Mosheh Oinounou

A video of Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola saying “it should be a criminal offense to lie or mislead the electorate” is resurfacing as she faces questions over an alleged effort to recruit another candidate named Dan Sullivan, the same name as the Republican incumbent. At the August campaign event in Soldotna, an attendee raised the idea of criminal penalties for politicians who deliberately mislead voters. Peltola responded: “Yes, let’s work for that!” The comments resurfaced after @nytimes reporting this week of an alleged effort by Democratic operatives to recruit another Dan Sullivan to run against Sen. Dan S. Sullivan (R). The report, which included 12 sources and text message evidence, says a Peltola staffer was instructed in 2025 to find Alaskans with the same name as the incumbent. Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher, ultimately made the ballot. He announced his candidacy in June. Peltola’s former campaign manager and longtime aide, Elisa Rios, who was fired in August, told the @nytimes that Peltola was not directly involved in the scheme but was “definitely aware.” Peltola denies knowing about the effort, saying Thursday: “I knew nothing about any other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent.… I am not interested in tricking voters.” Dan J. Sullivan has denied any links to the Peltola campaign. Meanwhile, the Justice Department has issued dozens of subpoenas as part of a criminal investigation into the alleged recruitment effort. The Trump administration filed a separate lawsuit last week asking Alaska to delay certifying its Senate election results if Sen. Sullivan loses, arguing that the independent candidate may have confused voters. DOJ amended that lawsuit Thursday, accusing Peltola’s campaign and national Democrats of misleading the court and voters. Recruiting a candidate with the same name as an opponent is not officially illegal, but this effort may have violated campaign finance and fraud laws depending on what the investigation finds. The tactic of deliberately recruiting candidates to run in order to draw votes from an opponent has been used by both parties.

One month after surviving a failed lethal injection, Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike, 50, is speaking publicly for the first time. "Several days later I woke up alone in a hospital confused and in pain," she said in a statement dictated to her lawyers. "There hasn't been a moment since that night when I haven't been in pain. My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts. I still struggle to speak. And the pain isn't just physical. There is pain in my mind and in my soul." Pike received two rounds of pentobarbital. She lost consciousness, but did not die, and was rushed to a hospital and placed on a ventilator before waking days later. Pike is the only person known to have survived after lethal-injection drugs were administered. "I don't know why I survived that night. I don't know what comes next," Pike said in the statement Friday. "Some days, finding hope is harder than others. For now, I am trying to heal, one day at a time." Pike has spent three decades on death row for the 1995 torture and murder of her classmate, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. She does not deny her role in the killing and said in her Friday statement that she continues to think about her victim’s family and “the terrible pain and loss they have endured.” Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) ordered an independent review and paused executions through the end of the year. Whether the state will try again remains unclear, but the Supreme Court has ruled that a botched execution does not necessarily prevent a second attempt.

A Fox News interview at President Trump’s rally in South Carolina on Thursday took an unexpected turn when reporter Lucas Tomlinson asked attendee Tom Hoyle why he was there. “Well, in the late ’70s, I was a little too young to get involved and go to South America for the Jonestown Massacre, but this is as close as I’ll ever get,” Hoyle replied. When a confused Tomlinson asked if he meant the 1978 Jonestown massacre, Hoyle doubled down: “That’s right. Nothing like seeing a cult right up front, man.” In 1978, more than 900 people died in a coordinated mass murder-suicide orchestrated by cult leader Jim Jones across three locations in Guyana. Tomlinson quickly caught on: “All right. So, maybe, maybe this is not a Trump supporter.” The clip quickly went viral. Hoyle later said he was escorted out of the rally after the interview. The Handbasket’s Marisa Kabas later spoke to Hoyle, who co-owns MadPark Designs, a custom printing company in Charlotte. He said the rally organizers invited him and his business partner to the event. “Well, they broke the cardinal rule with MadPark Designs. They solicited us through our phone, and we despise that,” Hoyle stated. “Whether it’s a bank or a company or a politician, we despise that. So we always look at ways we can turn the tables and make their day a little less smooth.” Video: @foxnews

