All Activity

White House hunts for voter fraud Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter stands next to a display showing photos of people charged with illegally registering to vote. (Jae C. Hong/AP) The Trump administration has sent several states lists of voters it claims are noncitizens, stepping up its controversial push to keep them from casting ballots in the midterm elections. In California, the administration alleges 20,000 possible noncitizens are on voter rolls. In Washington state, it says that 400 possible noncitizens cast 1,500 votes in past elections. The Justice Department demanded both states set aside their ballots and sued California after it refused. While the legal battle plays out, judges and state officials are questioning how the lists were compiled, where the information came from and how they could be used before and after Election Day. Looming over it all is President Donald Trump’s reluctance to commit to accepting the midterm results. On Tuesday, he was asked whether he would accept the outcome, even if Republicans had a tough night. “I will, if they are honest elections, yeah,” Trump said, once again leaving himself room to reject an outcome he doesn’t like. + For subscribers: Trump’s election-denying strategy is back for the midterms + Read more: Inside the controversial lists of alleged noncitizen voters

🤖 AI's Y2K moment Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images The AI-discovered software flaws that sent the cybersecurity world into a panic last week have so far led to surprisingly few successful attacks, Axios' Sam Sabin writes. Why it matters: Hackers have made millions of attempts to exploit bugs that OpenAI agents found in PHP, software used by roughly 70% of websites. The flaws have proven unusually hard to weaponize, and companies' rush to patch them appears to have helped. The past week has unfolded in ways that remind some researchers of Y2K, a feared software crisis in 1999. Warnings of Armageddon helped rally companies to engineer a solution. Keep reading.

🛰️ Musk-proofing modern warfare Two men set up a Starlink terminal in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. Photo: Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images Axios' Thomas Novelly and Colin Demarest, authors of our twice-weekly Future of Defense newsletter, write: Rival satellite companies are jockeying to loosen Elon Musk's grip on battlefield communications after his company's restrictions on Ukraine's Starlink service shook officials in Europe and the U.S. Why it matters: The episode, which temporarily disrupted Ukraine's drone usage, shows how vulnerable a military can be to the whims of a single company or market dominator. 🌌 The big picture: Musk's SpaceX, which is the parent company of Starlink, is by far the world's leader in space-based connectivity with more than 11,000 satellites. Eutelsat, a French firm, is behind them with more than 600 satellites. SpaceX's massive lead has made it difficult for European countries that want to establish independence from the Musk-led company. 🔭 Zoom in: Now, non-U.S. firms seeking to compete with SpaceX are pitching their services with more urgency. Last week, Finnish firms ICEYE and Nokia announced an agreement with Ukraine's defense ministry to explore "sovereign satellite communications."

🇧🇷 Trump opens door for Bolsonaro The U.S. government is granting visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family following his defeat in Brazil's presidential election, a senior Trump administration official tells Axios' Marc Caputo and Rebecca Falconer. Why it matters: The move comes days after Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeated Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Following the election, Brazil's Supreme Court ordered Bolsonaro to surrender his passports and barred him from leaving the country. The order stems from an ongoing investigation into alleged money laundering. Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing. 🔭 Zoom out: President Trump and his administration have repeatedly backed the Bolsonaro family, with the president denouncing the prosecution of the elder Bolsonaro as a "witch hunt." Trump suggested Brazil's election was "rigged." Keep reading.

📈 Charted: AI's price plunge Data: Ramp. Chart: Axios/Matt Phillips The price companies pay for AI tokens has plunged roughly 35% since the end of June, Axios' Matt Phillips writes from Ramp's AI price index. Why it matters: Falling prices for tokens — a basic unit of AI usage — raise questions about the strength of demand for AI and how much revenue the data center boom will ultimately generate for investors.

