Good morning. Free food alert! If you’re lucky enough to live near a Shake Shack, use the code CHICKENDANCE to score a free chicken sandwich with a $10 minimum purchase. That deal lasts til Sunday. For a less delicious but more accessible option, Wendy’s will give you six free nuggets with any in-app purchase every Wednesday til the end of the year.

We’ve got a lot in store today:

• A former UK Prime Minister is back in office.

• The Supreme Court has a new ethics code.

• The Secret Service opened fire.

• And much more!

Here’s today’s edition of The Elective:

 WORLD 

A government shuffle in the United Kingdom

What if Barack Obama were appointed President Biden’s secretary of state? Well, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is in the middle of a major reshuffle of his cabinet. And he just hired former PM David Cameron as foreign secretary.

The Shakeup

Sunak fired Home Secretary Suella Braverman after she criticized London police. And he did it over the phone. Yikes.

• Braverman has been a lighting rod for controversy lately, so her firing is not unexpected.

• Home secretary is the British equivalent to the U.S. secretary of Homeland Security.

Her replacement, James Cleverly, was serving as foreign secretary. So Sunak needed a new hire for that job. Who better than former Prime Minister David Cameron?

• Cameron served as prime minister from 2010-2016.

• He resigned the office after initiating the Brexit vote that removed the U.K. from the European Union.

• He and current PM Sunak are both members of the Conservative Party.

Convention dictates that UK cabinet ministers must also serve in Parliament. But Cameron resigned his seat seven years ago. To get around this issue, King Charles III named Cameron a lifetime peer in the House of Lords (the upper house of Parliament).

The Rest

The Cameron return was far from the only change Sunak made to his cabinet. He’s also bringing on a new health secretary, environment secretary, housing minister, science minister, paymaster general, and chief secretary to the Treasury (which is actually the #2 Treasury official after chancellor of the Exchequer).

What makes a massive change like this possible? U.K. cabinet officials don’t need approval from Parliament (unlike their U.S. counterparts).

What’s next: Reshuffling his cabinet gives Sunak a chance to rehab his government’s image. Recent polls show his ruling Conservative Party getting shellacked by the center-left Labour Party. UK elections can be held whenever the government chooses. But they must occur at least every five years. And that five year deadline hits in January 2025.

 NEWS 

🏛️ Homeland Security: The House is set to vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The Republican-backed impeachment bill alleges Mayorkas violated his oath of office by failing to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. If impeached in the House, Mayorkas would almost certainly survive a trial in the Democratic-controlled Senate. A two-thirds Senate majority is required to remove him from office. No cabinet secretary has ever been removed this way. Among the many agencies the massive Department of Homeland Security controls are:

• Customs and Border Protection

• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

• The Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

• The Coast Guard

• The Secret Service

• the Federal Emergency Management Authority (FEMA)

👩‍⚖️ Supreme Court: For the first time ever, the Supreme Court adopted a formal ethics code. All nine justices endorsed it. The code echos similar rules in place for federal judges on lower courts. It outlines rules on when justices should recuse themselves, what sort of outside activities they can engage in, and more. The Court’s statement notes that most of the rules are not new and says the code exists “to dispel” the “misunderstanding” that the justices operate without ethics rules. Justices Thomas and Alito have taken scrutiny recently for accepting gifts from wealthy Republican donors. Critics say the code lacks an enforcement mechanism.

🇮🇱 🇵🇸 Israel/Gaza: Thousands of people in Gaza City are fleeing what they once thought to be safe spaces near hospitals as the war closes in. The Palestinian government says medical workers and wounded patients are stranded without electricity. The Red Cross said it attempted to evacuate a hospital due to lack of fuel but had to turn back due to fighting. Israel released images of what it says are Hamas weapons inside hospital rooms. Their military says Hamas uses hospitals as cover for its fighters. Using hospitals to fight or store weapons is a violation of international law.

 POLITICS 

The "QAnon Shaman" Jacob Chansley (aka: bison costume guy) is running for Congress in Arizona. He was released from prison earlier this year after serving time for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. capitol. The suburban Phoenix congressional district is strongly Republican. So, to ensure he has no chance to win, Chansley chose to run as a Libertarian. Were he to catch lighting in a bottle and win a seat in the House, he might not last long. Congress can no longer refuse to seat someone who rightfully won -- the Supreme Court nixed that in 1969. But it can expel its own members. Whether someone can be expelled for actions taken before his or her election, however, is debatable.

Former NFL player Wallace Gilberry is running for Congress in Alabama as a Republican. Alabama’s congressional district map was redrawn by a federal court recently. The court found that the old map likely violated the Voting Rights Act. Only one congressional district (of seven) was majority Black despite one-fourth of the state’s population being Black. Alabama drew a new map in July...that was also promptly rejected by the court. So the court chose the new map itself. This district is now nearly half Black. And, due to racially polarized voting patterns, likely to be won by a Democrat. But it's not a guarantee. Which is why Gilberry is one of 21 candidates — 13 Ds and 8 Rs.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy may not run for reelection. Since being ousted from the speakership last month, McCarthy’s maintained that he will run for reelection next year. Now he says “I will talk to my family...and then I will make a decision.” House Republicans choosing a permanent replacement in Speaker Mike Johnson rather than a short-term placeholder could motivate McCarthy to retire. The fact that former Speaker Pelosi has stayed on after losing the gavel (twice) is a rarity in the modern era. Former speakers typically retire in short order. McCarthy will need to decide by Dec. 8 — that’s the deadline to file for reelection in California. His congressional district, near Bakersfield and Fresno, is safely Republican.

Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona is struggling to raise money. A former Democrat, she left the party last year midway through her first Senate term. Now she’s running for reelection and getting outraised more than 2-to-1 by the likely Democratic nominee, Rep. Ruben Gallego. What about donors who supported her candidacy last time around? Well, she's also losing them 2-to-1. Political donors seem to be much more party-oriented than Sen. Sinema needs them to be. A recent poll (sponsored by Republicans) showed her getting only 15% of the vote. Gallego (D) and Kari Lake (R) both got 37% support.

 TRIVIA 

 BRIEFS 

👮 The Secret Service opened fire as three men attempted to break into an unmarked Secret Service vehicle in Washington, D.C. The agents were out protecting President Biden’s adult granddaughter Naomi. No one was hurt in the incident. The suspects fled the scene.

🇺🇸 Former President Donald Trump’s older sister Maryanne passed away yesterday aged 86. She served as a federal judge from 1983-2019.

🪐 Saturn’s rings will disappear from view for about nine months in 2025. The temporary change is due to the angle between our two planets as the revolve around the sun. It last happened in 2009.

🔥 A stretch of Interstate 10 near downtown Los Angeles is closed indefinitely after a fire beneath an overpass severely damaged the highway. Arson is the suspected cause.

⚕️ Healthcare provider McLaren says hackers stole personal data on 2.2 million patients. Thieves had access to their system for a whopping three weeks before the company noticed. The mountain of lawsuits has already begun.

💰 Chrysler parent company Stellantis is offering voluntary buyouts to about half of its U.S. white-collar employees. The company said the plan is unrelated to increased labor costs after a recent union agreement with the UAW.

📺 Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign will launch a $10 million ad blitz in Iowa and New Hampshire in December in an attempt to overtake Ron DeSantis as the primary non-Trump Republican candidate.

 QUOTE 

 ANSWER 

1. If you guessed Florida, you’d be wrong. The oldest state in the country is actually Maine with a median age of 45. Florida is number 5 on the list with a median age of 43.

2. The youngest state in the country is Utah with a median of just 32.