President Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail as he seeks to shore up lagging enthusiasm in the Republican Party ahead of next month’s midterm elections on Nov. 3. He attended a rally in Alabama on Friday and then travels to Ohio on Saturday. He could have his work cut out for him: Just 26% of U.S. adults approve of his handling of the economy overall, a new low, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The Group of Seven industrial nations plan to release 100 million barrels of oil and fuel products in the coming weeks, starting with “substantial” amounts of diesel after it hit record high prices in the U.S. Trump and the GOP face pressure to address surging prices ahead of the elections.

Here's the latest:

Cyclospora found at Mexican farm linked to lettuce outbreak, FDA says

The Food and Drug Administration said it found the cyclospora parasite at a farm identified as the source of a massive lettuce-borne outbreak. Friday’s announcement brings the agency’s investigation into the outbreak to a close.

While the FDA said it identified the parasite in water from the Taylor Farms site, it’s unclear how it got there. FDA investigators first arrived at the site more than six weeks ago.

Nearly 13,000 cases of diarrhea and related illnesses in the U.S. have been linked to lettuce. The FDA has said for weeks that the company’s site was likely the source of the contamination.

Federal officials announced the end of the outbreak last month.

▶ Read more

Trump will go to Alabama again next week

As he started his rally in Mobile, the president made some travel news: He’ll return to the state next Saturday to attend the Georgia-Alabama football game in Tuscaloosa.

“They say it’s going to be a good game,” Trump told the crowd. “I would think so.”

Georgia is ranked No. 2 and Alabama is No. 7 in AP’s latest college football poll.

Trump’s Alabama rally is underway

Shortly before 6:30 p.m. local time, the president kicked off his political rally in Mobile.

It’s his second political event in as many days, and Trump will travel to Ohio on Saturday to campaign there.

Before Trump arrived at the venue, Sen. Tommy Tuberville — the GOP nominee for governor of the state — was warming up the crowd.

Clyburn suggests Democrats not focus on impeaching Trump if they win House majority

During an event Friday in Charleston with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn said instead that his party should perhaps “look at Hegseth,” referencing the Defense secretary. Later he also mentioned Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Both names drew applause from the crowd.

“How do we go here and make headway in this area rather than just headlines?” Clyburn said of efforts to improve Americans’ lives. Trying to impeach Trump a third time would tie Democrats up “for months” and would still depend on an uncertain Senate conviction, he added.

“I don’t think we’re at that point,” Clyburn said.

Former GOP Rep. David Rivera sentenced to 10 years for secret Venezuela lobbying

The former Miami congressman and longtime friend of Secretary of State Marco Rubio was sentenced Friday in connection with a secret $50 million lobbying campaign on Venezuela’s behalf during the first Trump administration.

Rivera, 61, has been jailed since jurors found him guilty in May on all counts, including failing to register as a foreign agent and conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of his work for former President Nicolás Maduro ’s government.

The seven-week trial offered a rare glimpse into Miami’s role as a crossroads for foreign influence campaigns aimed at shaping U.S. policy toward Latin America, highlighting the city’s reputation as a magnet for both anti-communist crusaders and corruption among its sizable exile population.

Attorneys for Rivera plan to appeal and applied in June for a presidential pardon. Rivera faces additional federal charges in Washington, D.C., in a related foreign lobbying case.

▶ Read more

Environmental groups sue Trump administration over eased vehicle fuel economy rules

The lawsuit challenges the relaxation of key vehicle fuel economy rules, a decision that the groups say will make vehicles less efficient, contribute to more pollution and increase gas consumption.

On Monday the Trump administration lowered Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards that set out how far new vehicles need to travel on a gallon of gasoline. The announcement was made as the administration negotiated with Iran over reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

The environmental groups filed the petition for review Friday in the U.S. Court of Appeals against Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Jonathan Morrison, the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which sets the rules.

▶ Read more

FBI gives employees a classified ‘Patel Report’ about times it ‘fell short’

The report examines what the bureau says are past chapters “where this institution fell short,” according to an internal message obtained Friday by AP.

It was unclear what episodes are chronicled in the new “Patel Report.” But the document’s existence is in keeping with Director Kash Patel’s vocal criticism of leaders who preceded him and his determination to rid the FBI of agents he contends have politicized the bureau.

Patel’s critics say he is the one who has weaponized the FBI and his scrutiny of predecessors and their decision-making is part of an effort to rewrite history in favor of Trump.

