Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday defended the Justice Department’s lawsuit — filed at President Donald Trump’s request — seeking to block Alaska from certifying its election results if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses.
In a contentious interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” he denied the president is laying the groundwork to contest the outcome of the midterm elections in just over one week.
“President Trump is not trying to take over a state election in any way, shape or form,” Blanche insisted.
But when pressed on what crime the administration alleges is being committed the attorney general said, “Well, it depends.”
“There could be a crime,” Blanche said. “But the real wrong here is that Alaskans are going to be confused and will not have their vote heard.”
With a little over one week to go before Election Day, Trump administration officials have set their sights on the key Senate seat, where Sullivan is facing a surprisingly competitive challenge from former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola. The lawsuit has heightened Democrats’ fears that Trump could try to undermine the integrity of the midterm elections.
Sullivan, the incumbent, is also being challenged by a retired elementary school teacher who shares his name.
“There is no dispute that the only reason the second Dan Sullivan is running is to pull votes away in a confusing and inappropriate manner from the Dan Sullivan incumbent,” Blanche said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Host Margaret Brennan pushed back, explaining that “Dan S. Sullivan” is clearly listed on the ballot as the incumbent while his opponent is listed without a party affiliation as “Dan J. Sullivan.” She also pointed out that early voting began in the state on Oct. 19.
The Alaska Supreme Court had already settled the issue in June, ordering that both Sullivans be placed on the August primary ballot.
Alaska’s senior Republican senator, Lisa Murkowsi, who frequently breaks with Trump, criticized his administration on Friday for filing the lawsuit. “Alaskans don’t need any help voting for their preferred candidates, and the State of Alaska has already handled this by clearly distinguishing the candidates on this year’s ballot,” she said.
Peltola, who narrowly leads Sullivan, according to MS NOW polling partner FiftyPlusOne, told MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace over the weekend that “this is exactly the kind of corruption that Alaskans are sick and tired of.”
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JERUSALEM — He serves a mostly ceremonial role. But in a matter of days, Israeli President Isaac Herzog will wield significant power as he decides which political party will have the first chance to build a government — a move that could determine the fate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In an exclusive interview with MS NOW, Herzog said he would not bow to pressure from President Donald Trump to benefit his friend Netanyahu, whom Trump endorsed last week.
“I don’t think the president of the United States or anybody else can intervene in my discretion — the discretion has to be based on certain facts, and we will see what the facts are,” said Herzog. “There will be a lot of pressure, though, regardless.”
Herzog said he has “huge respect” for Trump and welcomes any dialogue, but the decision will be his, and his alone.
“I know how to deliberate with him or any other world leader,” he said. “It’s Israel’s democracy and Israel’s constitution, and that’s what counts for me.”
On Sunday, Trump re-upped his endorsement of the Israeli prime minister on Truth Social, writing, “As everyone is aware, including the enemy, Bibi and I have a great relationship in winning together.”
“We have to finish the job that we started!” Trump concluded.
With final election polling showing neither Netanyahu’s Likud party nor challenger Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party likely to win outright, an initial round of coalition building will likely ensue to reach the 61-seat majority threshold of the Knesset, Israel’s 120-seat Parliament.
The decision of who gets the first crack at that is one that weighs on Herzog.
“It’s going to be very delicate,” Herzog said, noting the leading candidates’ public commitments not to align with certain factions. “So it’s really an open game, especially if the results are going to be close.”
With a diverse set of parties in the anti-Netanyahu bloc, Eisenkot faces an uphill battle to solve the math problem of reaching a majority: He has ruled out including both the Arab and ultra-Orthodox parties in any government he leads.
Arab Israelis make up about 21% of the country’s population, but politicians vying to become prime minister have long excluded them from being part of the ruling government.
Though he noted Arab parties are “part and parcel of Israeli democracy,” Herzog wouldn’t say whether they belong in Israeli leadership.
“There’s a question about what happens if you have to take decisions now about war and peace, and this is the issue at stake in the political discussion and the decisions of the voters,” he said.
Herzog repeatedly said he would do whatever is within his power to avoid sending Israeli voters back to the polls for more rounds of elections — including pushing for a national unity government that would include both Netanyahu and Eisenkot, while excluding leaders from extremist parties.
“I don’t know if it’s feasible,” he conceded, noting the overall process could take long, drawn-out weeks. What that could mean for the Iran war, which Trump has hinted at restarting after the U.S. midterms, is unclear.
“I hope now there’s either negotiations or again a flaring up of the military escalation,” Herzog said, adding the decision is up to the negotiators, militaries and the U.S. president.
In the closing days of the election, the devolving situation in the West Bank has been at the forefront, highlighting the contrast between Netanyahu, who has repeatedly ignored violence against Palestinians, and Eisenkot, who has pledged to get tough on rising attacks, which have led to international condemnation and threats of sanctions.
