Vivek Ramaswamy's $4 million attack ad against Amy Acton divides Ohio Republicans 22 Oct 2026, 3:31 pm

A new campaign ad in which the estranged mother of Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton argues that her daughter should not be elected as the Buckeye State's next governor has added a new level of controversy to what was already one of the most closely watched races of the midterms.

Acton, a Democrat, is running to replace outgoing Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. She's facing Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, a billionaire who ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2024. 

In the ad, Acton's mother, Donna Arthur, calls her daughter a "liar" and urges Ohioans not to support her. 

"Don't let her become your governor," she says. "If you think she'll make your life better, you're fooling yourself. It will only get worse."

As the ad began to spread across social media, Acton's brother released a statement in which he accused Arthur of siding with their stepfather after he was charged with sexually abusing Acton when she was a child, and criticized Ramaswamy for attempting to use the alleged abuse as a "political talking point." 

Ramaswamy defended the ad on Tuesday, telling reporters that Acton's account of her past "does deserve to be scrutinized." His campaign confirmed to the Enquirer that it will spend $4 million to air the ad across the state. 

The ongoing controversy over the ad, which has been widely condemned by Democrats and sparked pushback from some Republicans, has put a new spotlight on the race for Ohio's top elected office. 

Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, an incumbent Republican locked in a tight reelection race, released a statement saying he personally "would not have run" the ad. Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance, himself a former senator from Ohio, said Republicans who disapprove of the ad should "stop whining" and remember that politics is a "tough business" during a campaign stop in Cincinnati on Wednesday.

DeWine, who has endorsed Ramaswamy in the race, made his first public comments on the ad on Thursday, telling reporters that it was "wrong."

"The ad, on its face, is deeply, deeply troubling, but when you know the rest of the story … it just makes it more wrong," he said. "It's wrong to run this ad."

Trump weighed in on the controversy on Thursday, praising Arthur for her “courage.”

“What she was really doing was saving Ohio from making a truly horrible choice!” He wrote on Truth Social. “The Press is trying to convince everyone that this Ad is bad, because it’s so good! Who wouldn’t use such an Ad? I would, it’s called, ‘hitting pay dirt.’”

Yahoo

Once a key swing state, Ohio has steadily become redder in recent decades. Four years ago, DeWine won reelection by more than 25 percentage points. But polls suggest that Acton has a chance to break the GOP's long run of control over the Ohio Statehouse.

Here's what you need to know about who she is, how her past informs what she stands for today and what the polls say about her chances of winning. 

Who is Amy Acton?

Acton has been open about the "difficult" childhood she endured growing up in Youngstown, Ohio, in the 1970s. On her campaign website, she says she overcame "periods of abuse, hunger, and neglect, and even wound up living in a tent in the middle of winter." 

In 2019, she publicly alleged for the first time that she had been sexually assaulted by her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, between the ages of 9 and 12. After Acton's biological father reported the alleged abuse in 1978, Arthur was arrested and charged with rape, according to contemporary news reports and court documents obtained by the Associated Press. Acton's mother sided with her stepfather, disputing the allegations. The couple left the state before Arthur could face trial and reportedly remained together until his death in 2004.

Both Acton and her mother say they have not seen or spoken to each other since a court hearing in which Acton testified against her stepfather nearly 50 years ago.

"In the courthouse after they were charged, I went to give her a kiss, and she just turned her cheek away. That was the last time I ever saw her," Acton told the now-shuttered newspaper the Vindicator in 2019. 

Acton found more stability after moving in with her father and became a standout student in high school. She earned a bachelor's degree from Youngstown State University and a medical degree from the Northeast Ohio School of Medicine, working various jobs to pay her way through college. She completed residencies in pediatrics and preventive medicine before becoming a professor at Ohio State University, where she taught classes on maternal and child health. She also directed a community organization called Project L.O.V.E. to promote preventive health care among Columbus-area children.

In 2019, DeWine tapped her to become director of the Ohio Department of Health. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit a year later, she advised DeWine to take swift action to control the spread of the virus. Under her guidance, Ohio became the first state in the nation to shut down all public schools. Acton also gained national attention thanks to the daily public briefings she gave throughout the early stages of the pandemic. In May 2020, an opinion piece in the New York Times called her "The Leader We Wish We All Had." 

Acton resigned a month later amid pressure from the Republican-led state legislature to sign orders rolling back COVID restrictions, moves she would later say "there was no science for." She briefly remained part of DeWine's administration as a public health adviser before leaving to resume working in the nonprofit sector. 

She announced her plans to run for governor in early 2025 and cruised through the Democratic primary in May.

Acton was married to her first husband, with whom she had three children, for nearly 20 years before they divorced in 2008. She married her current husband in 2010 and became stepmother to his three children. 

What does Acton stand for?

As a Democrat running in a conservative-leaning state, Acton fits firmly into the moderate wing of her party. Her policy platform focuses heavily on affordability, including proposals to lower the cost of health care, combat fraud, cut high energy bills and crack down on corporations that take advantage of workers and consumers. 

In July, she drew criticism from some progressive Democrats for saying that she supported barring transgender children from participating in girls' and women's sports. Soon afterward, she added language to her website pledging to protect Ohio's LGBTQ community, without directly contradicting her previously stated stance on transgender athletes' participation in sports. Acton has also spoken in favor of Ohio's voter ID requirements, a position that puts her at odds with many Democrats who view such laws as a voter suppression tactic by Republicans. 

Acton has also called for an increase in funding for police departments, more money for public schools and heavy investment in Ohio's rural and farming communities. 

What are her chances?

Polling in the Ohio governor's race has fluctuated significantly as Election Day has grown closer. In the aggregate, the polls suggest that Acton has steadily widened her lead over Ramaswamy over the past several weeks. At the same time, two polls released in October show Ramaswamy ahead. The Cook Political Report and the Center for Politics, two of the country's top nonpartisan forecasters, list the race as a toss-up.

No polls of the race have been conducted since the ad featuring Acton's mother became public, so it's too early to gauge what impact — if any — the controversy might have on voters' views of the two candidates.

'Looksmaxxing' influencer Clavicular pleads not guilty in Mass. rape case 22 Oct 2026, 12:21 pm

Clavicular, a social media influencer who promotes the "looksmaxxing" trend of young men maximising their attractiveness, has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges including rape.

The 20-year-old, whose real name is Braden Peters, was charged in September with felony rape, drugging an individual for sexual intercourse and procuring alcohol for someone under the age of 21.

The charges stem from an incident in 2025 when he is accused of assaulting a 17-year-old girl at his family's Massachusetts home.

Peters has denied the allegations and said the encounter was consensual. On Thursday, he was granted $10,000 bail, ordered not to contact or post about his accuser, and to surrender his passport.

A woman told police that on 23 May 2025, Peters ordered her an Uber to his family's house in Chatham where they were drinking alcohol while filming a livestream before he allegedly raped her, according to the BBC's US partner, CBS News.

The police officer who took the report said he believed she was unable to consent due to her age and the level of intoxication she exhibited in the livestream, CBS reported.

