At least three people were injured Thursday morning in a shooting at a downtown Des Moines post office, where police quickly detained a suspect outside the building and continued searching for any additional victims, authorities said.

The gunfire was reported around 9:10 a.m. Central at the U.S. Post Office on Second Avenue, and officers arrived within about three minutes, according to police. Officials said the injured victims are believed to have non-life-threatening wounds, and that a witness tip helped officers locate and detain the suspect outside the building. Police have not released the suspect's identity, described any weapon recovered, or offered any information about a possible motive.

Comedian and actor Russell Brand was convicted in London on Thursday of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others, and was immediately taken into custody to await a likely "significant" prison sentence.

A jury at Southwark Crown Court found the 51-year-old guilty on one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault involving four women, while acquitting him of two further rape charges and one count of attempted indecent assault. Judge Joel Bennathan revoked Brand's bail after the verdict on Thursday, November 5, citing a flight risk, and said he faces a "significant" term when he is sentenced on Monday. In court, Bennathan acknowledged that Brand's children would suffer hardship but said it stemmed from "serious criminal offending by their father."

Convicted murderer Jacob Morley was recaptured late Tuesday morning in rural Carroll County, Missouri, when a stolen pickup he was driving became stuck off a county road after an interstate, tech-assisted manhunt that began with his escape from a Tennessee prison on October 25.

Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers arrested Morley without incident around 11:34 a.m. Tuesday after tracking the truck from the Kansas City area using automated license plate readers, undercover officers and a police helicopter, and moved in only after he drove off-road near County Road 515 despite concerns he had multiple firearms. Authorities say the 32-year-old, convicted of killing a co-worker in Tennessee, now faces federal charges in both Tennessee and Missouri, while prosecutors in his home state prepare additional counts and work out when he will be returned to state custody.

Gov. Tim Walz will dedicate Highway 610 in the north metro as the "Hortman Memorial Highway" at a 9 a.m. ceremony Thursday, renaming the 12-mile corridor in honor of the late former House Speaker Melissa Hortman.

The renamed stretch runs from Highway 10 in Coon Rapids to Interstate 94 in Maple Grove, a key commuter route through the northern suburbs that was one of Hortman's signature infrastructure priorities at the Capitol.

President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday formally accepted Israel's contested election results as legally binding and began consulting party leaders on who should be given the first chance to form a new government, moving the country from a bruising legitimacy fight into hard coalition arithmetic.

Meeting politicians at his official residence in Jerusalem, Herzog declared that "the elections are over. Now is the time to face reality," as he opened two days of consultations that will shape who becomes prime minister after an inconclusive October 27 vote. Three factions recommended incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday and one backed his center-right rival Gadi Eisenkot, with eight more parties, including influential Arab-led lists, scheduled to present their preferences on Thursday. By Thursday morning, at least one Arab-led party had told Herzog it supports Eisenkot, positioning him to receive the most recommendations even as some potential Jewish partners balk at relying on Arab backing.

St. Paul voters overwhelmingly approved a "right-to-repair" ballot measure for renters, passing a new ordinance by a 79%-to-21% margin that will let tenants arrange certain repairs themselves if landlords fail to act, reshaping the rules for multifamily housing across the city.

The ordinance, approved in the November 2026 election, gives renters the right to hire qualified contractors for specified repairs after giving proper notice and time to their landlord, then seek reimbursement or rent offsets under procedures the city will spell out in detail. It immediately raises compliance and cost questions for owners and managers of multifamily properties, who now must adapt their maintenance practices and lease terms to the new framework.

Indiana executed convicted child killer Jeffrey Weisheit by lethal injection early Thursday at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, the first of three U.S. death sentences scheduled to be carried out on the same day in different states.

Prison officials began the procedure shortly after midnight, and Weisheit was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. Thursday, according to the Indiana Department of Correction. Weisheit, 43, had been sentenced to die for killing his girlfriend's children, 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and 5-year-old Caleb Lynch, by setting their Evansville-area home on fire in 2010 while their mother was working an overnight shift.

Two people, including a suspected gunman, were killed Wednesday in what authorities describe as a targeted shooting at Citibank's four-building office campus in suburban Brandon, just east of Tampa, after the attacker crashed a car into an outdoor lunch area and opened fire on a woman.

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said more than 360 deputies swarmed the complex around midday, clearing each building floor by floor and escorting terrified workers who had been hiding in locked rooms and closets as reports of gunfire spread across the campus. Chief Deputy Frank Losat said multiple 911 calls started coming in at about 12:11 p.m., and that a Citibank armed security guard exchanged shots with the suspect inside the cafeteria before the gunman was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. Four additional people suffered non-life-threatening injuries, possibly from being struck or knocked down when the car plowed through the fenced outdoor seating area, though investigators said it is still unclear exactly how those injuries occurred. Neither the woman who was fatally shot nor the suspect had been publicly identified by Wednesday evening, as officials worked to notify relatives and determine a motive.

A Spokane County sheriff's deputy and an alleged gunman were among four people killed after a domestic-violence call erupted into a shootout at a rural property near Spangle, Washington, on Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.

Sheriff John Nowels said Wednesday that one of two Spokane County SWAT deputies who were critically wounded during the exchange of gunfire died of his injuries, and the other remains on life support and is not expected to survive. Both were described as young members of the tactical team; the fallen deputy leaves behind a wife and two children, and the surviving deputy is an organ donor, according to the sheriff's office. The woman who first sought help was hospitalized with non-life-threatening wounds, and officials have not yet said publicly whether the suspect was killed by deputies' bullets or died by suicide.

A five-judge panel of New York's Appellate Division, First Department, is hearing oral arguments Thursday in Manhattan on Donald Trump's bid to overturn his 2024 conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, a case that tests the durability of the only criminal conviction ever returned against a sitting U.S. president.

Trump's new lead appellate lawyer, Robert Giuffra of Sullivan & Cromwell, is expected to argue that the case should have been governed by federal election law rather than New York statutes, that federal law preempted the state prosecution, that prosecutors improperly relied on evidence protected by presidential immunity, and that they failed to prove Trump intended to defraud anyone. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office counters in its briefs that the scheme involved unofficial conduct aimed at deceiving voters and regulators, that multiple courts have already rejected immunity and preemption claims surrounding this prosecution, and that a "mountain of evidence" unrelated to Trump's official acts supports the jury's verdict.

At least 15 commercial flights across Europe were hit by bomb threats on Thursday, prompting diversions, fighter-jet escorts and brief airport shutdowns, but no explosives were found and officials are treating the alerts as hoaxes.

The latest wave pushed the number of affected journeys this week to more than 20, as aircraft operated by Aer Lingus, Finnair, Wizz Air, LOT Polish Airlines and Ryanair were forced into emergency procedures stretching from France and Italy to Prague and Sofia. An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome diverted to France's Evreux military air base, where 151 passengers and six crew were safely taken off and French military bomb teams searched the plane, while a Finnair jet from Helsinki to Rome was escorted by a fighter and triggered a roughly 30-minute halt to flights at Rome's Leonardo Da Vinci Airport during inspections. Authorities said some threats arrived by email and that no hazardous devices have been discovered on any of the aircraft so far.

Democrats have seized commanding control of Congress, clinching at least 54 Senate seats and an expected 251 to 268 House seats in the 2026 midterms, ending years of Republican dominance on Capitol Hill and sharply curtailing President Donald Trump's power in Washington.

The scale of the Democratic wave, which networks have dubbed a "tsunami" and "tidal wave," gives Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and incoming House leader Hakeem Jeffries large working majorities to pursue an agenda centered on lowering costs, reshaping health policy, ending the Iran war and launching aggressive investigations into alleged Trump administration corruption. Schumer called the results a "generational remake of the Senate map" and vowed that "the days of Trump's supplicant Senate are over," while Jeffries, poised to become the first Black House speaker, promised "bold, dramatic, and decisive change."

Democrats have captured a commanding new majority in the US House of Representatives and moved quickly to claim the gavel, as party leader Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday formally launched his bid for speaker and incumbent Speaker Mike Johnson told Republicans he will not seek to lead them in the next Congress.

Networks now project Democrats will control the House by one of the largest margins in recent decades, with CBS estimating they are on track to hold between 251 and 268 seats once all ballots from Tuesday's midterm elections are counted, and at least 54 seats in the Senate with two contests still rated toss-ups. Jeffries, appearing Wednesday in Washington with Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar, who intend to run for the No. 2 and No. 3 posts, cast the outcome as a mandate to lower gas and grocery prices, reverse Republican cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, and end President Donald Trump's war in Iran while launching aggressive oversight of what he called an "out-of-control" executive branch.

Voters across the country approved dozens of measures restricting new data centers in Tuesday's midterm elections, a wave of local and statewide actions that analysts say will slow the planned U.S. buildout of facilities powering artificial intelligence and drive up developers' costs.

As of Wednesday afternoon, political research firm Redbud Consulting had tallied 37 voter-approved ballot measures limiting data centers nationwide and just one local vote backing a new facility, underscoring how rapidly public sentiment has turned against the industry. Tech analyst Dan Ives estimated that between 800 and 1,000 U.S. data centers are in the pipeline to support AI and warned that the election outcome will "clearly" slow that expansion, particularly in Texas, while Goldman Sachs economists told Business Insider that Democratic gains at the state and local level could result in moratoria affecting about 45% of planned capacity.

Deb Haaland was elected governor of New Mexico and Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan won a U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday, Nov. 3, becoming the first Native American women to serve as a governor and as a senator in U.S. history.

Haaland, a Democrat and citizen of Laguna Pueblo, defeated Republican former Rio Rancho mayor Gregg Hull 57.25% to 42.75%, a 14.5-point margin that blew past late polling and outpaced Kamala Harris's 2024 New Mexico presidential margin. Flanagan, a Democrat and enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, beat Republican Michele Tafoya 53.71% to 43.56% in Minnesota's open Senate race, winning by about 10 points in a contest that drew national attention to her progressive platform. The National Congress of American Indians hailed both victories as historic milestones for Native representation, saying they would bring tribal issues into rooms where they have long been absent.

Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday under the city's national security law, after a court found him guilty of conspiring to collude with foreign forces through his appeals for international pressure on Beijing.

Judge William Tam said he started from a 13-year term but could only reduce the punishment to the 10-year statutory minimum for "grave" collusion cases because Wong had pleaded guilty. The new sentence will run concurrently with his existing four-year, eight-month national security term, of which he has about two months left, effectively keeping one of the city's best-known activists in prison until around 2036. Prosecutors argued that Wong's lobbying, including meetings with then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Marco Rubio, showed he had sought foreign sanctions against Hong Kong and Chinese officials.

Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell publicly accused federal immigration authorities of playing a "propaganda game" on Wednesday, saying new state records undercut U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement claims that Operation Metro Surge was targeting violent offenders released onto local streets.

Schnell said his agency cross-checked "every name" that ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had promoted as the "worst of the worst" and found many of the people cited were already in custody, had been formally transferred to ICE, or had no Minnesota criminal record at all. He released detailed prison files and video showing DOC officers physically handing shackled inmates over to ICE agents, which he and Gov. Tim Walz say flatly contradicts DHS messaging that the Walz administration had let dangerous non-citizens walk free.

Democrats used Tuesday's midterm elections to seize full control of more state governments and flip the Texas House of Representatives, part of a sweeping national wave that also delivered them large majorities in both chambers of Congress.

The gains, confirmed Wednesday, shift at least five previously divided states into Democratic "trifectas" where the party now controls the governorship and both legislative chambers, while Republicans saw their own trifectas shrink from a recent peak and their supermajorities broken or blocked in nine legislative chambers across eight states. PBS coverage framed the results as part of a broader realignment, with voters handing Democrats both the House and Senate in Washington "by wide margins" and prompting Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis to label the night an "extinction-level event" for his party.

California's embattled high-speed rail project is heading into yet another leadership shakeup after CEO Ian Choudri abruptly resigned on Oct. 28, just hours after the board approved a controversial, scaled-back trainset contract and amid mounting scrutiny of the agency's finances and consulting practices.

The board named state Department of Finance director Joe Stephenshaw as interim CEO and its chair has called for an independent inspector general investigation into how the authority has handled billions of dollars in contracts and consultant spending, including travel bills the agency's own watchdog recently labeled wasteful or unallowable. Choudri cited personal and family priorities in his immediate resignation, which came as the authority moved to buy just three wide-body trainsets from the same manufacturer it rejected in 2024, this time without the $4 billion in federal funds California forfeited after missing key purchase milestones.

Democrat Randy Villegas has unseated Republican Rep. David Valadao in California's 22nd Congressional District, CBS News projected Wednesday, flipping a Central Valley seat and ending the House career of one of the last Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump.

With nearly all votes still being counted under California's slow tallying process, preliminary results from the secretary of state showed Villegas leading Valadao by roughly a 2-to-1 margin, 66.4% to 33.6%, although the final spread is expected to narrow as more ballots are processed. Valadao's defeat, combined with Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse's planned retirement, means none of the 10 House Republicans who backed Trump's second impeachment will remain in the chamber after this term.

Minnesota's newly empowered Democratic-Farmer-Labor leaders sketched sharply ambitious, and at times divergent, agendas on Wednesday, as Governor-elect Amy Klobuchar and Senator-elect Peggy Flanagan laid out priorities on fraud, guns, and affordability one day after a record-setting midterm election reshaped power at the Capitol and in Washington.

Speaking in separate interviews and appearances in St. Paul, Klobuchar said her first day in office will feature a sweeping audit of state government aimed at cracking down on fraud, while pushing a gun-safety bill and promising not to raise taxes, even as DFL lawmakers pursue new levies on high earners and tech platforms. Flanagan, headed to Washington as part of a strengthened Democratic Senate majority, framed her agenda around rolling back Trump-era cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, advancing universal health care and childcare, raising the federal minimum wage, and launching investigations into President Trump's administration that she says are owed to Minnesota families.

