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American voters showed their frustration with rising prices in full force on Tuesday, flipping dozens of seats and delivering control of the House and the Senate to Democrats.
The economy was one of the biggest issues for voters this election cycle, as Americans grow increasingly fed up with rising gas prices, the effects of tariffs and climbing interest rates. Since the war in Iran began, oil prices have surged and inflation is outpacing wages in the United States.
Despite the rising prices, the U.S. economy remains fairly stable overall. The labor market is steady, and people are still spending money.
Still, President Donald Trump’s approval rating on his handling of the economy has fallen, and on Tuesday voters delivered him a stunning rebuke. About 3 in 4 Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of inflation and the cost of living, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released last month.
We analyzed how Americans are being affected by Trump’s economy. See 13 charts that show how the economy has changed during his second term.
Fox Corp. on Friday announced it had completed its $22 billion deal to take over Roku, one of the leading smart TV companies.
“Beginning today, our top priority for the combined company is to continue to relentlessly serve audiences and partners, while reinforcing the openness and choice that is the essence of the Roku platform,” Lachlan Murdoch, executive chair and CEO of Fox Corp., wrote in a news release.
The deal, announced in June, will plunge Fox deeper into the Hollywood streaming wars, years after it sold off its own film and television studio, then called 21st Century Fox, to Disney for $71 billion in 2019.
It will also give Fox an advantage in free, ad-supported streaming at a time when large streamers are embracing advertising to complement their subscription plans. Fox already owned Tubi and now will also own the Roku Channel — two of the leaders in free-to-stream media.
The cash-and-stock deal is effective today with Roku shares already halted on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Of all the history former Virginia governor L. Douglas Wilder witnessed during Tuesday night’s election returns, nothing struck him like what he saw from Mississippi. A Black man, Scott Colom (D), appeared close to winning a U.S. Senate seat in a state with an ugly, violent record on civil rights.
“As an old man, with a weakened heart already — I had to hold myself down when I started seeing what was happening,” Wilder, 95, said in an interview Thursday. He made history himself in 1989 when Virginia voters chose him as the first African American elected governor of any state since Reconstruction.
The grandson of enslaved people, Wilder was 24 when White Mississippians lynched Emmett Till, at age 14, for being Black and allegedly whistling at a White woman. “He was killed!” Wilder said, his voice rising. “And nothing was done about it!”
And now, that same state was on the verge of sending a Black man to the Senate. “Good lord, I can’t believe it,” he said.
Not to mention that five other states elected Black governors Tuesday, including Maryland’s Wes Moore (D) winning a second term. There’s a lot of work to be done in the United States, Wilder said, not only on matters of civil rights but also dealing with inflation, data centers, war and so much more.
“I still believe we are in search of ourselves in America,” he said. “But we can be the beacon of light for the rest of the world. … It’s a new day.”
Additional Coverage
When her husband came out as bisexual right after the honeymoon, his wife wrote to The Washington Post asking: “Where do we go from here?”
“Do I leave?” she asked. “Are there trust exercises that would help?”
That letter became the basis of this week’s Life Hax podcast episode. And you can hear how hosts Carolyn Hax and Shane O’Neill tackled that question on the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube.
Then there’s this hypothetical, which Shane posed in the episode: If a husband realizes he’s attracted to men but he never acts on it, does he have to tell his wife?
“I don’t believe secrets like that sit comfortably,” Carolyn replied. “I think you’re always holding a part of yourself locked away.”
To hear more, follow the Life Hax show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. If you have your own question to ask, email [email protected].
Tesla will wind down production of the Cybertruck in its Texas Gigafactory around the middle of 2027 to “make room” for increased production of Cybercabs, CEO Elon Musk said Friday.
The electric pickup truck, Tesla’s first foray into the truck market, debuted in 2019 demonstration with a futuristic angular design and a sleek exoskeleton designed to eliminate damage and long-term corrosion.
But it was beset by issues from the start, including when Musk invited someone to hurl a ball at a supposedly unbreakable window on stage, and the glass shattered.
The customer launch was delayed until 2023 amid supply chain issues and competition from other automakers. The Cybertruck has also been subject to recalls, and regulator intervention after reports that its power-operated doors did not work in emergencies.
Musk did not elaborate Friday on whether production of the Cybertruck would cease or be moved elsewhere. Tesla did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment.
Cybercab is Tesla’s autonomous robotaxi which was unveiled in 2024 and hit the streets this September. Regulators opened an investigation into how Tesla certified that the vehicle meets federal safety standards.
Three states carried out the death penalty on Thursday, marking the second time in 2026 that three executions were carried out on the same day.
Jeffrey Weisheit, convicted of killing two children in a house fire, was pronounced dead in Indiana at 12:45 a.m. Gov. Mike Braun (R) had denied his lawyers’ request to change the sentence to life in prison.
Jesse Guardado, who had pleaded guilty to a fatal stabbing, was executed in Florida at 6:13 p.m. In his final statement, he apologized to the victim’s family, the AP reported.
Michael Taylor, who killed an elderly couple when he was 19, was executed an hour later in Alabama. Death penalty opponents had called for his sentence to be commuted given his young age at the time.
The executions came the same day California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said he would move to commute the sentences of all 548 state death row prisoners to life in prison.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) criticized Newsom’s decision in a statement to the AP, saying: “California may let their criminals escape justice, but not Alabama.”
The death penalty remains a divisive issue nationally, and executions have come under renewed scrutiny following Tennessee’s botched attempt to execute Christa Pikein September.
Attitudes about the value of a college education have soured for years mostly due to the price tag, but overall cost is actually lower than it was 10 years ago.
After factoring in student aid and inflation, the average cost of attendance (including tuition, housing and food) for in-state freshmen in 2026 is estimated at $21,660, a 14 percent drop from a decade ago, according to an annual report released Thursday by the College Board. At private nonprofits, the net cost of $38,540 this year is 9 percent lower than 2016.
The reasons vary.
Soaring tuition increases that defined the early years of the century have slowed amid greater state support for public colleges and competition for a declining pool of high school graduates. Average sticker prices at public colleges — what students pay before financial aid is applied — have crept up but at a rate that is less than inflation, according to the annual Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid report.
Tuition and fees rose less than 3 percent between 2025 and 2026 at public universities for in-state students, and 3.7 percent for private four-year nonprofit colleges, the data showed.
The College Board, which collected data from 2,913 schools, said grants and scholarships that colleges, states and the federal government provide are also significantly reducing what students pay.
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