Clavicular has more than a million followers on TikTok and Instagram and has garnered media attention for extreme measures he has taken for "looksmaxxing".

He has admitted to using a hammer on his face and jawline and taking a number of steroids, injections, and other drugs to achieve bodily perfection. He also gives advice on appearing masculine and performs stunts to shock followers.

In Florida earlier this year, he was charged after filming himself shooting at what appeared to be a dead alligator. He pleaded no contest to unlawfully discharging a firearm in public.

In March, he was arrested on suspicion of battery after authorities suspected him of instigating a fight between two women. Authorities said in July that they did not intend to file charges.

After Thursday's hearing, Peters posted a photo of himself in the black suit and black tie he wore to court, while holding his dog which he also brought to court.

His next hearing will be on 24 November, when the judge will decide if there is enough evidence for the case to move forward.

• 'Looksmaxxing' influencer Clavicular charged with rape in Massachusetts
• Looksmaxxing influencer Clavicular charged over alleged alligator shooting
• Sculpting jaws, giving scores: Inside the world of looksmaxxing

Karoline Leavitt offers blunt assessment of successor who lasted just 5 days 22 Oct 2026, 12:08 pm

Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged Thursday that her successor Katie Zacharia, who stepped down after less than a week as press secretary, was not a good fit for the job. 

“Look, White House press secretary is a tough job. I know that because I did it,” Leavitt said in an interview with Fox News Digital.

“Many people say it’s one of the hardest jobs in politics. It takes a lot of preparation. Sometimes you don’t know how someone will perform until they go out there,” she continued. “As the president said, we wish Katie the best. The job obviously was not for her.” 

Leavitt said Trump is continuing his search for potential candidates, and she has offered to assist the president in finding a replacement. 

“I do obviously talk to him about what the job entails, and he knows it very well. Nobody understands the press better than Donald Trump. He knows that he needs someone who is tough, who is smart, who understands his policies, who is loyal and can go out there and put up a fight,” she said.

Leavitt served as press secretary from the beginning of the second Trump administration in January 2025 until this August, saying she wanted to spend more time with her family. 

Prior to serving as White House press secretary, Leavitt worked as press secretary on Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. Despite her exit from the White House, Leavitt is still seen as a close confidant of Trump's. 

Leavitt’s comments came after Zacharia left the role after only five days on the job earlier this month. 

Zacharia's departure followed intense scrutiny over a shaky first press conference, which lasted 14 minutes, as well as skepticism over her legal background. 

Utah football player suspended after rape allegation and arrest 22 Oct 2026, 11:10 am

(Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of an alleged sexual assault.)

Utah defensive tackle Jamal Wallace has not been with the team because of a suspension following a rape allegation against him.

Wallace was arrested on Oct. 11 on five counts of distribution of an intimate image after a woman he was dating alleged that he had raped her. The school said in a statement Wednesday that it was "made aware of the situation with Jamal Wallace on Oct. 11 and he was immediately placed on indefinite suspension from the program."

Per the probable cause statement obtained by KSL, the woman said that Wallace forced her to perform oral sex after they were discussing their relationship and infidelity. An investigation into the rape accusation is ongoing.

The incident eventually stopped when he "aggressively told her to stand up," before he pushed her down on an ottoman and forced his way into having sex with her, according to the documents. He eventually moved her to the bedroom, where he "pushed her down" again and continued to forcibly have sex with her, while saying "she belonged to him," according to the documents.

The woman said she continued to try to "flinch" and "pull away," but he continued to keep her there before he left the room. She said she was "frozen" during the incident and "thought if she just let it happen, it wouldn't last that long."

The woman also said Wallace filmed the incident with her phone and then sent footage to people on Snapchat. Salt Lake City police saw the videos and said the phone had been in his possession at the time.

Distribution of an intimate image is a misdemeanor in Utah for first-time offenders. Repeat offenses are third-degree felonies.

Wallace, a senior, transferred from Tennessee in the offseason and appeared in one game in 2026. He had seven total tackles across nine games in two seasons with the Volunteers. No. 10 Utah, one of four remaining undefeated teams in college football, hosts No. 14 Houston on Saturday night.

Judge orders Trump to sit for deposition in BBC defamation lawsuit by Dec. 11 22 Oct 2026, 9:19 am

MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump to sit for a deposition in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC by Dec. 11.

The order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett came as lawyers for the British broadcaster complained that Trump had delayed his appearance. Charles Tobin, attorney for the BBC, said that with two months left in the discovery period, “we still haven’t been able to depose the plaintiff.”

He noted there was an agreed-upon date of Oct. 16, but said Trump had canceled it for a “matter of national importance.” Tobin said the Republican president was in fact campaigning in Georgia that day. “He was participating in party politics and prioritized that over sitting for the deposition,” Tobin said.

Lett said Trump must sit for a deposition by Dec. 11, or face sanctions up to dismissal of his lawsuit -– unless the discovery period is extended past Dec. 18.

Discovery, where lawyers for both sides exchange documents and other evidence, is scheduled to end Dec. 18, and the BBC's attorneys want to make sure they have Trump’s deposition before that deadline. Lett said only the presiding judge assigned to the case can alter the trial schedule, and the defense said it would be open to scheduling the deposition at a later time if the trial schedule was also moved back.

Trump, who has often avoided depositions, filed his lawsuit against the BBC last December. He accused the publicly funded broadcaster of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices related to a documentary, “Trump: A Second Chance.”

The BBC acknowledged that filmmakers spliced together quotes from different sections of the speech Trump delivered to his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, before the storming of the U.S. Capitol, to make it seem he was directly urging violence. The broadcaster apologized over the editing, and the head of the BBC and its top news executive both resigned. But the BBC has denied Trump’s claims that it defamed him.

Trump's attorneys also argued against recording his deposition on video, asking for only a court reporter. The judge ruled that the deposition could be recorded on video but only for attorneys, meaning it wouldn’t be released to the public.

It remained unclear whether Jack Smith would be allowed to sit for deposition

To bolster its defense, the broadcaster subpoenaed former special counsel Jack Smith earlier this month. Trump’s lawyers have argued that there was no good reason for Smith, who is not a party to the case, to appear.

After arguments Thursday, it was not clear whether Smith would be allowed to sit for a deposition. One issue raised was whether Smith had received the legally required permission from the Department of Justice. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Feeley told the judge that Smith had sent a letter to the department saying he would not testify without permission, and the agency had not yet responded. Lett ordered the department to respond to Smith by Nov. 2.

Earlier in the hearing, Tobin, the BBC lawyer, told the judge that Smith has not objected to being deposed for this case, meaning the only objection is coming from Trump. Tobin said the BBC is not trying to relitigate the events of Jan. 6, but Smith is one of the leading experts in what happened that day, and his deposition could lead the BBC to evidence that could help their case.

“We can argue later on whether his testimony is admissible," Tobin said, “but we are entitled to that deposition.”

Trump's lawyer, Alejandro Brito, said Smith has no personal knowledge of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech or Trump's state of mind when he gave it. All of Smith’s knowledge about the case is secondhand, Brito argued, and the special counsel's report, along with Smith’s testimony before Congress, is all public and available to the BBC’s attorneys, he said.

