I can’t resist starting today with our Australian friends’ lead item in Fix the News:
— As you may recall, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is a global public-private partnership to help vaccinate the world’s children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases.
In 2025, more than 73 million children were immunized with Gavi support, more than in any previous year, Gavi reports. That brings the 2021–2025 total to more than 351 million, passing the target 300 million. It also means that the total number of children immunized since 2000 exceeds 1.3 billion — about one in six people currently alive.
Fix the News says that a week after the Gavi report’s release, it still hadn’t been covered “by any of the world’s top 50 English-language news sites. They’ve all decided that saving more than two million human lives isn’t newsworthy, even as they serve us up thousands of articles, videos and posts every day about the U.S. midterms. The news is not a report of what’s going in the world — it’s a funhouse mirror that shows us to ourselves in the worst possible light.”
— An effort to reintroduce commercial whaling failed at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission, says Mongabay. A moratorium on commercial whaling has been in effect for 40 years.
Experts say the moratorium has aided the recovery of many whale species that whaling had driven to the brink of extinction. Other threats to whales remain. Fishing gear, fast-moving vessels and pollution continue to kill or injure cetaceans around the world. There’s also the increasing threat from climate change, which is disrupting cetacean food supplies, habitat and migration patterns.
— The world’s first nuclear clocks have been created by scientists in Vienna and Beijing, Reuters reports, citing a study in the journal Nature.
This next generation of atomic clocks is an important advance in ultra-accurate timekeeping that has applications in navigation satellite systems and internet, cellular and fiber-optic communications, Reuters says. And it offers promise in helping us understand fundamental physics, such as dark matter.
“It gives access to a whole new physics universe,” says physicist Thorsten Schumm of TU Wien in Austria.
Voting rights on John Dineen’s briefing.center
“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist
Here are regularly updated voting rights resources for the midterm elections.
John’s daily commentary on briefing.center
Here is John’s commentary today, titled ‘CBS News leaders have thoughts on Abdul El-Sayed ... tonight on 60 Minutes?’
Also in the news
China confirms expulsion of 33 officials, as Xi’s anticorruption, disloyalty purge deepens
Trump and his aides helped Bolsonaro flee Brazil for the U.S.; officials say he’ll likely be granted permanent residency later
Pentagon inspector general refuses lawmakers’ bipartisan request to investigate Starlink slowdowns in Ukraine
Pentagon accuses newly fired general of leaking sensitive information to media
ProPublica finds more than 500 instances of U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents
Judge orders Trump officials to outline election demands sent to states trying to enlist them in effort to find evidence of voter fraud
El-Sayed, Stevens to make rare joint appearance as Democrats seek unity in Michigan Senate race
Ramaswamy attack ad featuring opponent Amy Acton’s estranged mother is off the air in Ohio
Heather Cox Richardson on Bolsonaro, ‘but her emails’ kind of moment in Peltola Senate race, more
Joyce Vance: ‘An epic opinion from Judge Carter’ in California ballots case
Robert Reich: ‘How California’s billionaires are proving that billionaire wealth endangers democracy’
National debt reaches 100 percent of GDP, the highest level since 1946
Churches across U.S. are building houses on their property to sustain their ministries while easing affordable-housing shortages
KFF: ‘Your phone knows you’re at the doctor, and data brokers do, too — then profit from it’
Judge strikes down Trump administration’s definition of ‘medically frail’ in Medicaid work rules
KFF: Medicare drug plans hike premiums while Trump claims victory on medicine prices
You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer
Senate Majority Leader John Thune