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October 26, 2026 — From My Inbox

Word cloud of the most frequent terms from today's newsletter digest: election, Brazil, Trump, Musk, Israel, billion, AI, SpaceX, Democrats, Canada, Toronto, Anthropic, Carney, vote, tax, Ford, CEO, NFL, media, Obama
The most frequent terms across today’s newsletters.

Canadian News

Toronto and municipalities across Ontario held election day. Incumbent Mayor Olivia Chow and challenger Brad Bradford offered contrasting closing pitches, and a record 220,000 Toronto residents had already cast advance ballots (Toronto Star, First Up).

  • First Nations leaders were set to meet Prime Minister Mark Carney and the provincial premiers today, a meeting billed as historic (Toronto Star).
  • Ontario teachers rallied across the province over the weekend as contract talks remain stalled, and MPPs returned to Queen’s Park after Premier Doug Ford’s 21 week break from the legislature (Toronto Star).
  • Ford’s promise of 58,000 new or renovated nursing home beds has produced just 11,000 so far. Advocates say Ontario still lacks a plan for an aging population (Toronto Star).
  • Barack Obama, speaking at a recent appearance, joked that Canada is a “well known evil empire,” a dig aimed at Donald Trump’s rhetoric (Toronto Star).

US News

Obama was also quoted mocking Trump’s redecoration of the White House, reportedly comparing the new look to a Cheesecake Factory. The line was picked up across outlets this morning (Washington Post, Early Brief; Toronto Star; Local News International).

With midterms approaching, the New York Times‘s Opinion Today gathered six commentators on whether a “blue wave” is forming. UCLA political scientist Lynn Vavreck pointed to “discontent and calcification” among voters, while contributing writer Frank Bruni argued North Carolina will show whether a party can “outrun reality” with money and bluster alone. In a separate Opinion essay, David French described what he called a spreading “culture of cruelty” under Trump.

Finance and Markets

Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the broader “neocloud” boom in AI data center financing drew warnings from three separate sources this morning. The Economist, the New York Times‘s DealBook, and Prof G Markets all flagged signs of strain in how smaller AI infrastructure players are funded, with DealBook describing a coming period of “guppy level death and consolidation” as spending concentrates among the largest firms.

  • California’s billionaire tax fight continued, with DealBook citing Representative Katie Porter’s push for a wealth tax and the Wall Street Journal‘s 10-Point newsletter noting business pushback. Economist David Henderson’s own newsletter pushed back on economist Gabriel Zucman’s case for the tax.
  • A guest essay in Opinion Today, by Jen Harris, argued the AI investment boom “looks a lot like the housing bubble” and warned a bust could rival the 2008 financial crisis.

International News

Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won a fourth term, defeating right wing challenger Flavio Bolsonaro. It was the most widely covered story of the morning, appearing in the Toronto Star, the New York Times‘s The World, DealBook and The Morning newsletters, The Economist, and the Wall Street Journal‘s 10-Point. The Times‘s editorial board separately argued that Trump should “stay out of Brazilian politics.”

Israel heads to the polls Tuesday in a contest between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and rival Gadi Eisenkot, covered by Amit Segal’s It’s Noon in Israel, Punchbowl News, the Times‘s The Morning, and Semafor. Opinion Today ran dueling takes: Michael J. Koplow argued Netanyahu’s core support remains strong despite “three disastrous years,” while Ezra Klein wrote that Netanyahu “won the Middle East and lost the world.”

  • The Times‘s Spanish language Opinion newsletter ran Serge Schmemann’s essay on the end of the old world order and three possible successors, alongside an editorial on what it called Trump’s “betrayal” of Ukraine, and a Cambridge professor’s call to abolish business schools rather than reform them.
  • The estate of Elvis Presley is suing Anthropic over the use of his material in AI training, according to the Times‘s The World and The Morning newsletters.

Media News

Rest of World, the nonprofit outlet covering technology and business outside the West, is shutting down, while veteran journalist Bill Owens is joining a new outlet called Newpress. The story ran across three media newsletters this morning: the Columbia Journalism Review, Semafor’s Media newsletter (“The New Press”), and Status’s Sunday Spotlight.

Sports News

NFL Week 7 scrambled the playoff picture, according to The Athletic’s The Pulse. The Bills, Browns, Jaguars and Chiefs lead the AFC, while the Giants, Vikings, Panthers and 49ers top a muddled NFC. The Chiefs’ home loss to the defending champion Seahawks stood out as the week’s biggest surprise.

  • Thunder forward Jalen Williams was carted off on a stretcher after a serious leg injury against the Clippers (The Athletic).
  • Baylor fired head coach Dave Aranda, following earlier dismissals of Maryland’s Mike Locksley and NC State’s Dave Doeren, as the college football coaching carousel spins up (The Athletic).
  • Closer to home, the Raptors took their first loss of the season, 117 to 94 against Minnesota, and Canada’s Leylah Fernandez fell to top ranked Elena Rybakina in the Ningbo Open final (Toronto Star).

Health and Wellness

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Pump Club newsletter made the case for a short walk after dinner. A ten minute walk soon after eating can blunt the rise in blood sugar that follows a meal. In one cited study, people with type 2 diabetes who walked ten minutes after each meal cut post meal blood sugar spikes by 12 percent overall and 22 percent after dinner, compared with walking at any time of day.

The same newsletter also warned that most pre workout supplements are poorly formulated. Independent testing of popular products found wide gaps between labeled and actual caffeine content, and the newsletter recommended choosing products that disclose every ingredient’s dose and carry third party certification such as NSF Certified for Sport.

Other

A few culture items stood out in today’s Opinion newsletters. Maureen Dowd reviewed the Elizabeth Holmes drama “You Can See Everything,” calling it closer to a film noir thriller than a reflection on deception. Writer Jayson Greene made the case, in an essay that divided readers, that Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s poorly reviewed film “Digger” carries a climate message worth hearing. Lena Dunham also wrote about the day she met her birth parents.

Sources

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