Daily Briefing: 12 days until Election Day

Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY
·6 min read
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Midterm lawsuits are mounting as Election Day nears and early voting has opened in some states. Also in the news: Russia claims to have conducted a training aimed at executing a "massive nuclear strike." A USA TODAY report on how Ohio's fringe abortion law could set the stage for post-Roe America.

🙋🏼‍♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert, the writer behind Daily Briefing. Comfy in your own skin? A famous artist needs over 2,500 people to pose in a massive nude photoshoot.

Let's go with Thursday's news.

Midterm lawsuits loom days away from voting

Election Day is 12 days away. But in courtrooms across the country, efforts to sow doubt over the outcome have already begun. Since the start of this year, more than 100 lawsuits have been filed largely by Republicans around the midterm election. They call into question mail-in voting rules, voter access, voting machines, voting registration, the counting of mismarked absentee ballots and access for partisan poll watchers.

Why it matters: It’s the most litigation ever before an election — and it’s a strategy shift born of the failures of allies of former President Donald Trump to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election.

  • Anxiety for Democrats: Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman’s rocky debate performance fueled concern inside his party on Wednesday, as leaders assessed whether it would significantly shift a race that could decide control of the U.S. Senate and the future of Joe Biden’s presidency.

  • Republican support is rising ahead of Election Day, with inflation driving voters.

  • Billionaires have plunked down more than $82 million to support dozens of GOP Senate candidates, including sizable investments in some of the closest races in the country.

  • There's also the actual voting part: A county in Nevada is scheduled to start an unprecedented hand count fueled by voting machine conspiracy theories.

A poll worker handles ballots for the midterm election, in the presence of observers from both Democrat and Republican parties, at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Elections Center (MCTEC) in Phoenix, Arizona, on October 25, 2022.
A poll worker handles ballots for the midterm election, in the presence of observers from both Democrat and Republican parties, at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Elections Center (MCTEC) in Phoenix, Arizona, on October 25, 2022.

Putin oversees training for 'massive nuclear strike'

Russian forces conducted a successful training exercise Wednesday aimed at delivering a "massive nuclear strike" in response to a potential nuclear attack on the country, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said. The exercise, overseen by President Vladimir Putin, involved mobile ground-based missile systems and the strategic missile submarine Tula of Russia's Northern Fleet. The Kremlin said in a statement that all the test-fired missiles reached their targets. Meanwhile, the Kremlin acknowledged Wednesday a large number of Russia's new draftees have not being properly equipped for combat. Read more

A photograph taken on October 24, 2022 shows a poster displaying a Russian soldier with a slogan reading 'Glory to the Heroes of Russia' decorating a street in Moscow on October 24, 2022.
A photograph taken on October 24, 2022 shows a poster displaying a Russian soldier with a slogan reading 'Glory to the Heroes of Russia' decorating a street in Moscow on October 24, 2022.

More news to know now

🌤 Good weather for pumpkin carving? Check your local forecast here.

Darrell Brooks found guilty of killing 6 with SUV in Wisconsin Christmas parade

Darrell Brooks Jr. was found guilty on dozens of criminal charges Wednesday after a jury found him responsible for driving through a 2021 Christmas parade, which left six people dead and dozens injured in Waukesha, a Milwaukee suburb. The jury deliberated for two hours Tuesday before coming back Wednesday morning. In total, it took the panel a little more than three hours to find Brooks guilty of all 76 charges brought against him in the attack, including six counts of first-degree intentional homicide, which carry mandatory life in prison terms. The four-week long trial was replete with disruptions and delays from Brooks, who decided to represent himself less than a week before the trial's first day. Read more

How Ohio’s fringe abortion law set the stage for post-Roe America

The story of how a onetime bellwether state like Ohio led a slow, determined push to steadily weaken and then nearly eliminate abortion rights is in many ways a case study for what has happened around the country. Long before the Supreme Court reversed Roe, anti-abortion activists recognized that demographic shifts and gerrymandered statehouse districts would entrench Republican majorities and allow them to push abortion restrictions that polls show are unpopular with most Americans. Read more

  • A second woman has accused Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker of paying for an abortion. Walker has denied the claim.

  • Kentucky voters could explicitly ban the right to abortions with state constitution amendment.

  • Alito: Leaked draft abortion opinion pinned conservative justices as ''targets for assassination.''

  • Arizona's attorney general and abortion rights groups have struck a deal to delay the enforcement of an 1864 abortion ban.

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Why 'Chief Twit' Elon Musk brought along a sink on his visit to Twitter headquarters

Elon Musk is sending public signals that he plans to complete his takeover of Twitter. The billionaire who runs Tesla and SpaceX posted a video clip of himself walking into Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters carrying a porcelain sink and tweeted: “Let that sink in," referring to a popular meme. He also changed his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit” and made arrangements to address Twitter staff on Friday, the closing deadline for his $44 billion takeover of the company. He faces a Friday 5 p.m. ET deadline to complete the deal or litigation in a Delaware court will resume. A Twitter spokesman confirmed that Musk was in the company’s headquarters this week. Read more

Elon Musk is sending public signals that he's ready to close his $44 billion deal for Twitter.
Elon Musk is sending public signals that he's ready to close his $44 billion deal for Twitter.

📷 Photo of the day: 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever': See Rihanna, Lupita Nyong'o, more on red carpet 📷

It's about time to yell "Wakanda forever!" once more. Written and directed by Ryan Coogler, the blockbuster Marvel sequel "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" (in theaters Nov. 11) again puts the spotlight on the high-tech African nation – a central location in the expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe. But things are different now than they were in 2018, when the original film became a pop-culture phenomenon and garnered a best picture Oscar nomination: Star Chadwick Boseman died two years ago. Read more

Click here to see more photos of the film's stars on the red carpet.

Barbadian singer Rihanna (L) and US rapper A$AP Rocky rrive for the world premiere of Marvel Studios' "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, on October 26, 2022.
Barbadian singer Rihanna (L) and US rapper A$AP Rocky rrive for the world premiere of Marvel Studios' "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, on October 26, 2022.

One more thing

Toni Morrison and Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be featured on US Postal Service "Forever" stamps in 2023
Toni Morrison and Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be featured on US Postal Service "Forever" stamps in 2023

Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note, shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com or follow along with her musings on Twitter. Support journalism like this – subscribe to USA TODAY here.

Associated Press contributed reporting.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Midterms, Darrell Brooks, Russia, abortion, Rihanna: Daily Briefing