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ISRAEL VOTES
Israel's exit polls landed at 10 p.m.: Channel 12 projects 52 seats for the bloc against Netanyahu and 50 for his coalition, Channel 13 gives the opposition 53, and both have the Arab parties at 17 or 18. The i24NEWS poll differs: Likud 27, Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar 20, Netanyahu's bloc 55, the opposition 49, the Arab parties 16. A majority is 61. Likud is the largest party in every poll. Eisenkot said the polls show "a complete lack of confidence in Netanyahu" and pledged to work to replace his government "as soon as possible." Eisenkot appears to have a path to a government, and Netanyahu has room to negotiate. The count runs into the week; the exit polls are projections, not results.
5️⃣ Trump brings Paxton a tanker of Venezuelan oil
Donald Trump flew to Texas to rally for Ken Paxton, with a tanker of Venezuelan crude docked at Port Arthur as the prop. On the tarmac he said Venezuela "sent me as a gift a boatload of a million barrels of oil" and that he is "giving that to the United States." At the rally he called James Talarico a "Democrat Communist" and Paxton "the greatest in the history of Texas attorney general." Dean's word for how Trump got the oil: piracy.
4️⃣ Don Jr. hunted in Mongolia with Umar Kremlev
The Financial Times reported that Donald Trump Jr. spent two days in August hunting in Mongolia with Umar Kremlev, the Russian boxing chief who paid for part of his wedding. Narativ reported in September that bikers introduced Kremlev to the chief of Putin's bodyguard, and Trump said his son paid the money back. That week Vladimir Putin told a gas conference in Moscow that Russia is exploring Arctic cooperation "with partners from the United States."
3️⃣ Trump will accept the midterms "if they're honest elections"
Trump told reporters he will accept the results "if they're honest elections." Who declares them honest, he did not say. An appeals court refused his Justice Department's demand to set aside 20,000 California mail ballots, and Democratic leaders of both chambers asked Judge James Boasberg for a restraining order to stop the federal government removing voters from state rolls, blocking ballots and interfering with the count. In Brazil, Flávio Bolsonaro missed his deadline to hand police his passports, and Trump said Lula's win "looked like another rigged election." One script, from Bolsonaro to Trump to Netanyahu.
2️⃣ Comey charged a third time, Maurene Comey ordered back
The Justice Department unsealed a third case against James Comey: a criminal information, filed under seal on Oct. 5 in Washington, charging him with transmitting national defense information and conspiring to transmit it. His lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, says the article dates to 2016 and that two prosecution teams in the first Trump administration decided no one should be charged. Trump, on the tarmac: "I think he's a dirty cop." One earlier indictment was thrown out in November with its prosecutor; a second case, in North Carolina, is pending. A judge ruled Monday the department fired Maurene Comey, the Epstein prosecutor, illegally and ordered her back with back pay.
1️⃣ Israel votes in record numbers, and Netanyahu calls it an emergency
Israel voted in the highest turnout the country has recorded: 55.7 percent by 4 p.m., against 47.5 percent at the same hour in 2022. Likud and Shas asked the election committee for more voting hours. Netanyahu called the Arab turnout an "emergency," and Bezalel Smotrich cut short his tour of polling stations for an emergency meeting on it. Haaretz reported Monday that Likud planned to film Arab voters near polling stations to prepare a rigged-election claim. Citizens voting is not an emergency.
