Trump reshuffles plans as early voting surges, Alaska probe widens, and Democrats fight in Michigan
WASHINGTON (AP) — As early voting surges across the country, President Donald Trump reshuffled his weekend schedule to rally Republicans in two states with critical Senate races, underscoring his party’s push to drive turnout before Election Day.
Less than 24 hours after canceling planned weekend visits to Iowa and Kansas, the Republican president abruptly rescheduled back-to-back campaign rallies in those states on Sunday. Trump said he had received calls from “my friends” in the states who wanted the live events rather than tele-rallies. “They said, ‘If you can go, you would be better than a tele-rally,’” Trump said.
The last-minute reversal comes as Americans engage briskly in early voting. Nearly 10 million more Americans had cast ballots five days before Election Day than at the same point in 2022, according to an Associated Press analysis of voting data. The increases have been particularly pronounced in states with competitive Senate races — including Iowa and Kansas, where early voting is up roughly 30%.
Democrats and Republicans each hope that rise favors them as they fight for control of Congress in an election that has turned largely on affordability issues and the president's unpopularity. At the start of the month, Trump promised a marathon sprint of his signature rallies to shore up Republican candidates, and he has headlined 25 of them so far in October.
Trump has also signaled his administration would aggressively pursue an investigation into an alleged scheme to confuse voters in Alaska, another state with a competitive Senate race.
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Early voting jumps across Senate battlegrounds as millions more Americans vote ahead of Election Day
WASHINGTON (AP) — Early voting is significantly outpacing the last midterm election, with millions more Americans casting ballots in advance and particularly sharp increases in states hosting competitive Senate races, according to an Associated Press analysis of voting data five days before Election Day.
The surge is especially pronounced in Texas, where voters are deciding closely watched Senate, House and governor’s races. More than 6.3 million Texans had voted early as of Wednesday, compared with 4.2 million at the same point four years ago, a 50% increase.
Advance voting has also increased more than 30% from the same point four years ago in Maine, Michigan, North Carolina and Kansas, states with competitive Senate races. In South Carolina, where voters are choosing a successor to the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, early voting is up 83%.
The data, compiled by the AP, offers a glimpse of early voter participation five days before an election that will determine control of Congress and other key contests.
Across the country, more than 43 million Americans had voted early in person or returned mail ballots, nearly 10 million more than in 2022. The figures cover 47 states and Washington, D.C., compared with 48 states and the nation's capital four years ago.
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Wall Street drops to its worst day since June after the sell-off for tech stocks deepens
NEW YORK (AP) — A sell-off for tech stocks got even worse Friday on worries that Wall Street’s frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology sent prices too high.
The S&P 500 tumbled 1.8% for its worst day since June, and it closed out a third straight losing week. The weakness for technology stocks dragged the Nasdaq composite down a market-leading 2.9%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 572 points, or 1.1%.
The U.S. stock market remains only 3.1% below its all-time high, which has boosted the value of workers’ 401(k) accounts, but it’s become increasingly shaky as Tuesday’s midterm elections in the United States approach. Worries about AI in general have already become a concern for voters across political parties, and President Donald Trump has historically used the stock market’s performance as a measure of his own success.
Intel’s stock led the way lower and plunged 28.6% for its worst drop since 1974. The chipmaker gave a forecast for profit in the final three months of this year that fell short of analysts’ expectations, as CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the personal-computer industry continues to feel pressure. The drop came even though Intel reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
Amazon fell 1.4% after reporting a weaker profit for the summer than analysts expected. Potentially more concerning for investors was Amazon’s reporting that it burned through $42.4 billion of cash over the prior 12 months, according to a measure called free cash flow. It spent $94.8 billion on property and equipment, primarily through investments in artificial-intelligence technology.
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Judge wants to know if Trump attorneys violated ethics in one of 2 cases to change the DC landscape
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge said Friday she would open a “formal inquiry” to investigate if attorneys for the Trump administration violated ethical boundaries during a legal dispute about a golf-course project — one in a pair of plans that are revealing the breadth of the president's attempts to mold parts of the District of Columbia to his own vision.
The two cases, unfolding at the same time in the same federal courthouse, also showcase the underlying executive authority claims that lie beneath them — a glimpse into the uses of presidential power under Donald Trump.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes' declaration that the court would appoint a “special master” to investigate whether agency officials and Justice Department attorneys had made misrepresentations in the court is a far cry from her relationship with the government until this month. She had rejected numerous motions from the plaintiffs to step in earlier, saying she trusted the government attorneys.
The cases involved are an impending shutdown and reconfiguration of a historic public golf course and the construction of a monumental arch that, at 250 feet (75 meters), would be 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty is from its base to the top of the torch. The two projects are barely three miles, or five kilometers, apart.
The hearing on the golf course change began as other recent ones have: Reyes grilled Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. over how Trump’s desires to turn the golf course, near the National Mall, into a world-class facility have become urgent plans that match his public pronouncements.
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Difficult negotiations lie ahead in Israel after Netanyahu's bloc lost its parliamentary majority
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's final election results confirmed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies lost their parliamentary majority and that weeks of difficult negotiations among very different parties, from ultra-Orthodox Jewish to secular to Arab-led, lie ahead.
