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WASHINGTON Members of Congress are fanning out to every district in the country, leaving the wonky floor debates on Capitol Hill behind for the campaign trail in advance of the crucial Nov. 8 midterm elections.

Democrats are fighting to hold their razor-thin majorities in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, citing two years of victories on infrastructure, climate and prescription drug coverage. Republicans whose early expectations that they would sweep the House were tempered after a Supreme Court abortion ruling are trying to convince voters they need to balance the scales by putting them in charge of one or both chambers.

GOP candidates are attempting to tie Democrats to inflation, crime, fears about immigration and an unpopular president. But theyre shying away from talking about a national abortion ban in the wake of the courts decision to overturn two previous cases declaring abortion a constitutional right while Democrats are seeking something of a nationwide referendum on abortion access.

Adding to the tension in an unusual midterm election, Republican election deniers are on the ballot in many states. Election officials have described threats and a spread of misinformation. Polls in the tightest races arent giving a clear indication of who voters want in office, often switching from one week to the next or putting both candidates within the margin of error.

The polling uncertainty has left party leaders to funnel as much cash and attention to key races as possible, with Senate battles in Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin drawing the most media and cash. Spending overall is expected to top a record $9.3 billion by the time the election is over, according to Open Secrets.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican not up for reelection this year, pegs the chances the GOP regains that chamber as dead even.

Were in a bunch of close races. I think we have a 50-50 shot of getting the Senate back, McConnell said the last week of September.

McConnell sidestepped a question during the same press conference about whether he was being overly dismissive about the role abortion might play with suburban women, who tend to swing between voting for Democrats and Republicans.

I think that issue is playing out in different ways in different states, McConnell said, countering that the three biggest national issues Republicans will pound away at during the campaign will be inflation, crime and open borders.

In Kansasa state dominated by Republicans residents overwhelmingly voted this summer to reject a constitutional amendment that would have allowed state lawmakers to enact abortion restrictions.

Thats been the only ballot question about abortion since the Supreme Courts ruling in June, though California, Kentucky, Michigan and Vermont residents will vote on abortion ballot questions on election day.

A September poll by NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist National, a survey research center, found inflation was the No. 1 voting issue for Americans, with 30% saying it was top of mind when they thought about how theyd vote in Novembers election. That figure was down from 37% in a July poll.

Abortion came in second, with 22% of people surveyed citing it as a top issue, up from 18% in July.

The Supreme Courts decision on Dobbs this summer has had a major impact on electoral politics heading toward the midterm elections, Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, said in a statement accompanying the poll.

Abortion has likely been the most significant factor in improving Democrats chances in the past few months, Erin Covey, an analyst with the forecasting group Inside Elections, said in an interview.

Yet the inflation issue is powerful.

The consumer price index, which is the average market of consumer goods and services bought by a household, has found a continued increase in the cost of shelter, food, medical costs and education. The CPI determined that food has increased 11.4% over the last year the largest 12-month increase since May 1979.

But despite economic concerns, the poll still found that Democrats have a 4-point advantage over Republicans in this upcoming election, primarily due to the Supreme Courts decision.

Democrats have seized upon abortion as an issue to motivate their base and get new voters to the polls, but its unclear if those new voter registrants, particularly women, are due to the Supreme Courts abortion ruling and if that will help Democrats win tight races.

In every election since 1980, women have always outnumbered men in regard to voter registrations, according to data compiled by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

The Democratic data firm TargetSmart, which tracks voter registrations, found that there was a spike in registrations of women voters following the early leak of the Dobbs decision, but voter registrations in 2018 and 2020 were still higher than voter registrations when Roe v. Wade was overturned on June 24.

Republican leaders in the U.S. House, despite their struggles dealing with the abortion issue, still expect theyll regain control. But key Democrats have become more outspoken in recent weeks saying voters will keep them in the majority.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer and Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal have all said they expect to hold onto the House.

Pelosi, a California Democrat, said last week on CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that overturning Roe v. Wade had a significant impact on how Democrats are approaching the midterm campaigns, leading to a whole different attitude on the part of some about whether we could win.

I feel just watching each of the races forgive me for saying this, in a very cold-blooded way, as to which races we can win, to ensure that we not only hold the House, but we increase our number, Pelosi said.

Jayapal, of Washington state, said on a call with reporters she plans to campaign for at-risk progressive Democrats in the coming weeks, noting that many of the CPCs members are also in the so-called Frontline program, which directs resources to Democrats in swing districts.

