Politics

Yes, Sebulba is in the game. The podracing scene in The Phantom Menace is one of my favorite movie sequences ever. Its just so dang cool: The futuristic racers tear over treacherous Tatooine terrain while various Star Wars aliens bark at each other in incomprehensible sci-fi languages. Eventually a young Anakin Skywalker proves his mettle by clawing his way from the back of the pack to win the race, which left an impression on me when I first saw it at 10 years old. I always wished I could pilot a podracer myself. Over the past several days, Ive been able to live out that dream thanks to Star Wars: Galactic Racer , which takes everything from that brilliant scene and p … Read the full story at The Verge.

With just two days to go before the first round of Brazils presidential election, artificial intelligence is taking centre stage, whether its a deepfake avatar of former president Jair Bolsonaro to support his sons candidacy, or an AI-generated working-class female voter criticising President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. According to the Brazilian intelligence agency, disinformation will be one of the main challenges of this election. Our correspondents report.

PRESS REVIEW - Friday, October 2: We look at reactions in the French papers after high school blockades turned violent across France. We also look ahead to Brazils two-round presidential election, which begins this weekend. The electoral campaign culminated with the cancellation of a presidential debate after both President Lula and his rival Flavio Bolsonaro pulled out. Finally, this years Comedy Wildlife Awards finalists do not disappoint.

The US dispatched another aircraft carrier and thousands more troops to the Middle East , signaling a potential escalation in the Iran war. US President Donald Trump said in a recent interview that a resumption of military strikes was “ possible ,” after last month rejecting an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran, meanwhile, is preparing its own response to any American attacks , Reuters reported. Iran seems “determined not to respond symbolically to a symbolic move and instead to escalate in the ⁠hope of reestablishing deterrence,” one expert said. Oil surged 4% on the news : Crude flows out of the Gulf last month were almost back to prewar levels, but analysts cautioned that any recovery in overall supply was fragile. - Prashant Rao

EU member states readied talks over a feared diesel shortage as surging prices drove major refiners to ban exports, moves that threatened economies worldwide. Fridays talks come after the Trump administration demanded European countries release their own diesel stockpiles or face a ban on purchases from the US - the worlds biggest exporter of the fuel - while Russias leader said his country would not sell diesel abroad until sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine were lifted. Chinese refiners, too, have suspended most fuel exports for the month , adding further pressure to an already tight market. Though Europe was most vocal in its concerns, Goldman Sachs economists warned a US diesel ban risked lowering GDP across Latin America by around 1%. - Prashant Rao

The botched execution in Tennessee of Christa Pike, who survived despite being subject to two doses of lethal injection on Wednesday, has reignited furious debate about the death penalty in the U.S. (Image credit: George Walker IV)

Texas is working through a backlog of nearly 200,000 unprocessed voter registration applications, thanks to a software error involving state contractor Deloitte.

ProPublica reporters Jennifer Smith Richards, center, and Jodi S. Cohen and Arkansas Times reporter Milo Strain research founding a private school in Little Rock. Brian Chilson/Arkansas Times We have no business running a private school. Were reporters, not teachers. That doesnt matter. Inexperience has hardly been a barrier for those who want to start their own schools, as we have reported this year . And it didnt stop us, either. Over the last few months, to test the process, reporters from ProPublica partnered with local journalists in three states to establish private schools. None required much effort. In Arkansas, all it took was a few clicks on the Arkansas secretary of state website, $45 and an American flag to form a bona fide private school with the Arkansas Times. We established a school with Mountain State Spotlight in West Virginia after filing our new schools name and location with authorities on a piece of notebook paper, then exchanging a few emails. And with The Assembly in North Carolina, we filed an online notice of intent to open a private school at Ponysaurus Brewing Co. in Durham, while perched on its metal bar stools, eyeing glasses of a crisp kolsch. We used our names and news organization email addresses, following each states rules for starting private or microschools, a type of private school intended for just a few students. Experience running a school wasnt needed. No one from any of the states asked us about our backgrounds or qualifications, though West Virginia did ask for proof of a high school diploma. No one questioned what we plan to teach or how we would measure whether students are learning. Take Our Quiz Its Easy to Start a Private School. Take Our Quiz to Find Out Where You Can Open Yours. And yet we could enroll students in two states right now, if we wanted to. Arkansas even