Americans are expected to spend about $9 billion on Halloween this year as they buy costumes, decorations, greeting cards and candy for the annual Oct. 31 event.

The National Retail Federation estimates that more than 175 million Americans are planning to participate in Halloween activities this year, spending about $3.2 billion on costumes, $2.7 billion on decorations, and $2.6 billion on candy.

Bulk candy dealer CandyStore.com looked through 11 years of data to come up with the favorite Halloween candy in each U.S. state.

Overall, Skittles, M&M’s and Snickers top the list.

Americans who plan on buying candy for Halloween are expected to spend an average of $27 for the sweet treats. Trick-or-treaters in Oregon might be among the luckiest kids in America because giving out full-sized candy bars has become the norm in the northwest state.

The bulk candy dealer also came up with a list of the worst Halloween candy Candy corn, Tootsie Rolls and Smarties make the list.

The most popular costumes for kids include princess, superhero and Batman. Adults are partial to witch, vampire and zombie looks.

And even America’s pets are getting into the action. Pet owners plan to dress their little animal friends as pumpkins, hotdogs and bumblebees, according to the National Retail Federation.
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Less than two weeks before crucial midterm congressional elections, a new element of fear and uncertainty has been injected into the campaign in the wake of pipe bombs that were sent to several prominent Democrats.

That in turn has sparked a renewed focus on the sharp political rhetoric that has long defined the current divisive atmosphere, with calls from both parties to temper the partisanship ahead of congressional elections.

WATCH: Trump Calls for Unity, Blames Media Amid Bomb Threats

​A softer Trump?

On the campaign trail in Wisconsin late Wednesday, President Donald Trump made an appeal for calm.

“We want all sides to come together in peace and harmony. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it. It will happen,” he said.

But Trump later blasted the news media in a tweet. 

During his remarks in Wisconsin, Trump also made a plea to moderate the heated political rhetoric on both sides.

“Those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective. We have to do that.”

Democrats respond

Democrats pounced on that, countering that Trump has been a key instigator of political tension with his partisan attacks.

Senate Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi issued a joint statement criticizing the president for condoning violence and dividing Americans.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said any effort to temper rhetoric should start at the top.

“This is a very painful time in our nation. It is a time when people are feeling a lot of hatred in the air, and incidents like this exacerbate that pain and exacerbate that fear,” de Blasio said.

Trump has aggressively gone after Democrats in the midterm campaign, including at a recent rally in Montana.

“The Democrat Party has become too extreme to be trusted with power. Their radical policies are a danger to your family and to your country,” Trump said to cheers from the crowd in Missoula.

Trump also emphasized issues that he believes will appeal to his base.

“This will be an election of (Supreme Court Justice Brett) Kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order, and common sense. That is what it is going to be. It is going to be an election of those things,” he said.

WATCH: Bomb Scares Inject Fear and Uncertainty into Midterms

Republicans believe their voters have become energized in the wake of the bitter confirmation battle over Kavanaugh.

And in recent days the president has stoked immigration fears by highlighting the caravan of Central American migrants moving through Mexico.

Immigration remains a core motivator for Trump’s base, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said.

“We can’t be a country without borders. No country in the world allows anybody they want to come in without recourse, and we should not be any different than that,” Lewandowski said.

​Obama’s role

For their part, Democrats are countering with a furious get-out-the-vote effort in the final days of the campaign with help from former President Barack Obama.

“The stakes are high. The consequences of anybody here not turning out and doing everything you can to get your friends, neighbors and family to turn out,” Obama told Democrats at a recent rally in Nevada. “The consequences of you staying home would be profoundly dangerous to this country, to our democracy.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden has also been active on the campaign trail.

“Folks, we know who Donald Trump is. We know. But here’s the deal, guys. The public has to know who we are as Democrats.”

Biden campaigned in Indiana on behalf of Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly.

Get the voters to the polls

American University political science expert David Barker told VOA that both parties are now focused on mobilizing their voters.

“What both sides need, though, is for their people to turn out on Election Day. And traditionally, that is more critical for Democrats, because Republicans are just more inclined to do it no matter what.”

Democrats remain confident of gains Nov. 6, said Jim Kessler of Third Way, a center-left policy group.

“There is a blue wave coming. The question is, how big? I believe that Democrats will take back the House. I don’t think they will take back the Senate at this point,” Kessler said.

Recent polls suggest Republicans may be rallying to keep some of the Senate seats in states Trump won easily in 2016.

