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Today’s top stories
Heavier fighting in Iran could resume in the coming weeks as military reinforcements arrive and some U.S. personnel leave the region. This shift comes as a person briefed on the U.S. and Israel’s war planning told NPR that the countries were preparing plans for a possible attack on Iran after the U.S. midterms. Iran said it is prepared.
Traffic in Tehran on Wednesday moves past an installation depicting butterflies forming the Iranian national flag.
Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images
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Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images
- 🎧 There are clear signs of preparations for a possible attack, NPR’s Greg Myre tells Up First. The U.S. is deploying a third aircraft carrier to the Middle East, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently visited Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. President Trump will likely consider military action after Nov. 3 to avoid a spike in oil prices before the midterm elections. In response, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Iran is ready for both diplomacy and war. While the U.S. and Israel possess the power to inflict heavy damage, Iran shows no signs of making significant concessions, Myre says. Instead, it demands formal control over the Strait of Hormuz and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region.
Although Election Day is more than a week away, almost 21 million Americans have already voted, either by mail or early in-person voting, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab.
- 🎧 That number of votes so far is a lot and is an increase of about 2 million since yesterday, according to NPR’s Saige Miller. In key battleground states, early voting is significantly higher compared to the last midterm election. While the early voting data should not be overinterpreted as a predictor of final results, it shows Democrats voting at higher rates than Republicans, Miller says. Unaffiliated voters are also participating early. Democrats are generally more likely to vote early, and Republicans are more likely to turn out on Election Day, Miller says.
- ➡️ A federal judge in California is limiting the Department of Homeland Security’s pre-election field operations. The agency says they aim to identify noncitizens who allegedly voted illegally in nine states.
- ➡️ The NPR App has all of NPR’s election coverage in one place — from the biggest stories across the country, to the issues that matter close to home. Browse headlines, playlists, podcast episodes, videos and more, all on the 2026 Election tab.
Trump must sit for a deposition in his $10 billion defamation case against the BBC, a federal magistrate judge ruled. Trump is required to comply with court rules or face sanctions, the judge said yesterday. The case centers on a Panorama broadcast from late October 2024, which allegedly edited the president’s Jan. 6 speech to make it appear he incited a violent siege of Congress. Trump has described the broadcast as false, misleading and defamatory under Florida law.
- 🎧 It’s unclear if Trump will sit for a deposition after he previously canceled for “matters of national importance” and suggested January as an alternative, NPR’s David Folkenflik says. The case initially focused on the economic harm the broadcast posed to Trump’s brand and financial prospects. Although the BBC apologized for the splicing, it now seeks to understand Trump’s mindset during his testimony, as he may have intended to encourage violence. BBC attorneys say more than 200 defendants from Jan. 6 said Trump’s speech motivated them. The BBC is actively pursuing details about how Trump has profited since regaining the White House, most likely to assess the extent of the damage he faces, Folkenflik says.
Deep dive
Trump promised to lower grocery prices in his second term. While some individual items have gotten cheaper since he returned to office, overall grocery prices have risen, driven by factors such as increased labor costs, tariffs and higher energy prices due to the conflict with Iran. Specific issues facing a single crop, animal species or geographic region can cause the price of one item to rise well above inflation, while lowering the price of another. NPR analyzed five everyday food items — ground beef, eggs, coffee, butter and chocolate chip cookies — to better understand the math behind grocery store prices.
- 🍔 Ground beef prices have skyrocketed, reaching $6.79 per pound last month, which is an 85% increase over the past decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This surge is largely due to weather and financial pressures on producers.
- 🥚 Prices for eggs fell to $2.27 per dozen last month. Outbreaks like the avian flu can cause significant price fluctuations. In March 2025, the average dozen reached a record high of $6.23.
- 🧈 In September, a pound of butter averaged $3.96 — down 17.3% from last year. U.S. butter production has surged as dairy farms expanded their herds and boosted milk supply for popular items like Greek yogurt. This has resulted in an oversupply of butter.
- 🍪 Chocolate chip cookie prices hit a record $5.35 per pound this January, and last month dropped by 20 cents. The price spike is partly due to factors affecting the sweet treat’s ingredients, such as higher flour costs driven by the war in Ukraine.
- ☕ The U.S. imports 99% of the coffee it consumes. Severe weather and climate change have affected harvests, and the price of coffee is still 44% higher than it was two years earlier, despite Trump removing tariffs on the product.
Read more about why these prices have fluctuated here.
Weekend picks
Petter Mattei portrays stars in the Metropolitan Opera production of Lincoln in the Bardo, adapted from George Saunders’ surreal novel about the president grieving the loss of his son in the midst of the Civil War.
Karen Almond/Metropolitan Opera
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Karen Almond/Metropolitan Opera
Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:
🍿 Movies: A new film version of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility focuses on the Dashwood family’s two oldest sisters, Elinor and Marianne, who face financial insecurity due to laws that disadvantage widows and daughters.
📺 TV: Actor Sharon Horgan stars as Alex, a 50-year-old divorcée who finds herself at multiple personal and professional crossroads in HBO’s new show Youth.
📚 Books: Barbara Trapido’s Brother of the More Famous Jack follows Katherine Browne, who is determined to escape her stiflingly conventional upbringing and create a life with fewer constraints.
🎵 Music: NPR’s New Music Friday host Stephen Thompson breaks down the best albums released today, including Anderson .Paak and Cordae’s Heavy Is the Crown and Fenne Lily’s Win Win. Listen to a playlist of the best songs from the new albums.
🎭 Theater: Missy Mazzoli’s music brings George Saunders’ Booker Prize-winning novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, to life in a stage adaptation at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Mazzoli is the first woman composer to have a world premiere on the Met stage.
3 things to know before you go
Karl Bushby, pictured here in Turkey in 2025, started his Goliath Expedition 28 years ago.
Karl Bushby
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Karl Bushby
- British adventurer Karl Bushby set out from Chile with the goal of walking an unbroken path to his hometown in England. After 28 years, he has returned to the U.K. and plans to return to his mother’s home in Hull by Nov. 1.
- At least four Trump merchandise stores closed this year as the MAGA Mall reports sales fell 30% from his presidential election years.
- In this week’s edition of Far-Flung Postcards, NPR’s Carrie Kahn recalls feeling the rare power of nature at Iguazú Falls on the Brazil-Argentina border. A rain-soaked October brought near-record water volumes crashing over the cliffs.
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
