#2026-midterm-elections

#2026-midterm-elections

Catch up quick: After months of bringing up the idea, Trump and his economic team have been talking about it more actively in recent days, as the president tries to apply pressure on the Supreme Court to uphold his entire tariff program. The president told reporters in the Oval Office Monday night that the checks would start going out in mid-2026 - though Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has cautioned that Congress would have to pass legislation authorizing them, an uncertain outcome.

For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth by Democrats unhappy with the deal to reopen the federal government, and for all the talk about a Democratic "civil war," pretty much everyone in the party agrees the longest government shutdown in history didn't work out that well for them. The lawmakers who "caved" and voted to end the stalemate thought there was no real chance to secure any of the big concessions they had originally demanded - particularly an Obamacare-subsidy extension.

Across the US, in the streets and in their studios, artists and arts workers are resisting the cultural crackdown instigated by President Donald Trump. A joint statement calling for "collective courage" and affirming a commitment to "artistic freedom and independent thought", organised by the National Coalition Against Censorship and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School in New York, had gathered nearly 1,000 signatures in just two weeks after its release at the end of August.