As His Newly Adopted Party Hugs the Left, Mike Bloomberg Aims for the Center (Washington Post)
From the story: Bloomberg sees himself less as a crusader than a left-brained engineer turned leader. If he moves forward, a Bloomberg campaign would not run within the Democratic Party as it exists, exactly. His campaign would effectively be an effort to reshape it, and there is clear recent precedent for electoral success by a billionaire who starts a campaign distant from his party’s precepts.”

While his more conservative positions continue to draw Democratic criticism, Bloomberg prefers to talk these days about the liberal causes he has championed for decades. He sends tens of millions to Planned Parenthood to protect abortion access, has spent more than $100 million on the Sierra Club’s effort to close down coal-fired power plants, and has built his own network of gun regulation groups to take on the National Rifle Association.

In this election, his focus is on curbing the power of Trump. “I’m petrified,” he said, about the possibility that Republicans hold the House.

“The federal government can do some real damage here,” he continued. “People die. People’s livelihood can change. Climate change is real. The gun issue is real. The opioid crisis is real. Our education system getting dumbed down, where people don’t learn anything about history and civics and then you question how they vote the way they do.”

U.S. Midterm Watch:
-Gun Control, Once a Third Rail, Now a Key Issue as Democrats Seek to Control House (Philadelphia Inquirer)
-Snapchat Helped Register Over 400,000 Voters (New York Times)
-2018 U.S. Midterms May Have the Largest Gender Gap on Record (CNN)

I thought he was hired to be President: Trump Defers to Congress on U.S. Response to Khashoggi Killing (Bloomberg)

How to Make Lies Reality: Officials Scramble to Make Trump’s False Assertions Real (Washington Post)

Brexit Latest: U.K. Cabinet at War Over Theresa May’s Brexit Plan (Bloomberg)

‘Mavericks Needed’: Cindy McCain-led Institute Launches New Ad Campaign to Honor Senator John McCain’s Legacy (Associated Press) Watch the video here.

Headlines from around the world.

The Guardian (UK): Saudi Prince Meets Khashoggi’s Son on Tense Day in Riyadh

BBC: Trump says Khashoggi Murder ‘Worst Cover-Up in History’

Bloomberg Opinion: Trump Is Blundering Into an Arms Race

Bloomberg: Tim Cook Takes Aim at Companies That Stockpile Private Data

South China Morning Post: Chinese President Xi Jinping Hails 55km Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge as Showpiece of Innovation and Integration
See the bridge here with TicToc by Bloomberg.

Best of late night.

On the World Series baseball matchup between the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers:

“I wonder who President Trump is rooting for in this. Maybe Boston because he loves Tom Brady, or maybe the Dodgers because that’s how he got out of Vietnam.”
— Jimmy Kimmel

“A cruise line has announced that it will be launching an exact, working replica of the Titanic, for people to travel on beginning in 2022. What could possibly go wrong? Although this is great news if you’re a very rich grandma looking to get rid of a priceless jewel.”
— James Corden

“The Titanic replica will have the same interiors and cabin layout as the original vessel, but with modern safety features; you know, for example, doors, large enough for 2 people to float on.”
— James Corden

For more Best of Late Night from the New York Times, click here.