Hackers stole an estimated $6.3 billion from Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, in what could be the biggest crypto heist — and possibly the largest known theft — in history. Binance on Friday said it has frozen roughly $3 billion in affected assets and will cover all customer losses. Withdrawals were temporarily suspended as the company investigates what it called a “complex hack." On Friday, the company added that it was beginning to recover assets for users and that withdrawal service should resume in 45 hours. Blockchain researchers say North Korea was likely behind the attack, which may have begun with a compromised Binance engineer’s laptop. On Friday, the company said it had found “additional points of breach." North Korea has increasingly targeted crypto to generate cash amid international sanctions. Last year, one of Binance’s top rivals, Bybit, lost $1.5 billion to North Korean hackers — the previous largest crypto heist. “This incident is almost certainly the single largest known theft of any kind,” chief scientist Tom Robinson of Elliptic, a crypto compliance firm, told The Guardian. The previous record was reportedly Saddam Hussein’s $1 billion seizure from Iraq’s central bank in 2003. The Binance theft is more than six times larger. Elon Musk posted on X after reports of the hack that "Super intelligence agents will at some point do this to gain currency for themselves, not a human." It comes as AI is getting more complex. Chinese state-linked hackers used AI, including DeepSeek, to target more than 200 organizations worldwide in just 11 days, according to cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.

Check out our full conversation with @reidhoffman on AI and politics. youtu.be/tZgaBZXOgTU?si=I2g2…

A suspected impaired driver nearly struck two Ohio state troopers and a woman during a roadside sobriety test in Toledo on Saturday. Dashcam footage shows the car veering onto the sidewalk and stopping just inches from the troopers as they tested a separate suspected impaired driver. Both drivers were arrested for operating a vehicle while impaired. No one was injured. “Incidents like this serve as a stark reminder that impaired driving due to drugs and/or alcohol puts everyone on Ohio's roadways at risk,” the Ohio State Highway Patrol wrote. So far in 2026, Ohio troopers have made 12,540 impaired-driving arrests, including 2,968 involving suspected drug impairment, according to the patrol. A federal study found about 25% of seriously injured drivers treated at participating trauma centers had active THC, which is found in marijuana, in their systems. About 32 people die in drunk-driving crashes every day in the U.S. — one every 44 minutes. In 2024, 11,904 people were killed. Video: @storyful Sources: @ohiostatehighwaypatrol, @local12wkrc, @wsyx6

The Department of Health and Human Services plans to temporarily loosen restrictions to allow compounding pharmacies to sell six unapproved peptides while the Food and Drug Administration weighs permanent guidance. Rather than approving the peptides, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans Wednesday to avoid legal action against compounding pharmacies that make the six peptides — a move called “enforcement discretion." The FDA says the policy aims to curb black-market peptides by allowing legitimate compounders to produce them under greater oversight. Critics note the drugs remain unapproved and lack sufficient testing, while the policy could make future restrictions more difficult. The plan is a draft policy, and the public will be able to submit comments for two weeks after it’s officially published, which is expected in November. Peptides — short chains of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins — are often taken by injection and used for everything from muscle building to anti-aging, despite limited testing and largely anecdotal claims. The six affected are BPC-157, TB-500, Epitalon, KPV, MOTS-c and Semax. Under the loosened restrictions, compounding pharmacies, which make custom versions of drugs, would be able to produce the peptides as long as they meet certain testing and manufacturing standards, and report serious side effects. In July, an FDA advisory panel voted to recommend six of the seven peptides it reviewed. Many of the panel’s members were chosen by Kennedy, and some had ties to the peptide industry. None of those peptides have been approved by the FDA, whose scientists have warned there isn't enough evidence they’re safe or effective. The new policy does not grant FDA approval or establish clinical safety and effectiveness. Kennedy, who has said he’s used peptides, has pushed to make them widely available. He announced the move six days before the midterms and days after podcaster Joe Rogan criticized the administration for moving too slowly on peptides. The American Medical Association warned the policy could put patients at serious risk, while peptide industry groups praised it as a win for patient choice.

Patrick Stewart, the acclaimed Shakespearean actor who became an international star as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and later Professor X in the “X-Men” films, died Wednesday at his Los Angeles home. He was 86. Stewart passed away following “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia,” his spokesperson, Kelly Bush Novak, announced. "He has been held in the warm embrace of family and friends, surrounded by live music, prayer, tears, laughter, and the kind of profound emotion that only he could inspire after a lifetime of devotion to us all," the post read. Born in England in 1940, Stewart overcame a difficult childhood and built a celebrated stage career, joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966. He was nearly 50 and little known to American audiences when he debuted as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in “The Next Generation,” in 1987. It was the first live-action spinoff of the original “Star Trek” series of the late 1960s. Stewart played the iconic “Star Trek” captain for seven seasons, four feature films and, decades later, three seasons of “Star Trek: Picard.” He also starred as Professor Charles Xavier in the “X-Men” franchise and appeared in films including “Dune” and “Logan.” Knighted in 2010, Stewart continued acting on stage and screen well into his 80s.