We think progressives can win in tough districts and have shown it over and over again, Jayapal said.

Democratic candidates are running on what they call a raft of accomplishments over the last two years of unified government, touting infrastructure, climate change and prescription drug prices, among others, said Tommy Garcia, a spokesman for House Democrats campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. They are also focused on what they call Republican candidates extremism.

A Democratic majority will build on this historic progress, continue fighting to lower the cost of living for working families, and restore Roes abortion protections that Republican judges ripped away, Garcia said in a written statement. Voters will reject the GOPs plan to ban abortion nationwide, throw out votes if they dont like the results of an election, gut Social Security and Medicare, and stir up fear for their own benefit.

President Joe Bidens approval has ticked up since Democrats notched a few victories this summer, passing bills on gun violence and climate, health and taxes, as well as granting student loan debt relief. Moderate drops in gas prices from record highs earlier this year have also helped, Covey said.

Still, polling in individual races has not shown a massive shift toward Democratic candidates, she said.

Bidens approval has gone up a bit, the generic ballot a little bit better. And obviously, we have seen Democratic over-performance in special elections, she said. In terms of the polling on an individual level, there hasnt been a significant shift towards that.

Analysts still rate a Republican takeover of the House as the most likely outcome, though the prospect of a landslide election is less probable, she added.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has 39 members in its Frontline program, naming them as at risk of losing reelection. The Houses current party breakdown is 220 Democrats, 212 Republicans and three vacancies.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOPs campaign arm, placed 75 Democrats on its target list after all states completed their redistricting processes in June. The cohort includes all of the Frontline Democrats, except Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and Pat Ryan of New York.

The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, however, has 30 House races in the toss-up category, with 20 of those held by Democrats, nine controlled by GOP members and one new district in Colorado.

Cook places 194 House seats as leaning toward Democratic control while 211 seats are favored for Republicans. That means the GOP needs to win fewer of the 30 toss-up races to reach the 218 seats needed to control the chamber.

While every House seat is up for reelection for another two-year term, just one-third of the Senate will face voters on Nov. 8, since members are elected to six-year terms.

In the Senate races, Cook rates the Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin races as toss-ups. The Arizona, Colorado and New Hampshire races lean towards a Democrat winning. And the Florida, North Carolina and Ohio races lean toward a Republican victory.

Nine Senate seats held by Democrats are expected to stay blue, while 15 seats up this cycle that are held by Republicans are in the solidly GOP category. The Utah Senate race is classified as likely going to a Republican, according to Cooks ratings.

Pennsylvania, where Democrat John Fetterman faces Republican Mehmet Oz for an open seat, was rated as lean Democrat, but was moved to a toss-up this week, with Cooks Senate and Governors Editor Jessica Taylor writing that it has become a margin-of-error race.

Republicans and Democrats alike admit the race has tightened and that Pennsylvania could be the tipping point state for the Senate majority, she wrote.

Philip Chen, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Denver, said that in the Senate, Democrats have a better chance of picking up more seats because Republicans are defending a lot of seats, and Democrats are fairly solid in the ones that theyre holding.

He added that the popularity of the president does come into play. A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll this month found that Bidens approval was only 40%, which was actually up from his May low of 36% approval in the same survey.

We really will have to see how much the national mood dissatisfaction with President Biden and (how) things like that really do influence things, (and) how much of it is just the Senate is a tougher battle for Republicans this time around? Chen said.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has spent millions of dollars against Democrats in key states. In Arizona, this election cycle the NRSC has spent more than $9 million against Sen. Mark Kelly, and more than $4 million against Sen. Raphael Warnock in Georgia.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has spent $10.5 million against Kellys Republican opponent, Blake Masters, and $3 million against Warnocks Republican opponent, Herschel Walker.

Biden, speaking at a Democratic National Committee reception in New Jersey on Thursday, cited the tendency for the presidents party to lose some power in the first midterms.

Based on statistics, the Democrats are running uphill because of the fact that, with only a couple exceptions, the first term of an incumbent president on the off-year election has been not a good deal most times, Biden said.

He then predicted that Democrats would hold the Senate, possibly picking up a couple seats, though he didnt seem as optimistic about the partys chances of keeping the House, blaming trends at the state level. Biden pointed out theres been a lot of gerrymandering in the House across the country, because a lot of governors arent Democratic governors.

