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How much are candidates spending for the 2026 midterm? Based on FEC data downloaded October 21, 2026, Senate and House candidates have spent around $2.86 billion on races for the 2026 November midterm election. That's about 84.6% of campaign funds raised this election cycle. https://usafacts.org/answers/how-much-are-candidates-spending-for-the-midterm/country/united-states/? One last fact A senatorial snapshot ahead of the midterms: 25 states currently have a pair of Republican senators, 21 states have a pair of Democratic senators, and four have some combination of Republican, Democrat, and independent senators. This data is from before Republican Senator Lindsey Graham’s passing. However, he was replaced by his sister, Darlene Graham, a fellow Republican.

A New Low View in browser They say that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, but President Trump and his allies have found a new low: open bigotry against Muslims. The bar for what can shock has been raised steadily over the past decade, but even by Trump-era standards, remarks that the president made yesterday at a rally in Port Huron, Michigan, are astonishing: a straightforward assertion that a Muslim candidate for office is a terrorist by virtue of his faith. Trump was campaigning for Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, when he attacked Rogers’s opponent, the Democrat Abdul El-Sayed. “I’m here to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator,” Trump said. “If Abdul and the Democrats win, they will open the floodgates and invite hordes of jihadists to our shores, creating a nightmare of violence and terror until you cannot even have a Christmas.” Trump also said that “anyone with that record of support for jihadists would be screened and unable to get a seat on an airplane.” He added that if elected, El-Sayed “would be the only senator that will have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.” (In fact, the only time that members of Congress have had to pass through metal detectors in the Capitol was on the House side, as a security precaution after Trump supporters sacked it on January 6, 2021.) To be clear: El-Sayed has disavowed the Muslim Brotherhood, and no one has produced any evidence that he has ties to the group. Neither has anyone produced any evidence that El-Sayed has ties to any jihadists or is one himself. If he did, the Justice Department would presumably be prosecuting him—it certainly hasn’t shied away from politicized cases under Trump. The president and anyone else are free to critique El-Sayed’s views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or any other policy matter, but that’s not what this is. Asking a candidate to disavow a foreign political group that has no American arm is a nonsensical and prejudiced thing to do, but Republicans have been trying hard in the past couple of weeks to draw some connection between El-Sayed and the group, despite a lack of evidence. (They have been assisted by allies in the press, including Bari Weiss, the editor in chief of CBS News, whose staffers complained to Semafor that she is disproportionately focused on candidates such as El-Sayed because of her own views on Israel. CBS News called the report “baseless.”) Perhaps this is because they believe “Muslim Brotherhood” sounds shadowy and scary to voters. The new tack is also silly because the GOP previously spent months trying to connect El-Sayed to the Democratic Socialists of America, another group that he says he is not a member of. Historically, the Brotherhood, an Islamist organization, has typically clashed with socialists in the Muslim world. Trump’s idea of what a senator should be is an older white man. That’s not a guess—it’s what he said about Rogers, the Republican candidate. “I call him apple pie,” Trump said. “He’s like, perfect, this guy. He’s like central casting. He’s what your state is all about.” As I’ve written in the past, it’s not a dog whistle if everyone can hear it. Trump has also made light of El-Sayed’s full name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, mocking the prevalence of Muhammad in Muslim names. (The president’s own middle name is John.) “Donald Trump and J. D. Vance, their whole campaign, Mike Rogers’s whole campaign, is to point at me and my name and my faith,” El-Sayed said in response at a rally yesterday evening. “But my name and my faith are not the reason you can’t afford your gas. My name and my faith are not the reason you can’t afford your groceries. My name and my faith are not the reason you can’t see a doctor.” Trump’s latest remarks about El-Sayed are of a piece with a series of racist and Islamophobic remarks. Two frequent targets of late are Representative Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota Democrat, and the Somali community in Minnesota. He has called Omar “garbage” and said that Somalia is “filthy, dirty, disgusting, dirty.” He has labeled Somalis “low-IQ” but also complained that they are highly effective grifters. Politicians allied with Trump are also getting in on the hate. Earlier this year, I wrote about a spree of bigoted remarks by GOP members of Congress. More recently, Representative Tom Emmer, a Minnesota Republican, said that Somali Americans should assimilate or “go the hell back.” (He added that he wasn’t afraid of being called an Islamophobe.) And Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who is in a tough reelection race, falsely claimed that his Democratic opponent, Gina Hinojosa, “supports Sharia law” because she received an endorsement from the Council on American-Islamic Relations. You don’t have to think too hard to guess why CAIR opted to back someone running against Abbott. With this kind of talk, it’s no wonder that Muslim voters who backed Trump in 2024, largely out of frustration with the Biden administration’s policies toward Israel, are now angry and disillusioned, as The New York Times reports. (Anyone is entitled to cast a protest vote, but given Trump’s long record of anti-Muslim bigotry, those who lined up behind Trump shouldn’t be surprised.) Islamophobic rhetoric deserves condemnation on its own terms, but the attacks don’t just affect El-Sayed, Omar, or even Muslim communities in the United States. During the same speech, Trump—who has previously said that Jewish Democrats are “disloyal to Jewish people”—called for ostracizing any Jewish Michiganders who vote for El-Sayed. “Any Jewish person that supports this guy should be ashamed of themselves,” he said. “You should never speak to them again.” Once bigotry against one community enters the mainstream, it tends to spread quickly to other groups. Related: The firebrand A horrible throwback to the early 2000s

⁉️ Senate guessing game Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios Senate leaders could be guessing who will control the chamber well into November, thanks to a slew of tight races and state-specific voting rules. Why it matters: A GOP majority would ease the pressure on Senate Majority Leader John Thune to move quickly on nominations, while a Democratic majority would give Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer more leverage in the lame-duck session. If the chamber splits 50/50, leaders will have to start negotiating their power-sharing agreement. Zoom in: Four states could leave the majority in limbo. Alaska: Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) is trying to fend off former Rep. Mary Peltola (D). Alaska election results have taken weeks to finalize because of the vast state's transportation challenges, mail ballots and ranked-choice tabulation. The Trump Justice Department is preemptively trying to block results from being finalized if Sullivan narrowly loses. Maine's ranked-choice voting could lengthen the vote tallying if neither Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) nor Democratic nominee Troy Jackson gets more than 50% in the first round. Kansas' three-day grace period for mail-in ballots could delay results in the race between Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). It is far closer than expected. In Texas, a dragged-out recount could be coming. A candidate can request one if the margin is less than 10% of the winner's vote total — which is likely to happen between state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and state Rep. James Talarico (D). The candidate who requests it has to pay. The clock: Congress currently plans to leave for the holidays on Dec. 18. But if Republicans lose both the House and Senate, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) wants senators to stay in town through the holidays (yes, Thanksgiving and Christmas) to work on a massive GOP reconciliation package they can pass without Democratic support. The big picture: Congress has a long to-do list either way, including funding the government past Dec. 11, passing emergency defense spending and potentially raising the debt ceiling. It needs to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, Farm Bill and permitting reform, reauthorize the warrantless wiretap authority under FISA Section 702 and confirm nominations before they expire at the end of the year. The bottom line: "I'm guessing that's a possibility this year," Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) told reporters today about working in D.C. through the holiday recess. — Stef Kight

Suriname’s Saamaka tribe turns to mapping and documenting in effort to protect the Amazon rainforest Deep in Suriname’s Amazon rainforest, Navaldo Vola hacked through thick vegetation with a machete, leading a group of Saamaka men up a forested mountain in sweltering heat and swarms of horseflies. Read More.