A massive brawl erupted inside Armenia’s parliament Wednesday, with lawmakers shoving and punching one another. Things got so heated, the session was ultimately suspended. The confrontation began during remarks by ruling Civil Contract party MP Taron Chakhoyan, who criticized Narek Karapetyan, leader of the opposition Strong Armenia faction. Chakhoyan then mocked Karapetyan's family. Opposition lawmakers approached the podium, and the confrontation quickly turned physical. Video shows lawmakers trading blows as others tried to intervene. One lawmaker was knocked to the floor, while opposition MP Andranik Gevorgyan was later seen with a bloody nose. Another opposition lawmaker emerged with torn clothing, according to local media. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan placed responsibility for the brawl on the opposition and defended his party’s response as “proportionate and appropriate.” “If anyone thinks they can lay a hand on a member of parliament and hit them, we will simply break that hand,” Pashinyan said. “If necessary, we will break it with a chair.” The parliamentary session later resumed. Parliament of Armenia via Storyful

Alaska’s leading Senate candidates reacted Wednesday to a bombshell report accusing Democratic candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign of helping recruit an independent candidate who shares the name of incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan to siphon votes from the Republican. Alaska's Republican governor ordered an investigation. On @foxnews Wednesday, Sen. Sullivan (R) called it a “scandal at the highest order,” and accused Peltola and Democratic insiders of trying to trick Alaskan voters. The @nytimes reported earlier in the day that Peltola aides searched voter records for Alaskans named Dan Sullivan in summer 2025, then worked with Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee staff on a recruitment effort involving operatives using fake names. Peltola, a former congresswoman, was said not to be directly involved. One recruit was Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher who says he voted for Democrats in the last three presidential elections. The same day he filed to be a candidate, J. Sullivan registered as a Republican. He later changed his registration to undeclared. He is currently on the ballot - which is ranked-choice for four candidates - and maintains he entered the race independently. The Alaska Supreme Court previously cleared him to run. Speaking at a campaign rally in Soldotna, Alaska, Wednesday, Peltola dismissed the reporting as an attempt to sell newspapers and distract from issues affecting Alaskans, including affordability and the war in Iran. Her campaign denied involvement. The Times cited 12 people, text messages, and interviews with Peltola’s former campaign manager, who was fired in August and later tried to retract her account. President Trump called for Peltola to withdraw from the race and face prosecution. The Justice Department is investigating potential violations of voters’ rights. Recruiting a candidate with the same name as an opponent is not illegal, and the @nytimes notes that ballot-stacking tactics have been used by both parties. Source: @nytimes

DoorDash announced Thursday it will buy Instacart for $17 billion – the largest deal in the company’s history. The acquisition merges the country’s largest restaurant delivery service with its biggest online grocery platform. DoorDash will pay $65 a share in cash and stock, an 11% premium to Instacart’s Wednesday closing price. Both companies’ boards have approved the deal. Instacart shareholders still need to approve the deal, 19% of whom have already agreed to vote in its favor, DoorDash said. DoorDash has worked to grow its grocery delivery service, where orders are generally larger and more profitable than those from individual restaurants. DoorDash handled 993 million orders worth nearly $34 billion last quarter, up 28% from a year earlier, compared with Instacart’s 90 million orders worth $10.4 billion. Last year, DoorDash began full grocery delivery from nearly 2,700 Kroger-owned stores. The merger will bring in Instacart’s existing relationships with more than 2,200 retailers. It is the latest in a series of consolidations in the food delivery industry. DoorDash bought British Deliveroo last year, and Uber struck a nearly $15 billion deal to acquire Berlin-based Delivery Hero earlier this year. Regulators, grocery stores and gig workers could push back on the merger given how narrow the market is for third-party grocery delivery services. DoorDash already dominates restaurant delivery, making up more than 65% of the market share. For its part, DoorDash said it would lower subscription costs and made a commitment not to require suppliers to work with the company exclusively. Source: @nytimes @ft @semafor

