Alaska Says Ballot Demand Meritless, WSJ Wins Dismissal of Trump Suit, More

0:01 News when you want it, with Bloomberg News Now, I'm Ed Kalecki. A potential legal victory for Democrats in Alaska, as Alaska's Attorney General's office on Saturday urged a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed at President Trump's direction to stop the certification of a possible Democratic win in that state's pivotal U.S. Senate race, writing that there is no reason for this court to entertain this meritless lawsuit any longer. The filing comes as U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason set a deadline of Saturday for arguments over whether she should dismiss the lawsuit without even a hearing.

0:37 The complaint from the U.S. Department of Justice has been roundly criticized by election law experts and demands that the judge halt certification of a possible win by Democrat Mary Peltula until it is determined whether voters were confused by the presence of a second candidate on the ballot with the same name as her main rival, Republican Senator Dan Sullivan.

0:59 A federal judge threw out Donald Trump's renewed $ 10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and ruled that it cannot be filed again, marking another setback for the president's legal fights with the press. Judge Darren Gales in Miami Saturday granted the journal's request to dismiss the suit.

1:16 The newspaper was accused in the complaint of defaming Trump in an article on his relationship with the late Jeffrey Epstein. Gales first tossed the suit in April for lacking evidence, but he gave Trump a chance to file a new one with beefed-up claims. Trump and May filed the new version, which the journal argued was not an improvement. The FBI says that North Korea was responsible for stealing more than $ 6 billion in cryptocurrencies in a brazen hacking attack on Binance.

1:44 The FBI said Saturday in a statement referring to the U.S. Secret Service that and the Criminal Division of the Internal Revenue Service, that the FBI, together with partners at the USS and IRS-CI, has observed trader-trader acts converting stolen assets primarily into Ethereum. It is expected these assets will then be further laundered by converting them using DeFi and instant swap services as they prepare them for further laundering stages. Earlier, Binance said it has covered about 90% of the $ 6. 3 billion in plans to restore withdrawals by Sunday, making progress on a pledge to fully reimburse customers. In a social media post Saturday, the world's biggest crypto exchange reiterated that

2:27 it will absorb the full impact of the theft so that users will not suffer any losses. Iran's supreme leader ordered his top military commanders to prepare for renewed confrontation with the U.S. and Israel and expand Tehran's options for retaliation, even as his top diplomat signaled progress in diplomatic talks.

2:46 Motaba Khomeini told the heads of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Army, and the general staff of the armed forces, according to a statement Saturday on Telegram, that every level and type of threat must be met with an immediate effective response, without geographical limitations. He ordered the military to update its list of potential targets to bring all types of material and immaterial assets of the U.S. and Israel within the armed forces' reach. Both parties are making their final push to rally voters ahead of midterms amid major affordability and inflation concerns. Bloomberg's Chris Kennedy reports it's splintering support for Republicans.

3:24 What we found is that voters really do link higher gas prices, higher grocery prices to Trump's policy decisions. And that includes the decision to go to war with Iran, of course, but also tariffs.

3:38 Bloomberg's Chris Kennedy says early voting in this midterm election has hit a record. More than 48.5 million Americans have already cast ballots, beating early turnout numbers from the last midterm back in 2022. Midterm ad spending is surging but skipping a key voting block. Bloomberg's Monica Ricks reports.

3:57 This year's midterm elections are on track to be the most expensive ever, with ad spending set to top $ 11 billion. But the share being directed towards Spanish language advertisements is shrinking dramatically, even with Latino voters seen by both parties as a critical swing group. In competitive Senate races, the number of Spanish-language political ads this cycle has tumbled 81 percent from 2022, while up until last week, English ads have nearly doubled. Hispanics account for more than half of the growth in eligible voters since the last midterms, and according to the Pew Research Center, now make up 16 percent of eligible voters. Monica Ricks, Bloomberg Radio.

4:34 It was a dismal end to the week on Wall Street following disappointing earnings results from some of the biggest names in technology. including Amazon, Alphabet, and Intel. Mike Shepard is a senior tech and strategic industries editor at Bloomberg and says it's adding to concerns about AI spending.

4:52 It was manifesting itself earlier this month. We saw that spasm of concerns surrounding the so-called neoclouds. Those are the companies that rent artificial intelligence computing power to big AI developers. These are the companies like CoreWeave, an end scale that we've been writing about recently where investors are looking at not only their equity, but also the debt that they're taking on and questioning whether that kind of business has the return.

5:17 Senior Editor Mike Shepard on Bloomberg this weekend. That's news when you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Ed Kalecki. This is Bloomberg.