Top Items:
Nicholas Riccardi / Associated Press:
Trump administration files lawsuit to block possible Democratic win in Alaska Senate race — The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit to block certification of the Senate race in Alaska if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses the contest while another candidate with the same name is on the ballot …
Discussion:
Democracy Docket, NBC News, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Axios, The Hill, MeidasTouch, RedState, Politico, CBS News, The Daily Caller, The Independent, NewsMax.com, KSTP-TV, WTOP News, HuffPost and Newsweek
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Washington Post:
DOJ seeks to block Alaska Senate result if Republican incumbent narrowly loses — In a lawsuit, the Justice Department cited confusion over two similarly named candidates, including Republican Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan. — SummaryLoading... The Justice Department has moved …
Discussion:
Slate, Straight Arrow, The Washington Sun, Election Law Blog and The Guardian
Devlin Barrett / New York Times:
Justice Dept. Moves to Block Certification of Alaska Senate Race Results if Republican Loses — The Justice Department, in a highly unusual court filing, argued that confusion over candidates with similar names could taint the election result. — In a highly unusual move …
Discussion:
Courthouse News Service and The Daily Signal
Steve Benen / MS NOW:
Trump administration sues to block possible Democratic win in Alaska Senate race
Trump administration sues to block possible Democratic win in Alaska Senate race
Discussion:
CNN, Roll Call, abc7NY, Daily Montanan and NBC News
Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:
The Meaning of the Republican War Over Ramaswamy's Vile Ad — It's quite a feat, in this numb and debased era, to create a political advertisement so shocking and indecent that people from across the political spectrum feel the need to denounce it. The Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog, National Politics, The Washington Sun, MS NOW and The Bulwark
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Sarah Rumpf / Mediaite:
Amy Acton's Estranged Mother Killed Kittens, Court Records Show — New information about the criminal history of Donna Arthur, the estranged mother of Ohio Democratic nominee for governor, Amy Acton, is coming to light amid the backlash about her appearance in a Vivek Ramaswamy ad …
Discussion:
Washington Post, New Republic, The Rooster, Block Club Chicago, Newsweek, MeidasTouch and FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul
Jonathan Martin / Politico:
Vivek Ramaswamy's Trump Act Could Be His Undoing … It's tempting to say that Vivek Ramaswamy's ad deploying the estranged mother of his opponent in the Ohio governor's race is the worst sort of ends-justify-the-means politics. — But the ends, in this case, are likely …
Discussion:
The Nation, MS NOW, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, New York Times, Bloomberg, Daily Mail, PoliticusUSA, France 24, Mediaite, Axios and HuffPost
Chris Stein / The Guardian:
Trump attacks Ohio governor over call for Ramaswamy to drop ‘deeply troubling’ ad
Discussion:
Salon, CNN, New York Times, The Hill, The Enterprise, The Independent, The Washington Sun, NewsMax.com, Straight Arrow, ABC News, Ohio Capital Journal, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, NBC News, New Republic, The Statehouse News Bureau, Blaze Media, CBS News, HuffPost, Associated Press, archive.is, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, Talking Points Memo, Newsweek, National Politics, Politico, Washington Examiner, Cleveland 19 News, Scripps News, The Daily Signal, Dr. Amy Acton for Governor, Toledo Blade and CNBC
Andrea Padilla / The Washington Sun:
Trump Shrugs Off the Rape Charges Central to Amy Acton Ad Controversy
Trump Shrugs Off the Rape Charges Central to Amy Acton Ad Controversy
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Associated Press, Deadline, TMZ.com, Mediaite, The Independent, Reuters, MS NOW, Honolulu Star-Advertiser and The Guardian
G. Elliott Morris / Strength In Numbers:
Poll: Low-information voters have turned hardest against Trump and the GOP — Trump voters who can't answer two basic questions about politics are three times as likely as other Trump voters to back Democrats for the House. This is a big change since 2024.
Discussion:
Washington Post
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Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:
Corruption is voters' top issue ahead of midterm election, CNBC survey shows
Discussion:
Washington Post and Election Law Blog
Politico:
Poll: Trump is mobilizing more Democrats against him than Republicans for him
Poll: Trump is mobilizing more Democrats against him than Republicans for him
Discussion:
Reuters, Democracy Docket, The Independent and GD POLITICS
Heather Cox Richardson / Letters from an American:
October 22, 2026 — Alexander Ward and Lara Seligman of the Wall Street Journal reported today that Trump called Elon Musk yesterday to ask him to stop throttling Starlink's military-grade communications system, Starshield, in Ukraine. Slowing down the system degrades Ukraine's defenses …
Discussion:
Just Security, The Hill and HotAir
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Sasha Vakulina / Euronews:
Starlink restrictions not lifted in Ukraine despite Trump's claims, defence officials say
Jimmy Rushton / The Kyiv Independent:
Ukraine's Starshield access is still crippled, and no one is taking the blame
Ukraine's Starshield access is still crippled, and no one is taking the blame
Discussion:
New York Times, Reuters, Ars Technica, National Review, PBS NewsHour, Wall Street Journal, Mediaite, CBS News and The Spectator
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
GOP pushes for oversight of Musk's dominance of space
GOP pushes for oversight of Musk's dominance of space
Discussion:
Politico
Veronika Melkozerova / Politico:
Starlink still restricted for Ukraine despite Trump saying Musk lifted speed limits
Starlink still restricted for Ukraine despite Trump saying Musk lifted speed limits
Discussion:
The Hill, CityNews Ottawa, CityNews Edmonton, The Kyiv Independent, The Daily Wire, CNBC and Stories Framing the Globe
Charlie Warzel / The Atlantic:
‘If Anything Happens to This Guy ... Everyone Is Screwed’ — Ondřej Surý was a relatively anonymous volunteer working on PHP security. Then the internet exploded. — On Tuesday, the world found out about two massive security vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language …
Discussion:
Straight Arrow, 404 Media, Reason, ClearanceJobs, NPR, National Security …, New York Times, The Verge, Ars Technica, CBS News, The Register, Politico and Wired, more at Techmeme »
ProPublica:
Bird Flu Is Raging on a Mink Farm. It Could Spark a Human Pandemic, Experts Say, but Officials Won't Act. — The strain of bird flu that's ripped through American barns for the last four years has killed two people who caught it from sick animals. But as far as anyone can tell, humans can't spread it.