New Yorkers pleaded with protesters to clear the Brooklyn Bridge on Wednesday after around 30 demonstrators blocked all three Manhattan-side entrances while calling for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to leave New York City. NYPD officers arrested about 14 people. Frustrated drivers confronted protesters, while other drivers voiced support for the demonstration. The protest was in response to an ICE altercation in Manhattan’s Marble Hill neighborhood earlier this month, in which ICE officers shot Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old undocumented immigrant from the Dominican Republic, in the neck. Belgal had just picked up his 5-year-old son from school. ICE agents were targeting Belgal for his alleged connection with a Trinitarios gang. Belgal has a criminal record in New York, which includes arrests for robbery and drug dealing, and he had previously evaded ICE arrest. A judge last week denied the temporary release of Belgal, ruling that he was in stable condition and receiving “appropriate” medical care at a federal jail in Brooklyn. Over 19,500 ICE arrests have been made in New York state, with many of them concentrated around New York City, since the beginning of President Trump’s second administration last year. Video via: Scootercaster / FreedomNews.TV Sources: @abcnews, @thecityny, @nydailynews, @gothamist

Former President Obama mocked the Trump administration Wednesday for mounting a “whole-of-government response” to his joke about White House renovations while Americans struggle with rising costs. At a Michigan rally over the weekend, Obama joked that Trump’s White House renovations look like “Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.” Trump immediately reacted to the remark by calling Obama “stupid” over the comparison, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had lunch at the restaurant chain and called reporters to cover it. “They mobilized a whole-of-government response to that joke! Not to inflation, but to that joke,” Obama said Wednesday at a Georgia rally. Obama joked that he frequently visited Cheesecake Factory while raising his daughters, but argued the administration should focus on affordability. “The real problem is that prices have gotten so high, a lot of folks can barely afford to go out to eat,” he said.

President Trump said Wednesday that Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola should withdraw from Alaska’s Senate race and face prosecution after a New York Times investigation found her campaign helped recruit a second Dan Sullivan to draw votes from Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan. The Times reported that Peltola aides searched voter records for Alaskans named Dan Sullivan in summer 2025, then worked with Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee staff on a recruitment effort involving operatives using fake names. One recruit was Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher and former Republican who says he voted for Democrats in the last three presidential elections. He maintains he entered independently. Peltola’s campaign denied involvement. The Times cited 12 people, text messages and interviews with former campaign manager Elisa Rios, who was fired in August. Rios later tried to retract her account, but the newspaper said her initial admission matches their reporting. Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News the tactic “certainly should be” illegal and confirmed a Justice Department investigation. Federal prosecutors are examining potential violations of voters’ rights, with grand jury subpoenas expected and preservation orders being prepared for texts and emails. Recruiting a namesake candidate is not automatically illegal. Potential charges include conspiracy against voting rights under 18 U.S.C. § 241, which carries up to 10 years in prison for conspiring to interfere with federally protected rights, including voting. Alaska law also makes intentionally false sworn election filings a felony. Republicans have also supported spoiler candidates in the past. During Peltola’s 2024 House reelection campaign, Alaska Republicans backed keeping another Democrat on the ballot who was campaigning from a New York prison. In Montana, Democrats are accusing Senate Democratic nominee Alani Bankhead of being a Republican plant whose candidacy could split votes with independent Seth Bodnar—who most Democratic leaders support. Bankhead denies the allegation and says any ties to a mysterious PAC that spent $3.2 million supporting her primary campaign.

Bestselling author Sally Rooney’s books are being pulled from distribution in Britain after she pledged to donate her royalties to Palestine Action, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the UK and US. Her publisher says continuing to pay her royalties could violate British counterterrorism laws. More than 150 prominent writers and actors, including Paul Mescal, Tilda Swinton and Zadie Smith, have condemned the decision, warning that the law threatens freedom of expression. Critics of the ban argue that criminal acts should be prosecuted without criminalizing political support, while defenders point to the group’s use of violence and sabotage. The UK Supreme Court will hear an appeal challenging the ban on November 4 and 5, in a case raising broader questions about where Britain draws the line between terrorism, political protest and free speech.

The Pentagon is expanding its existing doomsday preparedness plans, calling for U.S. military bases to operate without outside help for 90 days — up from previous requirements for 14 days of energy and water self-sufficiency during critical missions. The goal is to keep bases running in the event of a war cutting off power and supply chains, according to a new report from @foxnews. Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin (@jennifergriffinfc) described the initiative, part of FORTRESS (Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply, and Survivability), as a way to prepare for a possible “nightmare scenario.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth first announced FORTRESS in a Sept. 30 address, arguing that the strategy was a way to counteract decades of the military becoming too dependent on foreign industries. Documents obtained by @foxnews show plans for obtaining portable nuclear reactors, backup power grids, and massive reserves of ammunition, critical minerals, and medical supplies — so that America’s roughly 200 active domestic military bases could run independently in an emergency. Griffin estimated the plan would cost the government billions of dollars and take time to implement. The military has been gradually adding policies aimed at increasing energy self-sufficiency at bases. In August, the U.S. Army announced it would award up to $2.2 billion to five companies to build nuclear microreactors at five bases, including Fort Bragg and Fort Hood. The military said the measures are intended to reduce its dependence on civilian infrastructure, including power grids, and external supply networks during a hypothetical period of prolonged conflict. The FORTRESS plan was not developed with a particular anticipated scenario in mind. Video: @snapstreamlive Sources: @foxnews, @reuters, @fortune