🗳️ Election security blind spots Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Some of the biggest vulnerabilities in election security are lying in plain sight, Axios' Brittany Gibson writes. Why it matters: There's no credible evidence that voting-system vulnerabilities have been exploited to change election results. But researchers have found isolated flaws that threaten ballot secrecy, accurate vote recording and independent verification of results. 🔎 Election security experts interviewed by Axios found these vulnerabilities in parts of the U.S.: 1. Paperless voting: Louisiana is the last remaining state to use paperless voting machines statewide on Election Day. Voters press buttons to select their candidates, and the machines record their votes electronically without producing a paper ballot. That leaves no independent record to check whether votes were counted correctly. 2. Ballot-marking devices (BMDs) let voters select candidates on a touchscreen before printing a paper ballot. Researchers warn the machines are vulnerable to hacking and errors, and studies show voters often miss mistakes on the printout. Roughly 23% of U.S. registered voters live in jurisdictions that exclusively use BMDs for in-person voting, according to the nonprofit Verified Voting. 3. A software flaw in Georgia's vote-counting system could be used to expose how individual voters cast their ballots, according to research from Princeton University. Researcher Max Springer used public voter records and roughly $20 in AI credits to reconstruct the order in which nearly all in-person ballots were cast in the Georgia counties he studied. With an additional public record, Springer matched individual voters to their ballots, as he showed with two counties and 2,200 votes in his study. Keep reading.

Twin victory speeches Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, waves an Israeli flag onstage following the release of the first exit poll in Israel's general election in Tel Aviv last night. Photo: Ariel Schalit/AP Axios' Barak Ravid reports from Tel Aviv: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right coalition was running nearly even with Gadi Eisenkot's opposition bloc as vote counting continued today — but both are short of a 61-seat majority. Why it matters: Political stalemate is the most likely outcome of yesterday's historic election, with Netanyahu weakened but neither side having a clear path to forming a coalition government. Weeks of negotiating could lie ahead. Arab parties are poised to win 18 to 19 seats in what would be an unprecedented electoral achievement. Theoretically, Eisenkot's bloc could try to swear in a minority government supported by the two Arab parties. But that looks unlikely. 📊 State of play: A close outcome could leave the country in a state of limbo, with Netanyahu likely staying on as a caretaker prime minister at the helm of the executive branch and the opposition led by Eisenkot controlling the Knesset. That scenario could last until new elections, possibly as early as April. The two sides could try to break the deadlock by forming a unity government between Netanyahu and Eisenkot. But that's improbable, since none of the opposition parties will agree to sit in a Netanyahu-led government. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at an election-night rally in Jerusalem. Photo: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images 🔎 Zoom in: Eisenkot claimed victory in a speech after midnight Israeli time. He said if Netanyahu was a "decent leader," he'd leave the political stage after the public voted for change. Eisenkot alluded to the possibility that the prime minister would launch military action before a new government is seated. "Netanyahu, don't dare use Israel's security for your political needs," Eisenkot said. After 3 a.m. Israeli time, Netanyahu took the stage and also claimed victory: "We are still waiting for the official election results. Likud is the largest party in Israel. The right-wing bloc has a clear, decisive majority among the Zionist public and among the Jewish population as a whole."

🏕️ Parting shot! Photo: Bill Rapai This photo of mule deer at Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park in Washington was taken by reader Bill Rapai of Grosse Pointe, Mich., a couple weeks ago. He writes: "That's the Olympic Mountain Range in the background. We had just completed hiking one trail when these guys showed up near the parking lot. I followed them for a while, keeping a respectful distance, to get an image where the background was not full of cars and asphalt. I got my chance when they headed up this incline and fell into single file — just for me!"

💪 "Bloc" plots first moves Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios Anything short of a landslide victory for House Democrats next Tuesday will open the door for a faction of left-wing insurgents known informally as "The Bloc" to complicate Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' plans. Why it matters: Jeffries would push to restore Affordable Care Act tax credits, vote against the Iran war and tariffs, and reverse cuts to Medicaid if Democrats take the majority. But that's not nearly enough for the left. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) told us: "We have to have a vision that is much more than just 'restore the subsidies.'" Zoom in: The Bloc is coordinating with progressive incumbents on Capitol Hill to use the House speaker election, subsequent procedural votes and any other leverage points they can find to shift the Democratic Party to the left. Group members have been strategizing about demands they could make if Jeffries needs their votes to secure the speaker's gavel, sources familiar with the discussions told us. Possible concessions that have been privately floated include prime committee assignments, resources for their districts, changes to House rules to "democratize" the chamber and votes on progressive legislation, sources said. These sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the group's discussions are in the preliminary stage and no plans have been finalized. State of play: The Bloc is an informal grouping of candidates who won House primaries this year with support from left-wing groups such as the Justice Democrats and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), often by unseating incumbents. They include Melat Kiros of Colorado; Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez of New York; Adam Hamawy of New Jersey; Chris Rabb of Pennsylvania; and Donavan McKinney of Michigan. All are running in safely Democratic seats. Other progressives facing competitive general elections — including William Lawrence of Michigan and Mai Vang, Angela Gonzales-Torres and Randy Villegas of California — could also end up aligning with the group. So could a broader group of Bloc-adjacent progressives such as Brad Lander of New York, who is not a DSA member but won his primary by unseating more establishment-aligned Rep. Dan Goldman. The bottom line: Most of these candidates have declined to commit to voting for Jeffries as speaker, with some making it clear they won't give away their votes for nothing. "We're focused on pushing for a bold House agenda with priorities that reflect what the voters want to see us fighting for," one person involved with the Bloc told us. — Andrew Solender

