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Few people in India will recall that in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections Hema Malini contested against Hema Malini in Mathura. Or that in 2019, Rahul Gandhi was pitted against another Rahul Gandhi, and even a Raghul Gandhi, in Wayanad.

These dummy candidates might be commonplace in India and might even provide comic relief to our gruelling electoral drama. But thousands of miles away, a similar dummy candidate in a remote part of the United States – in Alaska – has triggered a political firestorm ahead of the crucial mid-term elections that will virtually be a referendum on President Donald Trump’s policies and popularity.

And Trump is milking the controversy, apparently triggered by the Democrats’ dirty tricks department, to his maximum advantage.

According to almost all opinion polls, Trump’s Republican Party is trailing nationwide in the November 3 elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate, the two chambers of Congress or parliament, including in Republican strongholds like Alaska. In that detached-from-the-mainland state, Republican candidate for Senate, incumbent Daniel Sullivan, is facing a tough fight against Democrat candidate Mary Peltola.

As if that was not enough, a third candidate on the ballot is also named Daniel Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher. That in itself was not a big deal until the New York Times reported on Wednesday that the teacher Sullivan’s candidature was the result of a coordinated effort by Peltola’s team.

Immediately, Trump cried foul and ordered a Justice Department investigation into alleged voter fraud. The Trump administration’s contention is that the Alaska Democrats sought to confuse voters by recruiting a dummy candidate to siphon votes from the Republican Sullivan.

“This is Voter Fraud at the Highest Level … this behavior in our Elections cannot be allowed to continue,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, and called for Peltola to be “removed from the ballot and prosecuted.”

On Thursday, CNN reported that the Justice Department “has dramatically accelerated a criminal probe” into the case, issuing dozens of new grand jury subpoenas and homing in on new potential charges.

On the face of it, there is nothing illegal about a candidate of the same name entering the ballot. The ballot paper itself identifies the two Sullivans clearly – one as the incumbent and the other with no party affiliation.

“But Trump has spent years spinning false conspiracies about Democratic cheating and non-existent electoral fraud. Now, at last he has a data point to sculpt into a suggestive narrative,” wrote CNN’s political analyst Stephen Collinson.

“And whether the OG (original) Dan Sullivan wins or loses, the president will be sure to highlight shenanigans in Alaska to claim Democrats everywhere are corrupt – especially if the GOP bombs on Tuesday (November 3),” he wrote.

However, under US laws, elections are a state matter and it is up to the state to decide who enters the ballot and the Federal government has no say in it. The Justice Department probe therefore may not stand up in court.

“But in politics, as opposed to the law, perception has long been as important as reality. Trump understands this more instinctively than any modern president,” wrote Collinson.

If Trump appears desperate to mount what could be a frivolous legal challenge, he has good reason to: it would be disastrous for him if the Republicans lose control of the 100-member Senate on top of a most likely loss in the House of Representatives. The Senate is hanging in the balance and a handful of states, including Alaska, will decide the outcome.

A New York Times Sienna poll gave the Democrats a 51 to 45 per cent lead over Sullivan. If Alaska ends up deciding which party controls the Senate, expect major chaos as Trump will not give up without a massive fight.

In India too, a legal challenge was mounted in 2024 against double/duplicate/namesake/impostor/dupe candidates in the form of a public interest litigation. But the learned judges of the Supreme Court gave it a short shrift, saying somebody’s name, whether Rahul Gandhi or Lalu Prasad Yadav, cannot come in the way of their right to contest elections.

The master of dummy candidates in India was Ajit Jogi of the Congress party. In 2014, faced against BJP’s Chandulal Sahu in Mahsamund in Chhattisgarh, Jogi managed to gather at least seven other Chandulals to contest against the real Sahu. Three more were Chandurams. Still, the BJP’s Sahu won by a narrow margin even though the others also got a sizeable number of votes.

For the record, Hema Malini lost the 2014 elections. Not the actress; the other one.

Washington:

Two helicopters collided and crashed into a farm field Thursday near a small airport southwest of Portland, Oregon, killing all three people on board and forcing the closure of a key highway, authorities said.

The crash killed 22-year-old Maddie Aasbo, a Texas flight instructor, 38-year-old Tyler Sturdevant, a pilot from Oregon, and a student pilot from the United Kingdom, whose name has not been released, Yamhill County Sheriff Sam Elliott said during a news conference.

Emergency crews responded around 2:15 pm following reports of a crash a few miles east of the McMinnville Airport, according to the sheriff’s office. By Thursday evening, officials were continuing their recovery efforts.

