Thursday, October 22, 2026 · Morning Edition

Today

By StaffNews Desk

Good morning. The bill workers cannot escape is health care. Costs keep rising and are becoming unaffordable for some, and the squeeze reaches even those who did everything right: about 157 million Americans get their insurance through a job, yet workers with that coverage still name health costs a top concern. The moderate uptick in employer prices this year lands, as it always does, on the people who do the work — not the bosses who set it.

The administration heads into the closing days from weakness. Trump's approval sits around 30 percent, and he has been reduced to urging Republicans to vote by mail early after months of branding mail ballots fraudulent to push his SAVE Act. He is rallying red states like Iowa, where his own tariffs and rising fuel prices have gutted farmers, scrambling for turnout with control of Congress at stake. Even blue Minnesota is proving difficult for Democrats, Kansas is tighter than Republicans anticipated, and the Senate may hinge on Alaska's ranked-choice rules. From that weakness the administration reaches for the thumb on the scale: Democrats have sued over an alleged election-pressure campaign they call federal overreach meant to sow distrust in the outcome.

Behind the noise the machinery grinds on. Trump's Education Department has scaled back investigations into discrimination and sexual assault on campus. The state itself is being refashioned as an investor taking stakes in private companies, and after extending Trump Accounts to every child the administration now eyes adults.

Abroad, the war is being held for after the votes. The US has ordered diplomats and their families out of Saudi Arabia as Iran-backed Houthi forces strike from Yemen — pulling non-emergency staff after strikes on an airport and oil field while it reportedly readies strikes on Iran after the midterms.