😱 Red scream Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios Senate Republicans see Iowa moving their way and Ohio slipping, with pessimism growing over Alaska and Kansas. Why it matters: Even when they squint, top Republicans struggle to see a majority beyond 51 seats, according to half a dozen senior operatives. ✈️ A combination of paid media and Air Force One visits has bolstered GOP confidence that they'll hold South Carolina and Mississippi. But across the map, the outlook looks bleak, with only a few bright spots. Zoom out: Republicans are fighting a two-front war: unprecedented Democratic enthusiasm and undeniable Republican apathy. 🏈 President Trump's strategy is to whip up the MAGA faithful with rallies in the reddest parts of red states. 😱 "The Red Scream is my biggest concern, not the blue wave," said Alex Castellanos, a veteran Republican consultant who has worked to help Trump get elected. ‼️ "Republicans and independents are going to be screaming for attention, and many of them, including those who voted for Trump, may show their frustration by not showing up." Zoom in: Texas is starting to look like a late-season football showdown against an SEC rival: The GOP is still in the game, but defeat seems like a real possibility. 🌾 In Kansas, Sen. Roger Marshall (R) has stopped the bleeding, but it's unclear whether there's enough time left to save his seat. 🛥️ Republicans are quietly bullish on Michigan, but they recognize that the demographics have to break heavily in their favor, especially among Black voters. By the numbers: The math hasn't changed, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sees multiple paths to 51 seats. No one disputes that North Carolina is going to have a Democratic senator. It seems like another lifetime ago that Republicans were talking seriously about flipping Georgia. If just two of the next tier of Ohio, Kansas and Alaska flip, the Senate would be split 50-50 before factoring in other competitive races, like Michigan, Iowa and Maine. 🦞 In Maine, Republicans and Democrats are consumed by competing fears. Republicans are terrified that a national wave will be big enough to wash away Sen. Susan Collins. Democrats, burned by her unforeseen survival six years ago, refuse to trust even the polls showing them ahead. 🎣 Between the lines: Maine and Alaska may be separated by more than 3,000 miles, but they pose a similar challenge for pollsters: small, overfished electorates where voters are increasingly unwilling to pick up the phone and bite on yet another survey. Both could also see delays in their final results — potentially keeping the majority in limbo for days or weeks, as we told you last night. — Hans Nichols and Stef Kight

Prominent Georgia Republican gets 15 years in prison after pleading guilty in Ponzi scheme A prominent Georgia Republican who ran a Ponzi scheme that federal prosecutors said caused losses of more than $76 million to more than 300 victims has been sentenced to spend 15 years in federal prison. Read More.

FACT FOCUS: Kennedy's claim that Arabs 'don't produce science' meets a Nobel Prize reality check Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s broad assertions about Arab contributions to humanity's scientific and literary discoveries at a Republican campaign event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, have drawn criticism just days before midterm elections. Read More. ps:This guy needs a reality check along with the rest of this administration!!!!!

Bomb blast near Colombia’s border with Venezuela injures at least 4 police officers A bomb exploded Tuesday near a bridge that crosses Colombia's border with Venezuela, injuring at least four police officers in the Colombian city of Cucuta, officials said. Read More.

Romanian president calls alleged Russian sabotage plot a 'grave violation' of NATO member's security Romanian President Nicusor Dan on Tuesday called an alleged Russian sabotage plot last month a “grave violation” of the NATO member’s sovereignty and security, at a time when many fear Moscow's war in neighboring Ukraine risks spreading beyond its borders. Read More.

India evacuates tens of thousands as Cyclone Arnab nears eastern coast in Andhra Pradesh state Indian authorities Tuesday evacuated tens of thousands of people from vulnerable coastal areas in eastern Andhra Pradesh state as a severe cyclone over the Bay of Bengal was expected to make landfall along the country’s east coast, authorities said. Read More.