Photos posted by the sheriff’s department show a green helicopter smashed upside down in a field, while a red helicopter lies crumpled and in pieces.

One of the aircraft came from the aviation school Jerry Trimble Helicopters, which is located at the airport.

“Our hearts and thoughts are with the individuals involved, their families, and everyone affected by this event,” the school said in a statement posted on social media.

The school, which offers everything from demo flights for first-time flyers to advanced training, said it is cooperating with law enforcement along with the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board to secure the site and determine the cause of the collision.

The FAA said the collision was between a Robinson R22 and an Airbus H125.

Two people were on board the Robinson and the Airbus was carrying just the pilot, according to the sheriff.

The Oregon Department of Transportation said Highway 233 is closed 1 mile (1.6 kilometres) west of Dayton because of the crash. There was no estimate for reopening.

Local roads were also closed. The sheriff’s office urged the public to stay clear of the area.

The FAA and NTSB will investigate.

The R22 is a two-seat aircraft and the H125 can carry up to six passengers, depending on the configuration.

McMinnville, about 35 miles (56 kilometres) southwest of Portland, is home to about 34,000 people.

The small airport situated on 650 acres (263 hectares) has two paved runways and remained open Thursday, according to its website. It’s partially bordered by homes and near the North American Aerospace Museum.

Washington:

The bodies of two Colorado college students who died during a weekend hiking trip were recovered by helicopter Thursday after gusty winds delayed efforts to bring them down, police said.

Kaden Matsuda, 19, and Jackson Donlon, 20, were found Wednesday in a snow-filled basin of West Apostle Mountain. Ground crews helped recover their bodies around 1 pm the following day, the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office reported.

Matsuda and Donlon set out last Friday from Colorado Mountain College’s Leadville campus for what was supposed to be a weekend trip to Ice Mountain, a 13,958-foot (4,254-metre) peak, and went missing.

It was raining when they started hiking, according to the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office, and despite a break in the weather Saturday morning, a severe storm arrived that afternoon, dumping up to 2 feet (0.6 metres) of snow.

They were expected back by Sunday, but college staff reported them missing Monday morning, and their bodies were ultimately located in a basin of West Apostle Mountain, about 100 miles (160 kilometres) southeast of Aspen.

The bodies were taken to the coroner’s office, with autopsies scheduled for Monday.

“They came here to learn, to explore and to build their futures,” Ben Cairns, the school’s campus dean, said in a statement. “Their lives were full of promise, and their loss is felt deeply by the students, faculty and staff who knew them.”

Colorado Mountain College, which has campuses throughout the Colorado Rockies, is known for its programs focusing on the state’s robust outdoor recreation economy, including mountaineering, ski patrol and guiding careers.

Matsuda, of Ridgway, Colorado, and Donlon, of Queensbury, New York, became fast friends at the small campus in Leadville, which bills itself as America’s highest city at 10,119 feet (3,084 metres) above sea level. Located about 100 miles (160 kilometres) west of Denver, the city is home to about 2,600 people and is flanked by some of Colorado’s tallest mountains.

Matsuda was studying to be a wildland firefighter. Classmates and faculty members described him as kind, intelligent and welcoming, the statement from the college said. Donlon, an avid climber and skier, was studying outdoor recreation leadership and had come to Colorado to pursue his love of the mountains.

Ski or Die NY, a group of upstate New York skiers, called Donlon “one of the most ambitious skiers on the East Coast.” It said on its website that he became the youngest person to complete a strenuous 28-mile (45-kilometre) ski tour in the area’s High Peaks last December.

“He lived life with a passion that was contagious, embodying everything we love about skiing in New York,” the group posted on social media. “He was a friend, an adventurer, and someone who was always hungry for what was next.”

Chaffee County Sheriff Andy Rohrich credited Matsuda and Donlon with being capable, strong and prepared, saying in a social media post, “Almost all the safety measures we tell backcountry explorers to use, these men did.”

“We are proud of these young men concerning how prepared they were, but sometimes mother nature throws you a curveball,” he said.

Jason Marsteiner, the founder of The Survival University, a Colorado company that teaches wilderness skills, noted how quickly the weather can turn in the state’s high mountains.

“The weather rolls in fast and the mountains are steep,” he said. “It’s an unforgiving environment.”

About 60 search and rescue volunteers, aided by helicopters, drones and dogs, searched for the two men.

The helicopter crew discovered a tent collapsed under the snow Tuesday with their sleeping bags, a stove and clothing near a lake northwest of Ice Mountain – but the students were nowhere to be found.

