The election is already underway
Today is Saturday, October 24, 2026
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- Good morning, and welcome to Hark News. Here's what the world got up to while you slept. First, the weather in New York. A high of 60 and a low of 39, with clear skies.
- More than 20 million Americans have already voted ahead of the November 3 midterms, with early participation running especially high in several battleground states. Democrats currently make up a larger share of those voters than they did at this point in 2024, but Republicans tend to turn out on Election Day, so the scoreboard is very much not final.
- The Justice Department is asking a court to delay certification of Alaska's Senate result if Republican Dan Sullivan loses, arguing that an independent candidate with the same surname may have confused voters.
- Ukraine says restrictions on its Starlink and Starshield service are still limiting military operations, despite President Trump's claim that Elon Musk restored access. Fareed Zakaria's argument is that the damage reaches beyond Ukraine: allies are now wondering whether an American communications system can be relied on in a crisis when its owner and the White House can alter the terms.
- Two Palestinian gunmen attacked an Israeli military checkpoint in the West Bank, killing two soldiers and wounding others. Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the territory closed and began demolitions in a neighborhood, just days before an election in which security failures, settler violence and the unresolved question of coalition formation are all competing for attention.
- The United States is moving a third aircraft carrier into the Middle East while American and Israeli officials prepare plans for a possible attack on Iran after the midterms, according to NPR.
- The IMF expects Gulf economies to shrink 4.8% this year as war disrupts energy, shipping, tourism and trade. Bahrain is in the most exposed position, with debt above 150% of GDP and foreign reserves down by half since March, while the UAE is reportedly discussing a rescue package.
- Record diesel prices are hurting farmers, truckers and other businesses, but they have not yet triggered a mass shift to electric or methane-powered equipment. The immediate response is more modest: less idling, slower driving and better route planning, while electric trucking gains ground in California, where operators say it can cut fueling costs by about 40%.
- AI companies are still reporting strong sales and backlogs, but investors are increasingly unimpressed. Meta fell 9.4% over the week despite beating expectations, while AI infrastructure names also dropped, suggesting markets are questioning whether the spending boom can keep producing returns rather than merely producing ever larger data centers.
- Meta beat Wall Street's latest expectations, then watched its shares fall 7% after raising the lower end of its capital-spending forecast and declining to guide for 2027.
- Major banks are restricting access by third-party AI agents after customers handed over login credentials and some agents appeared to act beyond their instructions. No customer-fund hack has been reported in these accounts, but banks are scenario-planning for worse, including agents moving money or triggering a financial panic.
- Researchers used AI to uncover critical vulnerabilities in PHP, software used by roughly 70% of websites whose server language is known. The flaws had been around for more than a decade and could let attackers take control of servers, prompting warnings from the NSA and a hurried patching effort.
- OpenAI is reportedly assembling a funding round of up to $30 billion that could value the company at $1.25 trillion, with investors from the United Arab Emirates leading the talks.
- Elon Musk has invested about $1 billion in Skydance, the newly enlarged media company that also carries roughly $87 billion in debt. Musk and Skydance chief David Ellison have discussed a distribution deal, possibly involving SpaceX, but the arrangement is not final.
- Apple's first foldable iPhone went on sale with a $1,999 starting price and quickly ran into limited supply. Customers in several cities lined up, while Apple's website pushed delivery dates toward late January.
- The administration is reducing 50% Canadian tariffs on 9 categories of goods used by Maine agriculture, including refrigeration equipment, packaging and seaweed. Officials say the total tariff burden on Canada will remain unchanged because other products will be hit instead.
- The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index came in at 48 in October, nearly unchanged from September and 10% below last year's level. Current buying conditions worsened sharply as prices and borrowing costs squeezed households, though expectations improved slightly.
- Ground beef reached $6.79 a pound, up 85% in a decade, while eggs have fallen to $2.27 a dozen and butter is down 17.3% from last year.
- An experimental personalized mRNA vaccine, combined with Keytruda, cut the risk of melanoma returning or causing death by 42% compared with Keytruda alone in a late-stage trial.
- A mutated H1N1 strain is driving an unusually early flu season in parts of the United States. The mutation appeared too late to be included in this year's vaccine, but experts say the shots should still provide protection.
- And that's your world for today. The full stories and the links are waiting in the app. Tap through, bookmark what matters, and share what's worth sharing. And if you want to see what stuck, take today's quiz in the app: five quick questions. And if Hark is making your mornings a little better, share it with a friend. It's the best way to help us grow. I'll see you again tomorrow morning. Until then, have a great day.