Judge says the BBC can see membership records for Mar-a-Lago

Turning to the damages issue, the judge agreed that the BBC should be allowed to see records for the total number of applications for membership at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida from Jan. 6, 2020, through Jan. 6, 2026, as well as the total cost of membership and initiation fees for new applicants.

Tobin said one aspect of any defamation case is showing actual damages, and the popularity of Mar-a-Lago is a significant indicator of Trump’s reputation. The BBC's lawyer described the private club as “a place where he exhibits his reputation in front of people who are important to him.”

Brito argued that Trump does not actually run Mar-a-Lago, and that his reputation is not associated with the club.

Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas charged with drug trafficking and money laundering 22 Oct 2026, 8:57 am

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, was charged Thursday with leading what authorities alleged was a wide-ranging criminal enterprise that acquired and distributed large quantities of marijuana and laundered the proceeds.

Lucas, who has been in elected office for decades, used her political power to insulate the operation from scrutiny, according to an indictment charging her and six other defendants, including several of her relatives. She “put her own financial interests before the people she was elected to serve,” said U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, who spoke at a news conference with FBI Director Kash Patel.

Lucas surrendered, the Justice Department said. She made a brief appearance in federal court on Thursday afternoon, where she was released on her own recognizance, according to court records. She left the court without addressing media gathered outside and went straight into a waiting vehicle.

The charges, including drug trafficking and money laundering, came after the FBI searched Lucas' hometown office and a cannabis shop in which she has a stake in May. At the time of the search, Lucas — who has been a vocal critic of Republican President Donald Trump’s administration — characterized it as an attempt to intimidate her.

“This is the circus we always expected it to be,” said Brian Woolfolk, chief counsel for the L. Louise Lucas Legal Defense Fund.

Lucas says she won't be bullied by the federal government

A statement attributed to Lucas posted on her social media account did not directly address the substance of the charges but said Thursday's actions amounted to the federal government wielding its “full weight” against a great-grandmother.

“I will not be intimidated. I will not be bullied. And I will not back down,” Lucas said in the statement.

The brash 82-year-old lawmaker has spent decades ascending the ranks of Virginia politics and has served since 1992 in the state Senate, where she's the president pro tempore, overseeing the chamber in the lieutenant governor’s absence. More significantly, she leads the powerful Senate finance committee, through which all legislation with any budget impact must flow. She’s used the position to kill legislation she opposes.

Justice Department denies politics played a role

The indictment comes as Trump’s Justice Department has faced intense scrutiny over investigations and prosecutions against foes of the president that critics have called politically motivated.

Blanche rejected any suggestion politics played a role in Lucas’ case, noting the investigation began well before the second Trump administration started in January 2025.

“We don’t do political paybacks,” Blanche told reporters.

A person familiar with the May search told The Associated Press at the time that the probe was opened during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a continuing criminal investigation.

FBI alleges a ‘criminal marijuana enterprise’

Patel said in a statement that “Lucas and a close-knit group of family members and associates orchestrated a multi-year scheme to enrich their own criminal marijuana enterprise, ‘the Lucas Enterprise’ — using Lucas’ position as Chairwoman of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee to insulate the enterprise from criminal scrutiny and influencing legislation to financially benefit themselves.”

The indictment describes Lucas as the “leader of the enterprise” who “approved and directed criminal activities,” including arranging for the acquisition and distribution of marijuana and supervising the laundering of the proceeds.

The indictment alleges Lucas worked this year with another of the defendants to use her political position to obtain a recreational marijuana license for him, with the understanding that the proceeds from sales under the license would be shared with her to support the “enterprise.”

Since 2021, marijuana has been legal to possess in Virginia, and many shops across the state have sold cannabis-derived products. But full recreational sales are not yet underway; legislation enacted earlier this year will allow them beginning in July 2027.

Law enforcement made multiple controlled purchases of marijuana from Lucas' shop, which purported to sell hemp products, in 2024 and 2025, the indictment said.

In addition to drug and money laundering charges, Lucas faces a charge of racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and maintaining a drug-involved premises. An arraignment is scheduled for next month.

Among the other defendants who face a mix of those and other charges are two daughters of Lucas and a grandson. It was unclear if they had obtained legal representation. They were also scheduled to make an initial court appearance Thursday afternoon.

Virginia officials react

A forceful advocate of legalizing marijuana, Lucas partnered in opening the shop, The Cannabis Outlet, in 2021. She has publicly spoken about her ownership stake as recently as June, though her most recent financial disclosure forms do not list the business by name.

At the time of the search — when marijuana was recovered at The Cannabis Outlet, according to the indictment — many Democrats spoke up to defend Lucas.

On Thursday, Scott Surovell, the Democratic leader of the state Senate, said in a statement that the indictment contained “serious allegations” but emphasized that “Senator Lucas has the right to defend herself, and she has my full support as she does so.” Attorney General Jay Jones, a Democrat who is close with Lucas, said the allegations against her must be tested in a “full and fair” legal process.

House Speaker Don Scott, Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi, and Gov. Abigail Spanberger, all Democrats, echoed those sentiments, with Spanberger adding that the timing of the indictment so close to the midterm election would “further erode” Americans' trust in the Justice Department. Lucas herself is not on the ballot this year.

Ryan McDougle, the Senate Republican leader, said he would not comment while the court proceedings play out.

The senator draws comparisons to Trump

Lucas, who represents a district that includes her hometown of coastal Portsmouth, operates with a sometimes-profane, unapologetic style that’s drawn comparisons to Trump.

She amassed a six-figure following on X and national attention, using the social media platform to advocate forcefully for her priorities and to bash her critics, including former GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin. She’s also occasionally blasted members of her own party, including Spanberger, with whom she’s had disagreements.

Earlier this year, Lucas helped lead Democrats’ ultimately unsuccessful plan to gerrymander the blue-leaning state’s congressional districts into a map intended to elect 10 Democrats and only one Republican. Along the way, she posted quips about four GOP members the intended map sought to oust, joking that they soon would be working at McDonald’s. She and other Democrats defended the maps as a reasonable response to Trump-backed efforts to boost the GOP’s midterm advantage in other states.

Lucas has been in politics for decades

Lucas has notched several historic firsts in her career. According to a biography from the state library, in 1971 she became the Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s first female shipfitter, a physically demanding job that involves working on metal assemblies for vessels.

She launched her political career in 1984, when, the biography said, she became the first Black woman elected to the Portsmouth city council.

In the state Senate, Lucas has been a staunch advocate for abortion rights and increased public school funding and a leading voice on issues of racial justice and civil rights.

In 2019, after Democrats flipped control of the chamber, her peers elected her to serve as president pro tempore. And in 2024, she was tapped to lead the chamber’s budget committee, gaining enormous sway over any legislation tied to the state budget.

___

Rankin reported from Richmond. Associated Press journalists Eric Tucker in Washington and Steve Helber in Norfolk contributed to this report.

Teen girls plotted for months to commit a school shooting in California, police say 22 Oct 2026, 7:20 am

Two teenage girls have been arrested on conspiracy to commit murder charges after police said they plotted for months to commit a shooting at a Southern California high school.