“And some of what has happened in recent days with the Kavanaugh hearing and Republicans kind of coming home as a party are helping in that area,” said John Fortier of the Bipartisan Policy Center. “So, it will be mostly a win for Democrats, with probably a bright spot in the Senate for Republicans.”

It remains to be seen how the late focus on security and immigration will impact the final days of the midterm campaign, a classic October surprise that could determine which party controls Congress for the next two years.
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Since the 20th century, submarine movies have reflected the times. World War II gave rise to nerve-wracking thrillers such as the German “Das Boot.” Tom Clancy’s “The Hunt for Red October” and “Crimson Tide” in the 1990s introduced the perilous nuclear submarines of the Cold War. Now, “Hunter-Killer,” is the latest entry from filmmaker Donovan Marsh. It focuses on perils at sea and the delicate balance of power in the Post-Cold War era. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with lead actor Gerard Butler.
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U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has called on the Justice Department on Thursday to launch a criminal investigation into one of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers and her lawyer.

The Republican lawmaker wants prosecutors to determine if Julie Swetnick and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, made false statements to Congress last month about Kavanaugh.

Swetnick said in a sworn statement disclosed by Avenatti during Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation process last month that Kavanaugh was at a party where she was gang raped. Kavanaugh has denied the allegation, which Swetnick said occurred when they were in high school in the 1980s.

Grassley also wants the Justice Department to investigate whether Swetnick and Avenatti attempted to obstruct his committee’s investigation into allegations made by Swetnick and others against Kavanaugh.

“For the law to work, we can’t just brush aside potential violations,” Grassley said.

Avenatti responded on Twitter, saying it is “ironic” Grassley is now pursuing investigations.

“He didn’t care when it came to putting a man on the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) for life. We welcome the investigation as now we can finally get to the bottom of Judge Kavanaugh’s lies and conduct. Let the truth be known,” he said.

Two other women accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct when Kavanaugh was in high school and in college.

Grassley’s request for the probe does not mean the Justice Department will comply.
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U.S. President Donald Trump for months has aimed sharp political attacks at the eight Democrats and news network CNN who were mailed suspected explosives this week, all of whom have been among his fiercest critics.

Trump defeated former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. But as he campaigns for Republican candidates in next month’s nationwide congressional elections, he still demonizes her as corrupt.

“I mean, look at what she’s getting away with,” Trump told one rally. “But let’s see if she gets away with it. Let’s see.”

“Lock her up! Lock her up!” his supporters erupted in response, just as they did two years ago as Trump campaigned for the White House.

For her part, Clinton wrote recently, “Trump and his cronies do so many despicable things that it can be hard to keep track. There are no tanks in the streets. The administration’s malevolence may be constrained on some fronts — for now — by its incompetence. But our democratic institutions and traditions are under siege. We need to do everything we can to fight back. There’s not a moment to lose.”

The U.S. Secret Service said it intercepted possible explosive devices sent to Clinton, former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden, a possible 2020 opponent of Trump when he seeks another four-year term.

In addition, law enforcement authorities said a possible incendiary device was mailed to Obama’s CIA director, John Brennan, at the New York office of CNN, the television cable news network where he has often lobbed acerbic attacks on Trump’s presidency.

Three months ago, Brennan said Trump’s performance at the Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin “was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin.”

Soon after, Trump revoked Brennan’s national security pass.

CNN anchors routinely say that Trump lies or exaggerates about his presidency. One, Don Lemon, called the president a racist.

Trump recently said on Twitter: “Facebook has just stated that they are setting up a system to ‘purge’ themselves of Fake News. Does that mean CNN will finally be put out of business?”

Obama, in the nearly two years since leaving the White House, has often shied from direct attacks on Trump. But recently, he assailed Trump as a “threat to our democracy” and said he was engaging in the “politics of fear and resentment.” Obama accused Trump of needlessly befriending Russia, turning a blind eye to provocations by white supremacists and dividing Americans.

Trump, who often attacks his predecessor, dismissed Obama’s critique, saying, “I’m sorry. I watched it, but I fell asleep. I found he’s very good, very good for sleeping.”

On Twitter, Trump describes his political opponents as a “Radical Democrat Mob” that is “too dangerous to govern.”

Biden and Trump, both in their 70s, have traded schoolyard taunts, with Biden saying he’d like to “beat the hell” out of Trump over his incendiary comments in years past about women. Trump said the former vice president would “go down fast and hard, crying all the way” if they fought fist to fist.

Other recipients of the suspected explosive devices have also traded barbs with the president.

Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California has repeatedly called for Trump’s impeachment. He calls her an “extraordinarily low IQ person.”