Rising prices squeeze more Americans ahead of pivotal midterm elections Americans’ growing frustration over high prices has defined many political campaigns ahead of November’s midterm elections. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/10/26/repub/rising-prices-squeeze-more-americans-ahead-of-pivotal-midterm-elections/?

Trump DOJ’s demand for emergency order in California vote counting dismissed by appeals court President Donald Trump’s 11th-hour campaign to intervene in California’s vote counting encountered its first resistance from federal courts on Monday, with appellate judges ruling against the effort. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/10/26/repub/trump-dojs-suit-over-california-vote-counting-meets-a-doubtful-appeals-court-panel/? Trump makes last-minute push to keep Texas in Republican hands with third trip President Donald Trump was in Texas for the third time in a month on Tuesday in a last-minute push to block Democrats from notching their first statewide election victory in more than three decades in next week's midterm elections. Read More.

The lasting damage of anti-transgender hysteria This era of cruelty and corruption will end. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/10/27/repub/the-lasting-damage-of-anti-transgender-hysteria/?

🍁 Parting shot: Pull up a chair Photo: Craig Woodward We also endorse taking a seat. Reader Craig Woodward captured this lucky, un-staged shot along a river in northern Alabama. 🍂 "The word 'vista' usually has a connotation of broad sweeping views ... but it's what popped into my head to describe this quiet fall scene," Craig writes. "A more intimate definition of vista that invites one to walk into the picture."

Florida Supreme Court opens door to some lawsuits against insurers Florida homeowners got an important ruling Thursday from the Florida Supreme Court. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/10/22/florida-supreme-court-opens-door-to-some-lawsuits-against-insurers/? Administrative judge sides with Florida instructor regarding Charlie Kirk post The Florida Department of Education failed to prove its allegations that a Clay County public school instructor violated state laws and rules when she posted about conservative activist Charlie Kirk after he was killed, a state administrative judge has ruled. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/10/22/administrative-judge-sides-with-florida-instructor-regarding-charlie-kirk-post/? José Javier Rodríguez says it’s ‘rich’ for GOP to criticize his 2018 cash bail proposal In the late 2010s, the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature attempted to move toward criminal justice reforms that had already been taking place in red and blue states across the country. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/10/22/jose-javier-rodriguez-says-its-rich-for-gop-to-criticize-his-2018-cash-bail-proposal/? Uthmeier ramps up social media discourse as attorney general election approaches Attorney General James Uthmeier is seeking further social media regulation for young Floridians after rejecting a national social-media settlement and following a court victory last week. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/10/22/uthmeier-ramps-up-social-media-discourse-as-attorney-general-election-approaches/? Uthmeier: Property risk-assessment company ‘is marketing fear to advance a climate activism agenda’ Florida has sued a company that issues climate change assessments of property risks including flooding that the state alleges are deceptive, deviate from the federal flood insurance assessments, and are depressing home sales. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/10/26/uthmeier-property-risk-assessment-company-is-marketing-fear-to-advance-a-climate-activism-agenda/? Juvenile arrested after 11 people shot near FAMU homecoming Florida A&M University’s homecoming was the setting of shootings that injured 12, including 11 struck by gunfire. Of the 11 struck, six were juveniles, according to Tallahassee Police Department. The suspect is a 15-year-old. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/10/26/juvenile-arrested-after-11-people-shot-near-famu-homecoming/?

Tell Qasile At the outskirts of modern-day Tel Aviv, the archaeological site of Tell Qasile remains a silent witness to an ancient society from the days of the biblical Judges. Sitting on a ridge above the Yarkon River, a mere mile from the river’s estuary on the Mediterranean coast, the site was first settled by the Philistines in the second half of the 12th century BCE. Over the ensuing 150 years, this port town took advantage of its strategic location, which connected it to the central hill country as well as the Levantine coast and beyond. Thanks to its expansive networks, the Philistine town developed a blended material culture that combined local Philistine traditions with Canaanite and other foreign influences. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/tell-qasile/? 30 People in the New Testament Confirmed Fifty-three people from the Hebrew Bible have been confirmed by archaeology. What about the New Testament? In three articles for Biblical Archaeology Review—“Did Jesus Exist? Searching for Evidence Beyond the Bible”, “New Testament Political Figures Confirmed”, and “New Testament Religious Figures Confirmed”—Purdue University scholar Lawrence Mykytiuk examines the religious and political figures in the New Testament who can be identified in the archaeological record and extra-biblical writings. Below, see Mykytiuk’s extensive evidence, covering Jesus and John the Baptist to King Herod and his royal family.—Ed. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/new-testament-political-figures-the-evidence/?

