JQJO — Your world, one story at a time · Page 1187

George Springer, who left Game 3 clutching his lower right side, will return atop the Blue Jays order for World Series Game 6, batting leadoff as the DH. His comeback moves Bo Bichette, also dealing with injury, back to second base and the cleanup spot after two games at DH. Toronto must face Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who threw a complete game in Game 2. Springer hit .309/.399/.560 with 32 homers and a team-best 4.8 bWAR this season, and has four postseason homers, including the ALCS Game 7 winner.

As off-year contests open the midterm season, President Trump has mostly looked elsewhere, touring Asia and offering only a late, lukewarm nod in Virginia. Yet his shadow looms. In New Jersey, Republican Jack Ciattarelli has recast himself with Trump-style appeals, betting 2024 gains — including sharp shifts in majority-Hispanic townships — will hold without Trump atop the ticket. In New York City, Trump has weighed in on the mayor’s race, even threatening funding cuts if Zohran Mamdani wins. And in California, Gavin Newsom’s likely redistricting win and $114 million haul could flip five House seats and build a 2028 foundation.

LSU women’s coach Kim Mulkey skipped her postgame news conference and was “heartbroken,” assistant Bob Starkey said, after athletic director Scott Woodward’s ouster. The upheaval followed LSU’s firing of football coach Brian Kelly despite a $54 million buyout and Governor Jeff Landry’s unusually direct role, including declaring Woodward would not select the next coach and invoking Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher buyout. Woodward, who hired Mulkey for the Tigers’ 2023 title, left despite a buyout exceeding $6 million. Starkey praised Woodward’s longtime support for coaches and student-athletes at LSU and Texas A&M.

An escalating measles outbreak along the Arizona Utah border has surpassed 150 cases in two months, and a likely infection in Salt Lake County is stalling the response after the patient refused testing, questions, and location details, officials said. Vaccination rates remain low at 78.4 percent for Mohave County kindergartners and 80.7 percent in southwest Utah, well below the 95 percent needed to curb spread. Utah County reports eight cases. With 1,648 US cases across at least 41 states, experts warn the country could lose its measles elimination status.

After five days of on-and-off talks in Istanbul, Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to extend a ceasefire, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said, with a Nov. 6 follow up and a new mechanism to monitor violations and penalize offenders. The truce pauses the most intense cross-border exchanges in years—dozens killed after an Oct. 8 TTP ambush and subsequent strikes—while key crossings stay shut and trade stalls. Each side blames the other over militants, and analysts warn Pakistan’s tougher posture and the Taliban’s stance on the TTP could push simmering border tensions to a boil.

Blue Origin cleared a key hurdle for New Glenn’s second flight, igniting seven BE-4 engines on the Cape Canaveral pad for 38 seconds at 9:59 pm EDT Thursday. The run hit full power for 22 seconds, topped nearly 3.9 million pounds of thrust, and included staged shutdowns to mimic a barge landing burn. With the hold-down firing done, crews will roll the rocket back to install a fairing holding NASA’s twin ESCAPADE Mars probes. A launch could come as soon as November 9, after which the spacecraft will loiter near Earth until next November before departing for Mars.

The Pentagon has shifted recent anti-smuggling strikes from the Caribbean to the eastern Pacific, where officials say intelligence more clearly links cocaine routes to the US. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the last four strikes were in the Pacific, part of 15 since September that have killed at least 61 people. Yet lawmakers say the administration hasn't shown evidence the boats carried drugs or identified those aboard, and briefers admitted they lack metrics for success. Officials now say the campaign targets cocaine, contradicting President Donald Trump's fentanyl claims, while bipartisan demands for legal justification and documents remain unanswered.

Federal prosecutors charged Jeremy Wayne Shoemaker of Needham, Alabama, with making an Interstate Communications Threat after a string of menacing calls and texts to rabbis, an imam, a church and others, including telling one rabbi “I want you to die.” Arrested earlier on related state counts, he denied intent to commit violence, calling the messages intimidation or satire. An FBI search found multiple firearms, a body armor carrier and ammunition, plus papers listing religious leaders. Court filings note a diagnosed mental illness. Shoemaker is jailed in Choctaw County as agencies describe a swift multiagency response.

Google is opening early access to Gemini in Google Home. Gemini adds smarter, contextual commands — including multi-device control and tune recognition with details about artists or albums. Subscribers to Google Home Premium Advanced can have Gemini analyze camera footage, label events in video history, and surface key clips from a given day. Early access requires requesting entry in the Google Home app and enabling Google Groups settings; Public Preview members aren’t eligible. Accepted users will be notified when Gemini is ready.

Illinois civil rights groups sued federal agencies Friday, alleging inhumane, torturous conditions at ICE’s Broadview immigration facility near Chicago. The ACLU of Illinois and the MacArthur Justice Center say agents blocked attorney access and outside oversight and coerced detainees into signing rights‑waiving paperwork. Lawyers and relatives call Broadview a de facto detention site holding up to 200 people without legal counsel. The suit accuses ICE, CBP and DHS of violating First and Fifth Amendment rights and seeks court‑ordered reforms. DHS has denied the claims. Protests have led to arrests and a separate First Amendment lawsuit.