Welcome to the beat. I'm Ari Melbert. And we are living through a lot right now, including a major

development in our democracy and politics when you look at these midterm primaries, because what we can

count today is what we could only estimate in the days leading up to those primaries, a surge in

democratic turnout. There are Democrats who are dreaming again, although,

let's be clear, we've heard about this dream of winning Texas for a long time and it hasn't

happened, but all eyes on the new nominee, James Talarico, who is squaring up against an embattled

Republican senator there. He will give a victory address tonight at 8 p.m.

And that will be carried live on MS Now. If you happen to be with us last night, with Rachel and the whole gang, we were watching that race.

But she never got to that traditional speech. So that's tonight. Congress is also going squarely at Attorney General Pam Bondi, a new subpoena hitting today, demanding she

testify about the Epstein files. This is another sign that the Epstein story is not going away

and not for Donald Trump. I mean, this is the person that was supposed to be in charge of

transparency. She was caught dissembling about the so-called client list that she said she had and didn't. And that subpoena is, of course, bipartisan. So even as Donald Trump focuses on foreign policy this week, he has not stopped the Epstein onslaught, even from members of his own party. That's pretty striking. Now, I want to give you the update on what's happening in the

Middle East, and I will tell you, we're going to give you everything you need to know, but also look

at what is a growing national backlash to Donald Trump's choice to suddenly launch a surprise attack.

There are questions about the long-term plan, about whether there was policy planning and strategy

here,

and about something that has dogged this from the very first hours of the breaking news on Saturday,

why are we over there? And is it one reason or two or four, and why do they keep changing the reason?

Today, the battlefield is clearly widening, NATO, stating that it shot down an Iranian ballistic missile that was headed for Turkey.

United Kingdom and France are sending out planes and ships. This is, at best, a skittish regional conflict,

and at worst, something that could turn out into what we would call a regional war

if multiple countries just start attacking each other. Americans are trying to flee the region.

...