Friday, October 9, 2026 · Evening Edition

Today

By StaffNews Desk

Good morning. The Trump administration is planning a public killing, a state execution; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke from a stage in Sparrows Point, Maryland, on October 6. The target is the Fort Hood shooter, chosen by Hegseth for what Slate names a grotesque publicity stunt. The machinery of state violence runs closer to home: an ICE agent shot a 28-year-old father inside a car while his five-year-old son sat in the back seat, and the man, not the agent, is the one now in custody in Brooklyn. New Yorkers have asked Mayor Mamdani to protect them from his own police department and federal agents alike, while Senate investigators found the administration's migrant jail at Guantánamo has cost more than $100 million to hold zero detainees.

Facing midterms next month, Trump is scrambling to cushion the blow at the pump: the BBC reads his shock Russia deal as a bid to curb fuel prices and ease his party's pain before the vote. Friday evening he carried that message into deep-blue New York, rallying in Syracuse alongside GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman as Republicans try to flip the governor's mansion.

In Texas, Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico made his first public appearance this month after the flu, an absence Republicans worked to paint as suspicious; across the aisle, a strategist told MS NOW the daily leaks from Ken Paxton's campaign are a deliberate effort to sink him. The DOJ is meanwhile scrutinizing Binance over possible Iran sanctions violations, and prediction-market firm Kalshi hired a former FBI agent amid pressure over manipulation and insider trading.

Workers are not waiting on any of them. Across Asia and the Pacific, Karnataka garment workers are protesting pension and provident-fund restrictions, Western Australian coalminers are striking over pay and redundancy, and New Zealand university and polytech staff have voted for a unified strike. After more than four months of an eerily placid Atlantic, Hurricane Isaias has strengthened to a Category 3 with winds up to 120 mph, expected to make landfall on the Gulf Coast Friday night.