The defeated Brazilian candidate claims to be the victim of a coup d’état and political persecution, recycling unsubstantiated allegations of “electoral fraud”.
Gas reservation policy set for lower house vote today
Australia’s domestic gas reservation is set to be debated and voted on in the lower house today.
Rather than international base companies, determining through algorithms what Australians receive, it empowers people themselves to determine what you receive on your devices, so that you should have that control.
This isn’t about government having a greater role. It’s about people having a greater role, having more control themselves, and it’s deserving of support of this parliament.
Pete Hoekstra, controversial US ambassador to Canada, has also accused Canadian officials of interfering in US elections
The US ambassador has suggested Canada could be blamed if Republicans perform poorly in next week’s midterm elections, the latest intervention from a controversial figure who has been accused of inflaming a bitter dispute that has angered and baffled residents of both countries.
On Wednesday, CTV news reported that Pete Hoekstra told business leaders at a closed door meeting that if a number of swing races – including Maine and Michigan – go to the Democrats, it could make things harder for Canada because Donald Trump might try to blame the loss on it.
Trump ally, who is seeking to shutter the department, had said office relocation would save taxpayers $4.8m annually
The Trump administration has insisted its controversial education cuts are saving “millions of dollars” after it was reported that Linda McMahon, secretary of education, is planning to spend roughly $43,000 on new furniture for her office.
McMahon’s office told Congress that the secretary’s current furniture was worn out and “cannot be configurationally or aesthetically integrated into the agency’s new office space”, according to non-public records seen by the New York Times.
Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, a Democrat, speaks at a public exhibit about the Epstein files in Dallas. | Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News via Getty Images
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Eighteen years after his first conviction, and seven years after his much-debated death, the ghost of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is suddenly inescapable again.
He’s the subject of scores of midterm campaign ads, each more lurid than the last. A second bill mandating the release of the Epstein files is currently kicking around Congress. And on Monday, House Democrats released a new report alleging that the Justice Department helped cover up details of Epstein’s relationship with President Donald Trump, calling — very aspirationally! — for an independent criminal investigation.
Of course, no one really expects Trump’s attorney general to name a special counsel to investigate the Trump administration. In a statement, one White House spokesperson panned the report as “a desperate attempt by crazed Democrats to distract Americans.” (The timing, just one week before the midterms, does seem pretty fortuitous.)
The document, which runs to 50 pages, draws on public accounts and staff interviews with an unspecified number of survivors, including a former pageant queen who alleges that Trump raped her in 1993. The woman had previously accused Trump of groping her, which a Trump spokesperson dismissed at the time as “fake.”
When it comes to Epstein, however, Democrats don’t need a lot of new material to damage Trump. The scandal, and his administration’s handling of it, continue to cast a long, dark shadow over Republicans.
That’s surprising to me, candidly, because the decades-old dealings of even a very despicable sex offender don’t have any bearing on Americans’ day-to-day costs or experiences. And Trump has been able to brush off a lot of other unsavory behavior and associations.
Many of these young voters “resent the fact that Trump’s basically become part of the establishment” and see the Epstein files as evidence of that, the political analyst Rachel Janfaza recently told Vox. Some also feel burned by Trump’s campaign promise to release the government’s investigative files on Epstein…and his about-face once in office.
Democrats, sensing an opening, are hammering the issue. Relentlessly so. According to data from the tracker AdImpact cited by NBC News, there are currently more than 500 campaign ads airing across the country that include the words “pedophile” or “predator.”
Many of them reference Epstein or the so-called Epstein files, and three-quarters are backed by Democrats. One recent ad featuring an Epstein survivor, and targeted at Kansas Republican Roger Marshall, slams the incumbent senator’s September 2025 vote to block a procedural measure that would have released the Epstein files. (The Senate later moved to release the files by unanimous consent.)
Another ad, this one in Maine, claims that Epstein’s “business partner” funneled $3 million to Sen. Susan Collins’s super PAC. (Importantly, the connection between Epstein and this purported partner is so tenuous as to be nonexistent.)
These ads will fade after Tuesday, of course. But you haven’t heard the last word on this. Should Democrats win control of either chamber, they’ll gain the power to subpoena witnesses and documents for yet more Epstein investigations.
Some Democratic leaders in the House are already salivating over that prospect.
One link for later
➨ Ask better questions than “what do you do?” Small talk is often dominated by idle chatter about traffic, weather, or jobs. To actually get to know your conversation partner, try leading with questions that get at their interests: what a friend’s friend is reading, for example, or what a barista’s favorite beverage is. You can even draft a little list of go-to questions in advance to deploy in conversation when you need them. Just don’t treat the exercise like a checklist. The real key to better small talk is being curious.
Before you go…
Did you know…that concrete is the second-most-used material on Earth? (The first is water!) Mixing and pouring concrete is responsible for a huge share of global emissions, but there are efforts underway to make it more sustainable.