Spring Lake Park's mayoral race ended in an exact tie, with candidates Robert Nelson and Halyn Roth each receiving 1,401 votes, meaning the winner will now be chosen by random drawing at City Hall on Monday, November 9.

Under Minnesota law, tied elections must be decided "by lot," so city officials will conduct a name drawing during the Spring Lake Park City Council meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Monday to determine who becomes the next mayor for a two-year term. There were also 12 write-in votes cast in the race, and Roth has already said that if he loses the drawing, he plans to request a publicly funded hand recount, which state rules allow within seven days when the margin is 0.5% or less.

A former pre-K classroom aide at a small Cape May County school has been charged with 61 offenses after prosecutors say he filmed himself sexually assaulting multiple young students on campus in New Jersey.

Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey Sutherland announced that 44-year-old Shaun M. Stebbins, who worked at Woodbine Elementary School, now faces 29 counts of manufacturing child pornography, 5 counts of aggravated sexual assault, 13 counts of sexual assault by contact, and 14 counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Investigators say images and videos recovered from his devices appear to show assaults carried out in a school bathroom and during classroom nap time.

A married couple found dead in a North St. Paul home after a reported attack have been identified as Gregory Darnell Thigpen, 41, and his wife, Lisa Louise Thigpen, 37, and police say they are not seeking any other suspects.

North St. Paul police said Gregory was found with an apparent gunshot wound and Lisa with apparent stab wounds after officers responded to an "attack in progress" call at the residence. A 14-month-old granddaughter who was inside the home was not hurt, was evaluated at a hospital, and has since been released to relatives. Investigators said preliminary findings indicate the deaths involved only the couple and that no other suspects are being sought, though autopsy results are still pending.

Democrat Amy Acton has been elected governor of Ohio, defeating Republican Vivek Ramaswamy on Tuesday and becoming the first woman ever to hold the office in a state that had not chosen a Democratic governor in about 20 years.

The Associated Press called the race for Acton on Tuesday night, capping a contest that drew more than $100 million in spending against her and helped push Democrats to control at least 28 governorships nationwide as of 2027. Republicans will still hold majorities in both chambers of the Ohio Legislature, but after this year's elections they will lack the supermajorities needed to override her vetoes without at least some Democratic support.

U.S. stocks surged Wednesday as investors snapped up beaten-down shares after the midterm elections, driving the Dow Jones industrial average up about 1,519 points, or 2.9 percent, in early afternoon trading in New York. The S&P 500 gained 1.8 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 1.9 percent, while benchmark Brent crude oil tumbled more than 8 percent and briefly traded below $95 a barrel for the first time in nearly a month.

Brent settled around $94.60 a barrel, down roughly 8.7 percent on the day, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude closed near $88.10, an 8.3 percent drop that left both benchmarks at their lowest levels since Aug. 31. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield slipped to 4.89 percent from 4.95 percent late Tuesday, signaling a modest move into government bonds. Shares of energy producers and defense contractors lagged badly: ExxonMobil fell about 4.9 percent, ConocoPhillips 5.6 percent, and major defense firms dropped as much as 7 percent.

NASA's Swift space telescope ended its 22-year mission in a fiery plunge over Indonesia on Wednesday morning, reentering Earth's atmosphere at 6:39 a.m. Central near North Sumatra after a failed rescue attempt.

The roughly 3,200-pound observatory largely burned up on the way down, but NASA says some components likely survived and could end up scattered across multiple hemispheres, with tracking support for the reentry provided by the U.S. Space Force. Pennsylvania State University astronomer John Nousek, who led the mission control team, called the reentry "catastrophic" but said his team had "known this day would come."

Minnesota Democrats cemented full control of state government as final counts in all 67 Senate races showed the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party expanding its majority to 39-28, locking in a DFL trifecta with the House and governor's office.

The larger Senate margin comes after Democrats flipped six Republican-held seats while surrendering just one, building on victories that had already delivered them a 77-57 edge in the Minnesota House and re-elected a DFL governor. Republicans now face at least two automatic, publicly funded recounts in tight Senate contests and one in the House, but even potential reversals in those races would not threaten DFL control of either chamber.

Minnesota Democrats cemented full control of state government on Wednesday, as the DFL clinched a 77-57 majority in the Minnesota House, completing a governing trifecta with the governor's office and state Senate.

The new House margin, which includes at least 10 flipped GOP-held districts, ends the 67-67 deadlock that had forced a rare power-sharing arrangement last session and gives the DFL clear authority to set the legislative agenda in St. Paul. With the Senate now standing at 39-28 in favor of Democrats and Gov. Tim Walz already in office, the party holds its first trifecta since 2022, positioning DFL leaders to move more aggressively on their priorities without needing Republican votes.

Peggy Flanagan secured Minnesota's open U.S. Senate seat over Republican Michele Tafoya, powered by lopsided margins in the Twin Cities metro and a handful of regional strongholds, according to nearly complete results.

With 99% of the statewide vote counted, Flanagan holds 1,520,299 votes, or 53.7%, to Tafoya's 1,232,683 votes, or 43.6%, in one of the highest-turnout midterm elections in Minnesota history. A county map of the race shows Tafoya winning 72 of the state's 87 counties, but Flanagan taking 15 high-population counties that produced her winning margin.

Federal investigators confirmed Wednesday that the Learjet 60 that crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida, killing nine people suffered a catastrophic in-flight tail failure that left the crew unable to pull out of a high-speed nose dive.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Tom Chapman said parts of the jet's tail, including its elevator, were found broken into multiple pieces and scattered as far as roughly 3.8 miles from the main impact crater, confirming the aircraft began breaking apart before hitting the ground around 12:50 p.m. on Sunday, November 1, in a neighborhood near Military Trail and 10th Avenue North. Chapman said the loss of an intact elevator would have made it impossible for the pilots to arrest the plunge, and investigators are now focused on why the tail failed as the jet flew through icing and severe turbulence.

Voters in the Robbinsdale Area Schools district narrowly approved a sweeping building referendum worth up to about $360 million, authorizing a major high school and middle school consolidation even as the district confronts a roughly $20-21 million budget deficit linked to an accounting error.

In Tuesday's election, Question 1 passed with 52.9% support, or 25,092 votes, while Question 2 cleared the threshold with 50.47% support, or 23,098 votes, setting the stage for a unified 9-12 high school campus at Cooper in New Hope, the conversion of Armstrong High into Plymouth Middle, and renovation of Sandburg Middle, each designed to serve about 1,100 students. Question 3, which would have funded a new elementary school on the former Robbinsdale Middle School site, failed with 55.8% "no" votes, or 25,326 ballots, leaving that piece of the district's long-range facilities plan unfunded. Officials say the approved projects are intended to cut leased-space costs and expand job-training and work-experience options for students across the west-metro suburban district.

Jordan Collins Sr., the Anoka man recently convicted of murdering his 16-year-old son, has been charged with fourth-degree assault after allegedly punching a correctional deputy in the face inside the Anoka County Jail in August.

Prosecutors say jail surveillance video from August 2 shows Collins "sucker punching" a deputy in the jail's day space while the deputy was conducting routine inmate checks; the deputy was later treated at a hospital, and staff used a Taser to subdue and detain Collins. Collins, who remains in custody, is due for sentencing in the murder case on December 2, and his first court appearance on the new assault charge is scheduled for January 29.

Former Minnesota state senator Nicole Mitchell has been elected to the Woodbury City Council, securing one of two at-large seats in a crowded 10-candidate race that could still face a recount challenge.

Unofficial results show Mitchell finished second with 7,387 votes, or 13.27% of the total, edging out incumbent council member Steve Morris by just 101 votes, a margin narrow enough to allow Morris to request a city-funded recount once the results are canvassed.

Democrats swept every contested statewide office in Texas on Tuesday, Nov. 3, ousting Gov. Greg Abbott and ending more than three decades of uninterrupted Republican control over the state's executive branch.

State Rep. Gina Hinojosa won the governor's race against Abbott, becoming the first Democrat to capture the mansion since 1990 and the third woman to lead Texas, while Democrats also flipped the lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller and agriculture commissioner posts. Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick lost to Democratic state Rep. Vikki Goodwin, and GOP attorney general nominee Mayes Middleton fell to Democratic state Sen. Nathan Johnson, cementing a top-to-bottom statewide rout.

Democrat Rob Sand has won Iowa's governor's race, defeating Republican Zach Lahn and ending a decade of GOP control of the state's top office in an election that contributed to major nationwide gains for Democrats in state governments.

Sand, Iowa's state auditor, captured the open-seat contest to succeed Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, flipping a governorship that Democrats and national party groups had heavily targeted as part of a broader 2026 strategy to regain influence over state policy on issues from abortion to education funding. His victory helped push Democrats to at least 28 governors nationwide starting in 2027, with other pickups in Ohio, Georgia and Texas.

Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms has been elected governor of Georgia, defeating Republican billionaire Rick Jackson on Tuesday in a history-making win that will make her the first Black woman governor in U.S. history and Georgia's first woman governor, flipping the state's top office to Democrats for the first time in nearly three decades.

The Associated Press and major networks called the race for Bottoms on Tuesday night, with unofficial returns early Wednesday showing her leading Jackson 54.2% to 45.8% with about 96.8% of the vote counted, a roughly 8-point margin that mirrors and reverses the GOP's 7.5-point gubernatorial victory four years ago. Once she is sworn in, a record 17 women will be serving as U.S. governors, underscoring a broader shift in gender representation in statewide executive offices. Bottoms told CBS that she learned networks had called the race while she was working on her speech with AirPods in, and that her husband kicked her leg and said, "They called it," as their victory became public.

One person was killed and two others were injured late Wednesday morning when a small helicopter crashed into Biscayne Bay near Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park off Key Biscayne, just southeast of Miami.

The Robinson R44 helicopter went down around 11:15 a.m. local time, prompting a rapid response from local marine units and rescue crews, who pulled the survivors from the water and took them to a nearby hospital while the third occupant was pronounced dead. Authorities did not immediately release the names of the victims or details on their conditions, and there was no early word on a possible cause.

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport's high-profile effort to revamp dozens of restaurants, shops and coffee outlets has stalled after nearly half of the concession packages failed to attract viable bids, forcing officials to shift into direct negotiations with operators to fill the gaps.

Airport documents reviewed by the Metropolitan Airports Commission show such a weak response to the formal bid process that staff can no longer award all of the planned contracts through competitive proposals and must instead approach potential concessionaires one on one. The shift raises questions about how quickly travelers will see the promised overhaul of food and retail options in the terminals and how much leverage the airport will have on rent, investment commitments and local-brand participation.

Two people were found dead from gunshot wounds early Wednesday at Cottage Grove Ravine Regional Park in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, after police responded to reports of shots fired around 6:11 a.m.

Cottage Grove police and the Washington County Sheriff's Office set up a perimeter and closed the park as they launched a joint investigation, speaking with at least one witness at the scene. Authorities said the victims knew each other, the shooting does not appear random, and there is no active threat to the wider community.

Progressive Democrat William Lawrence has unseated first-term Republican Rep. Tom Barrett in Michigan's 7th Congressional District, flipping a key battleground seat that both parties saw as critical to control of the US House.

CBS News projected Lawrence as the winner on Wednesday afternoon, after a hard-fought race centered on the cost of living, local economic development, and his challenge to the political establishment in both parties. Lawrence had faced late scrutiny over past social media posts calling to defund the police and attacking Sen. Joe Manchin, which he disavowed during the campaign as he sought to assure swing voters in the Lansing-area district.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday quietly rejected the Trump administration's last-minute bid to force California to segregate mail ballots linked to about 20,000 people federal agencies labeled as likely noncitizens, leaving those ballots to be processed under normal state procedures on the eve of the midterm elections.

In a one-line, unsigned order issued Monday, November 2, the court denied the Justice Department's emergency application without asking California for a response and with no recorded dissents, preserving lower-court rulings that found the federal request unworkable, unlawful so close to Election Day, and based on an error-prone list that risked disenfranchising lawful voters. The Trump administration, through Solicitor General D. John Sauer, had argued that setting aside the ballots was needed to prevent alleged noncitizen votes from diluting valid ballots, warning that once mail ballots are verified, separated from their envelopes and counted, any ineligible votes become impossible to remove.

Republican Rep. Byron Donalds has been elected governor of Florida, defeating Democrat David Jolly on Tuesday and making history as both the state's first Black governor and the first Black Republican ever elected governor of any U.S. state.

Unofficial returns with about 97% of the vote counted late Tuesday showed Donalds with roughly 49.8% of the vote to Jolly's 49.0%, an unexpectedly narrow margin in a state Republicans have dominated in recent cycles. In a victory speech in South Florida, Donalds thanked President Donald Trump and told supporters, "I want you to hear from Florida that we are still red," underscoring that Trump's adopted home state remains in Republican hands.

French blood banks say they thwarted a potentially catastrophic cyberattack on their plasma cold-storage sites this week, the latest target in a wave of hacks that have already sabotaged supermarket freezers across several European countries.

The French Blood Establishment (EFS) said that on Monday, November 2, hackers broke into systems at its refrigeration supplier and tried to push temperature and defrost settings at three plasma storage facilities far above safe levels, but internal monitoring alarms triggered in time and staff secured or moved products before any were lost. The satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné reported that the attackers attempted to reset plasma from its normal -22°F (-30°C) to around 230°F (110°C), a level that would have destroyed stocks vital for transfusions and some therapies. EFS said in a statement Tuesday that no blood products or samples were compromised, collections and deliveries are continuing as normal, and France's national cybersecurity agency and Health Ministry have opened an investigation.

