Justice department threatens California over alleged noncitizen voters
The justice department has threatened California over alleged noncitizen voters.
In a letter addressed to the California secretary of state, Shirley Weber, on Tuesday, the acting deputy attorney general, Trent McCotter, said the justice department gave Los Angeles county officials a “password-protected thumb drive” with names of people that the federal government “believes are likely noncitzens”, Reuters first reported.
The letter, which gives state officials 48 hours to review the list, demands California withhold mail-in ballots from the listed people until their citizenship is confirmed, adding that ballots mailed back should be “segregated” and that those already returned should not be counted “until citizenship has been determined”.
The justice department added that if California officials do not comply, it “will have no choice but to seek emergency relief”.
“Allowing noncitizens to vote cancels citizen votes,” McCotter wrote in the letter.
The justice department’s latest threat comes as the Trump administration seeks evidence to support unverified claims of voter fraud ahead of next month’s midterm elections.
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In a letter addressed to the California secretary of state, Shirley Weber, on Tuesday, the acting deputy attorney general, Trent McCotter, said the justice department gave Los Angeles county officials a “password-protected thumb drive” with names of people that the federal government “believes are likely noncitzens”, Reuters first reported.
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The letter, which gives state officials 48 hours to review the list, demands California withhold mail-in ballots from the listed people until their citizenship is confirmed, adding that ballots mailed back should be “segregated” and that those already returned should not be counted “until citizenship has been determined”.
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The justice department added that if California officials do not comply, it “will have no choice but to seek emergency relief”.
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“Allowing noncitizens to vote cancels citizen votes,” McCotter wrote in the letter.
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The justice department’s latest threat comes as the Trump administration seeks evidence to support unverified claims of voter fraud ahead of next month’s midterm elections.
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Kamala Harris, the former vice-president and 2024 presidential nominee, will travel across the country in support of several Democrats facing competitive races in the final two weeks ahead of the November midterms, according to her office.
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Harris will kick off her campaigning sprint on 21 October, when she heads to Nevada to campaign with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Aaron Ford. She’ll then spend the rest of the week making stops in Mississippi to stump with Scott Colom, the Democratic nominee facing an uphill battle in the US Senate race; New Hampshire to campaign with congressman Chris Pappas – who is vying for the open Senate seat in the state; and Wisconsin to drum support for gubernatorial candidate David Crowley.
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Harris will cap off her tour with a campaign event with Senator Jon Ossoff in Georgia at the end of the month.
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A record number of Georgians cast ballots in the first day of early voting this midterm cycle.
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According to the Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, there were 188,600 votes cast on Tuesday – an increase of more than 53,000 voters over the 2022 midterm election, which saw 134,962 early in-person votes.
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“This record-breaking turnout proves that voters have confidence in the integrity of our elections,” said Raffensperger.
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US price increases reached an annual rate of 3.7% in September, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, up from 3.4% in August.
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This final inflation report before the pivotal midterm elections comes amid polls showing widespread dissatisfaction with the Trump administration over the cost of living.
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Price increases are the highest they have been since the annual inflation rate reached a three-year peak of 4.2% in May. Gasoline accounted for over half of overall price increases, up 34% from last year. Fuel oil, which is used to heat homes, increased by 74% from last year, a worrying sign for households heading into the winter. Air travel, which many Americans rely on during the holidays, also increased by 22.4%.
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Overall, consumer prices went up 0.6% from August. Core inflation, which strips out volatile energy and food prices, also ticked up by 0.3% in September to 2.6% annually.
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Price increases this year have largely driven by the US-Israel war with Iran, which has caused energy prices to soar. Average gas prices remain over a dollar per gallon more than last year, according to data from AAA. Meanwhile diesel, which powers domestic supply chains, reached a record-high last month.
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Here’s the full report:
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A federal judge ordered the White House on Tuesday to continue allowing journalists from CNN, MS Now and Politico to access the building as the media coalition’s lawsuit against the Trump administration plays out.
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Timothy Kelly, a district court judge, had on 24 September granted a 14-day reprieve for the news organizations, which six days earlier had been banned by the president in an extraordinary move from entering the White House grounds “as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS”.
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“Defendants (except for President Trump) and their agents, representatives, and all persons or entities acting in concert with them, shall not execute, implement, or enforce the September 18, 2026, decision to revoke the White House ‘hard pass’ press credentials held by employees of CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO, thereby maintaining the status quo since the Court’s entry of a temporary restraining order on September 24, 2026,” the judge wrote in granting a preliminary injunction requested by the plaintiffs.
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The organizations filed a lawsuit on 21 September seeking to overturn the ban as a violation of their rights under the US constitution. But that temporary restraining order expired on Tuesday, bringing the media companies into court late last week to ask for a preliminary injunction that would lift the ban during the duration of the lawsuit, which could take months.
