Assad-era Syrian official jailed for 60 years by US court

🔮 On the eve of elections that will decide whether President Donald Trump’s Republican Party keeps control of Congress, voters’ minds are on the economy, with high and rising prices a key issue and many blaming Trump’s policies, specifically tariffs and the Iran war, for the nagging inflation.

🔮 US President Donald Trump’s threat to strike Iran again confronts America’s Gulf allies with a stark prospect: another war decided in Washington in which the US bases built to protect them could instead make them targets for harsh Iranian reprisal.

🔮 Hungary's governing Tisza party will approve the president's nominee for chief prosecutor, Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on Monday, a significant step in Magyar's efforts to reshape public institutions after his April election victory.

🔮 Americans head to the polls on Nov 3 in midterm elections that will decide control of Congress for the final two years of US President Donald Trump’s term.

🔮 Uganda said on Monday it had begun withdrawing its troops from Somalia as part of a phased drawdown that will end an almost two-decade deployment helping Mogadishu fight the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgency.

🔮 Mohammad Juaaba, a relative of one of the assailants, said the top floor of the family’s home had been destroyed, adding that they planned to move back into the lower floors. Rubble from the demolition blast was strewn around the house, and other relatives could be seen cleaning up the spaces that were still habitable.

🔮 Democrats sought on Monday to contain a rift in Michigan's US Senate race after one of their own crossed party lines to endorse the Republican candidate, as both parties made final pitches before midterm elections that will decide control of Congress US Representative Haley Stevens, who lost the Michigan Democrats' Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed in a bitterly contested race, publicly backed Republican candidate Mike Rogers and appeared with him at a Detroit church, threatening to worsen divisions in a state viewed as crucial to Democratic hopes of retaking the US Senate. The unexpected move lifted the mood of President Donald Trump's Republicans before Tuesday's midterms even as a federal judge dismissed a US Justice Department lawsuit seeking to block certification of election results in Alaska if Republican incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan narrowly loses in the battleground state. In Michigan, Stevens' decision to endorse Republican Rogers surprised party leaders, with some members, such as Representative Debbie Dingell, saying that it created a "distraction" for Democrats.

🔮 President Donald Trump’s Justice Department has shown a willingness to intervene directly in Tuesday's midterm elections, breaking with decades of practice meant to avoid the appearance that its law enforcement powers are being used to benefit a political party or candidate.

🔮 US President Donald Trump ordered the agency to write rules that would bar it from delivering ballots if the states did not agree to turn over lists of eligible voters and some voters have expressed concern about voting by mail. The Supreme Court blocked Trump and the USPS from enforcing those rules in September. Trump’s fellow Republicans are locked in a tight battle to retain control of Congress in the midterms.

🔮 As the rain hammered down on Charles, 77, he was seen gesturing and turning round to try to attract the attention of someone who might help, while Camilla was shielded from the downpour.