Alice Hancock / Financial Times:
Iran hits Hormuz tanker with limpet mines in apparent tactical shift  —  Ship damaged on Thursday by attackers in speedboat in first such incident since 2019  —  Iranians in a small speedboat have attacked a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz by attaching limpet mines to the hull for the first time since 2019 …

Amanda Marcotte / Salon:
Ohio's Jon Husted, object of Trump's leering, is just an empty pair of pants  —  Trump's admiration of the senator's rear end can't distract from the GOP's hollow agenda  —  Jon Husted has a problem: People can't seem to remember who he is.  The former lieutenant governor of Ohio was appointed …

Jacob Rosen / CBS News:
DOJ and Comey's lawyers to face off in court today over latest attempt to charge him  —  Former FBI Director James Comey will be back in a federal courtroom on Friday, as his legal team prepares to argue in favor of dismissing the Justice Department's latest attempt to bring criminal charges …

Ryan J. Reilly / NBC News:
James Comey team in court seeking to toss out third DOJ case against longtime Trump foe  —  Attorneys for the former FBI director contend the third case isn't valid on its face because it wasn't presented to a federal grand jury within the statute of limitations.

Scott Clement / Washington Post:
We polled Kansas.  Democrats wanted to talk.  Republicans, not so much.  —  The Post is publishing results of its Kansas Senate poll in the interest of transparency and to highlight the challenges the poll faced.  —  SummaryLoading...  The Washington Post and George Mason University began …

Chris Cameron / New York Times:
Trump Cancels Rallies in Kansas and Iowa, Where Polls Show Tight Races  —  President Trump has been holding hours-long rallies for G.O.P. candidates nearly every day for weeks.  —  The Republican Party said on Thursday that President Trump had canceled two planned campaign rallies in Iowa …

CNBC:
Gamble on democracy: Inside suspicious election-contracts trading on prediction markets … Spencer Pratt appeared to be a shoo-in to win the June primary in the Los Angeles mayor's race, based on millions of dollars wagered on prediction markets aiming to call the race.  —  Pratt was an unlikely candidate for mayor.

Noah Berlatsky / Public Notice:
We've blown past mere “transphobia”  —  Public Notice is proudly celebrating 5 years of independent journalism.  Our coverage is possible thanks for paid subscribers.  Become one ⬇️  —  🏳️‍⚧️ Subscribe to PN 🏳️‍⚧️

ProPublica:
How a Secret Vote by U.N. Scientists Legitimized Carbon Capture and Skewed Decades of Climate Policy  —  Carbon Captured How the fossil fuel industry influenced climate research  —  Reporting Highlights  — Scientists' Secret Vote: A U.N. climate report legitimized carbon capture and storage …

Bloomberg:
Private Equity Is Boosting Republicans Over Democrats in Midterms  —  The investing industry is throwing its weight behind Republican allies ahead of the US midterm elections in an effort to stem a populist wave it fears will bring greater scrutiny of private equity's reach.

New York Times:
Polymarket Is Investigating Suspicious Bets on Israeli Election  —  The company said it was looking into hundreds of new accounts that had placed wagers in two markets related to the election on Tuesday.  —  Polymarket is investigating dozens of suspicious bets made on the Israeli election this week …

Huo Jingnan / NPR:
Websites pretending to be local news are boosting Democratic candidates  —  📲 Get the latest on the midterms & more in the NPR App  —  Ahead of the midterms, some voters are turning to ChatGPT to help them decide who to vote for.  When asked for information about candidates …

Emma Ruby / The Washington Sun:
Democrats Have a Bogeyman in Musk.  They're Hardly Using Him.  —  Elon Musk is likely to end this election cycle as the biggest single donor.  He's also surprisingly hard to find.  —  The last time Elon Musk got involved in an election, last year in Wisconsin, he was everywhere …

The Atlantic:
Democrats Are Ready to Run Hegseth ‘Out of Town’  —  A new majority might push for impeachment, but could regret it.  —  Many democrats have a post-midterm dream that goes something like this: Pete Hegseth, the push-up-loving, beardo-mocking former Fox News host who has led the Pentagon …

Lakshya Jain / The Argument:
How Republicans lost voters' trust  —  New poll has Democrats leading by 11 points … This is what it looks like when the bottom falls out for the Republican Party.  —  Across the 14 national polls The Argument has conducted since last year, I have never seen a worse poll for the Republicans than this one.

Defense News:
Pentagon tells Europeans to cool their rhetoric on Russia, sources say  —  Antoni Slodkowski, Gram Slattery and Andrius Sytas, Reuters  —  Pentagon officials have in recent weeks asked several NATO countries to tone down their rhetoric regarding the threat posed by Russia …

Peggy Noonan / Wall Street Journal:
The Case for a Historic Wave  —  The president should be dealt a rebuke, a rebellion and a rout.  Only then can the Republican Party be rebuilt.  —  We begin with a thought at odds with the mood of the moment.  It is the old political wisdom that every victory contains the seeds of defeat, and every defeat the seeds of victory.

New York Times:
Binance Suspends Withdrawals After Crypto Hackers Steal $6.3 Billion  —  The world's largest crypto exchange said it was compromised in a “complex hack” that could be the biggest crypto heist ever.  One research lab attributed the theft to “North Korea's elite hacking unit.”

Paul Kane / The Washington Sun:
Forget Banning Stock Trades.  A Democratic Majority Must Tackle All Corruption  —  The 120th Congress is setting up for a collision course on how far to push an ethics agenda meant to signal to voters that lawmakers heard their concerns about corruption in Washington.

Nancy Cook / Washington Post:
Brash architect of Trump's midterm strategy could become midterm scapegoat  —  Intense and self-assured, James Blair had the president's backing, but a major loss could set off a search for someone to blame.  —  SummaryLoading...  President Donald Trump has nicknames for several aides …