Today’s Top Stories from NBC News
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2026
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In today’s newsletter: Russia attacks Ukraine after Trump’s “energy ceasefire.” Conservative rumors about James Talarico backfires. And more than 400 trees are chopped down at the D.C. golf course Trump wants to renovate.
Here’s what to know today.
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(David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty)
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Oil and gas prices rose yesterday after President Donald Trump’s “energy ceasefire,” announced Sunday, failed to gain traction. Brent crude had jumped 2% to almost $108 per barrel, and U.S. crude oil had risen more than 2% to about $94. By Tuesday morning, Brent fell to around $105 per barrel and U.S. crude oil to around $92.
Meanwhile, Russia has continued to strike Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, including an attack on a power plant in Kharkiv.
Trump indicated that he knew neither Ukraine nor Russia had committed to a ceasefire when he made the announcement on Truth Social. “They agreed, you know why? Because I said, ‘You agree,’” Trump told reporters yesterday.
The “energy ceasefire” came two days after another surprise Trump announcement — that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to supply 300,000 tons of diesel fuel “to the American and Global Marketplace,” requiring a six-month suspension of the fuel sanctions imposed on the Kremlin in 2022 for its illegal invasion of Ukraine. The suspension of sanctions angered Ukrainian officials, European allies and some U.S. lawmakers.
Trump yesterday defended the deal with Russia, calling it “the right choice for the American people.” Still, experts are highly skeptical that there will be any significant resumption of Russian diesel exports in the near term because of Ukrainian strikes on refiners deep inside Russia.
Why the ceasefire and diesel deals caught some leaders by surprise.
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Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico returned to the campaign trail after he said he had the flu with a message for his Republican challenger, Ken Paxton: Let’s debate. “Ken Paxton asked for proof of life for me,” Talarico said. “I’m asking for proof of spine from him.”
Talarico’s challenge to Paxton came after conservatives on social media launched rumors that his absence for over a week was because of mental health issues. The Ohio facility at the center of the rumor debunked the assertion. Talarico said he had never been to the state. Even some Republicans admit the episode is a bad look, and it’s not the first time the GOP has tried to take a big swing at Talarico, only for it to backfire.
How the GOP has attacked Talarico.
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- For subscribers: NBC News’ chief data analyst Steve Kornacki explains why this year’s midterms are different from the 2018 election in The Data Dive, a subscriber-exclusive newsletter on the numbers, trends and data shaping the biggest stories heading into the midterms.
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Trump indicated Monday that he’s considering firing Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former top campaign surrogate who has served as the U.S. ambassador to Greece since 2025. “We’re looking at it,” Trump said when asked if he’s weighing firing Guilfoyle, as first reported by The Associated Press, amid allegations of misconduct related to her role as ambassador.
“We’re not happy,” Trump added.
Guilfoyle and the U.S. Embassy in Greece are under investigation by the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General, two people familiar with the decision confirmed to NBC News last week. The probe came after reports in The Wall Street Journal of misconduct in her role as ambassador, including allegedly bragging about her connections to Greek tycoons who she said funded luxury trips for her. The story cited people who heard the conversation and an audio recording. The reports have not been independently confirmed by NBC News.
Last week, a Trump donor named Eric Deters came forward accusing Guilfoyle of asking him to pay her outstanding $100,000 American Express bill in the days before her 2025 confirmation hearing in the Senate in exchange for access to senior administration officials.
Attorneys for Guilfoyle said in a statement that Deters had owed her the money for speaking engagements, which he denies.
Read the full story.
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A federal judge issued a restraining order barring any other trees from being removed — until today, at least — from a public golf course in Washington, D.C., that Donald Trump wants to turn into “one of the greatest golf courses anywhere in the world.” U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes tore into the Trump administration in a hearing yesterday after the removal of more than 400 trees over the weekend from East Potomac Golf Course. “I’m furious,” she told Justice Department attorneys, adding, “What has happened has cost the government all of its credibility.”
Reyes previously told the Trump administration to provide her and the plaintiffs’ attorneys “enough notice before some major thing happens,” and the government agreed. But yesterday, a Justice Department attorney claimed “we did our best” when it gave notice of its plans to chop hundreds of trees shortly before 5 p.m. Friday, at the beginning of a three-day holiday weekend and about 12 hours before work began.
What else Reyes told Trump administration lawyers.
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When OpenAI announced it had solved more than 370 math problems that humans had to figure out, it shook mathematicians across the globe.
It’s a hard story to understand — the math problems OpenAI says it solved are abstract, complicated and well beyond my level of math schooling. Are these problems important? Is this just hype?
I cast a wide net among mathematicians to get a feel for how this finding — and AI, in general — is shaking their field. They were all over the map.
“We should be rejoicing and dancing in the streets,” one mathematician said. “We’ve been hit by a huge wave and now we’re sort of out at sea,” said another.
While some viewed the new AI-generated solutions as a “treasure trove” or a “breakthrough” on key problems, others described it as sloppily written work that would take academic mathematicians months to verify.
— Evan Bush, science reporter
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- The Buffalo Bills’ 37-34 victory over the Los Angeles Rams was the thriller of the NFL season, a back-and-forth affair featuring numerous twists, turns, touchdowns, turnovers and game-changing plays.
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- RJ Mitte, the actor known for playing the son of Walter White in “Breaking Bad” and an advocate for the rights of those with disabilities, has died at age 34.
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- Selma Blair was arraigned on two counts of assault, accused of being physically abusive on flight, as well as kicking an officer and a nurse. Attorneys for the “Cruel Intentions” star said she was experiencing a medical emergency.
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- A man who was injured when an ICE officer’s car ran over him last weekend in Houston will need additional surgeries to reconstruct his leg and other parts of his body, an advocate said.
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Thanks for reading the Morning Rundown. Today’s newsletter was curated for you by Elizabeth Robinson.
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