Discussion:
KIFI-TV
Associated Press:
2 ex-FBI officials charged with making false statements about Hunter Biden's laptop — Two former FBI intelligence officials who specialized in foreign election interference were charged Friday with making false statements about their roles in investigating the origins of Hunter Biden's laptop …
Discussion:
New York Post, NBC News, HotAir, Washington Post, The Hill, Wall Street Journal, NPR, CNN, Washington Examiner, Fox News, CBS News, Daily Mail, CNBC, Associated Press, twitchy.com, TMZ.com, WTTG-TV, NewsMax.com, The Post Millennial, Los Angeles Times, KSTP-TV, KIFI-TV and Althouse
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
Musk Giving Tops $445 Million in Final Midterm Push for GOP — With a fresh infusion of cash to his super political action committee in the first two weeks of October, Elon Musk has now given more than $445 million in the current election cycle and become one of the biggest-ever contributors to such groups.
Discussion:
THE FARCE, Politico, CNBC, The Hill, Columbian, Gizmodo, The Independent, The Japan Times and Mediaite
RELATED:
The White House:
First Lady Melania Trump Secures Ceasefire Between Russia and Ukraine, Localized to Oleshky — First Lady Melania Trump successfully secured a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, localized to the city of Oleshky. Both nations agreed to temporarily stop all military action in Oleshky …
Dave Philipps / New York Times:
Hegseth Barred Trans Troops. Military Boards Are Rejecting Those Orders. — The service members at Navy and Marine Corps hearings are finding ways to keep trans troops in uniform. — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used a slur to proudly announce to an auditorium of Marines in September …
Brendan Hartnett / The Bulwark:
Top GOP Operative Let Out-of-State Voters Vote From His PA Home — Legal experts say Scott Presler's houseguests could run afoul of election law. — ONE OF THE MOST HIGH-PROFILE grassroots organizers in the Republican party purchased a home in Beaver County, Pennsylvania in April 2024.
Gillian Brockell / American Prospect:
The Trump Administration May Have Just Lied to Judge About an ICE flight to Equatorial Guinea — Read the top story of the day in your inbox. Sign up for the Daily Prospect newsletter here. — This is a breaking story and will be updated. — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer …
The Texas Tribune:
Ken and Angela Paxton invested $600,000 in a convicted fraudster's business — The blind trust's investment in Wildcatter offers a new, unreported look at the attorney general's financial ties with the very type of business executives whose prosecutions he typically celebrates.
Lawfare:
Comey Tries to 86 the Seashells Case: Part I — As comical as the prosecution's case appears, it may well go to trial. — annabower.bsky.social — EricColumbus — ericcolumbus.bsky.social — Meet The Authors — In May 2025, former FBI Director James Comey …
Bill Grueskin / Columbia Journalism Review:
A Truth-Teller at Newsmax — A Truth-Teller at Newsmax — “My role is to report on what's unfolding here and explain what decisions made in Washington actually mean for the people living through this war,” Shelby Wilder says from Kyiv. Plus: Biases and absurdities.
Steve Kopack / NBC News:
Russian diesel tanker heads to the U.S., the first since Trump's deal with Putin — The impact on prices would likely be “limited,” oil industry analysts said. … A tanker loaded with diesel fuel set sail Friday from Russia for the United States, the first shipment since President Donald Trump agreed …
Discussion:
New York Post, The Kyiv Independent, Reuters, Associated Press and NewsMax.com
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William Kristol / The Bulwark:
Everything Hegseth Touches Breaks — Much of the political world was horrified this week by Ohio Republican Vivek Ramaswamy's ad that enlists his opponent Amy Acton's estranged mother to attack her character. Donald Trump, however, loved it. “Who wouldn't use such an ad?” he wondered in a lengthy Truth Social post yesterday.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Adam Kinzinger and New York Magazine
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Financial Times:
Oil hits $115 for first time since May as global stocks knocked by AI fears — Markets face twin threats of surging crude prices and concern over durability of AI boom — Ian Smith in London, Leo Lewis in Tokyo, Song Jung-a in Seoul and Kate Duguid in New York
Discussion:
Associated Press
Robert Draper / New York Times:
In the Wisconsin Governor's Race, Another Case of Trump Avoidance Syndrome — The Republican candidate for governor, Tom Tiffany, is best known as a staunch ally of the president. He's trying to change that. — President Trump has been urging Republican voters to pretend that he is on the ballot for the midterm elections.
Discussion:
Townhall, Wisconsin Watch, Fox News, NBC News, The Hill and Urban Milwaukee