As director he has encouraged investigations of former senior officials and presided over sweeping terminations, including of employees who participated in years-old investigations of Trump, were photographed taking a knee during a 2020 racial justice protest and contributed to a disputed analytical memo about Catholic extremism.

The FBI declined to comment on the report.

▶ Read more

Trump headed back to Texas

The president, who spent part of his Thursday at a truck manufacturer in Texas, plans to travel again to the Lone Star State for the second time in less than a week.

Trump will headline a campaign rally at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio on Wednesday, according to the Republican National Committee.

The president and his party are in an all-out push to hold on to a Senate seat in Texas, where scandal-plagued Republican Ken Paxton is running against Democrat James Talarico.

Sen. Bernie Sanders will rally with Maine Senate hopeful Troy Jackson

Sanders will join Jackson for three rallies next weekend as the Democratic nominee tries to unseat five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

Sanders, a Vermont independent, says in a statement that the Maine election “could well determine whether we have a Republican Senate” that is a rubber stamp for Trump or one that holds Trump accountable.

“Troy will not only take on Trump, he will fight for the working families of Maine,” Sanders said.

The rallies will be Saturday in Bangor and Sunday in Lewiston and Biddeford.

2026 midterms are nigh, but it’s already 2028 in South Carolina

The state’s leadoff primary for Democrats in the next presidential cycle has many of the handfuls likely to throw their hats in the ring flooding the state in the midterm campaign’s closing days.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is in Charleston Friday night, plugging his new book at an event with U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, in addition to stumping with candidates. U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona helps 1st District hopeful Nancy Lacore kick off canvassing on Saturday, and U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna is meeting with Democrats, too.

___

This item has been updated to correct the spelling of the name of the Democratic candidate in South Carolina’s 1st District. She is Nancy Lacore, not Lacoste.

Federal court temporarily blocks Trump administration border wall in Texas’ Big Bend region

A federal court in Texas on Friday issued a ruling temporarily blocking the Trump administration from building a border wall and other infrastructure across the state’s Big Bend region.

The news marks a major win for landowners, businesses and environmentalists in the region who have united to oppose the planned infrastructure projects, which are part of a $46 billion effort by the Trump administration to line the southern border with a mix of 30-foot-tall steel walls, vehicle barriers, roads and surveillance technology.

Judge Kathleen Cardone said in her ruling that the plaintiffs were “likely to succeed on the merits of at least one of the claims in suit, that there is a likelihood that they will suffer serious, irreparable harm without an injunction, and that the balance of the equities and the public interest weigh in their favor.”

Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

▶ Read more

Second member of Trump crimefighting task force arrested

A National Guard member deployed to Washington, D.C., as part of a mission launched by Trump to fight crime has been arrested for carrying an unauthorized firearm.

Spec. Jakob Noonan, 22, of the Oklahoma Guard, was arrested Monday and charged with a gun-related offense. According to documents reviewed by The Associated Press, the soldier was riding with a fellow Guard member when a U.S. Park Police officer stopped the vehicle for an expired tag, saw an empty holster and asked if there was a gun inside.

The soldier was not in uniform, driving his personal vehicle and carrying his personal firearm, the Park Police said in a statement.

Noonan’s arrest marks the second time in two months that a member of the task force has been arrested.

Joint Task Force–DC and Noonan’s court appointed attorney did not respond to requests for comment immediately.

Trump takes credit for release of European diesel, says export ban won’t happen

“I asked for it,” Trump told reporters Friday while departing the White House. “Europe has a lot of diesel, and they’re going to be making a major world contribution — and so are we.”

The Group of Seven announced Friday they plan to release 100 million barrels of oil after U.S. diesel prices recently hit record highs.

Trump told reporters that “we’re not going to be doing the export ban” and later said he never planned to do it. Some Republicans had called for a ban on U.S. diesel exports to bring prices down.

Trump says he’s ‘worried’ about Whatley bid

The president’s comments came the same day that Senate Republicans began pulling back money they had reserved for Michael Whatley, Trump’s handpicked Senate candidate in North Carolina.

“I am worried about him,” Trump told reporters Friday as he was departing for a campaign rally in Alabama. “I hope he wins.”

Trump said Whatley, who previously was head of the Republican National Committee, was a great leader for the GOP and would be a great senator.