Today’s trivia: An arroyo is a stream — or at least, a streambed — found in what type of environment? (You can find this and other brain puzzles in Vox’s daily crossword. Look for the answer in tomorrow’s edition.)
Yesterday’s trivia: Yesterday we asked you for the name of the lovable yellow dog in the comic strip Garfield. That would be Odie, whose look evolved over the years as illustrator Jim Davis sought to distinguish him from his iconic canine rival Snoopy.
The online portal MyMinfin and several other services have been temporarily taken offline as a precaution while officials investigate and secure their systems.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will not take action against licensed pharmacists who dispense certain unapproved peptides to consumers, according to a new policy published Oct. 28 in the Federal Register.
Peptides are short chains of amino acids that people inject into their bodies. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said in the past that he is a “big fan” of the unapproved drugs, whose benefits are largely scientifically unproven.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) essentially banned peptides in 2023 because of safety concerns. But an FDA committee met in July to review the evidence on peptides and recommend whether or not to take the highly unusual step of allowing pharmacies to dispense them absent scientific review. The committee was made up of new appointees who consulted with or were employed by companies that were interested in promoting or dispensing peptides; it recommended allowing specialty pharmacies to dispense six peptides, despite FDA staff advising against the move.
The new policy—which was signed by Kennedy—says that after the July meetings, HHS believed there was “significant interest” in the use of obtaining these peptides from compounding pharmacies. “Therefore, to expand and improve patient access, HHS does not intend to take enforcement action against a State-licensed pharmacy, Federal facility, or licensed physician compounding a drug product using a peptide bulk drug substance found in Appendix A,” the notice said. The policy said that it was going to be published in the Federal Register on Oct. 30. The peptides listed in Appendix A were BPC-157, Epitalon, KPV, MOTS-c, Semax, and TB-500—the same ones the committee recommended allowing this summer.
A separate document posted on the HHS website says that after reviewing the recommendations of the committee that met in July, “the Secretary has determined that the policy advances patient choice and freedom while appropriately protecting patient safety.”
The decision to allow the compounding of peptides is a boon for companies like Hims & Hers, which had reportedly been preparing to offer peptides in 2026. Analysts have said the market for peptides could be as high as $3.3 billion. Hims stock shot up 5% after the Oct. 28 announcement.
The move “represents a vital step toward eliminating the unsafe gray and black markets, restoring safe patient access through legitimate, physician-supervised care,” said Lee Rosebush, chair of the American Academy of Peptide Medicine, a new advocacy group, in a statement.
Other public-health professionals raised alarm about the decision, which they say allows compounding pharmacies to dispense these medications absent scientific evidence. “American consumers should not be treated like guinea pigs,” said Fred Mills, chief policy officer for Americans for Safe and Effective Medicines, in a statement. “It is possible to advance both patient safety and access to legitimate medicines, but this is not it.”
At the July hearings, consumer advocacy groups including the Center for Science in the Public Interest had argued that allowing peptides to skip a rigorous evidence-based FDA approval process would be unprecedented and dangerous to consumers.
Many physicians have spoken up against allowing peptides to be compounded. “The peptides under consideration here are untested and poorly characterized experimental drugs that should not be allowed in compounded products,” said Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, a professor of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University Medical Center, at the public comment portion of the July meeting, reminding the committee that two women had required emergency treatment after receiving peptides at a Las Vegas festival.
Critics also expressed concern that people were turning to compounding pharmacies for untested drugs. Compounding pharmacies are often used to fill specific prescriptions from a doctor, but in recent years, they have mass-produced drugs like GLP-1s for patients looking to save money. The peptide boom will put even more pressure on compounding pharmacies to quickly make drugs for telehealth sites, said Annie Lambert, a pharmacist and clinical program manager for compliance solutions at Wolters Kluwer Health.
"Compounding can and should play a legitimate clinical role, from hospitals to home infusion to filling gaps during drug shortages. But it is not a substitute for FDA-approved manufacturing, and that distinction is where a lot of today's risk sits,” she said in a statement. “My concern is that pharmacies rushing into this space will move to make a dollar faster rather than make sure they meet every requirement, from ingredient sourcing and facilities to staff training and sterility testing.”
Shortly after the new notice was published, a number of telehealth websites were already marketing the six peptides, each for a price of anywhere from $199 to $249 a month.
John Healey raised taxes on banks and landlords to fund a £100 winter handout for 20 million families as official forecasts made clear there is no end in sight for the cost of living crisis.
In his first budget, the chancellor blamed “global economic storms” for the grim outlook, as the war in Iran drives up oil and gas prices.
The leaked records include the locations of ICE and CBP facilities, workers’ cell phone numbers, and the members of groups tied to wiretap programs, Palantir software, and xAI’s Grok chatbot.
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