President Donald Trump took a shifting tone on the midterms on Wednesday, pointing out that even if Republicans lose control of the House, Senate, or both, he would remain the U.S. commander-in-chief. "I'm here whether we win this or not," he told reporters in Arizona and Montana. The shift in tone came just two days after he urged supporters in Alaska to "pretend" it was him on the ballot, a campaign message he has repeated often in recent weeks, as forecasts have shifted to favor Democrats to gain control of both chambers. Republican candidates have been put on the defensive as Democrats have surged in polling and Trump has seen his approval rating consistently slope downward. GOP leaders have redirected money to once-thought-safe House districts and Senate races in an attempt to limit losses.
Two women this week sued former GOP Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and two others " including a former state legislator " in federal court and accused the men of engaging in an alleged sex trafficking scheme during a time when Gaetz was still in Congress. The lawsuit, which seeks damages from Gaetz and other defendants, was filed in Orlando by two women who were in their early 20s when they first met Gaetz. The women are not named in the lawsuit. The details mirror allegations that were at the center of a House Ethics Committee probe that found Gaetz had sex with a minor, solicited prostitutes and used illegal drugs.
In a manifesto, Alexandros Paporakis identified as "a sociopathic white supremacist Neo Nazi filled with hatred, fantasizing about mass murder nearly every day," according to court records. Prosecutors say Paporakis, 19, spent two years planning a mass shooting and had been targeting a Hindu worship center in Aurora for two months. But Sunday, when the day came to carry out the attack, Paporakis' AR-style rifle jammed as Paporakis tried to shoot a man from a car, prosecutors said in a proffer. Paporakis sent messages to a co-worker at a Taco Bell in Arlington Heights, saying the man was "certainly saved by his God today," prosecutors said. That co-worker and another employee called 911, and Paporakis was found in the parking lot of a Palatine apartment complex, prosecutors said. A search of Paporakis' apartment uncovered a rifle, bullet magazines, 300 rounds of ammunition and a gas can, as well as Nazi ephemera, they said.
Turkish police raided the Istanbul headquarters of an important pro-opposition television station on Wednesdazy, the day that jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was set to start his defense against corruption charges.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) suggested that President Trump should remove Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from his position before the House votes to impeach him.
The Kentucky Republican, who often finds himself in the crosshairs of Trump for frequently breaking with the party, was responding to a report claiming that the president was considering firing the Pentagon chief after the midterm election and blamed him for the unpopular Iran war.
Missiles have rained down on Moscow in a massive Ukrainian attack targeting the city, explosions and fires have been reported in several locations in the city's southwestern and eastern regions.
Ukrainian forces have carried out crippling strikes on the Russian Air Force, in Boriseglebsk the Russian air force lost 6 SU-34 fighter bombers after a Ukrainian attack vaporized the aircraft while on the ground.
Ukraine is now preparing for a massive blockade campaign on Moscow using over 1000 drones per day to keep Moscow's skies closed down permanently.
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The IRGC has also fired several anti ship missiles into the Straight, with 2 tankers being hit and set alight in the strait over the past 24 hours.
Iranian forces are now rapidly mobilizing their forces along the western border, possibly for ground incursions into Iraq.
Saudi forces have also defended the Jeddah airspace over the past hours from Houthi attacks.
thread link is a min or so yt short
Today's tale comes from Justin Henkel, the CISO of IT monitoring and service company SolarWinds. Henkel previously worked in IT security for the Air Force and one day in the early 2000s saw a practice that just wouldn't fly today. Before USB drives became popular, burning CDs with mission data was the modus operandi, and those discs were put in both unclassified and classified systems.
How can one man outspend an entire political party?
Elon Musk has now poured at least $366 million into electing Republicans since the last election. That's the biggest contribution by any single human being in any campaign cycle in American history.
The New York Times says the GOP's outside spending advantage this year is mostly one man's checkbook.
Michael Waldman of the Brennan Center says we haven't seen a gap like this since the Watergate election of 72.
And here's the grubby part. Musk is a federal contractor. His companies have pulled in at least $38 billion in contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits.
When it comes to allegations that he has profited from the presidency, 41% believe President Trump has done something illegal and 18% think his actions have been unethical but not illegal. Another 18% feel he's done nothing wrong.
Iran's missiles and drones have hit Gulf infrastructure sites at least 135 times, causing cascading failures that Gulf states have often concealed. Despite repeated official statements that the damage came from debris, Reuters found the equipment struck was, time and again, exactly what mattered most.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris Kamala Harris GOP shrinks ambition despite bashing polls Harris tells Keke Palmer she's undecided on 2028 run Harris to hit campaign trail for Democrats in Mississippi, New Hampshire, more More(Kamala Harris) on Wednesday said the Biden administration should have responded sooner to the Israeli government's "horrific conduct" in the Gaza war. Read more
Researchers say they may have taken a significant step toward explaining the origin of gravity. Read more
The top 1% of Americans pay 40% of all federal income taxes. The top 10% pay 70%. The Bottom 50% pay 3%. Still think the rich arent paying their fair share?
Five years ago, parents across the country were angry and frustrated. Schools had remained closed or offered only limited in-person instruction long after evidence of the damage to children was impossible to ignore. Mask mandates dragged on. Parents were discovering that schools had embraced radical ideas about race and gender that would have been unthinkable just a few years earlier. So they did what Americans are supposed to do in a representative democracy. They showed up at public meetings, stood at the podium, asked questions, demanded answers and challenged policies they believed were harming children.
The soft bigotry of low expectations strikes again. In New York, the City Council is moving to get rid of tests for specialized schools because whites and Asians outperform blacks and Latinos.
