Media teams put together for election evening disinformation

Good morning. In right now’s information:

• Halloween tech shock on markets

• Elon Musk in talks with traders over xAI

• US Area Power head warns about China

As we enter the ultimate weekend earlier than the US election, media teams are finalising plans to fight disinformation across the consequence of what polls counsel is likely one of the most intently fought White Home races for a technology.

Related Press, which has been tallying the votes for US elections since 1848, was “ready for misinformation round our race calls”, stated Washington bureau chief Anna Johnson.

CNN will deploy a “sturdy staff” of reporters to battleground states to trace the casting of ballots, stated political director David Chalian, whereas ABC has beefed up a “poll watch staff” to observe vote counts throughout the nation.

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Information, the most-watched US cable information channel within the nation, has invested in know-how to sharpen its graphics to assist viewers visualise how shut numerous vote counts are.

In 2020, Fox was the primary community to name Arizona for Joe Biden — a transfer that infuriated supporters of Donald Trump. The previous president has continued to sow doubt in US election processes, though his challenges to the 2020 election outcomes weren’t backed by proof.

Nonetheless, US information teams are getting ready for an election evening that won’t lead to a transparent winner. In 2020, it took 4 days for the media to declare that Biden had defeated Trump, leaving Individuals in suspense as they waited for votes to be counted in Pennsylvania.

Arnon Mishkin, who leads the Fox Information “choice desk”, stated he discovered it troublesome to see both candidate successful this election with out taking Pennsylvania, making it essential to the result once more.

Mishkin stated the swing state had made enhancements to its vote counting procedures since 2020 however was “nonetheless counting in the identical course of” and predicted the consequence wouldn’t be clear till Friday or Saturday subsequent week. Learn extra on the media teams’ election evening preparations, and Aiden Reiter’s report from Pennsylvania’s election 2024 floor zero the place voters are shifting their views.

And right here’s extra of our election protection and the election ballot tracker newest:

Right here’s what I’m holding tabs on right now and over the weekend:

• Financial knowledge: Lethal hurricanes and the Boeing strike might lead to one of many worst jobs stories of Joe Biden’s presidency right now. The US additionally has its manufacturing buying managers’ index, as does Canada.

• Firms: Chevron, ExxonMobil and T Rowe Value report outcomes.

Specialists led by Monetary Instances editor Roula Khalaf will focus on their predictions for the world in 2025 in a digital occasion on December 11. Register right now.

5 extra high tales

1. US shares gave up all of their positive aspects for October as a sell-off in tech heavyweights yesterday produced Wall Avenue’s worst every day drop in virtually two months. Within the remaining buying and selling session of the month, the S&P 500 ended down 1.9 per cent whereas the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed 2.8 per cent decrease. Right here’s extra on the ultimate buying and selling session of October and a round-up of final evening’s outcomes.

2. Elon Musk is in talks with among the largest traders within the Center East a few fundraising for his synthetic intelligence start-up that might roughly double the one-year-old firm’s valuation to $45bn. xAI is in early talks with new and present traders, in line with six individuals with data of the conversations.

3. World oil costs rose after a high commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards vowed that Tehran would ship a harsh response to final week’s Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic, sparking fears of additional escalation within the area. Learn extra of Main Normal Hossein Salami’s feedback.

4. China is placing navy capabilities into house at a “mind-boggling” tempo, the chief of the US Area Power has warned. Normal Probability Saltzman, who was on tour in Europe to encourage co-operation between allies to counter China and Russia, stated the number of house weapons and pace at which Beijing was creating them had been “very threatening”.

5. Unique: BDO has been ordered to pay greater than $5mn in damages to Jay-Z’s former tax adviser, who stated he was unfairly dismissed for disclosing confidential data to celeb purchasers who accused a agency worker of stealing cash. Stephen Foley has extra particulars.

How properly did you retain up with the information this week? Take our quiz.

Information in-depth

German executives have warned that prime ranges of sick depart are damaging the competitiveness of Europe’s largest financial system. Staff missed a median of 19.4 days due to sickness final 12 months, and the development is prone to proceed upward. One enterprise chief stated the labour power had grow to be “too spoilt and too self-confident”, whereas one other referred to as Germany “the sick man of Europe”.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• Trump’s tariffs: Buying and selling companions shouldn’t blame him for making an attempt to treatment the issues they’ve induced, writes Robert Lighthizer, who served because the US commerce consultant below Trump.

• Murky numbers: Can we belief official statistics? Soumaya Keynes explores how knowledge gaps are affecting policymaking and shaping our view of the financial system.

• Letter from Beirut: When will the struggle finish? Will it’s the final one? Kim Ghattas writes concerning the many questions going through those that name town dwelling as Israeli bombs fall round them.

Chart of the day

A sell-off in UK authorities bonds intensified yesterday, as investor frightened concerning the extra debt in chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Funds, pushing borrowing prices to their highest stage of the 12 months. The pound additionally fell to its lowest stage towards the greenback for 2 months.

Take a break from the information

Listed below are our six movies to observe this week, together with Anora. Mikey Madison is an Oscar shoo-in together with her bristlingly actual efficiency as a strip-club dancer on this frantic anti-Cinderella story, our movie critic Danny Leigh writes.