The teens, both 15 years old, planned to carry out the shooting at Corona High School, according to police in Corona, California, a city of about 160,000 residents in Riverside County, about 50 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

The Corona Police Department said that it first learned of the threat on Oct. 6 from the FBI, which identified concerning communications on social media about a possible school threat to Corona High School. The investigation led to the "immediate" arrest of one suspect, a student at Corona High School, police said in a statement on Oct. 20.

Police executed search warrants at several residences and identified a second 15-year-old suspect, a student at nearby Norco High School, the statement said. She was also arrested. The Norco student had previously attended Corona High School, the Corona-Norco Unified School District said in a statement.

"The evidence obtained showed the two suspects had spent several months researching school shootings and how they could carry out a potential attack at Corona High School on an unspecified future date," the police department said.

They also talked about how they would obtain weapons, but were unable to do so yet, police said. No weapons were found during searches.

Both teens face charges of conspiracy to commit murder and are in custody, police said. Their identities were not released.

Sgt. Brandon Palaoro told USA TODAY that revenge appears to be an element to the motive. The teens had a list of names and maps of the school, he said. Police have been able to identify and contact most of the people on the list of potential targets, Palaoro said.

"(S)afeguards and collaboration thwarted a serious plan being developed by two teens who clearly have issues. This incident serves as a stark reminder that threats exist, but collaborative and swift action by the community, schools, and law enforcement is what protects our kids," Palaoro said.

Neither student has been on campus since the investigation began, the school district said.

"We understand that hearing news like this can be unsettling for families, and we want our parents to know that the safety and well-being of our students and staff remain our highest priority," the Corona-Norco Unified School District said.

USA TODAY has reached out to the FBI for more information.

News of the arrests comes days after a 16-year-old shooting suspect in Oregon opened fire in a special education classroom at an elementary school, killing three young children and one teacher. It was the 28th mass killing of the year in the United States, of which 21 were shootings, according to James Alan Fox of the Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Killing Database.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Teen girls plotted for months to commit a school shooting, police say

'Pure arrogance': Finland reacts to Google's unauthorized forest clearing for AI 22 Oct 2026, 6:22 am

Behind a wire fence lies a vast gaping wound of earth. Before Google’s arrival a few months ago, an estimated quarter of a million trees occupied the 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest near the town of Muhos in rural northern Finland. Now they are all gone.

After the tech company illegally stripped the entire area to build a datacentre – taking even the top soil with it – all that remains is a vast expanse of mud indented with the trail marks of machinery, puddles and mounds of earth, roots and branches. Residents say that brown water flowing off the site is going into a stream that feeds the Oulujoki River.

“It doesn’t end. It goes on and on,” says Mari Annala, an ecologist from the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (SLL), looking at drone footage of the former forest from the perimeter.

With 145 new datacentres at various stages of planning, Finland has found itself at the forefront of the tech companies’ latest push. As well as its relative geopolitical and geological stability and abundance of land, the cool climate makes it especially attractive for saving on energy costs.

Earlier this month, Google was ordered by the Finnish Licensing and Supervision Authority (LVV) to temporarily stop work on Muhos and another site about 100km south-east in the village of Otanmäki after it failed to complete the necessary environmental impact assessments before clearcutting the land. The news has prompted widespread outcry and a national reckoning over what role, if any, the country should play in the global rush to build datacentres to keep up with rapid AI development.

Last week, Google’s Finland country manager, Antti Järvinen, apologised for the forest clearings but claimed the company had acted “on the best understanding we had of the legislation at the time”.

Muhos and Otanmäki are part of a €13bn AI infrastructure project by Google that has attracted criticism from Donald Trump, who would rather the centres were built in the US and has publicly called for the company to reconsider. It is the biggest ever project of its kind in the Nordic country.

The Finnish government, which has presided over deep spending cuts, has encouraged the investment. Last month, when the Google plans were announced, the country’s prime minister, Petteri Orpo, said attracting investment was a “top priority” and “the value of the data economy extends far beyond direct investment”. He said the Google deal would “deliver lasting benefits for both parties”.

But the revelations over Google’s misconduct have prompted public concern over what these deals mean for nearby communities, energy prices for Finnish households and Finland’s natural environment, a national source of pride. The datacentre push is likely to become a key election issue when Finns go to the polls in April.

In addition to the 250,000 trees felled at Muhos, Annala estimates that an additional 150,000 trees were felled at Otanmäki. Because the trees have been felled illegally, she says wood from the two sites cannot be sold to wood-processing plants.

The move has also prompted questions over why Finland’s renewable energy sources are being used to power international corporations.

More than 93,000 people have signed a petition demanding more datacentre regulation and a fee to compensate local communities for environmental damage. Since the scandal broke, Orpo has described what happened in Muhos as a “cold shower”.

Hanna Halmeenpää, chair of SLL’s board, said she had been incredulous when she discovered Google’s law breaking. “At first I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I have never heard that any company has done anything like this in Finland.” She said the system depended a lot on trust, which she believes Google took advantage of. “They bought the vast land area and they just started to cut it, just like that,” she said. “It’s pure arrogance and it’s amazing.”

The speed of developments had shocked the country, she said. “Many people are just watching the news and asking each other: ‘What’s happening now? What can we do about it? And do we have to take all these datacentre projects in Finland?’”

Jussi Kangasharju, head of computer science at the University of Helsinki, said that while datacentres brought a limited number of jobs, potentially boosting the local economy, the benefits on a national level were minimal. “Really, for Finland, there are no benefits,” he said. “They are international companies serving international customers. Very little corporate taxes go to Finland. Datacentres ultimately have very little benefit for others except the datacentre operator.”

With legislation still playing catchup, there is a rush to get projects under way as fast as possible.

Some are calling for a centralised body to coordinate datacentre projects, rather than leaving so much of the decision-making down to municipalities that are likely to prioritise the immediate needs of the local area.

In Muhos and Otanmäki, there are people who support the projects, along with the jobs and land taxes they will bring into the local area. But many believe they have been sold short by municipalities.

Antti Jakonen, who lives in Muhos, said that, although the trees felled represented a small fraction of Finland’s overall forests, he objected to the manner in which it had been carried out. “It has been done in the wrong way. American style. No sense. No sense at all,” he said. The former entrepreneur and fisher wants Google to compensate by helping to restore the local salmon population destroyed decades ago by hydropower.

In Otanmäki, the disruption to nature and to residents’ daily lives is being vividly felt. When the trees were felled, the wolves who had lived there came to the village, said Anni Ranta, 53, whose family has lived there for generations.

A former mining village, the area is known for its rare earth elements. Ranta’s family live at the centre of the village next to a triangular church spire and a former bar that has been empty for years. The peaceful forest used to extend for miles from the village. Now the sound of building work next to the clearcut Google site reverberates.

“We had wolves coming into the village because all the wild animals moved out of the forest,” said Ranta. “They fled. What worries me about the datacentres is also the noise because this is hardrock soil. Even when we are standing here talking,” she added, stamping her feet, “it’s like a drum.”