October 28, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. There is so far no clear winner of the election in Israel, where officials are still counting ballots. The turnout was the highest in a generation. Follow our live coverage here. There’s a lot more below. But first, let’s take a look at the A.I. economy. In San Francisco. Jason Henry for The New York Times A.I. by the numbers Which artificial intelligence firm will become the biggest company ever to debut on the stock market? Anthropic offered the opening bid on Monday, when it released its plan to offer shares on the Nasdaq exchange. The numbers are staggering. In the first half of this year, Anthropic earned $16.3 billion. In that same period, it lost $80.7 billion. But it’s growing fast. Its potential valuation in the initial public offering is $2 trillion. Here’s what that number looks like, written out: $2,000,000,000,000. It’s hard to imagine. Two thousand billion dollars. The average U.S. household’s annual income is $126,700, according to the Census Bureau. That household would need nearly 16 million years in order to reach $2 trillion, and then only if it saved every single penny. As companies and investors wrestle with the colossal size of the A.I. economy — and as the markets they serve grow anxious about whether it’s all just a bubble, sure to burst — Evan Gorelick and I thought an index would be a useful way to examine what’s happening. Numbers (even ginormous ones!) can help us understand what’s happening in the world. A data center in Austin, Texas, in 2024. Christie Hemm Klok for The New York Times Workers who reported using A.I. as part of their jobs in 2023: 30 percent Workers who reported using A.I. as part of their jobs in 2025: 76 percent Estimated number of American workers exposed to A.I. who may need to transition to new jobs: 11 million Slowdown since 2023 in real wage growth for jobs highly exposed to A.I., compared with ones that are not: 6.7 percent Amount of money Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta are projected to spend on A.I. infrastructure this year: $700 billion Amount of debt taken on by hyperscalers, chipmakers, neoclouds and other companies providing data centers and electricity for the A.I. build out: at least $3 trillion Share of projected S&P 500 earnings gains for this year driven directly by tech companies spending heavily on A.I.: two-thirds Share of the world’s electricity that data centers currently consume: 1.5 percent Share of the world’s electricity generated by Germany: 1.5 percent Amount of money that campaigns and political action groups have spent on ads generated by A.I. for the U.S. midterm elections: $137 million Share of those campaign ads that were produced by Republican campaigns or Republican-aligned political action committees: more than 80 percent Number of federal laws passed to regulate the development of A.I. technology: 0 FREE TO READ Shaina Polazzo Ye Fan for The New York Times Side hustlers: Teenagers are still making money shoveling snow and watching your cat. Let’s hear from some of them. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about people in North Carolina who teeter over iron beams to reach their homes because a hurricane washed away their bridges. Passenger side: Just over a quarter of American 16-year-olds reported having driver’s licenses in 2024. That’s a 20-point drop from the early 1980s. What happened? Strip club king: Joe Redner had an empire of strip clubs in and around Tampa, Fla. He was also a political gadfly and fierce advocate for free speech, gay rights and reproductive freedom. He died at 86. THE LATEST NEWS Israeli Elections Gadi Eisenkot and Benjamin Netanyahu. Jack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images; Ronen Zvulun/Reuters The exit polls — which have a spotty record in Israel — suggested that neither Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right alliance, nor a bloc of opposition parties led by Gadi Eisenkot, would win enough seats to form a government on its own. Both men made triumphant late-night speeches. Supporters of the Arab parties turned out in record numbers — which could give Arab politicians more power to shape the next government. Forming a governing coalition is complicated. It could be weeks or months before we know who the next prime minister is. Here’s a guide. Midterm Elections The Senate race in South Carolina, usually reliably Republican, is effectively tied, according to new New York Times/Siena polls. Ken Paxton, the Texas Republican whose wife filed to divorce him on “biblical grounds,” has labored to keep his girlfriend away from his tight Senate race. She’s an aspiring Christian influencer. Meet her. Two dozen of the world’s richest people or their advisers have been meeting weekly — and raising hundreds of millions of dollars — to defeat California’s proposed “wealth tax,” which will be on the ballot next week. Trump promised to bring down the price of beef. He’s campaigning in deep red Kansas to win back the cattle ranchers who paid the price. Click to watch the video. Jeremy Raff, Jeff Perlman and Ben Laffin More on Politics The Trump administration plans to loosen rules on methane emissions, a potent driver of climate change. The Trump-appointed deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has resigned after four months. The