In your briefing today:

📣 The United States goes to the polls tomorrow for the midterm elections: a vital vote which will shape both the second half of Donald Trump’s presidency and, potentially, have huge impact globally if his war in the Middle East, and trade policies, are reined in.

Polls suggest a Democratic surge across the country, including in the states that will decide Senate control. Can they be trusted? (New York Times)

📣 Both Russia and Ukraine say their emergency alert apps were hit by apparent cyber-attacks. A Ukrainian espionage group says messages sent in Russia included fake warnings of nuclear strikes. Those messages came shortly after Ukraine’s air raid app broadcast false warnings of a radiation threat in Kiev. Ukraine has blamed Russia for that: Russia hasn’t attributed blame for its false alarms yet. (BBC Live coverage)

📣 Britain is “making up its China policy as it goes along” and risks jeopardising national security by prioritising “diplomatic politeness”, MPs warn today. The business, innovation, science and trade committee says firms have missed out on deals as Britain has been left exposed to “unquantified, unmanaged risk”. (Mail)

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📣 Could the mummy be returned? Egyptian authorities have now asked for the return of the mummified remains of the priest Nekht, recently removed from Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in a row over consent. (Mail)

📣 Police Scotland handled fewer calls on Halloween this year - 144 fireworks-related calls, versus 160 last year. (BBC)

📣 John Swinney has defended his foreign trips, accusing critics of having “no understanding” of how important they are in selling the country in emerging markets. (Scotsman)

📣 Attempts by Benjamin Netanyahu to question the outcome of last week’s elections are unlikely to succeed: his party had claimed Arab parties “stole” the vote with the support of foreign interference. (AP)

📣 Russia’s disinformation war on the UK is seeking to sow chaos among Britons by claiming Britain is ungovernable, defenceless and a legitimate Russian target. (Independent has the exclusive)

📣 Nine people were killed when a business jet crashed in Florida, near President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. (BBC)

⚽️ Hearts and Hibs battled out a wildly entertaining League Cup semi-final at Hampden: Jambos could be forgiven for not enjoying the game as much as Hibees, or neutrals, as they lost 2-1 to their city rivals. Martin Boyle’s equaliser and Jamie McGrath’s goal near the end of the first half made the difference, after Claudio Braga had opened scoring for Hearts in only the fourth minute. (Report) (🎥 Highlights)

⚽️ Celtic lost 2-0 away to Falkirk on league duty: a grim result for the Glasgow side, their sixth defeat in 10 games across all competitions, which leaves big questions about the quality of their squad, and the future of manager Martin O’Neill. Sky Sports pundit Chris Sutton put it plainly: “The club is in regression, the team is in regression,” he said. (BBC report & 🎥 highlights)

🏎️ Kimi Antonelli was crowned F1’s youngest-ever world champion last night, after coming third in the Mexican Grand Prix. Aged only 20, he’s had to overcome huge expectations - and more than a few hurdles - along the way. (Sky Sports)

⚽️ Arsenal beat Liverpool 1-0 at Anfield: a win Mikel Arteta said was “magical”, after a 14-year wait. (BBC report & 🎥 highlights)

🗣️ The Observer, working its theme of The People vs Populism, spots an optimism and a resistance forming, with echoes of 1989 - and the fall of Communism and the Berlin Wall - filling the air. “Young progressives,” it says, are rebelling “against the idea that tech-enabled dinosaurs must rule the world.”

“From Serbia and Albania to Brazil and – it seems – the US, young people are outsmarting autocrats and nationalists online and on the streets to demand a better deal,” the newspaper says in a leader. “The generation derided in Britain as snowflakes is emerging as angry, organised, AI-fuelled and a powerful political force, fed up with being told to settle for low wages, bleak prospects and a physical environment despoiled by vested interests.”

Certainly, when I visited an Edinburgh school to speak to senior pupils last week I detected more than a whiff of rebellion in the room at simply accepting a bleak, AI-dominated future, both from them and fellow speakers - undergraduates from Edinburgh Napier University. They certainly don’t see it as inevitable.

Maybe a generation that’s grown up knowing nothing but the shadow of social media has had enough.(Observer)

🗣️ That would all have been written before violent scenes that shook Germany over the weekend: more than 100 police officers were injured during violent “Gen Z” protests in Frankfurt, while there was also rioting in Cologne and Berlin.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt condemned the violence and blamed left-wing and migrant troublemakers. Boris Rhein, premier of the state of Hesse - where Frankfurt is located - said he was “shocked by the acts of extreme violence . . . incidents that will not go without consequences”.

The interior minister for the state, Roman Poseck, told reporters: “This group of offenders was predominantly made up of migrants. And we must address that too," he added. "There must be no false taboos here.” (DW.com - in English)

🗣️ Could boom times be ahead for Scottish shipbuilding? Shipyard workers at Rosyth could certainly be asked to work double shifts, or many more staff could be taken on, as the Royal Navy looks to deliver new warships more quickly than first planned.

Five Type 31 frigates are being built at the yard in Fife; the government’s request for the defence industry to move to a wartime footing could bring their delivery forward by two years. The Type 23 Frigates they are replacing are “rotting” and at risk of being written off as unseaworthy. (Sunday Times)

🗣️ When the defence secretary says he’s stockpiling emergency supplies, do you panic, sneer or follow suit? Wes Streeting says he has bottled water, a first aid kit and a battery-powered torch on standby, while he’s stockpiling baked beans, sweetcorn, red kidney beans, tuna, protein bars and nuts to eat in an emergency. He said he wanted to “lead by example”. (Guardian)

🗣️ How on earth do you read 163 books in seven months? It sounds almost impossible in a world where, as Annabel Nugent writes, managing one book every four weeks would be regarded as good going. But, for the judges of the Booker Prize - announced a week today - that’s the task: 23 books a month, or roughly three-quarters of a book. Every. Single. Day.

Author Patricia Lockwood, a former Booker Prize shortlistee, said it was “a matter of muscling through at certain points.” Fellow judge Raymond Antrobus said his former life as a competitive swimmer gave him the discipline he needed. “I knew that if I had done 50 pages before nine o’clock then I was in a good spot, and if not, it was go, go go!” (Independent)

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