More than a million votes already cast in midterm elections

More than 1 million votes have already been cast in this year’s midterm elections as both parties work to boost turnout in the races’ final stretch.

So far, 1,050,990 advance ballots have been returned in elections that will determine which party controls Congress, according to an Associated Press tally.

The numbers underscore that time is running out as candidates barnstorm their districts and as the parties dump more money into battleground states.

More than 58 million votes were cast before Election Day in 2022 and more than 97 million before Election Day in 2024.

Lincoln aircraft carrier due home after record deployment supporting Iran war

The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is slated to return home to California next Thursday, the Navy announced Friday, following a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea supporting the Iran war and intense scrutiny over ship conditions.

Reports emerged of crew stress and poor mental health, as well as shortages of food and hygiene products. Democratic California Rep. Sara Jacobs said she recently visited the ship and spoke to sailors and Marines who shared stories of “their struggles to wash clothes, get medicine and health care, and eat enough food.”

President Donald Trump had downplayed reports about conditions on the Lincoln, which left its homeport in November, arrived in the Middle East in January, and spent a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 260 days.

In August, Trump said the sailors endured a “good period of time” but added that “over the years, we’ve had them out there much longer.”

Senate Republicans plan to spend over $8 million in red Kansas, pull back from North Carolina

Senate Republicans’ top spending group is pouring more than $8 million into Kansas while pulling back from North Carolina, once expected to be one of the most competitive races this cycle.

The Senate Leadership Fund now plans to spend more than $8 million in Kansas over the next month, according to AdImpact. President Donald Trump won the state by nearly 16 percentage points in 2024.

The spending shift is a stark sign of how dramatically the Senate map has changed just a month before the midterm elections. Republicans entered the cycle expecting more opportunities to flip Democratic-held seats than races where they would be forced to defend their own.

Kelly says Hegseth’s Pentagon ‘focused on the wrong thing’

Sen. Mark Kelly has harsh words for Pete Hegseth and the changes he’s looking to bring to the Pentagon.

Asked about the defense secretary’s “ state of the force speech,” in which Hegseth rolled out a number of major shifts for the department he leads, the military veteran and former astronaut said Hegseth was “focused on giving speeches about killing people in lethality and insulting some service members” instead of “professionalism and training and improving our combat capability.”

Kelly is stumping for midterm Democrats this week in South Carolina, which holds the party’s first presidential primary, as he mulls a potential 2028 White House bid. He spoke to reporters Friday after an event in Mauldin.

Kennedy Center Honors to be held at Capital One Arena amid fight over adding Trump’s name

This year’s Kennedy Center Honors will be held at Washington’s Capital One Arena, not the riverfront building that’s been at the center of a legal fight over adding President Trump’s name to the building.

The 49th annual awards are set to take place at Washington’s downtown arena, a Kennedy Center spokesperson said Friday. Few other details were immediately available, and an explanation for the change wasn’t given.

The center’s board voted last month to close the iconic performing arts venue along the Potomac River waterfront after a federal judge blocked the institution from returning Trump’s name to the building.

▶ Read more

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth orders one day ‘stand-down’ to encourage military vote

Hegseth made the announcement in a video in which he said the move was “apolitical.” It’s his latest effort to encourage Republican-leaning military members to cast ballots ahead of what’s shaping up to be a challenging election for the party.

Earlier this week, Hegseth said that if every member of the military cast ballots, they could out-vote heavily Democratic cities like Boston and Detroit. His department was also sued Thursday by Democrats over a quiet change that makes it harder for Democratic-leaning overseas civilians to cast ballots. Earlier this year, the Army reduced the number of its voting assistance officers.

Hegseth has also announced that the Defense Department will provide cybersecurity for November’s election, a function previously done by a civilian agency that’s been gutted by Trump’s budget cuts after its prior leaders challenged Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

Iowa lawmakers to vote on raising tax incentive cap for a $15B steel plant

Iowa lawmakers returned to the Statehouse on Friday to consider expanding the ceiling on state tax incentives in an effort to secure a $15 billion steel plant project for the state.

President Trump announced the plant Monday alongside Iowa elected officials, heralding the project as a major economic and national security investment.

