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A former top lawman collected fresh legal trouble on the same day his daughter won in court, and a tech giant held the door open for 60,000 workers. Plus: a discount chain accused of overcharging at the register, a cornfield space mystery, and a runaway tiger cub.

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Former FBI Director James Comey was charged for a third time on Monday, hours after a judge ruled the Justice Department illegally fired his daughter as a prosecutor. The complaint accuses him of directing an unnamed person, through co-conspirators, to disclose national defense information to a reporter for a national news publication.

Judge Jesse Furman found the July 2025 firing violated the separation of powers and due process, granting Maurene Comey retroactive reinstatement and back pay. The Justice Department will appeal, while James Comey, who denies wrongdoing in his separate North Carolina case, still seeks to have that indictment tossed.

The Justice Department on Monday asked Washington state to set aside midterm ballots from more than 400 people it suspects registered without US citizenship. In a letter, the department said those people cast 1,500 votes in prior elections and asked that their ballots be held until officials confirm eligibility.

Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, whose office received about 60 federal subpoenas since last month, said it responds only to requests that follow due process. A federal appeals panel questioned a similar demand for California to sequester ballots from up to 20,000 people, and a Nevada probe found zero noncitizen voters.

Microsoft offered voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 eligible employees on Monday, or roughly 27% of its global workforce, across the US, Canada, India and Britain. The offer covers workers at experience level 70 or below as Microsoft pours money into data centers, with quarterly capital spending expected above $50 billion.

Chief people officer Amy Coleman called the offer new for the company, which announced a voluntary retirement program this spring and 4,800 job cuts in July. Shares rose about 1% after an all-time high this month, and Microsoft reports quarterly results Wednesday as industrywide data center spending likely tops $700 billion.

Egypt's parliament voted on Monday to authorize military support for Saudi Arabia against Iran-backed Houthi attacks, though the government gave lawmakers no details about the support's nature or extent.

More than 60 people were killed in a series of attacks on Christians in Ethiopia's Oromia region, according to the Orthodox Church, which said 20 houses were burned down.

France's government pledged on Monday to replace its national university admissions platform after weeks of violent protests that led to about 2,400 arrests and set Limoges' historic town hall ablaze.

University of New Mexico Health System diverted ambulances to other hospitals over a cybersecurity issue on Monday, leaving the state without an emergency department equipped for the most serious injuries.

Police in Tallahassee arrested a 15-year-old over a shooting near a football stadium that injured 12 people, six of them children, after a university game on Saturday night.

The FTC and 20 states sued Dollar General, accusing the discount chain of charging shoppers more at the register than its shelf tags and ads display.

Anthropic's 335-page stock market filing revealed $16.2 billion in revenue for the first half, as it eyes a debut widely expected to value it at $2 trillion or more.

Apple acknowledged a display problem Monday affecting a small number of iPhone Duo units, promising AppleCare replacements after buyers of the $1,999-and-up foldable reported bright lines spreading from the hinge.

JetBlue shares jumped roughly 11% after hours Monday despite a $257 million third-quarter loss, as average fares climbed more than 19% to help offset a 61% jump in fuel costs.

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An 11-foot metallic object found in a Minnesota cornfield may be from a Chinese rocket, space experts said, noting a Zhuque-2E launched in September fell back without completing an orbit.

A newly exposed Antarctic sea channel, which appeared when connecting ice disintegrated between Rothschild and Alexander islands, has been named the Amos Channel after a veteran British science correspondent.

NASA's PACE satellite is tracking fall color from orbit across 286 spectral bands, mapping red leaf pigment as it peaked in New England before spreading into the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

Chase leader Kyle Larson carries a 73-point edge over Denny Hamlin to Martinsville after gaining 10 spots on the final lap for his first Talladega win in 24 starts.

Ballon d'Or organizers mistakenly published several men's "winners" hours before the ceremony, including Harry Kane, Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappé, calling them prepared profiles that signal nothing about the results.

Rafael Nadal will headline a Las Vegas tennis exhibition at T-Mobile Arena on February 28, marking the 22-time Grand Slam champion's first US appearance since retiring two years ago.

The NBA named Kalshi and Polymarket its preferred prediction market exchanges on Monday, the league's first embrace of the platforms, with limits on contract types and suspicious-trade reporting.

Walter Koenig, Chekov on "Star Trek," died at home in North Hollywood at 90, after playing the navigator in the original series and seven feature films.

Dictionary.com picked "maxxing" as its 2026 Word of the Year, shorthand for doing something to the fullest, two years after "demure" and a year after "67."

Fox's "Baywatch" reboot premieres January 6, starring Stephen Amell as a grown-up Hobie Buchannon, now a Baywatch captain whose world is upended by a daughter he never knew.

What it is: Mexican cattle began crossing into New Mexico on Monday through the Columbus port, which had been closed for nearly two years to stop the flesh-eating New World screwworm. The screwworm is a fly larva that burrows into the flesh of livestock, pets and even humans, and it has threatened the $113 billion US cattle industry.

The detail: Columbus is the third port to resume imports under new safeguards, including tests, shots, inspections and dipping cattle in vats of insecticide before they reach the border. Largely eradicated in the US in the 1960s, the parasite has more than 60 confirmed cases in Texas and New Mexico, and last week it turned up in an elk.

Why it matters: Before the outbreak, the US imported about 1 million head of cattle a year, and US ranchers still need time to rebuild herds that drought shrank to record lows. Those constrained supplies have pushed beef prices higher, and experts caution shoppers not to expect quick relief at the meat counter just because border crossings are reopening.

What to watch: Another cattle crossing in Arizona is due to open in late November, and the government is building a Texas facility that can produce 300 million sterile flies per week. Those sterile males are dropped from planes to mate with wild females so the population dies out, a method USDA undersecretary Dudley Hoskins called "our sharpest tool."

Elon Musk's rockets, satellites and robots all run on metals America can't get enough of, and much of it is still processed in China. One small company sits on that supply and trades around $5. Our free report names it, and we'll text you the ticker.

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A tiger cub squeezed through its fence, escaped a zoo in Ukraine and was caught overnight, prompting the director's deadpan all-clear: "Caught her. Everyone can stand down tomorrow."

A deer let itself into a Wisconsin apartment through one window, left through another, which police called "a good reminder that deer are on the move this time of year."

A motorcycle maker's founder rode 25.3 miles on the surface of a river in China, earning a Guinness World Record by fitting his bike with an amphibious ski.

The Football Association is founded in London (1863) · Austria declares its permanent neutrality (1955) · Pan Am launches the first transatlantic Boeing 707 jet service (1958) · The world's last natural smallpox case is diagnosed in Somali hospital cook Ali Maow Maalin (1977) · Israel and Jordan sign a peace treaty (1994)

"Leaders should clear the path, should show the way, but the road itself must be paved by both peoples." — Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli prime minister, at the Israel-Jordan treaty signing (1994)

That's your Five Minute Daily. Thanks for reading, and share today's edition with a friend. See you tomorrow.

—The Five Minute Daily Team