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Hi, I'm Elena Casas in London. Today is Saturday, October 31st. Today, a judge ordered the Trump administration to stop threatening to sue state and local election officials. Air Force One's flight over the White House during Halloween celebrations caused flight delays. And the Prime Minister of Great Britain said he was ready to officially apologize for Britain's historical role in the slave trade. This is Reuters' world news, telling you everything you need to know from the front lines, in 10 minutes, 7 days a week.
A judge in San Francisco has ordered the Trump administration to stop threatening state and local election officials with legal action if they fail to comply with requirements regarding the voting of alleged non-citizens. Judge Trina Thompson issued a restraining order blocking the Department of Justice from requiring officials to remove voters from the rolls or deny them ballots. The Justice Department previously warned California election officials that they could face criminal charges if they count more than 20,000 ballots mailed in by people the administration considers non-U.S. citizens.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department is asking a judge to bar Alaska from certifying the election results if Republican Senator Dan Sullivan loses because another candidate with the same name was on the ballot. All of this comes as a record 48 million Americans have already voted early ahead of Tuesday's election. Legal reporter Andrew Garraway will tell you more. I spoke with several former Justice Department officials and legal experts who say this is virtually unprecedented. Certainly, no one has seen anything like this in the long decades of history of the Department of Justice. Let's start with Alaska. So, if the
Justice Department wins this civil lawsuit, we're in for a potentially very difficult battle to figure out whether someone actually cast their vote for this other Dan Sullivan, whom the Trump administration considers "fake," or did the voter intend to vote for him? Were they confused? How to determine this? So, if everything depends on Alaska, and a similar struggle unfolds there, it could become a really serious problem. In California, the Justice Department is requesting the postponement of about 20,000 mail-in ballots from people the administration says are likely not citizens. They also send subpoenas to election officials demanding information about potential non-citizen voting. So, of course, there are concerns that publicizing this topic of
non-citizen voting is a potential prelude to a challenge to the election results, with the Trump administration claiming that they were unfair and fraught with fraud. So, there are some concerns that when the government steps in and starts making these kinds of statements, we could end up in this situation. More than 70,000 police officers were deployed in France this Saturday ahead of a new wave of protests against the cost of living and harsh police methods. Two weeks ago, peaceful demonstrations were overrun by groups of looters who smashed shops, set fire to public buildings, and caught security forces by surprise. The authorities are determined to avoid a repeat of
this. Despite the crackdown, unions and student groups say they will continue marches, demanding action on high prices and underfunding of schools. Meanwhile, in Italy, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets on Friday in a nationwide strike. In Turin, riot police used batons and water cannons to push back the crowd. The strikers are demanding higher wages, improved public services and relief from the rising cost of living in Italy. Protesters also opposed increased military spending. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham says he is ready to formally apologize for Britain's historical role in the slave trade. This would be a major policy shift, and it could pave the way for King Charles to apologize at a meeting of
former British colonies next week. Mr Burnham wrote in a newspaper article that his predecessors refused to talk honestly about Britain's involvement in the slave trade. Caribbean states are calling for financial reparations. Mr Burnham rejected the idea of cash payments, but historian Alan Lester told Reuters that reparations could mean development aid or debt restructuring. So we're not talking about a money transfer You know, we're talking about decades of somewhat more favorable financial conditions that will be negotiated as a compensation mechanism. So, this is the most likely way in which reparations will take place.
Uh, an apology would also be a symbolically extremely important addition to such negotiations. It is unclear whether the prime minister or King Charles will actually issue a formal apology for slavery, but ahead of a meeting of former British colonies in Antigua on Tuesday, royal commentator Afua Hagan told Reuters that pressure on the king was mounting. We know that Buckingham Palace has stated that there will be no apology for the royal family's involvement in the enslavement of Africans and their participation in the slave trade. Uh, and of course, the British government has stated that it has no intention of paying reparations. This may change. You never know, because the movement for reparations is gaining momentum, strength,
becoming much louder and harder to ignore. This week, the White House hosted children to celebrate Halloween with the president. This is standard practice. What was happening in the sky was less usual. Footage of the event shows President Trump pointing upwards, telling the camera to look at the sky. They saw the belly of Air Force One flying at a very low altitude. On Thursday, a plane flew over the White House twice at a lower-than-normal altitude, prompting the FAA to temporarily halt traffic at nearby Reagan Airport.
The plane also flew over nearby areas, scaring several observers who tweeted that the plane was falling. The District of Columbia City Council said on social media that they had only 15 minutes' notice of the flight, and quote: "This surprised many, including us." Meanwhile, disagreements remain within US school systems over the implementation of AI, leaving many teachers struggling to navigate the transition on their own Reporter Helen Koster has spoken to teachers across the country and says many are looking for creative solutions. AI has become the most dramatic technological development to impact both teachers and their students.
Even in schools where cell phones are banned, one teacher told me that her students went to the restroom to look up AI answers for exams and classwork. But Helen says teachers are less concerned about cheating than they are about how students learn. I've heard time and time again that teachers are concerned about how AI will affect students' critical thinking. I was talking to a humanities teacher at a San Francisco high school. She teaches sixth grade. And now, instead of homework essays, she gives oral exams in class for her sixth-graders. So, in addition to other classroom exercises, she asks questions on the spot and students have to answer in real time.
She sees this as a way of assessing without having to worry about relying on AI. The backlash against AI also means abandoning screens altogether. I've talked to other teachers who just rely more on paper and pen. The social studies teacher I spoke with gives students notebooks that she keeps in containers and hands out every day before class It really reduces the use of Chromebooks by students because there is already too much screen time. It's just extra work. And finally: if your idea of Halloween fun is escaping a chainsaw farmer in a maze, we have just the place for you. At Tallis Farm in Southern
England, visitors escape zombies and killer clowns in mazes as Shocktoberfest celebrates its 30th anniversary. For some, this is a real nightmare. For others, it's Halloween. To learn more about any of today's stories, plus get the analytics and news shaping our world, visit reuters.com or the Reuters app. There is a link in the description where you can download it and start receiving clean news straight from the original source. Don't forget to subscribe to us on your favorite podcast player. And if you're listening through a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily roundup of top news stories.
