Swiss lower house of parliament signs off Mercosur trade deal

🔮 US midterm campaign enters final weekend as Alaska, California ballot fights heat up AI generated WASHINGTON/ANCHORAGE – President Donald Trump’s administration pressed a criminal investigation into Alaska’s pivotal US Senate race and said on Oct 31 it would likely take its fight over thousands of California mail-in ballots to the Supreme Court, as the midterm campaign for control of Congress entered its final weekend. In Alaska, federal prosecutors are investigating whether aides to Democratic challenger Mary Peltola helped to recruit a retired schoolteacher, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr, to run because his name is similar to the Republican incumbent, Senator Dan S. Sullivan. The closely contested race is seen as crucial to Democrats’ hopes of taking the Senate in the Nov 3 vote.

🔮 Many relatives of those still detained fear their loved ones will become an unwanted addition to the statistic.

🔮 Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the note ends, followed by Trump’s signature, which takes the place of pubic hair on the nude outline.

🔮 “The FBI, together with partners at the USSS and IRS-CI, has observed TraderTraitor actors converting stolen assets primarily into Ethereum,” the FBI said on Oct 31 in a statement, referring to the US Secret Service and the criminal division of the Internal Revenue Service. “It is expected these assets will then be further laundered by converting them using DeFi and instant swap services as they prepare them for further laundering stages.

🔮 Rubio’s EU counterpart, Kaja Kallas, said that Putin’s potential attendance at the G-20 leaders’ summit in Miami in December would risk regularising Russia’s return to international forums while its war in Ukraine rages.

🔮 Another US official said that after it became clear that some attendees were unwilling to participate in a joint photo, Rubio acted so the matter would not distract from substantive issues at the event.

🔮 While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Nov 1, 2026 German police, protesters clash after ‘Gen Z’ demos German police and protesters clashed across the country on Oct 31 following massive youth-led protests, with authorities using water cannon and pepper spray as masked demonstrators hurled fireworks, stones and bottles.

🔮 Berlin has been in contact with officials in France and Italy amid fears that radicals from overseas could seek to join the German protests.

🔮 Rubio defended the invitation of Lavrov, saying it would be impossible to end the war diplomatically without talking with Russia, but admitting that such a deal was not on the immediate horizon.

🔮 Thousands of housing protesters returned to one of Lisbon's main squares on Saturday, stepping up pressure on Portugal's minority centre-right government to scrap a rental bill they say would worsen the country's affordability crisis.