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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. The investigation into pipe bombs sent to CNN and several prominent critics of President Trump is shifting to southern Florida. The authorities believe that a number of the explosive devices were mailed from the area, our reporters learned.
In all, 10 packages have been discovered since Monday, all bearing the return address of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democratic congresswoman from Florida and former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.
Devices addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden and the actor Robert De Niro, were intercepted by law enforcement officials earlier in the day. Above, a post office in Wilmington, Del.
None of the devices have harmed anyone, and it’s unclear who is behind them. Here’s what we do and don’t know. Mr. Trump initially condemned the attempted attacks and called for unity. Later, he struck a different tone, blaming the news media and Democrats for deep political divisions and calling for journalists “to set a civil tone.”
A conspiracy theory on the bombs has jumped from the right-wing fringe to the mainstream with unusual speed, our columnist writes.
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2. Google stayed silent, protecting three top executives over the past decade after they were accused of sexual misconduct, our reporters found.
The company pushed out two senior executives, paying them millions, court and corporate documents and interviews revealed. Andy Rubin, above, the creator of the Android mobile operating system, got $90 million to leave after accusations of an inappropriate relationship. A third executive stayed at the company in a high-paying position.
In protecting the executives, Google was shielding itself, too — separation agreements prevented costly legal fights, and kept the executives from working for rivals.
“We’re working hard to keep improving how we handle this type of behavior,” a company human resources official said.
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3. Some vulnerable Democrats have distanced themselves from their party’s left-wing elements.
Mike Espy, a former House member and President Bill Clinton’s agriculture secretary, is one of them. He’s running to be Mississippi’s first black senator since Reconstruction. To do that, he will need to win over about a quarter of white voters in an overwhelmingly Republican state. Above, he campaigned in Indianola, Miss.
For news and analysis on the most-watched midterm races, check out The Tip Sheet, updated daily. And you can sign up for text messages from our politics correspondent.
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4. Technology stocks helped lift the broader market more than 1 percent. The S. & P. 500-stock index returned to positive territory for the year, after sagging 3 percent on Wednesday and wiping out 2018’s gains.
So why has the market been falling recently? Could this wobble be the beginning of a larger crash, or a recession?
Not so fast, says our economics correspondent: It’s a less bullish time for investors, but mostly good for workers and the economy.
5. Foreign agents routinely listen in on personal calls made by President Trump, who has refused to give up his iPhones despite warnings that they aren’t secure, American officials told our reporters.
The Chinese and Russians eavesdrop on the president’s calls to his friends, hoping to glean insights that might help them influence administration policy. Officials said they could only hope the president refrained from discussing classified information on unsecure lines. Above, cell antennas near the Capitol.
A Chinese official mocked our report, without exactly denying it, and said that perhaps the president should try a Chinese device instead.
“If they are very worried about iPhones being tapped, they can use Huawei,” she said.
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6. President Trump is preparing to order at least 800 Army troops to the southern border, a Defense Department official said. The effort to block immigrants comes amid an election-season push by the president to stoke fears of migrants.
Mr. Trump has framed the midterms as a referendum on the so-called caravan — a group of several thousand asylum-seeking migrants crossing Mexico. Above, migrants near Huixtla in southern Mexico.
Mr. Trump also proposed that Medicare pay for certain prescription drugs based on the prices paid in other advanced industrial countries. It would be a huge change that would save money for the government and for millions of Medicare beneficiaries.
The announcement was also part of a flurry of initiatives emerging from the White House ahead of the elections. Democrats have focused their campaigns on health care, including hammering Republicans on the high cost of prescription drugs.
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7. Boston leads Los Angeles two games to none in the World Series after a 4-2 win over the Dodgers. The series resumes Friday in Los Angeles, where the Red Sox could capture the title with two more victories.
Ever wonder what happens to all the bats players break during games? In the U.S., the pieces are typically sold at team stores or by memorabilia companies. But in Japan, splintered bats are recycled as chopsticks.
Each season, thousands of damaged bats are sliced into “kattobashi,” a mash-up of the Japanese word for chopsticks and a baseball chant that translates as “get a big hit.”
Chopstick sales support efforts to preserve a species of ash tree known as aodamo, native to Japan and used for top-quality bats.
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8. Megyn Kelly did not appear live on “Today” this morning.
The host’s future at NBC is in doubt, two days after she made a racially insensitive comment on the air.
On Tuesday she suggested that it was appropriate for white people to use blackface as part of their Halloween costumes. She apologized, but the backlash — combined with disappointing ratings — has fed a crisis. NBC scheduled reruns for the rest of the week.
Our TV critic wasn’t surprised. The jaw-dropping remark was the kind of thing people say when they’ve never had to think much about sharing the world with people different from them, he writes.
Ms. Kelly moved to NBC last spring from Fox News, for a reported annual salary of $17 million.
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9. The world’s wild tiger population has dipped below 4,000. One key to saving them may be genetics.
Researchers recently agreed to refine the tiger family into six distinct subspecies. Three additional subspecies may already be extinct.
The new classifications are essential to preserving tigers’ genetic diversity and saving them from extinction, scientists say.
“If you think that all tigers are genetically homogeneous, you might say if you lose the Amur tiger, you still have the Bengal tiger — and that’s O.K. because they’re very similar,” one researcher said. “But that’s not O.K., because now we know that tigers are not all alike.”
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10. Finally, Kit Kat bars are a simple pleasure in most of the world.
But in Japan, where they have a cultlike status, they come in a wild variety of colors and flavors, with constant changes and limited-edition runs.
That’s one story in our magazine’s Candy Issue. We also featured 33 more candies from around the world — including China’s White Rabbit and India’s Pass Pass Pulse — that capture the spirit of the countries they come from.
Have a delectable evening.
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