Black candidates won governors races in Georgia, Florida, Wisconsin and Maryland on Tuesday, ushering in a historic wave of Black executive leadership in statehouses and shattering multiple racial and gender barriers across the country.

In Georgia, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms was elected governor, making her both the first Black woman governor in U.S. history and the first woman ever to lead Georgia. Republican Byron Donalds won Florida's governor's race and is set to become the state's first Black governor and the first Black Republican governor in the nation. In Wisconsin, Democrat David Crowley defeated Republican Tom Tiffany, while in Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore secured a second term; in Nevada, Democrat Aaron Ford held a lead of more than 70,000 votes in his gubernatorial race as of Wednesday afternoon. Once Bottoms is sworn in, a record 17 women will be serving as U.S. governors nationwide.

Democrat James Talarico has won Texas' U.S. Senate race over Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, flipping a long-held Republican seat on Tuesday and shattering the GOP's three-decade lock on statewide offices in the state.

The Associated Press call late Tuesday made Paxton the first Republican to lose a Texas U.S. Senate contest since the 1990s, capping what the Texas Tribune describes as a broader "blue tsunami" in which Democrats swept every statewide office on the ballot. Unofficial results with about 94% of votes counted early Wednesday showed Talarico leading 54.9% to 43.2%, an 11.7-point margin that represents nearly a 20-point swing from Republican Sen. Ted Cruz's 8.5-point win in the 2024 Senate race. Talarico told "CBS Mornings" that his victory sends a message to billionaire Elon Musk, who poured money into pro-Paxton efforts, saying Texas voters rejected that level of outside influence.

Defense lawyers for Tyler Robinson, the man accused of murdering conservative activist Charlie Kirk, have asked a Utah judge to bar still and video cameras from a November 9 courtroom hearing in Provo, arguing that a recent social media post by President Donald Trump attacking the judge has already inflamed the case.

In an October 30 filing, Robinson's team opposed a request from Court TV to video-record and livestream the upcoming hearing, which is expected to focus only on scheduling, with no witnesses or evidence presented. The motion cites a late-October Truth Social post in which Trump blasted 4th District Judge Tony Graf as "doing a terrible job," demanded a much faster trial, and called for "JUSTICE FOR CHARLIE," arguing that electronic media coverage layered on top of such political pressure risks further poisoning the future jury pool. Robinson's lawyers acknowledge the November 9 session is "largely administrative" but say cameras would turn even a routine scheduling discussion into fodder for nationwide commentary driven by the president's remarks. Judge Graf, who has previously allowed cameras over similar objections, had not ruled on the latest request as of earlier this week.

A Russian airstrike using heavy bunker-busting bombs on a humanitarian aid center in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region has killed at least 40 people, with more than 30 others feared buried in the ruins of an old school building that doubled as a shelter and aid hub, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday. He called the November 2 strike in the frontline village of Komyshuvakha an "insane attack" and renewed urgent appeals for more Western air defenses as rescuers continued to work through the rubble.

Zelenskyy said Russia dropped nine bombs on the school-turned-distribution site, striking once as civilians queued for aid and again as first responders and police arrived, an apparent "double tap" tactic that Kyiv officials denounced as a deliberate effort to maximize casualties. Earlier, regional officials reported that the dead included four police officers and two rescue workers and that at least five people were injured, prompting authorities in Zaporizhzhia to declare three days of mourning. Russia's Defense Ministry insisted it had targeted Ukrainian military personnel in the area and claimed, without evidence, that up to 25 service members were killed, while repeating that it does not intentionally strike civilians.

The United States carried out limited airstrikes on Iranian surface-to-air missile sites around the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, November 2, hitting targets on Qeshm and Hengam islands and near the port city of Bandar Abbas just hours before Americans went to the polls for Tuesday's midterm elections.

U.S. officials described the operation as a defensive response after Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps units used surface-to-air missiles against an American aircraft and other U.S. forces operating in the strategic waterway. Iranian state media reported explosions and what it called a "limited strike" on the three locations but did not detail the damage, while senior Iranian figures warned that further U.S. "miscalculations" could open a "new battlefield" and vowed that future responses would have no geographic limits.

France deployed about 70,000 police and gendarmes across the country on Saturday, October 31, as roughly 320,000 people marched in a third straight weekend of youth-led protests over the cost of living and education.

Authorities rerouted the main Paris demonstration to the capital's eastern edge along the Boulevards des Maréchaux, from Porte de Bagnolet to Porte de Charenton, where about 70,000 people took part under heavy security staffed in part by CGT union stewards at the head of the march. The Interior Ministry said roughly 300 people had been arrested nationwide by Saturday evening, fewer than the approximately 800 arrests at the same point a week earlier, and warned of a "very high risk" of disorder after dark on Halloween, as police fired stun grenades and tear gas near Porte de Charenton after some protesters threw bottles and fireworks.

Five candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America won U.S. House races on Tuesday, November 3, in contests called by the Associated Press across New York, Colorado, Michigan and Pennsylvania, expanding the left-wing group's foothold in Congress and potentially complicating Democrats' choice of the next House speaker.

The projected winners are Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez in New York, Melat Kiros in Colorado, Donavan McKinney in Michigan, and Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania, all of whom ran on campaigns for universal health care and childcare, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and ending U.S. military aid to Israel while rejecting corporate and pro-Israel lobbying money. Several secured their seats by defeating long-serving Democrats in primaries, including Kiros unseating 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette in Denver and Avila Chevalier ousting New York Rep. Adriano Espaillat, signaling a leftward shift in parts of the party's base. None of the incoming DSA-endorsed lawmakers has committed to backing Rep. Hakeem Jeffries for House speaker, a stance that could give them leverage if Democrats emerge with only a slim majority when the new Congress convenes in January.

Democrat Adam Hamilton has defeated Republican Sen. Roger Marshall in Kansas's U.S. Senate race, flipping a longtime GOP seat in one of the biggest surprises of the 2026 midterm elections.

With nearly all votes counted in unofficial returns early Wednesday, Hamilton led Marshall 51.0% to 46.0%, a margin of about 54,000 votes, with roughly 95% of precincts reporting. The upset win in a state that backed Donald Trump by about 16 points in the 2024 presidential race immediately elevated Hamilton as a symbol of Democrats' strong night nationwide.

Democrat Annie Andrews has been projected to unseat appointed Republican Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina, flipping a ruby-red U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday and delivering Democrats one of their most surprising gains of the 2026 midterms.

The Fox News Decision Desk and the Associated Press called the race Tuesday night, making Andrews the first Democrat in nearly three decades to win a Senate election in South Carolina and the first woman the state has ever sent to the chamber. Her victory turns a seat in a state Donald Trump carried by nearly 18 points in 2024 into a critical pickup for Democrats as they vie to reclaim a Senate majority.

Democrat Xavier Becerra has won California's governor's race over Republican Steve Hilton, CBS News projected Tuesday night, securing the state's top office and extending Democrats' long hold on the nation's most populous state.

Becerra, California's attorney general and a former US congressman, will succeed termed-out Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and become the first Latino governor to lead the state since Romualdo Pacheco more than 150 years ago. An October UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies/Los Angeles Times poll had shown him with a commanding 61% to 34% lead among likely voters, signaling the depth of his advantage in a state where Democrats enjoy a large voter registration edge.

Democrat Paige Cognetti, the mayor of Scranton, unseated Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan on Tuesday in Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District, flipping the northeastern Pennsylvania seat in a closely watched U.S. House race.

The Associated Press called the race for Cognetti at 10:41 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, cementing a defeat for Bresnahan as he sought a second term representing the district, which includes Scranton and surrounding communities.

Melat Kiros, a Democratic Socialist attorney backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, won a U.S. House seat on Tuesday, becoming the first Gen Z woman elected to Congress and signaling a sharp leftward jolt inside the Democratic coalition.

Kiros was elected in Tuesday's midterm elections as part of a slate of at least five DSA-endorsed candidates who captured House seats after campaigning on universal health care, universal childcare and an uncompromising antiwar message. The group refused corporate donations and money from pro-Israel political action committees, and made opposition to the war in Gaza and calls to cut off U.S. military aid to Israel central to their appeals to voters.

Democrat Bob Brooks defeated Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie on Tuesday to win Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District, unseating the first-term incumbent and flipping the Lehigh Valley-based U.S. House seat to the Democrats.

The Associated Press called the race for Brooks at 10:27 p.m. Eastern on Election Night, cementing one of Pennsylvania's most closely watched congressional contests in a year when control of the narrowly divided House could hinge on a handful of suburban swing districts.

Democrat Janelle Stelson defeated Republican Rep. Scott Perry on Tuesday in Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District, unseating the former House Freedom Caucus chair in a closely watched U.S. House race.

The Associated Press called the race for Stelson at 10:41 p.m. Eastern, handing Democrats a key pickup in a swing district centered on Harrisburg and ending Perry's bid for an eighth term in Congress.

Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has won reelection in Arizona, with CBS News projecting Tuesday night that she defeated Republican Rep. Andy Biggs in a closely watched governor's race that tested the state's political direction two years after it backed Donald Trump by about five points.

The projection came late Tuesday as votes were still being counted, but Hobbs maintained a durable edge over Biggs despite his backing from Trump, who had carried the state in 2024 and campaigned for the congressman. Hobbs' victory gives Democrats another four years in the governor's office in Phoenix and blocks Republicans, who control the Legislature, from installing an ally who has echoed Trump's false claims about the 2020 election.

Democrat Zach Dembo won Kentucky's 6th Congressional District on Tuesday, defeating Republican Ralph Alvarado and flipping a strongly Republican U.S. House seat that had been vacated by GOP Rep. Andy Barr.

The Associated Press called the race for Dembo at 10:16 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, securing Democrats a surprise pickup in a district long considered safe for Republicans. Dembo, a former U.S. Navy lawyer and federal prosecutor backed by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, defeated Alvarado, a physician who was the first Hispanic person to serve in the Kentucky state legislature. The New York Times also reported Dembo's victory over Alvarado in the Republican-leaning district on Tuesday night.

Ballot counting in New York's Westchester County was thrown into disarray on Tuesday when ballot scanners across the county would not accept paper ballots because of a programming glitch, forcing officials to collect votes by hand and delaying results in several races, including the closely watched 17th Congressional District contest.

The malfunction appeared as polls opened, when optical scanners at sites around the suburban county north of New York City began rejecting ballots, prompting election workers to shift to emergency procedures and reassure voters their paper ballots would still be counted. A judge quickly authorized officials to place the completed ballots in sealed bags, transport them under police escort to a secure county warehouse, and scan them there, a workaround that officials said would preserve ballot security but push full results back until at least Wednesday.

Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has won back his Ohio U.S. Senate seat, defeating Republican Sen. Jon Husted on Tuesday and flipping the seat back to Democrats in a key pickup for the party.

CBS News projected Brown as the winner Tuesday night, delivering Democrats a symbolic victory in a state that had shifted right in recent years and tightening their fight for control of the Senate. Brown's win unseats Husted, who was running statewide as an appointed incumbent for the first time and had the backing of national Republican groups.

Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was barred from driving for six months after pleading no contest Tuesday to a misdemeanor hit-and-run charge stemming from a crash in California's Napa Valley.

A Napa County judge imposed the driving prohibition as part of Pelosi's sentence for striking a parked Tesla in Yountville, a small town near the Pelosis' Napa Valley estate, and then leaving the scene. Prosecutors had charged the 86-year-old with a misdemeanor hit-and-run; his no-contest plea carries the same legal effect as a guilty plea for sentencing.

Democrat Rebecca Bennett defeated two-term Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. on Tuesday in New Jersey's 7th Congressional District, flipping a key suburban House seat that includes former President Donald Trump's Bedminster golf club and further weakening Republicans' hold on the chamber.

The race was called by major outlets, including Fox News and PBS, as results showed Bennett ousting Kean in one of the nation's most closely watched swing districts at a time when GOP aides were already describing emerging House returns as a "bloodbath" for their party. Bennett ran on frustration over stubbornly high prices, opposition to the U.S. war in Iran, and a promise to rein in Trump's aggressive use of import tariffs, while Kean aligned himself with Trump's economic record and support for the war.

Democratic socialist Janeese Lewis George was elected mayor of Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, becoming the city's first new leader in 12 years in a race with no major-party opposition.

Lewis George, a D.C. councilmember and outspoken progressive, defeated an independent candidate, a D.C. Statehood Green Party nominee and 11 write-in contenders in the general election and will take office January 2 as only the District's eighth mayor since Congress granted limited home rule in 1973. Her victory follows an earlier win in the Democratic primary, which effectively decided the race in the overwhelmingly Democratic city.

Live vote counts are coming in Tuesday night for Minnesota Senate Districts 51 through 60, a key stretch of suburban and outstate seats that could decide whether Democrats keep or lose their one-seat majority at the Capitol.

FOX 9 is updating results for these 10 districts in real time after polls closed at 8 p.m., using data from the Associated Press and the Minnesota Secretary of State as precincts report.

Virginia voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment establishing a fundamental right to reproductive freedom, cementing protections for abortion, contraception and fertility care in the only Southern state that had not moved to restrict abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

The measure, approved in Tuesday's election, guarantees access to abortion during the first two trimesters and allows abortions in the third trimester when needed to protect the life or health of the pregnant woman, subject to regulation. It also explicitly protects Virginians' access to birth control and fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization by writing those rights into the state constitution, putting them beyond the reach of ordinary legislation.

Maryland voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment that loosens redistricting rules for the state's U.S. House seats while preserving tighter standards for Maryland legislative maps, a shift that could give Democrats more leeway in future congressional line-drawing.

