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The Justice Department has asked a federal court to pre-emptively block certification of Alaska's US Senate race if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan narrowly loses — a filing so unusual that election-law specialists across the political spectrum say they can find no precedent for it. The department's theory is that voter confusion between candidates with similar surnames could taint the final tally, but the complaint cites no statute that gives DOJ authority to intervene in a state's post-election certification on those grounds.

President Trump removed any ambiguity about the political origin of the suit, telling reporters on Friday that he had ordered it himself. That admission turns what the department framed as a technical ballot-integrity matter into an open attempt by the White House to put a thumb on the scales of a specific race the GOP could lose. The Alaska contest is one of a handful that will determine control of the Senate.

Legal analysts quoted by the New York Times and USA Today called the filing 'dubious' and warned that even if it fails in court, it establishes a template: a sitting administration asking judges to freeze certification of elections its party loses. Combined with the DOJ's demand this week that California counties hand over data to identify suspected noncitizen voters within 48 hours, and the indictment of former FBI officials who worked on 2020 foreign-interference briefings, a pattern of federal law enforcement being pointed at the mechanics of elections is coming into sharp focus with the midterms 10 days away.

Alaska uses ranked-choice voting, which has repeatedly produced close finishes and late-breaking results. If Sullivan loses and certification is actually delayed by federal litigation, the state could become the first real stress test of whether the courts — and state election officials — will hold the line on established post-election procedure.

More than a week after SpaceX quietly throttled Starshield — the military-grade version of Starlink used by Ukraine's armed forces — Kyiv says the restriction has not actually been lifted, despite public assurances from President Trump that Elon Musk had 'put it back.' Ukrainian defense ministry sources told the BBC that drones travelling faster than roughly 100 mph are still losing their connection, hampering interceptor operations against Russian Shahed drones that target the country's energy grid.

The practical consequences have been severe. The initial throttling coincided with a wave of Russian strikes that reportedly killed two people and injured at least 17, with Ukrainian commanders unable to coordinate air defenses or operate FPV interceptors at the speeds needed to catch incoming munitions. 'God forbid they shut it off completely — it would be an absolute catastrophe,' one Ukrainian soldier told the BBC. Ukraine has no comparable alternative; Starshield is woven into everything from frontline reconnaissance to drone-on-drone combat.

The political picture is murky and getting worse. Trump has oscillated between denying any US involvement, crediting Musk with fixing it, and admitting he hasn't actually spoken to him. Musk, for his part, has blamed the Pentagon, which controls the Starshield contract. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham used a Friday call with Trump to press for full restoration of service. Meanwhile, UK and European officials are openly asking what it means that a single American billionaire can degrade a NATO-aligned military's combat capability on a whim or at a government's quiet nudge.

The episode is the clearest demonstration yet of the strategic vulnerability created by SpaceX's near-monopoly on low-Earth-orbit broadband. Competitors like Amazon's Project Kuiper and Europe's IRIS² are years from matching Starlink's constellation, meaning for now, Ukraine — and much of the Western military — fights on infrastructure one person can turn down with a slider.

Global markets took a hard knock as the AI trade — which has powered equities for most of the year — wobbled again. The S&P 500 posted its worst session since July, Asian benchmarks followed lower overnight, and investors rotated out of mega-cap tech into energy as crude prices climbed. The selloff adds to concerns that AI capital spending by hyperscalers has gotten ahead of near-term revenue, and that a correction in Nvidia-adjacent names could ripple through indexes dominated by a handful of stocks.

Energy, meanwhile, is being politically supercharged. President Trump invoked the Cold War–era Defense Production Act to designate petroleum production, refining and related activity as essential to national defense — a legal move that could open federal financing to fossil-fuel projects and lets Washington treat drilling and refining capacity the way it treats munitions. The administration is simultaneously negotiating hidden Russian financing arrangements tied to an Alaska gas project, according to a New York Times investigation, blurring the line between US energy policy and Kremlin-linked capital.

