By The Associated Press
Federal authorities are investigating letters with “suspicious substances” that have been mailed to congressional and election offices nationwide and are urging recipients to treat the letters as “potentially hazardous.” Senators were informed by the Senate Sergeant at Arms in a message obtained by the AP. The mailings come just three weeks before Election Day.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that the Pentagon will not live-stream the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, after the announcement faced bipartisan criticism that such images could fuel radicalization.
And a strong majority of voters believes Trump is falling short at home and abroad, and they want major change in the upcoming midterm elections, according to a new AP-NORC poll that raises serious warning signs for the Republican Party at a critical moment.
The Latest:
Maine senate hopeful Troy Jackson raises more than $20M in third quarter but still trails Susan Collins
The campaign for the Democratic candidate said Thursday that it raised $20.4 million in the third quarter as it seeks to make up a money gap with Collins, the Republican incumbent.
Jackson was a late entry into the race and the third quarter was his first quarter of fundraising. Collins’ campaign said she raised $5.2 million in the same time period.
Collins began the race with a considerable fundraising advantage over Jackson, as she had raised more than $18 million by the end of June and Jackson did not become the Democratic nominee until late July.
Jackson said in a statement Thursday that he had nearly 200,000 individual donors and almost 95% of his contributors gave less than $100.
Trump says Sen. Darline Graham has ‘good genetics’ as she vies to replace her brother
Trump called Lindsey Graham, the late South Carolina senator, “incredible” and said he was “so proud” of Darline Graham.
He was speaking during a telephone rally Thursday, four days ahead of early voting in the midterm elections.
Trump called Graham’s Democratic opponent, Annie Andrews, “a radical left lunatic.” Earlier this month, he used an anti-transgender slur to attack the Charleston physician on social media.
The Senate Republican super PAC, meanwhile, has put $5 million into the race, which has appeared to tighten in the closing weeks.
In addition to the interim senator now seeking a full term, Alan Wilson, South Carolina’s attorney general and gubernatorial nominee, participated in the telephone rally, as did Jenny Costa Honeycutt, the GOP nominee to replace outgoing Rep. Nancy Mace in the coastal 1st District.
AP elections data shows more than 6 million US voters have cast ballots for midterms
The data gathered as of Thursday shows that more than 6 million voters have cast early ballots for the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The AP’s report contains data from 39 states and includes the number of mail absentee ballots returned and the number of in-person early ballots cast.
California posted the most early votes at more than 757,000, followed by Florida with more than 669,000, Virginia with more than 604,000, Michigan with roughly 573,000 and Pennsylvania with more than 391,000.
Lawyer questions al-Qaida suspect’s competence before USS Cole bombing trial
A lawyer for the suspected organizer of the deadly al-Qaida attack on the U.S. warship in the year 2000 wants a military court to determine his competence before trial, arguing that he has a traumatic brain injury “arising from torture in CIA custody.”
A trial is scheduled to start this month for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in the killing of 17 U.S. sailors, who died when an explosives-laden skiff blew up alongside the USS Cole destroyer off the coast of Yemen. He faces a possible death penalty.
Captured in 2002, Nashiri underwent waterboarding, beatings and confinement in a crate for years in CIA custody at clandestine detention facilities.
Nashiri’s attorney asked a federal court on Thursday to delay the proceedings until the military commission has had enough time to determine his mental capacity. A psychiatrist for the defense who examined Nashiri concluded he is not competent for trial.
Trump says GOP struggles in Texas are because of Sen. John Cornyn and Karl Rove
The president isn’t blaming Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for his floundering Senate campaign, which could help give Democrats their first statewide win in the Lone Star State since 1994.
In a social media post, Trump said it’s the fault of Sen. John Cornyn, who lost the primary to Paxton, and GOP strategist Karl Rove.
“They are hurting Texas and, more importantly, hurting the United States of America!” Trump claimed. “If Ken Paxton loses, it will be because of WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Political Hacks like John Cornyn and Karl Rove, who have ineffectively opposed me for my entire political career.”
Trump endorsed Paxton in the Republican primary run-off, helping him to win the nomination. Democratic State Rep. James Talarico is running against Paxton.
New lawsuit challenges Trump administration’s effort to compile voter data
A voting rights organization, a Hispanic American rights group and a privacy-focused research center on Thursday sued the Trump administration over its policy to collect voter data from most states.
The complaint from the League of Women Voters, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Electronic Privacy Information Center claims that the Department of Homeland Security obtained voter lists from 47 states, even though 30 refused to turn them over to the administration. The plaintiffs allege the effort violated federal privacy law and transparency requirements.
“Americans should not have to surrender their privacy simply because they exercise their right to vote,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward, which sued on the organizations’ behalf.
The lawsuit is one of several challenging the Trump administration’s sweeping efforts to collect voter data. The Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
State Dept fires special envoy who feuded with Rubio’s deputy
The State Department has fired a special envoy tasked with building international partnerships after a report of a lengthy feud between him and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s deputy emerged on Thursday.
Paolo Zampolli, who was once close with President Donald Trump, was dismissed as the U.S. special representative for global partnerships, just hours after Politico published details of his testy relationship with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. Citing emails between Landau, Zampolli and other government official, Politico said Landau and Zampolli clashed repeatedly with the former accusing the latter of overstepping his limited authority.
A U.S. official familiar with the matter that Zampolli was notified Thursday “that his status as an envoy has been terminated and he is no longer a government employee.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel issue.
Zampolli is the second senior diplomat close to Trump to be fired this week, following the ouster of U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle.