Dollar General is sued by the FTC and 20 states for what's being described as deceptive pricing The Federal Trade Commission has sued the bargain chain Dollar General for what it characterized as “long-running deceptive pricing practices” by charging customers more once they reach the register than the prices that are displayed on shelves and in advertisements. Read More.

Microsoft offers a quarter of its global workforce voluntary buyouts as AI spending accelerates Microsoft has offered 60,000 employees, or about 27% of its global workforce, voluntary buyouts as the software giant spends heavily on artificial intelligence. Read More.

Trump failed to stop inflation. Now Republicans may pay the price in the midterm elections President Donald Trump would prefer that voters not worry about inflation. But it's hard for them to ignore. Read More. Trump administration asks Washington to set aside ballots from 400 voters it says may be noncitizens The Trump administration on Monday asked Washington state to set aside any ballots received from more than 400 people it suspects registered to vote without U.S. citizenship. Read More. US told Venezuelan authorities that opposition leader Machado should be allowed to return Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that the Trump administration told Venezuela’s interim authorities “weeks and weeks ago” that opposition leader María Corina Machado should be allowed to return as the country moves ahead with preparing for elections next year. Read More. Trump heads to Mississippi for a midterm rally, and the Democrat he wants defeated is going, too President Donald Trump heads Monday to Mississippi, as he continues a closing midterm campaign blitz that highlights Republicans' challenges ahead of an election that could drastically shift power in Washington and statehouses across the country. Read More.

🏟️ 1 for the road: Happy "sports equinox" Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios Happy equinox, sports fans. It's the one time a year when several major leagues — the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and WNBA — all have games on the same day. ⚾️ Highlights include: Game 3 of the World Series, with the Milwaukee Brewers holding a 2-0 series lead over the Tampa Bay Rays (8 p.m. ET, Fox). In the WNBA finals, the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries are tied 2-2 heading into Game 5 (8 p.m., USA/CNBC/Peacock). How to watch.

📺 Chuck Todd and Chris Cillizza are teaming up with elections website Decision Desk HQ to host a live election night broadcast. More from Sara Fischer.

🇮🇱 Israelis head to the polls tomorrow in an election that could upend Israeli politics and reset the country's strained relationships abroad. More from Barak Ravid.

🇧🇷 Brazilian Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro is challenging the results of yesterday's presidential runoff election, setting the stage for a possible showdown with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro's legal pathway following Lula's decisive victory is unclear. Get the latest. ps:Of course he is! Just like his criminal friend will very shortly!!!!!

📕 Word of the year Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios Dictionary.com named "maxxing" its 2026 Word of the Year, Axios' Josephine Walker reports. The word's explosive popularity reflects society's relentless drive to optimize everything. Dictionary Media Group director of lexicography Steve Johnson tells Axios that maxxing was an ideal pick because it's endlessly adaptable. Fitness enthusiasts are "proteinmaxxing," AI superfans are "tokenmaxxing" and the Trump administration says it's "deportationmaxxing." Read the announcement.

All Roads Lead to Byzantium? Have you ever thought deeply about maps? They depict real geographic places and thus appear objective, but they are ultimately representations, often embedded with the interests, values, and biases of the times in which they were created. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-rome/all-roads-lead-to-byzantium/?

A way out of Nazi Germany came with a catch: work on the Sabbath. A rabbi approved, on one condition, sealed with a handshake my grandfather would never forget. https://aish.com/the-handshake-that-built-generations/?

