“There is no legal excuse” for the failure of 18 polling sites to open for early voting, a state lawmaker said.

© Kerry Tasker/Reuters

With moves in Alaska and California, the department has stepped up interventions in the midterm elections as the president’s instrument of unmediated executive power.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

Critics decry Trump administration rule that lets hunters lure bears with human foods on federal lands in Alaska

A new Trump administration rule allows hunters to bait bears on federal lands in Alaska with bacon, doughnuts, meat scraps or other human foods typically used to help kill the trophy animals at close range.

Opponents say the practice will cause bears to be more aggressive around humans, and allege that the rule change is a political gift to largely rightwing trophy hunters. The rule replaces a 2024 Biden administration rule that banned the practice, and environmental groups criticized the move as “indefensible and inexcusable”.

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© Photograph: Jonathan Newton/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jonathan Newton/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jonathan Newton/Getty Images

The president has spread false claims about ranked-choice systems, voting machines, vote counting and past results to question the integrity of elections.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

Interviews and documents show a Russian energy giant secretly funded a U.S. firm. The deal has been discussed in talks to end the war in Ukraine.

© Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

President Trump told the Justice Department to intervene in the race, where polling shows Republicans at risk of losing a seat.

© Kerry Tasker/Reuters

The Alaska Supreme Court ruled months ago that two candidates, both named Dan Sullivan, could appear on the ballot on Election Day.

© Christopher S. Miller for The New York Times

No obvious legal authority supports a pre-emptive effort to block the certification of Alaska’s Senate election if the Republican incumbent narrowly loses.

© Kerry Tasker for The New York Times

Trump justice department claims there could be ‘confusion’ about two Republicans on the ballot named Dan Sullivan

Donald Trump said he ordered the justice department to file a lawsuit to block the certification of Alaska’s US Senate results if the Republican incumbent loses, a move that voting rights experts called an “unprecedented intervention” by the federal government with control of Congress in the balance.

“I’m the one that said do it,” the president told reporters as he landed in Florida for a campaign rally on Friday.

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© Photograph: Evan Vucci/Reuters

© Photograph: Evan Vucci/Reuters

© Photograph: Evan Vucci/Reuters

The department, in a highly unusual lawsuit, argued that confusion over candidates with similar names could taint the election result.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

Democrats believe circumstances have aligned for them to win a slew of competitive elections in the state

• How will Trump’s mass deportation agenda shape the US midterm elections? Our reporters answer your questions

Mary Peltola’s campaign to represent Alaska in the US Senate has taken her to parts of the massive state’s interior that are inaccessible by road and on the frontlines of the cost-of-living crisis she hopes will make her the first Democrat to win the seat in nearly two decades.

She has been to towns where paper towels retail for $40, a half gallon of oat milk goes for $21 and the cost of a new freezer can be quadruple what it is in the state’s largest city, Anchorage, simply because it’s so complicated to get there. Along the Arctic Ocean, she’s heard of communities where power bills have climbed to $1,500 a month because they rely on generators for power and the Iran war has pushed the cost of diesel to new heights.

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© Photograph: Kerry Tasker/Reuters

© Photograph: Kerry Tasker/Reuters

© Photograph: Kerry Tasker/Reuters

Democrats are hoping that Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins’s voter outreach could help them win an Alaska governor’s race for the first time since 1998.

© Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

As a mountaineer and extreme runner, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins is thoroughly Alaskan, and thanks to Republican infighting and the state’s deep troubles, he just might win next month.

© Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

As Trump held rallies around the nation, his White House was consumed by dramas that reinforce how his presidency has become a drag on his party’s prospects in the midterms.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

As Trump rallies around the nation, his White House was consumed by dramas that reinforce how his presidency has become a drag on his party’s prospects in the midterms.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

President has hit red states to drum up Republican support – and his increasingly strange performances are on full display

Montana, Tennessee, Alaska. In the run-up to an election, a Republican president typically wouldn’t be campaigning in these traditionally red states.

These aren’t normal times, however, and Donald Trump, an unpopular president leading an unpopular party, has held rallies in those states in the last week, seeking to drum up support. But a series of eccentric performances from the president means his behavior has been the focus, rather than any of the candidates he is backing.

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© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Plus, Katie Zacharia’s ouster, A.O.C. on the trail, and another tense debate in Maine.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

The Republican incumbent, Dan Sullivan, and his Democratic challenger, Mary Peltola, veered from serious discussion of high prices and economic challenges to blistering personal attacks.

© Matt Faubion/Alaska Public Media

Statehouses make health-care policy, guide education, and may redraw congressional districts ahead of 2028. With the stakes high, more than 6,100 legislators will be elected Nov. 3.

© Ashley Wu/The New York Times

The president has stepped up his offers of financial rewards to voters with just weeks until the midterms. On Tuesday at a rally in Alaska, he announced pardons.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times