parents of Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis nurse fatally shot by immigration agents in January, accused the federal government of ignoring and misleading them. The Justice Department asked a grand jury to indict Cassidy Hutchinson, a former Trump aide who testified against him. It declined. War in Ukraine Times Exclusive: The United States referred to a flagship government investment fund in Russia as President Vladimir Putin’s “slush fund.” Now the Trump administration may drop sanctions on it. The leaders of Finland and Norway made a rare phone call to Putin as part of the efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Around the World Flávio Bolsonaro, the Trump ally who lost the presidential election in Brazil, left for the United States. The Brazilian police had asked him to hand over his passports as part of a money-laundering investigation. Supporters of the opposition movement that won a parliamentary election in Serbia stormed the offices of a pro-government tabloid. The president of South Africa deployed more than 500 soldiers to quell anti-immigration violence, a week after a foreign national was beaten to death during a protest. A court in Egypt ordered a prominent independent news website to close and detained its editor in chief, the outlet said. Other Big Stories A Brooklyn woman taken to Syria as a teenager was convicted of training with Islamic State there. California’s high tides set records this week. Because of El Niño, they’re going to get higher. IT’S GETTING HOT IN HERE Ulet Ifansasti for The New York Times Shiny skyscrapers are transforming cities around the world, including in hotter places. But the glass used to build them makes them difficult to cool. As our climate warms, will these gleaming buildings still have a place? ASK THE MORNING How do other countries draw their legislative maps? | Mark Price | Commerce Township, Michigan Many democracies take political mapmaking away from the politicians. Britain and Canada use independent, nonpartisan commissions. Australia’s commission includes a judge and a statistician, and it gets comments from the public before setting final boundaries. In France, the government drafts the changes, but an independent commission, a constitutional council and Parliament all review them. Hungary under Viktor Orban was one exception. His party redrew districts to strengthen his supermajority. But that goes only so far: Orban was decisively voted out of office earlier this year. — Christina Morales, a reporter on our National desk OPINIONS Tim Davis for The New York Times Rising costs affect everything, from health care to groceries. Middle-class Americans spoke to Times Opinion about what they’re doing without: medications, car repairs and more. “A Different World” is arguably the most important series in the history of Black television. Its Netflix reboot, far from just being nostalgia bait, still says something about Black America, Tressie McMillan Cottom writes. Subscribe to New York Times Games. Get Super Duolingo for free. For a limited time, annual Games subscribers can enjoy 6 months of language learning with Super Duolingo. Subscribe now SPORTS World Series: The Tampa Bay Rays survived another day, stunning the Milwaukee Brewers with a 12th-inning rally to win Game 4. The Rays trail 3-1, and Game 5 is tonight. College football: The University of Maryland is offering the possibility of free tuition to students who stay until the fourth quarter of this Saturday’s home football game. Little League: A coach pulled aside an opposing player: “I appreciate you playing the game the right way,” he said. The exchange went viral. RECIPE OF THE DAY Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Ask 30 people how to make three-cup chicken, and you’ll get 30 different answers. I know that because asking people how to make three-cup chicken used to be my job. When I was done asking, I started to cook. And this recipe is where I ended up. People seem to like it. CUISINE BY ALGORITHM Lila Barth for The New York Times Tini Younger is a 24-year-old chef and social media influencer who has built her career mostly on TikTok, where she has 12.5 million followers. With a new cookbook, can she get Generation Z into the kitchen? More on culture There’s a new Jimmy Buffett exhibition at the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf, in Mobile, Ala. To cover it, we sent our chief Washington correspondent, Carl Hulse. Why Carl? He’ll explain. No synopsis of “Public Access Afterworld” can capture what Junot Díaz calls “the weird, full-hearted wonder of Jane Schoenbrun’s electrifying first novel.” But Díaz gave it a shot, and the review that follows has me bound for the bookstore. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Theodore Tae for The New York Times Boost your afternoon energy with a quick, 10-minute yoga routine. Watch Chris Pratt in Season 2 of “The Terminal List” on Amazon Prime. Revenge is enjoyable. Fair warning, though: It’s maybe the most violent television show I’ve ever seen. Stop your home from smelling like cat litter. You don’t need to get rid of the cat! The tidy felinologists at Wirecutter have a great deal of advice. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was payphone. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Deputy Editorial Director: Lauren Jackson

