Washington — President Trump on Thursday praised the “very powerful ad” Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is running featuring the estranged mother of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton, after the ad drew pushback from some Republicans like Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social that he suggested Ramaswamy keep the ad up, saying the press is “trying to convince everyone that this Ad is bad, because it’s so good!” The ad, which first circulated on social media on Monday and is now television, features Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, who called Acton a “liar” and sought to undermine her credibility. Acton’s campaign condemned the ad, and her brother, Philip Stearns, called it a “despicable low.” According to court documents provided by the campaign, Arthur’s now-deceased husband was charged with raping Acton, which she said occurred when she was between 10 and 12 years old. He entered a not guilty plea and left the area while out on bond; the case never went to trial.DeWine on Thursday said he thought the Ramaswamy campaign should take the ad down. “It’s wrong to run this ad,” the Ohio Republican told reporters. “I would urge Ramaswamy’s campaign to take this down.” DeWine did not rescind his endorsement. But Vice President JD Vance and now Mr. Trump are defending the ad and using it to criticize Acton. “Vivek Ramaswamy put up a very powerful Ad about a mother saying that her daughter, Amy Acton, who is running for Governor of Ohio, is a liar, and much worse,” Mr. Trump wrote in his social media post. “The Press, in a concerted and well coordinated attack, is trying to get Vivek Ramaswamy to ‘take down the Ad.’ Frankly, anybody whose mother spoke about a daughter in that way would normally lead to the daughter being precluded from serving in Office, let alone the Office of Governor.”In his post, Mr. Trump did not mention why Acton and her birth mother are estranged, or any of the family’s backstory. Shortly after his post, on the White House South Lawn, reporters told Mr. Trump the backstory — that Acton’s mother stayed married to the man charged with raping her. CBS News senior White House reporter Weijia Jiang asked the president why anyone should listen to what the estranged mother has to say. “Well I know nothing about it,” the president responded. “All I know is the mother said very bad things about Acton, who I guess is running for governor against Vivek. And all I can say is Vivek is great. And I know one thing, if my mother said bad about me, it would be a major news story, that’s for sure. So I don’t know what it is, but I guess the mother said very bad things about the one who’s running for governor. And I think you have to say that seriously.” “I’m defending it because I know that if that ad were about my mother, you would love it, you would love every inch of it,” Mr. Trump added. In his Truth Social post, the president specifically went after DeWine.”Our RINO Governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, who I unfortunately helped get elected years ago, when he was losing by 16 points prior to my doing a Rally for him was, as usual, disloyal to the Republican Party,” Mr. Trump wrote. “He strongly suggested that Vivek should, ‘take down the Ad.’ He probably wants a Dumocrat to win, and certainly doesn’t want someone who will do a much better job than he is capable of doing. I suggested, on the other hand, that Vivek should keep it up…”Mr. Trump added he only wishes the “mothers of my opponents would be so brave as to come forward and explain that their son or daughter is a liar, and much worse.” “Who wouldn’t use such an Ad?” Mr. Trump wrote. “I would, it’s called, ‘hitting pay dirt.'”Mr. Trump continued to defend the ad during a rally in Iowa late Thursday. He said he advised Ramaswamy that “you gotta ride with it,” later adding: “Leave it up, and look upstairs and say, ‘Thank you God, very much.'”Vance, too, defended the ad, saying Republicans who have criticized it should “stop whining.” Ohio Republican Sen. John Husted, who is running for reelection, said he “would not have run that ad.” Outgoing Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina called the ad the “most shameful, disgusting, offensive ad this election season.”Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, told a local ABC station he “probably wouldn’t run an ad like that, but every candidate gets to make their own decision.”Acton’s brother said earlier this week it’s “not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point.” “Our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died,” Stearns said. “This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core – a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants.”This article originally appeared on CBS News at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ramaswamy-ad-amy-acton-mother-trump/

Attorney General Todd Blanche left the door open on whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) would intervene in states’ midterm elections verification processes, telling reporters Thursday there are hypothetical “scenarios” in which it could block the certification of votes. “Yes, of course there’s scenarios that we can all come up with hypothetically, you know, some doomsday scenario for example, right?” he said. “So, I don’t think it’s proper to make any kind of conclusory statements about what’s going to happen in the future, because I have no idea what’s happening in the future.” Blanche added the DOJ has no intention “to improperly interfere with elections or the state confirmation process or certification process.” “There’s no circumstances that we would ever do that,” he continued. “Of course I’m not going to say that. But am I planning my days around the election to be somewhere to not certify? Of course not, no, not at all.” Blanche said earlier this month the DOJ plans to send 1,000 election monitors to polling places in every state on Election Day. At the time, he told Fox News anchor Shannon Bream the department’s presence would serve to ensure federal law is properly enforced, adding the government has been monitoring elections since the 1960s. During the Fox interview, Blanche