With the midterms landing Tuesday, November 3, the RNC says President Trump will spend the final 72 hours working tele-rallies spanning nearly 20 states after an in-person swing through Rock Hill, South Carolina. The Senate map has tightened uncomfortably for Republicans — South Carolina moved to toss-up, Ohio's Husted-Brown race is a genuine coin flip, and MAGA Inc. has dumped $46 million into Texas for Ken Paxton and $25 million into Michigan for Mike Rogers.
The Justice Department issued more than 30 subpoenas in a single 24-hour stretch investigating allegations that Democratic operatives recruited a man named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. onto the Alaska ballot to siphon votes from incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. Trump called it "voter fraud at the highest level" and demanded Mary Peltola be prosecuted; her campaign flatly denies involvement. DOJ is separately weighing whether to block certification of the race if Sullivan loses.
The FOMC left the federal funds target at 3.75 to 4 percent, noting the economy "is expanding at a strong pace" even as inflation stays elevated — September CPI rose 0.6% on the month and 3.7% year over year, with gasoline up 9.1%. Cleveland Fed's Beth Hammack and Governor Lisa Cook both dissented, wanting a quarter-point hike. Markets now put December hike odds at roughly 83%.
A group calling itself the "Department of Peace" published names, titles, locations and in some cases phone numbers for roughly 40,000 DHS employees and contractors — about 10,000 ICE personnel and more than 20,000 CBP and Border Patrol staff. The leak reportedly includes names of undercover ICE agents, and the hacker claims the data came out of the department's Okta single sign-on system back in mid-August.
Final counts put Netanyahu's bloc at 53 Knesset seats — eight short of a majority — with the opposition bloc under former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot at 48 and Arab parties holding 19. Arab turnout surged to roughly 80%, up from 53% in 2022, nearly doubling their representation. Likud is alleging fraud and demanding an investigation; the realistic paths are a messy coalition or another election.
Vice President JD Vance has quietly reached out to Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and one of Tehran's most powerful hardliners, in a bid to restart stalled talks — outreach Trump confirmed while characterizing the letter as being about medical aid. Vance says the US would tolerate a civilian Iranian enrichment program below weapons-grade thresholds, but also that Trump is "locked and loaded" if talks collapse. Officials say renewed strike options are being readied for after the midterms.
A RENFE train slammed into the rear of a stopped IRYO train near Urda in Toledo province on Wednesday morning, killing 69 and hospitalizing 58, with several Americans among the injured. A computer malfunction knocked out the safety system across about 39 miles of track, and the central control center then cleared the RENFE train to proceed with no speed restriction — 20 minutes before impact. Madrid is now facing protests over rail safety, and police have moved against demonstrators.
The world's largest crypto exchange suspended deposits and withdrawals after an incident it now estimates at about $6.3 billion in impact, with roughly $3 billion already frozen. Binance's early read is that a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer gave an attacker access to a service container that submitted unauthorized withdrawals — no evidence wallet private keys were taken. Tether froze nearly $1.57 billion and Circle more than $800 million; Binance says users will be made whole.
Intismeran autogene — a custom mRNA therapy from Merck and Moderna — paired with Keytruda reduced the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 49% versus Keytruda alone across roughly five years of follow-up. The data covers 157 patients with high-risk stage 3 and 4 melanoma whose tumors had been surgically removed. A phase 3 confirmation trial is underway.
Army CID's Cyber Field Office, the Defense Commissary Agency and DCIS are jointly probing why refrigeration units at at least six base commissaries — Fort Huachuca, F.E. Warren, Naval Station Newport, Columbus AFB, Travis AFB and Fort Irwin — failed in August, spoiling the food inside. Fort Huachuca posted that every freezer flipped into defrost mode overnight; at another site, units were deliberately set warmer rather than simply shut off. Investigators are working with French police on a parallel case where hackers pushed supermarket coolers to 122 degrees, targeting the same Danfoss refrigeration controls.