The results released early Friday showed Netanyahu’s bloc won 53 seats in Tuesday's election. The main opposition bloc won 48. Arab-led parties secured the other 19, a historic showing. Now parties must meet, bargain and seek a way to team up for at least 61 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, remains in charge. His main opponents would most likely need to partner with the Arab-led parties to replace him.
Underscoring the fraught path ahead, Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of a right-wing anti-Netanyahu faction, on Friday appeared to rule out any partnership with Arab-led parties. That alone would make it nearly impossible for Netanyahu’s opponents to form a coalition to oust him.
Difficult decisions lie ahead. Will the main opposition parties that campaigned hard to unseat the divisive Netanyahu make the politically sensitive choice to partner with Arab-led ones? Or will they toss their vows aside to team up with Netanyahu in a potentially fractious unity government?
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Christa Pike describes constant pain in first statement since her failed execution
Christa Pike said Friday she remains in constant pain, struggles to speak and has been largely isolated in a prison hospital after surviving a lethal injection in Tennessee last month.
In her first public statement since, Pike said she's “deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position.”
“I continue to think about my victim’s family,” she said, “and the terrible pain and loss they have endured.”
Pike and her boyfriend tortured and stabbed a 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer, to death in 1995. Pike was 18 at the time, making her one of the youngest women sentenced to death. Slemmer’s mother traveled from Florida to witness Pike’s execution.
Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital that her lawyers say probably didn't enter her bloodstream correctly and instead pooled in her arms, leaving them burned and blistered. Unconscious, she was hospitalized on a ventilator for days, and at one point her lawyers said they didn't expect her to survive.
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Leo XIV has become the first pope in history to vote in a US general election
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV has become the first pontiff to vote in a U.S. general election, casting a mail-in ballot in a contest that will decide America's political future as the Trump era slowly comes to an end.
The Vatican confirmed Friday that the Chicago-born pontiff had submitted a mail-in ballot in the city ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, citing his long-standing belief in civic participation.
Leo, formerly Robert Prevost, “has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen” as he has done “whenever he was eligible to do so,” the Holy See press office said.
The statement said he had also voted while living in Peru, where he lived as a missionary priest and bishop for over 20 years.
“The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes,” it added.
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An ICE officer is charged with assault for striking a man with a car in Houston
HOUSTON (AP) — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer accused of intentionally ramming his car into a Mexican construction worker in Houston was indicted by a grand jury Friday on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, prosecutors said.
The officer, Mario Alberto Morales, was driving an unmarked SUV on Oct. 10 when he struck and ran over Miguel Parra Hernandez, 48, who was running away during a pursuit through a parking lot, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. Parra Hernandez broke his leg and remains in federal custody at a rehabilitation facility, said District Attorney Sean Teare, who announced the indictment at a news conference that included body camera video of the encounter and a recording of Morales calling 911.
ICE has asserted that Parra Hernandez ran in front of the vehicle, an account that Teare said is contradicted by video.
“The evidence we have in this case is as clear as any that I’ve ever prosecuted or investigated,” Teare said.
Morales, 33, is one of just a few federal officers who have faced criminal charges over their actions on the job during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, although other encounters have come under investigation, including a fatal shooting by an ICE officer this summer in Houston.
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What to know about the $6.3B hack on Binance, likely the biggest-ever crypto theft
Binance, the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, said Friday that hackers stole more than $6 billion in what appears to be the largest cryptocurrency heist on record. Blockchain firms have pointed to the attack coming from a North Korean hacking unit.
The company said it has reserved more than $6.34 billion of company funds to cover the stolen assets and was beginning to recover assets for users. Binance worked with blockchain partners to freeze roughly $3 billion in affected assets.
The cryptocurrency exchange has promised to cover all losses, and it has been sharing regular updates on its social media channels as it uncovers more information about the hack.
“We are working nonstop to resolve this,” Binance's co-CEO Richard Teng said Friday in a video posted to X.
In an exchange Friday with reporters at the White House, President Donald Trump said U.S. officials were investigating the Binance hack. Asked whether North Korea was involved, Trump said: “We’re looking at that.”
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The police said Sandra Birchmore's death was a suicide. Then the FBI accused a cop of murder
BOSTON (AP) — When Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her Massachusetts home, police quickly decided it was a suicide. From the start, her friends didn't believe it.
The 23-year-old had recently learned she was pregnant — and was thrilled about it, they told police. The person upset about the pregnancy, they said, was the married police detective she'd been seeing, Matthew Farwell.
Five years later, Farwell, 40, is on trial in federal court, charged with killing Birchmore and staging her death to look like a suicide to hide that he had begun sexually abusing her when she was 15.
Also on trial, in a sense, is the original police investigation.
State police troopers working in the Norfolk County district attorney's office never wavered from their judgment that Birchmore's death was a suicide, according to federal prosecutors. Farwell was interviewed for just 15 minutes in a parking lot, they said. Investigators didn’t take notes, examine him for injuries or sample his DNA. Police did look at Farwell’s phone, but only after he’d deleted his texts with Birchmore.