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The battle for control of Congress: Abortion, inflation, crime and Biden - Nebraska Examiner

Lachlan Murdochs role as the controller of his familys media conglomerates in the US and Australia was inseparable from the reputation of those organisations, the federal court has heard.

The relevance of Murdochs leadership of the US Fox Corporation and its role in the January 6 riots was discussed at length in a preliminary hearing for the upcoming defamation trial against Private Medias Crikey.

Lawyers for Murdoch say the article falsely claimed, among other imputations, that Murdoch illegally conspired with Trump to overturn the presidential election result and knowingly entered into a criminal conspiracy with Donald Trump and a large number of Fox News commentators to overturn the 2020 election result.

Murdochs barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC wants parts of Crikeys defence struck out because she says they are irrelevant, embarrassing and will waste time at the trial.

Chrysanthou argued on Monday it was not necessary for the court to watch an incalculable number of hours of Fox News coverage to establish whether Crikey could successfully use the new public interest defence.

She argued the new defence which has not been tested in a case yet was not applicable to Crikey. The new dawn promised to the media by reason of this defence is not going to happen, she said.

But Private Medias barrister Michael Hodge KC said the context of Murdochs role at Fox and the lies told by Donald Trump and Fox News commentators about the US election were relevant to the public interest defence.

It is either true or untrue that Rupert Murdoch, members of the Murdoch family who control these global media conglomerates and Lachlan Murdoch have not disavowed the lies about the US presidential election, Hodge said.

Justice Michael Wigney said the issue of what could be argued as a public interest defence under the new defamation laws was complex and he reserved his decision.

To rely on the public interest defence, Crikey needed to show politics editor Bernard Keane held a reasonable belief that what he wrote was in the public interest, Chrysanthou said.

We are saying there was no matter of public interest that connected my client to that [US Capitol hearing] evidence, Chrysanthou said.

In August, the co-chair of News Corp filed proceedings for defamation against the independent news site over an article by Keane headlined: Trump is a confirmed unhinged traitor. And Murdoch is his unindicted co-conspirator.

Chrysanthou on Monday said the only co-conspirators identified were persons with my clients surname and Fox News commentators.

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In the final paragraph Keane out of nowhere compared her client with Richard Nixon, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Watergate controversy, the barrister said.

The article was about a criminal who had committed an indictable offence and got away with it. And the reader is told there is extensive evidence of my client engaging in a plot with the unhinged traitor [Trump], so-called. Thats what this article is about.

Murdoch is also claiming Keane and Crikeys editor-in-chief, Peter Fray, were motivated by malice, predominantly acting to harm Murdoch.

Private Media has applied to have that claim struck out. It has denied the article defamed Murdoch as alleged and will argue it didnt cause serious harm to him.

Murdoch is seeking aggravated damages and an injunction to prevent Crikey from republishing the article and its imputations.

A nine-day trial is due to start in late March 2023.

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Whats in the public interest? Murdoch v Crikey trial could test new defamation defence - The Guardian

October 10 is World Mental Health Day, and the 2022 World Mental Health Day theme is, "Make mental health and wellbeing for all a global priority."

Finances are a huge stressor for many, and if you want to make mental health a priority, alleviating some of the anxiety surrounding money management is a good place to start.

42% of U.S adults say money is negatively impacting their mental health, according to a recent survey from Bankrate and Psych Central.

The survey polled 2,457 adults about how finances affect their mental state. Feeling stressed is the top response to finances, according to 70% of survey respondents.

Other emotions people associate with money include worry, anxiety, feeling overwhelmed and insecurity.

These are the money-related activities that triggered negative feelings, from most to least common:

Of all age groups, millennials, aged 26 to 41 years old, experienced the most financial anxiety, at 48%.

"That's when we're first having children, first starting out or are insecure around our jobs because we haven't done it long enough. We haven't built up savings," says T.J. Williams, a regional president and financial advisor at Wealth Enhancement Group, an independent wealth management firm.

"Those are normal experiences that we've had for generations, but society's put a different spin on it. Social media's put a lot of pressure that's undue."

Gen X, ages 42 to 57, doesn't lag far behind at 46%, and 40% of those aged 18 to 25 in Gen Z say money problems cause mental health concerns for them, too.

