GoKawiil
Tech News
President Trump says he still intends to send $5,000 checks to Americans after November's midterm elections, a promise he has floated amid political pressure. Interviews with attendees at recent Trump rallies in Alaska and Texas show mixed reactions, with some supporters skeptical the payments will materialize while others expressed full confidence.
A WIRED investigation found election offices across 32 states received letters containing white powder in the days before the midterms, prompting evacuations in Arizona, Delaware, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Louisiana. Most letters were intercepted by the U.S. Postal Service before reaching staff, and tests on the powder that did reach offices found it non-hazardous. Ten states and Washington, DC reported no such letters, while eight state offices did not respond to inquiries.
In an interview on The Verge's Decoder podcast, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker addressed artificial intelligence, comparing its potential dangers to nuclear weapons while also suggesting it could extend human lifespan to 100 years. The conversation, conducted ahead of the midterm elections, also touched on government's role in addressing collective action problems around technology and privacy.
Ahead of November's midterms, Democratic lawmakers are signaling plans to intensify oversight of AI companies if they regain control of one or both congressional chambers. Senior Democrats on key committees have pointed to data center tax credits and recent hacking incidents as areas they want to investigate, with committee control potentially letting them subpoena documents and call tech CEOs to testify.
New Federal Election Commission filings covering July through September show Democratic candidates outraising Republican rivals directly across Senate and House races. Republicans are compensating with massive outside super PAC spending, led by the Senate Leadership Fund's record $272.9 million haul and the Congressional Leadership Fund's record $94.4 million, both fueled heavily by billionaire donors including Elon Musk.
Federal filings show Elon Musk's America PAC spent $76.7 million in the third quarter of 2026, including $35.8 million on a voter-turnout canvassing operation across seven Senate battleground states and various House races. That canvassing spend already exceeds the roughly $45 million the PAC had spent at the same point in the 2024 presidential cycle. Musk also directed $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund and a similar sum to a newly registered Texas PAC supporting Ken Paxton's Senate bid.
The Labor Department reported that wholesale prices, measured by the producer price index, rose 6.3% in September compared with a year earlier, accelerating from August's 5.6% annual increase. The report attributed the surge largely to a sharp rise in fuel costs, exceeding economists' expectations.
Organizers of the 'No Kings' movement have scheduled roughly 2,500 rallies, marches and community gatherings nationwide for Saturday, October 17. The events include voter registration drives and local election defense workshops aimed at encouraging early voting ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
According to three sources familiar with internal GOP discussions, Trump White House aides now see almost no path to Republicans retaining the House in the midterms and are concentrating resources on protecting the Senate majority instead. The Congressional Leadership Fund has already pulled ad buys in contested districts in Michigan, Ohio, Nebraska, New Jersey and Iowa, signaling a retreat from races once considered flippable.
The Department of Labor reported that the consumer price index increased 3.7% year-over-year in September, up from 3.4% in August, with monthly costs rising 0.6%, the sharpest increase in five months. Core prices, excluding food and energy, climbed 2.6% annually, up from 2.4% the prior month, driven partly by higher gas, clothing, and airfare costs.
Elon Musk has donated more than $276 million since July to political groups working to preserve Republican majorities in Congress ahead of this year's midterm elections. Of that total, $158 million went to the Senate Leadership Fund, the primary super PAC backing Republican Senate candidates. The donations make him the largest known contributor to the midterm cycle so far.
WIRED reports that opposition to data centers has become a bipartisan midterm issue, with candidates on both sides attacking opponents over industry ties. In Ohio, Democrat Sherrod Brown has repeatedly labeled Senator Jon Husted 'the face of data centers' and blamed him for rising energy bills, while Senate Democrats blocked a Husted-sponsored ratepayer protection bill that Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called 'toothless.' The National Republican Senatorial Committee has internally flagged data centers as a potential 'sleeper issue' that could affect election outcomes.