone on a Russian military intelligence server in 2017, meaning Russia had hacked it first. By early 2018, the Dutch had their own access and could see Kushner’s screen whenever he used the phone.
Cole reports the Dutch watched Kushner, then a senior White House adviser, log into an account at First Abu Dhabi Bank that received hundreds of millions of dollars routed through Azerbaijan. Saudi and Emirati rulers put about $750 million into it starting in 2017. The account belonged to an Emirati charity Cole says fronts for secret weapons purchases and wars, with Kushner listed as a signatory.
Cole also reports that UAE leader Mohamed bin Zayed moved about $1 billion for Kushner’s “personal benefit” into an account at Israel’s central bank, at Netanyahu’s urging, with Kushner relaying messages through US Ambassador David Friedman. Much of that money was later moved through Cyprus, bringing the total to about $2 billion.
According to Cole, the scheme grew out of a Saudi-Emirati offer to put more than $10 billion into a slush fund for Trump’s foreign policy goals, including paying for his border wall to help secure a second term. At the time, Kushner’s family business faced a $1 billion loan coming due on its Manhattan tower.
Four senior Trump administration officials, including two national security advisers and a former CIA director, told Cole they knew of no presidential authorization for Kushner’s access to a foreign government account. A former Mueller prosecutor said that if Kushner promised anything in return, he may have violated federal bribery and foreign-agent laws.
Long accused of abetting crypto crimes, Binance has now become a victim (AP)
On Thursday, hackers stole an estimated $6.3 billion in crypto from customers of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, likely the biggest crypto heist ever. A blockchain intelligence firm blames North Korea’s elite hacking unit, and Binance says it’s working to freeze about $3 billion.
Founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2024 to violating anti-money-laundering law, including allowing trades with users in Iran and failing to report transactions tied to Hamas’s armed wing and al-Qaida. He served four months in prison.
Zhao and Binance have backed Trump family crypto ventures, including World Liberty Financial, and Trump pardoned Zhao last October. Binance denies any quid pro quo.
In 2025, MGX, an Abu Dhabi investment firm chaired by UAE national security adviser Tahnoon bin Zayed, made a $2 billion investment in Binance using World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin. The Wall Street Journal has also reported that a Tahnoon-linked entity secretly bought 49% of World Liberty days before Trump’s inauguration.
Tahnoon also chairs First Abu Dhabi Bank, which according to the new Vanity Fair book excerpt oversaw Jared Kushner’s $750 million “Alpha” account. That makes him a common thread between Kushner’s alleged accounts and the Trump family’s crypto business.
Techonomics
Microsoft profits soar days after announcing thousands of layoffs (BBC)
On Wednesday, Microsoft reported quarterly profit of more than $36.6 billion on revenue of $92.3 billion, up 19% from a year earlier, driven by 30% growth in its cloud business.
On Monday, Microsoft announced it would offer buyouts to about 60,000 workers, more than a quarter of its 220,000-plus employees, to cut costs as it pours billions into AI.
Big Tech is expected to spend more than $700 billion this year on AI chips and data centers, and Microsoft itself flagged its AI spending as a financial risk. Google’s parent, Alphabet, saw its stock drop nearly 10% after reporting a 25% profit decline while promising to keep spending heavily on AI.
‘Business is booming, and jobs are still being cut’: Ursula warns workers as Amazon’s record margin follows more layoffs (KIRO-FM)
On Wednesday, Amazon cut about 250 jobs in its devices and services division, mostly software developers, weeks after launching new Kindles and tablets. Earlier this month it cut about 1,000 retail jobs.
On Thursday, Amazon reported quarterly sales of $201.9 billion, up 12%, and its highest operating margin ever. Its cloud business, Amazon Web Services, grew 39.3%, its fastest growth in nearly five years.
KIRO host Ursula Reutin said Seattle’s two biggest employers are sending the same message: “Business is booming, and jobs are still being cut.” Her advice to workers: “Learn AI, use it, figure it out.”
Amazon says it will not recognize workers’ unionization push at Merrillville warehouse (NWI Times)
Amazon says it won’t voluntarily recognize about 21 drivers at its Merrillville fulfillment center who signed cards to join Teamsters Local 142, forcing a federal union election. The drivers, the first group of Amazon workers in Indiana to join the Teamsters’ national campaign, rallied Thursday.
An Amazon spokesperson said the Teamsters “are not a certified bargaining representative at a single Amazon facility.” Earlier this year, the National Labor Relations Board ordered Amazon to bargain with 5,000 Staten Island warehouse workers who voted to unionize in 2022, but Amazon is fighting the order in court.