suggested ways our school could accept public money through the states voucher-style program. For the record, we are not enrolling students and have no intention of operating our new schools. We did, however, register a website for our new school ventures, ProPublicaAcademy.com , and even designed some fun pencils to show our school spirit. This year, a team of ProPublica reporters has been documenting how the American education landscape is shifting dramatically as states use public money to help fund private schools. With few regulations, hundreds of new private and microschools have proliferated. Our reporting has shown the relative ease with which people - some with questionable backgrounds - founded their own schools in unusual places. Theyve popped up in barns and on farms, in strip malls between an antique shop and an ax-throwing business and in churches, where lighting and sound for worship services is part of the curriculum. All of this led to a clear reporting question: If the hurdles to open a private school are so low, could we do it? And what would we learn along the way? Est. 2026 Arkansas: ProPublica-Arkansas Times Curiosity Academy Inside a flag shop in Little Rock, we surveyed our options. There were handheld American flags on skinny sticks, midsize ones to display on a wall and majestic formal flags adorned with silky gold fringe. State law in Arkansas doesnt require much to open a private school, nothing about teacher skills or what kids learn. But it does require that all schools display an American flag, and we wanted to follow the rules. So, at the Arkansas Flag and Banner store, we decided on a smallish one that could fit in a circular base atop a newsroom cubicle. We also bought an Arkansas flag - even though only public schools are required to have those. Total cost: $49.45. Picking the flags for our new school was the hardest part of an astoundingly easy process. The only requirement to open a private school in Arkansas is displaying a flag and flagpole, so the team visited the local flag shop in Little Rock. Brian Chilson/Arkansas Times Early in our reporting in Arkansas, we tried to figure out what steps wed need to take to make a private school. We couldnt find all the answers online, so we called the state. “We dont have rules for opening a private school,” Kaelin Clay, an Arkansas Department of Education spokesperson, told us earlier this year. In fact, we didnt even have to file anything with the Education Department. All it took was a few clicks on the Arkansas secretary of states website, where we registered the ProPublica-Arkansas Times Curiosity Academy LLC as a business, listed ourselves as agents and officers, and paid a fee. “We picked a name. We paid 45 bucks,” a ProPublica reporter noted after we submitted the application. With that, we had created a private school. The secretary of states office approved our new business the same day. We even got a certificate. The Arkansas Department of Education does not regulate private schools once theyre open, and no one from the state inspected the Arkansas Times newsroom, the location we chose for our school. As far as we know, nobody checked our backgrounds, either. The official certificate acknowledging our school Secretary of State/State of Arkansas Arkansas adopted a private school funding plan in 2023, and back then there were fewer than 100 private schools on record. With the state in the fourth year of its Education Freedom Accounts program, which provides vouchers that can be spent on private schools, there are now more than 220. In addition, 143 microschools, which are a different category in Arkansas, were approved this year to accept tax dollars. Thats up from about 100 last school year. Establishing the Curiosity Academy was so simple - and, frankly, a bit anticlimactic - that reporters then applied to become eligible to receive public funds. (Again, we applied with our names, work email addresses and a note that this was a journalistic exercise. We had no intention of actually ever taking any public money.) Want Your Own ProPublica Academy Merch? Visit Our Store We wanted to see how far our curiosity could take us. Accessing public funds as a microschool in Arkansas is easier than it is for other types of private schools, even though there is no limit to the number of students one can enroll. Unlike private schools, we didnt need to seek accreditation or show proof of financial solvency to accept state funding. It took about 10 minutes to fill out the required information in early September. Other than our contact information, we had to upload just two documents - one detailing our proposed tuition and fees, and the other with our refund policy. We said that - “should we open a school” - our tuition and fees per student would not exceed $7,208 per school year, the exact amount of Education Freedom Account money that each student in Arkansas is eligible for this year. We said tuition “would be collected only if education is delivered, and it would be the policy of the school to refund all tuition payments for educational services that are not provided.” After much deliberation, we chose small state and national flags. Brian Chilson/Arkansas Times When more than two weeks passed and we hadnt heard back, we reached out to the state Education Department. An employee called back that afternoon and explained that the department had decided not to accept any more because the school