Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told Fox News that Senate Republicans hadn’t budgeted a ton of money for Ken Paxton’s Senate campaign in Texas and they would instead rely on President Trump.

“Republicans say their party will need to do a lot of soul searching to find its direction before President Trump leaves office in 2029, something that is coming into sharper focus with the approaching midterm election and the realization that Trump will soon become a lame duck,” NewsNation reports. “GOP strategists and political experts say […]

“Top economic policymakers from many of the world’s wealthiest nations begin two days of meetings on Monday in Asheville, N.C. at an incredibly challenging moment. Global inflation is high, growth is choked by war in the Middle East, and rising borrowing costs are straining government budgets,” the New York Times reports. “But on the eve […]

“As the nation prepares to mark 25 years since Sept. 11, 2001, Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, may be facing the risk of renewed scrutiny and fresh political attack,” CBS News reports. “El-Sayed is a leader of a new crop of candidates from a wing of his party that opposed […]

John Cassidy: “In principle, it’s easier to estimate the economic costs of the war; in practice, the task is far from straightforward. Even if the calculation is restricted to the United States, you first have to count the military outlays on things such as munitions, additional troop deployments, and repairing the extensive damage that Iranian […]

“The United Arab Emirates’ air force intercepted an Iranian drone over its territorial waters Monday, the Defense Ministry said, an attack that comes after the United States and Iran exchanged fire on the weekend, the first significant military action in a month,” the Associated Press reports.

“Profits are booming at America’s biggest companies—and their leaders say that likely won’t change soon,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Chalk the good times up to a confluence of fortunate events: red-hot artificial-intelligence spending, federal spending and the windfall companies are getting in the form of refunds of some of their past tariff payments. Plus, […]

Ed Kilgore: “At the age of 39, Ossoff would appear to have a long career ahead of him, wherever it leads. But aside from his own reelection to the Senate, which isn’t at all in the bag just yet (recall that Trump carried Georgia by 115,000 votes in 2024), he may be called upon to […]

“The Trump administration is working to cut global health funding to developing nations by tens of billions of dollars by 2030, according to a new analysis of the secretive agreements U.S. officials have pursued with more than a dozen governments to date,” the Washington Post reports. “The planned cuts — targeting programs that combat the […]

“Xi Jinping will be clocking up air miles this week, zipping from Beijing to Bishkek to Cairo and back,” Bloomberg reports. “It’s part of a diplomatic push designed to increase the Chinese leader’s influence just as that of President Donald Trump slides, with his ‘America First’ approach riling much of the globe.” “On display will […]

“Russia has turned to a terrifying new tactic in its assaults on Ukraine, launching nonstop waves of armed drones in recent days into busy areas of the capital, Kyiv. The relentless attacks have left residents exhausted and on edge as air raid sirens bellow nearly constantly,” the New York Times reports. “With Moscow firing drone […]

“Republicans and Democrats are fighting over working class voters. Americans don’t believe the rhetoric,” Politico reports. “Fifty-five percent of Americans think politicians are just trying to win votes when they say they will help the working class, according to new results from The Politico Poll. It’s a view held by majorities of people who voted […]

“Israel’s Shin Bet security agency says it urgently evacuated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s oldest son from the United States due to a threat against him,” Politico reports.

“President Trump posted an AI-generated video Sunday evening of what he said was Iran’s oil export hub of Kharg Island being ‘blown to smithereens’ hours after the first American airstrikes targeting the Islamic Republic since July,” the New York Post reports. “Trump, 80, did not clarify that the 10-second clip on his Truth Social account […]

“Afghanistan is offering the U.S. access to mineral resources, in an overture to the Trump administration as the de facto Taliban government pitches for relief from sanctions and the release of frozen assets to support one of the world’s poorest countries,” the Financial Times reports. “The bid for investment comes as the Taliban has stepped […]

“Election officials in nearly half the states are warning the courts that implementing the U.S. Postal Service’s new mail ballot rule would cause significant turmoil in their plans for the midterm elections, with plenty of signs voters would lose their chance to vote,” NOTUS reports. “In declarations filed in a lawsuit seeking to halt the […]

“America’s grocery squeeze has thus far been most painfully felt in a few expensive categories, like beef, coffee and chocolate,” Axios reports. “Now, the forces pushing up food prices are starting to pile up: expensive grain, soaring fertilizer and fuel, plus unpredictable weather and raging wars.” ”The next grocery price shock could hit much harder […]

“When Vanity Fair published close-up photos of President Donald Trump’s core advisers at the end of 2025, the group included five staffers alongside the vice president and secretary of state. Now two of those five aides are gone from the West Wing, turnover that’s reshaping the management of a deeply personal presidency,” Semafor reports. “Two […]

Washington Post: “It is a risky strategy two months before Election Day. Vulnerable Republicans cannot afford to antagonize Trump because they need his help to turn out his base and tap into the $400 million war chest he controls. And he is not extending the leeway past presidents have for candidates to run their own […]

New York Times: “All across America, the midterm elections are drowning in dark money.” “A New York Times review of advertising data, campaign-finance filings and tax records revealed that about $1 billion in anonymous money is sloshing through the political landscape in 2026, a staggering sum and yet almost certainly a low-end estimate, given how […]

“Russia’s Defense Ministry said it is planning ‘massive strikes’ on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, days after launching a devastating attack on a warehouse near Kyiv, amplifying fears of another winter assault,” CNBC reports.

Nate Cohn: “The New York Times/Siena Poll has traditionally been a telephone survey, but over the last few years we’ve experimented with most of the major methods for contacting voters. These include sending them text messages (and sometimes offering financial incentives to participate), sending them mail with financial incentives, and getting data from panels of […]

“Lawmakers can spend years trying to land seats on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. Several could finally get their chance in the next Congress,” Politico reports. ”The panel with vast jurisdiction over health care, artificial intelligence, energy and telecommunications will have at least eight empty slots in the next Congress — four on […]

“A plan in one of Texas’ largest counties to use dozens fewer polling locations than in previous years is drawing protests from Democrats who say the reductions could create confusion in the November midterm elections,” the Associated Press reports. “The proposal, set for a vote Tuesday, would reduce the number of polling locations across booming […]

Punchbowl News: “It’s striking that Republicans have settled on a message that Trump is on the ballot in 2026. The election will be all about him anyway, so this is an attempt to turn necessity into a political virtue.” ”Yet Trump’s approval ratings are well under 40%, especially on his handling of the economy. He’s […]

“The House is back in session, but it might be a short one,” Politico reports. “Speaker Mike Johnson is looking to tick off the lone essential item on the chamber’s to-do list in lawmakers’ first days back: a Senate-passed, shutdown-averting spending bill.” “A handful of other priorities are caught up in partisan battles and Senate […]

“The rate at which mail votes have been rejected for arriving late has ticked up in primaries this year and general elections last year in roughly a dozen states, prompting election officials to worry that the U.S. Postal Service is ill-equipped to deliver ballots in the fall midterms,” the New York Times reports.

“President Donald Trump’s plan to seize direct control of Venezuela’s oil reserves is prompting warnings that the Latin American nation will become a modern-day resource colony akin to the so-called banana republics of a century ago — something that could create long-term risks for oil companies operating there,” Bloomberg reports.

“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s potential run for president has exposed long-simmering divisions within the Democratic Socialists of America,” Axios reports. “The socialism movement’s leaders are increasingly at odds over who should speak for them, what policies they stand for — and whether to support AOC, whom some dismiss as more establishment than insurgent.”

Just two months from Election Day, Republicans are trailing in eight of the major battleground Senate races.