National News at a Glance

Intensifying to Category 3, Hurricane Michael Aims at Florida

Hurricane Michael approached a fortified Florida Panhandle on Tuesday and strengthened into a Category 3 storm that is expected to make landfall Wednesday as the most powerful tropical cyclone to strike the mainland United States so far this year. The National Hurricane Center said that the storm had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph. Emergency declarations were issued for parts of Alabama, Florida and Georgia, and the authorities ordered tens of thousands of people to evacuate as they opened storm shelters and shut down schools. "Hurricane Michael is a monstrous storm, and the forecast keeps getting more dangerous,” Gov. Rick Scott of Florida said.

An Officer Is Guilty of Murder. On Trial Next: A Police ‘Code of Silence’

Jason Van Dyke, a white Chicago police officer, is waiting to learn how long he will spend in prison for killing Laquan McDonald, a black teenager. But three other police officers — David March, Joseph Walsh and Thomas Gaffney — stand charged with lying about the fatal shooting and conspiring to keep Van Dyke out of trouble. Their cases are seen as a crucial test of a so-called code of silence that is often said to fester within police departments. "This has been the routine of the Chicago Police Department,” said William Calloway, an activist. “We have to make an example of these officers.”

In Deep-Red Texas, Evangelical Women Trickle Toward Democrat

Beto O’Rourke, the Democrat who is challenging Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas, may be making inroads among evangelical voters — long a stable base for Republicans — especially women opposed to abortion. To Democrats nationwide, who have largely written off white evangelical voters, it sends a signal that there are female, religious voters who are open to some of their party’s candidates. “I care as much about babies at the border as I do about babies in the womb,” said Tess Clarke, confessing that she was “mortified” at how she used to vote, because she had only considered abortion policy. “We’ve been asleep. Now, we’ve woke up.”

Secrecy Surrounds Those Who Might Testify Against El Chapo

For nearly two years, federal prosecutors in New York have been promising to prove their case against Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo, by bringing a small army of witnesses into court to testify against him. Given Guzmán’s history of violence — not to mention the global reach of the Sinaloa drug cartel, which he ran for 20 years — the prosecutors have gone to extraordinary lengths to protect the witnesses, shrouding their identities in a thick veil of secrecy. Potential witnesses could include former allies, rivals and underlings. The trial begins Nov. 5.

Outrage Over Kavanaugh Becomes Fuel for Republicans in Midterm Races

As the Senate hearings on Judge Brett Kavanaugh cleaved the country, Ron DeSantis, the Republican candidate for governor of Florida, stayed mostly out of the fray. But by last weekend, DeSantis had changed his tune. “These people really debase the Senate,” he said of Democrats during a campaign rally soon after the Senate voted, largely along party lines, to confirm the Supreme Court’s newest justice. “What they did was a disgrace.” That line of attack is now catching fire across the political landscape in competitive contests for governor, the House of Representatives and other positions that had nothing to do with the confirmation process.

Voter Registrations Spike as Deadlines Loom, and Taylor Swift Had Something to Do With It

Taylor Swift’s decision to jump into politics over the weekend, announcing her support in an Instagram post for two Democrats in Tennessee and urging her 112 million followers to register to vote, appears to have contributed to a flurry of last-minute registrations before deadlines in many states. In the hours after Swift shared her political views Sunday, the voter registration site Vote.org recorded a flood of requests, both nationwide and in the pop superstar’s adopted home state of Tennessee. More than 166,000 people across the U.S. submitted new registrations on Vote.org between Sunday and noon Tuesday.