Paxton and Talarico campaign in Texas and the second NBA apron dilemma: Morning Rundown

A first-of-its-kind analysis from NBC News examines students’ YouTube activity during school. Texas Senate candidates Ken Paxton and James Talarico are crisscrossing the state as Election Day approaches. And the dilemma that awaits the Knicks’ NBA title defense.

Here’s what you need to know today.

How YouTube spammers are infiltrating classrooms

Over the past decade, YouTube has become ubiquitous in American classrooms. Many districts distribute their own laptops and encourage students to watch educational videos, but often struggle to effectively restrict what else children can watch.

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That means millions of students have access to billions of videos on one site where they can go from math lessons to videos containing profanity or sexual scenes in just a few clicks.

In a first-of-its-kind analysis, NBC News journalists examined more than 17,000 videos viewed on student devices using a combination of AI and manual review. Several of those who struggled with the lure of YouTube said it swallowed up the hours they were supposed to learn.

One such student, Richard, watched a mix of sports highlights, police chase footage, and AI-generated animations, all on his school-issued laptop, often while in class. Her mother eventually asked administrators to block the platform, but they said too many teachers were using it for teaching.

“Why don’t you see what it feels like?” she wondered. “This constant, immediate gratification on a screen all day, instead of healthy interactions taught by a teacher, is so unhealthy.”

Read the full story here.

Paxton and Talarico host a day of dueling rallies in Texas

With in-person early voting officially underway in Texas, Senate candidates Ken Paxton and James Talarico are crisscrossing the state to deliver their latest, urgent appeals to voters.

Paxton, the Republican nominee, addressed a crowd of about 350 people in Fort Worth yesterday and introduced Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the keynote speaker at his event. Paxton responded to voters’ economic concerns by calling for a $25,000 tax deduction for medical expenses and making Trump accounts for children permanent.

About 45 minutes away in Denton, Talarico, the Democratic contender, drew a crowd of 1,450 people, according to a campaign official, to an event featuring three cast members from the TV show “Friday Night Lights.” Talarico highlighted the success of grassroots fundraising efforts for his campaign while criticizing Elon Musk’s $150 million in donations to pro-Paxton groups.

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Dive deeper into the 2026 elections:

• See the latest survey and the battlefield states in play.

• Track Early Vote Counts by age, gender and more.

• How is it going in Texas? Find out who’s running and how Republicans and Democrats fared in past elections. Additionally, scroll to the end of the page to find data about your condition.

More political news:

• For subscribers: NBC News chief data analyst Steve Kornacki examines polling errors surrounding Maine Sen. Susan Collins in 2020 and what is different this year in The Data Dive, a subscriber-exclusive newsletter about the numbers, trends and data shaping the biggest stories as the midterm elections approach.

• President Donald Trump used an anti-Semitic slur defending Republican Sen. Roger Moore, who is not Jewish, at a campaign rally in Kansas.

• Vice President JD Vance refused to approve Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite Trump’s support.

• A federal judge said she would probably extend an order prevent the felling of more trees on the Washington, D.C., golf course that Trump wants to renovate.

The Knicks are the face of the NBA’s biggest dilemma

The 2026-27 NBA season begins tonight, with the New York Knicks taking on the Philadelphia 76ers at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks are coming off a once-in-a-generation title run that united the city and captivated the country. But the financial realities of the NBA threaten to break the team apart.

Blame it on the second apron – a financial threshold that teams are strongly discouraged from exceeding when acquiring or recruiting players, or else they face significant obstacles in building their teams. This season, that threshold is $207,824,000.

For the Knicks, not getting past the second apron could mean seeing Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart sign with other teams. The Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder are also among the teams facing the problem.

Why the NBA instituted this threshold and how this rule puts new pressure on players.

Lawmaker reportedly loses leg as car ram stuns Australia

An Australian MP is in critical but stable condition after being hit by a car. Authorities said it was a deliberate attack, shocking a country where political violence is extremely rare.

Helen Haines, a 65-year-old independent MP, was beaten on Monday outside her constituency office in Wangaratta, a town of around 30,000 people in the southern Australian state of Victoria. She was operated on during the night. Local media reported that one of Haines’ legs had been amputated and that she was fighting to keep her other leg.

Police today charged the driver, who they said was a 43-year-old man, with causing serious injury with intent, dangerous driving causing serious injury and injuring a federal official.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that, according to eyewitnesses, the driver passed Haines and then turned around, hitting her as she stood near the trunk of her parked car.

Political violence is extremely rare in Australia, where lawmakers often go into public with little or no security and their accessibility is a matter of national pride.

“It’s an Australian tradition to chat with a politician you pass in the shops,” said Josh Roose, associate professor of politics at Deakin University in Melbourne, in an interview with NBC News.

Read the full story.

Staff choice: “Another salvo targeting one of the president’s enemies”

When I was a Justice Department reporter, there was traditionally something of a lull around election time, with the Justice Department trying to avoid taking action in politically sensitive cases that could even be construed as seeking to influence an election. With the search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home last week, this quiet period leading up to Election Day has been added to the list of norms we’ve seen violated during Donald Trump’s second term as president.

According to DOJ veterans, the search of Omar’s Washington, D.C., home on Columbus Day is exactly the type of “overt activity” the department traditionally sought to avoid. This comes the same year that the administration attempted to indict six sitting members of Congress for a social media video that didn’t sit well with Trump, filed an indictment they now admit was false against an Olympic canoeist for botched installation work at the Reflecting Pool, and indicted the former FBI director over an Instagram photo of seashells.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about Omar’s case, and we’ll likely only see the full evidence if she’s formally charged. But what we do know, as I reported in this story with Kyle Stewart, is that the actions of the Department of Justice here break with historyand that the investigation implicates DOJ figures involved in other politically controversial investigations. — Ryan Reillysenior justice reporter

Read all about it

• Voters in Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta overwhelmingly support remaining in CanadaEarly referendum results Tuesday gave a boost to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s push for national unity amid a trade war and threats of annexation from U.S. President Donald Trump.
• The World Series takes place: The Tampa Bay Rays will face the Milwaukee Brewers as the teams seek their first MLB title.

• Christiane Amanpour, CNN presenter for over 40 years, considering leaving the network next year.

• Richard Riehle, an actor best known for his role in “Office Space,” died at age 78.

• Fatal shooting of 1-year-old boy when Mississippi police officer shoots at vehicle during shoplifting call was a “justified” use of forcethe state attorney general said.

• For subscribers: This year is shaping up to be one of the deadliest for firefighters fighting wildfires. Some experts believe that a Trump administration policy puts more people at risk.

NBC Selected: online shopping made easy

Some of our favorite brands just released their Advent calendars 2026. These are the most exciting to buy before they sell out, including choices from Lego, Squishmallow and more. Plus, get a behind-the-scenes look at a PR event with Joe Jonas.

Subscribe to La Sélection newsletter for practical product reviews, expert buying advice, and insight into the best deals and sales every week.

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