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Today's Brief: Straws, Ballots, and an Arch

The Homebrew · · Posted · AI-drafted daily brief, synthesized from Left, Center, and Right coverage. Facts may be inaccurate — verify with the cited sources below.

A federal judge in Miami on Saturday threw out President Donald Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch with prejudice, saying the president was "grasping at straws," the Associated Press reported in a story published by NPR. In California, a federal judge ordered the administration to stop threatening election officials with criminal charges over how they process ballots, the BBC reported, days before the Nov. 3 midterms. And Virginia and the District of Columbia sued to block construction of Trump's proposed 250-foot arch, according to NPR.

The Journal case. U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles ruled that Trump did not show the defendants made defamatory statements with actual malice, and said the suit had tried to "manufacture" flaws in the Journal's reporting, the Associated Press reported. "The Amended Complaint falls short of pleading actual malice," Gayles wrote, citing the Supreme Court's 1964 decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, according to the Associated Press. The suit was over the Journal's story on a letter bearing Trump's name in a 2003 album compiled for Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday; Trump denied writing it and called the story "false, malicious, and defamatory," the Associated Press said. Gayles first dismissed the suit in April and Trump filed an amended complaint in May, the Associated Press reported.

Gayles wrote that if a public figure's denial alone were enough, "journalists would be immediately blocked from publishing negative or contradictory press," the BBC reported. The White House did not immediately respond to the Associated Press' request for comment.

Ballots in California. Judge Trina Thompson ordered the Justice Department to stop demanding that state and local officials set aside or not process certain ballots the administration alleges may come from non-citizens, the BBC reported. Earlier this month the department demanded that California's secretary of state and the Los Angeles County registrar set aside the ballots of 20,000 registered voters it believes are "likely" non-citizens, and about a week later armed Homeland Security officials delivered letters threatening criminal charges, according to the BBC, citing court documents. "Although Defendants claim that their actions are designed to halt unlawful voting by noncitizens, their actions are likely to have the effect of interfering with election administration and disenfranchising lawful voters," Thompson wrote. Trump criticized the ruling Saturday, writing, "Why would they reject fixing Election Fraud?" the BBC reported.

Vote counting starts Tuesday night but could take days or even weeks, NPR reported, and Senate control could take much longer than the House because margins are tighter and seven states are especially competitive.

The arch. The 45-page suit, filed by attorneys general Jay Jones of Virginia and Brian Schwalb of D.C., calls the project "flagrantly unlawful" and says construction could begin as soon as next week, NPR reported. The arch would sit between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial and stand twice the height of the memorial, according to NPR. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkin ordered both sides to agree on a briefing schedule for a temporary restraining order, and the White House and Interior Department did not respond to NPR on Saturday.

Binance and the tech slide. Binance said it has covered 90% of the $6.3 billion stolen in Thursday's hack and restored withdrawals on several networks Sunday, the BBC reported. The FBI said Saturday that North Korea was responsible; North Korea has always denied involvement in such attacks, and Trump told reporters, "We don't know if it's North Korea," according to the BBC. On Friday, Intel fell 28%, Reddit plunged 29%, and Alphabet slipped another 1.4% after Thursday's 12% plunge, the BBC reported, as the Nasdaq ended October with its worst month since March 2025.

Germany's streets. Rioters looted shops in central Frankfurt late Saturday, and police in Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg used water cannons after cost-of-living protests turned violent, the BBC reported. The daytime marches were organized by the group Gen Z regelt over school underfunding, the cost of living, spending cuts and military service, and authorities counted as many as 18,000 protesters, about half the organizers' estimate, according to the BBC. Hesse's interior minister, Roman Poseck, said "around 100 clearly identified left-wing extremists" had infiltrated the Frankfurt protest. More than 320,000 people marched in France the same day, the BBC said.

Ebola in Congo. More than 5,000 people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola outbreak, with more than 10,300 confirmed cases in eight of 26 provinces and a case fatality rate of 48.6%, the BBC reported, citing government data. There is not yet a vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo strain behind it, though vaccine trials are under way, and Kenya has recorded nine confirmed cases and two deaths, according to the BBC. Nigeria isolated two suspected cases Saturday, its disease control centre said.

Health costs. Open enrollment for 2027 Affordable Care Act coverage starts Nov. 1 in most states, with premiums slated for double-digit increases of 15%, KFF Health News reported in a story published by NPR. Consumers using an agent on the federal marketplace, which serves 29 states, will need a one-time confirmation code or link to authorize that agent, and enrollment is expected to keep falling after enhanced subsidies expired at the end of 2025, according to NPR. Separately, the FDA approved Fayuvi, a one-time gene therapy for the rare inherited disease Sanfilippo syndrome, in September; Ultragenyx priced it at nearly $4 million, and patient families' fundraising kept the underlying research alive, NPR reported.

Houdini, 100 years on. Harry Houdini died in Detroit on Halloween 1926, after a ruptured appendix and two surgeries, NPR reported. He played the city 19 times between 1894 and 1926, and despite the legend of his 1906 jump from the Belle Isle Bridge, reports from the time show the river was not frozen, according to NPR.

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