The measure, backed by top state Democrats and supported nationally by former President Barack Obama, changes Maryland's constitution so that compactness and natural-boundary requirements explicitly apply only to state House and Senate districts, not to the boundaries for Maryland's eight U.S. House districts. Supporters argued the change was needed to give Maryland more flexibility to counter aggressive GOP gerrymanders in Republican-controlled states, framing it as a response to efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to lock in House majorities through redistricting.

Tens of millions of Americans cast ballots in Tuesday's midterm elections with no major disruptions reported nationwide, even as the Trump administration's Justice Department mounted an unprecedented deployment of about 1,000 poll monitors to sites in all 50 states.

The Justice Department called the operation the largest election-monitoring effort in its history and said personnel from the Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorneys' Offices were on the ground to watch for voter intimidation or discrimination, an expansion of a program that has existed in some form since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon was quoted by the DOJ's Civil Rights Division account as saying she was "very proud we are deploying the largest monitoring effort in DOJ history" and described election integrity as a top priority. Early in-person voting overall appeared orderly despite localized problems, including flooding in parts of Florida and the Four Corners region that forced some polling locations to move or rely on emergency paper ballots.

Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens' surprise endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan's Senate race has sparked a backlash inside her own party and coincided with a record one-day fundraising surge for Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, reshaping the race just 48 hours before Election Day.

On Sunday, November 1, Stevens released a video announcing she would back Rogers, appeared with him and his wife at a Detroit-area church, and said El-Sayed had told her she was "no longer welcome" in his campaign. El-Sayed, campaigning separately at a "Souls to the Polls" church event in Detroit, publicly brushed off the defection even as his team reported raising more than $2.4 million that day from over 65,000 donors, nearly half of them first-time contributors, which the campaign called a single-day record and evidence that Stevens' move had galvanized his supporters.

Trump administration officials on Tuesday vowed an aggressive post-election hunt for noncitizen voters nationwide, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement warning on social media that anyone who cast a ballot illegally would be arrested and prosecuted.

In a Fox News interview, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the Department of Homeland Security would obtain voter logs from across the country after polls close and match them against federal immigration databases to ensure "no illegals voted," echoing ICE's Election Day warning that "we will find you." The remarks prompted sharp partisan reactions, with conservative commentators praising the effort as overdue enforcement and Democratic officials accusing the administration of voter intimidation.

Democrat Chris Pappas won New Hampshire's open U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday, defeating Republican John E. Sununu and becoming the first openly gay man ever elected to the Senate, in a closely watched race that could help decide control of the chamber.

The Associated Press called the race for Pappas on Tuesday evening, confirming that the 46-year-old congressman will succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen when she leaves office after three terms. Speaking to supporters in Manchester, Pappas cast his victory as a demand from voters for change in Washington, saying the campaign unfolded "against the backdrop of chaos, corruption and costs coming out of Washington" and that New Hampshire had voted for a "course correction." He argued that his win showed "Washington needs a new generation at the table to fix things."

Democrat Roy Cooper has won North Carolina's open U.S. Senate seat, defeating Republican Michael Whatley on Tuesday and flipping the longtime GOP-held seat to Democrats in one of the night's marquee contests.

CBS News and NPR projected Cooper the winner over Whatley, a former Republican National Committee chairman, in a race that became a test of Donald Trump's continued pull in a battleground state he narrowly carried in 2024. Cooper, 69, ran on a kitchen-table economic pledge to "make stuff cost less," while Whatley, 57, campaigned as a loyal Trump ally promising to advance the former president's agenda and conservative priorities.

Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff has won reelection in Georgia, with the Associated Press and major television networks calling Tuesday's U.S. Senate race in his favor over Republican Rep. Mike Collins in the closely watched battleground state.

The AP call on Tuesday, November 3, secures another six-year term for Ossoff and preserves Democrats' lone Senate seat in a state that Donald Trump carried in the 2024 presidential election. CBS and other networks also projected Ossoff the winner over Collins, whom Trump had endorsed in the GOP primary, as returns showed the Democrat winning by a far more comfortable margin than his first narrow victory in 2021.

Fairfield police have arrested 17-year-old Monte Smith and charged him with two counts of murder in the October 30 shooting inside a Spirit Halloween store at the Solano Town Center mall that killed a pregnant mother of four and wounded six other people.

Prosecutors in Solano County say they will ask a judge to move Smith's case from juvenile to adult court, arguing he should face adult penalties if convicted in the killing of 31-year-old Constance Hages, who died at the scene. Police say Smith was arrested November 2 at a home in nearby Suisun City after a school resource officer recognized him from store surveillance video as a former student and flagged him to detectives.

The FBI has formally tied last week's $6.3 billion theft from crypto giant Binance to North Korea's state-linked TraderTraitor hacking unit, as rattled customers pull billions of dollars off the platform and Pyongyang angrily denies involvement.

In a public advisory on Saturday, October 31, the bureau called the Binance theft the biggest crypto hack in history, warned that TraderTraitor is rapidly converting much of the haul into ethereum, and urged exchanges and other companies to block transactions from listed wallet addresses to slow the laundering. Binance says hackers moved about $6.36 billion out of its hot wallets across ten blockchains in roughly 20 minutes on or about October 29, and that with help from issuers and blockchain partners about $3 billion has been frozen while roughly $2.4 billion in bitcoin and ether is already being laundered through mixers and conversion services.

Democrat Jamie Ager has defeated Republican Jennifer Balkcom in North Carolina's 11th Congressional District, flipping the longtime GOP stronghold and delivering Democrats a key U.S. House pickup on Tuesday.

The race call by PBS NewsHour and the Associated Press on Tuesday night confirms that Ager will succeed Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards, turning a historically Republican seat in western North Carolina blue. CBS News had already projected a Democratic gain in the district earlier in the evening, and the PBS/AP confirmation adds an independent call to what had been one of the night's closely watched House contests.

Democrat Pia Dandiya flipped Florida's 22nd Congressional District on Tuesday, as the Associated Press projected her the winner over Republican Casey Askar in a Trump-leaning, newly drawn seat that had been expected to favor the GOP.

Dandiya, an education nonprofit executive from Palm Beach Gardens, defeated Askar, a Naples businessman and former Marine, in the open-seat race, handing Democrats a symbolic and potentially consequential pickup in a district that Donald Trump carried by 10 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.

Democrat JB Pritzker has won a third term as Illinois governor, defeating Republican challenger Darren Bailey in Tuesday's election and cementing Democratic control of the state as national attention turns toward 2028.

Speaking to supporters in Chicago after the race was called Tuesday night, Pritzker cast his victory as proof that "hope is winning out over fear," framing his agenda on issues like abortion access, gun control and state finances as a contrast to Bailey's conservative platform. His win makes him the first Democrat ever elected to a third gubernatorial term in Illinois, reinforcing the state's recent trend toward solidly blue statewide politics.

Republican Sen. Ashley Moody won Florida's special U.S. Senate election on Tuesday, defeating Democrat Angie Nixon and keeping the battleground state's seat in GOP hands for the remainder of former Sen. Marco Rubio's term.

The Associated Press called the race for Moody on Tuesday evening, cementing her hold on a seat she was appointed to in 2025 and allowing her to serve about two more years before she can run for a full six-year term in 2028. Her victory preserves Republicans' advantage in a state former President Donald Trump carried by 13 points in 2024 and that the party has come to see as a reliable part of its Senate firewall.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia won a fourth term to the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, defeating Republican challenger Bert Mizusawa in a race quickly called by the Associated Press after polls closed statewide.

The AP declared Warner the winner at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, cementing his return to Washington, where he is expected to continue serving as vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, a key post overseeing U.S. intelligence agencies and foreign threats.

Democrat Juliana Stratton won Illinois's open U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday, defeating Republican Don Tracy and becoming part of a trailblazing trio of Black women who will serve in the chamber at the same time.

Stratton, Illinois's lieutenant governor, will succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, who is stepping down after five terms, making her only the second Black woman ever to represent Illinois in the Senate and helping create a record-setting class of three Black women senators.

Floodwaters that ravaged the Four Corners region over the past two weeks were finally beginning to recede on Tuesday, but rivers in parts of New Mexico remained above flood stage, whole neighborhoods in Colorado and Arizona were left buried in mud, and officials warned that the human and financial toll from more than 20 trillion gallons of rain is only starting to come into focus.

In San Juan County, New Mexico, where major rivers near Shiprock and Farmington were still running high on Tuesday, evacuation orders that have displaced at least 20,000 people could soon be lifted as the county shifts from emergency response to cleanup, a spokesperson said. Across the region, skies were clearing but downtown streets in hard-hit towns like Pagosa Springs, Colorado, remained closed while heavy equipment scraped away thick layers of mud, splintered homes, and broken bridges left behind by successive storms that also disrupted voting and prompted statewide and federal disaster requests.

Deschutes County officials on Tuesday released the 911 recording of Oregon father Kaylub Giamanco, who called from outside Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend as he moved to confront and fatally shoot a teenage gunman inside a special-needs classroom.

The call, made during the Oct. 15 attack and released Nov. 3 under a public-records request, captures Giamanco telling the dispatcher, "I have a gun and I will shoot them right now" and "I'm about to go kill this kid," moments before he entered the school through an open window and shot the assailant. In later remarks referenced in the new reporting, he describes himself as the "last line of defense" and calls the staff member grappling with the shooter "a real true hero."

President Donald Trump on Tuesday reiterated that the United States will suspend roughly $4 billion in annual grant aid to Israel beginning in 2027, saying Washington will keep selling weapons to its longtime ally but end direct military assistance payments.

Speaking as Americans voted in the midterm elections, Trump cast the move as the next step in reshaping the U.S.-Israel security relationship, emphasizing that Israel will continue to have access to U.S. arms through commercial sales rather than guaranteed grants. PBS NewsHour, which first reported the comments on Tuesday, stressed that the White House is planning a suspension of grant-based aid rather than a full cutoff of military support.

A federal judge in Anchorage has thrown out the Trump administration's bid to block certification of Alaska's U.S. Senate race if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses, even as the Justice Department is escalating a parallel criminal probe into an alleged same-name spoiler scheme targeting the contest.

In a 20-page order issued Sunday, November 1, U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason ruled that the federal government lacked authority to bring the civil suit and had offered "no workable plan" to separate ballots cast for independent candidate Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. without violating ballot secrecy and Alaska's constitutional control over its own elections. Gleason rejected the Justice Department's attempt to rely on the preamble of the National Voter Registration Act and to use federal law and the Constitution's Supremacy Clause to justify an order halting certification if Democrat Mary Peltola narrowly prevailed, a remedy she said would intrude on state authority. DOJ attorneys are expected to appeal, while conservative commentators online attacked the decision as a partisan move by an "Obama-appointed judge" and urged Alaskans to "vote for the REAL Dan Sullivan."

A child in New York has died after contracting measles, the state's first measles-related death in more than 30 years, health officials said Tuesday, underscoring renewed concern about vaccine-preventable diseases.

State authorities announced the death on November 3 but did not release the child's age, where in New York the child lived, or the child's vaccination status, citing privacy concerns and ongoing public health investigations. Officials said more details would be shared with local providers and health systems as contact tracing and exposure assessments proceed, and urged families to review their immunization records and ensure children are up to date on the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Greenland's parliament on Tuesday approved a new security pact with Denmark and the United States that clears the way for an expanded American military presence and additional bases on the Arctic island, while affirming it remains under Danish control.

The Inatsisartut, Greenland's parliament, backed the trilateral agreement in Nuuk by a vote of 16-0, with seven lawmakers abstaining, sending the deal on to Denmark's Folketing for debate and ratification. The State Department hailed the outcome as "another major victory for American national security," saying the accord will strengthen US defenses and strategic reach in the rapidly changing Arctic region. The pact is written to continue in force even if Greenland eventually becomes independent, locking in US access regardless of the island's future status.

Two helicopters operated by Nepal's Air Dynasty and Fishtail Air collided just above the Pheriche helipad below Mount Everest base camp on Tuesday morning, killing an Indian tourist and injuring at least three other people, officials said.

The crash occurred around 8:12 a.m. Tuesday at the high-altitude Pheriche helipad, about 12 kilometers south of Everest Base Camp in Nepal's Solukhumbu District, as one Airbus AS350 helicopter carried rescued passengers and the other transported cargo, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN). One passenger, 47-year-old Indian national Vasanth Kumar Balaramudu of Chennai, died, while New Zealander Shailesh Krishna Patel and pilots Rabindra Prajapati of Fishtail Air and Prajwol KC of Air Dynasty were injured and airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment.

Voters in 40 states are weighing 145 proposed laws and constitutional amendments Tuesday that could reshape abortion access, how congressional maps are drawn and what identification is required to cast a ballot in future US elections.

The measures on the Nov. 3 ballot are part of 164 statewide initiatives certified for 2026, a total near the modern average, but the mix this year places unusually heavy emphasis on reproductive rights, voting rules and who controls the mechanics of elections. In several closely watched states, both supporters and opponents have poured millions into campaigns that treat these ballot questions as stand-ins for larger national fights over democracy, culture and political power.

An Oklahoma City man has been charged in federal court with orchestrating a nationwide campaign of hundreds of white-powder letters sent to election officials, members of Congress and other public figures ahead of the 2024 and 2026 elections.

A criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma names 47-year-old Robin Patrick Martin and charges him with conveying false or misleading information and hoaxes and mailing threatening communications; he was scheduled for an initial court appearance the same day. An FBI affidavit alleges Martin sent more than 700 envelopes containing white powder and ultraviolet-ink threats to officials of both parties, media outlets, pollsters and senior law-enforcement leaders including FBI Director Kash Patel, prompting evacuations at election offices in states such as Louisiana and Oklahoma but ultimately testing negative for hazardous substances.