October 27, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. Israelis are voting today in a national election that many see as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Follow our live coverage here. There’s more below. We also have six takeaways from a new memoir by the Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward. But first, let’s take a look at next week’s midterm elections in the United States. Campaign signs outside an early voting site in North Carolina this week. Allison Joyce/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The final stretch Polling suggests Republicans may have a tough Tuesday next week as Americans vote in the midterm elections. That’s in part what brought President Trump to Mississippi, a state he won by about 23 points in 2024, to campaign last night for the incumbent G.O.P. senator. It also fueled Vice President JD Vance’s travels yesterday, first to ruby-red Montana to help a House candidate and then to the reliable Republican stronghold of Kansas to stump for Senator Roger Marshall. What’s going to happen next Tuesday? “This is as good a political environment as Democrats could ever wish,” the editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report told The Times, “and as bad as Republicans could ever imagine.” But a so-called blue wave is by no measure assured. Some competitive Senate races could swing toward the Republicans as they rally their most loyal voters to the polls. Democrats could eke out wins in red states but fail to do so in bluer ones. Everyone’s on edge. We’ll get the outcome the people who fill out the ballots provide. Polling ain’t voting. Map quest In some ways, it’s surprising to see so many races rated as tossups. Congressional districts are already often configured to make incumbents safe. At Trump’s insistence, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana again redrew their maps to help Republicans in recent years. That effort — countered by a gerrymander in California to help Democrats — was meant to prevent the heavy midterm losses that a sitting president’s party historically experiences. How odd are the new maps? My colleagues at The Upshot, journalists who specialize in analyzing data, used thousands of computer simulations to draw congressional maps in all 44 states with more than one district, this time without any consideration of partisanship or race. They were looking for fairness: maps that resemble the simulations. Wisconsin’s map is pretty fair, for instance. It favors Republicans 6 to 2 over Democrats because, while half of Wisconsinites may vote for Democrats, they’re clustered in just two regions in the state. The map in Texas, on the other hand, is far more brazenly drawn. You don’t even need the simulations to see how much the new map helps Republican chances. “On the north side of Austin, you can drive through five congressional districts in about 10 minutes,” my colleagues write. “In the suburbs of Dallas, there are voters drawn into districts that stretch hundreds of miles, including one to the New Mexico border.” These overwhelmingly benefit the right. Our party-blind simulations might have delivered a dozen additional competitive or Democratic-leaning districts in the state. The New York Times Tennessee provides a similar story. Republican lawmakers there cut up the Memphis and Nashville areas among multiple congressional districts and all but assured themselves a 9-to-0 map. That’s maybe no surprise in a vibrantly red state that Trump won by 30 points in 2024. But the “fair” map the simulations came up with drew separate districts for the two cities, both of which lean toward the Democrats. The New York Times And Illinois provides a terrific example of how redrawing a map may not provide as big of an advantage as desired. In 2021, state Democrats adopted a gerrymander with some truly awkward shapes — the 13th District there runs snakelike from East St. Louis through Springfield to Champaign, home of the University of Illinois. But The Times’s simulations suggest that the gains were modest. The neutral map the simulations created, for example, might replace the 13th with a more compact Republican-leaning district. But the simulations also show that Democrats might still be competitive in it. Explore the creative cartography here. Along with all of the rest of our election coverage, it’s free to read in The Times app for a limited time. Download the app today. More on the midterms The New York Times More than 100 candidates under the age of 29 filed to run for Congress this election cycle. The Times asked five of them why they’re running. Click above to watch. Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate for Senate in Texas, has taken about 350 trips outside the state, 25 of them abroad, with a taxpayer-funded security detail. A federal appeals court declined to set aside about 20,000 mail-in ballots in California that the Trump administration claimed had been given to noncitizens. Two former South Carolina governors, one Democrat and one Republican, endorsed Annie Andrews, the Democrat in an unexpectedly close Senate race there. Ask The Morning: Do you have questions about congressional maps? The latest polling? Other candidates or their campaigns? Send them to us. BRIDGE OUT In North Carolina. Allison Joyce for The New York Times Creeks and rivers carve through the mountains of western North Carolina, where hundreds of families rely on private bridges to get to their homes. Two years after flooding from Hurricane Helene swept many of those bridges away, hundreds of households are still missing a replacement, despite a $175 million program to rebuild them. As Eduardo Medina reports, broken bridges make life in that part of the state lonely and dangerous. No ambulance or fire truck can provide a rescue in the event of an emergency. Friends rarely visit. And walking across a steel beam set over a running river is difficult enough. Now imagine you’re 76. Meet the folks Eduardo met there — and see photographs of the crossings they make to get home. FREE TO READ An Apache helicopter during a training operation in Germany. Lena Mucha for The New York Times Big vs small: The U.S. military is training Apache helicopter pilots to shoot down drones. Celebrity whisperer: Jonathan Van Meter has gotten Kim Kardashian, Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga to confide in him. How does he do it? Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday — for the second day in a row! — was about people who live on the world’s most remote inhabited island. U.S.S. Enterprise: Walter Koenig played Pavel Chekov, the baby-faced Russian navigator, in the original “Star Trek.” He died at 90. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Federal prosecutors brought new charges against James Comey, the Trump critic and former F.B.I. director, accusing him of leaking national security information to The New York Times a decade ago. A Manhattan judge ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully fired Comey’s daughter Maurene Comey, a former federal prosecutor. The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has said he is pushing out all transgender troops. But in secret proceedings, Navy and Marine Corps boards have been voting to let them stay. Around the World The New York Times Benjamin Netanyahu has pitched himself in the pivotal election in Israel as the best person to manage relations with the United States. Is he? In the video above, the national security reporter Mark Mazzetti explains his complex recent history with Washington. Click to watch. Netanyahu pushed for an attack on Iran before the election, but the military’s chief of staff resisted, according to officials. Diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan made a rare joint visit to Iran’s capital to try to stave off the next wave of the conflict. Stocks in Brazil plummeted after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s re-election. A convicted murderer in Australia lost a lawsuit for the right to eat Vegemite, the country’s polarizing salty spread, in prison. Artificial Intelligence The A.I. company Anthropic pulled back the curtain on its business in paperwork filed before its initial public stock offering. Its debut could be Wall Street’s biggest ever. The company has grown extremely fast. And it has committed up to $807 billion in contracts for data centers, chips and computing power, many of which cannot be canceled. (See six more eye-popping numbers that explain Anthropic’s business.) Its competitors are trying to raise big money, too. Meta announced it could raise up to $95 billion from selling stock. SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, said it had borrowed $40 billion for data center chips. Other Big Stories Scientists now know that Neanderthals shared many of the sophisticated abilities of Homo sapiens. So why are we the only humans left? Jay-Z, who was in charge of picking the headliner for the Super Bowl halftime show next February, chose himself. OPINIONS Americans can defy Trump in next week’s midterms by voting in candidates who will check his overreach, the editorial board writes. Israel’s international “standing” is not at stake in the country’s elections today, Bret Stephens argues. What is on the line, he writes, is Israelis’ bond with one another. Subscribe to New York Times Games. Get Super Duolingo for free. For a limited time, annual Games subscribers can enjoy 6 months of language learning with Super Duolingo. Subscribe now TODAY’S NUMBER Laura Lewis 61 — That is the percentage of time chimpanzees who are friends steal slices of pineapple from one another, according to new research. With mere acquaintances, it’s 70 percent. The study is the first to find that primates can prioritize friendships over treats. Check it out. SPORTS M.L.B.: The Milwaukee Brewers are one win from their first World Series championship after bludgeoning the Tampa Bay Rays, 10-1, in Game 3. W.N.B.A.: The Golden State Valkyries are also one win from a championship after a 64-55 home win over the Atlanta Dream in Game 5 of the league finals. Game 6 is midday Thursday. RECIPE OF THE DAY Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini. Here’s a classic Melissa Clark stir-fry: sesame chicken with cashews, dates and scallions. It’s the dates that Clarkify it: a touch of earthy sweetness against the savory sesame sauce. Five stars. BACK ON CAMPUS Chad Harbach’s new novel, “The Brightness,” is a sequel, 15 years in the making, to his 2011 best seller “The Art of Fielding.” Dwight Garner has our review: Fifteen years is a long time. Fifteen years ago, Taylor Swift was a country singer and Prince William still had hair. Yet “The Brightness” is so full of life, surprises, close observation, spiraling and interlocking plots, sharp new characters wheeling into view, striking set pieces, overlapping literary allusions and neo-Updikean craftsmanship that one can feel, on nearly every page, where every month of that time went. More on culture Jake Gyllenhaal, Seth Rogen and many others spoke to The Times for our oral history of “Donnie Darko,” the Richard Kelly cult classic that has its 25th anniversary this week. There’s a new Kacey Musgraves track, “Weekend in Texas.” Here’s a playlist with that and nine other new songs we’re hyped about. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS NYT Wirecutter Stop your television from listening to you. Unless you want it to. The privacy experts at Wirecutter explain your options. Live a longer, more active life. Start surfing. Play analog Connections with our new Connections book, curated by the digital game’s editor, Wyna Liu. You get (or can gift, if you’re starting your holiday shopping) more than 100 puzzles, along with tips from Wyna to improve your strategy. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was nightly. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Deputy Editorial Director: Lauren Jackson

THIS DAY IN HISTORY October 27 1904 New York City subway opens On the afternoon of October 27, 1904, New York City’s new rapid transit system opens for business: the subway. Today, the New York City subway is the largest rapid transit system in the world by number of stations. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 1990s 1994 Justice Department announces U.S. prison population exceeds 1 million Arts & Entertainment 1932 Poet Sylvia Plath is born 1966 ‘It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’ debuts Cold War 1962 The United States and Soviet Union step back from brink of nuclear war Crime 1940 Mafia boss John Gotti is born 1961 Appeals court upholds Chuck Berry’s conviction Inventions & Science 1873 Joseph Glidden applies for a patent on his barbed wire design 2006 Chick-fil-A founder takes last Ford Taurus Religion 1659 Quakers executed for religious beliefs Sports 2004 Red Sox win first championship since 1918 U.S. Presidents 1858 Theodore Roosevelt is born

Judge: Trump DOJ illegally fired ex-FBI director’s daughter, Maurene Comey, as a federal prosecutor NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration illegally fired Maurene Comey, the daughter of ex-FBI Director and Trump critic James Comey, as a Justice Department prosecutor, a judge ruled Monday in a sharp rebuke of the administration’s authority to terminate career federal employees it dislikes. https://apnews.com/article/justice-department-maurene-comey-trump-be7de14f705def3bb6eeadafa7e60805? Trump administration attempting to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey again WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is attempting to prosecute James Comey for what it calls a decade-old leak of classified information, an effort the former FBI director’s lawyers immediately dismissed as legally invalid and outside the legal time limit for when the Justice Department can file a criminal indictment. https://apnews.com/article/comey-trump-fbi-director-prosecution-8479bdbf1bcdeeae313b453a3cd0c544?

