🇺🇸America Tonight🇺🇸
Tech selloff • Early-vote record • Crypto heist
October 30th, 2026AD
THE FIVE NATIONAL STORIES AMERICANS SHOULD KNOW TODAY
📋 TONIGHT'S FIVE
1. AI fears hit tech stocks
2. Early voting sets midterm record
3. Court rejects ballot bid
4. Iran reports tanker fires
5. Binance freezes stolen crypto
📉 TECH STOCKS SLIDE ON AI SPENDING FEARS
Tech stocks lost more than $1 trillion in value Friday as investors questioned whether massive artificial-intelligence spending would deliver returns, NBC News reported.
Disappointing results from Amazon and Intel helped drive the selloff. Amazon said its AI spending was running faster than expected, while Intel’s outlook disappointed investors.
In its outlook, Amazon said it still expected about $220 billion in capital spending this year, mostly for Amazon Web Services, and substantially more in 2027, according to NBC.
Losses spread across chipmakers and companies building AI infrastructure.
🗳️ EARLY VOTING SETS MIDTERM RECORD
Nearly 47.9 million Americans had voted early by midday Friday, surpassing the 2022 midterm record, AFP reported, citing the University of Florida’s Election Lab.
Texas had more than 6.3 million early votes through Wednesday, up from 4.2 million at the same point in 2022, an Associated Press analysis found.
Texas’ early-voting period ends Friday. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
President Donald Trump also restored previously canceled Sunday rallies in Iowa and Kansas, KCRG reported. He is scheduled to speak in Dubuque at 2 p.m. Central and Salina at 6 p.m. Central.
⚖️ COURT REJECTS CALIFORNIA BALLOT REQUEST
A federal appeals panel voted 2-1 Friday to reject the Justice Department’s request that California separate mail ballots from about 20,000 voters, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Administration officials suspect those voters may be noncitizens.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals majority said the government had not shown that the requested intervention during an ongoing election was clearly required by law.
Judge Patrick J. Bumatay, who dissented, characterized separating the ballots as a limited remedy, according to the report.
The administration’s suspicions do not establish that the flagged voters are noncitizens.
🌊 IRAN REPORTS TANKER FIRES NEAR HORMUZ
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said three tankers caught fire Friday after striking mines near the Omani coast, CNBC reported. The claim was not independently verified by Reuters.
Separately, maritime sources told Reuters that a small boat attached two limpet mines to a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday.
UK Maritime Trade Operations, a British navy agency, said that vessel’s crew was safe, the fire was extinguished and the tanker continued toward its next port.
The reports come as concern grows that U.S.-Iran fighting could resume as the U.S. election approaches.
🔐 BINANCE SAYS $3 BILLION FROZEN AFTER HACK
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance says it has frozen about $3 billion of the $6.3 billion stolen in a hack, the BBC reported.
Several analytics firms have linked the attack to a North Korean hacking unit. That is their assessment; North Korea has denied involvement in such thefts.
The U.S. Secret Service said it was working to trace and recover the stolen assets. Binance said its U.S.-facing exchange was unaffected.
Bitcoin was down 5% in Friday afternoon trading in New York, according to the BBC. That figure is an afternoon snapshot, not a closing price.
WASHINGTON WATCH
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31st, 2026AD
Sunday, Nov. 1: Trump is scheduled to speak at 2 p.m. Central in Dubuque, Iowa, and 6 p.m. Central at Salina Regional Airport, Kansas, KCRG reported.
Election Day: Tuesday, Nov. 3.
That’s America Tonight.
The headlines change every day.
The consequences last for years.
Hood County Express — Est’d 1/26
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