President Trump intensified his anti-Muslim rhetoric against Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Tuesday in Texas, calling him “Abdul Ramadan" and saying he will have to go through a metal detector if elected. Staff and visitors already pass through metal detectors to enter the Capitol, but lawmakers are exempt. Ramadan is the Islamic holy month observed by Muslims worldwide, including more than 3 million Americans. More than 300,000 Muslims live in Texas and almost 250,000 in Michigan. "These are people, we can't have these people in the United States," he added at a rally for Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, who is running against James Talarico. This is the latest in a string of Islamophobic rhetoric invoked against El-Sayed. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said at a rally for Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers that El-Sayed sleeps in a “Bin Laden jersey.” On Sunday, Trump repeated his attacks that El-Sayed is a jihadist, "on the side of the terrorists," and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Trump also vowed Tuesday that the U.S. would never allow Sharia law, which he has falsely claimed El-Sayed, a former Detroit health official, wants to implement. “I will be Senator Muhammad to you, bro,” El-Sayed told supporters Sunday, responding to repeated remarks from Trump calling him Muhammad, the founder of Islam and a popular name for Muslims. El-Sayed, who was born in the U.S. to Egyptian immigrant parents, has repeatedly denied any ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. His half-sister has said their biological mother had ties, but El-Sayed was not raised by her nor with that sister. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has faced backlash after false claims Monday from Michigan that Arabs don’t produce science or win Nobel, Fields, or Wolf Prizes. Arabs have won every prize he named. His father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Sr., was assassinated while campaigning for president in 1968 by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian-born gunman who admitted he was angry at Kennedy’s support for Israel. El-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim U.S. senator if elected, is neck and neck with Rogers in recent polling.

A plane carrying Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who lost Sunday’s presidential election, landed in Miami Wednesday after the U.S. granted him a visa as he defies a Brazilian Supreme Court order to surrender his passport. Bolsonaro lost the presidential election to leftist incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is now entering his fourth term, by more than 4 million votes. Flávio’s father, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, also left for Florida after losing the 2022 election to Lula. He returned to Brazil three months later and was eventually sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup. He is currently under house arrest. Flávio Bolsonaro is currently under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court for alleged corruption and money laundering. He denies wrongdoing. TV footage shows Bolsonaro arriving at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport Wednesday with his wife and two daughters, who were also granted visas. President Trump claimed on Monday that the results in Brazil “looked like another rigged election,” but did not provide evidence. Beyond Brazilian politics, the U.S. has on multiple occasions granted visas or other forms of temporary refuge to controversial political figures who lost power, including ousted Korean president Dr. Syngman Rhee in 1960; Iran’s ousted Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi in 1979; and former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. Video: @reuters Sources: @reuters, @nbcnews, @apnews, @nytimes, @guardian

At least 64 people have been killed, and at least 50 more have been seriously injured after two high-speed trains collided on Wednesday at a station near Toledo, Spain. The crash occurred at around 8:45 AM Wednesday morning after a train operated by private rail company Iryo stopped because of a signal fault. Then, a train operated by the Spanish state rail company Renfe travelling at a high speed struck the stationary train. Cars from both trains then derailed and fell down an embankment. Spain’s Civil Guard said it had deployed specialized units to the scene, including a disaster response team, a drone team, and a forensic investigator. Among the passengers on the train was former Popular Party labor minister Fátima Báñez. Her condition remains unknown. “Emergency services are working on the ground to assist those affected and ensure their safety, in coordination with all the involved administrations,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on X. “My affection, solidarity, and support to all the victims and their families.” The crash comes mere months after another high-speed train derailment in Spain on the same line in January killed 45 people and injured more than 150 others. Train travel is a common form of transportation in Europe, accounting for nearly one third (29%) of all journeys that are two and a half hours or more. A total of 750 people were killed and 548 were seriously injured in railway accidents in the European Union in 2024 (the most recent year to be documented), according to the European Commission. While hundreds of railway accidents occur annually, the number of fatalities from these incidents has decreased by nearly 40% between 2010 and 2024. Videos: @storyfullive Sources: @el_pais, @euronews, @apnews, @reuters