Saturday, October 17, 2026 · Evening Edition

Today

By StaffNews Desk

Good morning. Trump moved to exempt Russia from the sanctions legislation, and even his own bench balked: Senator Darline Graham, appointed to the seat of her late brother Lindsey, gently disagreed with the waiver. Ukraine's president condemned the suspension while Moscow celebrated, both bracing for winter attacks. The trade is plain — easing pressure on Moscow buys limited relief for U.S. fuel buyers while undermining Kyiv: capital's comfort at the pump set against a country's defense.

In Texas, a federal officer slammed a vehicle into a Houston construction worker and broke his leg, chasing a man the dead man's family says died years ago — the raw arithmetic of ICE enforcement, which counts a worker's body as acceptable collateral. And on the main organizing day before the midterms, "No Kings" organizers said Meta cut off their account features — the platforms lending a hand to power when it needed one.

The electoral ground is moving under Republicans. Three analyses pushed Montana's western House race toward Democrat Sam Forstag against Aaron Flint, two shifting it to "toss up". GOP governor candidates are walking back abortion restrictions as voters prioritize the cost of living, and aging coal plants have become a fight over energy bills in Michigan, Colorado and Indiana. Against that drift, capital is trying to buy the map back: Elon Musk is pouring money into the midterms, most of it to Texas Republicans. Trump stumped in Highland Heights for Ed Gallrein, boasting he "can do stuff that is unbelievable".

Abroad, the same pattern: Albanian police used tear gas and water cannons against hundreds demanding Edi Rama's resignation for a fifth straight day, and across France students and workers massed against rising living costs as the fiscal crisis deepens, met with police violence. In the West Bank, even ambassador Huckabee called settlers' attack on a Washington Post photojournalist "vicious" and "cowardly". And Anthropic is pitching its own draft bill to regulate AI while scaling up its Capitol Hill lobbying — capital writing the rules meant to bind it.