A federal judge in New York has temporarily blocked the Biden administration from deporting nearly 200 Afghan nationals via a charter flight routed through Pakistan to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, halting an operation that immigrant advocates say could send former U.S. allies into grave danger.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan barred the government from deporting Afghan nationals to either Afghanistan or Pakistan through Saturday, Nov. 7, after a Justice Department lawyer told the court that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had "no planned or confirmed chartered or commercial flights" for Afghans this week. The order means a charter flight that ICE had scheduled to leave Alexandria, Louisiana, on Tuesday for Pakistan did not take off, even as detainees report being told the flight could be rescheduled within one or two weeks.

Conservative justices on the US Supreme Court signaled Tuesday that they are likely to let two Denver-area Catholic preschools join Colorado's taxpayer-funded universal preschool program while continuing to turn away children from LGBTQ+ families.

During nearly two hours of oral argument in St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy in Washington, several members of the court's 6-3 conservative majority pressed Colorado on why its LGBTQ nondiscrimination rule should apply to religious schools whose beliefs condemn same-sex marriage, suggesting the policy functions as a backdoor exclusion from a generally available public benefit. Justice Brett Kavanaugh called the requirement that participating schools give all families an "equal opportunity" to enroll regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity a "provocation," and floated a "win-win" in which Catholic preschools receive an exemption because families could choose among roughly 2,000 other providers in the program while only 34 are Catholic. Colorado's lawyer countered that the state "welcomes" religious preschools into the program as long as they follow the same rules as all other publicly funded providers and warned that preschools are not interchangeable, citing at least one child rejected under the policy and parents who need particular hours or sibling placements.

Minnesota voters are deciding Tuesday whether to change the state constitution to increase annual withdrawals from the $2.3 billion Permanent School Fund, a move that could send tens of millions of additional dollars to public schools each year.

The ballot question asks whether to boost the fund's yearly distribution to 4.5 percent, calculated on a three-year rolling average of the fund's value, instead of continuing with the smaller payout now written into the constitution. The proposal follows a formal recommendation from the Minnesota School Fund Task Force, which concluded that a 4.5 percent rate using a three-year average best balances predictable support for schools with protecting the fund's long-term health.

Live vote counting is set to begin Tuesday night in Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District, where Democrat Matt Little and Republican state Sen. Eric Pratt are competing for an open US House seat in the south metro suburbs.

The Associated Press is expected to start reporting results shortly after polls close at 8 p.m. Central, with the race drawing extra attention because it will determine who replaces Democratic Rep. Angie Craig, who chose not to seek another term. The district covers all of Dakota and Scott counties and parts of Washington County, including a mix of fast-growing suburbs, exurbs and small towns south of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Minnesota voters are deciding Tuesday whether to give Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon a fourth term or turn the office over to Republican challenger Tad Jude, with FOX 9 posting live, AP-powered results once polls close at 8 p.m. statewide.

The down-ballot contest will shape how Minnesota runs and safeguards elections over the next four years, as Simon defends his record of expanding access to the ballot while Jude campaigns on tightening voting rules and restoring confidence among skeptics of the system.

St. Paul police arrested 35-year-old David Saw on Sunday, Nov. 1, near the 200 block of Cottage Avenue after a report of streetlight copper theft, marking at least his seventh such arrest in about a year.

Officers said they found tools commonly used to strip and steal wire on Saw and recovered a bag of insulated copper nearby, and he is now charged under a new Ramsey County criminal complaint that highlights his repeat arrests.

Spain's transport minister, Oscar Puente, resigned on Tuesday, saying he could not stay in office after two deadly high-speed rail crashes on the same Madrid-Seville line this year, including last week's collision that killed 69 people near Urda in central Spain.

Announcing his decision in parliament six days after the October 28 crash, Puente told lawmakers that "a transport minister in a country like Spain cannot remain in office after two accidents of this seriousness in less than a year," directly tying his exit to both the October disaster and a January wreck that killed 46. Earlier on Tuesday, he outlined new safety steps, including better staffing and conditions in control centers and a faster rollout of the European Rail Traffic Management System, a digital signaling and protection network he said should be accelerated across Spain's high-speed lines.

The Justice Department on Monday released new survey data showing that Americans experienced about 25% fewer violent crime victimizations in 2025 than in 2024, a sharp drop officials say confirms that serious violence is falling nationwide.

The preliminary 2025 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) estimates roughly 669,000 fewer violent crimes, excluding simple assaults, including a 31% decline in aggravated assault victimization, or about 390,000 fewer incidents, along with double-digit drops in robbery and major categories of property crime such as burglary and motor vehicle theft. The results, drawn from 101,980 household interviews with a 53% completion rate, broadly align with FBI figures showing that reported violent crime fell in 2025 and the murder rate hit a 20-year low, a trend the Trump White House has made central to its midterm-election message.

The Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged in a 3.75%-4% range at its policy meeting in Washington on Wednesday, October 28, even as fresh government data show inflation has re-accelerated to 3.6% and the economy grew at a strong 3.4% annual rate last quarter.

Fed officials said they are not backing away from their inflation fight and signaled that another rate hike at their December meeting is likely on the table, a view reinforced by Thursday's hotter-than-expected inflation and GDP reports. Two policymakers, Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, broke with the majority and voted for an immediate quarter-point increase, underscoring internal concern that price pressures may be firming again.

Anthropic, one of the world's largest artificial-intelligence firms, filed to go public on Monday, October 26, applying to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker "ANT" in an initial public offering that could value the company between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion despite massive losses and unusually stark warnings that its own technology could someday pose "catastrophic or existential risks to humanity."

In a 335-page Form S-1 registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the San Francisco-based company revealed a net loss of $80.7 billion in the first half of 2026, driven largely by fair-value changes on complex financing instruments, atop rapidly rising operating losses and surging revenue that reached $33.2 billion in the first nine months of 2026. The filing devotes 93 pages to risk factors, far more than SpaceX's 38-page risk section, and warns that Anthropic's models could be misused to design chemical weapons, assist authoritarian crackdowns or, if AI capabilities outstrip the company's ability to control them, help autonomous systems inflict harm "independently and at scale without human intervention." The S-1 does not yet specify how many shares will be sold or at what price, but says the deal could come as soon as November on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, amid sharp swings in other AI-linked stocks.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., late Monday ordered the Justice Department to limit its Election Day poll monitors to unarmed civilian staff without arrest powers, rejecting a bid by the NAACP to bar federal monitors outright but sharply curbing who can be sent and what they can do.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton ruled that all monitors deployed today must be administrative or clerical DOJ employees rather than sworn law enforcement officers, and must be unarmed, out of uniform, and barred from making arrests or displaying federal insignia at polling places. He also ordered the department to file a report by 7 a.m. Eastern Tuesday detailing how it screened personnel to ensure no one with general arrest authority would be used, and said monitors may not interact directly with voters inside polling locations.

Virginia and the District of Columbia asked a federal judge in Washington over the weekend to immediately block construction of President Donald Trump's proposed 250-foot memorial arch near the Potomac River, warning it would cause "irreparable" harm if work begins as early as Thursday.

In a 45-page lawsuit filed Saturday, October 31, in U.S. District Court, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb and Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones called the project "flagrantly unlawful" and urged Judge Tanya Chutkan to issue an emergency order before the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) meets Thursday, November 5, when the administration says it will seek final approval and may move bulldozers in the same day. The suit argues the three-year building period would choke the main traffic artery between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, disrupt cross-river emergency response, and increase pollution and stormwater runoff into the Potomac River; Chutkan ordered the parties late Saturday to quickly agree on a briefing schedule for a temporary restraining order.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is asking a federal judge to rein in the Justice Department's use of a key informant in its fraud case against the civil rights group, arguing prosecutors have effectively made the witness part of the prosecution team while letting him control which evidence is preserved.

In a motion filed Wednesday, October 28, in federal court, SPLC lawyers requested an order requiring the informant, identified only as "F-9," to preserve documents and to make him available for defense subpoenas, saying he has a "house full of documents" and has discussed plans to "shred" some of them. The filing alleges the Justice Department allowed F-9, a former SPLC informant, to decide which documents, recordings and photos to turn over despite his extensive, ongoing collaboration with investigators.

Federal prosecutors in Washington have urged a federal judge to keep sealed the search warrant and related documents from the October 12 search of Rep. Ilhan Omar's home, arguing in a Tuesday court filing that public release could jeopardize an active criminal investigation and any future charging decisions.

In a 47-page filing submitted by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the Justice Department said requests to unseal the materials are "premature" because investigators are still reviewing evidence gathered in the search, which stemmed from a Department of Homeland Security inquiry into immigration paperwork involving members of Omar's family. The October 12 warrant that authorized federal agents to search the Minnesota Democrat's Washington residence listed potential immigration-related offenses and conspiracy, though no charges have been filed and prosecutors emphasized that no charging decision has yet been made.

Voters in Colorado and Washington are weighing November ballot initiatives that would ban transgender girls and women from competing in girls' and women's school sports, testing how far even Democratic-leaning states will go on hot-button gender issues.

The measures, which apply to K-12 sports in both states and to college athletics in Washington, would align them with 27 Republican-led states that have already imposed similar restrictions by law, even as civil-rights groups warn of discrimination and invasive sex-verification practices.

President Donald Trump personally directed US border agents to let Brazilian senator Flávio Bolsonaro enter the United States on humanitarian parole when Bolsonaro arrived on a private jet in Miami on Wednesday, October 28, despite a Brazilian court order barring him from leaving his country, US officials told the New York Times.

The officials said the decision by Customs and Border Protection at Miami-Opa locka Executive Airport followed explicit orders from Trump, and that a White House official helped arrange the private jet that flew Bolsonaro, his wife, and daughters to Florida, where he is now expected to seek permanent US residency. A public US arrival record reviewed by the Times shows Bolsonaro presented a canceled Brazilian diplomatic passport number on entry, while the Department of Homeland Security said only that the family was "met and inspected" under immigration law and released, without addressing Trump's role; later that day Trump told reporters Bolsonaro had been given "a pass" to enter.

Sen. Marco Rubio is urging Cubans who want "positive change" on the island to secretly partner with the CIA, a call he posted on X on Friday, October 23, that the agency quickly amplified online.

In the English-language post, Rubio encouraged Cubans to contact US intelligence for a "discrete partnership," and within hours the CIA reposted his message along with its own Spanish-language appeal and a video explaining secure ways to reach the agency. The unusual, highly public push for clandestine cooperation came as Cuban officials condemned recent US rhetoric, and as shortages of food and medicine on the island remain severe under Washington's decades-long embargo.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, refused the Trump administration's emergency bid to immediately enforce a new federal prison policy that would sharply limit gender-affirming medical care and social accommodations for transgender inmates nationwide.

In a brief unsigned order, the justices left in place U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth's injunction requiring the Bureau of Prisons to continue providing hormone therapy, surgeries already approved, and social-transition measures such as makeup and wigs to a certified class of inmates while the underlying lawsuit, Kingdom v. Trump, proceeds. The Court noted that Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have granted the administration's request, but a majority rejected it, meaning the Trump-era policy remains blocked as the case moves forward in lower courts.

California voters on Tuesday are deciding whether to hit residents worth more than $1 billion with a one-time 5% wealth tax, a high-stakes Proposition 40 measure pitched as a way to plug looming federal health-care funding cuts.

The proposal, on ballots statewide, would apply to people who were California residents on January 1, 2026, largely exclude real estate and retirement accounts, and steer 90% of the revenue to health care outside the state's normal spending limit and school-funding formulas. The Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) says the tax would likely raise tens of billions of dollars, paid mostly in 2027 and potentially over an optional five-year payment plan, but warns the total and timing are "very hard to predict" because billionaires can move or rearrange assets.

President Donald Trump on Monday, October 19, created a new Division of Women's Health at the National Institutes of Health and a White House Women's Health Task Force by executive order during a Rose Garden ceremony in Washington.

The order directs federal agencies to bolster research and diagnostic tools focused on maternal health, mental health, endometriosis, Alzheimer's disease, osteoporosis, heart disease and stroke, but it does not set any new funding levels to pay for those efforts. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who recently completed treatment for breast cancer, will co-chair the task force with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the panel was scheduled to hold its first meeting later that same day. First lady Melania Trump, speaking at the event, declared, "Beginning today we will change the reality of women's health," casting the initiative as this generation's drive to find cures for diseases that disproportionately affect women.

Alberta voters have overwhelmingly rejected a move toward independence, with unofficial results from Monday's provincewide referendum showing about three-quarters choosing to remain in Canada rather than start a legal process that could lead to separation.

By Tuesday, October 20, unofficial Elections Alberta tallies from more than 1.8 million ballots in 81% of voting areas showed roughly 75% backing unity and about 25% supporting the proposal to begin an independence process, well short of what separatist organizers had hoped. The question on the ballot did not directly ask Albertans to secede, but whether the province should start a legal pathway toward a future independence referendum, a distinction leaders emphasized throughout the campaign.

Elon Musk has quietly become the single biggest financial backer of Republicans' fight to hold the U.S. Senate, giving $158 million this fall to a GOP super PAC that immediately funneled the money into a Texas group boosting Attorney General Ken Paxton in a razor-thin Senate race.

Federal Election Commission records show Musk donated $75 million on September 9 and another $83 million two weeks later to the Senate Leadership Fund, a powerful Republican super PAC; on the day after each gift, the group transferred matching amounts to a Texas PAC that has spent more than $100 million on ads promoting Paxton and attacking Democratic challenger James Talarico in a race both parties view as pivotal to Senate control.

Newly released photos from Ukrainian systems show SpaceX's Starlink connection slowed to unusable levels during a deadly Russian drone strike in Kharkiv region on October 19, intensifying Kyiv's dispute with Elon Musk and Washington over wartime limits on the satellite network.