America’s Most Fascist Candidate, Brought To You By Big Oil A Texas candidate trafficking in white-nationalist politics has found powerful allies among the oil interests he promises to deregulate. Even in a campaign season that features congressional aspirants with ties to the far-right constitutional sheriffs movement and who’ve goose-stepped to a Nazi paramilitary anthem, Bo French might very well be the most extreme candidate of the 2026 midterms. French, who’s running for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, has called for mass deportations of immigrants and Muslims. He ardently believes in the far-right “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which holds that elites are actively supplanting the country’s white population with people of color. He’s blamed “gay race communism” for the fall of apartheid. And in a much-reviled post last month, he shared a photo of students of apparent South Asian descent at a University of Texas football game while noting, “The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” French is so extreme that GOP politicians in Texas, including Sen. John Cornyn, state House Speaker Dustin Burrows, and State Reps. Drew Darby and Jared Patterson, have condemned his remarks. GOP strategist Karl Rove wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that he’ll be voting Democrat rather than support French’s “raw, uncut bigotry.” Even French allies Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Senate contender Ken Paxton, no strangers to extremist moves, have tried to distance themselves from the candidate’s more outlandish statements without explicitly naming him. But French hasn’t scared off Texas oil money. Political action committees associated with fracked gas operators, a Texas oil magnate, and an Exxon executive have poured more than $150,000 into French’s campaign from July 1 to Sept. 24, well after French’s racist comments had become well publicized, according to a Lever review of campaign donations filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. That’s on top of the $1.3 million-plus he’s pulled in from political action committees linked to the state’s most notorious oil magnates. That’s because French is running for one of the nation’s most powerful but little-known statewide offices. The three-member Texas Railroad Commission no longer has anything to do with railroads. Instead, it controls the rate at which the state’s most precious commodity — nearly half the nation’s oil and gas reserves in the Permian Basin and beyond — is extracted, refined, and then pumped into the atmosphere in the form of climate-warming emissions. So why are Texas drillers backing a political pariah for the job? It’s likely because, at a time when even President Donald Trump has called out oil majors for their enormous profits during the Iran War, French has pledged to scrap what’s left of the commission’s historically threadbare rules to help operators “drill baby drill.” In fact, several of French’s oilfield donors have been actively fighting some of the environmental and safety rules French could target for cuts. That’s compared to French’s opponent, Democratic state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, who has promised to bring down rising gas prices through increased oversight, particularly by reining in unauthorized oilfield waste pits and unrestrained flaring. The latest round of Texas oil money, coming in spite of French’s fascist posts, may very well prove enough to put him over the top in an extremely tight race: A Sept. 22 poll has French with a 2-point lead over Rosenthal, with 11 percent of voters undecided. Rosenthal has also received oil and gas industry donations, though a review of his most recent Texas Ethics Commission filing shows no major contributions from oil and gas companies, only small-dollar donations from industry-affiliated individuals, like Sanchez Oil & Gas Corporation Vice President Frank Guerra, who chipped in $150. Rosenthal told The Lever he supports banning all campaign contributions in the race from oil and gas operators that are regulated by the Railroad Commission. If Rosenthal is elected, his mandate may be limited; the other two commission seats are filled by Republicans, and they aren’t up for reelection. But such a victory, likely helped by French’s reactionary leanings, would still be profound: A Democrat hasn’t won a Railroad Commission election since 1990. “We have real problems,” Rosenthal told The Lever. “People are really worried about the cost of energy in our state. People are really worried about the reliability of our grid. When I go to the Permian Basin, they don’t ask me about gay people or Muslims… They ask me what to do about the pollution that’s bubbling up in their communities.” French did not respond to The Lever’s request to comment. Great Replacement And Gay Race Communists French, an oil industry nepo baby who got his start in politics with two failed bids for a Texas House seat in 2016 and 2018 before moving on to chair the Tarrant County Republican Party, has made race and other culture-war issues central to his commissioner campaign. His positions captured national media attention in mid-September, after he posted the photo of the last-minute Longhorn touchdown at the UT football game. “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this,” he wrote, referring to the students of color. “I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” Defending his post on a conservative talk radio program a day later, French said he wanted to prioritize “Americans,” suggesting the students were children of immigrants who got accepted to the university via H-1B visas for skilled workers. But for settler-nativist ideologues of French’s ilk, the “problem” likely goes much deeper than H-1Bs. French has repeatedly affirmed his belief in a conspiratorial vision of an intentional “Great Replacement” of Texas’ white population deliberately stoked by shadowy elites: Democrats or some other evil cabal. It’s the very narrative that’s at the center of the revival of fascist blood-and-soil ideology in the U.S. In October 2025, French raised up a post decrying the replacement of “Europe’s sons and daughters in their blood-won lands.” Then, in November 2025, French posted “Great Replacement is real.” He expanded on his thoughts this past January, writing, “Democrats have convinced everyone, including most Republicans, that the battle is rich vs poor. This hid the fact that it has just been white vs everyone else.” Similar fears of whites being outbred inspired eugenicists who led the charge for immigration quotas 100 years ago, helping inform the blood-and-soil ideology of actual Nazis in the process. While demanding it’s time to “reclaim natural order, kinship, and strength,” French has said he wants to denaturalize and deport as many as 100 million Americans. That apparently includes all U.S. Muslims, some Indigenous people, and Texas lawmakers like state reps. Gene Wu, a Chinese American, and Salman Bhojani, who is Muslim. According to reporting by Steven Monacelli, French regularly reposts content from known fascists and white nationalists, including a self-identifying “Christian fascist,” and a self-identifying “Aryan” who regularly quotes Adolf Hitler. And earlier this year, he blamed “gay race communism” for destroying the white apartheid systems in southern Africa, a development he apparently saw as a bad thing. Fossil-Fascist Campaign Cash Such claims haven’t stopped some Texas drillers from spending liberally to boost French’s campaign. These donors are likely interested in French’s policy proposals. He has pledged lower taxes for drilling companies and to roll back even modest rules governing how the operations must dispose of toxic byproducts. At least some of the nation’s largest Big Oil PACs have historically donated to Republican Railroad Commission nominees. But this year, some of the groups appear to have been scared off by French’s rhetoric; after backing French’s Republican opponent before the primary, PACs associated with ExxonMobil, Chevron, Valero Energy, and ConocoPhillips have declined to donate to French’s general-election campaign. Still, there is one notable exception: Exxon Senior Vice President Barton Cahir chipped in $5,000 to French in the latest filing round. Exxon has active business before the Railroad Commission: In September, the commission approved a permit to allow a Texas-based Exxon carbon capture facility to inject 53 million tons of carbon dioxide underground over the objections of local community members. The rest of French’s oil money comes from drilling companies working in Texas that, unlike multinational oil companies operating across the globe, tend to focus extraction in the Permian shale basin. PACs associated with major drilling companies NGL Energy Partners LP, Permian Resources Corp PAC, and Mewbourne Oil Company PAC collectively gave $31,000 in the most recent filing round. Another $100,000 came from a single source: Texans United for a Conservative Majority PAC, whose largest single contributor is Christian nationalist Texas oil magnate Tim Dunn. This isn’t the only French donation associated with Dunn, who has a history of funding insurgent MAGA candidates taking on Republican incumbents. The oil tycoon’s Texas Freedom Fund for the Advancement of Justice PAC, formerly known as Defend Texas Liberty, donated $375,000 to French’s campaign during the March primary. Dunn and his son, Luke Dunn, have also made significant contributions to the Texas Conservative Voters PAC, which has given French $285,000. For Dunn, French’s promises of deregulation are personal: In September 2025, Dunn’s company, CrownQuest Operating LLC, sued the Railroad Commission over oilfield waste pit rules authored by French’s Republican primary opponent, Wright. The rules themselves were relatively minimal, requiring operators like CrownQuest to register their waste pits with the commission for environmental monitoring and, in limited cases, line the pits to prevent groundwater contamination. Dunn isn’t the only drilling-company donor to French that’s been grappling with the Railroad Commission’s oilfield waste regulations. McBride Operating LLC, a Texas gas company, gave French’s campaign $10,000 in the latest filing round. According to reporting by the Texas Observer, a McBride waste-disposal site in East Texas racked up at least 68 Railroad Commission violations in its first five years of operation. That track record led the commission to deny the site’s permit renewal last year. While commissioners later renewed the permit after McBride appealed the decision, local community members are headed back to Austin in November to challenge the site’s continued operation. McBride Operating LLC and its owner, Joseph McBride, have made political spending a major part of their financial investments, having collectively donated more than $90,000 to all three sitting Republican Railroad Commissioners from 2020 to 2025, while simultaneously pouring hundreds of thousands into lobbying. The company’s waste-disposal facility has continued to rack up additional violations, according to nearby resident Debrah Linn, who owns 12 acres about a quarter-mile from the operation. “The Railroad Commission has proved that they really don’t have any oversight,” Linn told The Lever. “They’re not putting any teeth into these inspections, into these violations. They’re just allowing [company owner Joseph McBride] to continue, and he’s giving them the middle finger…. He’s probably trying to make his campaign contributions very strategic.” Officials from McBride did not respond to The Lever’s request to comment — but French’s Democratic opponent was happy to talk about the operator. “Frankly, if Bo [French] wins, McBride gets to keep operating without doing any remedial work,” Rosenthal told The Lever. “If I’m elected, [Joseph McBride is] going to have to show real progress on remediating that stack of violations before I would personally vote to renew.” “Stirrin’ Up Stink” The campaign of sitting Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian also donated $10,000 to French’s campaign during the most recent filing period. Christian voted against the recommendations of at least two of the agency’s administrative law judges to grant McBride a permit for a different waste pit in January 2025. In August, Christian also led a change to the agency’s longstanding public participation process, eliminating the mandatory allotted time for citizen input during public meetings and instead leave the matter up to commissioners’ discretion. Critics say the move hurts Texans in far-flung regions where drillers are most active, like West and East Texas, who must sacrifice workdays and drive hours to Austin to attend commission hearings weighing operating permits that directly affect them. When Railroad Commission watchdog group Commission Shift and other advocacy groups protested the rule change in September, Christian publicly accused Commission Shift Executive Director Virginia Palacios of “stirrin’ up stink” and distracting the commission to “bitch some more.” In a statement released to The Lever, Christian refuted the notion that his agency eliminated public input or engagement, saying the commission is working “harder than ever” to engage with Texans. Regarding his donation to French, Christian wrote, “The future of Texas oil and gas production and fuel affordability depends on keeping Texas and the Railroad Commission under the stewardship of Republican leaders like Bo French, who understand the vital balance between effective governance and the preservation of America’s energy security.” Palacios, speaking for Commission Shift’s social welfare organization, Commission Shift Action, told The Lever that French, who has also pledged to end Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the commission, would only worsen the agency’s public faith crisis. “The kind of remarks that we’ve seen from Bo French so far are pretty derisive, and I can only expect that we’ll see more aggressive commentary from commissioners if there’s another person on the Railroad Commission who doesn’t really care about how he’s perceived by Texans,” she said. Rosenthal, meanwhile, told The Lever he would seek to reinstate the previous public participation procedure. “Anybody in the state who wants to come and have their voice heard on any issue that concerns them, it’s their right, according to the Open Meetings Act,” Rosenthal said. “While state agencies, I believe, were technically exempted from that requirement, I think it runs counter to the spirit of the law that was passed in our legislature, so I would seek to restore [the rule].” https://www.levernews.com/americas-most-fascist-candidate-brought-to-you-by-big-oil/?