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During arguments at the E Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington, Kelly seemed inclined to lift the ban indefinitely, telling a lawyer for the federal government that his side had “a notice problem” that was “probably the biggest hurdle” they had to overcome.
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The family of a British man who was killed by a tiger at a wildlife park have spoken of their “severe distress” after Donald Trump shared a video of the incident on social media.
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The president posted footage of William Chapman, 23, being fatally attacked by a tiger at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park to 13m followers on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday evening.
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Trump accompanied the short clip – which showed the animal biting and clawing Chapman as he sat in the enclosure, but not him being killed – with the signed message: “Don’t ever mess with nature!”
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On Wednesday morning Trump followed this up with another post – this time an AI-generated video of him grappling with a tiger, which appears to mimic the original.
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The clip, which is accompanied by the song ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’, features the president copying the pointing gesture made by Chapman and ends with him hugging the animal.
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Chapman’s family said in a statement that “deeply offensive media content is causing them severe distress”.
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They also posted a tribute describing him as a “bright, warm and engaging young man” and questioning what part his “significant mental illness over a number of years” and prescribed strong medication played in the incident.
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Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
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Donald Trump will attend campaign rallies in Arizona and Montana later today, having spent the past 24 hours in Alaska – a sign of his party’s recent polling woes.
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Conservative Alaska is one of several states where the Democrats have a chance of flipping a Senate seat amid voter dissatisfaction with the cost of living and the Iran war.
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Polling has shown Democratic candidate Mary Peltola tied or slightly ahead of incumbent Republican senator Dan Sullivan in a state the president carried by 14 percentage points in 2024.
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Here, as in much of the United States, the president’s approval rating is flopping, hit by rising diesel and gasoline prices and a conflict in the Middle East that has proven deeply unpopular with voters.
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Opening for Trump, Sullivan acknowledged that Alaskans face “challenges” when it comes to energy costs. But “the conflict in the Middle East is temporary”, he said. “The true forever war is the national Democrats’ war against Alaska oil and gas and our jobs.”
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The president has taken to campaigning in conservative-leaning parts of competitive states, rather than in more politically diverse areas with more votes potentially up for grabs.
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At one point, Trump pardoned two local repair shop owners who were convicted of violating the federal Clean Air Act for removing pollution controls on diesel engines.
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He also encouraged Republicans to vote by mail – a process he has repeatedly sought to curtail and discredit. Trump will spend Wednesday campaigning in Arizona and Montana.
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In other developments:
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In Alaska, Trump repeated his false claim that he had to start his war on Iran because “they were two weeks away from having a nuclear weapon”. In fact, US intelligence agencies reported to Congress in 2025 that Iran had suspended its pursuit of nuclear weapons in 2003. Despite that assessment, in the summer of 2025, Trump ordered the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities which he later claimed had “obliterated” the country’s nuclear program. Eight months after that, he launched a full-scale war on Iran, justified, he now says, by Iran being just weeks away from getting the bomb.
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Onboard Air Force One on his way to Alaska for a campaign rally, the president of the United States posted video of a British man who was fatally mauled by a tiger last week on his social media platform with the mocking caption: “Don’t ever mess with nature!”
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The new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, passed on an opportunity to set the record straight on whether she is licensed to practice law anywhere in the United States. Asked “Where did you pass the bar exam?” Zacharia just said: “I moved to China.”
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Key events
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that it is “painful” for Donald Trump to choose a different side, following Trump’s comments that Zelenskyy should be replaced.
Speaking to Piers Morgan on Wednesday, the Ukrainian president said: “It’s painful when President Trump chooses one side, not our side.”
He went on to add: “If you are in the middle, you have to stay in the middle.”
Over the weekend, Trump called for Zelenskyy to be replaced after announcing a new deal with Russia to buy large amounts of Russian diesel – which Zelenskyy sharply criticized.
“I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal because he could have made many deals and for some reason he never does,” Trump said.
Justice department threatens California over alleged noncitizen voters
The justice department has threatened California over alleged noncitizen voters.
In a letter addressed to the California secretary of state, Shirley Weber, on Tuesday, the acting deputy attorney general, Trent McCotter, said the justice department gave Los Angeles county officials a “password-protected thumb drive” with names of people that the federal government “believes are likely noncitzens”, Reuters first reported.
The letter, which gives state officials 48 hours to review the list, demands California withhold mail-in ballots from the listed people until their citizenship is confirmed, adding that ballots mailed back should be “segregated” and that those already returned should not be counted “until citizenship has been determined”.
The justice department added that if California officials do not comply, it “will have no choice but to seek emergency relief”.
“Allowing noncitizens to vote cancels citizen votes,” McCotter wrote in the letter.
The justice department’s latest threat comes as the Trump administration seeks evidence to support unverified claims of voter fraud ahead of next month’s midterm elections.
Ariana Baio
Several of Donald Trump’s second-term policies will be tested at the supreme court in the coming months: it is being asked to rule on challenges to the administration’s harsh immigration and deportation policies, along with a climate change lawsuit against energy companies and an attempt to loosen restrictions on assault-style rifles.