Screengrabs obtained by CBS News indicate Starlink bandwidth to ground-based air-defense radars fell to about 0.1 megabytes per second that day, a rate a Ukrainian technical source said was too low even to load a webpage as a Russian Geran-4 drone killed five civilians in a park, including 34-year-old Yulia Spichak and a 1-year-old girl. Ukrainian officials say similar mid-October restrictions, imposed without warning, also interfered with drone interceptors and call the connectivity an "essential" part of shielding civilians from air attacks.

New York Attorney General Letitia James' role as special prosecutor in the Cornell University gang-rape probe is now in the hands of a judge, after a defense lawyer argued in court last Thursday that her prior public support for the accuser shows bias and should disqualify her.

At an October 29 hearing in Monticello, Sullivan County Judge James Farrell pressed James' office on whether her earlier social-media post praising the "brave young woman" at the center of the case and declaring "we stand with you" crossed a line for a prosecutor tasked with neutral fact-finding. Defense attorney Andrew Miltenberg, representing former Chi Phi fraternity member Gillio Lopes, said the post, which described what Jane Doe was "forced to endure" as "horrific and unacceptable," creates an "avoidable question" about whether James has already decided what happened, even as he stressed he was not alleging corruption. Assistant Attorney General Kaitlin Vigars countered that public statements alone do not meet New York's legal standard for disqualifying a prosecutor, which generally requires proof of actual prejudice or a personal stake in the outcome, and Judge Farrell ended the session without ruling.

The Trump administration has detailed a $15 billion package of aid, loans and targeted investments for farmers and other agriculture producers in the final stretch before Wednesday's midterm elections, framing the moves as relief from record diesel and input costs across rural America.

Announced in pieces over recent weeks and tallied by the Department of Agriculture on Monday, the promises include $8 billion in direct "Harvest Fuel Relief" payments to offset this year's diesel bills, at least $5 billion in new government-backed loans for ranchers and fishermen, and $1.8 billion in checks to conservation-program participants and landowners. USDA has also pledged hundreds of millions more for fertilizer plants, meat-processing expansion and specialty-crop innovation, plus up to $472.5 million in federal commodity purchases, even as it separately plans $13.8 billion in 2025-crop-year safety-net payments that are not part of the pre-election total.

St. Paul Downtown Airport officials have rolled out a $105 million redevelopment plan that would close one of Holman Field's three runways to make room for new hangars and future electric aircraft operations on the city's riverfront.

The proposal, unveiled this week, outlines a long-term strategy to consolidate flight operations on the remaining runways while converting the freed-up pavement and adjacent land into modern hangar space aimed at business aviation and emerging electric aircraft technologies.

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill has warned port and terminal operators in her state not to accept any Russian diesel shipments, saying in a letter sent Monday that doing so would violate federal law and could expose companies to civil and criminal charges.

Sherrill told operators that an April 2022 congressional ban on Russian energy imports remains in force, and argued that a recent Treasury Department move allowing Russian diesel back onto global markets does not give New Jersey ports legal cover to unload those cargoes. She said Russia has already dispatched several diesel tankers toward the United States, including at least one believed to be headed for New Jersey, and urged companies to refuse docking or offloading.

On Tuesday, November 3, 2026, Poland launched a "special operation" along its northern frontier with Russia near Kaliningrad, citing fears of sabotage and possible armed incursions.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the operation deploys counterterrorism police, intelligence officers and reinforced border security. He said a late-night "disturbing movement" just across the Kaliningrad border involved unidentified people carrying flashlights and that allied intelligence warned of possible "acts of sabotage or more serious provocations." Tusk added that newly received, more precise intelligence indicated events could occur in the first half of November, including armed incursions into Polish territory.

Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy on Monday released bodycam, stationary and bystander videos showing the aftermath of the July 5 fatal shooting of 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson in Memphis.

The released clips do not show the shooting itself and depict only the moments after gunfire. An autopsy shared with Johnson's family found he was shot in the back. That finding conflicts with statements from police and the Tennessee National Guard that Johnson was facing troops with a gun when they fired. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is still probing the case, and Mulroy has not decided whether to seek charges against the Guard members.

Marathon Petroleum agreed to sell its St. Paul Park refinery to Texas-based CVR Energy as part of a $4.2 billion package of refineries.

The package covers multiple Marathon refineries and includes the St. Paul Park plant, a major supplier of gasoline and diesel to the Twin Cities and the upper Midwest. Closing remains subject to regulatory review and other customary conditions, and neither company has provided specifics on potential job or operational changes at St. Paul Park.

A U.S.-brokered localized ceasefire in Russian-occupied Oleshky, announced by Melania Trump, briefly paused fighting to allow humanitarian aid deliveries and organized evacuations for trapped civilians.

The pause took effect at 3 a.m. Tuesday, October 27, and ended Sunday night, November 1. A humanitarian convoy of roughly 25 buses, ambulances and aid trucks entered Oleshky after designated access routes were demined. Evacuees who chose Ukrainian-controlled areas were bused to Anapa in Russia, flown to Homel in Belarus, and then escorted across the Belarus-Ukraine border into undisclosed Ukrainian territory.

The Indian Navy freed 20 crew members from the Iranian fishing vessel Azini during a more-than-48-hour rescue operation that ended Monday, November 2, 2026, off Somalia near Bandar Bayla and Hafun.

The Defense Ministry said the operation used an Indian warship, a maritime surveillance aircraft and marine commandos, with additional commandos airdropped by an Indian Air Force C-17. A Puntland Maritime Police Force official said Indian forces disarmed 12 suspected Somali pirates, confiscated their phones and released the suspects. The official said the suspects and two Somali security guards later came ashore at Bandar Bayla.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday, November 2, 2026, that Ukraine carried out a retaliatory hack against Russia's emergency-alert system after cyberattacks disrupted alert apps in both countries.

Ukraine's Air Alert app began issuing false warnings at 10:47 p.m. Ukraine time on Sunday, November 1, including alerts about radiation, chemical threats, nuclear attack and street fighting in Kyiv. Developers Ajax Systems and Stfalcon said there was unauthorized interference and temporarily disabled push notifications and the app itself. Russia's Emergencies Ministry said hackers accessed its mobile app at about 2:45 a.m. Moscow time on Monday, November 2. The ministry said false alerts went to 33 regions, mentioned "nuclear warheads," and urged residents to stock up on three weeks of food and shelter in basements. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that state agencies face constant cyberattacks, increasingly using artificial intelligence, and called for stronger cybersecurity.

The U.S. Coast Guard's Miami sector detained the cruise ship MSC Poesia at the Port of Miami on Sunday, November 1, 2026, for an inspection that has put the ship's itinerary on hold.

The Coast Guard said it is verifying the ship's compliance with international standards and U.S. regulations. MSC Cruises said the vessel's departure is delayed, the company is fully cooperating, and guests are being kept informed about anticipated departure times.

Humberto Zeferino De Los Santos, 23, was charged Monday in Dakota County with felony leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death, and his whereabouts remain unknown.

The crash on June 29, 2024, at Highway 55 and Lexington Avenue in Eagan killed two people who were passengers in a Volkswagen Jetta, including De Los Santos' brother. Witness photos and a hotel room search tied De Los Santos to a bloodstained shirt and to the vehicle, but he fled and has not contacted authorities despite legal obligations.

John Nguyen Lutgen of St. Paul was charged in Hennepin County Monday with theft by swindle and check forgery for allegedly stealing about $28,000 from Minnesota Cannabis Services.

Authorities say Lutgen altered company checks and deposited them into his personal account. The alleged scheme ran from July 3 through Aug. 19, 2026, according to charging documents.

Hennepin County officials denied a U.S. Department of Justice request to allow federal election monitors inside polling places for the Nov. 3, 2026, general election in Minnesota.

The county's refusal prevents DOJ staff from being inside voting rooms on election day. Federal observers can still be positioned on public property outside polling sites, subject to state limits and local arrangements.

A Yakima County, Washington, dairy worker died Sunday, November 1, 2026, after contracting H5N1 bird flu following exposure to infected cattle, officials said.

Yakima County officials said 33 dairy herds in the county have recently tested positive for H5N1, and three human infections are linked to dairy exposures. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said genetic analysis of the virus from the patient found no mutations that would increase transmissibility or severity. The agency says it still rates the overall public risk as low. Health officials are tracing and monitoring close contacts and urging farm workers to use protective equipment around sick or dead animals.

MnDOT reopened eastbound I-394 between Highway 100 and downtown Minneapolis on Monday, several weeks ahead of schedule after a months-long closure.

The reopening also restores I-94 between Highway 55 and the Lowry Hill Tunnel, the Penn Avenue bridge over I-394 and ramps to and from I-394. The Linden Avenue ramp to westbound I-394 will reopen Tuesday, Nov. 3. E-ZPass lanes between Highway 100 and downtown remain closed until later this week, and MnDOT warned of occasional overnight closures for sign installation and other finish work.

Open enrollment for 2027 Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage begins Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026, in most states and runs through January 15, 2027, as premiums climb and subsidy rules tighten.

A KFF analysis of new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data projects an average 13 percent increase in 2027 marketplace premiums, with unsubsidized enrollees set to take the biggest hit. Roughly 19.2 million people were actively enrolled in ACA marketplace plans as of February 2026. New 2027 rules will limit premium tax credits for certain lawfully present immigrants, a change analysts say could eventually add about one million uninsured people. In September 2026 Vice President JD Vance and other officials announced plans to remove 760,000 alleged fraudulent or nonexistent enrollees, projecting $2.2 billion in savings.

ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales turned himself in and appeared Monday in Harris County court on a felony aggravated-assault-with-a-deadly-weapon charge over an October 10 vehicle strike in Houston.

Judge Matthew Peneguy set Morales' bond at $30,000 after prosecutors had sought $75,000. Surveillance video shows Morales' SUV drove over a median and struck Miguel Parra Hernandez as Hernandez ran away. Miguel Parra Hernandez broke his leg and is recovering at a rehabilitation facility while in federal custody.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui in Washington on Monday, November 2, 2026 dismissed the Justice Department's criminal complaint against former FBI officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides.

Faruqui delivered an hour-long oral ruling saying the complaint lacked probable cause and that the prosecution "erodes public confidence in the Department of Justice." He said the probe "cannot be described as anything other than weaponization" and called it rushed and riddled with errors. He also criticized the timing, noting the investigation opened the day after President Trump's primetime address and charges were filed just two weeks before the midterm elections.

Plaintiffs said Monday that Snap, TikTok and Alphabet have reached settlements in a Los Angeles lawsuit accusing major social media platforms of addicting teenagers.

Meta announced a separate settlement on Friday, October 30 that resolved claims the plaintiffs brought against Facebook and Instagram. The terms of the recent deals were not disclosed, and Snap did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Minneapolis police arrested and charged 30-year-old Jaquan Darrian Edwards with murder in the Oct. 3 fatal shooting on the Metro Transit Green Line.

A criminal complaint says surveillance footage shows Edwards boarding at U.S. Bank Stadium while the victim boarded at East Bank. After the train left Stadium Village, the complaint alleges Edwards fired three shots that fatally wounded the victim in the neck, and the victim was later found near Westgate station and died at the scene. Investigators say they collected the shooter's DNA from spit left on a light rail platform and matched it to DNA from discarded wood-tipped cigars taken from trash at Edwards' mother's home. Police also used Edwards' Metro Transit To-Go card history to trace him to a bus trip to Maplewood, where Hy-Vee security and Advance Auto Parts co-workers identified him as an employee.

The Justice Department said it will oppose Evanston, Illinois's anticipated motion to dismiss a federal challenge to the city's race-based reparations program, the department announced on November 2, 2026.

Judge John F. Kness granted the DOJ's motion to intervene and earlier denied Evanston's prior motion to dismiss in the Judicial Watch class-action lawsuit. Evanston's program offers $25,000 in housing-related benefits and cash payments to Black residents and descendants who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969, and it is funded by a local cannabis tax.

A fight at St. Paul's Union Depot forced thousands of people to evacuate the station.

Alphanews described the gathering as a "Muslim halal" market at the depot. Reports said there was no confirmed gunfire amid the melee.

At Plymouth Superior Court on Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, Judge William Sullivan said he is leaning toward a March 2027 retrial for Lindsay Clancy after prosecutors told the court she will likely be tried again.

Judge Sullivan set a follow-up scheduling hearing for November 16, 2026, and prosecutors said they have not yet decided whether to seek first-degree murder or lesser charges. Defense attorney Kevin Reddington pushed for clarity and demanded a spring 2027 trial before Sullivan retires, saying he does not want Clancy jailed another year without a new trial. Prosecutors urged a gag order, accusing Reddington of making calculated public statements that could taint a jury, and Judge Sullivan took that motion under advisement. The hearing also included argument on a defense motion to preserve records tied to the holdout juror known as 'Juror Doe' from the first trial.

The Twin Cities recorded an average temperature of 57.8°F in October 2026, tying October 1900 for the third-warmest October on record at Minneapolis-St Paul since 1872.

The metro hit 90°F on two consecutive October days for the first time ever. Minneapolis-St Paul saw no official freeze in October, making it one of only a few years to reach November without one.

On Monday, November 2, 2026, Marvell Technology said it will acquire Lumentum Holdings in an all-stock deal valued at $115 billion, a move aimed at bolstering AI-era connectivity for data centers.

Lumentum makes lasers, circuit switches and other optical components used in data centers, while Marvell specializes in data-infrastructure semiconductor products. Nvidia previously took a $2 billion stake in Lumentum, and initial market reaction saw Marvell shares slip over 1% and Lumentum about 3% before the opening bell.

The W Minneapolis - Foshay hotel is slated for a foreclosure sale in December after a Hennepin County judge this summer found its owner owes more than $42.3 million tied to a loan.

The foreclosure would affect the 32-story downtown Foshay Tower, a distinctive historic skyscraper that operates as the W Minneapolis - Foshay hotel in the city's core.

