Editor’s Note: Due to an upstream provider error, links in previous emails did not work as expected, nor opened reliably. This issue has now been resolved. Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Greetings! Happy National Candy Day to those celebrating.

Let’s get into today’s top stories.

🇵🇭 Typhoon Kalmaegi kills 26 and swamps central provinces. Authorities reported at least 26 deaths as floodwaters trapped residents on rooftops, submerged cars, and cut power to wide swaths of the central Philippines. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) warned of additional landslides as saturated slopes give way after days of rain. Coast Guard crews ferried families across streets turned to rivers while hospitals triaged hypothermia and water-borne infections. Reservoir managers weighed controlled releases to protect spillways, a tradeoff that floods farms to save towns. Schools became shelters and cold-chain failures threatened vaccine stocks as outages persisted. Agriculture officials began early loss counts for rice and coconut harvests that set next quarter’s food prices. Relief runs on diesel and bridges; resilience runs on budgets and building codes.

🌳 On COP30’s eve, a plea for less talk and more action. As Brazil readies Belém for next year’s United Nations (UN) 30th Conference of Parties (COP30) Climate Change Conference summit, scientists and mayors pushed for concrete deadlines on deforestation, methane cuts, and climate finance. Advocates want implementation plans with kilometer counts of restored forest and megawatt targets for renewables, not just communiqués. City leaders argued adaptation is cheapest when done early, citing tide-gate installations and heat-shelter networks that save lives for pennies on the disaster dollar. Finance ministries face pressure to shift from pilots to procurement so projects survive election cycles. Indigenous groups asked negotiators to fund land-titling and fire management that have proven conservation returns. Shipping and steel producers pressed for clear carbon-border rules that let them invest without whiplash. Negotiations love paragraphs; coastlines respect excavators and contracts.

🔫 Maine votes on a red-flag gun law shaped by tragedy. Voters will decide whether to authorize court-ordered temporary firearm removals when family or police show evidence of imminent harm, a reform inspired by the Lewiston mass shooting that killed 18. Proponents say crisis-intervention orders bridge the gap between warning signs and irreversible violence. Critics warn of due-process risks and uneven enforcement across rural and urban counties. Judges would weigh affidavits and timelines, with penalties for false claims to deter misuse. Sheriffs want funding for storage and returns so orders are enforceable beyond paper. Public-health researchers point to states where similar laws correlate with fewer firearm suicides. Ballots write policy; action writes outcomes.

🗳️ What to watch on Election Day 2025. Analysts are tracking whether the president’s base holds in suburban counties, whether Democrats’ economic message cuts through, and how the shutdown’s ripple effects shape turnout. Watch Virginia and New Jersey for bellwether patterns in early-vote margins and precinct splits. All eyes are on New York City's generational mayoral race. Labor-adjacent referendums could lift union households and alter down-ballot math. The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) flagged staffing and machine-testing pressures if budget standoffs continue. Pollsters will parse education-gap swings that have driven the last three cycles. Lawsuits over mail-ballot deadlines and drop boxes will test clerks’ stress limits. The scoreboard is votes; the subtext is mood.

🚗 A major Tesla holder vows to vote down Musk’s trillion-dollar pay package. One of the carmaker’s biggest investors said it will oppose Elon Musk’s proposed multibillion-dollar compensation package, arguing the target metrics and governance safeguards fall short. The move adds pressure before a high-stakes tally that could ripple through executive-pay debates across the market. Tesla ($TSLA) boosters counter that performance unlocked extraordinary value and warrants extraordinary rewards. Proxy advisers will focus on dilution, board independence, and whether targets were retrofitted to reality. Retail shareholders remain a wild card in a company with unusually engaged individual investors. Whichever side wins, boards everywhere will recalibrate their bonus math. Incentives write culture long after headlines fade.

🏛️ Dick Cheney dies at 84 after reshaping American power. The former vice president wielded unmatched influence over war and surveillance policy in the early 2000s, guiding the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the expansion of executive authority. Admirers credit him with clarity of purpose after September 11. Critics long labeled him a war criminal and hold him morally responsible for enormous civilian tolls, with some estimates placing combined conflict-related deaths above one million. His defenders reject those terms as politicized and note the multiplicity of methodologies in casualty studies. Even supporters concede that intelligence failures and occupation planning scars defined the era’s legacies. The obituary ledger is complicated, and that is the point: power leaves arguments behind as monuments. Public life rarely ends tidy.

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That’s all for today!

Much obliged and many thanks for reading and sharing today’s newsletter.

See you tomorrow!

Editor’s Note: Due to an upstream provider error, links in previous emails did not work as expected, nor opened reliably. This issue has now been resolved. Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience. Thanks for your patience and understanding!