The Headlines - The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, and the Pentagon’s Plan to Livestream an Execution

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

Plus, the Friday news quiz. Here’s what we’re covering:Fiery Senate Debates in Maine, Michigan and Georgia: Five Takeaways, by Lisa Lerer, Reid J. Epstein and Patricia MazzeiICE Agent Shoots Man During Arrest Attempt in New York Neighborhood, by Ed Shanahan, Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Hamed AleazizMicrosoft Suspended From Green Card Program as Trump Officials Widen Fraud Drive, by Erica L. GreenFort Hood Shooter’s Execution Will Be Public and Streamed Live, Pentagon Says, by Chris Cameron6 Ways Isaias Is Remaking the Story of This Year’s Hurricane Season, by Judson JonesWhat to Know About the 2026 Nobel Prizes, by The New York Times Tune in every weekday morning, and tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, October 9th. Here's what we're covering. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to reward the Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 to Navatnam, Navi Lai, for her efforts to promote peace and international law. This morning, the Nobel Committee announced the winner of the 2026 Peace Prize is Navi Pillai, a human, rights lawyer from South Africa. Palai fought against apartheid in her home country, and the committee cited her work on international courts and commissions as a key part of the decision.

Last year, a United Nations commission led by Palai that investigated the war in Gaza found that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians. A report the Israeli government announced. The Norwegian-Avel committee wants to remind the world that the rule of law, national, and international underpins the system we have set up to ensure peace and resolve conflict non-violently. Peace requires justice. The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the world's most prestigious honors. Last year, the prize was given to the Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Carina Machado

for her efforts to advance democracy in the face of authoritarianism in her country. She then gave her medal to President Trump after he repeatedly said he thought he should have won it. The Nobel Institute then issued a statement that the award could not be transferred. This is Debate Night Live, the race for Senate. Last night, there were debates in three states, Georgia, Maine, and Michigan, for tight midterms races that could determine control of the Senate. I mean, we are in a crisis here because she would not stand up,

and her Republican colleagues would not stand up to Donald Trump, Across all three states, Democrats worked to tie their Republican opponents to President Trump, whose popularity continues to sink. Are you saying that we need to eliminate all tariffs for Canada? The moderator's questions also had Republicans on the defensive, as they asked about issues that are top of mind for voters this election season, high gas prices, tariffs, the war in Iran. That left the GOP Senate candidates to either defend

unpopular White House policies or explain why they've now pivoted on issues they once supported. That is absolutely outrageous and you owe me an apology. No, you owe me the other theme

across the night was heated, personal attacks. In Maine, Senator Susan Collins demanded that her Democratic opponent, Troy Jackson, apologized for accusing her and her husband of profiting from the war in Iran. And in Georgia, And that's the problem, Mike.

It's not just that you've hired half the Third Reich to staff your congressional office and you have promoted neo-Nazi content online. Senator John Asif called out Republican Mike Collins for having hired AIDS who've shared white nationalist and anti-Semitic views online. On stage, Collins did not directly deny that, but said he condemns racism and antisemitism. And in the Michigan debate, every single exchange included an attack. You go after my mom?

I'm not going after your mom. What your mom was working at, I was going off to that organization, that was indicted for funneling money to al-Qaeda. At one point, Republican Mike Rogers insinuated that Democrat Abdul Al-Said's mother had ties to terrorism and suggested that he was bought off by Hamas and Hezbollah. There is no evidence that El-Said, who would be the first Muslim in the Senate if he wins, has support from terror groups. Things in Michigan were so heated that partway through the moderator returned from an ad break

to tell viewers that Rogers and El Sayyed had continued to go at it even when the cameras stopped rolling. He added, in 30 years of doing debates, I've never seen it continue during the commercial. Now, two updates on the Trump administration. First, authorities say that in New York City yesterday, an ICE agent shot and injured a man who was in a car while a five-year-old boy was in the back seat. The city's police commissioner said at least one agent fired seven rounds into the car, hitting the man in the neck. The child, who is believed to be the man's son, was uninjured. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said the shooting happened while agents

were trying to arrest an undocumented immigrant with a criminal record. But the department did not say why an agent fired at the car or if he was aware that a child was inside. Officials in New York were quick to speak out about the shooting. The city's mayor, Zornamam Dani, called it in outrage and said he spent two hours on the phone with President Trump and the Homeland Security Secretary trying unsuccess. to negotiate the release of the man who was shot. New York's governor, Kathy Hokel, said she also spoke with administration officials

and urged them to halt ice operations in the state. Since Trump retook office, federal immigration agents have shot at least two dozen people across the country, many of whom were also inside a car. And... So he's going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be. And we'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that is public. because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things. The Pentagon has announced that it plans to live stream the public execution of an army officer

who was convicted of a mass shooting at Fort Hood. Major Nadal Malik Hassan killed 13 people and wounded 32 others in Texas in 2009, in the deadliest ever shooting at an American military base. He said he carried out the attack to wage jihad for what he called the illegal and immoral U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegeseth said Hassan will be executed by firing squad, a rarity in the U.S. Hegsses said that and other details of the execution were chosen for their symbolism. There are few countries in the world that hold public executions, those that do include

Iran, North Korea, and Afghanistan. The practice of filming and releasing video of it is more common with terror groups like the Islamic State, which became infamous for posting gruesome footage of executions. If Hassan is executed as planned on December 3rd, it would be the first state-sanctioned public execution in the U.S. in more than 90 years. Along the Gulf Coast, people are stocking up on bottled water and boarding up windows as they prepare for what could be the first hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. in two years. Isayis strengthened from a tropical storm into a hurricane on Wednesday and has continued to intensify.