Based on the tent’s location, Rohrich said it appeared Matsuda and Donlon changed plans and were aiming for the 13,597-foot (4,144-metre) West Apostle Mountain, instead of Ice Mountain. He said the location of the bodies, about a mile from their tent, indicated that they were well into a hike when they died.

The sheriff’s office said their climbing equipment was not in their dorms, tent or vehicle, suggesting that they left their tent prepared for a technical climb. Trash inside the tent indicated that they ate before starting their hike, officials said.

Authorities had been concerned that aerial searches could be limited in upcoming days because of poor weather that was expected to begin Friday.

Washington:

The hand-drawn map showing the Mason-Dixon Line that eventually divided free from slave states in the US sold Thursday for $950,000.

Forty-five bidders battled for just under three minutes for ownership of what is perhaps the most consequential map in American history.

Bidding started at $400,000 for the survey of states divided by the Mason-Dixon Line, finished in 1768 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. The sale was held online and in person at Brunk Auctions in Asheville, North Carolina.

While it didn’t fetch the hoped-for $1.2 million high estimate, auction house Vice President Lauren Brunk said she was pleased.

“It’s a very high price for a map,” she said.

Brunk said the buyer asked to remain anonymous, at least for the time being.

The survey was originally commissioned to settle a border dispute between what were then the colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania. It was used in the 1820 Missouri Compromise to establish the limits of human bondage in the still adolescent United States and became synonymous with the fundamental divisions that exploded into the Civil War four decades later.

The late publisher Malcolm Forbes bought the map in 1982 for $360,000, beating out the Library of Congress. The document was resold in 2002 for $556,000.

Brunk said the Library of Congress was not among Thursday’s bidders.

“I would like to say I’m thrilled that this is going to a good home and we are so happy to have had it in our presence for these last months,” Brunk said. “It also feels like a privilege to have been entrusted to steward this from one owner to the next.”

A vertical section of the map showing the Delaware-Maryland border is housed at Princeton University.

Tehran:

Iran has reportedly built a secret network of more than 5,000 military agencies, all operating under names starting with “MOD, to import at least $2 billion in hardware, explosives and heavy-duty trucks since January 2025. This has continued despite the US naval blockade and Western sanctions, a Reuters investigation has found.

The findings offer a window into how Iran has been able to replenish its missile and drone arsenals while firing thousands of them during the conflict that started with the American and Israeli strikes on February 28.

The investigation found the sophisticated apparatus was linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and to business conglomerates known as ‘bonyads’ that are controlled by Iran’s elite, and its financial footprints can be traced in landing bills and other shipping data dating back to 2016.

Reuters found no evidence that Western governments have ever sanctioned any of the numbered entities.

How The Network Works

The network, identified for the first time by Reuters in collaboration with the Israeli-American risk consultancy 240 Analytics, reportedly acts as the backbone of Tehran’s military procurement and sanctions evasion apparatus. These agencies operated under the same naming pattern that began with the letters MOD — or VODJA in Farsi — and followed by a five- or six-digit number spelt out in long form.

All share the Tehran address of the defence ministry and claim a founding date of February 11, 1979, the day Ayatollah Khomeini took power. Corporate records show most were actually created in 2013, when sanctions were crushing Iran’s oil exports and currency.

They used a web of frontmen and foreign shell companies, collectively known as trustees, who use the proceeds from illicit oil sales to replenish Iran’s missile and drone arsenals.

In 97 per cent of the shipments Reuters reviewed, the transactions were settled “without currency transfer”, so little money crosses borders where it might trigger sanctions alerts.

Key imports through these entities reportedly include rocket propellants, components, and heavy-duty launchers, sourced from nations like China, Russia, and Germany.

How It Was Found

Noam Binstok, an economist at 240 Analytics, spotted the pattern in June 2025 while processing leaked Bank Sepah documents, which handle IRGC salaries and were circulating on Telegram and the site WikiIran. The balances stunned him. Thirty-six agencies held $1.2 billion in foreign currency at the end of 2024, and the rest held about $1.8 billion in local currency.

He later found the agencies were receiving oil revenue and buying dual-use equipment. Every agency carries a unique 11-digit ID that recured on shipping documents, invoices and bank accounts, which made the network traceable even behind front companies. Reuters then cross-checked part of roughly 19,000 import records against shipping papers, social media footage, satellite imagery and state media.

The Biggest Buyer

One agency, MOD 346428, stood out. Its imports grew from $442 million in the year to March 2023 to $988 million the next year, placing it among Iran’s top ten importers. From January 2025 to June 2026, it brought in $2.3 billion of military hardware, including rocket propellant ingredients, explosives and weapons components.

