Tom.merrill

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It’s all about Beto and barbecue in the Texas Senate race; Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif is a free man ... for the time being.

Beto gives Cruz a run for his money in Texas

Laura Buckman/AFP/Getty Images

• The Senate race in Texas between Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke and incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has become one of the most watched and contentious in the United States. O’Rourke has given the highly disliked incumbent a run for his money in the typically red state. [Vox / Tara Golshan]
• Cruz is running a predictably conservative campaign. Meanwhile, O’Rourke is making very progressive promises, including raising the minimum wage, expunging marijuana offenses, and introducing stricter gun control — all of which are surprising “deep in the heart of Trump country.” [NYT / Matt Flegenheimer]
• It’s currently unclear which way the election will go. Some polls on the race report that O’Rourke is 2 points ahead of Cruz, while others say he is 9 points behind. [The Hill / Justin Wise]
• Still, Cruz “feel[s] very good about where we are” in the race. He is confident that “We’re going to win.” [Vice / Josh Hersh]
• O’Rourke’s likability (and Cruz’s lack thereof) has scared many Republicans, who are putting the pressure on big-time donors to contribute to the Republican campaign and give Cruz a boost in the race. [Vox / Emily Stewart]
• Cruz has relied on arguments that O’Rourke is for crossing the border illegally, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and supporting NFL players’ right to kneel during the national anthem — all highly contentious topics that might galvanize Republicans to show up on Election Day. [Dallas News / Matthew Adams and Todd J. Gillman]
• Cruz is also using absurdist arguments to try to discredit O’Rourke, relate more to his Texan constituents, and appear a bit more likable. He claimed today (partly as a joke) that “if Beto wins, BBQ will be illegal!” [CNN / Devan Cole]
• Cruz and O’Rourke will participate in three debates on domestic and foreign policy leading up to the elections. [CBS / AP]

Pakistan’s ex-PM released from prison 2 months into a 10-year sentence

• Pakistani officials released ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from prison after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) suspended his 10-year corruption sentence on Wednesday. Sharif, his daughter, and his son-in-law were released on bail in order to appeal their convictions after serving two months in prison. [Reuters / Asif Shahzad and Saad Sayeed]
• Sharif and his family were convicted in July on charges of purchasing luxury properties in London. The IHC says the anti-corruption court was unable to substantially prove a financial link between Sharif and the property. [Al Jazeera / Asad Hashim]
• The case at hand is linked to information from the Panama Papers, a controversial leak from 2016 that linked high-profile leaders and individuals across the world to money laundering and other forms of corruption. [The News]
• Sharif has come in and out of power three times now. In 1993 and 2013, he was ousted on suspicions of corruption. [The Nation]
• The IHC’s order could signify that his conviction will be overturned. Observers believe that the IHC sees the evidence as “too weak to stand,” though nothing will be clear until Sharif returns to court in the coming weeks. [NYT / Salman Masood and Maria Abi-Habib]

Miscellaneous

• Longtime Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman said in a recent interview that Bert and Ernie’s relationship was one of “a loving couple,” reigniting a long-running debate. Sesame Street then quickly came out with a statement that the two were “good friends” and “do not have a sexual orientation.” [The Verge / Elizabeth Simins]
• Some people took issue with Marvel Studios’ new trailer for its upcoming film, Captain Marvel, which showed the superhero in question (played by Brie Larson) punching an old lady. Fear not: Grandma is simply a Skrull. [Polygon / Susana Polo]
• Astronomers have discovered an exoplanet 16 light-years away that orbits the star known as 40 Eridani, which on Star Trek was home to Spock’s planet Vulcan. Whether pointy-eared people inhabit the exoplanet has yet to be determined. [NBC / David Freeman]
• Roseanne Barr claims she knows how her Roseanne character will be written off in the planned spinoff The Connors: The character will die of an opioid overdose. ABC, which canceled Roseanne after Barr posted racist tweets, has declined to comment on the claim. [CBS / Andrea Park]

Verbatim

“We find ourselves today connected to vast repositories of knowledge and yet we have not learned to think. In fact, the opposite is true: that which was intended to enlighten the world in practice darkens it.” [Jaron Lanier on the harmful side effects of an overexposure to social media in his new book, Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now / New Yorker]

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Vox Sentences is your daily digest for what’s happening in the world. Sign up for the Vox Sentences newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday, or view the Vox Sentences archive for past editions.

Hurricane Florence reaches the Northeast; Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in embrace in Pyongyang.