Five weeks before the midterm elections, Republicans seized on the promise of good-paying jobs and a central role for the heartland in the push for American steel manufacturing. It’s celebrated as an opportunity for southeast Iowa, an area along the Mississippi River that once thrived as a hub for industry but has since suffered from shuttered facilities and dwindled populations. Still, the deal and the tax abatements it could carry have also been met with some skepticism in rural Iowa and Des Moines alike.

▶ Read more

Hiring slipped and unemployment rose last month in the final jobs report before midterms

U.S. businesses and other employers added just 29,000 job in September, down from a revised 133,000 in August and far fewer than economists had expected. The unemployment rate rose to a still-low 4.2% from 4.1%, the Labor Department said.

Job gains in July were revised lower to show employers shed 10,000 jobs that month. Average wages rose 3% in August from a year earlier, the slowest pace in five years. Americans’ paychecks are trailing inflation.

The jobs report underscores the political challenge for Trump and congressional Republicans: Unemployment is low and layoffs are rare, but stubbornly high inflation is eroding consumers’ ability to afford things like gas, food, and housing. A recent AP-NORC poll found just 17% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living.

Trump: Europe agrees to release diesel reserves ‘immediately’ as fuel prices hover near record highs

President Trump said Friday that Europe has agreed to release some of its diesel reserves “immediately,” as the president and his Republican Party face pressure to address surging prices ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Trump announced the action on social media without offering details on which countries were releasing reserves or at what volumes. Trump writes, “Europe has just agreed to release a massive amount of their heavily stocked Diesel Oil.” Trump says, “The process will begin immediately.”

The president faces lagging approval ratings as the Iran war and his trade battles have increased U.S. prices for oil and other goods.

▶ Read more

Households will pay more for energy because of Trump’s policy changes, think tank says

Households in the contiguous United States will pay thousands of dollars more for energy through 2040 because of federal policy changes since Trump returned to office, according to modeling released Friday by a nonpartisan think tank.

The Energy Innovation analysis found that households will pay an average of $6,500 more for energy, cumulatively through 2040. In five states, households will pay roughly $9,000 more: Oregon, Mississippi, South Dakota, Virginia and Wyoming.

The California-based think tank says there’ll be more demand for natural gas for electricity because the administration is canceling new clean energy projects and there’ll be more demand for gasoline for transportation because Trump and Congress are revoking policies that encouraged or created incentives for more efficient and lower-emissions vehicles. Higher demand drives prices up.

▶ Read more

Trump administration says it has no plans for ICE officers at polls. Activists are preparing, anyway

With early voting already underway, a question worrying some voters is what role — if any — immigration enforcement officers might have at polling places through Election Day.

Department of Homeland Security officials say they don’t plan to send immigration enforcement officers en masse to patrol the polls and dismissed concerns that they plan to do so as “fearmongering.” Election legal experts say federal law clearly prevents the government from deploying any armed troops, agents or officers to election sites except to “repel armed enemies of the United States,” a high bar to clear.

But organizations who represent Latino, Black and Asian American voters say the rhetoric and ICE’s own activity make them worried at a time the number of immigration arrests is soaring as President Trump carries out his mass deportation agenda.

▶ Read more

Trump tried to make an ally out of fishermen. Some have started to turn on him

John Evich, a commercial fisherman in Washington and Alaska, has voted for President Donald Trump three times, viewing him as someone who would fight for his industry.

But these days, Evich is weary of the high cost of doing business at sea, with fuel prices rising and trade hostilities with Canada jeopardizing markets for the crabs that he pulls off the ocean floor.

“If somebody came along that was going to do a better job, I would vote for them in a heartbeat,” he said.

Evich’s sentiment, echoed throughout the U.S. seafood industry, is another piece of a political puzzle that’s working against Trump in the midterm elections. Dissatisfaction among commercial fishermen could cause collateral damage for Republicans in competitive races in Washington, Alaska and Maine.

▶ Read more

Trump blitzes toward the midterms with campaign rallies across the country

President Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail as he seeks to shore up lagging enthusiasm in his party ahead of next month’s midterm elections.

He could have their work cut out for him, though.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that only 17% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living. Just 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, marking a new low.

Republicans have expressed growing pessimism about their chances in the election, which will determine control of Congress, as the president has repeatedly dismissed concerns about high costs and gas prices as his unpopular war in Iran drags on.

According to Trump, his party has merely done a poor job of public relations in promoting his administration’s accomplishments.

“Maybe we’re doing a bad job selling it,” Trump said while campaigning in Texas.