Political Spectrum

A U.S. Central Command estimate given to Congress puts the cost of the Iran war at $47.1 billion as of October 16, AP reported on October 28, up about $3.5 billion since early September. About $29 billion is for replacing munitions, especially air-defense interceptors such as Patriot and THAAD; about $11.9 billion covers operations and $6 billion equipment losses. The New York Times, which also obtained the figures, reports that congressional officials call the numbers almost certainly low: they leave out $1.5 billion for fuel and other costs, and the repair of U.S. bases damaged by Iranian strikes, which a Pentagon inspector general report released in September said damaged or destroyed hundreds of structures across eight countries.

The Pentagon lists 21 service members killed and 865 wounded. The war began in late February; the White House is asking Congress for a $95 billion package that would help fund it. AP notes most voters in a recent AP-NORC poll want Congress to prioritize ending the conflict, and Trump has said new strikes are an option after the midterms.

On October 22 the Justice Department sued Alaska's Division of Elections in federal court, asking it to block or delay certification of the U.S. Senate race if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses to Democrat Mary Peltola but would have won had the votes for a second candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. of Petersburg, gone to him. President Trump said he ordered the suit. The state's Department of Law answered that the suit "has no legal basis": the ballot labels the senator as the Republican incumbent, voters can rank both Sullivans, and probing voter intent would breach the secret ballot. Peltola's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee moved to dismiss. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the department "should have never filed this lawsuit."

On October 28, AP reported that The New York Times had obtained texts in which Peltola campaign members discussed recruiting people named Dan Sullivan. Trump said Peltola and the other Sullivan "should be prosecuted"; Murkowski said Alaskans "deserve the honest truth." Peltola's campaign says it "has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign," the DSCC denies involvement, and Dan J. Sullivan has long denied any contact with Peltola's campaign. Legal experts told AP the report won't change the lawsuit. Election Day is November 3.

On October 28, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter denied the Trump administration's request that California set aside the mail ballots of up to 20,000 registered voters that Homeland Security agencies flagged as likely noncitizens. Carter wrote the request "would wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway" and that "if the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger." More than 3.7 million Californians had already voted, and Los Angeles County said over 500,000 ballots had been separated from their envelopes. Prosecutors filed an appeal the same evening; the 9th Circuit had dismissed an earlier appeal 2-1 on October 26 because Carter had not yet ruled.

On October 29, Carter appointed a special master to examine the federal list, which both sides agree includes an unspecified number of citizens. AP also reported that federal prosecutors subpoenaed Los Angeles County election staff to appear in court on November 4, citing a Homeland Security criminal investigation.

Brazil's electoral court declared President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva the winner of the October 25 runoff with about 51.8% of the vote, a lead of nearly 4.4 million over right-wing Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro. It is Lula's fourth, non-consecutive term, starting January 5, 2027, and the first time since military rule ended in 1985 that the second-place finisher in the first round won the presidency. Voting was extended two hours at both candidates' request; Bolsonaro called the extension unprecedented and asked for the result to be annulled.

On October 26 Brazil's Supreme Court ordered him to surrender his passports and barred him from leaving, amid money-laundering and tax-evasion investigations he denies. He crossed into Argentina on October 27 with his family and landed near Miami on October 28; a senior U.S. official said the State Department would issue the family visas. From the U.S., he called himself the country's "president-elect" and alleged fraud and persecution. His Liberal Party has acknowledged Lula's win. Lula called the departure "shameful." His father, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, is under house arrest serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup.

Aleksandar Vučić conceded on the night of Serbia's October 25 snap parliamentary election, which he had called in September. "It is clear that we have lost these elections, the Student List has won, they will have between 135 and 140 seats and we will have 105," he said, citing a sample count; a majority in the 250-seat parliament is 126. The Student List, picked by the youth-led protest movement and running with no leader or hierarchy, took more than half the vote after most opposition parties stood aside.

The protests began after a renovated railway-station canopy collapsed in Novi Sad in November 2024, killing 16 people, and grew into nearly two years of demonstrations against corruption. Vučić's Serbian Progressive Party has held power since 2012; he kept close ties to Russia while pursuing EU membership talks. A regional analyst told NPR the broad coalition's fissures could show soon after the victory.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced on October 28 felony charges of unlawful voting and identity theft against conservative activists James O'Keefe and Cameron Higby over videos filmed at Minneapolis polling places during Minnesota's August 11 primary. In the videos, the men, wearing Islamic dress and using accents, ask election workers about vouching, the Minnesota rule letting a registered voter swear to the address of up to eight unregistered voters. Moriarty said they gave names of registered voters, including some who had died and at least one who had voted. "I think it's pretty clear they did not intend to vote. That's not the question here," she said, adding "you cannot give somebody else's name and misrepresent yourself." Neither man signed a vouching oath.

O'Keefe's group said in August its people "did not cast ballots" and were testing the law; Higby denied breaking any law. A first court appearance is set for November 16.

On October 26, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden unsealed a criminal information, filed October 5, charging former FBI Director James Comey with transmitting national defense information and conspiracy to do so. Prosecutors say Comey directed staff to talk to a New York Times reporter about the accuracy of an earlier Reuters report, which they say passed on classified information that appeared in an October 5, 2016 Times article about Yahoo and email surveillance.

Comey's lawyers have moved to dismiss, arguing the 10-year deadline required a grand jury indictment, not an information filed by prosecutors; the Justice Department says filing an information to pause the clock is a widely recognized practice. Comey can't be tried on the information alone unless he waives indictment. His lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, says two earlier prosecution teams declined to charge anyone over the article; Comey called the case "an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice" and said he is innocent. It is his third federal case: the first was dismissed and an April case over his "8647" seashell post is pending. The same day, a judge ruled his daughter, prosecutor Maurene Comey, was unlawfully fired and ordered her reinstated.

Results released October 29 from Israel's October 27 election give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, down from 68 at its peak, with his main opposition, led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, at 48 and Arab-led parties at a record 19. A majority needs 61. Results are to be certified and delivered to the president the following Wednesday.

After the head of the election committee, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, said "serious suspicions" of foreign interference had been brought to him and asked the Shin Bet to investigate, though he could not verify them, Likud declared that "the elections in Israel have been stolen!" Qatar called the allegations "ridiculous and dangerous." The committee said the probe does not affect the final results and that claims of systematic violations are baseless; the Shin Bet said it was not casting aspersions on any part of the population. Eisenkot said Likud was doing this "because they lost." The opposition could reach a majority only with the Arab-led parties, a rare and politically risky step.

In an October 26 letter to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and Attorney General Todd Blanche, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said a March 17, 2026 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinion describing "serious abuses of Americans' rights" under Section 702 was legally required to be declassified by September 13 and still has not been. They asked for its release and for the names of the officials responsible by November 6. Blanche had told the Senate Judiciary Committee he expected it out before the deadline.

According to CyberScoop, the judge objected to a filtering tool that let analysts pull information in a way that should count as a query of Americans' data, which requires extra protections. Section 702 lapsed in June after a House vote to renew it failed, but the same March opinion lets collection continue until March 2027. Civil-liberties groups urged Congress not to reauthorize 702 while the opinion stays secret. ODNI and the Justice Department did not respond to CyberScoop; Senate Intelligence Chairman Tom Cotton's office did not respond either.