Such is her strength of feeling against the arrival of Google that she is thinking of moving out. She also fears the datacentre could make the village a target for Russia, with whom Finland shares a long border. “I don’t want them here,” she said of Google. “I don’t want them in Finland at all. I don’t like the whole idea of AI and the world changing and the way it’s changing. It’s going too fast, too soon.”

Her father, Pentti Korhonen, a retired wilderness guide, said that since the forest was destroyed, the water in the stream has turned brown. “There is no need at all for datacentres in Finland. No need for datacentres at all,” he said.

Vesa Hyyryläinen, chair of the local SLL district, said three-toed woodpeckers nesting in the forest had been pushed out. “All of us nature conservationists are very worried about our Finnish political situation and politics,” said the biologist and osprey expert. “I wonder why we have to sacrifice so much of our nature. They give everything away too easily.”

He said, however, that he understood why authorities were trying to bring in new sources of investment and jobs, given the region’s ageing population. “Young people go to Helsinki and Berlin and Paris,” he said. “There are so few people. We have to sacrifice.”

Veli-Matti Uski, director general of the ministry of environment, said the government was “monitoring the general development of the [datacentre] sector, [and the] application of its legislation, and is prepared to propose legislative amendments as necessary”.

Google said it was working to protect water quality at the Muhos site, and that it planned to plant trees across 130 hectares there. Conservationists say that figure is too low to have any real impact in comparison to the damage done by the tree felling.

A spokesperson said: “We have operated in Finland for 15 years and have always worked to meet or exceed zoning, environmental, health and safety requirements.

“After receiving the LVV letters on 6 October, we stopped preparatory works at Muhos and Kajaani [where the Otanmäki site is located] and have submitted a formal response to LVV confirming this.

“We will fully comply with LVV’s requests in this matter. We look forward to maintaining an active, open dialogue with all authorities to strengthen our partnership with Finland and local organisations.”

Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth point the finger at Elon Musk in Starlink slowdown 22 Oct 2026, 5:00 am

Top Trump administration officials are starting to point fingers squarely at SpaceX founder Elon Musk for the decision to slow down his company’s Starlink satellite internet services and its military counterpart Starshield for Ukraine, which has been muddled in uncertainty over the culprit.

Looking to deflect the controversial move — which was swiftly admonished by powerful congressional Republicans and Democrats — Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said Ukraine’s access to Starlink was up to Musk and not the White House.

“The bottom ​line is that that is governed by a private commercial contract as to how their stuff can be used and what speeds they'll allow it to be used at,” Rubio told reporters while traveling to India. 

And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, suggested Starlink’s slowdown was a commercial matter and not a result of any orders from the White House.

“There are terms of service that ultimately need to be complied to, and that's where Starlink has the option to make those decisions,” Hegseth said.

Taken together, the comments are a change of tune from President Trump’s original assertions last week that neither he nor Musk was responsible for the disruption. Rubio also on Saturday had insisted that no one ordered the slowdown.

The about-face comes after The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Musk ordered the slowdown of the satellite services, a vital tool Ukraine uses to defend itself from Russian missile and drone attacks.   

Trump’s role is unclear. The Journal reported that at least one person claimed Musk and Trump spoke prior to the slowdown. Reuters reported last week that the order to throttle Starlink came from inside the White House, in a directive to the Pentagon. Sources speaking to Reuters did not specify who at the White House made the decision or who was responsible for implementing the order. 

“I don’t know who did it but I was not involved,” Trump told reporters Wednesday when asked. 

Trump and Musk have experienced periods of fallout in their relationship but appear on the upswing today. A low point in their relationship occurred during a major public spat in June 2025, where Musk alleged that files on the disgraced financier and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were kept secret to protect Trump. 

But the relationship has rebounded since then. Trump awarded Musk the National Medal of Science earlier this month. And Musk has provided more than $276 million for Republicans in the midterm elections, The New York Times reported. 

Outgoing Texas Sen. John Cornyn (R) on Wednesday said he doubted Trump had no hand in the slowdown, as he doesn’t believe Musk “would do this without at least the acquiescence of the White House.”

“I think it’s frankly shameful,” Cornyn said on CNBC’s "Squawk Box." “I think we should be supporting the victim, not the aggressor.”

Starlink’s slowdown in Ukraine came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lashed out at Trump for waiving sanctions on Russia and making a deal to purchase diesel from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelensky called Trump “weak” for making the deal.

Part of Trump’s response to Zelensky was to blame him as the obstacle to peace with Putin. 

Republicans holding back blame on Trump for Starlink's throttling are demanding an investigation and accountability. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.) have threatened to block Trump’s agenda during the lame-duck session if answers are not provided. 

“This is a very, very serious matter. It cannot be glossed over,” Fitzpatrick told CNN on Tuesday, following the Journal report. 

Fitzpatrick said if Musk ordered Starshield’s slowdown, “that is likely a violation of the law.” 

“He has decisionmaking authority over Starlink, the civilian commercial product, but not Starshield, which is a military-grade national security tool. No individual civilian should have any decisionmaking authority over how that’s deployed,” he said. 

Adding to the confusion, Rubio, who also serves as national security adviser, has said Ukraine does not have access to Starshield.

“Starshield is a defense product ... the United States military uses,” Rubio told reporters last week. 

“It’s not at this moment available to Ukraine, and that’s under conversation. It’s under discussion right now of how they would want to use it.”

Zelensky on Tuesday said he discussed with Rubio “the situation with Starlink/Starshield, which needs to be restored” and called the conversation “constructive” in a post on the social platform X. 

Part of that conversation is whether the U.S. could give Ukraine the ability to hit targets deep inside Russia, in particular missile launchers, in exchange for halting Ukrainian strikes against Russian oil refineries. 

Trump has demanded Ukraine halt strikes against Russian energy infrastructure, claiming that they are related to high diesel prices in the U.S., though they largely stem from the U.S. war against Iran. 

Russia has refused to halt strikes against Ukrainian energy sites, in particular civilian electricity and heating infrastructure. Zelensky’s allies in Congress have backed a proposal for the U.S. to give Ukraine the ability to hit Russian missile launchers in exchange for halting Ukrainian strikes against Russian energy facilities. 

“President Trump can lower prices at the pump today by simply agreeing to this deal!” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) wrote Sunday in a post on X. Wicker’s pushback came after Trump announced he would buy Russian diesel to lower prices in the U.S.

Ukraine’s ability to hit Russian launchers would rely on accessing Starlink inside Russia, where it's currently blocked. A bipartisan group of lawmakers — seven Republicans and 16 Democrats — wrote to Trump on Wednesday urging him to call Musk and give Ukrainians that access. 

“With one phone call, you could both save lives and give Vladimir Putin greater incentives to negotiate,” the lawmakers wrote. 

“If Ukraine cannot reliably intercept Russian ‘arrows,’ it must be able to shoot the ‘archer.’ The Starlink system run by Mr. Musk’s company SpaceX could help with that.”