The EPA inspector general announced a compliance audit of the agency's artificial intelligence practices on October 19, 2026, over concerns several systems may violate federal AI rules.

The audit will examine whether EPA tools comply with the Office of Management and Budget directive requiring an online AI inventory, extra safeguards for high-impact systems, and a human appeals process. The inquiry follows reports that EPA developed AI tools to help vet toxic chemicals and pesticides that were not listed in the agency's AI inventory.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, MINURSO, ceased operations on Sunday, November 1, 2026, after 35 years, removing a longstanding international presence from the disputed territory.

U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said November 1, 2026, marks the start of a liquidation period overseen by a smaller U.N. team under the Department of Operational Support. Russia vetoed a U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution that would have backed Moroccan sovereignty and ended MINURSO in 2027. A competing Russian resolution to extend the mission was then voted down. Morocco welcomed the decision, while the Polisario Front and Algeria said it undermined the peace process.

Sen. Chris Murphy was hospitalized after suffering a stroke on Saturday, October 31, 2026, and was transferred to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, his office said.

He began feeling numbness in his arm during his son's hockey game and was taken to a local hospital, where doctors determined he had suffered a stroke before being transferred to Johns Hopkins for monitoring. As of Sunday, November 1, 2026, Murphy was described as awake and alert, responding well to treatment and "expected to make a full recovery," his chief of staff Allison Herwitt said.

A lender seized control of the MV Odyssey in Sihanoukville, Cambodia over the weekend of Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 2026, and told residents they had that weekend to remove all of their belongings before losing access to the ship.

The lender assumed responsibility for crew pay, fuel, operations and the vessel's safekeeping as it took control. The lender plans to move the MV Odyssey from Sihanoukville to Singapore, where the ship could eventually be auctioned, though no sale has yet been scheduled.

A shooting after the Magic City Classic on Saturday night, October 31, 2026, just outside Legion Field along Graymont Avenue in Birmingham killed one person and injured eight.

Birmingham Police Chief Michael Pickett said most spectators and families had already left stadium property when shots were fired, and he was "very grateful that more people weren't injured." Police spokesperson De'Rell Freeman said one person had been detained and taken to police headquarters for questioning and officers recovered and secured multiple weapons at the scene.

Multiple shootings in nightlife districts across the United States during Halloween weekend left at least six people dead and dozens more wounded, authorities said.

In Dallas, three separate shootings in the Deep Ellum entertainment district late Saturday killed four people and injured 15 others over about an hour and 15 minutes. Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux said some arrests were made in connection with the Deep Ellum violence, but he did not specify numbers or charges.

On Sunday, November 1, 2026, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he had a constructive conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump about a potential trade deal ahead of U.S. midterms.

Carney said negotiating teams will work in the coming weeks toward an agreement that he said would create jobs, lower costs for families and protect Canada's languages, culture and sovereignty.

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami dismissed President Donald Trump's defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and related News Corp defendants with prejudice on Saturday, October 31, 2026.

Gayles' 20-page opinion said Trump failed to prove the defendants acted with "actual malice" under the New York Times Co. v. Sullivan standard and called the suit "grasping at straws." The suit targeted a Wall Street Journal story about a sexually suggestive letter and a drawing bearing Trump's name that appeared in a 2003 Jeffrey Epstein 50th-birthday album. Gayles noted the Journal included Trump's denial, which the judge said undercut claims that the reporting was malicious. A Trump legal spokesperson said the president will "continue to press forward" in the "powerhouse" lawsuit and a source said the decision will likely be appealed.

Masked rioters looted stores and attacked police in Frankfurt on Saturday, October 31, 2026, as nationwide cost-of-living protests spread to more than 30 German cities.

They smashed storefronts, looted shops and threw stones, fireworks, pepper bombs and Molotov cocktails at officers, police said. Police said weapons stolen from a Frankfurt gun store during the unrest were later recovered.

John Searle, 55, now faces four additional felony charges tied to peeping incidents in Minneapolis' Como neighborhood, prosecutors said, and he is not currently in custody.

Prosecutors describe Searle as an "extreme risk" to public safety. He is not in custody after posting bond on an earlier case, officials said. One victim's post on the neighborhood site Nextdoor prompted at least five other people to report similar encounters, helping investigators expand their cases.

Texas Children's Hospital opened a detransition clinic on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, to satisfy a state settlement that required the hospital to create and fund the service, Attorney General Ken Paxton said.

Paxton said the clinic will offer detransition-related medical care to patients through age 21 and detransition-related obstetric and gynecologic care to patients older than 21. Texas Children's said the clinic is operational, will use a multidisciplinary team across multiple locations, and is triaging prospective patients but has not yet seen patients in clinic.

Elmer Mitchell Fields, 57, a middle school teacher from Viper, Kentucky, has been charged in Washington County with one felony count of engaging in electronic communication describing sexual conduct with a child.

Washington County human trafficking investigators say they created an undercover Kik account posing as a 15-year-old girl and collected alleged explicit messages, videos and audio they say came from Fields. Investigators say the evidence includes messages tied to school calendar dates and a voice match to Fields from a television interview, and that a search warrant was executed at his Kentucky home on Oct. 28.

Polk County, Florida, authorities arrested 281 people during a weeklong human trafficking and child-sex-predator sting that ended Friday, October 30, 2026.

Sheriff Grady Judd said 17 of those arrested were theme park employees. He said 13 worked at Disney World and four at Universal Studios, and Disney has fired those employees.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow warned of a credible "mass casualty" threat at the Tsaritsyno Museum Reserve on Saturday, October 31, 2026.

The alert directed people to avoid the Tsaritsyno area, stay alert, avoid crowds, and keep communication devices charged. The embassy said the U.S. government is coordinating with Russian authorities in response to the threat.

Congo's Ministry of Health reported 10,351 Ebola infections and 5,026 deaths in the Bundibugyo outbreak as of Saturday, October 31, 2026.

The virus has reached 67 of the country's 178 health zones across eight provinces, with 50 of those zones reporting active cases; Ituri and North Kivu together account for 9,782 confirmed cases and 4,792 deaths. Africa CDC estimates about 80% of new cases are arising outside known chains of monitored contacts, and WHO says roughly one-third of recorded deaths occurred before patients reached care. Clinicians say there is no approved vaccine or specific treatment for Bundibugyo Ebola, so care remains supportive and symptom-based.

G20 foreign ministers ended two days of talks in Atlanta on Saturday without reaching consensus, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio canceled a planned group photo over Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Delegates agreed to issue only a chairman's statement instead of a joint communique. Diplomats said deep divisions over Russia's war in Ukraine, the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, U.S. tariffs and Chinese actions in the South China Sea blocked consensus. Rubio planned follow-up talks in Atlanta with counterparts from Australia, India and Japan on supply chains and freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and in the Red, Black and South China seas.

Exxon, Shell and Chevron reported a combined $36 billion in quarterly profits in earnings calls held the week of October 26-30, 2026, a windfall that drew scrutiny as fuel prices climb.

Exxon posted $15.4 billion, Shell $10.8 billion and Chevron $9.9 billion, totaling just over $36 billion. Company executives said a large share of the gains will be returned to shareholders through dividends and buybacks while plans for new drilling remain restrained amid geopolitical uncertainty.

The U.S. State Department approved the sale of 500 Patriot missiles to Ukraine, valued at $2.1 billion, on Friday, October 30, 2026.

The State Department said Ukraine will finance the purchase using donations from Canada, Germany, Norway and other European allies, and no U.S. funds will be used. Lockheed Martin is the principal contractor, and U.S. officials said the sale will have no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness.

Shareef Shaheed, owner of the Soul4Life food truck, was severely burned in an explosion during a test run at his St. Paul truck and faces a long recovery.

The blast blew him out of the truck after he turned on a propane tank while about to light the deep fryer's pilot light. Shaheed suffered second- and third-degree burns to his face, hands and legs and has already undergone surgery. His fiancée, Megan Welle, and a friend were also severely burned and all three are expected to remain at Regions Hospital for weeks.

The St. Paul school board approved a budget plan on Oct. 30, 2026, to close a nearly $5 million gap without immediate layoffs, voting 6-1 to adopt the approach.

The gap grew after more than 500 English learner students left the district, reducing federal funding. The approved plan avoids immediate layoffs but leaves 12 jobs unfilled, converts some roles to early retirement and keeps at least two EL teaching posts and seven educational assistant roles vacant.

Senior Trump administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and FBI Director Kash Patel, traveled to St. Cloud on Friday, October 30, 2026, to announce arrests of allegedly fraudulent Medicaid providers.

Officials said the actions were tied to alleged fraud at Twin Cities autism centers and that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has frozen about $550 million in federal Medicaid assistance to Minnesota.

Federal Judge Jennifer L. Rochon ordered three Trump administration ads removed from television, government websites and social media on Friday, October 30, 2026, blocking further distribution.

Rochon also barred further airing or distribution of the ads by outside groups, including Donald Trump's MAGA Inc. super PAC, while a lawsuit led by Common Cause moves forward.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes on Friday opened a formal inquiry into whether government lawyers misled the court in the East Potomac Golf Links case. She said she would conduct the examination herself, appoint a special master to assist and gave the Justice Department five days to object to that appointment.

The judge said the probe will examine whether the government's October notice about planned tree removals was filed in bad faith. Crews felled roughly 430 trees with less than a day's notice, prompting Reyes to order an immediate halt and expand relief.

On Friday, October 30, 2026, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) chief counsel Robert Leider announced he is resigning, stepping down amid an agency overhaul of firearms rules.

The agency issued a press statement confirming his resignation and said Leider, a political appointee and former Clarence Thomas clerk, will remain at ATF until the new year. ATF said he will return to teach at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School in January 2027.

On Friday, October 30, 2026, Canada and the European Union launched the "Alliance for the Future" in Montreal and moved to pursue an unprecedented association aimed at deeper political and economic ties.

Prime Minister Justin Carney said he will attend the European Council in June 2027 to try to conclude talks that would make Canada the EU's first associate member. The joint declaration stopped short of using the term "associate member" and pledged instead to define an "ever-closer association" by the next summit in 2027.

Christa Pike, a Tennessee death-row inmate, said Friday she has been in constant physical pain and struggles to speak after surviving a botched lethal injection on Sept. 30.

Pike said she woke up alone and confused in a hospital bed and has struggled to speak. She described burning pain in her arms, hands and throat and said the pain was "in my mind and in my soul." She blamed "incompetence" for the failed execution, thanked medical workers who treated her, and dictated the statement from the infirmary at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center. Her attorneys have asked Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life, but Lee said he expects the sentence to remain unless courts change it. Tennessee's governor has ordered an investigation, postponed another scheduled 2026 lethal injection, and the state's prison chief resigned. Medical and lethal-injection experts are focusing on a suspected IV-line failure that may have left pentobarbital pooling in tissue and burning Pike's arms. Fox News published additional first-person detail about what Pike remembered during the injection and about her fears of long-term damage.

On Wednesday, October 28, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia as the Joint Staff's director for Strategy, Plans and Policy, accusing him of leaking classified information to the media.

A Pentagon official told reporters that Sylvia failed three polygraph examinations tied to an ongoing leak investigation. The department has not publicly produced evidence beyond the polygraph assertions, and spokesman Sean Parnell said the Pentagon has "zero tolerance" for unauthorized disclosures. No immediate replacement for the Joint Staff's J5 director was named.

The Justice Department announced Friday that it selected Jacksonville, Florida; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; and St. Louis, Missouri to share nearly $300 million through its Model Cities Initiative.

The funds will be split among the four cities, with exact award amounts to be revealed during Justice Department visits to each city over the next 10 days. Cities may use the money to hire law-enforcement and public-safety staff, invest in forensics and technology, and expand mental-health, substance-abuse and anti-recidivism programs.

Novaya Gazeta, Russia's last major independent newspaper, announced on Friday, October 30, 2026 that it will stop operating from November 9, 2026, leaving no major independent print outlets inside Russia.

Editor in chief Sergei Sokolov said Russian authorities and security services forced the paper to close and declared, "The newspaper no longer exists." Staff were told a day earlier they were being evicted from their Potapovsky Lane newsroom and that the reader donation system, their last funding channel, had been switched off, the paper said.

A former patient filed a class-action lawsuit in Kansas state court on Thursday, October 29, 2026, accusing Senator Roger Marshall and Heartland OBGYN of charging an illegal 18% interest on unpaid medical bills.

The suit says Kansas law generally caps court-enforceable interest at 15% absent a qualifying contract, and it seeks class status to challenge the 18% rate. A New York Times investigation found Marshall sued more than 700 patients and that at least 81 patients were arrested after missing court dates. Marshall is a first-term Republican senator, and the suit arrives amid a close 2026 Kansas Senate race against Democrat Adam Hamilton.

Two brothers from Waller, Texas, were sentenced to federal prison for kidnapping a Minnesota family and forcing the transfer of more than $8 million in cryptocurrency.

Raymond Christian Garcia received 15 years, and Isiah Angelo Garcia received 15.5 years in federal prison. Both men pleaded guilty in June to one federal count of interference with commerce by robbery.

On Friday, October 30, 2026, the Food and Drug Administration warned that Medline electric hospital beds can overheat and pose a fire hazard after at least two deaths were linked to the products.

The agency said the incidents include at least two deaths and 16 serious injuries tied to overheating or related hazards. Medline on Oct. 24 told customers to discontinue use of its beds and related accessories until modifications are made and said it is ending production and exiting the homecare and long-term care bed market.

San Luis Obispo County health officials say they are investigating a cluster of five Shiga toxin-producing E. coli infections potentially linked to the Brookshire Farms pumpkin patch, and three children are in intensive care.

