👋🏼 Hi there! I'm Phaedra Trethan, and for me the secret to great French toast is the right bread (a good baguette or some challah does nicely), a splash of vanilla extract and about a metric ton of cinnamon. 🥖 👩🏻🍳
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A critical flaw discovered in one of the most-used programming languages reveals how much of the web is vulnerable to hackers. 🪲 🤖 |
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Big money is flowing into midterm election races across the U.S. And so is some real ugliness. 🫠 💰 |
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After suffering for a week, Nicole Leon went to the hospital for what she thought might be food poisoning. It was something much worse. She shared her story of overcoming a grim prognosis and advocating for her health. ❤️🩹 |
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But first: The Orionid meteor shower starts to peak tonight. Where and when to cast your eyes skyward. 🔭 🌌
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Bots digging for bugs 🪲 🤖
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If you don't know what PHP is, you're not alone: Few outside of software developers and engineers do. But the programming language keeps a lot of the web running ‒ 70% of it, by some estimates. So it's not hard to imagine the chaos that might ensue if hackers were to make mischief with PHP. Well, that's what researchers from OpenAI, Google and Calif (a digital infrastructure defense firm) prevented when they patched bugs in PHP earlier this month.
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The new revelations highlight how bad actors could steal information or launch potentially devastating cyberattacks, including on government websites around the world.
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"It could have been a really bad thing," one researcher told USA TODAY. "Imagine, nobody knew anything when – boom – today dropped. That would be extremely bad."
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Two critical PHP vulnerabilities could put websites at risk of hackers, prompting an urgent security update.
Getty
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Midterm money and election ugliness 💰 🫠
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Multimillionaires, billionaires and one trillionaire are dumping mind-boggling amounts of cash into the 2026 midterms, making it potentially the most expensive election cycle in U.S. history. Most of the big donors' dough is going to GOP candidates, with Elon Musk reportedly pouring in as much as $276 million to boost Republicans in the third quarter alone.
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The biggest bucks are going to (where else?) the Lonestar State, where AG Ken Paxton is locked in a tight race with Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.
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An attack ad from Republican Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign featuring Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton's estranged mother is drawing bipartisan backlash. Here's why. 📺 |
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VP JD Vance, who's written about his own family's challenges, addressed Republican backlash to the controversial Ohio ad. 🤐 |
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Two new polls have President Donald Trump's approval ratings reaching new lows, even as he urges voters to vote as if he's on the ballot. 📉 |
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The Bushes are a GOP family dating back decades. But some are publicly endorsing and donating to Talarico. 🤑 |
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An ad from Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy features his opponent’s mother.
Vivek Ramaswamy / YouTube
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The mayor of Kissimmee, Florida, was arrested and is facing charges including grand theft, a state prosecutor said. |
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The Trump administration plans to lease nearly 100 million acres of Pacific Ocean seafloor, a move critics say creates an environmental and economic nightmare. |
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A man who died in ICE custody was a lawful U.S. resident who'd lived in Texas for decades, his family and federal authorities said. |
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A New York lawmaker is calling on the FDA to act on a shortage of estrogen patches used to treat menopause symptoms. |
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'Like my world had just collapsed'
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After a week of suffering, Nicole Leon took herself to the emergency room, believing she had food poisoning. Then 32 and otherwise healthy, she underwent testing for a possible ectopic pregnancy. It wasn't that, either. Instead, doctors found a tumor on her liver. She was told she had six months to live.
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Years later, she's still here , and spreading the word about listening to one's body, advocating for one's health and fighting for the right treatments.
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The most spook-tacular street in America? 👻 👹 🧌
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It's not in Salem, Massachusetts, or Sleepy Hollow, New York. It's in New Jersey. (Of course it is! –signed, your friendly Jersey-based newsletter writer.) The winner of Reese's "trick-or-treatiest" street in America is Westfield in the great Garden State, winning the contest that ranked streets across the U.S. on their Halloween spirit, sense of community and neighborhood character. To Westfield we go! 🚗
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Westfield, New Jersey, the hometown of cartoonist Charles Addams, celebrates Halloween with AddamsFest. This home is on Shackamaxon Drive.
Courtesy of AddamsFest
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TOO SOON. Mariah Carey-themed holiday bars are popping up in seven cities across the U.S. and U.K. 🤶🏼 🎄 |
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A large metallic object fell from the sky into a Minnesota cornfield. What could it be? 🛸 👽 |
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Dolly Parton's extraordinary life is getting the Broadway treatment. 🎭 |
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Phaedra Trethan is a national correspondent at USA TODAY. I’d love to hear from readers about The Short List, story ideas from across the nation and your favorite musicals. (Mine are "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," "Miss Saigon" and "Hamilton.") Email me at ptrethan@usatoday.com.
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In one of the largest fines ever levied against the company that runs Facebook and Instagram, Meta was ordered to pay New Mexico a record $25 billion.
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President Trump's administration is planning to send $8 billion to U.S. farmers who are struggling with high diesel prices. Will it lower prices?
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The trailer in which the 64 immigrants were in was found in June 2022, having traveled 156 miles from the border without air conditioning.
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Toledo, Ohio, officials said the chemical could cause irritation to the eyes, but smelling it in the air wasn't a sign of immediate danger.
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The crash, which left one dead, occurred in June. The woman was charged with a felony after police say she was on an adult website right before crash.
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Here are 10 names to remember as President Trump looks for his next White House press secretary to replace Katie Zacharia, who lasted just five days.
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In a rare move on Tuesday, Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey granted clemency to Toforest Johnson, who has been on death row for 28 years.
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"Clayface" takes one of Batman's freakier villains and gives him his own movie. But the latest DC film fumbles a body horror-filled origin tale.
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15 young men arrived at a "looksmaxxing" bootcamp run by one of the internet's most controversial Gen Z influencers. One of them tells us why he went.
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Troy Aikman and Joe Buck got into a disagreement over their diverging contract situations at ESPN earlier this season. They will call this season's Super Bowl.
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Play Your Way to a Relaxing Break
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Unwind with crosswords and challenges that recharge you.
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Crosswords, Puzzles, Comics & Horoscopes
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