Top Twitter executives fired as Elon Musk takeover begins  —  Musk's $44 billion deal to acquire the social media company closed on Thursday night.  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk took control of Twitter late Thursday as his $44 billion deal to takeover the company closed.

Pelosi Spokesperson Statement on Violent Assault on Paul Pelosi  —  Washington, D.C. — Drew Hammill, spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, issued this statement:  —  “Early this morning, an assailant broke into the Pelosi residence in San Francisco and violently assaulted Mr. Pelosi.

The 2022 Race for the House, in Four Districts, and Four Polls  —  Swing-district polls by The New York Times and Siena College show how the midterm races are being shaped by larger, surprising forces, beyond the traditional red and blue divide.  —  President Biden is unpopular everywhere.

Inside the secretive effort by Trump allies to access voting machines  —  How rural Coffee County, Ga., became an early target in the multistate search for purported evidence of fraud after the 2020 election  —  A week after the 2020 election, as Donald Trump raged over what he claimed was rampant fraud …

‘Innuendos and baseless allegations’: Milwaukee claps back after Ron Johnson sows doubts about early voting in the city  —  As voters have already begun streaming to the polls, Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson this week raised doubts about early in-person absentee voting in Milwaukee and suggested …

James Bennet was right  —  Controversy over an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) consumed the New York Times in June 2020 and claimed the job of then-editorial page editor James Bennet.  Two-and-a-half years later, Bennet has shared some thoughts about the episode — and, in particular, the role of Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger.

Russia's elite begins to ponder a Putinless future  —  Once unthinkable, the president's removal can at least be contemplated  —  “What is next?  Is there life after Putin?  How does he go and who replaces him?”  Such are the questions that weigh heavily these days on the minds of the Russian elite …

More Americans than ever think crime is up in their neighborhood  —  Benjy is Semafor's Washington Bureau Chief, joining us from NBC News.  Sign up for the daily Principals newsletter to get our insider's guide to American power.  —  Dave is a Political Reporter for Semafor, joining us from the Washington Post.

St. Louis school shooter bought gun from private seller after dealer sale was blocked, police say  —  The shooter who killed two people at a St. Louis high school this week bought the rifle used in the attack from a private seller after he was blocked from buying a gun at a licensed dealer, police said Thursday.

What It Means to Be a Republican Today  —  Evan McMullin's lesson on what his former party now stands for—and what it can't stand.  —  The most interesting political race of 2022 isn't between a Democrat and a Republican.  It's in Utah, where incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Lee faces independent challenger Evan McMullin.

Russia's security service works to subvert Moldova's pro-Western government  —  A trove of sensitive materials obtained by Ukrainian intelligence and reviewed by The Washington Post illustrates how Moscow continues to try to manipulate countries in Eastern Europe

Many Military U.F.O. Reports Are Just Foreign Spying or Airborne Trash  —  Forget space aliens or hypersonic technology; classified assessments show that many episodes have ordinary explanations.  —  WASHINGTON — Government officials believe that surveillance operations by foreign powers …

Scoop: John Kerry preparing to leave Biden administration  —  Special climate envoy John Kerry is actively considering leaving the Biden administration after next month's COP27 summit, soliciting advice from friends and colleagues on how to stay involved in climate efforts from the private sector …

So far, this flu season is more severe than it has been in 13 years  —  Influenza is hitting the United States unusually early and hard, already hospitalizing a record number of people at this point in the season in more than a decade and underscoring the potential for a perilous winter …

‘Raise the challenge’: Eastman exhorts poll watchers to build a record  —  At a speech last week before prospective GOP poll workers and challengers in New Mexico, former Trump attorney John Eastman urged his allies to file complaints that could form the basis for court challenges to the upcoming midterm and presidential elections.