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👋 Good morning! It’s Saturday, 24 October 2026. I’m Neil McIntosh, editor of The Early Line, and it’s great to have you here.
📣 You’re reading the weekend edition of The Early Line. Paying subscribers get the full version, with six talking points and film, TV and sporting recommendations for the weekend.
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Have a wonderful weekend, all!
☀️ The weekend’s weather: You should, now, know about the ⚠️ amber weather warning for winds across the country from later today. The thing will be the gusts: as you’ll see from forecasts.
So how will the weekend pan out? In many places, at send time, it’s the clear, crisp, calm before the storm. Enjoy it while it lasts. Heavy rain and gusts of wind arrive in Glasgow from mid-morning, in Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen from lunchtime, and in Inverness in the mid-afternoon. It’ll continue into tomorrow. In London, it’s not as bad, but it’ll still be wet and gusty from late afternoon. (Here’s the UK forecast).
SIX THINGS TO TALK ABOUT
US midterms: Trump gets ready to object to defeat
🍸 The United States is approaching next month’s midterms with some trepidation. The midterm elections - in which a portion of Congress is up for reelection - are always seen as a referendum on the incumbent President. This year’s could seriously clip Trump’s wings, with Democrats keen to roll back his agenda, halt tariffs and end the war with Iraq should they win majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
With Trump struggling in the polls, there are concerns he may refuse to accept defeats, with - as the New York Times reports - the President already making unevidenced claims about electoral systems being vulnerable to foreign meddling and federal agents scouring databases to find noncitizen voters.
Now Trump is seeking to block an entire Senate election if the Republican incumbent loses. He’s claiming that, in Alaska, the result could be tainted by… candidates having similar names. Senator Dan S. Sullivan is the incumbent, and he’s in a tight race with Mary Peltola, a Democrat. But also on the ballot is Daniel J. Sullivan Jr, a retired teacher with no party registration.
Who exactly the “other” Sullivan is has intrigued people for months. Republicans have been trying to get the second Sullivan off the ballot, saying he’s a Democratic plant meant to siphon away votes in a tight race. “Republicans noted the challenger had only recently registered as a Republican; he acknowledged working with a Democratic strategist to get on the ballot; and he had a history of donating to Democratic candidates, including Ms. Peltola,” notes the NYT.
“Nevertheless, in June, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the second Mr. Sullivan could appear on the ballot, ahead of the primary.”
Nonpartisan groups say Trump’s pre-emptive legal move is without precedent, and “smells of political interference”.
What’s certain is that if the Republicans see their Mr Sullivan lose next month, there will be a legal challenge to try and claim voters were tricked. And it’s a fair bet that, across the country, Trump-backed lawsuits will dispute defeats.
There could be quite a few: the latest polling shows Trump has only a 38% approval rating, with 52% of voters favouring a Democrat-controlled Congress. The midterms could end up one, big litigious mess, with the US legislature caught in the mire.
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How serious is Wes Streeting’s warning to stock up?
Why prepping needn’t cost a fortune
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Buy an Aberdeenshire mansion on the (relative) cheap (and yes, there’s a catch)
PLUS: find top TV, film and sporting picks for the weekend.
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