-By Matthew Lee
California sues Trump administration over ICE arrests at courthouses
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Thursday his office is suing the Trump administration for directing federal agents to carry out civil immigration arrests at and around courthouses.
Bonta said California law expressly prohibits civil arrests at state courthouses, which impedes access to the judicial system. Officers have apprehended people in hallways, lobbies, and parking lots of the state’s courthouses, and sometimes have reported to be waiting in the court parking lot for days.
“We’ve seen serious criminal charges dropped and entire cases jeopardized because victims and witnesses are too scared to come to the courthouse to testify,” Bonta said.
The average monthly number of ICE arrests in and around California courthouses increased by more than 550% after the administration issued a directive authorizing and encouraging them, Bonta said. The arrests continued even after a federal judge in northern California struck down the policy in a June 2026 order.
Trump administration advances plan for peptide drugs favored by RFK Jr.
Federal health officials are moving ahead with plans to broaden access to a class of unproven injectable drugs called peptides.
The Department of Health and Human Services submitted a plan to the White House that would allow temporary access to some of the products, according to a government online posting Thursday.
The peptides in question are essentially unapproved, injectable drugs that have become popular among people looking to build muscle, look younger or boost energy. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has described himself as “a big fan” of peptides and directed the Food and Drug Administration to consider loosening restrictions on their use.
County election offices in Texas have cleared thousands of backlogged voter records
Just days before early voting began in Texas, the Secretary of State’s office confirmed that they were not aware of any counties with pending voter records to clear after a backlog caused thousands to pile up.
Counties were alerted of the problem in late September, and spent weeks sorting through data from records that were not properly forwarded to a person’s home county, where they are processed and verified. State officials blamed an unspecified error that started with an online voter registration system within the Texas Department of Public Safety dating to October 2025.
The official statewide number of backlogged records has still not been released, although a recent lawsuit from the Texas League of Women Voters and another civil rights group against the state agencies reported it at nearly 600,000.
House Speaker says Trump diesel deal with Putin is ‘complicated situation’
Rep. Mike Johnson said that Trump is “thinking outside the box” on how to bring down the fuel costs, which he said Republicans are “laser focused” on every day.
“We’ll figure out the best mechanism to do it,” Johnson told AP during a campaign swing in battleground Maine this week.
Pressed if he agreed with the president’s deal to bring in Russian diesel – which critics said defies a law banning Russian energy imports passed by Congress at the start of the Ukraine war — Johnson did not answer directly.
“That’s a complicated situation,” he said.
US further targets Iran’s international financial reach with sanctions on Iraqi bank
The U.S. Treasury announced Thursday that it is adding an Iraq-based financial institution along with several banks and financiers to its list of sanctioned actors for their alleged support for Iran’s proxy networks.
U.S. officials accused the entities and individuals of helping the Iranian government move hundreds of millions of dollars through shell companies and foreign?exchange specialists across the region and in Asia.
The penalties issued against International Development Bank for Investment and Finance and others are part of a months-long U.S. economic campaign against Tehran as the Trump administration struggles to reach a diplomatic solution to the eight-month war.
“The noose is tightening around Iran’s economy, and not even Iran’s so-called allies can save it,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
FBI employees sue over terminations linked to Trump investigation
FBI employees fired for their roles in the investigation of President Donald Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Florida estate sued on Thursday to get their jobs back, calling their terminations unlawful acts of “political retribution.”
The complaint adds to the growing list of legal challenges to the mass terminations under FBI Director Kash Patel of agents who participated in investigations of the Republican president or are seen as opposed to Trump administration interests.
The suit was filed in federal court in Washington on behalf of nine agents, intelligence analysts and staff operations specialists who were fired in February following earlier dismissals of agents who had worked on the investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Their firings, the lawsuit says, create an “immeasurable loss” to “America’s national security.”
“In return for their service, they were fired because they did their jobs, as they always did to follow the facts and law without bias or favor. To this administration, this is an offense. To the rest of us, it is heroic,” said a statement from their attorneys, Margaret Donovan, Abbe Lowell and Rebecca Tinio.
“This lawsuit will prove their unlawful dismissal and hold the administration accountable for this blatant attack on the rule of law,” the statement added.
Trump, running on little sleep, says maybe a ‘beautiful’ robot could replace him on the campaign trail
The president told the crowd in the Rose Garden that he arrived back at the White House from his western campaign swing just before 5 a.m. that morning.
“Yeah, I didn’t get too much sleep, come to think of it. Supposed to be sleeping now, but I’m not,” he said.
Trump said he hopes his voice holds out as he continues his heavy schedule of traveling and speaking at campaign rallies for Republicans.
“You could maybe get one of those beautiful robots that they make nowadays and make them look just like me and you wouldn’t know the difference. They make them pretty good. Send them out on the trail. I could sit home and watch them on television. But, I love doing it, actually,” Trump said.
Trump hosting Rose Garden lunch for police and firefighters
The president is trying to showcase to voters his commitment to first responders by hosting them at the White House for lunch at the Rose Garden.
Trump invited police and firefighters, among others, to discuss his administration’s efforts to reduce crime and the tax cuts that were signed into law last year, according to the White House.
“The President has empowered law enforcement and first responders to do their jobs, provided them with resources to restore law and order, and delivered on his promise of no-tax-on-tips to ensure they get to keep more of their hard-earned money,” said White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis.
Trump says he’s going to Iowa, Kansas, Michigan
The president, who was holding an event in the White House Rose Garden for first responders, opened his remarks by talking about the campaign rallies he’s been doing around the country for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections next month.
“We got a lot of them left,” he said after previewing the upcoming stops on his calendar.