But Herzog took exception with blaming Israeli settlers for violence in the West Bank, instead insisting the recent increase is the result of a small group of violent people “that everybody has to crack down on.”
“I can attest to the fact that strict decisions were taken by all relevant authorities, including the Israeli Security Cabinet, to that effect to crack down on this phenomena, and you will see more and more results, I hope, in the near future,” Herzog said, adding, “It’s despicable, it’s outrageous. We should take all necessary steps to arrest all of them.”
Herzog condemned a terror attack on Friday in which two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others in Hebron, prompting Netanyahu’s office to instruct security forces to immediately cordon off Hebron and prepare for a full closure of the West Bank.
“We have to fight terror without any limitations, subject of course to the law, and we have to crack down on all this violence so that we contain it fully,” he said.
Given his pivotal role in the outcome of Israel’s elections, Herzog has refused to wade into key electoral issues, including — and especially — holding Netanyahu accountable.
Last November, Trump wrote to Herzog urging him to “fully pardon” Netanyahu, who was indicted in 2019 on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
At the time, Herzog’s office responded that he held Trump in the highest regard but that anyone seeking a pardon had to submit a formal request.
Herzog, the eleventh president of Israel and who has been in office since July 2021, is predicting “huge turnout” and is confident in the integrity of Israel’s elections, which he says will determine the course of the country’s debate over the independence of the judicial system and Israel’s borders.
“Israel is an incredible democracy,” Herzog said. “It’s a source of dignity and pride to all those who love to bash at us and criticize us and attack us day in, day out without knowing that we are the only democracy in this region and we protect the free world.”
The post Herzog reaffirms independence of Israeli elections amid Trump push for Netanyahu appeared first on MS NOW.
CLEVELAND — When asked about President Donald Trump’s strong defense of a GOP attack ad featuring her estranged mother calling her a liar, Amy Acton exercised prudence.
“I’ve worked with the president before,” the Democratic gubernatorial nominee told MS NOW, “but I think he needs to learn the facts of this case. They’re irrefutable.”
During an interview following a rally with former President Barack Obama on Saturday, Acton declined to attack Trump. Instead, the childhood sexual assault survivor praised Republican leaders in her state who have condemned the spot, including former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft and Mike DeWine, the current governor, who called it “deeply troubling.”
“All of our living governors have spoken in Ohio and condemned this ad, and that means the world to me,” Acton said in an interview. “What I am focused on is what these governors know: that the people of Ohio are struggling. They’re ready for change.”
Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s decision to release and amplify the advertisement in his exceedingly tight race against Acton has divided Republicans ahead of the midterms. But Trump has remained firmly in his corner, advising Ramaswamy to “leave it up” and suggested it could clear the way for a Republican victory in the state.
“I told him, leave it up and look upstairs and say, ‘Thank you God, very much,’” Trump said at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, on Thursday. “I only wish I could have had an ad like that against somebody.”
When pressed by a reporter on his defense of a GOP attack that touches on the Democratic candidate’s childhood trauma, Trump doubled down, asserting the ad was not tied to the criminal histories of Acton’s mother or her late husband.
“You’re trying to take a horrible situation for a Democrat and make it look better. The mother said really bad things about a person that wants to be the Democrat governor of Ohio,” Trump said on Friday. “This has nothing to do with a stepfather or anything else.”
Acton’s decision to withhold criticism of Trump — while thrashing Ramaswamy — speaks to the fine line she has walked in her pursuit to become the first woman to lead Ohio, a state Trump won three times.
Her emergence as a viable Democratic contender for governor came after she broke from Democrats on a number of policy positions, including issues relating to federal immigration enforcement, transgender athletes and voter ID laws.
The controversial 60-second clip released by Ramaswamy’s campaign features Acton’s estranged mother, 82-year-old Donna Arthur, who calls her daughter a “liar.”
“She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true,” Arthur says in the ad. “Don’t vote for people who lie.”
Acton told MS NOW she has not spoken to her mother in nearly 50 years. She has long been vocal about the challenges she and her brother faced as children, one she alleges was rife with physical and sexual abuse, poverty and a period of homelessness.
Court records obtained by news outlets show Acton’s stepfather, Cledith Arthur, was charged with rape of a minor under the age of 13 before he fled the state and later died. Acton has identified herself as the victim. Her brother has said their mother remained married to Arthur until his death.
“The last time I saw my birth mother, I was 12 years old in a courthouse after a grand jury hearing, where my stepfather was indicted, and then he was a fugitive. They skipped on bail and left,” Acton told MS NOW.
Additional records obtained by NBC News show that both Donna and Cledith Arthur faced additional criminal financial charges over the course of several decades.