went on to accuse Democrats of “fearmongering” by claiming the DOJ is trying to intimidate voters. On Tuesday, Democratic leaders and election groups filed a lawsuit against President Trump and the DOJ, accusing the administration of “threats and intimidation” ahead of Election Day — pointing to its efforts to push states to identify and remove suspected non-U.S. citizens from voter rolls and threats of criminal prosecution against election officials who refuse to comply. DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels told The Washington Post on Wednesday that “ensuring that only eligible citizens vote and that every lawful ballot is counted a requirement of federal law.” The lawsuit specifically cites the DOJ’s demand for California officials to set aside ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified as noncitizens. It also alleged the administration’s threat to imprison state and local election officials violated the Voting Rights Act. The DOJ sued California last week after giving its officials 48 hours to compare DHS’s list of 20,000 names to the state’s voter rolls. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) slammed the lawsuit, saying the Golden State’s elections “are NOT Donald Trump’s to control.” On Monday, the DOJ announced 28 alleged non-U.S. citizens in California were charged in connection with illegal voting. Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said all of the 28 “defendants charged today appears on the list of more than 20,000 likely noncitizen registrants we provided to California election officials last week.” Trump, who has long held immigration as a central issue over both of his presidencies, has frequently made unsubstantiated claims surrounding noncitizens voting in U.S. elections and alleged the practice plays a role in voter fraud in Democratic states. Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.This article originally appeared on The Hill at https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6167033-todd-blanche-doj-election-certification-block/

With the Trump administration signaling that work on the triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery could begin two weeks from Thursday, opponents of the project urged a federal judge to issue an order blocking the construction unless it is authorized by lawmakers.The request for a preliminary injunction comes a day after the Justice Department filed notice with a federal judge indicating that construction on the arch could begin on Nov. 5, immediately after the National Capital Planning Commission is set to grant its final approval of the project.Judge Tanya Chutkan had previously ordered that the government must give at least 14 days’ notice before starting work on the arch. Wednesday’s notice would keep with that timeframe.Harrison Design/U.S. Commission of Fine Arts – PHOTO: A rendering of the ‘triumphal arch,” that the Trump administration is planning to build near Arlington National Cemetery.The Vietnam-era veterans who have brought a lawsuit against the arch asked Chutkan to step in so that the administration can’t “render the arch a fait accompli before this Court has made a final determination whether Defendants’ project is unlawful.”Triumphal Arch final plans submitted by Interior Department to National Capital Planning CommissionThe veterans’ filing accuses the administration of having “barreled ahead, doing site testing, drawing architectural plans, and seeking approvals from commissions populated by friends of the administration.”  All the while, the filing says, the Trump administration has “failed to obtain (or even to seek) approval from the one body that, by law, must authorize the project: Congress.”The administration argues that the bill signed by President Calvin Coolidge in 1925 providing for the construction of Memorial Bridge also authorizes the arch, because the initial plan called for columns at the end of the bridge.Opponents describe the administration’s argument as “entirely untethered” from the text of that 1925 law.Federal preservation agency says it’s ‘terminating’ required consultation with local officials on Trump’s archTrump’s proposal would put the 250-foot arch in a traffic circle across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial at the foot of the national cemetery. It currently faces legal challenges by the veterans and preservationists.The administration acknowledged in September that the arch would cause “adverse effects” on the setting and views along the rive, but those impacts “cannot be fully avoided” because the arch’s location is “central to the undertaking.”This article originally appeared on ABC News at https://abcnews.com/Politics/veterans-federal-judge-block-trumps-arch-congress-approves/story?id=137493537

An aerial view of scorched grass in London, the UK, on August 11, 2026. – Dan Kitwood/Getty Images More than 50,000 people are estimated to have died across Europe’s cities during the brutal heat waves that roiled the continent this summer — making this year’s heat the region’s deadliest on record, according to a new analysis. About two-thirds of the deaths, more than 32,600, are directly attributed to climate change, driven by fossil fuel pollution, according to the findings, published in two peer-reviewed papers in the journal Nature Health. “I think we can be quite confident in stating that the summer of 2026 is likely to have been the worst on record for heat-related mortality across much of Europe,” said Clair Barnes, an author on the reports and an extreme weather and climate change researcher at Imperial College London. This stark death toll is revealed just weeks before international leaders gather in Turkey for the annual UN climate talks, and days after a UN report warned the world’s chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels has now vanished. “We’re well off-track to limit the worst consequences of climate change, and governments need to realize that without faster action and coordination, things will only get worse,” Barnes said. Europe is the fastest-warming continent and extreme heat, the deadliest form of extreme weather, is already becoming unbearable. Unprecedented high temperatures scorched