Women, more than men, indicate that money significantly impacts their mental state, "with 46 percent selecting it compared to 38 percent of men."

When income is factored in, low earners experience more emotional distress due to finances than higher earners.

Just 30% of people who make at least $100,000 annually say money negatively affects their mental health, compared to 48% of earners making less than $50,000 a year.

To feel more secure in your finances, Williams suggests following these three steps:

Following this step-by-step process can decrease how often you need to look at your bank account throughout the week, Williams notes. He only recommends checking the status of your finances once every week to monitor fraudulent activity.

You can also consider getting an accountability partner who you can share your finance goals with, he adds. This person should be non-judgmental and supportive, Williams emphasizes.

Also, keep in mind that everything you see on social media isn't always what it seems, says Williams.

Comparing your financial situation to others because they post images of themselves traveling or purchasing a new car will only make you feel worse, he says.

"Their financial situation could have been different from the start," says Williams. "You [also] don't know if they're actually living above their means. There's a lot of that, just for show."

Above all else, "give yourself grace," says Williams. Financial challenges are normal, especially when you're just beginning to manage your own money, he notes.

"When we talk about planning and budgeting, you can't account for everything. Life happens," he says. "There's things that are outside of our control, and we need to be okay with that."

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42% of Americans say money negatively impacts their mental health. Here's what an advisor suggests for financial security - CNBC

JOY REID (HOST): I feel like some of us who were maybe a bit more cynical about it have kind of understood that the whole pro-life thing has never been real. Right? It's really great branding, but it isn't real, right? They just want power and they would love to have women under control and they feel women are out of control.

The problem is modernity, right? It's that modern women are harder to control. They go off and they get their little fancy college educations, then they want to compete with you in the workplace, they want to do the stuff men can do, they want to play sports like men, they all of a sudden don't want to be under control. And a teenager who's stuck at home raising a bunch of children she has no idea how to raise is actually really controllable. And I feel like we can have an honest conversation now that Republicans are breathtakingly willing to have it, but that is what it is, is that modernity is what bothers them, not abortion.

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MSNBC's Joy Reid: Matt Walsh's defense of teenage pregnancy shows how conservatives hate that "modern women are harder to control" - Media...

SUZUKA, Japan -- Formula One drivers and team bosses have called for answers from the FIA after a recovery vehicle entered the track at the Japanese Grand Prix while Pierre Gasly was still circulating a soaking wet Suzuka circuit at more than 200km/h. An investigation will now get under way to understand how such a dangerous situation could be allowed to unfold, with Gasly later telling the media that he was just two metres away from being involved in a fatal collision.

The incident drew comparisons with Jules Bianchi's accident at the 2014 Japanese GP, when he crashed into a crane in a gravel trap and sustained serious brain damage. He died the following year from the injuries.

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The FIA has a long record of bringing about safety changes as a result of lessons learned from accidents and near misses, and there is a strong push from F1's drivers to see a similar reaction following Sunday's race.

The incident occurred on the second lap of Sunday's Japanese GP after a chaotic opening lap. All 20 drivers started the race on intermediate tyres -- usually used when conditions are crossing over from wet to dry -- but as the race got underway, the conditions worsened significantly.

Carlos Sainz, who was running in third place, aquaplaned on the straight after the Turn 11 hairpin and crashed heavily into the barrier near Turn 12. The impact resulted in part of the advertising hoarding being ripped off the barrier and deposited onto the track, which Gasly then hit after being unsighted by spray from other cars. With other spins and Alex Albon's Williams stopping at the side of the track following contact with one of the Haas cars, race control called a safety car.

As Gasly had damage to his car's front wing, however, he went straight back to the pits as the rest of the cars caught up with the safety car. When Gasly returned to the track on his own, he was driving faster than the safety car in order to catch up but within a delta time displayed on his steering wheel. The delta time is set to ensure drivers are able to catch up with the train of cars behind the safety car but is made high enough to make sure they do so at a safe speed. In the very wet conditions, however, it still meant Gasly regularly exceeded 200 km/h (120 mph).

At some point during the second lap and once the safety car had picked up the pack of cars minus Gasly, a flatbed truck and a crane were deployed onto the track to clear Sainz's car. The safety car guided 17 of the cars past the recovery vehicles, although some drivers were still surprised to see the crane and truck on track.