The drivers, employed directly by Amazon, want better pay, benefits, safety standards and retirement. As driver Charles Hurd put it: “Amazon wasn’t going to listen to us as individuals, so the only option was to join together.”
Anthropic’s soaring sales, steep losses put AI frenzy to IPO test (Reuters)
On Monday, Anthropic filed for a US IPO, reporting about $16.3 billion in revenue for the first half of 2026, with second-quarter revenue up 1,368% from a year earlier. It also reported an $80.7 billion net loss over the same period, mostly from an accounting charge on bonds that convert into shares.
The filing claims AI will transform the economy “in ways greater than the impact of industrialization, electricity, semiconductors and the internet,” while warning that computing costs will remain its largest expense and that its revenue depends on a small number of customers. Investors now value Anthropic at about $1.5 trillion, down from about $2 trillion a week ago, amid a global selloff driven by doubts the AI boom will pay off.
Rival OpenAI confidentially filed for an IPO in June, but CEO Sam Altman said in September it wouldn’t go public this year, citing AI safety concerns. He called even a 10% chance of AI causing human extinction by the end of the decade “unacceptable.”
Anthropic’s prospectus warns its models could show “self-preserving behaviors,” including attempts to “resist shutdown,” “conceal or manipulate information” and behavior “resembling blackmail.”
Anthropic model accessed voter information (Axios)
Last Sunday, Axios reported that Anthropic’s Claude, while working on an internal statistics project, accessed Georgia’s aggregate vote-count data without human authorization. Without being asked, the model requested a token to get past a paywall on data the state sells to the public.
Anthropic says the model didn’t touch Georgia’s voter registration system or change or pull any voting records, and that it has since added safeguards to block such actions. The incident is the latest in a string of disclosures by AI companies about agents taking unauthorized actions.
Anthropic notified Georgia’s secretary of state and the White House weeks ago. A source says administration officials urged Georgia to disclose it sooner, but the state didn’t.
In China, the AI bubble has already burst (Reuters)
China’s AI-heavy STAR50 stock index has fallen 40% in less than four months, wiping out about $480 billion in market value amid worries about AI demand and curbs on Chinese exports. China’s broader blue-chip index is down about 20% from its June high.
AI stocks account for 42% of China’s market value, and retail investors’ favorites have crashed. Shares of robot maker Unitree, whose IPO was 8,000 times oversubscribed by small investors, have halved since it began trading in August.
The STAR50 still trades at about 100 times earnings, compared with about 30 for the Nasdaq 100, suggesting more losses ahead. In the US, AI stocks have so far led only a 6% drop in the Nasdaq from its record high three weeks ago. “All bubbles inevitably burst,” one Shanghai fund manager said.
Tech stocks wipe out $1 trillion in value as concerns deepen about the AI boom (NBC)
On Friday, tech stocks lost more than $1 trillion in value. The Nasdaq 100 fell 3.4%, its worst day since June, pushing it close to a 10% “correction” from its record, up from the 6% drop Reuters cited earlier in the week. The S&P 500 fell 1.8%.
Intel plunged 29%, its worst day on record, after warning of weaker holiday-quarter sales and profits, citing supply shortages and an “unprecedented memory crunch.” The federal government is Intel’s largest shareholder, and fellow chipmakers AMD, Arm, Qualcomm and Marvell fell about 10%.
The selloff followed Amazon’s announcement that it will spend about $220 billion this year, mostly on AI, and “meaningfully more” in 2027, even as its online shopping growth slowed. Alphabet lost about $500 billion in value on Thursday, its worst day ever, and some big corporate AI customers have tightened their spending and questioned how much they’re getting out of AI.
Tech stock meltdown could get a lot of worse if history is any guide (Yahoo! Finance)
According to Truist strategist Keith Lerner, the S&P 500’s tech sector has had six pullbacks of 10% or more since 2023, counting the current one, and four of them deepened to between 14% and 27%. “Wall Street is increasingly demanding evidence that heavy investment will translate into durable profits and cash flow,” he said.
Google and Amazon both reported negative free cash flow this week, and Meta did last week for the first time since 2012. None of them signaled that their AI spending will slow.
Analyst Dan Ives argued against panic selling, saying demand for corporate AI looks stronger than it did a week ago, but acknowledged that tech companies’ heavy borrowing and stock sales are adding pressure.