THIS DAY IN HISTORY October 28 1965 St. Louis’ Gateway Arch is completed The spectacular parabola of stainless steel soars 630 feet high. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 19th Century 1886 Statue of Liberty dedicated Arts & Entertainment 2023 ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry found dead in hot tub Cold War 1962 Nikita Khrushchev orders withdrawal of missiles from Cuba Inventions & Science 1992 Leif Erickson Tunnel completes 1,593-mile I-35 Native American History 1897 First oil-producing well on Osage land is completed U.S. Government and Politics 1919 Congress overrides presidential veto of the Volstead Act, ushering in Prohibition 1998 President Bill Clinton signs the Digital Millennium Copyright Act into law World War II 1940 Italy invades Greece

Grand jury refuses to indict former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, AP sources say WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Tuesday failed to secure a grand jury indictment against a former White House staffer who provided dramatic but disputed testimony against President Donald Trump before a House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection, according to two people familiar with the matter. https://apnews.com/article/cassidy-hutchinson-trump-indictment-65b19759933189cdebb164c5bd80649c?

Trick or Trust View in browser For the first time in modern American history, a sitting president is seeking to wield the force of the state to secure an electoral victory for his party. The Trump administration has attempted to undermine the widespread use of mail-in voting; demanded that states hand over voter rolls; threatened to prosecute state and local election officials; refused to rule out the idea of deploying troops or federal agents to polling places; and publicized the dramatic arrests of small numbers of people accused of voting or registering to vote as noncitizens. Many of these efforts have made little headway—either because of the administration’s incompetence, the stubborn lack of factual evidence behind President Trump’s claims of voter fraud, the federal government’s lack of legal authority, or the refusal of courts to go along with Trump’s plans. But Trump may have a different problem on his hands. Polls show Trump’s approval falling to all-time lows in the weeks before Election Day; the percent of voters happy with his performance has now sunk into the 30s. Democrats, meanwhile, appear likely to retake control of the House of Representatives and maybe even the Senate, which last year seemed well out of reach. The polls could be wrong—and high-profile-polling misses of the Trump era are hard to forget. But if the polling is right, the GOP may be in for what George W. Bush, after a disastrous 2006 midterm, ruefully termed a “thumping.” And a thumping, as opposed to a narrower Democratic victory, could render most efforts to suppress turnout irrelevant, and make it far more difficult to implement any more dramatic effort to rig the results. To Trump’s endless frustration, elections in America are organized at the state and local level, with little role for the federal government. In a typical midterm year, almost 470 congressional seats are up for grabs across 50 different states. Though a small number of those races are actually competitive, tinkering with the outcome of the votes would still require meddling with a number of different elections, all run differently, in different jurisdictions, under different laws. A strong night for the Democratic Party would make conjuring an ersatz House majority hard for the same reason that a losing sports team is less able to cheat its way to a victory in a blowout. (Even on a very strong night for the Democrats, the Senate may still be quite a close call.) Tight margins, by contrast, can make an election more vulnerable to efforts to undo the voters’ will. Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election relied in significant part on tight margins in some swing states, sometimes with only 10,000 or 20,000 votes deciding the winner. In Georgia, the president famously pushed Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” to make up his deficit against Joe Biden. As described by both the House January 6 committee’s report and Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump, Trump and his allies used close tallies in swing states, together with the slow counting of mail-in ballots, to engineer doubts over election results and provide Republican members of Congress with the tools to delay the formal counting of the electoral vote on January 6. The attack on the Capitol followed. The memory of January 6, and the entrenchment of the election-denier movement since 2020, has led to speculation—both anxious and enthused—about the possibility of a comparable attack on election results in 2026. If, once most of the results are in, Democrats seem set to eke out a House majority by just a few seats, perhaps committed Trump allies in positions of power could make trouble in a handful of the closest districts. A local election commissioner, say, could refuse to sign off on a Democrat’s narrow victory, or the Justice Department could execute a warrant to seize ballots and thus delay or upend the counting of votes. This could create chaos on January 3, when the new House gathers for the first time: What happens if the contested seats are enough to deny the should-be-majority party the votes it needs to select a new speaker and take control of the chamber? Although this isn’t a foolproof trick for