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Monday, October 12, 2026
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Good Morning! On this day in 1492, Christopher Columbus and the crews of the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María came ashore on an island in the Bahamas, 10 weeks after sailing from Spain, and claimed the land for Ferdinand and Isabella.
Today is Columbus Day, and in honor of the occasion, we’re asking how many of the 50 states you’ve visited. We’d also love to know which one was your favorite! Hit reply and tell us.
You’re being overcharged every single month, and the companies doing it are counting on you never noticing. When’s the last time you combed through your bank statement line by line, looking for hidden fees? They’re coming from every direction: your bank, your cable provider, and that laundry list of subscriptions. On today’s episode of Flyover Focus, we count down 10 things you should stop paying for, ending with the No. 1 bill that’s still draining over $2,000 a year from millions of households. Tune in here!
Today’s sponsor, Granola, is an AI-powered notepad that transcribes your meetings, turns conversations into clear summaries and next steps, and makes it easy to find exactly what was discussed weeks later.
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 Trump Declares Ukraine Energy Ceasefire
President Trump announced Sunday morning that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an immediate “energy ceasefire,” writing on Truth Social: “Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” The White House gave no details, and Moscow had not commented.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who first said the announcement “was news for me,” later wrote that Ukraine supports a ceasefire, “and it is important that Russia supports it as well.”
Hours later, Zelensky said Russian drones hit a Kyiv power plant and energy sites in the Kharkiv region after Trump’s post. Ukraine’s grid operator warned of power restrictions today.
The announcement came a day after Trump said it was “time for Ukraine to get a new president,” blaming Zelensky for high U.S. diesel prices after Zelensky called Friday’s Russian diesel deal a “gift” to Putin.
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American Among 13 Dead in Riyadh Strike
A projectile hit a terminal at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on Sunday, a day after a missile strike on the Saudi capital’s airport killed at least 13 people, including an American, and wounded 309.
The Sunday strike set fire to Terminal 4, and Saudi air defenses said they intercepted a cruise missile nearby. The airport remains closed, flights are being diverted, and Riyadh schools have moved online.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis claimed the attacks and warned travelers to avoid every Saudi airport except Mecca and Medina. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the attacks “took numerous innocent lives, including an American citizen.”
President Trump said the U.S. “may” join Saudi strikes on the Houthis: “We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.”
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American Dream Now Costs $5.3 Million
The American Dream now costs about $5.3 million over a lifetime, according to a new analysis of eight milestones: a home, two new cars, raising and educating two kids, retirement, healthcare, a wedding, pets, and a yearly vacation. That’s up 4.1% in a year, while wages rose 3.1%.
The house is the biggest line at $1.28 million, followed by the cars and 20 years of retirement at about $1.2 million each. Raising two children jumped 9.5% to just over $700,000, the largest increase of any category.
Child care drives much of that. Center-based care for two kids costs more than the median rent in every state with data, and more than a mortgage payment in most.
Most Americans still think they’ll get there. Sixty-nine percent say they will personally achieve the American Dream, down four points from 2024, even though a college graduate’s lifetime earnings plus Social Security fall about $1.2 million short.
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Flying together with our sponsor
Most of us spend our days in meetings, then spend our evenings trying to remember what happened in them.
Granola, the AI notepad for people with back-to-back meetings, takes that second job off your plate. You take a few notes while Granola transcribes the conversation. When the meeting ends, it turns everything into a clear summary with actual next steps, ready to share with your team.
And when someone asks what was agreed three weeks ago, you don’t have to dig. Just ask Granola and get the answer in seconds.
Think of it as a notepad that never forgets.
Download Granola and try it in your next meeting. Free month with the code FLYOVER.
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The following stories are featured exclusively on The Flyover Podcast—a daily show that gives you the most important headlines in under 15 minutes.
➤ Amazon keeps a secret list of assumptions about every shopper, and the people finding theirs are not amused. Here’s where it’s hiding. (Hear Details)
➤ Book publishers have spent all year fighting AI in public. Behind closed doors, three of the biggest are doing something else entirely. (Listen Now)
➤ Two years together and still no idea what your partner earns? There’s a right moment to ask, and most couples miss it. (Hear More)
  
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➤ President Trump pledged in his Columbus Day proclamation that the explorer’s legacy would never be “erased by radical extremists.” He also highlighted the installation of a Columbus statue on the White House grounds, a replica of a Baltimore monument torn down by protesters in 2020. (Read Proclamation)
➤ The Justice Department has charged 64 foreign nationals in 17 states with illegal voting or fraudulent registration in about five weeks, led by Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Officials have not said that any case changed an election result. (See Map)
➤ Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Sunday there is “a legitimate case” that President Trump’s Russian diesel deal may violate the 2022 ban on Russian oil imports. He separately called War Secretary Pete Hegseth “a failed leader” who “needs to get the hell out of the Department of Defense.” (See Interview)
➤ Christa Pike, the Tennessee inmate who survived a lethal injection Sept. 30, has been released from the hospital and returned to prison, her lawyers said. They are asking Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life as a former U.S. attorney reviews the botched execution. (More)
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➤ Sunday’s NFL slate included the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 19-17 win over the Philadelphia Eagles on a last-second field goal in London, the Green Bay Packers’ 31-7 victory over the Chicago Bears in a game featuring tributes to late Bears legend Mike Ditka, and the San Francisco 49ers’ 32-29 win over the Seattle Seahawks. (See Scores)
➤ Chase Briscoe won Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte after battling Christopher Bell side by side on the final lap. The victory was Briscoe’s second straight and third of the 2026 season. (See Video)
➤ Georgia football moved up to No. 1 in the latest AP Top 25, followed by Notre Dame, Miami, Ohio State, and Indiana. Kentucky made the biggest jump, rising 11 spots to No. 15, while LSU fell 12 spots to No. 22. (See Full Rankings)
➤ Max Verstappen won the Singapore Grand Prix from pole Sunday, earning his first victory at Marina Bay and the 73rd win of his Formula 1 career. Charles Leclerc finished second, and championship leader Kimi Antonelli took third. (More)
➤ Yesterday’s Results: NFL | MLB | NHL | Soccer | NBA | NASCAR | F1 | Golf
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➤ Companies are quietly overcharging you every month, and most Americans have no idea how much it adds up to. (Tune in here)
In the latest episode of Flyover Focus, we count down 10 things you should stop paying for, from the fuel upgrade drivers waste billions on every year to the bill that follows some families for generations. Our No. 1 spot is a charge most households still pay out of pure habit.