When Gasly came across the recovery vehicles he was doing 200 km/h, with footage from his onboard camera showing just how close he came and how bad the visibility was. An onboard camera that was still running on Sainz's car also showed the surprise of marshals who were already working on preparations to lift the Ferrari onto the recovery vehicle.

"We have a delta lap time to respect and I was nine seconds slower than the delta lap time, so I am catching the queue and then I saw it at the last minute, and when I see it, I am doing 200kph," Gasly explained. "I tried to slow down but not in an erratic manner, because if I slammed on the brakes I would've lost the car and I would've ended up in the crane.

"I came past two metres on the right, two metres away from passing away today, which I don't think is acceptable as a race driver."

Gasly's onboard footage also shows the race was red flagged just moments before he came across the recovery vehicles, although he only had one light panel to warn him ahead of the accident site and it changed to red only as he approached it. Once the red flags were shown the race was suspended and all cars returned to the pits.

When asked by ESPN, the FIA did not offer an explanation as to why the recovery vehicles were on track other than to say a full investigation would take place.

Article 2.6.1 of the FIA's International Sporting Code states "no marshal or vehicle shall enter the circuit perimeter without permission from race control," suggesting the recovery vehicles should not have been there without the knowledge and permission of FIA race director Eduardo Freitas.

It is normal for marshals and recovery vehicles to enter the track under safety car conditions, although usually in dry conditions and once all cars have joined the queue behind the safety car. The idea of having a safety car is to allow a break in the traffic for marshals to work on recovering a vehicle and each marshal post has a line of communication back to the clerk of the course and race control to ensure it is done safely.

Yet given how bad the conditions were, it is not clear why the recovery vehicles were allowed on track before Gasly had been given a chance to catch the pack or, simply, the race had been suspended by a red flag. As Gasly said after the race: "We were all in the pit lane a minute later. Risking my life for one minute, I don't think that is acceptable."

Another concerning factor was teams had not been made aware of the recovery vehicle's presence on track, so there was no way of warning the drivers over team radio. TV camera pictures had not picked up their presence and no alert was given by race control, making it impossible for the drivers to be warned of what was happening at Turn 12.

Figuring out how a recovery vehicle was let onto the track in those circumstances will be the main focus of the investigation, with all lessons being applied to either the regulations or race control's procedures in the future. The obvious comparisons with Bianchi's accident in 2014 mean everyone in the sport knows how serious Sunday's near miss was.

"It needs a full investigation into it, because after the tragedy of Jules Bianchi that is something you never want to see again," Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said. "I'm sure the FIA will do a full investigation, but recovery vehicles like that should never be on the track when cars are running around."

Another question is whether the race should have been allowed to go ahead with a standing start instead of a safety car start. Once racing got back under way two hours later, it did so behind the safety car, which was also an option for race control ahead of the original start.

"I think as first, should we have started the race standing start or should we have started behind the safety car at first?" Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said. "I think behind the safety car would have been certainly safer, and safety should have always been put in that first position.

"Why I'm saying that, because as soon as we started, a lot of drivers, obviously most of the drivers on intermediate tyres which were the fastest, but then very little grip, very little visibility, and maybe by starting behind the safety car, it would give you at least a couple of laps to understand the situation, have the feedback from the drivers before deciding to go for it.

"I think at first that was a critical point. The second, certainly the crane, having the crane on-track while the cars are running, we said that [was] very dangerous. It should not happen. So overall, I think it has been a bad situation that again needs to be addressed. It cannot happen anymore."

The drivers were particularly disappointed by the situation as the subject had been discussed in their briefing with Freitas on the Friday before the race after a recovery vehicle was released on track a week earlier in Singapore while drivers were behind the safety car on slick tyres in damp conditions. Mercedes driver George Russell, who is also the director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, said a complete rethink of how to deal with recovering vehicles should be considered, especially in wet conditions.

"There are no circumstances in which we are happy to see a tractor on track," Russell said. "There is a lot of talk about Pierre [driving too fast] but that's irrelevant. There were 17 other cars on track and none of us passed that tractor and saw a lot of what was going on, because you obviously had to move out of the spray to get a clear view and then you are in line with the tractor. Especially in wet conditions, in the wet, intermediate or drying, there is no circumstances in which having a tractor [on track] is acceptable.

"In our view it is pretty straightforward: no tractors on track. And if you need a tractor on track, red flag it."

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Pierre Gasly's near miss in Japan: How did it happen and what comes next? - ESPN