Iran says 7 oil tankers attacked in the Strait of Hormuz as fears grow of a return to war 22 Oct 2026, 3:52 am

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Seven oil tankers caught fire or were damaged in the Strait of Hormuz overnight after being hit by Iran or striking naval mines, Tehran said Thursday, a markedly high number as tensions rise over concerns about a return to all-out war.

With days before a close election in Israel in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could lose power, and before next month’s U.S. midterm election in which war-linked high prices have sparked voter anger, there are concerns that U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran could resume.

“Netanyahu wants to attack Iran, that’s not even a question,” Danny Citrinowicz, a researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies and a former Iran specialist in Israel’s military and intelligence services, told The Associated Press.

He accused Israel of rushing into another round with Iran without revamping its strategy. A clear Netanyahu victory in the Oct. 27 election means an attack is almost guaranteed, he said.

Main opposition candidates are likely to focus on domestic issues first, but Citrinowicz said he believed the region is on the way toward "another kinetic escalation.”

Iran repeats threat to attack U.S. bases in the region

Iranian state television reported the claims about the latest attacks on ships, which the AP couldn't independently confirm. The report cited the Revolutionary Guard Corps navy, which again threatened to strike U.S. military bases in the region if the U.S. keeps helping to guide commercial ships through the strait.

The report didn't mention casualties. Iran still asserts control over the waterway, a central point of leverage in any talks with the U.S. over the war.

October has had the most reported attacks on commercial shipping since March in the war's opening weeks, according to a British military monitor, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations. UKMTO didn't report the latest attacks, but it has noted new reluctance by some shippers to report incidents.

Oil producers have found ways to keep crude flowing, experts say, but at a mounting cost.

Tankers continue moving through Strait of Hormuz despite attacks

Oil tankers are still moving oil through the strait under U.S. military protection despite the recent upsurge in attacks, according to shipping data and analysis company Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

Tanker operators willing to risk the voyage have been shuttling oil from Gulf producers through the strait at night with their location systems and mobile phones turned off using a U.S.-protected lane near the coast of Oman. Those tankers transfer oil to other tankers waiting in the Gulf of Oman for shipment to customers in Asia.

Those “active Gulf operators show little sign of retreating” despite 28 attacks on ships in October, the highest since the start of the war, Lloyd’s said in an online webinar Thursday.

The so-called “dark shuttle” overseen by U.S. Central Command has helped return oil shipments from the Gulf at roughly prewar levels, but at high costs in time, money and sailors' lives. Spot charter rates for tankers have soared into the hundreds of thousands of dollars a day, while the ship-to-ship transfers can take several days.

UN urges US and Iran to return to diplomacy to end conflict, reopen strait

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said no commercial ships should be attacked and called for diplomacy between the U.S. and Iran to reopen the strait.

“For the sake of the people of the region and for the broader world, we need to see that waterway reopen, and we need to see tensions go down," he told reporters Thursday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday said Tehran remains open to diplomacy, but is ready to defend itself.

Iran has warned that it learned important military lessons from the war that began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28, indicating in recent days that it could expand targets to include infrastructure such as undersea cables and data centers.

The United States, for its part, is sending more military assets to the region, including a third aircraft carrier and thousands of troops, to join the largest force of American warships and aircraft in the Middle East in decades.

Mediators, meanwhile, have been trying to bring Washington and Tehran back to formal talks.

Iran still promotes its latest proposal to end the war and fully open the strait within a week if the U.S. meets several conditions, including ending the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. It echoes conditions in the deal that fell apart within days of both sides signing it in June.

U.S. President Donald Trump rejected the latest proposal last month, but both sides acknowledged that indirect discussions have continued.

The stakes are even higher if all-out war resumes

A return to full fighting would again endanger civilians throughout the region and complicate global deliveries of oil, natural gas and related products like fertilizer from the region and likely bring another spike in prices.

The head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, this week acknowledged that the Islamic Republic will suffer under a prolonged U.S. blockade. But economic pain and strategic collapse are not the same thing, he added, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.

Now the conflict has widened with the recent surge in fighting between Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi kingdom backs a coalition of forces with Yemen’s internationally recognized government that is fighting the rebels.

The Houthis' repeated deadly attacks on airports and other facilities inside Saudi Arabia have pressured the close U.S. ally, which has sought military aid.

The escalation also has threatened a crucial shipping corridor, the Bab el-Mandeb at the southern end of the Red Sea.

Meanwhile, the president of Saudi oil company Aramco, whose sites have been targeted by the Houthis, said the amount of oil moving through a pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz has increased threefold in light of the global energy crisis.

The East-West pipeline’s capacity has surged from two million to seven million barrels each day, Amin Nasser said in an interview with Saudi-owned television Al Arabiya Business. He said the company has been using drones to assess any damage to the pipeline and help with firefighting.

5 takeaways from final Michigan Senate debate and what was said 21 Oct 2026, 9:51 pm

Arizona mom whose son was found alive in hospital morgue speaks out 21 Oct 2026, 5:02 pm

The mother of a toddler found alive in an Arizona hospital morgue in February more than five hours after he was pronounced dead said Wednesday she thought she heard him breathing when she hugged him goodbye.

But instead of listening to her gut, Alexus Fiordilino said, she believed the doctor who told her those were 18-month-old Vincent’s last gasps and that any further attempts to save him would just prolong his agony.

“As a mom you don’t want to hear that,” Fiordilino, 30, said in an interview. “I didn’t want him to suffer. It seemed to be they’d done everything they could. And then he called it.”

Fiordilino was referring to Dr. Aryan Toosi, who pronounced Vincent dead at 6:20 p.m. on Super Bowl Sunday at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center in Gilbert, Arizona.

A little over five hours later, Fiordilino said, police were questioning her and her husband, Angelo, when a detective burst into the room and told them that a medical examiner’s employee who had come to collect Vincent’s body had discovered he was still alive.

“My husband and I just screamed in relief,” she said. “We were praising the Lord. We were crying. To go from hearing he was gone and then finding out he isn’t gone, it’s an unexplainable feeling.”

Fiordilino spoke out more than eight months after her son’s remarkable story of survival after he nearly drowned in the family swimming pool made national headlines and sparked multiple investigations into what happened on Feb. 8.

The Gilbert Police Department had recommended filing child abuse charges against both parents for losing track of Vincent while a Super Bowl party was going on at their residence.

“Both admitted to smoking marijuana the morning of the drowning,” the police report said.

But Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell announced in July that the Fiordilinos would not be charged.

Fiordilino’s lawyer, John Brewer, said he plans to file a formal complaint this week against Toosi and the hospital. He said a review of Vincent’s medical records shows that critical test results that Toosi cited to justify ending efforts to save the child were not completed until after the toddler was declared dead.

“The parents were faced with having to decide whether to keep trying to revive their son, and the doctor provided them with false information,” Brewer said. “That’s beyond a conscious disregard for human life.”

Brewer’s office turned its records over to the Gilbert Police Department, which said it forwarded everything to the state attorney general’s office for review. The AG’s office said Wednesday that it has not made a decision to review this case.

Toosi’s lawyer, Scott Holden, released a statement in response.

“Dr. Toosi’s thoughts are with the young patient and family, and he wishes the child continued healing and recovery,” it said. “His commitment to delivering high-quality care has always been rooted in a desire to provide healing, safety and comfort to his community.”