Anthropic files for potentially the biggest IPO ever as CEO warns of risk to humanity from AI SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic filed paperwork Monday for what could be the biggest initial public offering of stock ever, even as its top executive warns that advanced AI could pose an existential threat to humanity. https://apnews.com/article/anthropic-ipo-shares-public-ca2f4c282bef3201a392e59e3df2300c? Anthropic IPO spotlights AI risks Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Anthropic's IPO filing, out today, includes an extensive list of extreme warnings — including the chance its own technology could put humanity at risk, Axios' Madison Mills reports. These are the wildest IPO risk factors in history — a jarring collision of Wall Street legalese and what some see as Silicon Valley sci-fi. ⚠️ In over 90 pages of risk factors, Anthropic warns that ... AI could pose "catastrophic or existential risks to humanity," and could try to manipulate humans. AI models are becoming harder to monitor, and their abilities could exceed human reviewers' ability to do so. AI models have exhibited behavior resembling blackmail, including attempts to resist being shut down. 👾 Anthropic also disclosed that four of its models gained unauthorized access to real third-party systems during cybersecurity evaluations. In one incident, a model used a discovered password to gain administrator access, collected additional credentials, changed system settings and accessed an individual's personal information. Anthropic said it found no evidence that the models pursued goals beyond their assigned tasks or attempted to evade oversight. 🖼️ The big picture: Every company has to lay out risks for investors to consider when they go public, but Anthropic is the first in modern history to go to such existential extremes. Go deeper ... More on Anthropic's IPO. Anthropic files for potentially the biggest IPO ever as CEO warns of risk to humanity from AI Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic filed paperwork Monday for what could be the biggest initial public offering of stock ever, even as its top executive warns that advanced AI could pose an existential threat to humanity. Read More.