year was underway. But he didnt reject us outright. He looked up our application and invited us to keep pursuing the public money. He said we still could apply to receive public money this school year, but as a vendor providing educational services such as tutoring. He also said we could apply as a microschool next year and even suggested a tweak to the language in our tuition policy should we decide to do that. After we hung up, he emailed us the vendor application (which we will not pursue) and let us know the microschool application for next school year will open in the spring. We asked the state Education Department whether it would be OK with us operating a publicly funded microschool. Clay, the spokesperson, said the agencys role is to decide if schools meet state requirements. Microschool families, she said, “have the freedom to choose the educators and learning environments that best meet their childrens needs.” Est. 2026 West Virginia: ProPublica-Mountain State Spotlight Curiosity Academy Henry Culvyhouse and Smith Richards, in Mountain State Spotlights newsroom, write their application to found a private middle school in West Virginia. Laura Bilson for ProPublica Hunched over a desk in the Mountain State Spotlight newsroom in Charleston, West Virginia, pen in hand, we scrawled out official notice of our new school in a spiral-bound notebook. We wrote that we would serve middle school students and listed our first day as TBD. Leaving the crunchy, ragged edges on the paper, we stuffed our notice of intent into an envelope. Wed seen other new operators file similarly casual ones as they sought to register private schools in West Virginia. Then we drove over to the state Education Department to deliver the request. Our group - two reporters, a photographer and a video journalist - went through security and, camera rolling, wound our way through the maze of the midcentury building. We got lost once, and our entourage received several perplexed glances from workers, but otherwise it was smooth sailing. The person we needed to deliver the letter to was out, but a friendly employee agreed to place it on his desk. Dozens of new private and microschools have set up shop in the state in recent years, fueled by the roughly $5,400 the Hope Scholarship offers each student to pay tuition. New private schools all go through Dustin Lambert, a manager in the Office of Student Enrichment and Support at the West Virginia Department of Education. We heard back from Lambert the next day. Our notice was received. (Hooray!) He said now we needed a letter from the fire marshal that our school building was safe for children. (Oh no.) This was a problem. Our school would be housed in the Mountain State Spotlight newsroom, which had not been inspected as a school site. We didnt want to usurp public resources to undergo a new inspection. It felt like the end of our Mountain State school experiment. Smith Richards and Culvyhouse go to the Capitol to hand-deliver their application. Laura Bilson for ProPublica But it wasnt. After we followed up to ask whether all schools, including virtual schools, need safety clearance to register with the state, Lambert told us that though all brick-and-mortar private schools do, we “may want to consider the microschool route.” In that case, we later learned, the department wouldnt be involved because state law doesnt include any mechanism for oversight. West Virginia defines microschools as schools that charge tuition and are started by one or more teachers. In practice, theres no real difference between a microschool and private school - neither has a limit on enrollment. (Yes, a micro can be macro.) He forwarded us the rules for starting a microschool, which involve providing proof of a high school diploma, at least. We notified the local school district of our new microschool venture and sent a college transcript. The Kanawha County school district, in turn, notified the state of the existence of a new microschool. And with that - bypassing the building health and safety requirements - we established the ProPublica-Mountain State Spotlight Curiosity Academy. Officials at the Department of Education said they were aware that journalists were establishing a school. But they had to just watch us do so - they have no authority over the states microschools. In an official statement, the departments spokesperson said it “does not approve or deny the operation of microschools for any reason, including the qualifications of the owner/operator.” By law, should we open our microschool - and we wont - we could enroll an unlimited number of students. Culvyhouse seals the envelope of our hand-delivered application. Laura Bilson for ProPublica Pending North Carolina: ProPublica-Assembly Academy On Friday evenings, hundreds of people gather at Ponysaurus Brewing Co., a trendy spot in Durham, North Carolina, to savor its craft beers and cocktails, hardly the place youd expect a school to open. But why not? On a recent Tuesday morning, the brewery was quiet and closed to customers. Behind the bar, yeast busily converted sugars into alcohol inside giant stainless steel fermentation tanks. Two journalists settled onto barstools beneath signs for pilsners and cherry sours. Icy cold glasses of Tell the Truth , a light and lemony ale, sat before them on a high-top table beside a stenographers notebook and a laptop. The brewery created the craft ale in partnership with