Forecasters have said it could make landfall in southern Alabama or the Florida panhandle later today, bringing high winds and potentially a lot of rain. The last time a hurricane hit the U.S. was in 2024 with Milton, coming on the heels of Helene, which left a long trail of destruction all the way up into the Appalachian Mountains. Overall, this year has been a quiet one for hurricanes in the Atlantic. Isayis is the first of the season coming weeks after the traditional peak. The reason for that is El Nino, which has been amping up hurricane season in the Pacific, but keeping it tame in the Atlantic. One specialist at the National Hurricane Center said before this, we hadn't made it through September without a hurricane since basically the 70s.

For the latest on the path of Isayis and where it's expected to hit, you can check the Times app or NYTimes.com. And finally, with the Peace Prize now out, that rounds out a whole week of no bells. I've just got a phone call this morning that I won a Nobel Prize. The prizes are given out in six categories every year with the Prize Committee calling up the recipients to share the news. There's still one more to go. Economics will be announced Monday. But in case you missed it, so far, here's your roundup. This year's prize for physiology or medicine went to a group whose discoveries in neuroscience

may one day lead to a treatment for blindness. We have been consistently making new discoveries. That's my real wish that this may continue, and it will. The Nobel in physics went to a researcher who pioneered a telescope that's embedded deep in the ice at the South Pole to detect particles coming from the far region. of the universe. Chemistry went to a pair who solved a long-standing molecular mystery that's led to pharmaceutical advances and offered clues about the origins of life. And how are you feeling right now? And how did you receive the news?

I'm just eating crackers and drinking a cup of tea. Nothing really dramatic yet. The Nobel Prize in literature went to the poet Anne Carson, who is best known for remixing ancient Greek texts in a modern way, and who took a call from the Institute yesterday mid-snack. I'm the husband, and you owe me because I'm the one who made her actually called back a number. Yeah, he answers the phone. According to her agent, Carson's exact reaction when she learned she'd won was, Yikes.

The poet was in Iceland at the time, and in true poet fashion, when she was asked what she was doing, she only said that she was listening to the wind. Those are the headlines. If you'd like to play the Friday News quiz, stick around it is just after these credits. And real quick, if you are not a Times subscriber yet, you can get a full month of free access to all of the journalism we publish when you download the Times app now. This show is made by Will Jarvis, Margaret Cedifa, Jake Lucas, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Sam Dolnick, Miles McKinley, Zoe Murphy, and Chris Wood.

Now, time for the quiz. Every week, we ask you a few questions about stories the Times has been covering. Can you get them all? Here we go. Alaskans live a tough life. We need somebody who's going to fight for us. In Alaska, the midterms are heating up, and one hot-button topic has become a defining campaign issue there. Every Alaskan I have ever known, no matter how young, no matter how old, deeply understand the importance of making sure

Our kids and grandkids and all the generations after us have the same kind of abundance that we had. At the center of this is an industry that's very Alaska. And a chorus of candidates running for House, Senate, governor have been sounding the alarm saying outsiders have profited from this industry while local businesses flounder. Your question, what are the candidates in Alaska all talking about? The answer? My agenda for Alaska will always be fish family and freedom. Tried to give you a hint with the flounder bit. It's fishing. There's been growing anger in Alaska in recent years over what's known as deep sea trawling,

where fishermen, many of whom are not from the state, use giant nets to pull billions of pounds of fish from the sea. Local fishermen and indigenous groups say they're now barely able to get by anymore. And political candidates are pitching a wide range of potential fixes, like banning out of state boats or trying to crack down on Russian and Chinese fishing fleets off the coast. The stakes are high not just for Alaska, but for the entire U.S. About 60% of all wild seafood harvested in the country comes from Alaska. And that's everything from high-end salmon to McDonald's fillet of fish. Next question, we are sticking with the ocean theme here, but we're headed to the very

opposite corner of the country, down to the Florida Keys. tourists on board the tropical destiny had just finished exploring Iraq off Key Largo when they noticed something big floating in the water. Recently, the Times has been reporting on one particular thing that voters, divers, and fishermen have been hauling in. It was a big square block. The unusual catch has gotten the tongue-in-cheek nickname Square Grupper, like the fish. While it is definitely not actually any type of fish, it is rectangular and potentially here. hugely valuable, though picking it up could land you in trouble. Your question, what is Square Grupper? The answer? Bricks of cocaine. South Florida has long been a drug-smuggling hot spot,

and for decades, the plastic-wrapped bundles have fallen off of smugglers' boats or been dumped by traffickers who got spooked. Recently, global cocaine consumption has been on the rise, and one local Sheriff told the times that packages of cocaine, which can be worth tens of thousands of dollars, surface along the Florida coastline nearly every week. Now, before anyone gets any ideas, recently a whole ring of people was sentenced to prison for distributing cocaine they found at sea. And last question. She's cutting to the right. A nice, steady pace. Slow and steady. This past weekend in Philadelphia, hundreds of people gathered with bated breath to watch an unconventional competition. Backing it up slowly. Backing it up slowly. The contestants had nicknames like

The Angle. Keep it going. Keep it going. Keep it going. Keep it going. And they were trying to outdo each other in front of a panel of judges. There were multiple rounds, including one called tight squeeze and another called under duress. Your question, what activity were they competing in? The answer, parallel parking, with the contestants being judged on how close they could get to the curb and how many times they bumped other cars in the process. The winner took home a trophy made from a piece of street curb and a grand prize of $76, the cost of a parking fine in the city. This was not a one-time stunt. There have been similar parallel parking competitions in Pittsburgh and Austin and Portland, Oregon. So how about L.A. 2028, huh? Summer

Olympics? Park it for the gold. That's it for this week's news quiz. If you want to tell us how you did, our email is The Headlines at NYTimes.com. I'm Tracy Mumford. Have a good weekend, and we will see you on Monday.