News Wrap: Federal prosecutors charge Sen. Menendez with acting as foreign agent of Egypt

Geoff Bennett:

In the day's other headlines: The White House denounced former President Donald Trump's criticism of top Israeli officials for failing to anticipate the Hamas attack.

At a rally in Florida last night, Mr. Trump attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called his defense minister a — quote — "jerk."

The White House national security spokesman, John Kirby, responded today.

John Kirby, NSC Coordinator For Strategic Communications:

We take seriously our bilateral relationship with Israel. We don't get to decide, obviously, who their Cabinet officials are. That wouldn't be our business. But we have strong relationships with them.

And it's important now that those relationships continue to improve and grow, right — and particularly in this time of crisis. And so we're focused on getting things done and supporting Israel. That's where our heads are.

Geoff Bennett:

Mr. Trump also said last night that the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, backed by Iran, has been very smart. A White House spokesman called that comment unhinged and sickening.

Federal prosecutors leveled a new charge today against Senator Bob Menendez. The revised indictment alleges the New Jersey Democrat conspired to act as a foreign agent of Egypt while chairing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez and his wife have denied taking bribes to influence U.S. policy.

The Labor Department's latest look at inflation is out, and it's a mixed picture. Consumer prices climbed four-tenths of a percent in September from a month earlier driven in part by housing costs. But that hike was less than the increase of six-tenths of a percent in August from July. The core inflation rate, not counting food and fuel, rose 4.1 percent from a year ago. That's the smallest increase in two years.

The Social Security Administration has announced that, based on the inflation numbers, benefits will increase by 3.2 percent next year. That's much less than this year's increase of nearly 9 percent. Starting in January, benefit checks will go up by more than $50 a month on average.

Contract talks between Hollywood studios and actors may be back to square one. The studios broke off negotiations last night, saying the gap between the two sides is just too great. The actors strike has now been going on for three months. They're demanding better pay for work on streaming services and control over images generated by artificial intelligence.

On Wall Street, stocks fell back as interest rates rose on the bond market. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 173 points to close at 33631. The Nasdaq fell 85 points. The S&P 500 slipped 27.

And someone in Central California has won the world's second largest lottery jackpot ever, more than $1.7 billion. The winning ticket in last night's drawing was sold at Midway Market in Frazier Park. That's near Bakersfield. The son of the store's co-owner says he got the word from a friend.

Chris Khalil, Store Co-Owner’s Son:

I had just gone to the gym. And he calls me freaking out: "Your store hit. Your store hit. Your store hit."

And I just couldn't believe it, honestly. I'm like: "There's a couple of stores called Midway. Like, I don't know if it's us."

He’s like:

"No." He gave me the address. I'm like, oh, damn, like, this really is us. So I hung up. I called everybody I knew.

Geoff Bennett:

The store gets $1 million for selling the winning ticket. So far, the winner of the jackpot has not come forward.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries weighs in on the contentious election of a new House speaker; and the political debate over what constitutes free speech zeros in on college campuses.