👋 Good morning! Nothing cures a case of the Mondays like a Sports Equinox. In today's edition: Loaded slate, the Brewers are halfway home, 49ers and Chiefs both lose, college football parity, Mbappé powers Madrid, Monet-ball, and more. Yahoo Sports AM is written by Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy. Let's sports...   🚨 ICYMI HEADLINES 🏀 NBA rundown: Luka Dončić dropped 52 points for the undefeated Lakers … The defending champs have yet to win a game … Jalen Williams' gruesome leg injury left his OKC teammates in tears … Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are beefing (kind of) … The Warriors are 0-3 for the first time in Steph Curry's career. 🏎️ Kimi wins in Austin: Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) won the United States Grand Prix from pole position, finishing ahead of Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and Max Verstappen (Red Bull) as he inched closer to clinching the Formula 1 world title. 🏀 All-WNBA First Team: A'ja Wilson (Aces), Caitlin Clark (Fever), Kelsey Mitchell (Fever), Olivia Miles (Lynx) and Breanna Stewart (Liberty) earned 2026 All-WNBA First Team selections. The Second Team was headlined by Angel Reese (Dream) and Paige Bueckers (Wings). 🏒 Hellebuyck gets his wish: The Jets shipped star goaltender Connor Hellebuyck to the Devils in exchange for four players and two draft picks, ending a saga that began in August when the three-time Vezina Trophy winner (best NHL goalie) went public with a trade request. 🏈 Aranda, Doeren fired: Baylor fired Dave Aranda after seven seasons at the helm (40-40 record), while NC State decided to move on from Dave Doeren after 14 years (98-74 record). One notable name the Wolfpack could reportedly target? Philip Rivers.   🪐 BIG FOUR THE 33RD SPORTS EQUINOX (Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports) The "Big Four" North American sports leagues are all in action today. We call it a "Sports Equinox," and this is just the 33rd time it's ever happened. Tonight's slate: ⚾️ World Series, Game 3: The Rays host the Brewers (8pm ET, Fox) following an 0-2 trip to Milwaukee. Former Brewers ace Freddy Peralta takes the mound for Tampa Bay. 🏈 Monday Night Football: The Eagles host the Cowboys (8:15pm, ESPN/ABC) in an NFC East showdown. Both teams are 2-4 but still very much alive in their weak division. 🏀 NBA (9 games): Timberwolves at Cavaliers, Wizards at Hornets, Bulls at Celtics, Mavericks at Heat, Pacers at Bucks, Suns at Thunder, Hawks at Rockets, Grizzlies at Jazz, Warriors at Nuggets (10pm, Peacock). 🏒 NHL (3 games): Kings at Rangers (7pm, NHL), Maple Leafs at Flames, Red Wings at Oilers. But wait, there's more: Tonight's slate also includes Game 5 of the WNBA Finals in San Francisco (8pm, USA), where the Valkyries will look to go up 3-2 on the Dream after evening the series on Saturday in Atlanta. This is only the second time that the WNBA has joined the Sports Equinox party, but the league's expanding schedule will make women's hoops a mainstay moving forward. Origin story: The first Sports Equinox took place on Sunday, Oct. 17, 1971. Roberto Clemente and the Pirates beat the Orioles in Game 7 of the World Series on a day that also featured 12 NFL games, six NHL games and three NBA games. Nine more Sports Equinoxes occurred between 1972-85, all on Sundays, before they nearly disappeared for two decades. From 1986-2008, only one Equinox took place: Nov. 4, 2001. Nowadays, it's an annual tradition. With the World Series starting later, the NBA and NHL tipping off earlier and "Thursday Night Football" airing weekly, there's been at least one Sports Equinox every year since 2015. The 2020s: There was a brief Sports Equinox boom during the pandemic, when COVID-era scheduling resulted in eight occurrences between 2020-22. Since then, there's been exactly one each year, including this one. With the World Series off on Thursday and set to end no later than Saturday, today will be the only Sports Equinox of 2026.   ⚾️ WORLD SERIES HALFWAY HOME: BREWERS TAKE 2-0 LEAD In a World Series between two clubs that thrive on mastering the little things, it's only fitting that the first two games were determined by the slimmest of margins. Milwaukee held serve at home with a pair of one-run victories, putting the NL champions firmly in the driver's seat. Game 1: The Brewers beat the Rays, 3-2, in a game defined by near-misses and coin-flip plays. It was also the first World Series opener since 2000 to feature zero home runs. The most impactful hit, as shown in the chart above, was Christian Yelich's first-inning triple. But no player left a bigger mark than Milwaukee catcher William Contreras, who shined with his bat (2-3, RBI), his arm (two caught stealing) and his ABS challenges (2-for-2). Game 2: The Brewers won 5-4 on Saturday in a rollercoaster game that saw Tampa Bay take a 4-0 lead five batters in and featured a whopping 11 plays that swung Milwaukee's win probability by at least 10 percentage points. The night's biggest moment came in the sixth inning when Sal Frelick hit his first home run off a lefty since Opening Day. Milwaukee is now 4-1 this postseason in games they trailed by 2+ runs. All other teams in such games? 4-29. Milwaukee's not-so-secret weapon: The Brewers' bullpen has been lights out this month, posting a sterling 1.24 ERA across 50.2 innings and notching a playoff-record eight saves. They continued to dominate this weekend, with relievers Aaron Ashby* (+9.6%) and Abner Uribe (+8.3%) leading all players in Championship Win Probability Added (cWPA). Looking ahead: Game 3 is tonight in St. Petersburg, where the Rays will look to begin their comeback. History says that won't be easy: MLB teams trailing 0-2 in a best-of-seven series have gone on to win that series just 16 of 96 times (17%). Good read: The Rays are learning the hard way what the Padres and Dodgers already know — these Brewers are relentless (Jake Mintz, Yahoo Sports) *The hottest pitcher on the planet: Ashby has thrown 15.2 scoreless innings during these playoffs, putting him two outs away from breaking Andrew Miller's record for the longest streak of consecutive scoreless innings by a reliever to open a postseason. Not bad for a guy who entered October with a dismal 7.71 career postseason ERA.   