Morning Headlines - Friday, Nov. 4, 2022 | Recent News

U.S. and World Headlines

Trump Drops Strong Hint About 2024 White House Run

Donald Trump has dropped one of his strongest hints yet that he may run for the White House again.
The former US president told a crowd in Iowa, that he will "very, very, very probably do it again" in 2024.
Mr Trump was speaking at the first of four rallies in five days as he campaigns for Republican candidates in next week's midterm elections.
US President Joe Biden is also travelling across the country to get out the vote.
Neither Mr Biden nor Mr Trump is on the ballot next Tuesday when American voters will decide the balance of power in the US Congress and key state governorships.
But the midterms will set the US political landscape ahead of the presidential election in two years' time.

House Republicans are wasting little time jumping headfirst into probes involving the business dealings of President Biden’s son Hunter Biden and the Biden family if they win a majority in next week’s midterm elections.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, the panel set to lead the probes if the GOP formally takes control of the chamber next year, are planning a press conference about their investigation into the Bidens the week after the election.
Their goal is to question whether President Biden’s leadership has been impacted by his family’s business dealings — and to steer clear of the more salacious content on the infamous hard drive that belonged to Hunter Biden, a recovering drug addict.

Company memo warned that mass layoffs will take place at 9am Friday, following Elon Musk's takeover.
All Twitter offices are now sealed, with employee badge access shut off 'to help ensure safety of its systems.'
Workers at Twitter, which has 7,500 staff, will get an email alert in the morning advising them of their status.
Musk reportedly plans to cut up to half of Twitter's global workforce after completing his $44billion takeover.
Meanwhile, Twitter was sued by employees over Musk's plan to lay off about half of its workforce.
Employees say Twitter is eliminating workers without enough notice in violation of federal and California law.
As the layoffs began, sacked Twitter employees began posting under the '#OneTeam' hashtag on the platform.

The Brooklyn Nets suspended star player Kyrie Irving on Thursday as the controversy over his tweet with a link to an antisemitic movie grows.
The Nets said that during a media appearance earlier in the day, Irving failed to declare that he has no antisemitic beliefs or acknowledge the content of the film.
"We were dismayed today, when given an opportunity in a media session, that Kyrie refused to unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs, nor acknowledge specific hateful material in the film," the Nets said in a statement. "This was not the first time he had the opportunity — but failed — to clarify."
The team said he would be suspended without pay for at least five games, and “until he satisfies a series of objective remedial measures that address the harmful impact of his conduct.”

42%: That’s President Joe Biden’s job approval rating among likely voters in the new poll, down from 46% in a CNN poll completed in September and early October.
61%: That’s the number of likely voters who say that Biden hasn’t paid enough attention to the most important problems facing the country.
51%: That’s the number of likely voters who say the economy is the key issue in determining their vote. Abortion – at 15% – is the only other issue that ranks in double digits.
28%: That’s how many likely voters say things are going “very” or “fairly” well in the country.
75%: Three quarters of likely voters say the economy is in the midst of a recession.

All You Need To Know About Wisconsin’s Senate Race, Through TV Ads

In Wisconsin’s Senate race, Republican incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson is facing off against Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. Their TV ads reveal a lot about the issues at play, how each candidates is perceived and the overall state of the race.
Democrats went into 2022 with high hopes of winning the U.S. Senate race in Wisconsin. The party nominated a high-profile candidate in Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, and Republican incumbent Ron Johnson has gotten some bad headlines about his vaccine skepticism and involvement in the plot to overturn the 2020 election.
As recently as a couple of months ago, Barnes even led in the FiveThirtyEight polling average of this race, by as much as 4 percentage points. But his lead evaporated in late September.
What changed in September? It could be that Republican TV ads attacking Barnes started to take their toll. According to HuffPost, Republicans outspent Democrats by $1.6 million during the second and third weeks of September. And there was one issue in particular that their ads focused on: crime.

A review of state records checked about a week out from Election Day showed the number of Wisconsinites registered to vote in 2022 is larger than any previous midterm election.
The data also shows the number of people voting by mail or voting early is higher than 2018, but much lower than 2020.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission regularly publishes voter registration and absentee return statistics, releasing reports for at least the past decade.
Its reports show 3,531,456 Wisconsinites were registered to vote as of Nov. 1, and that 817,509 people have either returned an absentee ballot or voted early as of Nov. 2.
Voter registrations have climbed as the election has approached, with about 12,000 more as of Nov. 1 than one month earlier.
Compared to 2020, these figures represent a slight decline in registered voters, but also a significant reduction in the number of people who voted before Election Day that year.

Wisconsin's hotly contested race for governor is the most expensive in state history.
Spending as of last week by Gov. Tony Evers, Republican challenger Tim Michels and special interest groups on both sides neared $115 million, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign said Thursday. The group tracks campaign spending.
That tops the previous record of $93 million, set in 2018, and doesn't include the final days of the race ahead of Tuesday's election.
The seven candidates for governor spent more than $69.4 million between Jan. 1 and Oct. 24, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign reported. Evers spent about $37 million compared with about $24.5 million by Michels.

The deputy director of Milwaukee’s election commission has been fired after she fraudulently requested military absentee ballots and sent them to a state Republican representative.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said he fired election official Kimberly Zapata after she sent the improperly-obtained ballots to state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls. Brandtjen, the chair of the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections, has come under scrutiny at times for using her committee to amplify speakers who've sown doubt about the 2020 election.
Johnson said he was "absolutely stunned" when he heard of the allegations against Zapata.
"This has every appearance of being an egregious, blatant violation of trust," Johnson said during a press conference Thursday morning. "This matter is now in the hands of law enforcement."
Johnson said the city hasn’t learned of any other violations by Zapata as of Thursday morning.
"Even so, we’re looking into the possibility of other misdeeds," Johnson said.

Chief Judge James D. Peterson of the Western District of Wisconsin sentenced Ahmeeshadye Curtis, 36, Madison, Wisconsin to 42 months in federal prison for conspiring to transport and transporting stolen goods worth over $5,000 across state lines.
Judge Peterson ordered the federal sentence be served consecutive to the 30-month state sentence Curtis is currently serving for burglary-related crimes in Ohio.
Curtis was convicted following a four-day trial in federal court in Madison.
The government presented evidence at trial that from November 2019 through December 24, 2019, Curtis conspired with Carl Carter, 39, also of Madison, to commit seven burglaries and attempt another of stores in Iowa, Ohio, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and to travel across state lines with the stolen merchandise.
The stolen merchandise included cell phones (primarily Apple iPhones), other electronics, and jewelry. Two of the burglaries occurred in Janesville, Wisconsin on November 28, 2019.
Carter pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge and was sentenced on January 4, 2021, to 30 months in federal prison.