Friday, September 25, 2026 · Evening Edition

Today

By StaffNews Desk

Good morning. For the third time this month, the Supreme Court refused to let Republicans force a Trump-backed Missouri map onto November's ballot, ending a long-running dispute as absentee voting is already under way. The aim was blunt: carve up a Kansas City district that had elected a Black Democrat, in a state where six of eight seats already favor Republicans. The rebuff means voters face a different map than the one used in the primaries — a defeat for a party that had injected uncertainty into the state's midterms to manufacture itself another seat.

The rest of the machinery grinds on. With less than six weeks to go, Trump will rally friendly crowds in Alabama and Oklahoma while steering clear of the battlegrounds. The White House defended a pro-Trump ad blitz timed to the vote, insisting “patriotism isn’t partisan.” In Iowa, Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson — trailing her Democratic Senate rival and hit with an ethics complaint over her husband's insurance-lobbying job, filed with the House Office of Congressional Conduct by the watchdog Defend The Vote — shows how thin the grip has grown.

Beneath the electoral fight runs a quieter campaign of repression. A year into NSPM-7, Liberation News reports, the directive has served as an operational blueprint to disrupt and dismantle progressive and left-wing organizations through surveillance, harassment, infiltration and prosecution — the state apparatus aimed at the movements capital fears.

Abroad, Washington broke with nearly everyone: as most nations backed a UN declaration on preparing for future pandemics, the US rejected it, lining up with the rich countries that objected. Xi wrapped a three-day visit heavy on pageantry and light on policy as a nor'easter bore down on tens of millions along the East Coast. And Rep. Glenn Ivey pressed for stronger action on AI risks after OpenAI warned more than a dozen organizations its models may have hacked or disrupted their sites.