🏈 SUNDAY FUNDAY NFL SCOREBOARD Minnesota is the last unbeaten standing. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) Sunday's Week 7 slate featured 12 games spread across three broadcast windows — and two continents. Early window: The Steelers beat the Saints in Paris … Minnesota stayed unbeaten while San Francisco suffered its first loss … The Dolphins got their first win … The Browns and Giants won nail-biters … The Bucs and Bengals romped to blowout victories. Steelers 16, Saints 10: Aaron Rodgers notched his 540th passing TD in France, moving him past Peyton Manning for third on the all-time list. Vikings 16, Colts 10: Minnesota's 125 points are tied for the second-fewest by a 6-0 team since 1940. The team they're tied with? The 1973… Vikings! Falcons 29, 49ers 20: Atlanta in two games without Michael Penix Jr. at QB: 0-2, 8 ppg. Atlanta in five games since he made his debut: 3-2, 31 ppg. Dolphins 28, Jets 25: Miami hadn't held the lead for a single play all season entering Sunday's game… where they didn't trail for a single play. Browns 27, Titans 24: This is the first time since 2014 that Cleveland (5-2) sits atop the AFC North in Week 7 or later. Five wins, five game-winning drives. Giants 27, Texans 21 (OT): For the first time since 1950, four different Giants scored a rushing TD in the same game. Bengals 35, Ravens 13: Baltimore is +65 in the first half of games this season… and -70 in the second half. Lamar Jackson is sorely missed. Buccaneers 43, Panthers 13: Tampa Bay scored 43 points despite tallying just 64 passing yards. Whatever works! Jaxon Smith-Njigba and the Seahawks took down the Chiefs in the nightcap. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images) Late window: The Rams got back on track with a dominant win in Las Vegas … The Lions beat the Packers on a last-second chip shot field goal … Denver's offense finally came to play against Arizona. Rams 35, Raiders 21: With 155 TDs for the Rams and 282 for the Lions, Matthew Stafford is now the only player in NFL history to hold the passing TD record for multiple franchises. Lions 20, Packers 17: Detroit turned in its best performance of the season, while Jared Goff added his 13th and 14th passing TDs and took care of the ball per usual (0 INTs on the year). Broncos 30, Cardinals 16: Bo Nix's 62-yard TD run was the longest by a QB since 2022. For the first time all season, Denver won by more than one score. Sunday Night Football: The Seahawks handed the Chiefs their first loss of the season in a 20-3 defensive masterclass as Kansas City failed to reach the red zone for the first time ever with Patrick Mahomes at QB. And just like that, the Vikings are the only undefeated team left in the NFL.   📸 SNAPSHOTS THROUGH THE LENS (Sean Gardner/Getty Images) 🇺🇸 Talladega, Alabama — Kyle Larson delivered one of the most dramatic finishes of the NASCAR season on Sunday, rallying from 11th to first on the final lap to extend his lead atop the Chase standings and all but clinch his second straight title. (David Ramos/Getty Images) 🇪🇸 Barcelona, Spain — Real Madrid beat Barcelona, 2-1, on Sunday in the 265th edition of El Clásico, moving Los Blancos ahead in the all-time series, 107-106 (52 draws). Kylian Mbappé scored twice, giving him 100 goals in 116 matches with Madrid. More European Soccer: Aston Villa ended Man City's perfect season … Spurs scored a rare win at Stamford Bridge … Man United fell to 16th … Inter Milan struck twice in stoppage time to stay in first. (Minas Panagiotakis/NHLI via Getty Images) 🇨🇦 Winnipeg, Manitoba — The Canadiens beat the Jets, 2-1, in Sunday's NHL Heritage Classic as hockey fans from near and far gathered to celebrate the game in all of its outdoor glory. (Adam Pretty/Getty Images) 🇳🇱 Rotterdam, Netherlands — Skye Blakely, 21, won four medals (gold, silver, two bronze) at the World Gymnastics Championships, a feat only four other Americans have accomplished. The Texas native could be one of the faces of Team USA heading into LA 2028. Elite company: Blakely joins Kurt Thomas (1979), Nastia Liukin (2005), Rebecca Bross (2010) and Simone Biles (2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2023) as the only American gymnasts to earn at least four medals at a single Worlds.   🏈 COLLEGE FOOTBALL SATURDAY REWIND: PARITY REIGNS UCF players celebrate after breaking up a pass on the final play of the second overtime in their upset victory over then-No. 2 BYU. (Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP Photo) After another upset-filled Saturday in college football, one thing is clear: No team is safe this season. No. 1 Miami, No. 6 Utah and No. 7 UCLA are the only undefeated FBS teams still standing after BYU, Texas Tech and JMU all stumbled this week. The last time there were three or fewer unbeaten FBS teams by Oct. 24? Way back in 1977. BYU's shocking loss to UCF was the fifth loss by an AP Top-2 team already this season, the most such losses before November since 1990. The 11 losses by AP Top-10 teams over the last three weeks are the most in any three-week span in AP Poll history. Guess who's in first? Kentucky (a basketball school!) sits atop the SEC, while UCLA (another basketball school!) sits atop the Big Ten. Both teams are led by first-year head coaches, Will Stein and Bob Chesney. Good read: Texas Tech's big money and bigger talk can't save it from embarrassing loss   🌎 LET'S PLAY GLOBAL TRIVIA (Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images) With the NFL making its Paris debut on Sunday, the French capital became the fifth city outside the U.S. to host regular-season games in both the NFL and NBA. Question: Can you name the other four cities? Hint: Two North America, two Europe.   ⚾️ FRIENDLY WAGER MONET-BALL A Monet is officially riding on the World Series. The stakes: If the Brewers bring home the championship, St. Petersburg's Museum of Fine Arts will loan Houses of Parliament: Effect of Fog, London (1904) to the Milwaukee Art Museum. If the Rays prevail, Milwaukee will lend its Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect (1903) to its Florida counterpart.   Trivia answer: Mexico City, Toronto, London, Berlin

