Thursday, October 15, 2026 · Morning Edition

Today

By StaffNews Desk

Good morning. President Volodymyr Zelensky has told the Financial Times that Ukraine will resume strikes on Russian oil refineries, defying the demand from Washington that had forced him to pause them. Kyiv is restarting the attacks after Moscow failed to hold up its end of the energy deal Trump brokered. Zelenskyy has angrily accused the United States of a "dangerous" withdrawal of support critical to its defense against Russia. The episode sharpens the old question of what Putin holds over Trump.

At a rally, Trump said leakers "should be shot" and pointed to the journalists covering him, calling them almost as bad. This is who the administration names as its enemy—reporters and leakers—while in New York a man shot by ICE agents during an arrest still has the bullet lodged in his neck nearly a week later, his attorneys say. The violence points downward.

Weeks before the midterms, the base is cracking. In one of the reddest counties in West Virginia, soaring gas prices and datacenter expansion are eroding Trump's standing, while Georgia swing voters say they regret their votes. A new inflation report shows prices rising faster than expected with the election three weeks away. In deep-red Mississippi, Democrat Scott Colom polls four points behind GOP Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith; in Michigan, Ocasio-Cortez is campaigning for Abdul El-Sayed, a test case for the organized left, as Congress scrutinizes Meta's data center credits amid backlash to the AI buildout.

Having lost in the courts, Missouri Republicans want to rewrite how top judges are selected—the right changing the rules when it cannot win under them. Abroad, South Africa's Constitutional Court ruled for the ANC over excluded candidates, a judgment that may force reprinting municipal ballots weeks before the vote.