The pain is already being felt on Main Street. Record diesel prices are squeezing US agriculture, with Iowa farmers warning of ruinous margins ahead of harvest and Detroit food banks reporting surging demand. Trump announced $8 billion in diesel aid for farmers at a Kansas rally this week, but an administration official confirmed the money will not actually be disbursed until after the November 3 election — a timing choice that critics say exposes the aid as campaign messaging rather than relief.

For investors, the week captured the two forces pulling the economy in opposite directions: a tech-earnings story losing altitude just as an energy-cost story reasserts itself, with inflation implications the Fed will have to weigh at its next meeting.

Flames consumed the Kehlsteinhaus — the mountaintop retreat built for Adolf Hitler and better known as the Eagle's Nest — late Friday night, with roughly 200 firefighters and emergency personnel struggling through steep alpine terrain to contain the blaze. Dispatchers in Traunstein received the alarm at 9:15 pm local time; by early Saturday the building, perched 1,834 meters above Berchtesgaden, was still burning. No injuries have been reported.

Bavarian police have detained a suspect at the scene and opened a criminal investigation to determine whether the fire was deliberately set. Officials have not released the suspect's identity or any possible motive. Completed in 1938 as a 50th-birthday gift to Hitler from the Nazi Party, the Kehlsteinhaus survived World War II largely intact and has since operated as a mountain inn and historical site, with its official materials framing it as 'a cautionary reminder of the abysses of the inhumane Nazi dictatorship.'

The fire reopens a sensitive national conversation. Germany and Austria have spent decades arguing over what to do with physical structures tied to Hitler and the Third Reich — preserve them as memorials, repurpose them to deny their symbolism, or demolish them to prevent neo-Nazi pilgrimage. In June, Berlin authorities decided to tear down one of Hitler's bunkers to build housing; in July, Austrian authorities converted Hitler's birthplace in Braunau am Inn into a police station. Investigators will now have to determine whether Friday night's fire was accident, vandalism, or an ideologically motivated act — a finding that will shape how the structure, if it survives, is treated next.

The 2026 World Series opened with a thunderclap. On the very first pitch of Game 1, Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Jacob 'The Miz' Misiorowski unleashed a 103.5 mph fastball at Tampa Bay Rays leadoff man Yandy Díaz, breaking the World Series velocity record set in 2016. The record stood for about 30 seconds before Misiorowski broke it himself — then kept throwing bullets.

Milwaukee rode that early energy to a decisive Game 1 win, striking first against the Rays and never surrendering the lead. The game marked the Brewers' first World Series appearance in 44 years, since their 1982 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, and the home crowd was deafening throughout. For Tampa Bay, playing in the first World Series in franchise history, the opener was a cold introduction to October's biggest stage.

The matchup is a classic small-market, pitching-forward affair — two teams built on development pipelines and bullpen depth rather than payroll. Milwaukee's rotation, anchored by Misiorowski and a deep arsenal of power arms, has been the story of its postseason run. Tampa Bay now faces the familiar October problem of digging out of a 1-0 hole on the road before returning home. Game 2 is Saturday night.

The United States birth rate has fallen to the lowest level ever recorded, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The decline would have been steeper still if not for a continued rise in births among women over 30 — a demographic shift reshaping the typical age of American motherhood even as the overall fertility picture weakens.

The numbers extend a trend that has accelerated since the late 2000s and that policy analysts now treat as structural rather than cyclical: delayed family formation, housing and childcare costs, student debt, climate anxiety and shifting cultural attitudes toward parenthood. The pattern mirrors declines across other high-income countries, from South Korea to Italy, and has growing implications for US labor-force growth, immigration policy and the long-term solvency of Social Security and Medicare — programs that rely on younger workers to support older beneficiaries.

The fertility news lands as the US health system faces its own acute shock. NPR and PBS NewsHour report that up to 5 million Medicare Advantage enrollees are being forced to shop for new coverage during the open-enrollment window that closes December 7, as major insurers pull out of unprofitable markets or eliminate plans. Seniors in some regions have found their networks of doctors, hospitals and prescription benefits suddenly disrupted, with limited time and often confusing guidance to make a replacement choice.

Together, the two stories sketch a demographic pincer: fewer children being born into the system, and the growing older population already struggling to navigate the coverage it depends on. Neither trend is temporary, and neither has a serious policy response currently on the table.