Gas under Trump 2.0 now costs more than under Biden In 2024, President Trump blasted the Biden-Harris administration over soaring gas prices and promised a return to the sub-$2 prices of his first term. Then came the war in Iran, changing the equation entirely. Gas now costs more under Trump’s second term than it did during the Biden years, averaging around $4.29 per gallon, according to a CNN analysis of AAA data. + Read more: Gas prices, then and now

October 26, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won re-election as Brazil’s president, although his opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, has refused to accept the result. And María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s leading opposition figure, returned home after nearly a year in exile. Plus, here’s some housekeeping for those of you who haven’t yet subscribed to The Times. Starting today, we’re making our coverage of the midterm elections in the Times app absolutely free. Download the app and get started reading our in-depth reporting, explainers, poll trackers and more. There’ll be no paywall until we know all the results. There’s more below. But first, I’m going to turn to Jodi Rudoren, who once led our coverage of Israel, to talk to David Halbfinger, who runs it now. The subject of their conversation: tomorrow’s legislative elections in Israel. Those will determine if Benjamin Netanyahu remains the country’s prime minister. Gadi Eisenkot and Benjamin Netanyahu. Jack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images; Pool photo by Ronen Zvulun Israel’s future By Jodi Rudoren I covered Israeli elections in 2013 and 2015 while serving as Jerusalem bureau chief of The Times. The most important election in Israel’s 78-year history is on Tuesday. It’s the first contest since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror attack that spawned three years of brutal war that destroyed the Gaza Strip and rippled across the Middle East. Benjamin Netanyahu, already Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, is trying for his seventh term. Leading the opposition is Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief whose son was killed while serving in Gaza. Israel has a parliamentary system, so we may not know the real winner for weeks. Whoever does best on Tuesday then has to try to form a coalition government. Netanyahu would likely rely on ultra-Orthodox and extremist right-wing leaders, Eisenkot on centrist and center-right figures, as well as the left-wing Democrats. Arab-Israeli politicians could help tip the balance. It’s complicated, consequential and close, according to the polls. I asked David Halbfinger, our Jerusalem bureau chief, what he is seeing and hearing. People are calling this election existential. What’s at stake, and what are the top issues in the campaign? It’s almost mind-boggling how many huge issues are hanging in the balance: whether to drift toward authoritarianism, whether all citizens should share in the sacrifice of defending the country, whether to ease up pressure on the Palestinians or end any thought of a two-state solution forever, and more. But I’d boil it down to a choice between two radically different visions for what kind of Jewish state Israel should be. What are those two visions? Simply put, should Israel be a Jewish-flavored, Western-style liberal democracy, or an Orthodox Jewish country that also holds elections but has more in common in some ways with Turkey or Hungary? The campaign feels like a referendum on Netanyahu, who was Israel’s youngest premier when he was first elected, and now, at 77, would be the oldest if he wins. Why does he have so much staying power? He’s simply the most gifted politician this country has ever produced. It says something that even while standing trial on corruption charges, even while saddled with unpopular and extremist coalition partners, even after allowing the Oct. 7 massacre on his watch, he could win another term. What is Eisenkot’s appeal? In Tel Aviv. David Goldman/Associated Press You know how roughly half or more of Israel has been clamoring for “anyone but Bibi”? Eisenkot is the un-Bibi. He could have been created in a lab: He’s the son of Moroccan immigrants. He grew up in working-class towns. His bootstraps rise began in the Golani Brigade, a classic military melting pot. And he earned a reputation for straight talk and candor, where Netanyahu is known for talking out of both sides of his mouth. For several years, you ran The Times’s politics coverage. How are campaigns in Israel similar to those in the United States, and how are they different? They’re incredibly short, just a few months long. The TV ads only come at the end, so the warfare has been chiefly through A.I.-generated social-media videos, some of them hilarious and many of them brutal. There have been very few big rallies, and even the big ones are tiny by American standards. Then again, this country is the size of New Jersey. When I was posted there, I was struck by how much politics pulsed through casual conversation. What are the vibes around this election? It’s gotten very, very dark. Everyone now has a grave fear, bordering on despair — that the country they thought they knew is on the verge of collapsing or morphing into something very different, perhaps even into the kind of place that they can’t see as a place to raise their children. More people have left Israel than immigrated to Israel in the last couple of years, and there’s a lot of talk about those departures accelerating depending on how this election turns out. For more: The New York Times Watch: In the video above, David describes why Eisenkot is resonating with Israeli voters. Listen: David talked in more depth about the election on “The Daily” podcast. Read: Our profile of Eisenkot, who says he is running to “save Israel.” And of Netanyahu, whose supporters call him “King of Israel.” See: Graphics outlining four scenarios for how one of them could form a coalition. It might take weeks. Learn: Why voters across the political spectrum are anxious about the election. FREE TO READ Violet Clinton documenting moths. Hilary Swift for The New York Times Field research: Why has this teenager tracked down 11,377 moths? Kermit the gangster frog: In the 1980s, video clubs in Ghana created their own promotional posters for Hollywood movies. See their crazy mash-ups. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about people who live on the world’s most remote inhabited island. Metropolitan Diary: Harder than it looks. THE LATEST NEWS Brazil Elections Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his wife, Rosângela da Silva. Tuane Fernandes/Reuters Lula’s win broke a run of right-wing victories across Latin America. These maps show how he came back from a disappointing first round of voting. Midterm Elections President Trump went on an Islamophobic rant against Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, at a campaign rally there. A super PAC for the data center industry is making its first political contributions to help Darline Graham’s Senate campaign in South Carolina. James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate in Texas, is increasingly attacking Elon Musk, who has donated millions to support his opponent. Progressives say their populist message can attract moderates and conservatives as well as liberals. These 11 races will test that theory. This election offers Democrats a unique opportunity to reshape the Senate map. It could be a long time before they have a similar chance. More International News The longtime nationalist leader of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, conceded defeat in parliamentary elections to a new slate of candidates backed by protesting students. Security forces in Jordan arrested three men over the attack on a Greek Orthodox Church there last week that killed nine people. Other Big Stories The owners of Elvis’s music sued Anthropic, claiming that the company used his songs to train its models without permission. Several Catholic bishops prayed with Trump in the Oval Office last week. But they objected when the White House released a video of the meeting. IN ONE MAP Note: Layout of the proposed golf course is based on images shared by President Trump on Truth Social. Marco Hernandez/The New York Times President Trump’s new design for East Potomac Park, home to popular public golf courses, aims to attract elite golf tournaments, but it would eliminate a perimeter road for cyclists and runners and transform a 36-hole, three-course facility to a single 18-hole course. Read more about the changes. OPINIONS Chuan Ming Ong The A.I. boom might be worse than the 2008 housing bubble, a former Biden administration economic official writes. The youth protests in India have shattered Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s era of omnipotence, writes Lydia Polgreen, and protesters worldwide should take note. Subscribe to New York Times Games. Get Super Duolingo for free. For a limited time, annual Games subscribers can enjoy 6 months of language learning with Super Duolingo. Subscribe now TODAY’S NUMBER 340,000 — That is how many properties were inherited in the United States last year, a record. One result has been a lot of intrafamilial tension about what to do with the houses. “There are families that completely break up and stop having anything to do with each other,” a real estate agent told The Times. “They will say, ‘I never thought my brother would behave this way.’” SPORTS N.B.A.: The Oklahoma City Thunder star Jalen Williams suffered a gruesome lower-leg injury in the final minutes of a 108-101 victory over the LA Clippers. W.N.B.A.: The Atlanta Dream are supposed to host Game 6 of the championship finals on Thursday at the State Farm Arena, but the N.B.A.’s Atlanta Hawks are scheduled to tip off there an hour earlier. Golf: Dustin Johnson and other LIV golfers are preparing to push the Saudi Public Investment Fund for severance payments. That could get messy. RECIPE OF THE DAY Lanna Apisukh for The New York Times I had dinner at Le Veau d’Or the other night, a little jewel box on East 60th Street that could be New York’s best French restaurant. (I’m saying it is.) You can think about a meal there for weeks. The food’s amazing, and I wish I could make some of it at home. But Veau is one of those restaurants where the cooking is so technical, precise and alchemical that even a confident home cook like me knows he’ll never in 2,000 years be able to do that. But one morning I woke up thinking about one of the appetizers the kitchen sends out: pommes soufflées with red caviar, crème fraîche and dill (above). Well. You can buy salmon roe, crème fraîche and dill at the store. Also those home-fry patties of the sort they sell at McDonald’s. Fry a bunch of those in shimmering oil, top them as elegantly as you can with the cream, caviar and herbs, and serve to applause. It’s a Temu version of fancy restaurant cooking, I know, but still very delicious. DOWN FOR EVERYTHING Magdalena Wosinska for The New York Times A quarter-century after her top billing in the movie “Save the Last Dance,” Julia Stiles has become an unexpected favorite on the reality-television staple “Dancing With the Stars.” Stiles is not a dancer with star quality. She’s a star with dancer quality. “It’s moving and surreal,” she told The Times of her reception. “It seems like people are responding this way because they need something, and I don’t know what that is exactly or if I can give it to them.” Read the conversation. More on culture One of the toughest jobs on Broadway is that of the “swing,” the actor who understudies for the understudies, and who can be called on to perform any one of a show’s roles at any time. Meet Maria Briggs, who has that job in “Schmigadoon!” The Elizabeth Holmes discourse continues, as Wesley Morris joins Pablo Torre to talk about “You Can See Everything,” the “artistically wondrous and journalistically frustrating” documentary about her. It’s fantastic, but fair warning: spoiler city. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Jim Knipfel Kate Crane Read about the life of Jim Knipfel, a serial memoirist in the alternative press, who died this month at 61. Knipfel spent four decades documenting his descent into blindness against a backdrop of absurdity, despair and great humor. “If you got into that, you got way into that,” one of his editors remembered. “He had a fanatical following.” Prepare for ski and snowboard season (and for riding your bike to work in the cold, as I do). Consider these warm and mostly waterproof gloves tested and tested and tested by the mountain goats at Wirecutter. Build a streak. It leads to healthy habits and a sense of well-being. (The writer David Sedaris walks 21,000 steps every day.) Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were bibliomania and binomial. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Deputy Editorial Director: Lauren Jackson

Delegations meet in Iran with Mideast region on edge over potential for renewed fighting CAIRO (AP) — High-level delegations from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey were in Tehran on Monday for meetings with Iranian authorities to try to avert renewed fighting in the Iran war. https://apnews.com/article/iran-israel-us-war-10-26-2026-36486edb61b3bf4e0df67e8a17123e44?

The Greek OT translates the Hebrew word for "rule over" in genesis 3:16 with a word used a few times in the NT. The word is #2961 κυριεύω. It appears in Luke 22.25: "And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over <2961> them, and those who exercise authority <1850> over them are called ‘benefactors.’" Note that the text then repeats itself by the expression "exercise authority over them." In this one text, we have an example the word used in Genesis 3:16 16 ¶ (3:17) And to the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy pains and thy groanings; in pain thou shalt bring forth children, and thy submission [turning] shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee <2961>. LXXE Lu 22:25 And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over <2961> them, and those who exercise authority <1850> over them are called ‘benefactors.’ KJV The husband is said to rule over his wife the way a Gentile king ruled over his subjects. Careful ladies

Venezuela’s opposition leader Machado returns after months in exile, as doubts over democracy deepen CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado reappeared in Venezuela Sunday for the first time since December, returning from exile at a time when doubts about the country’s democratic future — and the role of the U.S. — are growing. https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-maria-corina-machado-return-democracy-maduro-e6eff0c2ff962fd9b0f87270b24ef567?