Between January and April 2025, it imported 886 tonnes of chemicals, including sodium chlorates and other perchlorates, key precursors for solid rocket fuel, through Bandar Abbas. Their origin was listed as China.

Quoting sources, Reuters reported that the 26 April 2025 explosion at the Port of Shahid Rajaee in southern Iran was caused when sodium perchlorate from one of the shipments ignited while in dockside containers. Iranian state media reported that the chemicals were stored by Sina Port and Marine Services Development Co, which is owned by Bonyad Mostazafan, a multi-billion-dollar foundation directly controlled by the supreme leader of Iran.

The explosion killed at least 70 people and injured more than 1,200.

Trucks And Launchers

The agency also imported 435 Iveco trucks, a type the military uses as camouflaged mobile missile launchers. A 2022 purchase of six similar trucks was ultimately delivered to Sahara Thunder, a drone maker the US sanctioned in 2024 for trading with Russia.

MOD 346428 also brought in thousands of Toyota Hilux and Land Cruiser pickups, which the IRGC modifies to mount heavy machine guns. Iveco said any presence of its vehicles in Iran was outside its control, and Toyota said it does no business in Iran.

Imports Through The War

Deliveries continued after the war began on February 28, Reuters found. In the preceding weeks, Iran received 93 tonnes of Chinese titanium, a high-strength metal that the weapons and sanctions experts said can be used to build missile airframes and rocket motor casings.

It also imported 268 tonnes of nitrocellulose and 276 tonnes of other chemicals originating in China and listed under the code that includes perchlorate – ingredients for both rocket propellant and explosives.

Monthly imports dropped 47 per cent to $54 million in March but rebounded to $77 million by May.

Russian detonators worth $7.6 million also arrived in Iran in five shipments, the last one in June. Goods worth $27 million were recorded as originating in the UAE, the most recent arriving days after the US briefly suspended its blockade in June.

Iran has also bought precision machinery, such as computer-controlled lathes and electron-beam furnaces, that could be used to build missile and drone bodies.

Reactions

Experts who reviewed the findings called it an “industrial-scale effort” to rebuild Iran’s drone and missile fleet. They also stressed that much of the material is dual-use and could have civilian purposes.

Responding to Reuters’ findings, a US Treasury spokeswoman said the US “has severed the regime’s economic lifelines.”

“While the regime may continue its desperate attempts to evade our powerful sanctions, fund its military and weapons programmes, and access foreign currency, we are always 10 steps ahead,” the spokeswoman said.

A former senior US Treasury sanctions official, Miad Maleki, however, called the system the military’s “lifeline” and the “complete ecosystem” of its trade.

“What you have here is the regime’s military lifeline during this conflict and for many years before…This is the complete ecosystem of the Iranian military’s trade business,” Maleki, who helped design the American sanctions programme against Iran, told Reuters.

China’s Foreign Ministry said it was “unaware” of the situation. “We firmly oppose attempts to maliciously link regional hostilities to China or smear China’s reputation,” the ministry said in a faxed statement to Reuters.

So far, Iranian entities, Russia’s Defence Ministry, the White House, CENTCOM and the UAE have not commented on the findings.

Washington:

US President Donald Trump, who has mostly remained tight-lipped about his connection with the disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, went on an eyebrow-raising riff about him at an Ohio rally of next week’s midterm elections. The US leader was addressing a rally in Chillicothe to support Republican Senator Jon Husted when he was interrupted by a protester shouting about Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump, who rarely brings up his former friend, said, “I threw Epstein out of a club like 20 years ago because I thought he was a wackjob.”

“That was a great thing I did; I must tell you.”

He added that the disgraced financier was “totally exonerated from him.”

The billionaire Republican, who has never been formally accused of any wrongdoing relating to Epstein’s crimes, also alleged that sex offender Jeffrey Epstein hung out with Democrats.

He also called protesters, who routinely disrupted his cross-country rallies, “sick, weak people”.

Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges involving minors in what was determined to be a suicide.

Trump also spent several minutes at a rally praising Husted’s body, saying that his image transformed from “Clark Kent to Superman” when he learned the senator had been a successful college football player.

“I started by looking at his ass, and it was strong as hell,” Trump said.

He added that his shoulder felt “like a piece of steel.”

This is not the first time Trump has made comments on Husted’s body. Earlier this month at a Youngstown rally, Trump

At a rally in Youngstown earlier this month, Trump admitted to admiring Husted’s body and said, “I started examining [Husted’s] body because I didn’t know he was a great athlete, and I looked, and I watched up and down… looked at his a**, and I looked at the whole, and then I looked at his hands. Look at his hands. He’s got these like claws.”