Meanwhile, the hospital called the situation “heartbreaking” in a statement.

“Out of respect for the patient’s privacy, we cannot share any information and we are unable to comment on those involved in patient care,” it said. “Patient safety and exceptional care are our highest priorities.”

Asked how Vincent is doing now, Fiordilino said, “He’s getting better.”

Brewer said that while the boy is home with his family, he has many health challenges.

“Vincent is severely brain-injured,” he said. “He can’t swallow. He seizes up. He can’t sit up on his own or crawl.”

The tragic turn of events began around 5:38 p.m. Feb. 8 with a 911 call for help after Vincent was found floating face down in the family pool and a relative tried to revive him by performing CPR, according to a police report obtained by NBC affiliate KPNX of Phoenix.

Vincent was rushed to the emergency room at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, where an ER team that included Toosi took over the effort to save him.

At 6:13 p.m., according to the report, Toosi went out to deliver bad news to the boy’s parents.

“As long as there are no objections, I’d like to call time of death,” Toosi said, according to the report.

Then, “at approximately 18:20 hours, Dr. Toosi called the time of death and requested a moment of silence.”

Just as Fiordilino told NBC News, police officers who had been in the ER said in the report that the child still appeared to be gasping for breath after he was declared dead.

A detective reported then hearing “another audible gasp” at around 7:18 p.m. as the ER workers were preparing to move Vincent from the trauma room to the “cold room” that serves as the hospital’s morgue and where the temperature is set at 36 to 39 degrees.

The same detective said that when he returned to photograph the body an hour later, he “again observed what appeared to be a gasp or air release.”

“The nurse again stated it was agonal breathing and explained it was due to compressions, oxygen, and possible pressure applied by family members while saying goodbye,” the report says.

And at 7:23 p.m., “the cold room door was closed,” the report says.

More than four hours later, when the medical examiner’s team arrived at 11:52 p.m. to retrieve the boy, “he was found breathing,” the report says.

“The family was notified immediately,” and the boy was airlifted to Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

Fiordilino said that when she saw her son again in the pediatric intensive care unit, “he was hooked up to all kinds of monitors and things.”

“He looked like a different baby,” she said. “It’s something I hope no other parent has to live through.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

U.N. calls El Niño a 'behemoth' as forecasts point to unprecedented strength 21 Oct 2026, 4:21 pm

The warnings about El Niño continue to roll in. The United Nations' weather agency weighed in on Oct. 21, calling the potent climate pattern a "behemoth" and a "wrecking ball."

"It will tear through Latin America, Eastern and Southern Africa, Asia and the Pacific with extreme heat, droughts and flood," the U.N.'s Tom Fletcher said, warning of profound humanitarian consequences.

El Niño, a natural warming of Pacific Ocean waters that affects weather and climate patterns worldwide, tends to cause higher global temperatures and disrupt rainfall patterns across large regions, meaning drought in some areas and heavy rains in others.

It triggers disruptive weather patterns that often impact agriculture, infrastructure and supply chains, potentially causing trillions of dollars in damages around the globe.

El Niño is forecast with "high confidence" to be at record-breaking strength and peak this winter, NOAA's Climate Prediction Center said.

"This will certainly be an historic El Niño," Michael Mann, a climate scientist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told USA TODAY. It will be the "biggest event on record," but because reliable records only go back less than a century, it's difficult to assess how unusual it is in a longer-term context, Mann said.

'Unprecedented in strength'

As ocean temperatures continue to warm in the eastern Pacific, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned on Oct. 21 that the developing El Niño could be "unprecedented in strength."

“This is literally off the monitoring charts that we have used for the past four decades," said Celeste Saulo, secretary of the WMO. The event is forecast to peak later in 2026, "but its impacts will be felt long after that," Saulo said.

The WMO expects the El Niño event to become extremely strong, with temperatures in the central Pacific rising more than 6 degrees (3.8 Celsius) above normal between November and January, peaking around December.

Global financial impact: 'Super El Niño' will have an alarming financial impact, experts fear

Extreme weather events already being reported are expected to "multiply – and cascade – as El Niño intensifies," the WMO warned.

Forecasts for the event are "very high confidence now and the very strong El Niño will certainly last through the next several months," said Emily Becker, deputy director of the Cooperative Institute for Marine & Atmospheric Studies at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School for Marine, Atmospheric & Earth Science.

El Niño is likely to strengthen further, but at this point, forecasters already have as much information as they'll ever have about the expected impacts, and the seasonal outlooks reflect that, Becker said. She added that it's "important to remember that the weather is always full of surprises, and even in a strong El Niño it’s critical to monitor short-term weather and sub seasonal forecasts."

El Niño adding to climate change effects

One of the important things to note about this El Niño event is that it's converging with the impacts of human-caused climate change, such as sea level rise, said Fraser Shilling, director of the UC Davis Road Ecology Center, at the Institute of Transportation Studies, in a recently published study for California.

El Niño warming "adds to human-caused warming in such a way that we see new records set every time we get a major El Nino event," said Mann. He was a lead author on a study released earlier this year that found El Niño "contributed substantially to the record 2024 global temperatures."

"The science is very unclear about whether we are seeing or expect to see an increase in the amplitude of El Nino events from human-caused warming," Mann said, with many models predicting the opposite will occur.

The extreme levels of warmth associated with major El Niño events are temporary, he said, but the events such as those discussed in the United Nations announcement give us a glimpse of "what our future will look like if we continue to warm the planet."

US impacts from El Niño

In the United States, a very strong El Niño tilts the odds toward stormier weather across the South, said Ken Graham, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service. Graham warned the nation earlier in October to prepare for its impacts. “While higher chances of rain and snow may bring relief to drought-afflicted areas, too much precipitation on dry soil can fuel destructive flash floods and mudslides," he said.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently declared a state of emergency to prepare for the impacts from the event.

Shoreline flooding already seen along the Southern California coast with this El Niño raises concerns for the coming months, according to the report Shilling released. California's Highway 37 and other coastal roadways are "extremely vulnerable to floods and failure during this winter’s coming El Niño," Shilling said. “It’s important to be informed of risk so you can make decisions.”

WMO report details global impacts

The WMO's outlook warned of the following potential impacts this winter:

• The Americas: Increased rainfall in the southern parts of western South America and in portions of North America and the northern portion of the Caribbean, while drought risk increases in parts of Central America, the southern Caribbean and the Amazon.  
• East Africa: Wetter-than-normal conditions likely during the October–December rainy season, increasing concerns about heavy rainfall and flooding.  
• Southern Africa: Increased risks of drier conditions could affect crop production, water availability and livelihoods from the typical start of the rainy season in November.  
• Southeast Asia: Warmer conditions and rainfall deficits increase the risk of heat exposure and place additional pressure on agriculture and water supplies, like the increase in wildfire and smoke-haze risks we are already seeing. 

Contributing: Reuters

Doyle Rice and Dinah Voyles Pulver are national correspondents for USA TODAY, focusing on climate and weather. Reach them at drice@usatoday.com and dpulver@usatoday.com.

