The Washington Post

Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl halftime show in February, the NFL announced, putting the award-winning rapper into the spotlight seven years after his company started producing the event.

Israelis from Tel Aviv and West Bank settlements, from Jerusalem and overseas, poured into polling booths Tuesday for its first national election since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fights for political survival.

Exclusive: Jennifer Shuford, the CDC’s deputy director and chief medical officer, is leaving the administration after a short tenure. “I am leaving to spend more time with my family,” Shuford said in a statement.

As El Niño continues soaring to unrivaled heights, meteorologists are preparing for a winter in the U.S. that could be just as extraordinary. Some of these storms will be nuisance-level events, while others have the potential to be much more serious.

An Illinois man, Matthew G. Unglesbee, is facing federal charges for allegedly sending threatening letters containing a white substance to four members of Congress.

Extreme heat waves and wildfires have contributed to unhealthy levels of smog and smoke around the world so far in 2026, an analysis of air quality trends found. Over half of the world’s population was exposed to high levels of ground-level ozone pollution.

President Trump took seven minutes out of his rally in Mississippi to defend his focus on White House renovation projects after one of his predecessors, Barack Obama, compared the redecorated Oval Office to an over-the-top Cheesecake Factory.

Minnesota is the NFL’s last undefeated team. The Vikings have a middling offense, a quarterback trying to jump-start his career and a division full of contenders. With a 16-10 win over Indianapolis, the team is 6-0 and alone atop the league’s unbeaten list.

A potentially dangerous cyclone is intensifying in the Bay of Bengal and is expected to strike eastern India as soon as late Tuesday. Cyclone Arnab will bring serious wind and surge impacts to an area with a high population and vulnerable infrastructure.

Five people, including women and children, were killed, the Syrian government said, after Jordan launched airstrikes in response to a deadly church attack last week.

At least some of the human remains found in Haiti do not appear to belong to four missing Salvadoran soldiers, a person familiar with the matter said. The aviation technicians went missing after an ambush in gang-controlled territory.

When the Fed announces its next interest rate decision, the nation will be six days from Election Day. In the past 32 years, the Fed has met to consider interest rates in the week before an election four times and changed rates at two, according to records.

The scariest part of Halloween this year might be the candy prices. Prices for the “candy and chewing gum” category have spiked 7.7 percent over the past year — more than twice the rate of overall inflation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic, which makes the chatbot Claude, disclosed hundreds of pages of its future plans and financial information as the company prepares to list its stock on the Nasdaq. Here are five takeaways from Monday’s filing:

Breaking news: A federal judge barred the Trump administration from cutting, damaging or impairing any more trees at East Potomac Park without first obtaining a court order, challenging President Trump’s plan to remake the public golf course.

At least some of the remains turned over to the Gang Suppression Force appear not to be the four Salvadoran soldiers who went missing last week

“Flávio has given up,” a Bolsonaro family adviser told The Washington Post. “He’s terrified. He is worried his father will die in jail, that he himself will be jailed this week, and that he may have a long prison term ahead”

Pandan's long blades of grass can be spotted growing in home gardens all over Southeast Asia. Some say its scent is slightly floral, others fresh and grassy. And it’s often compared to coconut and vanilla. Here's how to use it in your cooking:

Longtime Serbian leader Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat Sunday night in a historic election that could mean a new political era in the Balkan country after two years of pressure from a movement of university students.

With fear rising across the Middle East that the U.S. and Israel will restart military strikes on Iran, diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey met with Iranian leaders in Tehran in a new push to negotiate an end to the war.

In Youngstown, Ohio, rising costs and economic uncertainty are concerns ahead of the midterms. While some voters support President Donald Trump, others question whether his economic agenda benefits working-class communities. https://wapo.st/4jMYMYF

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva scored the biggest victory of his political career with a historic comeback to win reelection. Here are five takeaways from Brazil’s election:

Breaking news: Brazil’s leading right-wing politician, Flávio Bolsonaro, effectively conceded defeat to the incumbent left-wing president, after President Trump indicated he wouldn't intervene despite saying that the vote “looked like another rigged election.”

Olivia the duck has become the mascot for a ballot measure that would ban the sale of foie gras, the French specialty made of fatty duck or goose livers, in D.C. “She’s out here trying to spread the word,” said her owner. “And save her friends.” https://wapo.st/4z7ByRw

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could finish second in Tuesday’s national election behind retired military chief Gadi Eisenkot but still return to lead a unity government alongside the man who vowed to replace him.