The Assembly, which also is ProPublicas journalistic partner in this private school endeavor, so it all felt very symbiotic. Ponysauruss owners had agreed to let us use their building and its fire and sanitation inspections, which are required to open a private school in the Tar Heel State. ProPublica reporter Jennifer Berry Hawes and Carli Brosseau, right, a reporter for The Assembly, apply to open a private school at Ponysaurus Brewing Co. in Durham, North Carolina. Kate Medley for ProPublica Reporters from The Assembly and ProPublica scanned a state of North Carolina website that details how to file a notice of intent to open a private school. First, it explained the states statutory requirements for opening a private school, things like reporting the schools name and address. We also would have to administer a standardized test in certain grades, if we were going to open an actual school, and maintain annual records about student attendance and immunizations. Then, we watched a four-minute, 39-second video explaining how to file the required notice of intent. From there it seemed simple. We created a login, then filled in the address of our school (Ponysauruss building), noted its owner and chief administrator (our reporters), and named it the ProPublica-Assembly Academy. Wed hoped to include the word Curiosity in the name, but the field in the form didnt allow enough characters. In North Carolina, our curiosity would have to be implied. We filled in a few more fields, including the grades we would serve (high schoolers), whether we would open a religious school (no) and the dates of our academic year. Then we needed to upload fire and sanitation inspection reports. This step is what brought us here, to Ponysaurus, filling out the online notice to the tune of a hissing compressor that kept clean air moving through the brewing system. “You will need to secure inspections for the building where the school will be housed. You will need a fire inspection from the local fire marshal and a health and sanitation inspection from the local health department,” the video said. Just that morning, a City of Durham Fire Department inspector had visited the brewery and provided Ponysaurus with a fresh business occupancy inspection. We uploaded the new report, along with the brewerys current food establishment inspection (on which it received a 99, an excellent score, we felt, for a school). The screen flashed a confirmation. “Thank you. We have received your request to open a private school.” If approved, the page said, we should receive a school identification number in three to five business days. We hoped to join the at least 169 other new private schools that have opened in North Carolina since the 2021-22 school year, which marked the start of a series of expansions to the states publicly funded vouchers for private school tuition. If we wanted our school to tap the voucher money, wed have to go through some additional steps such as getting criminal background checks. We werent doing that. The proposed school has outdoor space for students. Kate Medley for ProPublica The following day, we hit a snag. It came in a brief and garbled email. It said only: “Good morning and thank you for submitting a Notice of Intent to operate a private school. To complete the process we need to fire and sanitation inspections to” and then ended abruptly like that, no explanation or period. We emailed back, asking for clarity and noting we had already uploaded the inspection reports. An official from the state Division of Non-Public Education then called. The schools name needs to be on the inspection reports, she said, something we had not seen in any of our research. We also had not found any state statutes or rules that would preclude us - or anyone else - from opening a private school wherever we saw fit, be that a church or a brewery, as long as it passed “reasonable fire, health and safety inspections.” In a follow-up call, she clarified that her division checks only to be sure the building has passed inspections specifically for a school. A spokesperson for the agency later added that state statute does not allow them to deny a private school application, but they wont process an incomplete application - notably one without the proper inspections. We hadnt expected we would need a school-specific inspection at this point. The video explainer referred to inspections only generally, and the states written guidance indicated only that this would need to happen before occupancy. Given we had no intention of actually opening a school, we had decided ahead of time that we wouldnt consume any additional public resources - such as fire or health inspectors time - in our journalistic pursuit. Perhaps Ponysaurus could pass the school-specific inspections. But the ethical red line would be our stop sign. Our curiosity would have to end in North Carolina. Help ProPublica Report on Education Have you had trouble finding a school or using a voucher-style program? Do you have concerns about schools - public or private - in your area? Help us understand how families across the country are navigating their school options. Get in Touch The post Were Reporters, Not Teachers. We Were Able to Start Private Schools Anyway. appeared first on ProPublica .

Brazil will hold a knife-edge vote as its presidential race kicks off - but the elections outcome is likely to be felt far beyond the countrys borders.

