The economy and the war in Iran have become dominant topics of debate in critical races in Michigan, Kansas and Wisconsin. Data centers are popping up in rural America, but not all communities are on board. And Trump uses flattery to bring Putin to the negotiating table.
Here’s what you need to know today.
Candidates face off in debates in Michigan, Kansas and Wisconsin
Across the country, candidates in tight races gathered for their final debates of the season in an effort to secure voter support with less than two weeks until Election Day:
The second and final debate in the Michigan Senate between Republican Mike Rogers and Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed was much quieter than their first meeting earlier this month. Polls show a neck-and-neck race to replace outgoing Sen. Gary Peters.
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El-Sayed has sought to link Rogers to President Donald Trump at every turn, while portraying his opponent as a corporate betrayer. Rogers tried to distance himself from Trump by calling for an end to the war in Iran and an end to the trade war with Canada, two proposals he initially said he supported.
Rogers sought to link El-Sayed to Islamist fundamentalist groups and questioned his reliability. El-Sayed has repeatedly denied any ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, saying questions about his ties “call into question my loyalty to the Constitution.” He presented himself as someone who would stand up to Trump if elected to Congress. What else did El-Sayed and Rogers say about the economy, AI and more.
In Kansas, Republican Sen. Roger Marshall defended the core of Trump’s agenda, including tariffs and a deal to lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports, while portraying his Democratic challenger, Adam Hamilton, as a socialist.
Hamilton, a megachurch pastor who describes himself as an “independent-minded Democrat,” has vowed not to support Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer for party leadership if elected and criticized Marshall for his support of the war in Iran. Hamilton would be the first Democratic senator from Kansas in nearly a century if elected. More on the contentious debate in Kansas.
The debate between Wisconsin gubernatorial candidates Republican Tom Tiffany and Democrat David Crowley focused on economic issues. Tiffany, a congresswoman representing a northern Wisconsin district, has pledged to reverse various tax increases and return excess money to residents.
Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive, advocated for a “fair tax system” that would fund education, infrastructure and transportation. With the retirement of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, the race between Tiffany and Crowley is the first open gubernatorial race since 2010. Read more about the Wisconsin gubernatorial debate.
Dive deeper into the 2026 elections:
- See the latest survey and the battlefield states in play.
- Track Early Vote Counts by age, gender and more.
- Find out how the candidates vote in competitive Senate races.
- Who else is on the ballot in Michigan? Check out the state’s biggest contests and how Republicans and Democrats fared in past elections. Then scroll to the end of the page to explore the data in other states.
More political news:
- For subscribers: Fake flyers and text messages posing as trans rights group sent to Texas homes sparked anger and confusion as early voting begins in the state.
- For subscribers: The American army has discreetly reduced the presence of its troops across the Middle East in response to ongoing threats from Iran and Houthi rebels.
- Rep. Ilhan Omar for the first time described the search of his Washington, D.C., home last week, saying the arrival of federal agents at 6 a.m. caught her and her family off guard.
How Big Tech’s data center boom is fracturing rural America
Big tech is growing largely in rural America. Widespread availability of land, cheap electricity and abundant water have led AI giants – such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google – to erect data center infrastructure in these areas. But the ability of local leaders to negotiate with developers is key to determining what communities can gain or risk with these new centers.
An NBC News analysis shows that the number of rural data centers could triple if all projects under construction and a portion of planned projects came online. Amazon is behind the largest share of planned new data centers, according to the analysis, which also shows that the estimated energy the new centers will consume will be more than three times the current capacity.
For more than a decade, residents of the northern tip of Oregon’s Morrow and Umatilla counties, about 150 miles east of Portland, have coexisted with data centers. Residents are divided on whether the developments have affected their communities for the better — so much so that at Friday night football games, “you sit in the ‘yes’ section of the data center or the ‘no’ section of the data center,” said one cattle rancher and former county commissioner.
The pros and cons of data center development, according to locals.
Related coverage:
- Interactive map: 55 million Americans live within 5 miles of a data center. Find out how close you are.
Trump hopes to convince Putin to negotiate on Ukraine
Trump’s recent overtures toward Vladimir Putin have become more visible, an apparent effort that experts say is aimed at drawing the Russian president to the negotiating table to end the war in Ukraine. Even some members of his administration are full of compliments. Just yesterday, Trump’s top negotiator, Steve Witkoff, called Putin a “humanitarian.” for his release of American professor Stephen Hubbard. Some Republican lawmakers balked at the remark.
At the same time, Trump has stepped up his criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — another tool to get Putin to make a deal, said Robert O’Brien, a national security adviser during Trump’s first term. “There would be no hope of getting Putin to engage in negotiations, with the United States as mediator, if he considered Trump to be 100% aligned with Ukraine in this situation,” he said.
Another expert said he doesn’t expect this strategy to succeed, especially in the absence of a clear agenda from the White House and any clear lever.
What other experts think about Trump’s strategy.
Staff choice: Past tensions between Cornell investigators and DA
As we continued to report on Cornell University’s handling of an alleged fraternity sexual assault in 2024, I kept thinking about another case involving the same prosecutor: the death of 18-year-old freshman Antonio Tsialas. In 2019, Tsialas disappeared after attending an unauthorized fraternity party and was found dead in a gorge two days later.
After obtaining hundreds of pages of police files on the Tsialas investigation, I discovered an interesting pattern: Cornell police repeatedly requested two subpoenas from prosecutors for evidence they believed might help explain what happened, but those requests were initially denied.
The findings took on new significance because the district attorney in that case, who ultimately declined to file charges, is the same one who did not pursue charges in Jane Doe’s case in 2024. The records establish no wrongdoing in either investigation, but they offer a revealing glimpse into how decisions about what evidence to seek were made in this prosecutor’s office.
For Tsialas’ family, who still don’t believe they’ve gotten a full accounting of their son’s death, the new controversy has brought back painful questions about accountability at Cornell. — Pilar Melendezlatest news editor
Read all about it
- Teacher who was shot during Bend, Oregon elementary school rampage says she played dead after being injured. “I couldn’t stand up, defend myself or anyone else,” Becky Drury said in a statement. “So I did the only thing I could do, which was pretend to be dead in the hopes that he wouldn’t shoot me again.”
- For subscribers: Apple’s new iPhone Duo is packed with fun and some frustrating new features. Joanna Stern, NBC News chief technical analyst reviewed the new device.
- Pope Leo will not need further treatment for lung cancer after undergoing surgery last week.
- Arizona mother whose 18-month-old son was found alive in hospital morgue hours after learning he was dead talks about his experience.
- For subscribers: “Wicker”, a film about the love story between a woven man and a village fisherwoman, sparked reactions ranging from intrigue to desire.
- The United States is one of the main reasons the world is losing ground the fight against climate changeaccording to a UN report.
- Crucial vulnerabilities in a programming language that underpins much of the Internet are so serious that U.S. and European authorities have recommended that websites are offline until they can be repaired.
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