Breaking news: The Justice Department has again charged James B. Comey, the third time the Trump administration has mounted a criminal case against the former FBI director — a prominent political foe of the president — since last year.

A newly filed court document reveals extensive communications between Kennedy Center management and President Trump’s advisers, including presidential aide Natalie Harp, around pivotal court rulings and board votes over the institution’s future.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D), the only Black governor of a U.S. state, is up for reelection next month. But he has been crisscrossing Virginia, fortifying his ties to the state’s Black political power structure ahead of a presumed 2028 presidential bid.

Column by Trisha Pasricha, MD: Irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, is about two times more common in women than in men. Why? As it turns out, women had reported one important clue for decades.

People across Europe are contending with slow economic growth and higher costs of groceries, housing and fuel, driven up by the U.S. war with Iran. The economic pain is coupled with the angry malaise of a younger generation disillusioned by the status quo.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R) is running in one of the country’s most competitive House districts, in a party where many of his colleagues are distancing themselves from an unpopular president. Van Orden has taken the opposite tack.

A man was fatally stabbed at a D.C. jail Sunday, according to police and the city’s Department of Corrections. It marks at least the third stabbing in the facility this month, according to data reviewed by The Post.

Republican campaigns and PACs have spent nearly $3 million at President Trump’s businesses since he returned to office, according to a Post analysis. Spending at Mar-a-Lago has more than tripled compared with the same period of his first term.

The Trump administration has a historically large number of vacancies in Senate-confirmed positions, prompting frustration among current and former officials who say the White House personnel office has not kept pace.

Walter Koenig, an American actor whose skill with accents earned him an enduring place in popular culture as Chekov, the Russian ensign and starship navigator in the original “Star Trek” franchise, died Oct. 25. He was 90.

Lawmakers in at least 32 states have introduced legislation to limit or eliminate ultra-processed foods in school meals, according to a nonprofit. An alliance between the right-wing Make America Healthy Again movement and progressives backs the effort.

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested and charged with attempted murder in connection with a mass shooting that left at least 11 people wounded over the weekend outside Florida A&M University’s football stadium.

A federal judge in New York ruled that the Justice Department unlawfully fired Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI director James Comey, from her job as a federal prosecutor.

Humans have survived and thrived for millennia without expensive technology promising to clear our lymphatic systems. Influencers swear by them to allegedly reduce puffiness and boost overall health. We asked experts if you should just save your money:

A recent securities filing spotlighted what triggered Mark Zuckerberg’s months-long power battle with board directors at Meta — a fight that sparked not-so-veiled threats from Zuckerberg and led board members to contemplate quitting.

Many fans from the U.S., flying in to watch America’s favorite sport in the days after Paris’s most destructive civil unrest in decades, found themselves in a city that looked nothing like what they’d seen in the news and on social media.

Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff gave his State of the University address in which, after weeks of public and private acrimony, he said the university must do better.

A mother's feelings are constantly hurt by things she shouldn't be taking personally — specifically, her daughter's own parenting decisions. What should this letter writer do? Check out more advice on our new show, Life Hax, wherever you get podcasts. https://apple.co/4sDkosV

María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate, returned to Venezuela on Sunday after more than 10 months abroad — a homecoming that could test the Trump administration’s control over the country. Read more: https://wapo.st/3WM4kJ6

Republicans have lost one of their greatest advantages in the last election: the border is quiet. While border security was a major priority for South Texas voters in 2024, in the current midterms, many locals say it is no longer the top concern.

Silicon Valley companies that ingratiated themselves with President Trump’s Washington are bracing for the possibility of a Democratic Congress — and with it congressional investigations targeting their dealings with the president and his administration.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won reelection Sunday over conservative Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro. The result showed voters in Brazil declining to join the region’s marked rightward shift. https://wapo.st/4BstJHK

Press freedom groups sued the Trump administration, alleging in federal court that attempting to bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House violates the First Amendment rights of ordinary citizens to access information about the U.S. government.

Exclusive: The U.S. Military Academy at West Point continues to require top officials to review its civilian professors’ requests to speak at external events, despite a federal judge’s ruling that such a mandate is unconstitutional.

Desire to join in on the discourse, argues author and strategist Leigh Stein, is one reason people hate-read the buzziest new releases. Or, in other words, “it’s fun to bitch about stuff that you didn’t like,” said the founder of Trash Talk Book Club. https://wapo.st/4zb7Kn2