The Trump administration and the Iranian regime both say they prefer a diplomatic solution to the war , but a deal looks more elusive than ever. The root causes of the impasse may be irreconcilable. Why it matters: In the last 18 months, two failed rounds of negotiations have led to two wars. The June MOU collapsed within days and led to renewed escalation. If the current effort to reach a diplomatic breakthrough ends in a deadlock, another outbreak of fighting is likely within weeks. Heres a look at some of the deep-seated dynamics between the two countries - personal, cultural, and political - that have stymied efforts to broker a deal: "Trump has ADD; Iran has OCD" One reason for the failures is that the U.S. and Iran see the timeframe for negotiations very differently. Trump is all about getting a quick deal - he gets impatient and frustrated when things move slowly. The Iranian negotiation style is the complete opposite. They are all about playing for time. "America under Trump is the attention-deficit superpower ... incapable of sustaining a strategy. Iran under the Islamic Republic is the obsessive-compulsive theocracy, fixated on resisting America far more than advancing the welfare of its own people," Karim Sadjadpour, a senior analyst at the Carnegie Endowment, told Axios. "Trump has ADD; Iran has OCD." For example, in April 2025 Trump set a deadline for negotiations at 60 days - an extremely short and unrealistic timetable. The Iranians, on the other hand, saw the negotiations as a longer process and didnt take the deadline seriously enough. They didnt think Trump meant it when he said 60 days. The negotiations in February of this year were even shorter - around three weeks. The chances of getting a deal that quickly were close to zero. A megadeal vs. a narrow truce Trump loves a splashy show of political theater, with him cast as lead actor. He envisions a legacy-making accord that redefines the relationship between the U.S. and Iran and reshapes the Middle East. The Iranians prefer a narrow, transactional deal thats negotiated indirectly - or with the lowest public profile possible. They view any deal as a truce rather than a peace agreement. "Trump and his negotiators pride themselves on being dealmakers. In Iranian political culture, the word for compromiser - sazeshkar - is practically a slur," Sadjadpour said. He added: "Irans leaders were never willing to meet with Trump directly. Had they been willing to do so, I think the outcome of events could have been very different. Trump wants to resolve the conflict; the Islamic Republics entire identity is premised on continued confrontation with the U.S." A matter of mistrust The fundamental impediment in the negotiations is mistrust. The Iranians claim Trump cheated them twice when he attacked them in the middle of negotiations. Many inside the Iranian regime think any negotiations with the U.S. are just a ruse to mask preparations for a surprise attack. The U.S. side counters it was Iran that cheated when it violated the June 2026 memorandum of understanding, by attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz days after signing the deal. U.S. officials say that they cant count on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or other radical elements inside the regime to abide by any deal they negotiate with more pragmatic members of the regime. Domestic pressure The negotiations are a fraught domestic political issue for both sides. Irans negotiating team and others inside the regime who support a deal have come under constant attacks back home. Its pushed them to take a harder line in talks. Trump and his negotiators are getting pressure from the right not to cut a deal - and mocked by the left for potentially accepting one that either restores the pre-war status quo or resembles President Obamas 2015 nuclear deal. That kind of criticism made Trump pull back from more moderate positions he took several times over the last 18 months, including earlier this week. What to watch: White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and Vice President Vance still think diplomacy is worth pursuing. But Trump seems much more skeptical. In an interview with Time magazine published on Thursday, he said what Iran is ready to do "is not good enough" for him. "With Iran, I dont think you could ever have peace," he said, reiterating that hes considering resuming major combat operations after the midterms. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday defended the negotiations with the U.S. "We have never and will not run away from dialogue, although the U.S. targeted our country three times despite having signed the agreement," he said, referring to the June MOU. "The U.S. should get rid of the idea that it would bring us to our knees through terror." But other Iranian officials, especially inside the IRGC, think negotiations are useless and that the only way to end the war is by inflicting more costs on the battlefield. What theyre saying: "Iran is adopting a strategy toward the United States defined by escalation and continuous offense," Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar, associate professor of international affairs at Texas A&M Universitys Bush School of Government and Public Service, writes in a new Foreign Affairs article . "[The regime] is clear about what it wants - the removal of all U.S. forces from the region - and it is prepared to remain indefinitely on a wartime footing to get it."

