The hour was dominated by the eve of the US midterms and a rising risk that the result will be contested. Trump said he is considering pre-emptive pardons for allies and administration officials if Democrats win Congress ¹, and that he would become 'Mr. Veto' if they take either chamber ². The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to set aside more than 20,000 California ballots from registered voters it suspects are noncitizens, after lower courts rejected the suit ³; California says the move could disenfranchise eligible voters ⁴. Schumer has set up a war room to counter any Trump bid to contest results, and he warned the legal fight could last months ⁵. Kalshi traders price a 74% chance of Democratic Senate control ⁶. A Financial Times poll found a large majority disapprove of Trump's handling of inflation ⁷. Michigan's race was upended when Haley Stevens, who lost the Democratic primary to Abdul El-Sayed, endorsed Republican Mike Rogers ⁸, while a Times/Siena poll had El-Sayed ahead 53% to 42% ⁹. The second thread is strain in AI financing. Oracle launched a $20 billion debt-and-equity sale even as money managers grow warier of tech spending ¹⁰. Alphabet had to pay considerably higher yields on a €6 billion bond after AI-spending concerns triggered a credit selloff ¹¹, and Meta is sounding out a dollar-and-euro deal for capex ¹². This came alongside Marvell's $115 billion Lumentum merger, which commentary called poorly timed ^13,14, and Anthropic's IPO, which reportedly aims to match or exceed SpaceX's $86.2 billion debut ¹⁵. Tech losses offset cheaper oil, leaving the S&P 500 little changed ¹⁶. On Iran, the Supreme Leader reportedly authorized dialogue with Washington, and oil fell ¹⁷, dragging natural gas with it ¹⁸. Trump said he is in 'no rush' to decide on restarting the war while Qatari mediators draft confidence-building steps ¹⁹. Cyber incidents also clustered: refrigeration systems at supermarkets in seven European countries were attacked ²⁰, fake emergency alerts hit Ukraine and Russia ²¹, and Apple warned German lawmakers their phones may be compromised ²². Elsewhere, Zelenskyy said Russia is preparing a massive strike on energy and logistics ²³, and separately, Russian guided bombs hit a school used as an aid center in Komyshuvakha, killing at least 24 . Officials confirmed the first US human bird flu death of 2026, linked to a dairy facility with infected cattle ²⁴.