Saturday, October 31, 2026 · Evening Edition

Today

By StaffNews Desk

Good morning. A federal judge in Miami threw out Donald Trump's renewed $10 billion defamation suit against the Wall Street Journal and barred him from refiling it — the latest collapse of the administration's campaign to silence media coverage it doesn't like, here his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The case turned on a story about a birthday card he allegedly sent Epstein more than two decades ago. In a 20-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed the suit with prejudice, finding Trump had not shown the defendants acted with actual malice.

The same machinery is aimed at the ballot box. In Alaska, the Justice Department asked a judge to set aside every ballot cast for a second Dan Sullivan, a spoiler candidate; the state's attorneys call the demand meritless and not even possible. [42% of the names on the DOJ's California list of alleged noncitizen voters weren't even on the state's current rolls](https://www.salon.com/2026/10/31/trump-dojs-california-noncitizen-voter-list-riddled-with-errors), while California election officials told a court the administration's threats have taken a toll on their mental health. Federal judges have repeatedly rejected the administration's bid to seize control of state voting.

In Washington, Virginia and D.C. have sued to block construction of a Trump arch, with Judge Tanya Chutkin ordering both sides to agree on a briefing schedule for a temporary restraining order by Saturday evening — one of the mounting legal battles over the president's plan to remake Washington.

All of this lands days before Tuesday's midterms, and the election lies are already spreading on X. In Mississippi, Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom put out a “Sinners”-themed ad on TikTok over Halloween weekend. In New Mexico, Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary, is running for governor. And students at about 80 campuses held Take Back the Night actions Sunday against campus rape culture.