Candidates made their closing arguments in the final stretch before Election Day on Tuesday, and President Trump, who has been campaigning for at-risk Republicans, abruptly switched from in-person appearances to virtual rallies. Trump was hosting 19 telerallies alongside in-person events, with his tour to boost voter turnout focused largely on competitive Republican-leaning states, NPR's Saige Miller reported. The shift in strategy, combined with polling data, suggests Republicans may face challenges, at least in the House. Trump knows he is a key motivator for his party, but his strategy could also backfire by energizing Democrats.
In Alaska, the governor has ordered an investigation following a New York Times report on the state's toss-up U.S. Senate race. The report revealed that Democratic campaign operatives were attempting to recruit a candidate whom Republicans claim could confuse voters and siphon support from GOP incumbent Dan Sullivan. The recruited candidate also shares the name Dan Sullivan. Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman, is aiming to flip the seat.
Election law experts who spoke with Alaska Public Media's Liz Ruskin found no applicable laws covering the conduct described, but noted that it crosses moral and ethical lines.
Elsewhere on the election front, the Department of Justice subpoenaed election workers in Los Angeles amid rising tensions with California officials over the Trump administration's efforts to identify noncitizens on voter rolls. At the start of this cycle, Democrats appeared unlikely to gain Senate seats because many races were in red states, but the ongoing war in Iran has changed the landscape.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has dismissed Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia, who oversaw planning at the Pentagon and was part of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His removal comes as the United States and Israel prepare for a new potential round of attacks against Iran. Although Sylvia held a senior position in strategy, planning and policy, he was not directly involved in day-to-day operations regarding the Iran conflict.
The Pentagon is investigating a leak but has not provided details, NPR's Greg Myre reported. Hegseth has dismissed several generals and admirals, often without explanation, and the firings have disrupted senior military operations. The U.S. currently has two aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea, with a third, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, en route. It is unusual for the U.S. to have multiple carriers in one region; the last time it stationed three in the Middle East was during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Thousands of military veterans with VA-backed mortgages have faced higher interest rates and monthly payments since last year, after the Trump administration shut down a key part of the VA's home loan program. Before the shutdown, the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase program, created under the Biden administration, helped tens of thousands of veterans who had fallen behind on payments by rolling missed payments into a new, low-interest mortgage. The mortgage industry and housing groups had warned the administration not to kill the program without first creating a viable replacement. Without one, veterans had to modify loans at higher interest rates.
An NPR investigation found that more than 15,000 veterans experienced monthly payment increases of at least $150 after their loans were modified due to financial hardship. More than 700 veterans saw their payments rise by $1,000 or more.
In another development, the board of directors of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which runs the nation's organ system, has endorsed relaxing the strict firewall between hospital staff trying to save patients and the teams standing by to procure organs. The change, set to take effect Nov. 18, is part of a set of new policies designed to boost donations and improve patient safety, spurred by disturbing revelations about mistakes, including patients being wheeled into operating rooms for organ removal while still alive. Some changes were praised as improving safety, but many bioethicists and even some transplant surgeons and patient and organ donation advocates say relaxing the firewall is dangerous. The fear is that it could lead families and caregivers to discontinue treatment too soon and deepen distrust in the organ donation system. The system has long been guided by the dead donor rule, which holds that organs should only be retrieved from a person who is dead and that death should never be accelerated to boost the chances organs will be usable.