the continent from late May until the end of August this year. It was western Europe’s hottest summer on record, with temperatures about 2.9 degrees Celsius (5.2 Fahrenheit) above the 1991-2020 average. Individual days, however, saw much larger anomalies, with temperatures more than 12 degrees Celsius (21.6 Fahrenheit) higher than usual in some countries. A tourist attempts to cool down near the Colosseum during a heatwave in Rome, Italy, on June 20. – Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters To calculate the death toll, scientists compared the temperatures in 854 cities across 30 European countries this summer with those that would have been expected in a world without climate change. They then used peer-reviewed research on the relationship between high temperatures and daily deaths to model the likely number of heat-related deaths between the start of June and the end of August. It’s a method that has been found to produce death toll estimates broadly in line with those later produced by national health authorities, the scientists said. They estimated a total of 50,391 heat-related deaths across the cities, which make up about 40% of the population of the countries studied. The death toll is the highest for 26 years and substantially higher than that of previous major European heat waves in 2022 and 2003, the researchers found. Southern and western Europe were worst affected, but typically cooler northern regions, including the UK, also experienced thousands of deaths. The highest death rates were among people 85 or older, but heat can affect anyone, and more than 800 people between the ages of 20 and 44 died from heat-related reasons, according to the findings. This summer is “likely to have been the most dangerously hot summer that Europe has experienced to date,” the report concludes. The scientists also found the role of climate change in heat deaths is becoming more pronounced. Earlier this century, fossil fuel pollution was responsible for about 40% of heat deaths compared to around two-thirds today. Raquel Nunes, an associate professor in health and environment at the University of Warwick, who was not involved in the research, said the findings contribute to “growing evidence of how deadly extreme heat can be, despite being described as a ‘silent killer’ due to its impacts not always being immediately visible.” One of the most concerning aspects was that the death toll was also high among younger people, with thousands under 65 estimated to have died, Nunes added. “Until we kick the fossil fuel habit, we will continue to see increasingly hot and dangerous summers,” Barnes said. And that means even deadlier summers on the horizon. “These numbers are a stark reminder that our hotter, more extreme summers are having an increasingly severe impact on public health,” she added. “Behind these statistics are real people whose lives were lost and real families who grieve for them.” For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.comThis article originally appeared on CNN at https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/22/climate/europe-heat-wave-deaths-50000

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court said New Hampshire can fully enforce a ban on voters using student IDs as a form of identification at the polls next month, a win for the Republican Party’s effort to tighten voting procedures. The court on Oct. 22 agreed to pause a lower court’s ruling that a student ID is among the forms of identification that may be considered by poll workers if the voter lacks an approved government-issued ID. The state’s U.S. Senate race is among the contests that will decide whether Republicans keep control of that chamber after the midterm elections. The Republican National Committee had backed the state’s unsuccessful emergency appeal to the Supreme Court. New Hampshire, controlled by Republicans, is among several states that have banned registered voters from using a student ID to verify their identity at the polls. A voting-rights group challenged the change as discrimination against younger voters and as an unconstitutional burden on their right to vote. A federal judge in New Hampshire declined to block enforcement of the law as the case is litigated. But the judge also said the new law had not changed the fact that a poll worker may accept or reject a student ID as a valid form of identification on a case-by-case basis through the state’s “safety-valve” provision. New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan asked the Supreme Court to intervene. Scanlan, a Republican, said the judge’s Oct. 2 order injected uncertainty into the state’s voting procedures less than three weeks before the election. He also said the judge wrongly interpreted the state’s law. Coalition for Open Democracy, the group challenging the law, said the judge correctly concluded that state officials failed to identify “any security or integrity concerns specific to student ID cards and why they are unique among other non-governmental forms of identification” that are allowed on a case-by-case basis. The judge also found that the change had already kept one student from voting and could affect more because young voters may not have the government-issued IDs that are automatically accepted. In the brief and unsigned opinion, the Supreme Court pointed to its previous rulings that federal courts should not alter rules on the eve of an election. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only justice to publicly disagree with that decision. She said the federal judge had not changed the rules but only corrected the secretary of state’s misinterpretation of them. “I respectfully dissent because − even, and perhaps especially, when an election is looming − I would not disturb aclearly justifiable federal-court order issued to ensure that the public receives accurate information about a State’selectoral processes,” she wrote. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court sides with GOP in New Hampshire student ID voting fightThis article originally appeared on USA TODAY at https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/10/22/supreme-court-student-id-vote-republican-new-hampshire/92335101007/