The Roberts court is often split in favor of conservative issues 6-3, but it has also diverged from Trump on some key cases, leading the president at times to rage against some of the justices he nominated for the bench.
Decisions are expected in or before June 2027.
Here are some of the major supreme court cases in the 2026-27 term:
Melody Schreiber
Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas and the Republican candidate for the US Senate, is aligning himself with the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) movement by investigating pediatricians for giving vaccines – actions that could further restrict access to vaccines as deadly outbreaks unfold.
Paxton announced he would investigate an alleged conspiracy between pediatricians, vaccine makers and insurance companies in January, and at least one Texas pediatrician now says she is under investigation. Paxton linked his efforts to a campaign against vaccines from Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and directly referenced the Maha movement in his announcement. The president endorsed Paxton’s Senate run in May.
Pointing to a sweeping collusion that “illegally incentivized” doctors to administer vaccines, Paxton alleges that the pharmaceutical and insurance industries were attempting to “bribe” medical providers.
He also launched an investigation into the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), accusing them in August of potentially recommending vaccines for financial gain – referencing a lawsuit the AAP filed earlier this year to halt sweeping changes to the childhood immunization schedule and once again invoking Trump and Kennedy’s moves on vaccines.
A new law in Taxes makes it easier for parents to request school vaccine exemptions, as the rate of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination falls in the state. Only 93.3% of kindergarteners in Texas are now fully vaccinated against measles.
Pediatricians are one of the lowest-paid medical specialties and “barely break even” on vaccines, said Marjan Linnell, a pediatrician and president-elect of the Texas Pediatric Society.
But Kennedy has made millions suing vaccine makers. He has made at least $2.5m in referrals for lawsuits related to vaccine side-effects to the law firm Wisner Baum. He had a 10% contingency stake in a Gardasil vaccine lawsuit that reportedly settled for about $50m in June.
Now that there are fewer than three weeks until the midterm elections, my colleagues have put together a video explainer about the four key issues driving voters to the polls ahead of November.
Kamala Harris to travel across country to rally for Democrats in final midterm sprint
Kamala Harris, the former vice-president and 2024 presidential nominee, will travel across the country in support of several Democrats facing competitive races in the final two weeks ahead of the November midterms, according to her office.
Harris will kick off her campaigning sprint on 21 October, when she heads to Nevada to campaign with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Aaron Ford. She’ll then spend the rest of the week making stops in Mississippi to stump with Scott Colom, the Democratic nominee facing an uphill battle in the US Senate race; New Hampshire to campaign with congressman Chris Pappas – who is vying for the open Senate seat in the state; and Wisconsin to drum support for gubernatorial candidate David Crowley.
Harris will cap off her tour with a campaign event with Senator Jon Ossoff in Georgia at the end of the month.
Georgia sets new record for first-day early midterm voting
A record number of Georgians cast ballots in the first day of early voting this midterm cycle.
According to the Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, there were 188,600 votes cast on Tuesday – an increase of more than 53,000 voters over the 2022 midterm election, which saw 134,962 early in-person votes.
“This record-breaking turnout proves that voters have confidence in the integrity of our elections,” said Raffensperger.
In response to the latest inflation numbers, Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee, said that the “data confirms that households paid more for gas and housing in September, core inflation increased, and wages still aren’t keeping up,” and slammed Trump’s promise to “lower costs on ‘day one’”.
“Real wages have now failed to keep pace with inflation for six straight months, and are down 1.3% since Trump’s war began,” she added in a statement.
Inflation hits 3.7% in final report before midterms
Gaya Gupta
US price increases reached an annual rate of 3.7% in September, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, up from 3.4% in August.
This final inflation report before the pivotal midterm elections comes amid polls showing widespread dissatisfaction with the Trump administration over the cost of living.
Price increases are the highest they have been since the annual inflation rate reached a three-year peak of 4.2% in May. Gasoline accounted for over half of overall price increases, up 34% from last year. Fuel oil, which is used to heat homes, increased by 74% from last year, a worrying sign for households heading into the winter. Air travel, which many Americans rely on during the holidays, also increased by 22.4%.
Overall, consumer prices went up 0.6% from August. Core inflation, which strips out volatile energy and food prices, also ticked up by 0.3% in September to 2.6% annually.
Price increases this year have largely driven by the US-Israel war with Iran, which has caused energy prices to soar. Average gas prices remain over a dollar per gallon more than last year, according to data from AAA. Meanwhile diesel, which powers domestic supply chains, reached a record-high last month.
Here’s the full report:
Also today, while Trump traverses the sun belt, vice-president JD Vance will head to Atlanta, Georgia to rally for both Mike Collins, the Republican nominee facing Jon Ossoff in the US Senate race, and Rick Jackson – the GOP contender in the gubernatorial race – who is up against Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Democratic mayor of Atlanta.
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