“I’m learning things that even I don’t remember, obviously, as a 12-year-old child,” Acton told MS NOW. “We’re learning more about the kinds of things he did to other children. We’re learning more about the troubled life of my mother, who was not well then, since I was probably three years old, and is not well now.”
Citing the negative reception to the Ramaswamy ad, The Cook Political Report on Friday shifted its rating of the race from “toss up” to “lean Democrat.” Acton told MS NOW that trend lines were already pointing in that direction.
”My opponent has spent $110 million and counting in the most abhorrent, lying, made up ads, and it never moved the needle one inch. We have started tied or ahead in every single polls in this race. We’re up double digits with independents and we have tons of Republicans crossing over,” Acton said.
For Ohio voters at Acton’s rally in Cleveland, alongside Obama and Democratic Senate nominee Sherrod Brown, the move by Ramaswamy to release the ad was a sign of “desperation.”
”I thought it was just so underhanded and I thought it was just such a bad choice for Vivek to do that,” 70-year-old Ken Salzbrenner said. “To bring up the situation that she was in, that she had no control over as a 12-year-old, I think was just outrageous, and it shows his lack of leadership that he would make that choice.”
During his remarks at the event, Obama hammered Ramaswamy as “thirsty” and framed his release of the ad as a desperate attempt to “get attention”
“There is no line he will not cross, there is no low he won’t sink to, to try to get in the limelight,” Obama said. “There’s got to be something inside you where you just say, you know, no office is worth stooping that low because, you know what, character matters.”
The post ‘Learn the facts’: Amy Acton schools Trump on her childhood trauma appeared first on MS NOW.
Nei giorni in cui l’Italia discute di tutto, c’è un protagonista che non parla ma si fa sentire benissimo. Si chiama Marcello, è un asino e il suo “difetto”, almeno per qualcuno, è quello di ragliare. Un verso che a Gargallo, piccolo comune collinare del Novarese, è diventato il centro di una disputa che ha superato di slancio i confini del paese. Lo riporta La Prealpina.
Marcello è un asinello di quasi quattro anni arrivato dalla Valsesia. La sua storia comincia a Scopello, dove viveva prima di essere adottato da una famiglia: Mattia, Chiara e lo zio Orlando. A Gargallo, un paese collinare vicino a Borgomanero, noto per l’agricoltura e per la produzione di miele, ha trovato un prato e una routine fatta di passeggiate e visite. Nel terreno, raccontano le cronache locali, può muoversi liberamente mentre bambini, famiglie e passanti si fermano a salutarlo, e il suo menu è fatto di carote, finocchi e mele.
IIl guaio, per alcuni, è la colonna sonora di Marcello. I ragli hanno spinto alcuni cittadini a presentare un esposto in Comune perché le autorità intervenissero per allontanare l’animale. Da una parte ci sono dunque i residenti che chiedono più tranquillità, dall’altra chi si è affezionato a Marcello al punto da considerarlo parte della comunità. Il confronto, come spesso accade, è presto uscito dai tavoli istituzionali per approdare sui social e in televisione.
L'articolo L’asino Marcello fa troppo “rumore” e divide il paese: i potenti ragli, l’esposto e la petizione. Il 7 novembre si decide il suo destino e intanto diventa una star tv proviene da Il Fatto Quotidiano.
“Avere un gatto in casa non basta per stare meglio: conta quanto gli si sta vicino”: è la conclusione di uno studio dell’Università di Kyoto, pubblicato su iScience, che ha seguito per un mese 29 gatti e 19 proprietari. I felini portavano al collare piccoli sensori Bluetooth che misuravano il tempo trascorso a stretto contatto con le persone, mentre i padroni compilavano questionari sull’umore. Lo riporta il Daily Mail.
Il risultato: chi passa più tempo fisicamente vicino al proprio gatto mostra livelli più alti di “vigore”, cioè energia e vitalità. Non c’è invece un legame con gli anni di convivenza. Anzi, più a lungo si possedeva il gatto, più tendevano a salire gli stati d’animo negativi. “Forse non basta tenere un gatto per averne benefici: a contare è la qualità dell’interazione”, spiega la prima autrice, Saho Takagi.
Lo studio ha poi indagato il lato biologico, finora esplorato soprattutto sui cani, dato che i gatti passano per animali indipendenti e distaccati. Misurando cortisolo (l’ormone dello stress) e ossitocina (quella del legame e della fiducia), i ricercatori hanno trovato una forte sintonia: quando l’ossitocina del gatto era alta, lo era anche quella del padrone, che mostrava meno cortisolo e meno emozioni negative.
L'articolo “Più il gatto è innamorato di te meno sei stressato”: una ricerca svela il legame segreto tra padrone e felino proviene da Il Fatto Quotidiano.
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