(This story was updated to clarify information from NOAA about this year's El Niño .)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Behemoth' El Niño to upend global weather, UN warns

This Nebraska independent could decide which party controls the Senate 21 Oct 2026, 1:02 pm

The biggest question heading into November's midterms is whether, once all votes have been counted, Democrats or Republicans will win control of Congress. The final answer, though, might ultimately depend on someone who isn't a member of any party. 

Dan Osborn is an independent candidate running for Senate in Nebraska. He's challenging Republican incumbent Sen. Pete Ricketts in a race that appears on track to be the closest contest the deep-red state has seen in decades. 

Osborn has consistently been critical of both parties and puts major emphasis on the goal of breaking up their control over American politics. That could make him something of a wild card if he's elected to the nation's most important legislative body.

Here's what you need to know about who he is, what he stands for and what he needs to do to pull off an upset in the typically deep-red state of Nebraska. 

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Who is Dan Osborn?

Osborn grew up in Omaha, Neb., as the son of a railroad worker and a seamstress. When he was 16, his parents moved to Washington state after his father suffered a workplace accident that forced him to transition to a desk job — Osborn chose to stay in Nebraska and live on his own. After graduating from high school, he joined the Navy and served for four years as a storekeeper on the aircraft carrier USS Constellation. After leaving the Navy, he did stints in both the Nebraska and Tennessee National Guards. 

In 2004, he began working as an industrial mechanic at a factory owned by the Kellogg's cereal company and joined his workplace union — a decision that would ultimately put him on the path to politics. He had risen to president of the union by 2021, when he led his coworkers into a contentious negotiation with the company that eventually resulted in a 77-day strike that became a major national story. 

Dan Osborn/Facebook

Kellogg's fired him two years later after accusing him of watching Netflix while on the job, a charge he believes was a pretense for retaliating against him for his union activities. He happened to lose his job in the lead-up to an election cycle when both of Nebraska's Senate seats would be on the ballot. Osborn opted to run as an independent against incumbent Republican Sen. Deb Fischer, who was not facing a Democratic challenger. 

"Seeing how we were getting screwed by our bosses kind of lit a fire under me," he told the American Prospect in 2024. 

Fischer had won her previous bid for reelection by nearly 20 percentage points and looked to be a shoo-in for another term in the overwhelmingly Republican state. But Osborn's unpolished, everyman style and willingness to criticize both major political parties struck a nerve with voters, raising speculation that he just might have a real chance. By Election Day, polls showed him trailing by as little as a single percentage point. Those surveys proved to overstate how close the contest really was. In the end, Fischer won reelection by about 6.5 points. 

Though the race didn't end up being particularly close, it was far tighter than Nebraska's other Senate contest that same year. In that race, Ricketts defeated his Democratic challenger by more than 25 percentage points. 

When Osborn declared his interest in running again this year, Democrats once again chose to give him a clear runway to challenge Ricketts. The Democratic primary winner, Cindy Burbank, promptly withdrew from the race after being named her party's nominee. The Nebraska Democratic Party has urged voters to back Osborn as "the best opportunity to defeat Pete Ricketts."

What does he stand for?

The question of what Osborn stands for may be just as important as the question of who he will stand with if he gets elected to the Senate. There are currently two independents in the chamber, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Angus King of Maine. Both of them caucus with the Democrats, which means they generally work with Democrats on Senate business. Osborn has said he will handle things differently. 

"We're not going to caucus with either party. In fact, we'll caucus with everybody, you could say," he said during a press conference on Oct. 12. "Independent means independent."

In an evenly divided Senate, Osborn's vote could be the tiebreaker determining whether a Democrat or Republican serves as majority leader, a position that gives whoever holds it the power to influence which legislation comes to the floor, shape committee leadership and set the chamber's legislative agenda.  

In terms of policy, one of Osborn's top goals is breaking what he's called the "two-party doom loop" in Washington under Democrats and Republicans. He supports proposals to reduce the influence of money in politics, including overturning Citizens United, banning lawmakers from trading stocks and eliminating "dark money" in elections. He has also called for term limits and an age cap for members of Congress. 

On social issues, Osborn largely believes in promoting individual freedom. Though he's personally opposed to abortion, he supports restoring the protections established by Roe v. Wade. He's a vocal advocate for gun rights, believes medical marijuana should be legal and wants to enact a nationwide "right to repair" policy for privately owned property. 

Osborn also supports strong, humane immigration enforcement, reining in government spending, middle-class tax cuts, expanding the Affordable Care Act, breaking up corporate monopolies and ending foreign wars. 

If elected to the Senate, Osborn's independent streak could make him a key swing vote on a number of important issues, giving him substantial influence over which bills become law. That would be a significant contrast to Ricketts, whose vote aligned with Trump's position 100% of the time last year, according to a tally from Roll Call. 

What are his chances?

Osborn faces a steep challenge in his effort to oust Ricketts, even in a potential blue wave year. There are nearly the same number of registered Republicans in the state as there are voters from all other parties and independents combined. 

Polling in the Nebraska Senate race has been relatively sparse compared with some of the other higher-profile contests across the country. The few polls that have been released mostly suggest that Osborn remains the underdog. Though one poll last month showed him slightly ahead, two other recent polls have had him behind by 3 to 5 percentage points. 

At the same time, forecasters are still giving Osborn a genuine chance of winning. Last week, the nonpartisan Center for Politics shifted its rating for the race from Likely Republican to Leans Republican, suggesting the contest might have become tighter. The other major forecaster, the Cook Political Report, still classifies the race as a likely Republican victory.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says data center builders have to be 'good neighbors' 21 Oct 2026, 8:27 am

Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang says that for data center builders to win over communities, they must first partner with them and be good neighbors.

"When you go into a community … before you start building, you ought to extend yourself out to the local community and partner with them," Huang told Deirdre Bosa during the company's GTC event in Berlin.

"Let them know what you're about to do is going to bring, of course, all the benefits, but it's going to, of course, bring new neighbors," he said.

Data center construction has faced major pushback across the US, with some counties and towns instituting outright bans on the facilities. New York has placed a one-year, statewide moratorium on data center construction. Texas, meanwhile, has put connecting new data centers to its grid on hold as it works to determine their potential impact.

Residents have lodged complaints about the constant noise generated by data centers, water usage, increased electricity costs, and more.

To help ease tensions with local residents, some companies, including Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN), have taken steps to win over municipalities by dropping controversial nondisclosure agreements (NDAs).

NDAs have become a key issue among some data center opponents, as they prevent local leaders from disclosing information about the projects.

"Everybody has now taken a step back, whether it's the NDAs or contributing to the communities, whether it's building shops and … community centers and improving schools and in many cases even supporting lower taxes and, you know, all kinds of benefits that can be brought to the local communities," Huang said.

"I think those are all good ideas, and each one of them ought to be … tailored for the needs of the community. But the most important thing is you've got to be a good visitor. You know you should be a good guest. And before you go into a community, stop by and see if you can be helpful," he added.

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Follow Daniel Howley on X @DanielHowley or email him at dhowley@yahoofinance.com.

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