This transcript has been automatically generated. Subscribe to “Shift Key” and find this episode on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Amazon , YouTube , or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also add the shows RSS feed to your podcast app to follow us directly. Robinson Meyer: Hello, its Friday, October 2, and this is a special New York Climate Week edition of Shift Key. Last week, Heatmap welcomed climate and energy leaders, experts, and influencers to Heatmap House, our all-day summit in New York City. Among those leaders was New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill. Governor Sherrill is a former Navy pilot, federal prosecutor, and member of the House of Representatives. She was elected New Jerseys governor in November 2025. That campaign, and her election year last year, was dominated by the states surging electricity prices, and specifically by how the interaction between the AI data center boom and features of the local multi-state electricity market, PJM, had caused power bills to surge in the state by about $260 per household. Robinson Meyer: Governor Sherrill ran on and implemented a one-year rate freeze. Shes since passed other legislation meant to make it easier to build solar and batteries in the state. My colleague, Heatmap correspondent Matthew Zeitlin, has been covering those policies, and last week he sat down at Heatmap House to discuss them with Governor Sherrill, as well as to discuss the future of her climate and electricity agenda. Lets go to that conversation now. Robinson Meyer: Matt and Governor Sherrill were recorded in front of a live audience at Heatmap House at 22 Vanderbilt in New York City on September 23rd. Im Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap News, and you are listening to Shift Key. Matthew Zeitlin: Mikie Sherrill, thanks. Thanks so much for coming across the Hudson this morning to join us. Lets just start with, I think, the kind of electricity or energy policy issue most associated with you. Is there a rate freeze in New Jersey right now? And are your constituents, the rate payers, are they still angry about their electricity bills? Mikie Sherrill: Thats a great question. So, yes, there is a rate freeze. In fact, that was a commitment I made. And so I didnt, I would say less than an hour into my administration, the middle of my inaugural address, I declared a state of emergency on utility costs, froze rates, and then at the same time signed executive orders to increase power generation across our state. Weve been at it ever since. And the movements weve made will save New Jersey rate payers over a billion dollars a year as we are implementing all of these changes. And, but no, rate payers are not happy in New Jersey, nor should they be, because rates did go up double digits. So they saw a large increase. And, you know, in large part, there had been a lot of people asleep at the wheel on how we were going to move forward in advanced technologies and generate more power and drive down costs. Matthew Zeitlin: So as I understand it, a component of those executive orders was taking some of the funding that comes from the regional greenhouse gas market and putting that into rate relief. You know, there is stuff on any New Jersey ratepayers bill that funds things that are government programs, energy programs. Have you rethought kind of both the RGGI and the societal benefits charges to think about why are we adding stuff onto the bill instead of, you know, making it cheaper? Mikie Sherrill: So we actually have taken stuff off the bill. There was an incentive on our bill that had been in place for years to incentivize our utility companies to join PJM. Well, they joined PJM years ago and they werent going to leave. So we took that off the bill and we just did that to drive down costs. We did use a little bit of our Reggie friends because there had been some rate cases that had already been made in the previous administration that we had to address so that we could keep rates flat to meet our commitment. What weve really done, though, that Im very excited about with some RGGI funds is to put $100 million incentives into solar and battery storage projects so that we can see more generation in these clean power technologies. And I think thats something that were going to see. EDA has just been putting that at our economic development authorities. So were very excited about whats coming. Matthew Zeitlin: Yeah. And then just kind of building off of that. Obviously, New Jersey has aggressive climate commitments. How do you talk to your how youre going to meet those climate commitments when theyre, I think everyone would say theyre most concerned right now about kind of that number on the bottom of their bill. Mikie Sherrill: Certainly. Look, we have, you know, when I say we have an affordability crisis, its not just one thing. Its a crisis because its everything. Housing prices are up in some cases by 60% in some towns in the last five years. We have utility costs up by double digits last year. They were set to go up double digits this year until I froze them. We have, you know, the federal governments cutting health care. So we have 70,000 people that cant afford to be in the affordable care market anymore. We have about 300,000 people who are being kicked off the Medicaid rolls that we have to deal with. So there is a crisis going on. So you cannot simply say to people, you know, sorry, your bills are just going to keep skyrocketing. That is not the answer, which is why weve acted so aggressively. Mikie Sherrill: I approved 18 solar and battery storage projects in the first