In case you missed it, last week’s Flyover Focus counted down 10 American traditions that are quietly disappearing. How many did you grow up with and completely forget about? (Watch Now)
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➤ Blue Origin will build a $555 million satellite factory in Hutto, Texas, outside Austin, adding more than 2,000 jobs over the next decade. The 1.3-million-square-foot campus will build hardware for its TeraWave satellite communications network. (See Plans)
➤ Other Mommy, a horror movie starring Jessica Chastain, topped the weekend box office with an estimated $27.5 million, while Aaron Sorkin’s Facebook sequel The Social Reckoning opened to just $5.5 million. (See Numbers)
➤ Halloween candy costs 8.1% more than a year ago, more than double overall inflation, but Americans still plan to spend $4.1 billion on it. Nearly half of shoppers started their Halloween buying in September or earlier. (See Survey)
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Flying together with our sponsor
Your calendar is packed, and writing up meetings shouldn’t be a second job. Granola, the AI notepad for people with back-to-back meetings, fixes that. Take a few notes, Granola transcribes the meeting, then turns them into a clear summary with actual next steps. Try it in your next meeting, with a free month using the code FLYOVER.
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➤ Researchers arrive today on a remote Pacific atoll to examine a plane-shaped object in shallow water that some believe is Amelia Earhart’s lost Lockheed Electra. The $900,000 expedition has five days to settle an 89-year-old mystery. (See Expedition)
➤ Spinach-derived nanoparticles improved heart function in rats with heart failure when activated by red light. Researchers in China hope the experimental approach could eventually help damaged heart tissue produce more energy. (See Study)
➤ A nuclear clock that keeps time with the nuclei of thorium atoms instead of their electrons ran on its own for more than 24 hours, drifting about one second every 30 million years. Its builders say it could one day beat atomic clocks. (See Clock)
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Beyond Our Borders is brought to you by:
➤ Hurricane Simon battered Mexico’s Pacific coast as a Category 4 storm Sunday with 140 mph winds, its eye hugging the shoreline near Puerto Vallarta, a popular destination for U.S. tourists. Forecasters warned of up to 30 inches of rain and a “catastrophic” surge. (More)
➤ Pope Leo XIV, 71, will have surgery in the coming days to remove a small nodule found in his lung during a routine checkup. The Vatican expects a recovery period of about a week and has not said whether his November trip to South America will be affected. (More)
➤ A man died Saturday after entering the tiger enclosure at a wildlife park in Doncaster, England, and being attacked by one of its Siberian tigers. The park was evacuated, and police are investigating what happened. (More)
Flying together with our sponsor
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➤ A Kansas baker got paid twice over after posting that Sen. Roger Marshall’s 2020 campaign never settled a $679 bill for election-night cookies, cupcakes, and brownies. Marshall sent $1,300 Saturday and said his team had “absolutely no idea” the bill existed. (See Receipt)
➤ A Florida sheriff’s sergeant stripped off his gun belt and jumped into a shark-prone New Smyrna Beach marina to save a 72-year-old grandfather whose wheelchair toppled off a dock after dark. The man clung to a pipe for about 90 minutes and was back fishing the next day. (Watch Rescue)
➤ The world brewed about 50 billion gallons of beer last year, and China produced nearly one in five gallons. The U.S. ranked second at 4.6 billion gallons, ahead of Brazil, Mexico, and Germany. (See Chart)
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How many of the 50 states have you visited?
- Under 10
- 10 to 24
- 25 to 39
- 40 to 49
- All 50
Yesterday’s Results:
What makes a great American road trip?
- Scenic backroads: 56%
- Roadside attractions: 16%
- Mom-and-pop diners: 13%
- Getting a little lost: 6%
- Meeting locals: 5%
- Other: 4%
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 Daily Quote
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“The triumph of freedom and the glory of our Republic are the fruits of his faith and unrelenting devotion.”
— President Trump, in his Columbus Day proclamation honoring the explorer whose 1492 voyage, he wrote, set in motion the events that led to the founding of the United States
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 Today’s Trivia
Of Columbus’s three ships, which one never made it back to Spain?
Show me the answer
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