Actor Robert De Niro unleashed a barrage a profanities aimed at Trump at a Broadway awards show in June. Trump responded in kind, calling him “a very Low IQ individual,” who “has received to (sic) many shots to the head by real boxers in movies. I watched him last night and truly believe he may be ‘punch-drunk.'”

Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, said he will never call Trump president, referring instead to him as the “present occupant” of the White House. Trump has said that Holder’s performance as the country’s top law enforcement official was as bad as Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, whom he regularly assails as incompetent.

Billionaire political donor George Soros has contributed millions of dollars to Democratic candidates. Trump, without evidence, has accused him of paying for protesters against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his recent confirmation hearings, calling them “elevator screamers.”

During his campaign and 21-month presidency, Trump has applauded the behavior of Congressman Greg Gianforte, a Montana Republican convicted last year of body-slamming a reporter, condoned neo-Nazis who rioted in Charlottesville, Virginia, resulting in a woman’s death, and said he would pay the legal bills of a Trump supporter who attacked a protester at one of his rallies.

After news surfaced of the suspected explosive devices being sent to his political opponents, Trump said, “We have to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America.”

At a political rally in Wisconsin, Trump omitted his usual rhetorical blasts at Democrats, saying at one point he was “trying to be nice.”

On Thursday, he blamed one of his favorite targets, the mainstream news media, for the turmoil.

“A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!” 

 
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The Pentagon is considering sending hundreds of troops to the southern border after President Donald Trump reiterated Thursday the military would be used to prevent a caravan of Central American migrants from entering the United States.

A U.S. official confirmed to VOA the Pentagon has received a request from the Department of Homeland Security for troops to assist border patrol agents. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no troop numbers were included in the request because the number provided is determined by the Pentagon, based on how many people are needed to provide the desired capabilities.

More than 2,000 National Guard troops have already been deployed to the area.

President Trump has referred to the caravan of migrants, which is more than a 1,600 kilometers from the closest U.S. border, as a “national emergency.”

“I am bringing out the military for this National Emergency. They will be stopped!,” Trump wrote in a post on Twitter earlier Thursday. Trump also agreed with a border patrol labor union official that Democrats are to blame for migrants seeking refuge in the U.S.

Trump has blasted Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala for not stopping their citizens from departing for the U.S. He said Monday he would begin cutting off or reducing foreign aid to those countries and threatened last week to use military troops to close the border.

After camping overnight in the southeastern Mexican town of Mapastepec, the caravan was set to resume its journey Thursday.

Illness, police harassment and fear are taking their toll on the migrants, which now number between 4,000 and 5,000, a sharp decrease from the estimated 7,000 from just days earlier.

Officials say nearly 1,700 migrants already have dropped out and applied for asylum in Mexico. A few hundred weary migrants have accepted Mexican government offers to transport them back to their home countries.

The Mexican government has declined to give the migrants food, water, or even access to bathroom facilities, leaving it to private citizens, church groups or sympathetic local officials to provide essential goods, according to Associated Press.

The Mexican government has, instead, reserved these basic items only for migrants who turn themselves in at immigration centers to apply for visas or to be deported.

Sometimes Mexico’s federal police have interfered with the caravan of migrants, who are mostly from Honduras, according to Associated Press.

Parents who have remained in the caravan say they are doing so for their children’s futures, and out of fear of the potential dangers that would await them upon return to gang-dominated Honduras.

Honduras’ homicide rate is about 43 per 100,000 inhabitants, among the world’s highest for a country not at war.

Such caravans have been routine over the years without much attention, but President Trump has used the caravan to rally his Republican base before the Nov. 6 midterm elections.

Trump fueled the controversy in a series of tweets Monday, saying without evidence that “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners” were among the caravan of Central American migrants bound for the U.S.

Many in the caravan may not qualify for asylum even if they reach the border, as the U.S. does not consider escapes from poverty and certain types of violence as qualifying factors.

International law requires that individuals fleeing violence and persecution must be allowed access to the country where they are seeking asylum and the right to apply for it.

Staff from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees arrived earlier this week in the Mexican town of Tapachulas, which is near the Guatemalan border, to help stabilize the migrant caravan’s chaotic situation and to register asylum seekers.

UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told VOA that its staffers also are safeguarding migrants’ rights.

“All countries have a right to be able to manage their own immigration and manage their own borders,” Edwards said. “What is important for us is that those borders are managed in an asylum-sensitive way, which means giving people access, assessing their claims and then dealing with them accordingly in line with international law.”
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