six months because we knew the federal credits were going to run out if we did not get that done. So thats why we had to take on permitting reform right away to make sure we were growing that. I lifted a 50-year nuclear moratorium. Mikie Sherrill: We have continued to look at new and innovative things. A lot of people are talking about virtual power plants to get more capacity and drive-down costs. We are implementing that. I would suggest, and we were talking a little bit about this before we went on, it was so interesting. Im one of one of the very few people that actually ran in 2025. So we knew the landscape. We knew what Trump was ending. We knew what the future looked like. We knew what we could and couldnt do and spaces that wed have opportunity and where opportunity was shut off from us. So we we could hit the ground running. And we also took advantage of best in class people. Mikie Sherrill: We have, shes sitting right there, Maddie, whos worked in New Jersey Power and understands it very deeply. We have Elizabeth Knoll, who came out of the federal government, who worked for Granholm and now is working for New Jersey. We have amazing people who are developing these new and innovative things. And I think the reason that New Jersey has now become a market leader in how you advance clean energy in a really innovative way is because weve just set up this government. So everythings starting from, okay, where are we and how do we get to a better place and taking on all those new innovations. Matthew Zeitlin: Yeah, I mean, we were talking backstage, you know, when I took this job three years ago, I had no idea Id be writing so much about energy policy in the state of New Jersey, but from the campaign and then, you know, in your first year here, theres been so much going on. Obviously, we need to talk about data centers, you know, not too long ago. New Jersey had a program, a tax, you know, abatement, a tax incentive to attract data centers to the state. Obviously, theres been a lot of local backlash to them. There was an enforcement action, I think, this morning in Vineland, New Jersey. That tax incentive has, I believe, been reversed. From your perspective now, if a data center developer wants to set up in New Jersey, what do they need to do? Mikie Sherrill: Well, weve laid out exactly what they need to do. They need to bring their own energy. They need to invest in our grid. They need to report their water and power usage. They need to hire good talent so that they create jobs in the community. And they need to bring community benefits. Weve also put them in their own rate class, so they are not harming other rate payers. And we mean business. And I think you can see that with the action we brought against the Vineland data center. So this is not a free ride for anyone. If they want to engage in building this out, it has to be a benefit to our communities in New Jersey. Mikie Sherrill: What was so interesting to me, I was telling you about different financing agencies and different power generators and what this was going to look like going forward. And it was so fascinating to me to see the difference between the old and new. Some people at the table are saying, oh, you know, people are saying dont invest in New Jersey because labor cost of labor is high. And I said, that is so fascinating. Youre telling me that because I have heard from so many people about how theyre dying to invest in New Jersey and they want to know how. And I said, yeah, were a labor state. Youre going to have to pay for talent. But at the same time, we are laying out exactly how you invest in New Jersey to take a lot of the risk out of it. But you have to come to the table early. You cant just come in and say, work out some deal in back rooms and come say, now Im going to plop a data center here. Mikie Sherrill: I mean, there are places in New Jersey where you should not be building data centers. There are places in New Jersey where it might make sense, but the towns and communities are going to decide that. So you have to start engaging early with them to explain what you want to do and why you want to do it. And finally, Ive said, and youve, I told a data center, I said, and you guys have been horrible at it. Im just telling you, nobody knows what a data center is and you need to explain why its even important. Are you curing cancer? You know, what are you doing? Why is this a societal benefit. And then Ill end by saying, look, its up to businesses. They make money, right? Scientists innovate. Government needs to protect people. And thats where government has been asleep at the wheel. And thats why I think you see so many people not trusting innovation right now or where its going, because government needs to protect people from these downside risks. And right now, I would say the federal governments not going to do it, which is why as a state, we are engaging so aggressively. Matthew Zeitlin: So obviously we were talking about this backstage, New Jersey has this great history of innovation technological development, and right now you have a lot of advanced industries in New Jersey - a pharmaceutical industry, financial services you have a lot of research around the Princeton National Lab. When youre trying to attract these kind of next generation industries how do you then kind of, on the other way, how do you kind of assure them that they can set up large energy consuming facilities that, you know, are that anchor those industries? Mikie Sherrill: Its kind of interesting twofold. I would say to a large extent, we dont need to attract some of these innovators. We need to keep them. Innovation