stealing control of the House, such a play could make things very precarious very quickly. But the bigger the majority secured by Democrats, the more difficult it would be for Trump to shave that majority down—the more clerks to convince, warrants to secure, and court rulings to dodge, all over the country. “If there is a House majority in either direction that is 20, 30 seats, I think the likelihood of an attempt to engage in some kind of shenanigans around January 3 is way less than if the majority is two or three seats,” Jonathan Diaz of the Campaign Legal Center commented recently on a preelection panel convened at UCLA’s law school. Other tricks are also less effective when the vote swings heavily in one direction. For example, Trump’s unprecedented push for explicitly partisan off-cycle redistricting may net only a few extra GOP seats rather than the double-digit gains Democratic strategists had once feared. Political constraints matter too. Any scheme to steal the House for the GOP would depend on the willingness of congressional Republicans to vote in lockstep, with no defectors—something that the current fractious House Republican caucus can barely manage. Already, though, Republicans spooked by Trump’s bad poll numbers have begun distancing themselves from him on the campaign trail as they fight to hold on to their seats. Over the summer, Republican politicians and MAGA-friendly media outlets responded coolly to a rambling address by the president casting doubt on election integrity. If the GOP loses the House, how many Republicans concerned about their own political careers would be actually inclined to adopt the fringe message of an ever more unpopular lame-duck president? (Trump has been notably quiet recently about the possibility of running for an unconstitutional third term.) Trump will be hard-pressed to fight against “a clear loss, coupled with the expectation of a clear loss,” Bob Bauer told me. Bauer—a longtime Democratic lawyer who played a central role in the Biden campaign’s fight against Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election—now focuses on bipartisan election-integrity work, alongside Ben Ginsberg, an election lawyer known for his past work representing the Republican Party. In 2020, Bauer said, the additional days required for the presidential race to be called after the polls closed helped fuel Trump’s claims of fraud. But now, broad public dissatisfaction has aligned with dismal polling for the GOP and a growing anticipation among both politicians and the press that Republicans will do poorly. “It would be very difficult in these circumstances, if things turn out that the Democrats do well, for him to suddenly announce that he was denied his landslide by vote rigging,” Bauer told me. Just because such a scheme would be implausible does not, of course, mean that Trump won’t try it. Last week, the Justice Department filed a bizarre lawsuit seeking to preemptively block Alaska from certifying the results of its Senate race—but only if Republican Senator Dan Sullivan loses. (“The legal argument is one of the worst ones I’ve ever seen,” wrote the law professor Derek Muller in an analysis of the case.) DOJ also continues to pursue litigation seeking to force California to set aside mail-in ballots to voters whom the federal government claims to have identified as noncitizens. These cases are sloppy, tardy, and almost certainly doomed. But they do have the advantage of helping Trump and his allies build a narrative about the courts blocking Trump’s efforts to ensure a fair election. Likewise, if a Trump-aligned rogue local election official tried to block a Democratic candidate’s victory, whatever he or she concocted as reasoning could provide fuel for election-fraud rumors on the far right, even if the effort—as it likely would—ultimately failed. In a wave election, some races will still be close. They may just be in different states or districts—mostly, more Republican ones—than in a year with more typical political geography. House seats in deep-red areas across the country may be newly up for grabs. In the Senate, races in Texas and Alaska stand out as potential flash points. “Any close race in the Senate is going to be hotly, hotly contested,” Bauer told me. He pointed to the bitter fight between the Democrat Al Franken and the Republican Norm Coleman over the 2008 Senate election in Minnesota, which took months to resolve and ended with the courts upholding Franken’s 312-vote victory. In the final weeks before the midterms, election experts have seemed notably calmer than some of the the anxious rhetoric around Trump’s potential subversion of the vote might suggest. Eight experts interviewed by The New York Times (including Bauer) voiced worries about possible upheaval but overall confidence that officials are prepared to protect the integrity of the elections. The nonprofit publication Votebeat likewise surveyed 31 authorities on election administration and found the group to be wary but “cautiously optimistic” that the midterms will go smoothly. If the elections pass without serious disruption, a hefty margin of victory for the Democratic Party could be partly why. But the fact that such a margin may be needed to avoid chaos is itself sobering. In a healthy democracy, the opposition party should not have to win by enormous numbers to ensure victory, and voters should be able to trust that even a close election will be free and fair. Related: 0 for 26: The Trump administration’s astonishing losing record How the polls could be wrong again