Hurricane Florence is far from over

Sean Rayford/Getty Images

• The worst of Hurricane Florence seems to have passed as the storm makes its way toward the Northeast. But in its wake, Florence has so far claimed 32 lives and dumped 18 trillion gallons of rain on the southeastern United States. [CNN / Holly Yan and Kaylee Hartung]
• North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has warned residents not to try to return home yet because dangerous flooding is far from over and roads are still blocked. [ABC / Emily Shapiro]
• More than 343,000 people are without power, and 10,000 are in shelters in North Carolina. [CBS]
• The extent of the damage to industries such as farming in the Carolinas is still unclear. However, farmers report that flooding has destroyed their properties and their resources. [NPR / Dan Charles]
• Another concern in the wake of Florence is how pollution will affect the region. Pollution from hazardous waste is rampant, from coal ash to hog lagoon refuse. [Axios / Andrew Freedman]
• Florence has also threatened chemical plants in the region, which has been a concern as the Trump administration looks to weaken the Risk Management Plan Rule that requires chemical companies and wastewater treatment plants to prepare for disasters in advance. [The Hill / Brendan Doyle]

The Koreas summit in Pyongyang

• South Korean President Moon Jae-in met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a historic three-day summit in Pyongyang on Tuesday. It’s the third summit between the two nations but the first time they’ve met in the North Korean capital. [NPR / Bill Chappell]
• The most famous image to come from the summit thus far was one of Moon and Kim hugging. The embrace symbolizes a relationship between the North and South that has changed rapidly over the past year. [Vox / Alex Ward]
• Moon was greeted by calls for the “reunification of the fatherland” from passionate North Koreans as strengthening ties between the North and South were on both leaders’ minds. But the summit focused more on whether Kim would agree to work with Moon on proving to the US that North Korea was willing to denuclearize. [NYT / Choe Sang-Hun]
• North Korea has promised to denuclearize and said it “destroyed its main nuclear and missile engine test site,” but US officials report that they have tangible proof of North Korea working on its nuclear program in secret. [Independent / Adam Withnall]

Miscellaneous

• Artist Brian Whiteley claims he hung up a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin in DC’s Trump International Hotel ... where it remained for a full month. [Hyperallergic / Jasmine Weber]
• The word “diversity” dominated the 2018 Emmys — but so did the white people who won the awards. The ceremony has left many wondering if inclusivity was simply a ploy for some good publicity. [Broadly / Danielle Kwateng-Clark and Sara David]
• CEO Elon Musk revealed that SpaceX, his space exploration company, has chosen Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa as the first private passenger it will send to the moon. It’s unclear how much money Maezawa paid for the mission. [CBS]
• Instagram is launching an ad campaign on its platform to encourage and help users register to vote in the midterm elections. [The Verge / Chaim Gartenberg]

Verbatim

“In 1991, the phrase ‘they just don’t get it’ became a popular way of describing senators’ reaction to sexual violence. With years of hindsight, mounds of evidence of the prevalence and harm that sexual violence causes individuals ... ‘not getting it’ isn’t an option for our elected representatives.” [Anita Hill, the American attorney who accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual assault in the 1990s, on how the Senate Judiciary Committee can properly handle the accusations made against current nominee Brett Kavanaugh / NYT]

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He reiterated his denial that he aided Brett Kavanaugh in an alleged assault.

Mark Judge, a high school classmate of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, says he has no interest in publicly testifying about the sexual assault accusation that the nominee currently faces.

Judge — a filmmaker and writer — was included in allegations that Palo Alto University professor Christine Blasey Ford made against Kavanaugh. In a Washington Post report on Sunday, Ford said that Kavanaugh and Judge pushed her into a bedroom while the three attended a party together as teenagers. She said that Kavanaugh then tried to force himself on her, attempted to remove her clothing, and covered her mouth when she tried to scream.

Ford said that Judge was in the room at the time of alleged assault, intermittently egging Kavanaugh on. She said that she was only able to free herself after he jumped on the bed and toppled the group.

Kavanaugh has flatly denied these allegations. When first asked about the incident by the New Yorker, Judge said he had “no recollection” of it. In a later interview with the Weekly Standard, he added that he “never saw Brett act that way.”

“In fact, I have no memory of the alleged incident,” Judge said in a statement via his lawyer. “Brett Kavanaugh and I were friends in high school but I do not recall the party described in Dr. Ford’s letter. More to the point, I never saw Brett act in the manner that Dr. Ford describes.”

Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has called only Kavanaugh and Ford as witnesses for a public hearing on Monday, despite pressure from Democrats to invite Judge and others who may have relevant testimony.

“I have no more information to offer the Committee and I do not wish to speak publicly regarding the incidents described in Dr. Ford’s letter,” Judge said in his statement.

Read his full letter below.