starts in New Jersey. We have a million different spinoffs. We were talking about theyll do fusion and theyve already got the magnets that are found few places in the world. I mean, they come and spun off from the National Lab at Princeton. We have companies like that all over the state. And we have states like New Mexico that are constantly saying, you know, here, come here. And people in New Jersey, and if youre not from New Jersey, this may surprise you, but people in New Jersey love New Jersey and we want to stay there. And we want our kids to go to the great schools there and we want to continue to grow businesses. So companies dont want to leave New Jersey. We just have to make sure they have enough, you know, that theres not some other incentive driving them away. Mikie Sherrill: At the same time, when you say, how can I assure that people are going to have all the power they want, we are creating a structure so that people can make sure that they have clean power generation. Thats why something like a virtual power plant is so interesting. But it is not on the state to kind of assure you can do whatever the heck you want in power generation. It is up to the companies to work with us to say, okay, I want to invest in this. This is going to be a net good for the people of New Jersey. So for example, Im going to build a virtual power plant. Im going to have battery packs in everyones basement. Im going to pay them to do that. And were going to generate new clean power for this entity. That is how they need to come to work. Mikie Sherrill: And I would again say that that was what was so interesting at the table, because there are people who get that. In some of the most innovative power generating companies, in some of the most innovative technological companies, they get that. They know where this is all going. Some of the old school companies are still sort of coming to the table saying, what can you do for me? Thats not where we are right now. We need to understand what benefit can you bring to the people of New Jersey. Matthew Zeitlin: And you mentioned earlier that, you know, your gubernatorial race was in 2025. We obviously have the midterms coming up in November, and then we have, you know, another election in 2028. What, when Democratic candidates come to you and ask about how they should talk about energy and electricity policy, or if theyre not coming to you and you would like to say something to them, what are you telling them? How they, you know, obviously every state, every districts different, but what are some … What are some things you learned in 2025 that could be applied elsewhere in the country? Mikie Sherrill: Sure. I just want to go back one second. I know were on such limited time. Thats why Im speaking fast. I would say the reason I was saying what can you bring to New Jersey is because the business case has been made for innovation technologies, and they are raking in billions of dollars. And we just need to make sure that as we build out these systems, that it goes to a benefit to everyone, that we are not simply funneling billions, trillions of dollars into a few people in Silicon Valley. We want to make sure this is a net good. Thats what I said government does, is we protect communities from those downside risks and we invest and create opportunity there. Thats what were looking to do, is making sure everybody gains here. Mikie Sherrill: The thing I would tell people who are running is you have to be nimble, You have to be innovative and you have to be aggressive and you cant, you have to take risks. The status quo is not working for anyone. The can has been kicked down the road on too many different issues. And if you were going to try to duck your head and say some mealy mouth thing like, you know, were going to do all of the above and, you know, and its, you know, everyones welcome and we like business. Thats not going to cut it. you have to be able, I mean, we charged through the campaign by understanding deeply what was going on in our state. And so we were joking. I would say, you know, a lot of people in the whole market couldnt tell you what PJM is, right? Still, a lot of governors probably couldnt really delineate it. We knew everything about everybody because when your utility bill goes up by double digits, the person youre going to hire to be the no boss of your state better understand why. And exactly what they can do to fix that. Mikie Sherrill: And then I have to convince people, because the final thing Id say is, Id say since Reagan, this idea of like governments always the problem, get them out of the way and everything goes well, has come to its logical conclusion, right? There are areas where we need government to function, and we need government to function well, not just to sort of regulate stuff to actually drive innovation, to drive success for people, to drive opportunity, and make sure the rising tide lifts all boats. Thats what has been missing in so many cases. And so I think if you want to run for us, if you want to hold the public trust, if you want to be a public servant, then you need to engage deeply and you need to be really good at your job. And that means telling people exactly what you can do to make their lives better. Matthew Zeitlin: I think thats probably as good a note as any to end on. Mikie Sherrill, thank you so much. Mikie Sherrill: Well, thank you. I really appreciate it.

Activists across Asia are being hunted down by authoritarian governments even across international borders. Human rights groups have been warning of a "swap market" of repression in Southeast Asia. (Image credit: AMAURY PAUL)