The county issued an advisory on October 27 saying the suspected exposure window was October 16-26 and that Brookshire Farms has voluntarily closed while officials probe the illnesses. Health officials said they are investigating possible transmission routes and working to confirm whether the cases are linked to the pumpkin patch.

Former FBI Director James Comey returned to federal court in Washington on Friday, October 30, 2026, as his lawyers argued to dismiss a Justice Department Espionage Act case brought by criminal information.

The Justice Department has not sought a grand jury indictment and instead filed a criminal information, which DOJ says can toll the 10-year statute of limitations. Comey's lawyers say bypassing a grand jury makes the case legally invalid and that the alleged disclosure on October 5, 2016, is time-barred; DOJ says the information suffices for limitations purposes.

Two helicopters collided midair near McMinnville Municipal Airport around 2:15 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, killing all three people aboard.

The FAA said the aircraft were a Robinson R22 with one person aboard and an Airbus H125 carrying two people. Wreckage was found in a field off Oregon Route 233 about one mile west of Dayton, prompting closure of the highway and nearby county roads. McMinnville Airport Manager John Paskell said the crash occurred off airport property, that both helicopters were based at the airport, and that airport operations continued without closures or restrictions.

Five people suffered chemical burns after margaritas were mistakenly mixed with an industrial degreaser at a Chili's in Forest City, North Carolina on Wednesday, October 28, 2026.

Foothills Health District suspended the restaurant's food service permit during the investigation and reinstated it on Thursday, October 29, 2026, after finding other food safety standards were met. Chili's called the case an isolated incident and said it is actively investigating while supporting affected guests and employees.

St. Paul police ordered a shelter-in-place for the immediate area around the 1000 block of Ross Avenue just before 6:30 p.m. Thursday amid an active incident.

The St. Paul Police Department (SPPD) said it issued the advisory via social media and gave no details about suspects, injuries or the incident's nature.

DoorDash offered $17 billion to buy Instacart on Thursday, October 29, 2026, a proposal that must win shareholder and regulatory approval before it can close.

DoorDash said the Instacart brand and app would remain, and Instacart's roughly 600,000 contractor shoppers would keep fulfilling orders as before. DoorDash plans to let customers who now pay $9.99 per month for both DashPass and Instacart+ move to a single combined membership, and Instacart users would gain access to about 50,000 additional stores. The companies say the deal pairs DoorDash's logistics in 40 countries and about 9 million delivery workers with Instacart's grocery-focused technology and grocer relationships to better compete with Amazon and Walmart. DoorDash completed more than 3 billion orders last year and has a market value near $73 billion, compared with Instacart's 338 million orders.

Minnesota has recorded 80 measles cases in 2026, the most in a single year since 1990, and state health officials say they expect more cases as measles circulates widely.

The Minnesota Department of Health says all but two cases are in people who have not received two doses of the MMR vaccine. Seventy-one percent of the cases are in children under 18, and more than 4,500 measles cases have been reported nationwide this year.

Bodum USA announced a recall of 5.9 million French press coffee makers on Thursday, October 29, 2026, citing a glass-carafe breakage hazard that has led to burn injuries nationwide.

The recall was coordinated with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and covers multiple 8-cup and 12-cup Bodum models sold at Amazon, Target, Walmart and other retailers under recall number 27-055.

Actor Sir Patrick Stewart died Wednesday, October 28, 2026, in Los Angeles at age 86.

His spokesperson, Kelly Bush Novak, said he died after "a brief and poignant journey" with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy Body Dementia.

Federal Judge Richard Stearns in Boston on Thursday, October 29, 2026, blocked part of a federal Medicaid guidance that would have required medically frail beneficiaries to prove their conditions impaired their ability to meet work requirements.

Stearns issued a 16-page ruling that partly blocked guidance from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, but he left the statutory work requirements in place. He barred the rule's requirement that beneficiaries labeled "medically frail" must prove their conditions significantly limit their ability to meet work rules. Stearns did uphold CMS policies that reject medical diagnoses more than a year old and that allow only one self-attestation per continuous enrollment.

St. Paul will invest $300,000 to secure nearly 200 leased vehicles from the Evie carshare fleet and seek a new vendor, Mayor Kaohly Her announced Oct. 29, 2026.

The city said the $300,000 includes $160,000 in newly identified funds and $140,000 already budgeted for 2027 to support a bridge operation. St. Paul will issue a request for information to identify a vendor to operate the service while it negotiates to secure the fleet.

María Corina Machado returned to Venezuela on Sunday, October 25, 2026, appearing unannounced at a Catholic church in Lara state and posting on X, "I am here. With you."

She then traveled toward Caracas as supporters lined highways and crowded town squares. Senior adviser David Smolansky said Machado's return is intended to advance a "peaceful, inclusive, and sustainable transition" toward free, fair and verifiable presidential elections and publicly thanked President Donald Trump and the U.S. government for their support.

The United States expelled Cuban diplomat Richard Tur de la Concepción on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, after informing Cuba's mission to the United Nations he was no longer welcome in the country.

The expulsion followed a confrontation in the U.N. General Assembly hall in which Tur swatted at the phone of a U.S. official who was filming him at close range. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Michael Waltz accused Tur of "assaulting" the American official on social media and told Fox News Tur would be put on a flight back to Havana the same day.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman pleaded guilty Thursday, October 29, 2026, to 12 federal charges tied to a June 2025 firebombing at the "Run for Their Lives" march on Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado.

Prosecutors said one count alleged a hate crime that resulted in death, and seven counts alleged hate crimes causing bodily injury with intent to kill. They also cited one attempted hate-crime charge, two counts of using fire or an explosive to commit a felony, and one count of carrying an explosive during a felony.

A Boston University analysis reported Thursday found roughly three-quarters of deceased former NFL players had evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy on postmortem exams.

The analysis examined more than 2,300 former NFL players who died between 2008 and 2023 and identified 396 who donated their brains for study. Of those 396 donors, 93.5% were diagnosed with CTE on postmortem examination. Researchers estimated former players with clear cognitive symptoms were roughly five times more likely to donate their brains than those without such symptoms, and donors died younger on average — about 67 years versus almost 75. The study also estimated 27.2% of players had a history of all-cause dementia during life, without attributing dementia directly to CTE.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) will end off-leash use at the Minnehaha Regional Park dog area on December 21, 2026. The board issued a closure directive requiring the off-leash area to be closed for that use by no later than December 31, after which dogs must be leashed under standard park rules.

The board cited the site's status as a sacred Dakota place and a possible burial ground as the reason for the closure. That justification has prompted public outcry and pushback from dog owners and nearby residents who say they rely on the off-leash area and want firmer evidence for the board's claim.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty charged conservative activist James O'Keefe and associate Cam Higby with felony identity theft and unlawful voting over an August 11 Minneapolis polling-place operation.

Prosecutors allege the two disguised themselves and went to multiple Minneapolis polling places, giving election judges the names of real registered voters without those voters' permission to start ballot applications. Moriarty says Minnesota law is broken once someone intentionally misrepresents their identity in applying for a ballot, even if they do not sign affidavits or obtain ballots.

CNN, MSNOW and Politico filed an amended complaint on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, asking a federal court to issue a permanent order restoring their access to President Trump's White House press settings.

The outlets say the White House is still excluding their reporters from the press pool in locations including the Oval Office and Air Force One, even after prior judicial relief intended to restore access.

Nicollet Avenue at Lake Street in Minneapolis is scheduled to reopen to traffic on November 24, 2026, pending weather, restoring a key downtown arterial ahead of Thanksgiving.

City officials said any weather-related delay would likely push the reopening into the following week. The reopening reunites a major artery severed in the late 1970s to make way for a Kmart superblock. That Kmart burned on October 20, 2023 and was later torn down after the fire.

On Wednesday, October 28, 2026, the United States and Japan agreed to open a final assembly and inspection plant in Japan to produce AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, officials said.

The joint effort, dubbed Operation Supercharge, is meant to supply advanced medium-range AMRAAM missiles for F-35 fighter jets operated by both countries, U.S. and Japanese officials said. The announcement was made in Cebu, Philippines, after a meeting between U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi.

St. Paul police say a fatal crash at about 8:30 a.m. Thursday, October 29, 2026, closed the intersection of Ford Parkway and Cleveland Avenue in the city's Highland Park neighborhood.

The intersection is closed to traffic until further notice, and St. Paul police are asking drivers to avoid the area.

Astronauts Anil Menon and Joshua Kutryk began a 6.5-hour spacewalk from the ISS Quest airlock at 7:57 a.m. EDT Thursday to install the station's seventh roll-out solar array.

They will mount the panel on a left-side inboard solar wing and tie it into power channel 2A. The work is part of a multi-year upgrade that is expected to raise station output from about 152 kilowatts to roughly 215 kilowatts once the final two arrays are installed, extending operations to 2030.

A DEA whistleblower, agent David Howell, said Thursday that the agency allowed millions of fentanyl pills to be deliberately left on streets during long-term investigations.

Howell said agents routinely let drugs "walk" instead of seizing them, a tactic he says runs counter to internal DEA guidance on fentanyl. He cited a 2023 Albuquerque traffic stop in which agents removed a child and seized between 6,000 and 7,000 fentanyl pills and a handgun hidden under the child's seat. He said the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico chastised agents for seizing that shipment rather than allowing it to reach the suspect's home.

Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein, 92, died Wednesday morning, October 28, 2026, surrounded by family; his funeral was scheduled Thursday at Riverside Memorial Chapel in Manhattan.

Two weeks earlier he had presided over the arraignment of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores and had set their trial for June 2027. Judge Analisa Torres has been assigned to take over the Maduro-Flores case; she previously served on an international delegation that monitored Venezuela's 2006 presidential election.

Judge Alvin Hellerstein's death in late October 2026 has left a federal lawsuit by major unions challenging immigrant social media monitoring in legal limbo in Manhattan.

On October 1, 2026 Hellerstein had allowed the unions' First Amendment lawsuit to proceed, rejecting the government's standing challenge. The United Auto Workers, Communications Workers of America and American Federation of Teachers sued the State Department and Homeland Security over AI-enabled monitoring of visa and green card holders' social media posts. Hellerstein's death means the case will be randomly reassigned in the Southern District of New York and there is currently no injunction blocking the administration's surveillance practices.

A tornado watch has been issued for the Twin Cities metro and parts of Wisconsin until 9 p.m. Wednesday as strong storms move into the area.

Strong storms were already ongoing north and south of the metro and were moving east-northeast at about 30 mph. Forecasters said the severe weather is being driven by late-October warmth, sunshine, high humidity and above-average temperatures, producing an unusual late-fall outbreak setup.

Amiir Mawlid Ali, identified by police as a Minneapolis Muddy street gang member, was sentenced to nearly three years in federal prison for possession of a machine gun.

Prosecutors said the weapon was a Glock fitted with an illegal auto-sear "switch" and that Ali's DNA was found on the gun. The charge grew out of a June 3, 2025 Minneapolis traffic stop that took place between shootings at Wayzata and Burnsville high school graduation ceremonies.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison led 18 state attorneys general in filing an amicus brief on Oct. 26 to preserve Temporary Protected Status for Somali nationals.

The brief was filed in African Communities Together v. Mullin and asks the court to block the Department of Homeland Security's termination of Somali TPS. The coalition says ending TPS would harm state economies, public health systems and families, particularly in Minnesota's Twin Cities.

A Minneapolis City Council committee advanced an ordinance to dissolve the Office of Community Safety on a 9-3 vote with one abstention.

Council Member Robin Wonsley and other supporters said the office has failed and should be eliminated. Directors of 911, emergency management and neighborhood safety, and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison urged retaining the office. Mayor Jacob Frey criticized the proposal as lacking an operational plan.

A Minnesota corrections officer was charged after authorities say they intercepted drug-soaked "beading paper" headed to an inmate at MCF-Lino Lakes on October 26.

Officers first received information about the alleged conspiracy around October 19 and then set up the October 26 interception, according to the report.

Federal prosecutors asked a U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to sentence Feeding Our Future ringleader Salim Said to 40 years in prison.

Said was convicted in March 2025 on 21 counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy, federal programs bribery and money laundering. Prosecutors say more than $44 million in fraudulent proceeds was routed through Safari Restaurant and Salim Limited. They say the money paid for a $1.2 million Plymouth home, Minneapolis commercial real estate, luxury vehicles and designer goods.

Alex Pretti's parents held a news conference in Minneapolis on Tuesday, Oct. 27, saying they have received no direct communication or explanation from the federal government since their son was killed.

The family and their attorney laid out specific unanswered questions, including why Pretti was stopped, what threat agents say he posed, and why body-camera or other video has not been released. They called on Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty to bring charges or publicly explain any decision not to prosecute. The family described the federal response as a "wall of silence" and accused the Department of Justice and U.S. Customs and Border Protection of stonewalling state investigators and the family. Civil-rights advocates warned that withholding agents' phones, statements and the gun could stall or neuter any state charging decision.

The FBI has raised the reward to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest of Liban Abdulkadir Sheikh, who is wanted in a 2002 Washington state murder and is believed to have ties to Minneapolis.

Sheikh is accused in a November 27, 2002 shooting in which a man was shot six times in the back of the head and the man's girlfriend was also shot. The FBI says Sheikh fled Washington, was later seen in Minneapolis and may have travel or ties across multiple U.S. cities, Canada, Europe and Somalia.

Two St. Paul men were charged in Dakota County for a June 27 break-in at Eagan's DUCK! arcade that stole about $26,475 in rare Pokémon cards and collectibles.

The suspects are identified as Mitchell Teng Yang, 37, and Yeng Yang, 34, both of St. Paul; they face third-degree burglary and theft charges in Dakota County. Investigators say the suspects smashed a window and a display case at about 3:44 a.m. to take the cards.