🚨 HAPPENING RIGHT NOW 🚨
Vice President JD Vance demanded a full investigation into an alleged Democratic scheme to plant a decoy candidate — also named Dan Sullivan — on Alaska’s Senate ballot, telling a Fox News town hall in Fort Worth that officials should “absolutely look into it.” Justice Department sources say more than 30 subpoenas have gone out in the last 24 hours as prosecutors probe how retired teacher Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. entered the race against GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan, days after a New York Times report tied the recruitment to Democrat Mary Peltola’s orbit, which her campaign denies.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30th, 2026
Before we get to today’s news, here’s what happened on this date in history…
A 23-year-old Orson Welles sent thousands of Americans into a panic on October 30, 1938, when his Mercury Theater’s radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’s “The War of the Worlds” convinced listeners who tuned in late — many had been watching a rival ventriloquist show — that Martians armed with heat-ray weapons had actually landed in Grovers Mill, New Jersey. Framed as a live newscast interrupting a dance-music broadcast, the drama described a force of 7,000 National Guardsmen wiped out before poison gas spread toward Chicago and St. Louis. The FCC investigated but found no law broken, and the stunt helped launch Welles toward directing 1941’s “Citizen Kane.”
Muhammad Ali reclaimed boxing’s world heavyweight title on October 30, 1974, knocking out previously unbeaten champion George Foreman in the eighth round of their bout in Kinshasa, Zaire, in a fight promoted as the “Rumble in the Jungle.” A heavy underdog after years away from the ring, Ali absorbed round after round of Foreman’s power while leaning back against the ropes — a tactic later nicknamed the rope-a-dope — before unloading a combination that dropped the champion. The upset remains one of boxing’s most storied comebacks and cemented Ali’s legend decades before his death in 2016.
⚖️ Judge Rejects DOJ Bid to Block California From Counting 20,000 Alleged Noncitizen Ballots
U.S. District Judge David Carter denied the Justice Department’s request to halt California from counting mail ballots tied to more than 20,000 voters the DOJ alleges may be noncitizens, ruling late Wednesday that blocking them now “would wreak havoc” on an election already underway.
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the DOJ cross-referenced voter rolls against USCIS, Social Security and passport records and warned the ballots would dilute citizens’ votes; California called the government’s data “suspect.”
Carter wrote that “eroded trust in our democracy is irreparable” and that the court “declines to be a party” to segregating ballots this close to Election Day, with more than 3.7 million Californians having already voted.
A divided 9th Circuit panel had declined to intervene 2-1 days earlier; the DOJ immediately appealed Carter’s ruling and made a similar demand of Washington state over roughly 400 voters it calls likely noncitizens.
🤝 Hegseth Fires Top General, Refers Him to DOJ Over Alleged Iran and Ukraine War Leaks
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia, the Joint Staff’s director of strategy, plans and policy, after officials said he failed three polygraph tests tied to leaks of classified information about the Iran war and the Russia-Ukraine war.
A Department of War official said Sylvia allegedly met journalists outside the Pentagon to skirt rules requiring an escort inside the building, calling the firing necessary over “severe misconduct.”
Spokesman Sean Parnell wrote on X that “classified information is not personal property”; the matter has been referred to the Justice Department and no replacement has been named.
Sylvia is the fourth Pentagon official fired under Hegseth over alleged leaks, following Dan Caldwell, Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll — none of whom were ever charged.
🛍️ Battleground Senate Races Shift as DOJ Subpoenas California Election Officials Days Before the Vote
With Election Day four days away, Fox News Power Rankings moved Ohio’s Senate race from Toss-up to Lean Democrat and shifted South Carolina to Toss-up, even as the Justice Department issued subpoenas to Los Angeles County election workers in its noncitizen-voting probe.
Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, defended Trump’s trade agenda and touted 10,000 new Ohio manufacturing jobs in an exclusive Fox News interview, trailing ex-Sen. Sherrod Brown in Fox’s own late-October poll.
NRSC chair Sen. Tim Scott campaigned in Michigan for Republican Mike Rogers against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, a race a late-September Fox News poll had nearly tied, 50%-49%.
The subpoenas, issued Oct. 21 and Oct. 24 per the AP, order Los Angeles County officials to appear in court Nov. 4 — the day after the midterms; Registrar Dean Logan said threats and intimidation “have no place in elections.”
🌎 Machado Returns to Venezuela, Pushes for New Elections as Trump Says He “Doesn’t Know Anything” About It
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado made a surprise return to Venezuela after nearly a year abroad, writing on social media “I’m here. With you all,” and has since used her first domestic news conference to press acting leader Delcy Rodríguez’s government for a new presidential election.
President Trump, asked about her return, said “I don’t know anything about it, but I think she’s a very nice woman,” adding “she gave me her Nobel Prize” — a reference to the medal Machado presented him in the Oval Office in January.
Machado ally Edmundo González, the 2024 opposition candidate, confirmed her arrival and said he would join her “very soon,” writing that “our sovereign voice returns with her to lead and guide this process.”
The return comes nine months after U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro; Machado has reportedly thanked Trump for “opening a floodgate to freedom” for Venezuela.
🏥 New Havana Syndrome Cluster Hits Washington, Senior Defense and Intelligence Officials Hospitalized
At least six new suspected Havana Syndrome cases are being treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, with reporting identifying senior personnel from the Department of War and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence among the patients.
Victims reported symptoms consistent with the Government Accountability Office’s description of the syndrome — which typically follows a loud noise or sudden disorientation — and several noted suspicious vehicles nearby beforehand.
Journalist Catherine Herridge, who broke the story, said investigators haven’t identified a cause but “anticipate…learning more before the end of the year about ultimately the government findings.”
It follows an earlier cluster at a U.S. intelligence and research facility in Northern Virginia; officials are probing whether a foreign adversary is responsible.
— Daily Caller, BPR